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Israel
Gaza Ceasefire Agreed
After 15 months of conflict, the Israeli government and the leadership of the militant group Hamas have in principle agreed to a ceasefire deal to go into effect on Sunday, January 19. The agreement was brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, and begins with a six-week period within which Israeli forces will be gradually withdrawn from the Gaza Strip, while Hamas will release hostages in exchange for the release by Israel of Palestinian prisoners. The deal also makes provision for an influx of aid for the devastated region with the opening of border checkpoints. The deal doesn’t become official until it is accepted by Israel’s security cabinet and voted on by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The vote, set for today, has been delayed by Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu with accusations that Hamas is seeking to make last-minute changes to the terms. Hamas leaders claim to have accepted the deal announced yesterday.
This map depicts the extent of territory in the Gaza Strip occupied by Israeli ground forces during the 15-month war triggered by an incursion of Hamas militants and their allies against Israel on October 7, 2023. Click on the map to learn more.
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United Kingdom
Chagos Islands Deal Delayed
US President-elect Donald Trump will be consulted on the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands – where there is a joint US-UK military base – to Mauritius. The UK announced in October it would cede sovereignty of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean but maintain control of the base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, under a 99-year lease. The deal had already been greenlit by the Biden administration but the UK prime minister’s office on Wednesday said the incoming Trump government would now “consider” the deal. Incoming US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said it poses a “serious threat,” arguing it gives the islands to a country aligned with China. Mauritius has a trade agreement with China. Mauritius, which won independence from the UK in 1968, has maintained that the islands are its own, and the UN’s highest court has ruled, in an advisory opinion, that the UK’s administration of the territory is “unlawful”.
This map depicts the location of the UK’s Chagos Islands and Mauritius. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: The Guardian
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United States
Vast Aquifer in Oregon Cascades
According to a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Oregon researchers have found an enormous underground water store containing three times the volume of Lake Mead underneath the central Oregon Cascades. This huge aquifer, stored underneath volcanic rocks deep within the mountains, contains some 19.4 cubic miles of water (81 cubic km). The team describes how they measured the temperatures at different depths around the Cascades to determine how deep water flowed through the rocks in different volcanic zones. As water in the ground reduces the temperature of the surrounding rocks, measuring temperature allowed the researchers to map out the volume of the aquifer. The researchers say the true volume of the stored water may even be larger than they measured.
These maps depict the Oregon Cascades study site where an enormous new aquifer has been discovered, with both the topography and ages of surface bedrock. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: From the late 16th century to the early 19th century, Spanish trans-Pacific routes connected Manila in the Philippines with what Latin American city?
A: Acapulco
Between 1565 and 1815, the so-called Manila galleons enjoyed a near-complete monopoly on trans-Pacific trade between Spain’s Asian and American colonies. The Manila Galleon brought porcelain, silk, ivory, spices, and many other exotic goods from China to Mexico in exchange for New World silver. The prized Asian wares traveled across the Pacific via the Philippines (colonized by Spain in the late sixteenth century), to Acapulco on Mexico’s west coast. Sailing from the Philippines to Mexico and back, these Spanish trading ships also facilitated the earliest migrations and displacements of Asian peoples to the Americas. Once in Mexico, they became “chinos” within the New Spanish caste system.
Source
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Q: What country is home to the oldest tropical rainforest, where ‘the rainforest meets the Reef’?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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