Heat waves in Sydney, a military balloon explosion in Bolivia, and a UN project to correct maps

Sydney, Australia's most populous city, witnessed a wave of extreme spring heat on Saturday, raising the risk of wildfires and prompting authorities to issue a ban on lighting fires.

The heatwave comes as the El Niño weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, expected to be among the strongest in decades, pushes for hotter and drier conditions across southern Australia during the period from September to November.

The National Meteorological Service said on Saturday that temperatures in the capital of New South Wales state, which has a population of 5.6 million people, will reach 33 degrees Celsius, about 13 degrees higher than normal.

At Sydney Airport, temperatures reached 28.6 degrees Celsius at 11:30 a.m. local time, more than seven degrees higher than the average maximum temperature for September, according to data from the Meteorological Service.

The authority said that moderate to strong northwesterly winds that would become gusty during the morning, along with unusually dry and hot conditions, would lead to a high fire risk in the greater Sydney area.

The state's fire authorities issued a comprehensive ban on lighting fires in Sydney, classifying the fire danger as "extremely severe," the second highest level of danger, according to Reuters.

Local authorities in Bolivia said that at least 10 people were killed and dozens of others were injured yesterday, Friday, as a result of an explosion in a military barracks in the municipality of Viacha, about 30 kilometers from La Paz.

The authorities reported that the explosion occurred at around 2:30 pm local time (18:30 GMT) in an area used to store pyrotechnic materials.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known, but officials said it was caused by a stockpile of fireworks belonging to the Ministry of Defense.

Rita Nebraska, health director in Viacha, told a local TV channel that between 10 and 15 people were believed to have died as a result of the explosion, while 62 others were injured. She added that 14 of the injured were transferred to hospitals in La Paz, including a girl suffering from third-degree burns.

Police reported that more than 50 people were injured and dozens of homes were damaged, most of them as a result of windows being shattered due to the explosion.

Ambulances, medical teams, and police forces deployed to the military complex to assess the damage and transport the injured to health centers.

Nebraska said firefighters warned of a heat source at the site, increasing the risk of another explosion, and called on residents to stay at least 150 meters away.

As part of a step that goes beyond the boundaries of geography to what is linked to the image of the world in public consciousness, the United Nations General Assembly is preparing to vote on a draft resolution calling for the adoption of maps that show the true areas of continents and countries more accurately. In an effort to reduce the distortions that have been perpetuated by the widespread use of the Mercator map for decades.

The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to vote on a resolution calling on the world to abandon the traditional Mercator map, which reduces the area of ​​Africa and enlarges the land areas in the northern regions, in favor of designs that more accurately reflect the true size of countries, according to the Independent newspaper.

The draft resolution calls on governments, schools, international organizations, and technology companies to adopt iso-Earth projections and other equal-area maps, where the true size of continents is important; With the aim of establishing the use of more accurate maps that represent the actual size of lands as a new global standard. On the other hand, the project does not seek to completely ban the use of Mercator projection.

Voting is scheduled to take place on Friday.

The Mercator projection, which is currently used around the world, increases the distortion in the representation of areas the farther the region is from the equator. Because Africa is located largely in the tropical region; They appear relatively smaller than their actual size, while Europe, North America, Greenland, and Russia appear much larger than their actual areas.

As a result; Africa, along with Latin America, India and other tropical regions, appears much smaller than it actually is when compared to northern countries and regions. For example, the map shows Africa at roughly the same size as Greenland, even though the area of ​​the African continent is about 14 times larger than Greenland.

Togolese Foreign Minister, Robert Ducey, announced that his country had submitted a draft United Nations resolution with the support of the African Union, without specifying the number of countries that supported voting on the resolution.

In a briefing to the African Group at the United Nations this week, Ducey said the importance of the issue goes beyond geography alone.

Ducey explained, “The map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, affects the understanding of the place of peoples and continents in the world, and may sometimes establish, from the early stages of education, perceptions that are not compatible with geographical reality.”

He added: “Africa does not demand preferential treatment, but rather demands that its reality, aspirations, and contribution to the international system be taken into account.”

Ducey urged African delegations to expand support for the resolution before the vote scheduled for Friday, describing the vote as a test of the continent's ability to act with one voice within the United Nations.

As part of these efforts, Togo hosted a reception for all UN member states on the eve of the vote.

In response to a question about whether he expected opposition to the resolution, Ducey said he was seeking the broadest possible consensus.

He said: “I am an academic before I am a politician. As an academic, I say we must reach as much consensus as possible; Because we are here at the United Nations, and we do not know what might happen.”

A petition launched by the campaign on the “Change” crowdfunding platform, under the hashtag #CorrectTheMap, collected about 11,000 signatures before the vote. The African Union had endorsed the campaign in August 2025, and asked Togo to lead efforts to have it adopted at the United Nations.

“As Africa becomes more important in solving global challenges, it becomes necessary to represent its true size,” the petition says.

Historians and geographers have long argued that the Mercator map reflects Western assumptions about the world, while some activists have used the term “cartographic colonialism” to denounce what they described as the negative effects resulting from the way the map represents the sizes of continents and countries.