Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Authoritarians' brave new cities
Oped, Published on 23/09/2025
» Few policy ideas are as radical -- or as misleadingly packaged -- as "freedom cities". Championed by Silicon Valley's techno-libertarian elite and recently embraced by right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, the idea is to create digitally powered, master-planned enclaves of deregulated innovation.
Navigating the risks of AI will require a team effort
Oped, Published on 11/03/2023
» Recent months may well be remembered as the moment when predictive artificial intelligence went mainstream. While prediction algorithms have been in use for decades, the release of applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT3 -- and its rapid integration with Microsoft's Bing search engine -- may have unleashed the floodgates when it comes to user-friendly AI.
World cities and the climate-data collection gap
Oped, Published on 21/01/2022
» With cities facing disastrous climate stresses and shocks in the coming years, one would think they would be rushing to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies. Yet most urban residents are only dimly aware of the risks, because their cities' mayors, managers, and councils are not collecting or analysing the right kinds of information.
25 killed in police raid on Rio slum
AFP, Published on 07/05/2021
» RIO DE JANEIRO - A massive police operation against drug traffickers in a Brazilian favela Thursday left 25 people dead, turning the impoverished Rio de Janeiro neighborhood into a battlefield and drawing condemnation from rights groups.
City planning in the post-Covid-19 era will be very different
News, Published on 02/05/2020
» Our cities will not be the same after Covid-19. Nor should they be. In Italy, as elsewhere, the public-health crisis has put us on the defensive. Our hospitals have been inadequate. And our cities, having been planned to meet our needs at a particular moment that looks nothing like the present, have fuelled contagion.
Bolsonaro mulls deploying army to combat Amazon fires
AFP, Published on 23/08/2019
» RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday he is considering deploying the army to help combat fires raging in the Amazon rainforest, as a growing global outcry over the blazes threatens to torpedo a huge trade deal.
Clashes in four Brazil prisons leave 40 dead
AFP, Published on 28/05/2019
» RIO DE JANEIRO - At least 40 inmates were killed in four jails in northern Brazil on Monday over an apparent gang dispute, authorities said, in the latest wave of violence to rock the country's severely overpopulated and deadly prison system.
Will Rio Olympics be a security 'hell'?
AFP, Published on 13/07/2016
» RIO DE JANEIRO - Right as a top Brazilian official was confidently guaranteeing safety at next month's Olympics, Rio cops were about to head to their latest nerve-jangling assignment: body parts discovered on Copacabana beach.