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UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size. In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design. At the session, 164 countries voted in favour of the resolution. Only the US voted no, with its representative saying the resolution was “superfluous”. There were six abstentions. UN resolutions are non-enforceable, so countries and institutions will not be mandated to use only the new projection or forbidden from using the old one. However, the outcome is expected to result in an update of classroom curriculums and everyday technology given the wide usage of the Mercator projection in education, technology and governance. Togo, which spearheaded a campaign for the resolution on behalf of the African Union, said the resolution “recognises and affirms that disproportionate cartographic representations, particularly those resulting from the Mercator projection, have had lasting cognitive, educational, cultural, geopolitical and socioeconomic effects, contributing to a drastic reduction in the perceived size of Africa and other regions of the world in the global collective imagination”. Speaking before the resolution passed, Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign affairs minister, said: “This discussion is not a political discussion [but] a scientific discussion, because there is scientific proof so we all have to accept the reality.” The Mercator layout was introduced by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to help sailors navigate the seas. Almost five centuries later, it remains the global standard. Because of its projection style, however, regions near the equator appear significantly smaller than they are, whereas high-latitude areas look much larger. For example, the map shows Africa as being similar in size to Greenland, but the continent is 14 times larger than the Danish territory. “You could fit the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico and much of Europe into Africa and still have land to spare,” says a petition on Change.org for the #CorrectTheMap campaign, which has more than 11,000 signatures. The African Union endorsed the campaign in August 2025 and then asked Togo to spearhead its adoption. On Friday, before the vote, France’s foreign minister spoke in support of the resolution. “[We] will abandon the Mercator projection in favour of map representations tailored to specific uses, more faithful to actual surface areas and in line with the recommendations of cartographers and scientists,” Jean-Noël Barrot said during a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, in a move seen as part of France’s push to increase goodwill among its former colonies. France will now use the Eckert IV projection, which is close to the Equal Earth projection recommended in the resolution. Historians and geographers have said for years that the Mercator projection is rooted in western stereotypes. Activists have echoed this, with some coining the term “cartographic colonialism”. Some argue that the map has subtly shaped international power dynamics by minimising the physical presence of the global south and visually inflating northern hemisphere nations while shrinking equatorial regions. This is said to have reinforced systemic biases in international trade, development priorities and educational frameworks. One of the Mercator projection’s most prominent critics was Arno Peters, a German historian, who launched the Peters world map based on the Gall–Peters projection in 1973. It has often been used as an alternative to the Mercator map. Togo’s #CorrectTheMap campaign promoted the use of the 2018 Equal Earth design, which was developed by an international team of cartographers. Supporters say it will help to reverse perceptions of Africa and decolonise global curriculums. Some analysts agree. JJ Enoch, a London-based senior associate at JS Held, a geopolitical risk advisory firm, said the Mercator projection visually diminished Africa’s true scale. He linked the campaign to a quest by African nations for “greater influence in global institutions and greater control over how the continent is represented”. He said: “Adopting an equal-area map … would provide a more accurate basis for education and public understanding, while signalling that Africa’s demographic, economic and geopolitical importance should no longer be viewed through inherited and distorted conventions.” Togo’s government is planning an event in Lomé, the Togolese capital, with Unesco, the African Union and tech brands such as Google Maps during the first quarter of next year to map out the implementation of the resolution. Speaking before the vote, Dussey said: “To those who say why now, I say: why not? When we look at the world map … it is time for us to change the narrative.” He added: “It’s time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves.”

Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s security services HQ is a ‘major escalation’, says Ukraine’s foreign minister – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. A Russian jet-powered drone hit the Kyiv headquarters of Ukraine’s security services, leaving at least 12 people injured, including two seriously (15:17, 17:13, 17:20). Ukraine’s leaders condemned the attack as a “major escalation” (16:02) with president Zelenskyy instructing services to retaliate with “an appropriate, tangible response … that mirrors this strike” (15:17, 17:09). The attack took place just as the new Spanish ambassador to Kyiv, Adela Díaz Bernárdez was presenting her credentials to president Zelenskyy, Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares said (16:17, 16:29). In other news, A British man – identified by local media as controversial manosphere influencer Andrew Tate – was formally indicted by Romanian authorities on Friday for a number of alleged crimes (10:38, 11:34). Giorgia Meloni is celebrating her government becoming the longest-serving since the history of the Italian Republic, despite growing pressure from a new emerging far-right rival (11:52). Germany’s interior ⁠minister Alexander Dobrindt said that ⁠sabotage attacks this week were likely ⁠down to climate extremism (17:43), as the country braces for state elections in Saxony-Anhalt where the far-right Alternative für Deutschland could take power (12:57). It emerged that at least 14 people from across Serbian civil society were targeted with advanced spyware earlier this year in what a digital right group said was the largest documented wave of such infection in Serbia to date (13:44). The revelation comes as Serbia prepares for a commemoration and funeral of Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić this weekend, despite repeated warnings from the EU that “glorification surrounding his death” was not in line with EU values (13:14). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Russia strikes Ukraine intelligence HQ in ‘major escalation’

The head office of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency has been hit in a Russian drone attack, sending plumes of black smoke rising into the air in the heart of Kyiv. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had instructed the SBU to deliver an “appropriate, tangible response” to the strike, while the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described it as a “major escalation”. The streets around the SBU headquarters were cordoned off shortly after Friday’s attack, with armed officers patrolling the area. Numerous ambulances and emergency services vehicles were stationed around the site, which is close to St Sophia Cathedral, a Unesco world heritage site. “Unfortunately, a Russian drone hit the central building of the SBU on Volodymyrska Street in Kyiv, opposite the St Sophia Cathedral,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. “The drone was aimed directly at the office of the Head of the Security Service in that building.” Kyiv has been under a barrage of daily drone and missile attacks from Russia for over a week. Zelenskyy on Friday called for Russia to halt its attacks during a visit of US negotiators, Steve Witkoff ‌and Jared Kushner, to the city on Sunday and said Ukraine would guarantee the safety of Russian airspace while they were in Moscow. Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors which can shoot down incoming threats. Many of the recent Russian strikes have been by new-model jet-powered drones which can reach speeds of 250mph, making them hard to intercept. It is rare for government buildings in central Kyiv to be reached by Russian strikes, especially in broad daylight. The explosion from the hit on the SBU building could be heard from several blocks away. The incident is likely to intensify the escalating attacks that Moscow and Kyiv have been launching at each other in recent weeks in efforts to destroy each other’s resilience and morale. It will also raise questions about Kyiv’s ability to defend its key infrastructure against Russia. Sybiha said the attack was “a major escalation that demands resolute responses” and called on international partners to “unequivocally condemn these actions and step up pressure on the Putin regime”. At least nine people were injured in Friday’s strike, according to Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Stanislav Zavertailo, the co-owner of the nearby Zavertailo cafe, said one of his customers was injured in the strike, which sent shockwaves through his premises, shattering all the windows. “It’s a normal cafe,” he said. The customer was “eating one of our famous poppy seed rolls” when the attack occurred, he added. Staff and customers rushed into an underground shelter after the strike, fearing a double-tap attack, a tactic which Russia has employed, in which a second drone is sent in soon after the first, hitting emergency service workers. An hour later, there had been no second strike, but Zavertailo said he did not feel at ease. “We are all waiting for another attack,” he said. The SBU is responsible for coordinating complex operations against Russia, including last year’s Operation Spiderweb which destroyed aircraft worth billions of pounds inside Russia. Friday’s hit was “awful” said a Zavertailo cafe employee who had recently emerged from the underground shelter. As “a person who lives in Ukraine for all this time, it’s just hard”. The strike came two days before Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to visit Kyiv for the first time. US-led diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s four-and-a-half-year invasion have stalled in recent months as the US has shifted its focus towards the war with Iran. Additional reporting by Illia Dyadik

