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Turkey
Libyan General Dies in Crash
The head of Libya’s military and four of his advisors died in a plane crash in Turkey yesterday. Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad was flying back to LIbya on a private jet that took off from the Turkish capital, Ankara. The pilot requested an approval for an emergency landing 15 minutes after take-off and it was re-directed back to Ankara, but it began to descend and ground authorities lost contact with the jet around 25 minutes later. Haddad was the highest-ranking officer in Libya’s internationally-recognized government. The country has been mired in a civil war since the death of authoritarian leader Muammer Gaddafi in 2011. He had seen success unifying various military groups to the recognized government and was in Turkey to confer with military authorities there. Libya’s Government of National Unity has declared three days of mourning.
This map depicts the flight path taken by a yet carrying the head of Libya’s military that crashed in Turkey’s Haymana district after taking off from Ankara. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Anadolu Agency
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United Kingdom
2025 Tracking to be Hottest Year
The United Kingdom is likely to break the record for its hottest year since records began, overtaking 2022. After a summer of heatwaves and drought followed by a mild autumn, the average annual temperature is tracking at 50.09°F (10.05°C), ahead of the previous record of 50.05°F (10.03°C) set in 2022. If confirmed, 2025 will be only the second year in observational records where the UK’s annual mean temperature has topped 50°F (10°C). Four of the last five years will then appear in the top five warmest years since records began in 1884, with all of the top 10 warmest years occurring in the last two decades. Since the start of the 21st century, a new record has been set for UK annual mean temperature no less than six times: in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022, and now 2025 (if confirmed).
This map depicts the mean temperature in 2025 through December 21st, and the anomaly value of temperature difference. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Daily Mail
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United States
Gray Wolf Endangered Status
A bill to delist the gray wolf from the nation’s endangered and threatened list passed the U.S. House of Representatives last Thursday, as Republican representatives from Minnesota and Colorado push to allow states to manage local populations. Gray wolves are federally classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, making it illegal to trap or hunt the species, unless it’s done in defense of human life. Once pushed to the brink of extinction in the continental U.S. by widespread extermination campaigns and bounty programs, wolf populations gradually began to recover following their protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1974. Republicans argue gray wolves are fully recovered, and are now putting farmers, ranchers, and pets in harm’s way. Several Democratic members argue the bill is premature and that the gray wolf has not reached full recovery despite regional progress.
This map depicts the estimated gray wolf ranges and populations in the U.S. in 2024. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What is the name of the geological anomaly in the U.S. Midwest which avoided being covered by ice during the Last Glacial Period?
A: The Driftless Area
The Driftless Area is a region in southeastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois, and northeastern Iowa that was not covered in ice during the Last Glacial Period. The failure of the most recent glaciers to blanket this area is responsible for the region’s geologic characteristics: steep hillsides, narrow valleys, and a land marked by unevenness. The rugged terrain is due both to the lack of glacial deposits of stone or debris, or drift, and to the incision of the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries into bedrock. As the glaciers melted for the final time along the edges of the Mississippi around 13,000 years ago, massive quantities of water from melting ice sheets eroded the sedimentary rocks below, leaving an “inverse topography,” with flat plateaus above bluff tops, dissected by numerous streams and rivers, all flowing towards the Mississippi.
Source
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Q: What country celebrates the New Year first because it’s in the world’s farthest forward time zone?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in January 5th’s DailyGeo.
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