But that announcement was
“We tried to come up with a version of Robinson that does not distort area,” Jenny explained. “So we stretched it in a way such that the different areas are not enlarged or shrunken. So Greenland is 14 times smaller than Africa on the globe, and it’s also 14 times smaller on the Equal Earth map.”Jenny said the team never set out specifically to correct some of the most highlighted errors of the Mercator projection. Subconsciously, though, he said, they knew they wanted their map to better represent historically distorted regions like Africa.
“I would guess any reasonable geographer would support that idea,” the scientist said.Equal Earth rose in popularity after a NASA scientist saw it online right after it was published, and the organisation immediately switched to it.The World Bank, too, has picked it up. The institution, since 2013, has experimented with different projections, including the Robinson map, but in 2024 settled on the Equal Earth map.
“The World Bank Group is committed to ensuring accurate representation of all people, on all platforms,” a spokesperson told Al Jazeera.Progress is slow but steady, Ogundairo of Africa No Filter said. Prominent organisations changing their stances means a universal pivot is possible, she said. Yet, there’s much more work to be done by Africans, she added.
Just as Mercator painted an image that prominently represented his part of the world, Africans, too, need to lead the way in pushing for what they want, Ogundairo said. One missing factor is that Africans have not insisted enough on change, in her view. It’s why her campaign is also urging African countries and the African Union to be particular about how they are represented on the map.
“It’s always going to start with us,” Ogundairo said. “Unless you learn to tell your story, someone else will tell it for you. We need to say, regardless of why they choose to do whatever it is they did, we see the truth. This is the story we want to tell now. This is how we want to show up visually on a map.”The US Embassy to Cuba posted a
of the visit with a voiceover of Marti’s words, “Respect for the freedom and thoughts of others, even of the most unhappy kind, is my passion: If I die or am killed, it will be for that.” Critics have interpreted that citation as an implied endorsement of dissent on the island.In recent months, there have also been signs that Trump plans to once again tighten the screws on the Cuban government, in a return to the “maximum pressure” campaigns that typified foreign policy during his first term.
In February, for instance, the Trump administration announced it wouldfrom anyone who works with Cuba’s medical system, which sends thousands of healthcare workers abroad each year, particularly in the Caribbean region.