Germany urges EU to cut Russians’ holiday visas after sabotage attacks

Germany is urging its European partners to introduce tighter limitations on Russian citizens entering the EU on tourist visas, after recent sabotage attacks which Berlin has blamed on Moscow. German authorities are investigating a Belarusian national, who also holds a Russian passport, over the alleged attempt to attack Leipzig airport using drones and explosives. The man is alleged to have entered the Schengen area on a tourist visa issued by the Italian embassy in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Security sources said he did not appear to have ever travelled through Italy. Germany’s foreign ministry has complained that too many visas were being issued to Russians. “The number of visas issued for Russian nationals for holidays in the European Union is too high,” a spokesperson said. Sources close to the government say the sheer number of visas being issued to Russians goes against the spirit of sanctions related to the Ukraine war, and make it impossible to know who is entering the EU and for what purpose. Figures show that Italy issued more Schengen visas than any other country in the bloc in 2025; between them, Italy, France and Spain received three-quarters of all visa applications from Russians, according to Euractiv. Italy issued more visas to Belarusians than any other EU country last year, and the number has risen sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to European Commission statistics analysed by the Italian news website Linkiesta, Italy issued just 2,968 visas to Belarusian citizens in 2021, compared with 50,709 last year. A similar trend can be seen with Russia. Italian visas issued to Russian citizens rose from 63,894 in 2021 to more than 165,000 in 2025, almost tripling despite the war. Germany’s government this week announced measures to hit back at the Kremlin, after it said Russian intelligence was likely to have been behind the alleged Leipzig plot. These included closing the Russian consulate in Bonn, summoning the Russian ambassador to the foreign ministry, and tightening the monitoring of Russia’s shadow fleet of illegal vessels carrying oil in the Baltic Sea. The EU also announced a 22nd package of sanctions, and said it was expanding its list of Russians who would not be allowed to enter the EU. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has ordered checks on the visa issued to the Belarusian suspect in the Leipzig case. “There is a process for granting visas, because certain requirements have to be met,” Tajani said. “If people meet those requirements and there is no alert concerning them individually, the visa is granted. If that is what happened, we will try to understand why that visa was issued.” Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic have all but stopped issuing visas to Russian citizens, adopting national restrictions that go beyond EU measures. But several other member states have continued granting large numbers of visas, in some cases increasing them. “Countries closer to Russia geographically, or with sizeable Russian minorities, are shutting their borders altogether or sharply reducing the number of visas they issue, including to students,” said Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti, a senior research fellow and co-head of the Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia Centre at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). Roderich Kiesewetter, a leading foreign and security policy expert for the governing CDU in the Bundestag, called on the EU to immediately suspend its tourist visa programme for Russians, calling it “untenable” from both a security and moral perspective. Kiesewetter said the security risk posed was “enormous”. The ability for Russians to move freely within the EU with a visa was being “exploited for espionage and sabotage”, he said. He urged the EU to restrict giving visas to Russians “to the absolute minimum”. “This excessive issuance of tourist visas to Russians contradicts the European strategy of isolating Russia,” he said. “It creates a false impression of normalisation for wealthy Russians, precisely those who benefit from the Kremlin’s reign of terror.” He said it was not right that Russia “wages daily a brutal war of aggression and annihilation against Ukraine while Russians continue to holiday without a care in the EU”. Some anti-war Russian activists in Europe have argued that tightening visa controls for all Russian citizens may do little to curb Moscow’s sabotage campaign. They point to a shift in tactics by Russian intelligence services, which increasingly rely not on professional operatives sent across Europe but on people recruited remotely, often through Telegram channels and paid in cryptocurrency to carry out individual tasks. This allows the Russian intelligence officers directing the operations to remain safely at home. In several recent cases prosecuted in Germany and Lithuania, the alleged recruits were Ukrainian or Baltic citizens rather than Russians.

