UK to shelve Chagos handover after Trump criticism

In a first for Europe, the Netherlands is poised to allow Tesla owners to use their car's self-driving feature -- as long as they are in the vehicle and keeping a watchful eye over it.

The country's RDW agency for roadworthiness certifications said in a statement late Friday: "Thanks to the type approval, the driver assistance system can now be used in the Netherlands, with possible future expansion to all member states of the European Union."

The move aligns the Netherlands with what is allowed in the United States, where Tesla owners can already use the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) (FSD Supervised) function in the cars.

That mode hands over driving to the Tesla's computer system, including steering, braking, route navigation and parking, all under the active supervision of the driver, who remains at the controls ready to take over if needed.

The European subsidiary of Tesla, the electric-vehicle company run by the world's richest person, Elon Musk, hailed the Netherlands' move.

"FSD Supervised has been approved in the Netherlands & will begin rolling out in the country shortly!" it said on X. 

"No other vehicle can do this. We're excited to bring FSD Supervised to more European countries soon."

The Dutch RDW agency stressed the difference between FSD Supervised, with a human remaining at the controls, and full autonomous driving.

"A vehicle with FSD Supervised is not self-driving. It is a driver assistance system, and the driver remains responsible and must always maintain control," it said.

RDW's decision has to go to the European Commission for authorisation, so that its national certification has EU weight. 

Tesla sales have been facing headwinds in Europe -- including in the Netherlands -- in the last couple of years. 

Potential clients have turned off by Musk's political activism supporting hard-right politics in the US and Germany, while the brand is also facing increased competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers.

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Some three-quarters of the airstrikes during the Middle East war targeted sites in Iran or Lebanon, according to an AFP analysis of data from ACLED, a non‑profit that tracks political violence worldwide. 

At least 7,700 strikes or series of strikes by missiles, drones, rockets or bombs, were recorded by the US-based conflict research group between the start of the war on February 28 up to April 8, when a fragile ceasefire concluded between Tehran and Washington came into effect.

ACLED collected and vetted its data from sources that it considers reliable, such as news reports, social networks, institutions, and other NGOs. 

This count, which includes attacks that were intercepted, cannot be considered an exhaustive list from the conflict.

- Iran - 

Approximately four out of 10 recorded attacks targeted Iran, mostly attributed to the Israeli military,  According to AFP's analysis, in only a third of the cases could the target be identified as military or linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime's ideological army. 

A third of the attacks had no identified target. April 6 and 7 -- the two days preceding the ceasefire -- saw the highest number of strikes.

- Lebanon - 

Lebanon, where Israel has been conducting a campaign triggered by the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah on March 2 launching an offensive, accounted for a third of the attacks, according to ACLED data as of April 3. 

The vast majority were carried out by Israeli forces, while nearly 10 percent were Hezbollah attacks against Israeli positions in the south of Lebanon. 

Israel asserts the two-week ceasefire agreed between the United States and Iran does not apply to Lebanon and it has continued to bombard the country. 

- Israel -

One in seven attacks targeted Israel, most of which were intercepted. The attacks were in almost equal proportions from Iran and Hezbollah.

- Other countries -

The main countries targeted by Iran were Gulf states, primarily the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.  In Iraq, 40 percent of the attacks were against Kurdish groups and 20 percent against US interests. 

Qatar and Oman were targeted to a lesser extent. 

In Syria, ACLED recorded approximately one hundred incidents, but these were mainly the result of Iranian missiles and drones being intercepted by Israel. Several dozen similar incidents were recorded in the West Bank and Jordan. 

In Turkey, four missile launches were intercepted by NATO to protect its Incirlik airbase, where US troops are stationed.

- Most common targets -

Israel targeted 15 bridges or their approaches in Lebanon and around 20 in Iran. 

Attacks against energy infrastructure in Iran were most intense during the second and third weeks of the conflict, as well as during the week of the ceasefire announcement. 

Iran's key petrochemical complex at Assalouyeh, already targeted in mid-March, was struck again on April 6 by Israel. Numerous Iranian fuel depots were also hit.

ACLED reported four strikes near Iran's only nuclear power plant, in Bushehr.  

Among the Gulf oil monarchies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the countries whose oil infrastructure was most frequently attacked, followed by Kuwait. 

Across all countries, strikes against energy infrastructure resulted in damage in approximately 40 percent of cases, according to AFP's analysis. 

Military bases housing US personnel were targeted around 50 times in total, primarily during the first two weeks of the conflict. 

