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Taiwan-China
China Warships Near Taiwan
China has deployed warships and aircraft near Taiwan for the second day in a row, and has imposed stricter sanctions following the meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Three Chinese warships sailed into Taiwanese waters, which China claims as their own, while a fighter jet and anti-submarine helicopter crossed into the island’s air defense identification zone, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense today. China, which views Taiwan as part of its territory, repeatedly warned against the meeting, reiterating on Thursday it would take “forceful measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty.” Today, Beijing announced tightening sanctions on Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US, Hsiao Bi-khim, her family, and any companies she has connections to. Hsiao was also sanctioned last year after Pelosi’s visit.
This map depicts where Chinese warships and aircraft have been spotted near Taiwan following a meeting between Taiwan's President Tsai-Wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Barron's
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Malaysia
Death Penalty To Be Abolished
Malaysia’s lower house of Parliament has approved a bill that would scrap mandatory capital punishment for a range of the 34 criminal offenses that carry the penalty, 11 of which have a mandatory death sentence by hanging. Under the new amendment, the nation will abolish capital punishment for offenses that do not cause death, most commonly drug trafficking, kidnapping, and certain firearm crimes. Over 1,300 prisoners are on death row in the country, out of which 842 have exhausted all other legal appeals, with an additional 500 being foreigners. For these charges, the death penalty will now be replaced with “life imprisonment,” with sentences ranging between 30 and 40 years. In 2018, the country put a moratorium on executions which failed to discourage crimes, however courts continued to hand out death sentences due to political pressure.
This map depicts the countries worldwide that still uphold the death penalty. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: First Post
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France
AI Better Predicts Heatwaves
New research published this week in the journal, Physical Review Fluids, by an interdisciplinary team of French scientists, revealed artificial intelligence (AI) that can predict heatwaves. The AI uses statistical models based on deep learning that uses a wide range of data. This approach differs from traditional forecasts, as the AI relies on environmental conditions such as soil moisture or atmospheric pressure to predict the probability of an extreme heatwave occurring up to one month in advance. With 8,000 years of weather data, the AI can provide models that can make predictions in a matter of seconds. However, the reliability of the AI requires a large dataset on which to draw from, and because extreme heat waves are rare, little information is out there. The team of scientists plan to increase the strength of the AI predictability and improve forecasting by combining it with algorithms for rare event simulations.
This map depicts gridded data on the mid and high latitude northern hemisphere as represented by red meshlines. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: Which pole is colder, the North or South Pole?
A: The South Pole
While the North Pole sits in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, on water almost consistently covered with ice, the South Pole is still much colder. This is due to several factors. The North Pole sits at a lower elevation and is located in the middle of the ocean, which is much warmer than the ice-covered continent of Antartica. A helpful way to remember this is that the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic is land surrounded by ocean. The South Pole is also much colder due to the strength of the Antarctic winds, which prevent warmer air from mixing in with the polar air. While this also happens up north in the Arctic, the winds there are not as strong, allowing warmer mid-latitude air to temper the cold. In the summertime, the North Pole averages 32° F (0° C) and in the winter, −40° F (−40° C). While these temperatures seem freezing, they are nothing compared to the South Pole. In the summertime, the South Pole reaches average temperatures of −18° F (−28.2° C), and in the winter, a whopping −76° F (−60° C).
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Q: What premier photographic site of the US Southwest requires a permit issued by the US Burea of Land Management to visit?
Stay tuned for the answer to today's question in Monday's DailyGeo.
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