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Checklist pour Power Point avtivité culminante Matthew Johnson -E- April 26 2017

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The iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro has been struck by lightning during a violent storm.

Officials confirmed on Friday the right thumb suffered damaged from the storm. Incredible pictures captured the moment lightning hit the 125 ft (38 metre) statue on Thursday evening.

The powerful lightning and rain storm swept across the city, flooding streets and knocking out power in some neighbourhoods.

The middle finger of the right hand had also been chipped during a storm last month. The statue sits atop a steep mountain and is often hit by strikes.

It underwent a $4 million (£243, 600) renovation in 2010 to repair badly eroded parts of its face and hands.

The statue is managed by the Archdiocese of Rio. Father Omar Raposo told Globo Radio repairs will soon be carried out.

He says the church has a stock of the same stone originally used to build the statue, which was erected in 1931.

The statue also suffered damage in April 2010 when the arms head and chest were covered in spray painted graffiti, in an act Rio's mayor described as a "crime against the nation." The perpetrators used the scaffolding erected during the renovation to scale the statue and vandalise it.

The vandals sprayed sentences such as "when the cat's away, the rats will play," as well as references to residents who were killed in recent and unsolved crimes.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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Lightning strikes Rio de Janeiro Jesus statue

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The iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro has been struck by lightning during a violent storm. Officials confirmed on Friday the right thumb suffered damaged from the storm. Incredible pictures captured the moment lightning hit the 125 ft (38 metre) statue on Thursday evening.

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Matthew Johnson -E- Checklist activité culminante bibliographie

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Rio de Janeiro, nos coups de cœur - Routard.com

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Rio de Janeiro, nos coups de cœur , un reportage de la rédaction de routard.com. Avec les reportages du guide du routard, découvrez en photo le monde avec un regard de routard.

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The prospect of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games was presented to the people of Rio de Janeiro as a chance to showcase the city to the world, generate investment, and improve the lives of its residents - but two recent events illustrate how the combination of construction for the games and a worsening housing crisis has prompted accusations that Olympic preparations are riding roughshod over Rio's most vulnerable inhabitants.

On Tuesday, police evicted squatters from an abandoned apartment building that onetime Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista had leased from the Flamengo soccer club, hoping to convert it into a swanky hotel for the Olympics before the collapse of his oil and mining empire.

Many of the roughly 300 unauthorized residents and their young children were already leaving after a judge ordered them to vacate the building, which had been empty for years, but confusion took hold as riot police charged in after a fire broke out. Clashes ensued, with squatters retaliating against officers by allegedly throwing rocks. Around a dozen people were injured and three were arrested - including an officer who was said to have fired pepper spray at a man carrying an infant.

(Photo via Facebook/Jefferson Moura)

Rio's City Hall said it had provided 130 slots at a shelter on the western fringes of the metropolis, but residents declined the offer.

"That shelter is out of the question: there's gunfire all night long, and it's full of crackheads," Stephanny Bernardes, one of the evicted squatters, the Terra news portal. "We can't go there with our small children."

Marcelo Chalréo, president of the Brazilian Bar Association's human rights commission, attempted to fight the eviction order, and later said that the removal of the families simply shuffled the housing problem elsewhere.

"No one is here because they want to be, but out of necessity," Chalréo told the Brazilian daily O Dia. "We're not seeing support from the local authorities in Rio, who should start treating this problem as a social issue, not a political one."
Related: Homeless Families in São Paulo Are Occupying the World Cup
(Photo via Facebook/Jefferson Moura)

As with last year's World Cup, during which thousands of homeless Brazilians formed encampments to highlight the severe housing shortfall, many affordable housing advocates are blaming the Olympics for pricing cariocas out of their own city.

