TAI Weekly

TAI Weekly | The Infrastructure of Trust is Breaking

By TAI (Role at TAI)
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TAI Weekly

June 9, 2026

Dear readers,

At TAI, we are fans of the Visual Capitalist graphics and wanted to flag two that stood out from this week - the countries where the number of ultra-rich are growing fastest and the state of press freedom around the world. Interesting to compare and contrast.  

Turning to foreign direct investment, a few weeks back we mentioned the chance to input on updated guidance for Chinese mining companies operating abroad. Now the Chinese government has posted new regulations for all outbound investment effective July 1st. Courtesy of Bill Bishop, see a translation of the regulations here and of the Q&A here. Worth reading given all the attention to minerals and renewables development (and stay tuned for a TAI-commissioned paper challenging thinking on critical minerals). 

Now, read on for the rest of the news, research, jobs and events.

TAI team

What's New

In India, the satirical Cockroach Movement has gained unexpected support among unemployed youth. This piece in Foreign Policy talks about how its rise offers insight into the frustrations of a generation that feels increasingly excluded from economic opportunity and conventional politics.

A new briefing from the European Parliamentary Research Service examines 94 civic participation tools and 11 case studies from across Europe. The analysis separates the promise of civic technology from real-world results and proposes ways to connect citizen input more directly to policymaking.

Resource-rich countries have often struggled to convert extraction into broad prosperity. Christina Lu explores whether the global race for critical minerals could create different outcomes for countries in Africa and Latin America.

Zenayda Serrano and Mona Sabaella argue in ESCR-Net that democracy cannot thrive while corporations exert growing influence over governments and international institutions. They contend that a binding UN treaty on business and human rights is essential to curb corporate power and strengthen protections for people and the environment.

The Global Cooperation Institute has released a report on the narratives needed to accelerate a green energy transition. The recommendations offer practical lessons for advocates, funders, and policymakers working on climate accountability.

An op-ed by Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Ilona Sologoub based on a randomized control trial in Ukraine finds that information campaigns can influence perceptions of government commitment to anti-corruption efforts. However, they appear far less effective at changing perceptions of corruption itself.

According to new reporting from the New York Times, United States companies have avoided at least $40 billion in taxes since the start of 2025 through offshore arrangements in jurisdictions such as Malta, Bermuda, and Cyprus.

Last week, we covered the OECD public finance conference and Gillian Tett picks up that conversation in The Financial Times calling on governments to get better at talking about debt with citizens and citing International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey (new edition coming very soon!)

As it marks its 15th anniversary, the Open Government Partnership reflects on its founding belief that governments work better when they are transparent, accountable, and open to public participation. The milestone provides an opportunity to assess both progress and remaining challenges.

New guidance from the We Mean Business Coalition explores how European companies can help foster a stable policy environment for growth and investment. It also outlines steps policymakers can take to make responsible corporate engagement more common.

Marcos Nobre examines Brazil's political trajectory since the return to civilian rule in 1985. He argues that the post-dictatorship system of elite accommodation is breaking down, leaving a more polarized contest between the far right and the left.

The Anticorruption for Development (AC4D) program's third roundtable on illicit financial flows brought together participants from five continents to discuss persistent data challenges. Discussions showcased barriers such as fragmented systems and limited capacity, while also showcasing promising solutions and new approaches to data analysis.

ESSENTIAL LISTENING

DemocracyNext spoke with Hélène Landemore about her new book, “Politics Without Politicians”. Landemore argues that modern representative systems are better understood as a form of consent-based oligarchy, with power concentrated among a relatively narrow elite.

From Our Members

FORD FOUNDATION: Sarita Gupta, Ford's Vice President of US Programs, argues in TIME magazine that democracy cannot be protected by elections alone. It also needs a fairer economy that reduces inequality and gives people real security. Policies that share prosperity more broadly, she writes, are essential for democracy to thrive.

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS: Has launched a new anti-hate initiative focused on confronting antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate together. In a piece in The Guardian, President Binaifer Nowrojee argues that these are twin crises that must be addressed in tandem, through efforts to protect communities, build bridges, and safeguard lawful expression and free debate.

