Campaign seeks accurate mapping of Africa’s true scale
Dakar (Senegal), Aug 22: African advocacy groups are urging organizations and schools to adopt the Equal Earth projection, which they believe more accurately displays the size of Africa.
The Mercator projection, created in the 16th century, distorted landmasses by enlarging regions near the poles while shrinking Africa and South America.
The 2018 Equal Earth projection shows continents in their true proportions, unlike the distorted Mercator map.
The African Union, the continent’s diplomatic organization with 55 member countries, endorsed the campaign last week, marking a major milestone for the Change The Map campaign.
The Mercator projection is still common in classrooms and tech platforms, and Google Maps dropped the widely used projection for a 3D globe on desktop in 2018.
The campaign aims to correct the distorted map and minimize its demographic, economic, and strategic significance for non-Africans. (AP)
Berlin panda twins Leni and Lotti celebrate their first birthday
BERLIN, Aug 22: Berlin Zoo’s panda twins, Leni and Lotti, celebrated their first birthday with frozen vegetable treats and a bamboo shoot candle.
Born on August 22, 2023, the female cubs were officially named Meng Hao and Meng Tian but are better known by their German names—Leni, after Marlene Dietrich, and Lotti, after Charlottenburg district.
The celebration included playful moments with a large red wooden number “1” and “ice marbles” made from beetroot and carrot juice.Now weighing around 21 kilograms each, the pandas are developing distinct personalities: Lotti is more adventurous, while Leni is more relaxed.
Leni and Lotti are the second pair of giant pandas born in Germany. Their older brothers, Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan—nicknamed Pit and Paule—were born in 2019 and became zoo favorites until their return to China in 2023, as part of a long-standing agreement delayed by the pandemic.
All four cubs are the offspring of panda parents Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, who arrived in Berlin in 2017 under a breeding program with China. (AP)
