Free Republic

The White House announced on Jan. 16 the names of members appointed to the Gaza Board of Peace, which President Donald Trump created as part of phase two of a U.S.-backed plan to end the war in Gaza. Among the “founding executive board” members are U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The board also includes private equity executive Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and U.S. national security adviser Robert Gabriel, according to a White House statement. The board, to be chaired by...

Ah, fact-checking. Where would we be without it? Take, for instance, a recent story that made the rounds on social media. According to these reports, Oxfam — the British NGO — found that a huge chunk of the World Bank’s spending on climate change-related issues was “missing.” Thank heavens for fact-checkers like the Australian Associated Press — a Poynter Institute-accredited fact-checker from down under — which set us all straight: “An Oxfam report did not find that $US41 billion has gone ‘missing’ from the World Bank’s climate change fund, contrary to claims online.” What a relief. Instead, the AAP noted,...

President Biden's nominee to lead the World Bank says the twin global challenges of climate change and inequality need to be addressed simultaneously and cannot be separated. Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, tells Morning Edition's Michel Martin that it will take the combined action of all stakeholders, from countries to the multilateral development banking system to the private sector to make a difference, particularly when it comes to climate change. "We don't have the time to play in silos," he says. Banga, who is 63, says the World Bank, which oversees billions of dollars in funding for developing...