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Iraq
ISIL Attack Kills 11 Civilians
On Tuesday, 11 civilians were killed and more than 15 people were injured in an attack from the Islamic State terrorist group. Machine guns and vehicles were used in the attack to target the village of al-Rashad in northeastern Iraq. Although the motives were not immediately clear, officials later stated ISIL militants kidnapped two villagers earlier and demanded ransom, then attacked when demands were not met. Civilian attacks from ISIL have become increasingly rare since the group was largely defeated in 2017; however, ISIL still remains active in certain areas.
This map depicts the location of the ISIL attack in Diyala, Iraq. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Al Jazeera
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Italy
Storm Causes Devastating Flood
A rare, cyclonic, non-tropical storm system moving over the Mediterranean Sea, also known as a ‘medicane’, has been causing fatal flooding and damage across southern Italy and Sicily for the past few days. The flash flooding is responsible for at least two deaths and has submerged multiple town squares underwater. On Sunday, more than 11.8 inches (300mm) of rain, approximately half the island’s expected average yearly rainfall, fell on Sicily. The storm system is expected to peak between Thursday and Friday. Italian forecasters blame sea temperatures in the Mediterranean that are 14.4° F (8° C) warmer than average.
This map depicts the rainfall levels of the Medicane storm in southern Italy and Sicily. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Yahoo! News
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Moldova
Moldova Purchases Polish Gas
In the midst of a contract and pricing conflict with Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom, the Eastern European state of Moldova has ordered 35 million cubic feet (1 million m³) of natural gas from nearby Poland. This is the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that Moldova has purchased gas from any country other than Russia. Moldova’s contract with Gazprom expired at the end of September, in the midst of a global energy crisis, and Moldova didn’t accept Gazprom’s price for a new contract. The situation in Moldova reflects the challenges faced by other Eastern European countries, particularly those of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. With gas supply infrastructure giving a near–if not total–monopoly to Russia, some analysts say that Russia uses its gas supply to apply political pressure and keep former allies in its orbit. These countries struggle to find ways to diversify their supplies, as Moldova did in August when a new pipeline from Romania was completed.
This map depicts the natural gas pipelines that supply the Eastern European country of Moldova, which is locked in a dispute with Russia’s Gazprom over the price it pays for natural gas. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: According to the migration theory of the Bantu expansion, the many Bantu-related languages expanded across sub-Saharan Africa from what West African country?
A: Cameroon
The Bantu expansion is a theory that Proto-Bantu-speaking migrants from the West African highlands of Cameroon spread out across sub-Saharan African in two major waves starting around 1000 BCE. One expansion route was south along the west coast of Africa, and another headed eastward towards Africa’s Great Lakes region. The theory is supported by the similarities in over 500 languages spoken throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and has also been reinforced by genetic analysis and the evidence of agricultural techniques used by the migrants as they displaced older hunter-gatherer societies.
Source
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Q: The Mississippi River runs for 2,552 miles (4,107 km) until it empties in the Gulf of Mexico. At it’s largest point, the Mississippi expands 11 miles wide, and at it’s slimmest stretch, how narrow does the famous river get?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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