Ecuador landslide causes injuries and fatalities

At least 24 people died and another 50 were injured in Quito, Ecuador, when extreme rain caused a hillside to collapse, according to The Washington Post.

The landslide swept through Quito, taking out homes and a sports field.

“Despite the work to protect the hillsides…we are not exempt from natural disasters,” said Quito Mayor Santiago Gaurderas in a tweet after declaring three official days of mourning for the capitol.

Ecuador’s deployed soldiers met with local firefighters and neighbors to aid relief efforts and search for the remaining 12 missing people.  

Burner phones for the Olympics

The FBI suggests that Olympic athletes competing in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics leave their personal phones at home and use a burner phone while in Beijing, according to CNN.

This suggestion is predicated by concerns with China’s advanced techno-surveillance and the 2,000 open investigations concerning Beijing’s attempts to steal information through American technology.

“When we tally up what we see in our investigations, there is just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, our innovation and our economic security than China,” FBI Director Chris Wray told CNN.

The Washington Commanders

The Washington Football Team will now be known as the Washington Commanders, according to ABC.

The Commanders, which used the Washington Football Team as its moniker for the past 18 months, were highly criticized for their previous name, the Washington Redskins, prompting them to drop the name in July 2020.

The three-time Super Bowl winners also announced the runner-up names — the Armada, Presidents, Brigade, Red Hogs, Red Wolves and Defenders — before settling on Commanders.

Proposal to ban legacy college admissions

Two Democratic lawmakers have proposed a bill that will prohibit universities from giving preference to students with legacy status, according to NBC.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. Jamal Bowman, D-NY, are pushing against the practice that predominantly benefits white students.

“Selecting applicants to universities based off of family names, connections or the size of their bank accounts creates an unlevel playing field for students without those built-in advantages, especially impacting minority and first-generation students,” Merkley said in an emailed statement.

A quarter of college admissions are completed through a legacy connection, and though many schools banned the action in 2020, some prestigious schools keep the advantage in place, NBC reported.

John Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels said that after ending the practice of legacy admissions, their admissions diversified immensely, and called the removal a “democratic promise to be ladders of mobility for all.”