Israelis shoot dead two Palestinian teenagers after settlers encircle village

Israelis have shot dead two teenagers in a Palestinian village encircled by settlers, and Israeli troops have razed an entire village outside Hebron, in the latest attacks in a surge of Israeli terror and ethnic cleansing across the occupied West Bank. The shootings targeted Khalil Abu Alia, 16, who was about to start 11th grade at the al-Mughayyir boys school, and 19-year-old Omar al-Nassan, who graduated from the same institution with top marks this summer. The teenagers were killed soon after sunset, when a group of settlers entered the village under police and military escort to steal dozens of sheep from a Palestinian home, village residents and Israeli activists said. Snipers took up position on rooftops and one shot Abu Alia in the neck, his English teacher, Waheed Abu Naim, said in a phone interview. The boy was on the doorstep of his home when he was targeted. Al-Nassan was shot twice, the second time in the back, residents and activists said. Both teenagers died before they made it to hospital. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said Israeli police, army and settlers had entered the village to take sheep claimed by settlers from a Palestinian home. The spokesperson provided no evidence of ownership, theft or investigation into stolen goods. When Palestinians resisted seizure of the sheep by throwing stones and cinder blocks, the troops shot them, the spokesperson said. “The forces responded by firing at key instigators in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified.” Abu Alia was killed by a soldier. It was not clear whether Al-Nassan was shot by a soldier or a settler. Video shared with the Guardian shows dozens of settlers approaching the village and appearing to liaise with Israeli troops. The Guardian could not independently verify the date the footage was filmed. Israeli soldiers and militants had already killed three other students from their school’s 470-strong student body this year. The other victims were a 17-year-old player from the Palestinian youth football team shot in June, a 14-year-old gunned down at the school gate in April, and another 14-year-old killed outside the village mosque in January. “We don’t know how long these crimes are going to continue,” said Abu Naim, who had taught all five boys, and said many more of his students had been injured by Israeli attacks. His brother was also killed by settlers in April. “This week we are making extra security preparations for the new semester, which starts in three days,” he said. They have built a higher wall around the school, topped by a fence, and strengthened gates to the compound. They are also making teaching contingency plans, because the village has been under tightening siege for the past two weeks. Since late 2023, Israeli barricades blocked all but one road into the village, and at least eight settler outposts surround it in all directions. In late August, soldiers and settlers began closing the one remaining lifeline out of al-Mughayyir for hours at a time, setting up a temporary checkpoint near the school in the morning and evening. At least eight families had fled in the past week because they were unable to commute to work, renting flats in other places, Abu Naim said. The school has 26 teachers but only nine live in the village, and they fear the other two-thirds may not be allowed to reach their classrooms on Monday. In the south Hebron hills, Israeli forces spent the day razing the homes of 12 Palestinian families who lived in the community of Khirbet al-Taban. All 70 residents are now homeless, including 28 children. Israeli troops demolished all buildings and destroyed water cisterns, storage, livestock pens and caves, the Israeli-Palestinian rights group B’Tselem said in a statement. It was the 66th Palestinian community wiped off the map since October 2023, with 18 others partly displaced, the group said. Nearly 5,000 people have been forced from their homes, almost half of them children. “Israel is continuing to erase Palestinian communities at an accelerating pace as part of the ethnic cleansing it is carrying out in the West Bank,” said Yuli Novak, the executive director of B’Tselem. “The world continues to stand by as Palestinians and their lives are left completely exposed to Israeli violence.” A spokesperson for Cogat, the Israeli military agency that manages civilian affairs in occupied Palestine, said troops were carrying out “enforcement activity” against illegal construction in a military training zone. In 1981 Israel designated the Masafer Yatta area, including Khirbet al-Taban, as Firing Zone 918. It has been working since to push out the roughly 1,200 Palestinian residents who remain. They have been fighting expulsion in Israeli courts for decades, slowing but not stopping demolitions. As Palestinian communities have been wiped out, illegal Israeli settlements have expanded, with 11 outposts inside the firing zone, housing some of the most notoriously violent Israeli settlers. None have been targeted for removal.

