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Turkey
Blast in the Heart of Ankara
Two suicide bombers detonated an explosive device in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior in the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday, wounding two police officers. The blast was followed by gunfire outside the Ministry of Interior and parliament buildings. The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Turkish military carried out airstrikes on 20 PKK targets later in the day, claiming to have eliminated them. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the “terrorists” will never achieve their aims.
This map depicts the location of the suicide bomber explosion in front of Turkey’s Ministry of Interior building in the capital, Ankara. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Al Jazeera
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Indonesia
Southeast Asia’s First Bullet Train
Indonesia has opened its first high-speed railway, a $7.3 billion project supported by China under its Belt and Road Initiative. President Joao Widodo launched the service, which connects the capital of Jakarta to Bandung, a key economic hub. The railway is named WHOOSH, a Bahasa Indonesian acronym that translates to “time-saving” and “reliable.” Projects like WHOOSH have been prioritized by the president in efforts to ease the country’s severe traffic congestion. The railway is operated by PT KCIC, a joint venture made up of four Indonesian state companies in partnership with Beijing’s China Railway International. Indonesian officials note that the high-speed railway will improve economic productivity and reduce the country’s carbon footprint. Many citizens are skeptical about its practicality; normal train and bus fares are significantly cheaper than expected railway fares.
This map depicts the route of Indonesia’s first high-speed railway, WHOOSH. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Nikkei Asia
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Brazil
Mass Dolphin Deaths in Amazon
Scientists have that reported at least a hundred Amazon River dolphins have died in the Brazilian Amazon due to a drought and water temperatures that reached 102° Fahrenheit (38.9° Celsius). Researchers from the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, a research facility funded by Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, found the concentration of dolphin deaths around Lake Tefé. Below average levels of water have been reported in 59 municipalities in Brazil’s Amazonas State, impeding both transport and fishing activities on the river. Due to the remoteness where most of the deaths are occurring, researchers have faced difficulties transporting the dolphins from the lagoons and ponds to the main river, where water is cooler.
This map depicts the distribution of three different dolphin species across the Amazon River Basin, which spans six South American countries. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What country had a now-abandoned manmade waterway project to compete with the Panama Canal?
A: Nicaragua
In June 2013, Nicaragua’s National Assembly approved a bill to grant a 50-year concession to finance and manage a canal project to the HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Group (HKND) headed by Wang Jing, a Chinese industrialist. However, by February 2018, analysts widely viewed the project as defunct. The Grand Nicaragua Canal would have taken an estimated $40 billion and five years to build. The 173-mile artificial waterway—wider, deeper and three and a half times the length of the Panama Canal — would have accommodated cargo supertankers, which are longer than the Empire State Building is tall and carry 18,000 shipping containers. The new canal and its infrastructure, from roads to pipelines to power plants, would have destroyed or altered nearly one million acres of rainforest and wetland. The project would have cut through and chemically polluted Lake Nicaragua, a beloved 3,191-square-mile inland reservoir and the largest freshwater lake in Central America.
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Q: What seafaring culture and distinct ethnic group arose from a shipwreck and British-imposed exile from St. Vincent to Roatán Island?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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