The United Nations General Assembly just voted to adopt a new world map that reflects countries’ true relative sizes, after African nations urged the UN to right a centuries-old wrong.

The “Correct the Map” resolution—put forward by African Union member states, as well as the Bahamas—passed with overwhelming support: 164 member states voted in favor, six abstained and only the United States voted against it. (Any surprise there?)

Today, many of the world’s maps are based on the Mercator projection, created by European cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It is widely used for navigation since the north-south lines have constant true bearings relative to the equator. (Does anyone else remember that episode of the West Wing? This is where I first learned that “nothing is where you think it is.”)

The resolution aims to give an “equitable” representation of the globe’s regions, particularly Africa and South America, arguing that the distortions in the current world map mean the continent has undergone a “symbolic minimization” in people’s collective imagination. Critics of the Mercator projection suspect it has remained widely used because it enlarges and centers Europe, as well as other Western regions such as North America, perpetuating ideas of European superiority.

And that’s kind of hard to argue with: If you had a Mercator projection on your classroom wall, you might have grown up believing that Greenland, for example, is as big as Africa, even though it is one-14th its size. You might also think that Alaska is bigger than Mexico, when it’s around 25% smaller. So this feels a lot more … well, accurate.

Well, this is a little surprising. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz doubled down Monday on pushing through unpopular reforms to Europe’s largest economy after a far-right party surged to a landslide victory in a regional election. with a very good chance of forming the first far-right state government since the Nazi era. The Alternative for Germany, or AfD took 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, resulting in 39 of 83 seats (three short of a majority).

German domestic intelligence classifies the party as extremist in that state. Mainstream parties still hold the “firewall,” the long-standing refusal to govern with AfD. But the hard-left BSW, which cleared the bar at 5.3%, has signaled it’s open to helping—a crack in that firewall nobody has confirmed as a formal negotiation yet.

The congratulations arrived fast. Elon Musk saluted AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev offered praise. Markets are already reading the result as a referendum on Merz’s grip, with CNBC tracking the economic fallout.

An Amazon Air Boeing 767 overran runway 30 while landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday and traveled roughly 1,300 feet past the pavement, killing five people and injuring five more. Those on the plane were safe, the victims were all in vehicles the jet hit on its way out.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the plane was operated under contract by a North Carolina company. That arrangement is now part of the investigation: the NTSB said it will scrutinize the contractual relationship between Amazon and 21 Air, the kind of subcontracted flying that keeps next-day delivery moving and rarely gets a second look. The crash caused a maelstrom of flight delays during one of the busiest weekends of summer travel, has jolted Miami and its airport, the nation’s busiest for international freight.

It was also the latest aviation tragedy to unsettle Americans in what has been a troubling stretch for the industry. In addition to the fatal UPS crash in November, a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided in January 2025 near the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people in the deadliest air crash in the country in 20 years. And in March of this year, a plane crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing both pilots.