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South Africa
Mass Shooting by Johannesburg
At least 12 people have been killed and 9 injured in a mass shooting in a suburb outside of Johannesburg. According to the police, more than 10 gunmen arrived together in a minivan at the informal settlement and started to fire from multiple directions before fleeing in the same vehicle. While motives have not been identified yet, investigators are investigating a potential link to illegal mining gangs, due to the proximity of the location to an abandoned gold mine. The attack follows several recent high-profile mass shootings, including one that killed 20 people back in December. South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates, with more than 60 homicides recorded on average each day. The country is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are especially common in informal settlements, often fueled by illegal mining gang rivalry and competition among informal businesses.
This map depicts the site of the attack near Johannesburg. Click on the map to learn more.
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Armenia
Historic High Turnout Election
Armenia held its parliamentary election Sunday, giving a win to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party, Civic Contract, with 49.8% of the vote to take 64 of 105 parliamentary seats. The election saw an exceptionally strong turnout of nearly 59%. Pashinyan has pursued a policy of peace and diplomacy with Armenia’s neighbors, including Azerbaijan, but the opposition has accused him of abandoning Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian exclave lost to Azerbaijani control in 2023. Civic Contract, which has been pro-Western and pro-EU in its orientation, has held power since the 2018 Velvet Revolution, but analysis of the recent election shows a changing coalition. In past electoral cycles, higher turnout in a marz (province) from the previous election correlated strongly with opposition gains, but this election saw some provinces with a higher turnout from 2021 swing more strongly toward Civic Contract.
The map depicts how voter turnout affected the ruling party’s result by marz, comparing the 2026 election and the prior 2021 vote.
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Graphic Source: Tyval
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Japan
Record 50,000 Bear Sightings
The first-time sighting of a bear in Utsunomiya, a city of half a million people about 62 miles (100 km) north of Tokyo, prompted the closure of all of its 94 primary and secondary schools. The bear roamed its streets for three days before being sedated and caught. A record 50,000 bear sightings have been reported this year in Japan, concentrated in the north-east, and attacks have been on the rise in recent years. The animals have not usually been seen this close to Tokyo. There are tens of thousands of Asiatic black bears on Japan’s main Honshu island, and bigger brown bears on the northern island of Hokkaido. The bear population has skyrocketed amid a decline in hunting, and climate change has caused poor harvests of bears’ staple foods, including acorns and beechnuts, pushing hungry bears to seek food closer to towns and cities. The dwindling number of people living in rural towns have also emboldened the animals to seek food near human settlements.
This map depicts the bear sighting route in downtown Utsunomiya, Japan. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Where was the Scottish colony whose failure was a decisive factor in their union with England in 1707?
A: Panama
The Darien Scheme was an attempt to create a Scottish colony called ‘Caledonia’ in the region of Darién, on the isthmus of Panama. The colony, as planned, could control the short land transport route across the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, providing an economic advantage for the kingdom of Scotland as global trade began to increase. The first expedition to Darien was in 1698, with a resupply the following year. The project was a disaster and caused financial loss for many of its backers. Only around ten percent of the 2500 settlers ever made it home, as they faced widespread malaria and Spanish attacks. Today, the hostile jungle environment of the Darién Gap is largely ungoverned and controlled by armed groups, drug cartels, and human smugglers. The failure of the Darien Scheme contributed to the Act of Union that followed in 1707. Opposition to the Act was muted given that the negative fallout caused Scotland to be more economically reliant on England.
Source
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Q: What country is home to the world’s highest unclimbed mountain?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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