UN Adopts New “Equal Earth” Map, Here’s What Changed

The United Nations on Friday was one vote shy of unanimously adopting a new map of the world that shows Africa’s true size, making the continent appear far larger than it does on traditional maps.

The United States was the only one of 165 member nations to vote against the U.N. General Assembly resolution to accept the Equal Earth map projection, which depicts countries and continents in their true relative sizes, according to the map creator’s website.

Six nations abstained, including Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.

Yaryna Ferencevych, the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, said the resolution was presented as “an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions” but was, in her view, part of a “much larger and more radical ideological project.”

“Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice,” Ferencevych said Friday during the 114th Plenary meeting.

“Resolutions like this one and the ideological agenda they promote are barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility.”

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NEW:

UN votes 164-1 to ditch the Mercator projection in favor of the “Equal Earth” map,

The US was the only country who voted against

The dark blue shows the real size of the countries in the world pic.twitter.com/Y73Fy96QCI

— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) September 5, 2026

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On Friday, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an African proposal for a new world map, which shows countries’ true size relative to one another.

In favor: 164
Against: 1
Abstentions: 6 pic.twitter.com/5BE4LUiojH

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) September 4, 2026

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Google has updated its Maps application, labeling Lake Ontario as Lake America for users in the United States, following an executive order signed by President Trump last week amid an escalating trade war with Canada.

The decision of the tech giant reflects what it did when Mr. Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America last year.

The change has started to be rolled out, Google said in a blog post, adding that it was following its practice of using the name given by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System.

“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in its statement.

Mr. Trump’s decision to rename the lake on Thursday was met with derision and shrugs in Canada and across the United States, and sparked a series of online memes and late-night jokes.

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