Deadly escalation in Black Sea attacks prompts fears of even higher food prices

A summer of hostilities in the Black Sea proved deadly for seafarers, as Russia and Ukraine attacked each other’s ships and port infrastructure, preventing vital grain exports and prompting concerns that the conflict will push global food prices even higher. More crew were killed in the Black Sea in July than during the entirety of the war before that month as the conflict has intensified, making the body of water the most dangerous in the world for commercial shipping. This is despite the conflict between the US and Iran, with vessels still being targeted in the strait of Hormuz, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. As many as 23 people died in July as a result of attacks on 35 ships in the Black Sea, according to estimates from the Turkish seafarers’ union Türkiye Denizciler Sendikası. Attacks on vessels continued into August and escalation in the Ukraine war has prompted the head of the UN shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, to condemn the “deterioration of maritime security around the globe”. Russia first launched waves of attacks on port infrastructure and vessels anchored in Ukrainian Black Sea ports in the months after its invasion in 2022, preventing Kyiv from exporting grain. In July, Russia again struck Ukraine’s main grain export hubs of Odesa and Chornomorsk. However, the recent escalation in the Black Sea and neighbouring Sea of Azov – connected by the Kerch strait – has also resulted from Ukrainian retaliatory attacks. Drones have hit Russian vessels, including tankers Kyiv says belong to a shadow fleet of hundreds of ships used by Russia to evade sanctions on its oil exports. Ukraine has targeted ships and port buildings at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, vital for oil and grain exports. In a grim illustration of the danger to vessels and their crew, an abandoned Russian-flagged cargo ship – with a burned-out command deck – recently ran aground on Turkey’s Black Sea coast as startled holidaymakers looked on. The Omskiy-107’s crew abandoned ship after it was hit by a Ukrainian drone near Novorossiysk, leaving the unmanned vessel to drift hundreds of miles and end up close to the Bosphorus, the narrow strait straddled by Istanbul that is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Shipping in the region is under increased threat, according to analysts at the maritime risk intelligence firm Vanguard. “Merchant vessels are now more likely to be affected because of the ports they visit, their trading activity and the cargoes they carry. Attacks have also extended beyond ports and their immediate approaches, increasing the risk to vessels across a wider area of the Black Sea,” they said. The precarious maritime situation has already significantly reduced Russian and Ukrainian grain exports, raising concerns the disruption will worsen the impact of other food price shocks and hurt countries reliant on imported wheat, barley and maize. Russia is the world’s largest grain exporter, with its produce mostly going to the Middle East and north Africa, particularly Turkey and Egypt, while Ukraine is the fifth-largest. In July, Russia suspended shipping in the Sea of Azov after a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks, before deciding to redirect some grain exports to alternative routes such as via the Caspian and Baltic seas and the Pacific. However, more than 70% of Russia’s seaborne grain exports are shipped from Black Sea ports, and a further 20% from the Sea of Azov, according to analysis from Oxford Economics. “I have seen estimates that Russian grain exports were down to 40% of normal export capacity in August,” said Tatiana Orlova, the lead emerging markets economist at Oxford Economics. Ukraine, which had a bumper and early grain harvest this year, has also found itself unable to export large volumes through its Black Sea ports. Kyiv exported only a third – about 1.4m tonnes – of the grain it could have exported, using sea, rail, river and road, according to recent comments from Ukraine’s food minister. Global wheat prices have been trading higher in recent weeks, but remain below levels at the beginning of the Ukraine war in 2022. However, analysts say the latest disruption to seaborne grain exports is likely to push prices higher and exacerbate other food supply shocks, including the Iran war and lower European grain yields after extreme summer heat and the rapidly developing El Niño weather system. Global food prices are forecast by Oxford Economics to rise by nearly 12% this year and a further 4.8% in 2027. Unlike in 2022, when many big food importing countries were caught napping by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “a lot of countries have grain stocks, which should help, so there is better preparedness for this kind of shock”, said Orlova. “But it is pretty clear the food price is going to be affected.”

Woman, 45, killed in Florence in seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August

