Recap: World Bank 2024 Spring Meetings

World Bank – Apr 19, 2024

Global leaders, civil society organizations, private sector & academia gathered in Washington DC at the World Bank – IMF Spring Meetings to discuss challenges facing global development. Watch the recap and learn more: • 2024 World Bank Spring…

00:00 From vision to impact 00:27 Main announcements 01:09 International Development Association (IDA)

ABOUT THE WORLD BANK 🌐 The World Bank is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for low-income countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development on a livable planet. http://www.worldbank.org

See related:

• “New World” Narratives
• The mistake of petro-intensive agriculture – the UNA “Global Engagement Summit” – 22 February 2019
• Jeffrey Sachs’ speech at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit (full speech)
• The “Green Revolution:” Its Essence, Achievements & Aftermath
• “Just take the case of agriculture…”
• “India’s Green Revolution: More Harm Than Good” by Vandana Shiva

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Food-matters, 

Crews work overnight to recover 20+ barges that broke loose on Ohio River

CBS Pittsburgh – Apr 13, 2024

Twenty-six barges that broke loose from a towboat on the Ohio River Friday night are accounted for, according to the Pittsburgh District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Now, crews are in the process of recovering them after they damaged local marinas and rest at a local lock and dam. KDKA-TV’s Lauren Linder shares the latest.

See related:

• 26 Barges Break Loose on Ohio River! Damaged Bridges & Dam near Pittsburgh, PA
• Pittsburghers don’t have to worry about a bridge collapse like Baltimore’s, expert says
  
• Pittsburgh says it has more bridges (446) than anywhere else

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Pittsburghers don’t have to worry about a bridge collapse like Baltimore’s, expert says

CBS Pittsburgh – Mar 26, 2024

While massive, ocean-going vessels don’t travel our three rivers, large tows of barges certainly do, and from time to time, our bridges get hit. KDKA-TV’s John Shumway looks into the daily risk to the bridges we depend on.

Pittsburgh says it has more bridges (446) than anywhere else

BBC News – Nov 30, 2014

Subscribe to BBC News / bbcnews Subscribe to BBC News HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog The US city of Pittsburgh claims to have more bridges than any other place in the world – and don’t try telling locals otherwise. There are 446 of them, to be precise. The best known of those bridges span the two rivers, the Monongahela and Allegheny, which flow through Pennsylvania and meet in the old steel city to form the Ohio River.

See related:
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26 Barges Break Loose on Ohio River! Damaged Bridges & Dam near Pittsburgh, PA

Professor Nez – Apr 13, 2024

🚨BREAKING🚨26 Barges Break Loose on Ohio River! Damaged Bridges and a Dam on the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, PA. In a dramatic turn of events late Friday night, 26 barges broke loose on the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, causing significant damage to a marina and prompting the temporary closure of two nearby bridges – the West End and McKees Rocks bridges. The barges, carrying dried cargo including coal, were eventually pinned to the riverbank or went over a dam downstream. Despite the chaos, there were no reports of injuries. The incident led to the closure of two Pittsburgh-area bridges about 2.5 miles apart, highlighting the potential dangers of such events.

See related:

• Crews work overnight to recover 20+ barges that broke loose on Ohio Rive 
• Pittsburghers don’t have to worry about a bridge collapse like Baltimore’s, expert says
  
• Pittsburgh says it has more bridges (446) than anywhere else

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Hundreds of thousands of Haitians flee Port au Prince

CGTN America – Apr 19, 2024

The United Nations says an estimated nearly 100,000 people have fled the violence in Port-au-Prince in the past month. There is a political void in Haiti and many can no longer wait as gangs launch regular attacks in the city. CGTN’s Harold Isaac reports.

See related:

• Some recent stories about news Haiti
• Further online Haitian news

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Over 100 Arrested After Columbia Univ. President Calls NYPD to Clear Pro-Palestine Student Protest

Democracy Now! – Apr 19, 2024

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Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik on Thursday called on New York police to forcibly clear a student occupation on the lawn of the school, which had been dubbed the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, resulting in over 100 arrests. The protesters were demanding the Ivy League school divest from firms and institutions that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but Shafik ordered the raid a day after being questioned on Capitol Hill about ongoing pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The move caused outrage among students and many faculty, who decried it as censorship and a violation of academic freedom. The renowned professor and presidential candidate Cornel West, chair of the Columbia-affiliated Union Theological Seminary, joined students Thursday in solidarity with their protest and told Democracy Now! they “represent the best … of the human spirit,” and lauded them for “fighting in the face of domination and occupation and subjugation, and doing it with tremendous determination.”

“No Palestinian Is Safe”: Renowned Feminist Scholar Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Arrested in Jerusalem

Democracy Now! – Apr 19, 2024

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Israeli police arrested the internationally renowned feminist Palestinian academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian at her home in Jerusalem on Thursday on charges of incitement to violence. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who holds both Israeli and U.S. citizenship, was suspended by Hebrew University last month after saying in an interview Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, though the university later reinstated her. We speak with anthropologist Sarah Ihmoud, who describes Shalhoub-Kevorkian as a mentor and inspiration to her and many others. “We hold the Hebrew University of Jerusalem responsible for the arrest and detention because of its persistent and public repression of her academic freedom, which led directly to yesterday’s arrest,” says Ihmoud, who teaches at College of the Holy Cross and is co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Collective. “We see this as yet another example of Israel attacking Palestinians wherever they are, whoever they are. It underscores that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s racist apartheid rule.”

See related:
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“Revolutionary Love”: Michelle Alexander on Gaza, Solidarity, MLK & What Gives Her Hope

Democracy Now! – Mar 13, 2024

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Author and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander’s new piece in The Nation reflects on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s April 4, 1967, speech in New York opposing the war in Vietnam and its lasting lessons for American society today. She describes “revolutionary love” as the transnational “connections between liberation struggles” around the world, and calls for anti-oppression movements in the U.S. to continue working to “end the occupation of Palestine and commit to the thriving of all of the people who have been subjected to endless war and occupation.” Revolutionary love, argues Alexander, “is the only thing that can save us now.”

Experts warn of AI and deepfakes ahead of U.S. election

CGTN America – Apr 19, 2024

Ahead of the U.S. election in November, social media has been on high alert for a technology that threatens to disrupt fair voting. As CGTN’s Mark Niu reports, AI and deepfakes are getting more sophisticated, but researchers are working on new ways to detect them.