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Brazil
Favela Raid Kills Eighteen
At least 18 people have died as the result of a police raid on the Complexo do Alemao, Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela, on Thursday. Police claim 16 suspected criminals were killed, along with one police officer and a female bystander, with the criminal gang targeted in the raid having started the shooting. The criminal gang targeted is believed to be responsible for cargo thefts, bank robberies, and attacks on neighboring communities. Favela residents have complained about police using heavy-handed tactics that unduly threaten innocent bystanders, including firing down on crowded favelas from helicopters and restricting residents from providing aid to injured neighbors. As Brazil prepares to hold presidential and gubernatorial elections in the Fall, the effectiveness and safety of police methods for tackling organized crime will be a top issue.
This map depicts the location of Rio de Janeiro’s Complexo do Alemao favela, where 18 people died in a police raid on Thursday. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Barron’s
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United States
Polio Case in New York State
The first U.S. case of polio in 13 years has been confirmed in an unvaccinated individual in Rockland County, New York, by local and state health officials. The man was likely infected by someone outside the U.S. who received the oral polio vaccine, which is no longer used in the United States. The oral polio vaccine uses a weakened virus, rather than one that is dead, and thus has the potential to mutate into an active version of poliovirus. The last naturally-derived case of polio in the United States was in 1979. The New York Department of Health strongly recommends unvaccinated individuals get vaccinated or boosted with the FDA-approved IPV polio vaccine as soon as possible. The man at the center of the polio case is no longer contagious, although he lives in a community with a vaccination rate of only 60%, below the recommended rate for herd immunity.
This map depicts the extent of reported cases of paralytic polio from vaccine-derived
viruses for 2021. Click on the map to learn more.
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Antarctica
Study Reveals Penguin Evolution
On Tuesday, a new study was published to the journal Nature Communications, with the findings of an international team of researchers who analyzed the genomes of all living and recently extinct penguin species, as well as fossil records. This is the first study of its kind to identify which genes caused the development of particular traits and map the historical evolution of penguins. Researchers now can identify which genes assisted penguins in adapting to swimming underwater, living in cold climates, and seeing underwater. This research suggests penguins might struggle to adapt to Earth’s current rate of climate change, as they are observed to have the slowest known rate of evolution among birds. Half of living penguin species are categorized as endangered or vulnerable.
This map depicts the breeding range of recently extinct penguins, a clade credibility tree incorporating ancestral range estimation, a denistree of gene trees, and paleomaps of dispersal vectors for penguins across the Cenozoic era. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: While the Great Barrier Reef is recognized as the largest coral reef system, where is home to the second global hotspot for coral reef biodiversity?
A: The Northern Mozambique Channel
Over a decade of research, the northern Mozambique Channel was found to have the highest diversity of corals in the central, northern, and western Indian Ocean. With 369 coral species identified in the region, the northern Mozambique Channel is home to the second most diverse coral population on the planet, with the Great Barrier Reef being home to some 600 coral species. The reefs in the Mozambique Channel have a unique heritage, with some unique lineages of corals found no where else on the planet. However, these reefs are threatened from increased pressures of population growth, overfishing, oil mining, and climate change.
Source
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Q: Where is the only point on the equator with snow cover?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Monday’s DailyGeo.
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