"When the state pacified the favelas, they were seen as safer and rents shot up, meaning many could no longer afford to live there," Guilherme Simões, national coordinator for the Homeless Workers' Movement, told VICE News, referring to the city's slum areas."There are now around 800,000 families without a home in the Rio metropolitan area. Rio continues to persecute, demonize and criminalize the poorest in society, and it's getting worse. Many had to move out of the city, which now only serves those who can afford it."
Related: Will Julian Assange Be Moving to a Squatters' Settlement in Brazil?
Simões described the cycle of squatters entering unused buildings, getting evicted, shuttling from shelter to shelter, and then moving into the next squat as never-ending.

The city's needy families and housing advocates are calling for the government to provide adequate accommodations within their community, rather than in marginal and sometimes dangerous neighborhoods. The insecurity and lack of services in those areas are common complaints.

"When families are offered social housing, often it entails being uprooted from the areas they grew up in, severing family and community ties," Orlando Alves dos Santos Jr., professor of urban planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told VICE News. "Many reject their new life and return, even it that means living on the streets."

Even those who have homes aren't safe: reports emerged Wednesday that a bulldozer had begun razing the Vila União da Curicica favela near the Olympic Park in the west of Rio in order to make way for a bus rapid transit system connecting sporting venues, the main Olympic site in Barra da Tijuca, and the Deodoro sports complex in Rio's north zone.

The city has a housing crisis, yet it is busy tearing down houses.

A worker helps demolish a house at the Vila Autodromo favela in Rio de Janeiro, with cranes and construction work for the Rio 2016 Olympic Park visible in the background. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Some of the displaced families are being rehoused, while others have been offered compensation. But members of demolished communities elsewhere have reported complications in receiving the promised compensation.

Vila União thought it had survived threats of removal. City authorities said in December that they had scaled back their plans, with 181 households set to be evicted, but a recently released government document suggests that 304 families will lose their homes.

Residents of the neighborhood had already seen 95 percent of the nearby Vila Autódromo community leveled to make way for Olympic infrastructure, which sparked a wave of protests that drew international attention.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said that the city had negotiated with the owners of the 760 dwellings that had been removed, and has pledged that the remaining residents can stay. Locals, however, report that they are being coerced into accepting compensation to leave.
Related: Here's Why Everyone Is So Pissed at Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
Santos is studying how the mega sporting events have informed the process of Rio's "metropolization"- the centralization of urban development as space within a city grows scarce. He notes that the number of families removed from Vila União could see the dispersal crowned the biggest Olympic eviction to date.

"It's a huge lack of transparency on the government's part. They say one thing and do another," Santos said, adding that favelas are also being removed in desirable, high-value property areas to boost profits for developers. "The smoke screen of the Olympics is being used to justify further evictions."

Local authorities deny they are evicting families without compensation, and have promised that the $12.4 billion they are spending on the games will help to improve and integrate Rio, leaving behind a grand "Olympic legacy."

"The focus of these games will be a legacy of infrastructure left for Rio," Mayor Paes said last year, suggesting that 60 percent of the budget would come from private investment. "The Olympics are being done, above all, to change the lives of people of this city for the better."

But Santos notes that the infrastructure projects being prioritized, such as the transit systems, are of little use to most Rio residents, while more pressing concerns, such as connecting poorer neighborhoods to the wastewater system, have fallen well behind schedule.

"There's a bottomless pot of public money for these mega-events, which, in the end, are making the city far more expensive," he said. "Not just rent, which has seen the biggest impact, but food, transport... everything. The poorest are really suffering. These events are a step back."

Rio has managed to delivered some structural improvements, including some affordable housing. Last week, President Dilma Rousseff officially opened 500 houses in the region as part of the Minha Casa Minha Vida ("My House My Life") social housing initiative for low-income families.
Follow Ben Tavener on Twitter: @BenTavener
Nevertheless, the wait list for the program is long, the need is dire, and the government's economic uncertainty has raised doubt that the initiative's next phase will go ahead.

The squatters evicted on Tuesday hope that the authorities will provide the assistance they require.

