The re-freeze continues in December, such that the ice coverage is pretty much at the median level today. The AP/Republic article is admirably free of any new facts except the oft-repeated "Arctic ice at all-time low," all-time of course meaning not all-time but in the last 30 years that we have been able to observe by sattellite. And neither article bothers to mention the high coverage record that was set in the South Pole this very same year.