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Finishing the Haitian revolution… Israel policy shift… Kenya updateIf somebody forwarded you this newsletter, you can sign up here. You can share it using this link. My new book, The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution, is now available. In case you missed yesterday’s newsletter about our reporting on the scandal involving the World Bank and Bridge International Academies — or even if you read it — see below for updates, including comments from a World Bank official and Bridge, as well as an internal email sent last night by the head of the International Finance Corporation, the bank’s private lending arm. Today, with the media focusing on violence and instability again in Haiti, the understandable impulse from many well-meaning people is to sigh, shake our heads at the tragedy of it all, and reluctantly send in the Marines to straighten things out again. The new version of “sending in the Marines” no longer involves actual Marines, but in this case would be a Kenyan police force paid for by the United States and operating under the auspices of the United Nations. The U.S. has been intervening in the affairs of Haiti on a fairly routine basis for more than a century, yet the situation remains tumultuous. That’s one way of putting it. Another would be to say: You’ve been intervening in Haitian affairs consistently for more than a century. How are you so sure that you’re not the problem? That’s essentially the question I put to the State Department’s Matt Miller this week, producing what I thought was a fascinating back and forth. I went deeper on the question on the podcast this week, speaking to journalist and researcher Jake Johnston, author of the new book “Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti.” On Thursday, Saagar Enjeti and I interviewed Ambassador Daniel Foote, who resigned in protest in 2021 from his position as U.S. envoy to Haiti. Foote argued that the Haitian people are in the process of what he described as finishing the Haitian revolution, and that it would be wise for the United States to step back and give Haitians themselves space to sort out their affairs. Any effort to foist a new government on Haiti from outside will be rejected in violent fashion, and you’ll only be able to see the resulting carnage on Telegram. Now that we’re more than five months into Israel’s war in Gaza, a perceptible shift in American attitudes, and in particular Jewish American attitudes, is detectable. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him an obstacle to an enduring peace. Some of Israel’s leading boosters responded by suggesting the highest-ranking Jewish politician in American history was an antisemite. The Biden administration floated the possibility of using what leverage it has to replace Netanyahu as prime minister. Miller, the State Department’s spokesperson, choked up in response to a question from my colleague Prem Thakker about the toll of the war on Palestinian children, and what the U.S. planned to do to help them recover in its aftermath — those who survive, that is. The lobbying campaign from Israel’s backers, meanwhile, has only grown more intense. At AIPAC’s annual conference this week, lobbyists distributed talking points urging advocates to deny that any famine is taking place in Gaza, even as people are now dying of starvation — widely understood to be arguably the most painful way to die. As I reported yesterday, the Jewish Communal Fund, a massive donor-advised fund that facilitates charitable contributions, has barred its members from sending donations to the group Jewish Voices for Peace. These are strange times. At Columbia University, my colleague Thakker reports, a coalition of more than 20 organizations sponsored a protest in November against the war in Gaza. Yet, a new lawsuit notes, only two groups were disciplined. From Thakker:
Here’s yesterday’s newsletter, with updates: Once in a while, it’s nice to get a reminder that journalism still matters. The latest one came in the form of a remarkable all-staff email sent by World Bank President Ajay Banga, which was quickly leaked to me. If you’ve been following our reporting, you know that over the past year, Neha Wadekar and I unearthed a whistleblower's shocking claim of a cover-up of a child sex abuse scandal, a who’s who of international do-good financiers, and a for-profit education chain operating mostly in Africa called Bridge International Academies. Our subsequent report showed in detail how an investigator working for the World Bank was stymied and retaliated against. (An official with the World Bank said he resisted moves to slow down the investigation and that he was bound by a confidentiality provision, which he said allowed the World Bank to obtain information that “was essential for the investigation.”) We got notes from a critical phone call between World Bank officials and company executives showing a plan to “neutralize Adler” — the lead internal investigator who had uncovered the allegations — and to slow down the process. “Time matters,” as one person on the call put it. “Need to delay until Series F.” (That’s a name for a financing round.) Following our reporting, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., sent multiple letters to the World Bank, warning the new president that how he responded to the scandal would be used by Congress as a proxy for his broader seriousness about reforming the bank. “We view the Bridge case as a litmus test for the conversation currently taking place around IFC's responsibility to remedy social and environmental harm caused by its projects, especially those where IFC is not following its own policies, which we see as an important foundation for any proposal to increase the funds available to the World Bank Group,” the senators wrote, referring to the World Bank’s private financing arm, the International Finance Corporation. (The World Bank declined to comment.) The Guardian and the New York Times wrote follow-up articles, and earlier this week California Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen similarly slamming the Bank. Over the past several months, however, Banga was strangely resistant to taking action. At a conference in February, he pushed back on the notion there was a “legal effort to cover it up.” “I think there's a series of things management could have done better,” he said. “And that's the discussion we're going to have with the board shortly. So I'm not going to preempt that. I just disagree that there was a legal effort to cover it up — that I will not accept as a question — because I don't agree with it. If it is proven to be so, I will take all the action that's necessary, but really conjecturing that is so in a public space, I will refuse to sign up for it. That's who I am. I'm sorry if you don't like it.” He added: “I’d be happy to be fired by the way. I can go back to my private sector life.” Bridge International Academies was backed by the World Bank’s IFC, as well as prominent Silicon Valley and venture capital leaders, including private funds linked to Bill Ackman, Mark Zuckerberg, and Pierre Omidyar (whose foundation was the founding donor of The Intercept, but has since stepped back). Banga didn’t start his term as World Bank president until June 2023, long after the scandal and the claimed cover-up began, meaning it was handled — or mishandled — exclusively by bank officials appointed by Donald Trump. Why he went to the mat for those Trump officials remains a mystery. Regardless, that’s over, with Banga now apologizing, acknowledging “mistakes were made,” and pledging to “do better.” What that better looks like remains a focus of contention. The IFC proposed a remedial plan Thursday. Responding to the plan, Bridge said, "Since 2020, Bridge has encouraged and offered support based on its longstanding work and commitment to IFC to enhance the institution’s awareness of child safeguarding risk across industries, and shared best practices for both prevention of and response to child safeguarding risk. Bridge remains a committed partner in support of this effort, and looks forward to continuing to work with IFC and other organizations committed to child safeguarding across Kenya to strengthen support for survivors of abuse." Civil society groups have been quick to condemn the plan as inadequate. Read Banga’s full apology below, followed by an internal email from IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop. They’re classics of the corporate genre. Our follow-up, which blew the lid off the cover-up. Banga’s email to staff:
What follows is an all-staff email sent by Diop, which does not go as far as Banga’s and suggests that the fight for accountability remains an active one. “Unlike Banga, IFC’s managing director, Makhtar Diop, has yet to offer an apology or take responsibility for IFC’s failings,” noted Devex, a trade publication. His note:
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