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Japan
Typhoon Brings Record Rainfall
Six people have been confirmed dead and at least six are missing Tuesday morning after Typhoon Dujuan brought record-breaking rainfall to eastern Japan, triggering landslides, flooding, and widespread transport disruptions. The storm had prompted the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Monday to issue its highest-level landslide special warning for parts of the Izu Islands, including Oshima. Police, firefighters and the Self-Defense Forces are conducting search operations in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, where a series of landslides struck homes. Floodwaters were over 3 feet (1 m) deep in some areas, making some residents unable to leave their homes. Damage to homes has so far reached over 470 buildings in Kanagawa, Chiba, and Ibaraki prefectures. The JMA urged people in the Kanto region to remain on high alert for landslides on Tuesday and to continue watching out for flooding in low-lying areas and rising or overflowing rivers.
This map depicts precipitation intensity across Japan on September 21, 2026, at 6:25 pm Japan Standard Time (JST). Click on the map to learn more.
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Democratic Republic of Congo
M23 Abuse and War Crimes
Amnesty International has released a new report documenting evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses by the M23 rebel group in its control of mining sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The rebels control dozens of artisanal mines in Congo’s eastern North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, where tens of thousands of miners dig for critical minerals. The report gave details about the killing of 18 miners at the Rubaya and Lomera mines, which produce precious minerals like coltan and gold that are traded for use in global electronics and jewelry supply chains. The Rubaya mine is a major coltan mining site that has seen numerous tragedies, including a mine collapse in March that killed at least 200 people, and a landslide in January, which left around 200 people dead. The DRC last year produced more than half of the world’s tantalum and 28 tons of gold. Eyewitnesses report seeing signs of gold smuggled into Rwanda to be laundered into international markets, providing further evidence that Rwanda is profiting from the human rights violations being committed during M23’s campaign in eastern DRC.
This map depicts mining activity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the left panel breaking down industrial (blue) vs artisinal/small-scale (red) mining sites, while the right panel classifies sites by mineral, including diamond, gold, and tantalum, by color. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: ResearchGate
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World
Earth Pushes Past Its Limits
Seven of the nine environmental processes monitored by scientists as markers of planetary stability have now been pushed beyond their scientifically-defined safe boundaries. The 2026 Planetary Health Check report finds that climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater change, nitrogen and phosphorus flows, novel entities (e.g., synthetic chemicals and plastics), and ocean acidification are all outside the planet’s “safe operating space.” Stratospheric ozone depletion and atmospheric aerosol loading are the only two markers that remain within the global safe operating space. Since these systems are interconnected, changes in one can amplify pressure on others – for example, ecosystem loss can reduce the ability of forests and soil to absorb carbon, further contributing to climate change. From droughts and floods to tropical cyclones, major weather disasters have been linked to human-caused climate change across nearly every inhabited continent during the report’s most recent assessment period.
This map depicts some of the world’s most impactful weather events between April 2025 and 2026, showing where evidence links them to human-caused climate change. Red marks events attributed to specific studies, orange shows events linked through broader specific understanding, and gray indicates cases where attribution remains unclear or inconclusive. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What is Russia’s most ethnically diverse and heterogeneous region?
A: Dagestan
A mountainous territory in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, Dagestan is Russia’s most ethnically and linguistically varied region and home to at least 40 different ethnicities, most of whom speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. A republic within the Russian Federation, Dagestan’s population is about 3.2 million. The largest among its ethnic groups are the Avar, Russian, Dargin, Kumyk, and Lezgin, who together constitute the bulk of the population. The majority of Dagestanis are Sunni Muslims. The republic hosts some 3,000 mosques, Islamic institutes, and schools. It is sometimes known as the Mountain of Languages, or Mountain of Nationalities – with some national groups occupying no more than one or two villages. The capital, Makhachkala, is on Russia’s Caspian Sea coast. Today, Dagestan is a conduit for major oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to the Russian heartland.
Source
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Q: What mountain range separates the Iranian Plateau from the Mesopotamian lowlands?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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