Daily Report 04.19.2021

An image taken from Lions Head (Nature Reserve) in Cape Town, South Africa (Jonas Humbel via Unsplash)

World News:

More than 100 firefighters were dispatched between yesterday and today in South Africa in response to a wildfire that reached the University of Cape Town’s Jagger Library, which houses more than 1,300 collections of unique manuscripts and personal papers of prominent South Africans dating to the 18th century. (npr.org)

BLM protests in Charlotte, North Carolina, last spring (Keith Helfrich via Unsplash)

US News:

On April 16, Florida officials signed a law broadening the powers of law enforcement, specifically those responding to riots. The law authorizes certain elected officials to appeal law enforcement budget reductions, clarifies that municipalities have a duty to allow law enforcement to respond to riots and unlawful assemblies, prohibits cyber intimidation by publication, and increases penalties for individuals who participate in violent public disturbances. (myfloridahouse.gov)
This weekend, 5 people were killed and at least 22 others were injured in shootings in Chicago. (chicago.suntimes.com)

COVID-19:

Today, the CDC reported that 131,247,546 individuals, including 50.4% of America’s adult population, have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine. (npr.org)

An image taken by NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its flight today (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Economic News:

Today, the top European football clubs from England, Italy, and Spain, including Arsenal, Real Madrid, Manchester United, and FC Barcelona, announced that they have agreed to leave the Champion’s League, Europe’s top club tournament, to form a new competition called the Super League. (realmadrid.com)
On April 17, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning about 39 incidents, including one death, related to Peleton’s Tread+ exercise machine. It recommended that consumers stop using the treadmill if there are small children or pets at home. (cpsc.gov)

Science, Health, and Environment:

Today, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. (nasa.gov)
On April 16, Southern California’s Imperial Beach announced the closure of its entire four-mile shoreline to swimmers and surfers due to sewage-contaminated runoff flowing north from Mexico’s Tijuana River. According to The AP, hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic water have flowed north from Mexico over the past several decades; the US Environmental Protection Agency said in February it would spend roughly $300 million to address the problem. (apnews.com)

*please note: portions of this report contain direct quotes pulled from the cited sources with quotations omitted for ease of reading. All sources that contributed to each given bullet are linked directly after.