HEWLETT FOUNDATION: Has announced $19 million in new grants to Be The People, GivingTuesday, and Shared America to strengthen civic participation and help communities build a sense of shared purpose. Program Officer Marselle Alexander-Ozinskas and Special Projects Director Eli Sugarman reflect on what is driving this work.

MACARTHUR FOUNDATION: Humanity AI co-chair John Palfrey spoke with Inside Philanthropy about how the initiative aims to create an AI future shaped by and for people. “The kinds of questions that we're hoping to prompt,” he said, “are how do we get a broader array of humans in the process of determining how AI can help our communities thrive, as opposed to being extractive?”

PACKARD FOUNDATION: As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Packard's Ruth Levine explores the fundamental questions Americans need to ask and answer in order to build a more just and equitable world.

ESSENTIAL WATCHING:

Tune into these discussions from the Global Philanthropy Forum on governance, accountability, and new partnership models. Panelists reflect on how governments and civil society can respond to a rapidly changing environment.

TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDERS

Often used as a buzzword, “ecosystem” in civil society points to a real debate about power in donor–NGO relationships. Neil Campbell from The Good Lobby breaks down the distinction and suggests a clearer way to talk about it.

Jean Scrimgeour pushes back against the assumption that intermediaries exist primarily to absorb financial risk. In an Alliance magazine interview, she calls for a fundamental reframing that values the assets proximate actors bring just as highly as the capacity to manage compliance.

An Alliance Magazine article argues that philanthropy cannot replace public finance in addressing the climate crisis. Paula Sevilla Núñez, Noemi Grütter and Juliana Tinoco argue for a focus on funds across the Global South that direct resources to local communities and support socially and environmentally just solutions.

The Philanthropy for Climate State of the Movement Report 2026 is now available and offers a comprehensive look at where climate philanthropy stands and where it needs to go.

ESSENTIAL WATCHING:

The Human Rights Foundation's Freedom Tech track at the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum brought together human rights defenders and open-source developers building tools that fight back against digital repression, including Bitcoin, the Lightning Network, Nostr, and privacy-preserving AI. The full livestream recording is now available.

Focused Topic of the Week

The Infrastructure of Trust is Breaking

The infrastructure holding democratic societies together is fraying at multiple pressure points simultaneously, and this week's signal is hard to ignore. Journalism, long understood as the fourth pillar of democracy, is being quietly undermined not just by hostile governments but by the very philanthropic actors who could save it. 

A sharp analysis of climate media funding reveals a structural blind spot: foundations that care deeply about the climate crisis often treat journalism as a short-term instrument rather than a durable institution. The Drilled News team highlight that too often donors fund a project, then “disappear into the hedge”, leaving outlets hollowed out and structurally dependent on the next cycle of goodwill. The fix isn't complex; it requires climate foundations to partner seriously with established journalism funders, and to take the time to understand how media actually works before they write the check.

The credibility problem runs deeper than funding, however. New research on fact-checking and misinformation shows that while corrections can shift what people believe, they rarely change who people trust to deliver information—particularly in polarized environments where the priority is sharing news, not evaluating it. This distinction matters enormously for TAI's work: if governance and accountability efforts focus only on the accuracy of beliefs and not on the underlying architecture of credibility, they are addressing symptoms while the disease progresses. Trust in information sources is structural too, and it requires structural interventions.

On the ground, the consequences of weakened press ecosystems are already visible. Bolivia is a stark case this week: amid its ongoing social and political crisis, Reporters Without Borders documented fourteen attacks against the press in a single seven-day stretch. Journalists operating under that kind of pressure cannot be the watchdogs that democracy requires them to be. 

Meanwhile, on the governance and infrastructure side, the platforms, algorithms, and infrastructure choices being made right now will determine the conditions under which journalism, trust, and accountability operate for decades to come. Faced with this reality, AI and digital researchers across disciplines are asking how governance frameworks can better support the digital infrastructure transition.

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CALENDAR

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