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Britain is shelving its plan to hand back the Chagos Islands -- which hosts the strategic Diego Garcia US-UK military base -- according to a government spokesperson Saturday, following strong opposition from US President Donald Trump.

"We have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support" the spokesman said in a statement, as reports said legislation to return the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius was due to run out of time in parliament.

Trump in January lashed out at what he called London's "great stupidity" over the deal.

Last May's Chagos agreement would have seen Britain hand the archipelago -- some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) northeast of Mauritius -- to its former colony and pay to lease Diego Garcia, the largest island, which is home to the military base, for a century.

"Diego Garcia is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US. Ensuring its long-term operational security is and will continue to be our priority – it is the entire reason for the deal," the Downing Street spokesperson added.

“We are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius."

Trump had endorsed the deal after it was signed but then launched a scathing attack on it in Truth Social comments in January.

"The United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia... for no reason whatsover," he said.

"There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness," he said, adding that it showed why the US needed to conquer Greenland from ally Denmark.

Diego Garcia was one of two bases which the UK allowed the US to use for what the British government insisted were "defensive operations" in its war against Iran.

- 99-year lease -

Starmer has previously insisted that international legal rulings have put Britain's ownership of the Chagos in doubt and only a deal with Mauritius would guarantee that the base remains functional.

Government officials cited by the BBC said the agreement was not being entirely abandoned.

But they said the legislation underpinning it would not pass before parliament is dissolved in coming weeks and a new Chagos bill is not expected to be put forward.

Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.

It evicted thousands of Chagos islanders who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius.

The deal would have given Britain a 99-year lease of the base, with the option to extend.

The UK government has not said how much the lease would cost but has failed to deny that it would be £90 million ($111 million) a year.

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Somalia president Hassan Mohamud congratulated football referee Omar Artan who has made history as the first Somalian to be selected to officiate at the World Cup finals.

Artan, 34, was among the 52 referees announced by FIFA to officiate at the June-July finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

President Mohamud said Artan had raised Somalia's reputation on the international stage.

"I commend the effort, professionalism, and integrity shown by referee Omar, as he has become a symbol of inspiration for the new generation of Somalis," said Mohamud.

It is not the first time that Artan has been a groundbreaker in a nation that has never qualified for an international football tournament.

Artan has been officiating in the Somali national football league championships since he became a FIFA referee in 2018.

He made his mark as the first Somalia-born referee to officiate in an African Football Confederation (CAF) Champions League game between Mamelodi Sundowns and Pyramids FC in Cairo in January 2025.

He has also officiated at the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Algeria, and in 2025 he was named by CAF as the best men's referee of year.

However, he played no part in the AFCON finals in Morocco earlier this year despite being picked as a tournament referee.

Somalia can still dream of reaching the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, after they beat Mauritius 4-2 on penalties in March to qualify for the group stage for the first time.

The finals will be co-hosted for the first time by the three east African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

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US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Islamabad on Saturday for talks with Iran that the Pakistani premier hosting the warring sides called a "make or break" effort to permanently halt weeks of fighting in the Middle East.

An Iranian delegation led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf arrived overnight at an airbase near the capital, disembarking from the commercial plane to embrace Pakistan's powerful army chief Asim Munir, who also shares a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump. 

Munir also greeted Vance, escorting him down a red carpet at the Nur Khan air base, where US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were already waiting.

The foes still appeared to be far apart on key issues, including the opening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and were quick to express their mutual suspicion.

"We have good intentions but we do not trust," Ghalibaf said shortly after landing, according to Iran's state broadcaster. 

"Our experience in negotiating with the Americans has always been met with failure and broken promises."

Vance, who has been dispatched by Trump to lead the US delegation, stopped briefly in Paris for his plane to refuel before flying on to Pakistan.

"If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand," Vance said before leaving the United States.

But "if they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive", he added.

The ceasefire is already under strain, notably from Israel's continued strikes in Lebanon, where on Wednesday it carried out its heaviest bombardment since Hezbollah entered the Middle East war in early March, killing hundreds of people less than 48 hours after the truce came into force.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country's down-to-the-wire mediation got both sides to the negotiating table this week, said talks would not be easy. 

"An even more difficult stage lies ahead," he said, referring to efforts to permanently end fighting that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, sparking Iranian retaliation against Israel and across the Gulf.

"This is that stage which, in English, is called the equivalent of 'make or break.'"

It was unclear what time the talks would get underway, though the Tasnim news agency reported Iran's delegation would meet with Sharif at 1:00 pm.

Iranian state television made only a brief mention of the talks in its first morning news programme, with its second report dedicated to volunteers signing up to defend Iran in the event the war resumed.

