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Italy
Migrant Influx in Lampedusa
Over 7,000 people have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the past two days, prompting its mayor and the United Nations refugee agency to warn that the island is becoming overwhelmed. Lampedusa has long been a first port of call for people crossing from North Africa and has become a flashpoint in Europe’s migration crisis. The island’s mayor said the migrant crisis had reached a “point of no return.” The UN refugee agency says that urgent action is underway to regulate this situation, and authorities have already transferred around 5,000 people off the island in the last 28 hours. Many of the people arriving in Lampedusa have fled political instability in Tunisia and the catastrophic floods in Libya. It is feared that numbers will rise even further.
This map depicts the flow of migrants from countries like Tunisia and Libya to the island of Lampedusa. Click on the map to learn more.
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Dominican Republic – Haiti
The Battle for Water in Haiti
The Dominican Republic said it would seal its border with Haiti on Friday morning amid a conflict over access to a river shared between the two historically contentious neighbors. The move would further isolate Haiti, a nation that has descended into gang violence and growing hunger. Tensions have grown in recent days over construction of a canal to divert water from the Massacre River, which runs through both nations, for irrigation of Haitian farms on the drought-affected Maribaroux Plain. President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic, who claimed that the excavation of a canal on the river in Haiti would harm Dominican farmers, froze Haitian visas earlier this week and threatened to close the more than 220 miles of border if the two sides did not reach a resolution.
This map depicts the location of the Massacre River, which is share by both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: France24
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United States
Historic Auto Strike In Midwest
Thousands of workers from the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union walked out of three plants in Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio today. Stopping production at these three plants could disrupt the larger production process at General Motors, Ford Motor, and Stellantis, the “Big Three” automakers employing these workers. The union’s demands include a 40 percent wage increase over the next four years, proportional to what executives of these companies have received. Analysts predict that if negotiation efforts are not successful, the strike could expand in the coming weeks, with the Teamsters union already pledging not to cross the UAW picket lines to deliver vehicles for the automakers.
This map depicts the three sites where workers have walked out. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What island country had the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in 2009 to raise the alarm about rising sea levels?
A: Maldives
The Republic of Maldives (population: 350,000) is the lowest-lying nation on earth. It is composed of 1,192 coral islands in the Indian Ocean grouped into 26 atolls, with an average elevation of 7 feet above sea level. In 2009, President Mohamed Nasheed held a cabinet meeting about global carbon emissions underwater to highlight how pressing the issue is for the sea-level nation. The President and 13 other government officials submerged and took their seats at a table on the sea floor – 20 feet below the surface of a lagoon off Girifushi island. With about 40% of the world’s populations living within 100km of the coast, rising sea levels are a serious risk. Though melting ice from ice sheets and glaciers is a major contributor, increasing temperature of the ocean is largest cause of sea level rise. As global temperature increases, the molecules in water excite and move away from one another, expanding the volume of water. As Nasheed said best, “We have to get the message across by being more imaginative, more creative,” with regard to sea level rise.
Source NBC News
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Q: What was the largest Pre-Columbian city north of Mexico?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Monday’s DailyGeo.
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