# 164 Countries Voted to Redraw the World Map. One Said No. *World · 5 September 2026 · RECORDx NEWS* Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pj-K_w64dw Page: https://news.recordx.co/story/164-countries-voted-to-redraw-the-world-map-one-said-no/ 164 countries voted. One voted no. On Friday 4 September 2026 the UN General Assembly adopted the African-led "Correct the Map" resolution, A/80/L.104, by 164 votes to 1 with 6 abstentions. The single vote against was the United States, whose delegate told the Assembly that resolutions like it "are barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility." Six countries abstained: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine. None of them is African and none of them objected to Africa. Ukraine's objection was that Equal Earth maps depict parts of its territory occupied by Russia "in a manner that is wholly unacceptable." Russia itself voted in favour. And the headline almost everyone ran is wrong. The UN did not adopt a new world map. The resolution is not binding, it replaces nothing, and its own text keeps the Mercator projection for navigation at sea and in the air. What 164 countries actually voted on is smaller than that, and harder: which picture of the world gets printed in a schoolbook. Mercator drew his projection in 1569 for sailors. It keeps every compass bearing straight and pays for it by stretching everything far from the equator, which is why Greenland and Africa look about the same size on it. Africa is roughly fourteen times larger. ## The reporting Claim: On Friday 4 September 2026 the UN General Assembly adopted the African-led "Correct the Map" resolution (A/80/L.104) by 164 to 1, with 6 abstentions. The single vote against was the United States. Angle: every outlet led with "Africa is bigger than you think." Almost none led with the fact that Washington cast the only no vote on the planet — or that the six abstainers had no objection to Africa at all, or that the resolution binds nobody and replaces nothing. ## Verdict criteria (fill at 24–48h from Studio ▸ Engagement) Rank on unique viewers, not the counter. The gate is Stayed to watch ≥ ~70%. The one thing this reel tests that no previous build has: a drawn hero on a story with thin live footage. If it holds ≥70% it says the channel can take subjects whose pictures we make, which widens the topic pool a long way past "what did a camera happen to catch." ## Quotes — their audio, cut from the UN feed Local offsets are into the already-pulled asset (asset start in brackets). Every quote is sentence-complete and single-window. No quote in this cut is stitched from two places in the tape — the US statement and Ukraine's each had a better second sentence sixty seconds away, and butting them would have been a jump cut inside a quotation. The narration carries what the single window drops. ## What is deliberately NOT in this cut "cognitive justice and memorial reparation." Load-bearing to the angle as reported, and sourced only to an AFP wire summary rather than the A/80/L.104 text. The US quote carries the beat without it. The UN emblem morphing. It is an azimuthal equidistant polar projection and this resolution does not touch it. Obvious, tempting, false. The West Wing scene. Warner Bros., and it will be everywhere this week. "The whole world except America." It is 164 of 193; ~22 states did not vote. ## References - https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1b/k1b1p3om04 - https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-before-the-vote-for-unga-80-adoption-on-the-resolution-to-correct-the-map/ - https://youtube.com/shorts/_pj-K_w64dw** - https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxfHaGDpP_2DNdcIQLQtIgSJCuKDQmUC0_ - https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxUoosSQm1URVn23Ebm8Uc7is5BWaV_t5M Reporting drawn from: UN Web TV (webtv.un.org, GA 114th plenary, agenda item 13); UN News; US Mission to the UN, "Explanation of Vote Before the Vote... to 'Correct the Map'"; Al Jazeera; Savric, Jenny & Patterson, IJGIS (2018) ## Footage - 68–142 - 1374–1450 - 1478–1562 - 1938–1988 - 2000–2062 - United Nations (official) - Diplomatie Togolaise (Togo MFA) - FRANCE 24 English - public domain ## Transcript 164 countries voted on Friday to change the map of the world. One country voted against. That country was the United States, and on the board in the General Assembly Hall, it sat alone. A single red mark in a column of green. The result of the vote is as follows. In favour, 164. Against, 1. Abstentions, 6. What they were voting on is a picture you have looked at your whole life. Gerardus Mercator drew it in 1569, and he drew it for sailors. It does one job perfectly. Every compass bearing on it is a straight line. It pays for that by stretching everything far from the equator. On Mercator, Greenland and Africa look about the same size. Africa is 14 times larger. 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. Russia voted in favor. Six countries abstained, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine. Not one of them is African, and not one of them objected to Africa. Ukraine told the assembly its problem lay somewhere else entirely. The Equal Earth maps depict parts of Ukraine's territory that have been temporarily occupied by Russia in flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law in a manner that is wholly unacceptable. And here is what almost every headline got wrong. The resolution is not binding. It replaces nothing. It says in its own text that Mercator remains fully suited to navigation at sea and in the air. What 164 countries actually voted on is smaller than that and harder. Which picture of the world gets printed in a school book? ## Topics united nations, equal earth, world map, cartography ## Related - [The New World Map Has A Second Objector. It Isn't Africa.](https://news.recordx.co/story/the-new-world-map-has-a-second-objector-it-isnt-africa/) - [BRICS Didn't Launch A Currency. 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