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Japan
Abe’s Party Wins Election
The governing right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan has won a sweeping victory in the upper house of parliament in an election on Sunday, just two days after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an influential lawmaker in the LDP. The LDP won 63 seats, up from 55, taking a majority of the contested seats, however not enough to make a single majority. LDP’s coalition partner, Komeito, won 13 seats, giving the two parties combined the majority in the 248-member upper chamber of parliament. A main goal of these parties is the revision of Japan’s pacifist constitution. The major opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, saw its number of seats decrease from 23 to below 20, while the Japan Innovation Party gained more than 10 seats.
This map depicts the election results of Japan’s one-person wards, with 28 LDP wins in red and four opposition wins in blue, an improvement by six seats for the LDP from the previous election. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Nippon
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South Africa
Bar Shootings Kill 19 People
Gunmen killed at least 15 people and left many others injured at a tavern in Johannesburg’s Soweto township, in South Africa over the weekend. According to officials, two men entered the tavern after midnight Sunday and started shooting randomly, killing two people on the spot while 13 others were declared dead in the hospital. The identity of the shooters and the reason for the attack remain unknown. In a separate incident earlier in the evening, four people were killed by unknown gunmen at a tavern in Sweetwaters township in Pietermaritzburg. These two incidents took place two weeks after the unresolved death of 22 people in a tavern in the city of East London, raising concern for the country’s security.
This map depicts the locations of Soweto, near Johannesburg, and Pietermaritzburg, in South Africa where 19 people died in two seprate shooting incidents over the weekend. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Barron’s
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United States
Fire in Yosemite National Park
The Washburn Fire in southern Yosemite National Park ignited four days ago and has grown to over 2,000 acres as of this morning. It remains largely uncontained as firefighters work to protect both Yosemite’s famed Mariposa Grove and the historic Wawona Hotel. Low humidity and high temperatures have complicated efforts, leading firefighters to take protective measures with Yosemite’s sequoia trees. The park’s giant sequoias are among some of the oldest in the world, and in order to protect them, firefighters are removing dead trees, wrapping the trees in fire suppression foil, and using sprinkler systems to increase humidity on the ground.
This map depicts the extent of the Washburn Fire in Yosemite National Park. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: In which U.S. state does the Mississippi River have both its widest and narrowest points?
A: Minnesota
The Mississippi River is the second longest river in North America after the Missouri River, flowing some 2,350 miles (3,780 km), starting from Lake Itasca, Minnesota and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river passes through 10 states – Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Its widest point can be found at Lake Winnibigoshish, where it reaches more than 11 miles in width. Its narrowest point, only about 50 miles west, can be found at its headwaters in Lake Itasca, where the width of the river is only some 20 to 30 feet. With an average surface speed of the water at about 1.2 miles per hour, it takes about three months for water leaving Lake Itasca to reach the Gulf of Mexico.
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Q: With approximately 300,000 cars traveling across everyday, where is the busiest bridge in the world?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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