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Ukraine
Assault on Avdiivka Weakens
After nearly a week of intense fighting in the biggest offensive by Russian forces in months, their efforts to storm a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine appear to be weakening. Ukrainian forces repelled 15 Russian attacks on Avdiivka from four directions over the past 24 hours, representing a significant drop from 60 attacks per day in the middle of last week, involving artillery bombardment and both ground and air assaults. Avdiivka lies in the northern suburbs of the city of Donetsk, in a region of the same name that Russian forces partially occupy. Its location gives Ukrainian forces better positioning for artillery cover over the city and it could serve as a springboard for them to liberate Donetsk.
This map depicts the assessed control of Ukrainian territory by Russian forces in the region of Donetsk. Click on the map to learn more.
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Australia
The Voice Referendum Fails
A proposed amendment to represent the Torres Strait Islander people and Aboriginal Australians in the Constitution has been rejected by a majority of voters. 60 percent voted “No,” while 40 percent voted “Yes.” Known as the Voice, the amendment would have given parliamentary representation to Australia’s Indigenous people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people only make up 3.8 percent of the population. Furthermore, they are still not formally recognized and have never reached a treaty with the Australian government. Leaders of the “No” campaign stated the referendum was divisive, claiming it would categorize citizens into special classes and slow down the government’s decision making. Proponents on the other hand have expressed defeat, with Indigenous leaders calling for a week of silence.
This map depicts the election results for The Voice referendum. Every state and mainland territory voted No except for the Australian Capital Territory. Click on the map to learn more.
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Ethiopia
Early Homo Erectus Discovery
Anthropologists have established ancient humans were living in the highlands of what is now Ethiopia as early as two million years ago. A reanalysis of a fossilized jawbone from the region confirms it belonged to member of the species Homo erectus, and represents the earliest evidence of hominins living in such high-altitude areas. Hominins have been found in large numbers in eastern and southern Africa, but not to date in upland areas. The researchers re-examined the lower jawbone of an infant which was discovered in 1981 at a site called Garba IV in the Ethiopian highlands. Garba IV is one of a cluster of sites known collectively as Melka Kunture. Effective dating of the jawbone revealed not only that hominins had been living there longer than previously believed, but also they created and used tools more sophisticated than had been known.
This map depicts the sediment stratification of Garba gully and Garba IV in Ethiopia. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What language in Africa emerged from Indian Ocean trade, with around fifteen percent of its vocabulary being Arabic loanwords?
A: Swahili
Swahili, also called kiSwahili, or Kiswahili, is a Bantu language spoken either as a mother tongue or as a fluent second language on the east coast of Africa. Swahili is widely used as a lingua franca in: (1) Tanzania, where it is the language of administration and primary education; (2) Kenya, where it is, after English, the main language for these purposes; (3) Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a form of Swahili is one of the four languages of administration, the main language for this purpose being French; and (4) Uganda, where the main language is again English. Swahili has been greatly influenced by Arabic; there are an enormous number of Arabic loanwords in the language, including the word “swahili,” from Arabic sawāḥilī (a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning “of the coast”). The language dates from the contacts of Arabian traders with the inhabitants of the east coast of Africa over many centuries. Under Arab influence, Swahili originated as a lingua franca used by several closely related Bantu-speaking tribal groups. In the early 19th century, the spread of Swahili inland received a great impetus from its being the language of the Arab ivory and slave caravans, which penetrated as far north as Uganda and as far west as Congo.
Source
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Q: What country has the world’s largest salt flat, or playa, which also happens to be one of the world’s largest lithium deposits?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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