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Ukraine
Russia Strikes Kyiv, Kills 23
On Thursday, Russia fired almost 600 drones and more than 30 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv, Ukraine, killing 23 people in the biggest attack on the capital this month. All but one of the 23 killed were in a 5-story residential building in the south-eastern Darnytskyi district. This aerial attack also damaged the European Union (EU) delegation and British Council offices in the Ukrainian capital. The overnight attacks followed a United States-led diplomatic offensive aimed at ending the war. The EU announced a 19th package of sanctions against Russia as well as a set of visits to seven EU member states bordering Russia and its ally Belarus. U.S. officials are set to hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation on Friday in New York City to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.
This map depicts the residential districts struck by the Russian military in Kyiv, Ukraine. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: BBC News
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Thailand
PM Dismissed Over Call Scandal
After only a year in power, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was dismissed Friday by the country’s Constitutional Court over her handling of a border clash with neighboring Cambodia. The court said the ex-PM had violated ethics in what her critics viewed as an overly friendly call with Cambodia’s former PM Hun Sen that was leaked to the press. Paetongtarn, the youngest ever Thai PM, is now the sixth premier from or backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family to be removed by the military or judiciary in a two-decade battle for power among the country’s elites. The leaked June phone call during a time of cross-border armed conflict was seen to undermine the Thai military. This controversy led to a walk out by Paetongtarn’s main coalition partner, nearly collapsing her government. This decision paves the way for the election of a new prime minister, with Paetongtarn’s ruling Pheu Thai party losing favor in a power struggle between the Shinawatra clan and royalist military leadership.
This map depicts the cross-border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia in 2025. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Britannica
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United States
Robot Rabbits v Burmese Pythons
Researchers from the University of Florida have devised a new scheme to counter the state’s increasing problem of invasive Burmese pythons: robotic rabbits. The 120 toy rabbits have had real rabbit scent applied and have been fitted with heaters to replicate the body heat and motors to mimic the movements of real marsh rabbits, a favorite food of the pythons. The research team based their efforts off a 2012 study that showed how transplanted rabbits dropped into the Florida everglades were quickly picked off by the reptilian predators. The robot rabbits are solar powered and remote-controlled, and are intended to lure out the pythons for capture. Florida’s Burmese python population started from former pets that were either deliberately or accidentally released. By the 1980’s a permanent population had taken root in the Everglades and the pythons are steadily spreading their habitat north, with scientists warning they could expand as far as Georgia, decimating native wildlife populations along the way.
This map depicts the expanding habitat of Burmese pythons, an invasive species introduced from released pets that took root in the 1980’s, across south Florida from 1995 to 2021. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What is the transitional zone between the Sahara Desert and savannas?
A: The Sahel
The transitional zone between the Sahara Desert and the savanna ecoregion in Africa is called the Sahel. The Fula or Fulani peoples are the largest nomadic pastoral ethnic group on the planet, predominantly living in the Sahel. The estimated 40 million Fulani are primarily concentrated in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and Niger. The Fulani are a traditionally nomadic, pastoralist, trading people, although many Fulani have adopted settled agricultural or urban lives. Throughout history, the pastoral Fulani have practiced nomadism to different degrees. Some pastoral Fulani maintain traditional animist beliefs, but the majority have adopted Islam. The Fulani language, Fulfulde (also known by many other names), belongs to the West Atlantic group of Niger-Congo languages.
Source
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Q: What two countries which border the Persian Gulf have a Shia majority population?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Tuesday’s DailyGeo.
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