A 45-year-old woman abducted and thrown off a motorway bridge near Florence has become the seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August. Lorena Isceri was abducted on Thursday afternoon, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, Federico Vella, in the Rifredi area of Florence, before being forced into the boot of his car and driven towards a bridge on the A1 motorway. Isceri, who worked in the veterinary sector, still had her phone and managed to call an emergency helpline, telling operators she had been abducted. Vella, 38, stopped the car, snatched the phone and allegedly threw her off the bridge, before jumping off himself. After Isceri’s call to the helpline, police traced her phone signal but arrived too late to prevent her murder. Officers are establishing whether Isceri was killed before she was thrown off the bridge. Isceri’s mother told SkyTg24 that she had last heard from her daughter on Thursday morning, and said she sounded fine. When asked about the relationship with Vella, she said Isceri had spoken to her about it and was “very afraid”. Italian interior ministry data had indicated a downward trend in femicides during the first six months of 2026. Figures compiled by the feminist alliance Non Una di Meno showed that as of 8 August, 40 women had been killed so far this year. But numbers have risen since 15 August, Italy’s Ferragosto national holiday, with seven women, including Isceri, killed by a current or former partner. Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition, which on Friday celebrated becoming the longest-serving government in the history of the Italian republic, had pledged to crack down on gender-based violence after the strong public reaction to the killing of Giulia Cecchetin, a 22-year-old medical student, by her former boyfriend, in November 2023. Two years later, the government approved a law that for the first time introduced a legal definition of femicide in criminal law, punishing it with life in prison, while increasing sentences for crimes including stalking, sexual violence and the sharing of intimate images without consent. However, a campaign to educate schoolboys about healthy relationships was thwarted after the government made it conditional on parental approval. Luisa Rizzitelli, the Italy coordinator of One Billion Rising, which campaigns to end violence against women, said: “Perhaps Meloni is right to celebrate her government’s longevity, because there is precious little to celebrate in terms of concrete results. “The approach to the tragic issue of male violence against women has been based on security policies while completely lacking strategic, structural programmes for training and prevention. The stubborn refusal to implement sex and relationship education in schools is a major factor fuelling the epidemic of femicides in Italy.” In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Colombia president provokes disgust by posing with bodies of ‘terrorists’

Colombia’s hardline president, Abelardo De La Espriella, has provoked outrage after posting a video on social media in which he strides through rows of white body bags that he says contained the corpses of 23 “neutralised” guerrillas. De La Espriella took power last month vowing “all-out war” against illegal armed groups and he published the footage on Thursday in an apparent attempt to show he was fulfilling that pledge. “I promised to confront terrorism without hesitation and I’m keeping that promise,” the far-right politician wrote above the video. “I did not come to play nice with murderers, extortionists and child recruiters. I came to defeat them … Long live Christ the king!” Celebrating the military operation in the Colombian Amazon during which the 23 alleged terrorists were killed, De La Espriella declared: “We are utterly determined to destroy you, who are a cancer.” The body bag footage, set to a stirring Hollywood-style score, was condemned by human rights activists and the president’s political opponents. Iván Cepeda, the leftwing candidate beaten by De La Espriella in June’s election, wrote on X: “He strolls among the bags with the corpses. He nearly treads on them with contempt. He calls himself a Christian but in reality he’s an unscrupulous being lacking the slightest sense of humanity.” The leftwing lawmaker Daniel Monroy accused the president of “necropolitics”. He wrote: “This is one of the most bizarre things we’ve seen. Strolling among the dead, while invoking the name of God, just to justify an unnecessary spectacle.” De La Espriella’s predecessor Gustavo Petro tweeted: “This is called turning death into a trophy – something only soulless people can do … The soulless find it easy to kill for the sake of killing.” De La Espriella hit back at his critics, posting: “Forgiving terrorists is God’s business. Sending them to meet him – if that’s where they’re headed – is the president’s job.” De La Espriella’s post captured the bellicose and performative political zeitgeist sweeping the Americas, where a growing number of rightwing populists are seeking to woo voters with promises of ferocious, TikTokable crackdowns on crime. The genre has been pioneered by El Salvador’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, with slick videos of his notorious mega-prison, and Donald Trump, who has repeatedly published footage showing alleged drug boats being blitzed in the Caribbean and Pacific. Ahead of Brazil’s October elections, several candidates are promising lethal attacks on the drug traffickers who control Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. “We’re going to stain the ground red with the blood of these lowlifes,” one candidate, Renan Santos, said recently, promising “a bloodbath” if he won power. Flávio Bolsonaro, the main challenger to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed to wage war on “narco-terrorists”, although he and close allies have themselves been accused of having ties to organised crime. “Criminals will be taken out of circulation, either standing up or lying down,” Bolsonaro has said. In Rio, Felipe Curi, a former police chief running for congress, has posted AI-generated videos depicting him shooting armed men in the favelas. Campaign propaganda features his image superimposed on pictures of the corpses of some of the 122 people killed during the city’s deadliest ever police raids. “I arrest crooks,” Curi boasts in one video, “and I neutralise them if they react.”