"That building belongs to Flamengo football club, they don't owe me anything," 58-year-old Celia Regina Cesário told GloboNews. "But the authorities do. I voted for them, and now they should look out for us."

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The Olympics Are Screwing Rio de Janeiro's Poorest Citizens Out of Housing | VICE News

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The prospect of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games was presented to the people of Rio de Janeiro as a chance to showcase the city to the world, generate investment, and improve the lives of its residents - but two recent events illustrate how the combination of construction for the games and a worsening housing crisis has prompted accusations that Olympic preparations are riding roughshod over Rio's most vulnerable inhabitants.

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Rio de Janeiro, city and port, capital of the estado (state) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean, in the southeastern part of the tropical zone of South America, and is widely recognized as one of the world's most beautiful and interesting urban centres. Although Rio de Janeiro continues to be the preeminent icon of Brazil in the eyes of many in the world, in reality its location, architecture, inhabitants, and lifestyle make it highly unique when compared with other Brazilian cities, especially the country's capital of Brasília or the much larger city of São Paulo. The former is a much smaller city dating back only to the 1960s, while the latter is a huge, sprawling commercial and manufacturing centre with none of Rio's spectacular natural beauty or captivating charm. Unlike Rio, both are located on flat interior plateaus.

The name was given to the city's original site by Portuguese navigators who arrived on January 1, 1502, and mistook the entrance of the bay for the mouth of a river ( rio is the Portuguese word for "river" and janeiro the word for "January"). When the foundations of the future town were laid in 1565, it was named Cidade de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro ("City of St. Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro") for both São Sebastião and Dom Sebastião, king of Portugal.

Rio de Janeiro became the colonial capital in 1763 and was the capital of independent Brazil from 1822 until 1960, when the national capital was moved to the new city of Brasília; the territory constituting the former Federal District was converted into Guanabara state, which formed an enclave in Rio de Janeiro state. In March 1975 the two states were fused as the state of Rio de Janeiro. The city of Rio de Janeiro became one of the 14 municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, or Greater Rio, and was designated the capital of the reorganized state. Despite loss of the status, funding, and employment it had enjoyed as Brazil's capital, Rio de Janeiro not only survived but thrived as a commercial and financial centre, as well as a tourist magnet. Area city, 485 square miles (1,255 square km); Greater Rio, 2,079 square miles (5,384 square km). Pop. (2022) 6,625,849; Greater Rio, 11,875,063; (2021 est.) 6,775,560; Greater Rio, 12,763,305.

Character of the city

Rio de Janeiro is well known for the beauty of its beaches and of its peaks, ridges, and hills-all partly covered by tropical forests. The city is a centre of leisure for Brazilian and foreign tourists, and people wearing bathing suits can be seen walking in the streets and along the beaches or traveling on the city's buses. Perhaps at no time is the city's festive reputation better displayed than during the annual pre-Lenten Carnival, which enlivens the city night and day with music, singing, parties, balls, and street parades of brilliantly costumed dancers performing to samba rhythms. Rio is also an important economic centre, however, with activities ranging from industry and national and international trade to administration, banking, education, culture, and research.

The city's economic and social prominence grew in the 18th century after it became the main trade centre for the gold- and diamond-mining areas of nearby Minas Gerais. Later its status as a national capital and as the royal residence of the Portuguese monarch influenced Rio's continued growth and helped it acquire a cosmopolitan atmosphere and a national character, free of regional conflict. After the city was relegated to being a state capital in the mid-20th century, however, a new regional consciousness began to develop. While São Paulo became entrenched as Brazil's economic heartland and Brasília strengthened its position as the political hub, residents of Rio increasingly prided themselves on being the country's cultural centre and Brazil's most salient symbol to the rest of the world.

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Rio de Janeiro | History, Population, Map, Climate, & Facts

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Rio de Janeiro, city and port, capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean, in the southeastern part of the tropical zone of South America, and is widely recognized as one of the world's most beautiful and interesting urban centers.