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Iran-Israel-Lebanon
Attacks Continue Despite Talks
The Iranian military’s joint command said that it is halting offensive operations hours after Israel and Iran began trading fire over the weekend and early Monday in retaliatory strikes that threatened to drag the wider Middle East back into a full-scale regional war. Tehran had warned of retaliation after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning. Both Iran and Israel have accused each other of firing missiles and violating ceasefire agreements. Recent casualties as a result of the strikes include a heritage site in Tyre, Lebanon, and a petrochemical plant in Iran. Global trade continues to remain in peril, with the Houthis, an Iranian-backed rebel group in Yemen, claiming an attack on Israel and saying Israel-affiliated vessels would again be a target in the Red Sea. Iran announced that it would stop attacks on Israel, but threatens to resume should the country and its allies resume strikes. U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders including the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, have called for an end to the strikes and continuing diplomatic efforts to salvage a ceasefire.
This map depicts developments in the past 24 hours in Israel, Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Anadolu Agency
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Philippines
Massive Earthquake off Mindanao
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippine island of Mindanao on Monday morning, killing at least 32 people and injuring over 200 more. The earthquake hit approximately 20 miles (32 km) off the coast, at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 km), triggering as many as 138 aftershocks and a tsunami warning in the southern Philippines. The powerful tremor shook buildings across the island, causing fatalities from collapsing structures and a landslide triggered by the seismic activity. The shaking was felt as far away as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan. It struck on the first day of the new school year in the Philippines, sending classes into chaos and disarray. The Philippines sits within the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” along the boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate, where ongoing subduction and fault movement generate frequent and sometimes devastating seismic events.
The map depicts the earthquake’s epicenter and concentric zones of shaking intensity, measured using the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale.
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Graphic Source: USGS
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World
‘Cold Blob’ Signals Weaker AMOC
A new scientific study in Geophysical Research Letters shares evidence that a growing patch of cold water in the north Atlantic Ocean, referred to as the “cold blob,” is an indicator of the gradual weakening of a critical ocean current system. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is like an oceanic conveyor belt, with its most recognized portion carrying warm water from the equator northward along the Atlantic coast of North America before it bends eastward and warms Europe. The long-term question about the growth of the cold blob was whether it was merely an isolated surface-level change, or if it indicated changes happening in the heat transport systems in the deep ocean. This new study supplements prior modeling with actual temperature readings going back as far as 1955 and satellite data going back to 1993, and included a “heat budget” analysis looking at where heat energy was being absorbed and later released by the broader current system. The study adds to the growing body of evidence that the AMOC is continuing to weaken and may be reaching a tipping point where it will collapse, which would mean the end of the Gulf Stream’s warming effect on coastal Europe, among other impacts.
This map depicts the change in surface temperatures across the world from 1880 to 2025, with the entire world showing warming waters, with the exception of the “cold blob” in the north Atlantic, shown in blue. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What state has the most imperiled biodiversity in the contiguous U.S.?
A: California
Biodiversity (or biological diversity) refers to the variety of life on Earth, including all living lifeforms from genes to species to ecosystems. California is home to more species of plants and animals than any other state in the country. Its varied geography (including the highest and lowest places in the continental U.S.) and proximity of both the ocean and mountains makes it a global biodiversity hotspot. California has more threatened species than any other state in the U.S. in large part due to habitat loss and conversion, impacts from invasive species, and climate change. It has more land under biodiversity protection than any other of the lower 48 states, but it’s also home to high concentrations of imperiled species that live outside of those areas. Major stressors include its rapid expansion as the fifth-largest economy in the world as well as its growing population of over 40 million people.
Source
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Q: What Chinese city was founded by Russians in 1898 due to railway construction?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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