- Islamabad plays host -

Iran -- which brought a more than 70-member delegation to Pakistan --  has insisted on the truce covering Lebanon and on the unfreezing of its assets for the Islamabad talks to go ahead, neither of which has materialised so far.

On the US side, President Donald Trump demanded the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as a condition for the two-week ceasefire.

The strait, through which one-fifth of the world's crude passes, has not reopened to normal traffic, however, and Trump vowed on Friday to have it open soon "with or without" Iran's cooperation.

He added his top priority at the Islamabad talks was to ensure the Islamic republic had "no nuclear weapon. That's 99 percent of it."

Security was tight in the Pakistani capital on Saturday, with a heavy police and paramilitary presence on the streets and road diversions around the "red zone" where government and diplomatic buildings are located. 

The city's main luxury hotel, which could host delegations, has been cleared of its normal well-heeled clientele.

It was not known whether the two sides would meet face-to-face, or whether they would mirror an indirect format used in Oman-mediated talks before the war. 

Pakistan has formulated a team of subject matter specialists to facilitate the two sides in negotiations on navigation, nuclear and other key matters, a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told AFP.

The negotiations will be closely watched by other key regional players, with Egypt and Turkey having helped with mediation, along with China, all of which Pakistan was still coordinating closely with for the talks, the source said. 

Beijing has been sought as a possible guarantor of any lasting agreement, official sources have said, with Trump confirming to AFP that China helped get Tehran to the negotiating table.

It was not clear whether China would have any direct presence during the talks or would be willing to take on a formal role. 

- Violence in Lebanon -

Complicating the path to a permanent ceasefire was Israel's assertion that the current truce does not cover Lebanon, at odds with Iran and Pakistan's stance.

Israeli air strikes continued in Lebanon on Friday against Iran-backed Hezbollah despite the Iranian demand that they be halted as a condition of the truce with Washington.

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said his country will hold discussions with Lebanon's government in Washington next week but would not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The militant group said overnight that it had carried out drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, as well as on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

In Tehran, a 30-year-old resident told AFP he was skeptical negotiations would be successful, describing most of what Trump says as "pure noise and nonsense."

burs/cl/mlm/ceg/smw

US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Islamabad on Saturday for talks with Iran that the Pakistani premier hosting the warring sides called a "make or break" effort to permanently halt weeks of fighting in the Middle East.

An Iranian delegation led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf arrived overnight at an airbase near the capital, disembarking from the commercial plane to embrace Pakistan's powerful army chief Asim Munir, who also shares a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump. 

Munir also greeted Vance, escorting him down a red carpet at the Nur Khan air base, where US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were already waiting.

The foes still appeared to be far apart on key issues, including the opening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and were quick to express their mutual suspicion.

"We have good intentions but we do not trust," Ghalibaf said shortly after landing, according to Iran's state broadcaster. 

"Our experience in negotiating with the Americans has always been met with failure and broken promises."

Vance, who has been dispatched by Trump to lead the US delegation, stopped briefly in Paris for his plane to refuel before flying on to Pakistan.

"If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand," Vance said before leaving the United States.

But "if they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive", he added.

The ceasefire is already under strain, notably from Israel's continued strikes in Lebanon, where on Wednesday it carried out its heaviest bombardment since Hezbollah entered the Middle East war in early March, killing hundreds of people less than 48 hours after the truce came into force.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country's down-to-the-wire mediation got both sides to the negotiating table this week, said talks would not be easy. 

"An even more difficult stage lies ahead," he said, referring to efforts to permanently end fighting that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, sparking Iranian retaliation against Israel and across the Gulf.

"This is that stage which, in English, is called the equivalent of 'make or break.'"

It was unclear what time the talks would get underway, though the Tasnim news agency reported Iran's delegation would meet with Sharif at 1:00 pm.

Iranian state television made only a brief mention of the talks in its first morning news programme, with its second report dedicated to volunteers signing up to defend Iran in the event the war resumed.

- Islamabad plays host -

Iran -- which brought a more than 70-member delegation to Pakistan --  has insisted on the truce covering Lebanon and on the unfreezing of its assets for the Islamabad talks to go ahead, neither of which has materialised so far.

On the US side, President Donald Trump demanded the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as a condition for the two-week ceasefire.

The strait, through which one-fifth of the world's crude passes, has not reopened to normal traffic, however, and Trump vowed on Friday to have it open soon "with or without" Iran's cooperation.

He added his top priority at the Islamabad talks was to ensure the Islamic republic had "no nuclear weapon. That's 99 percent of it."

Security was tight in the Pakistani capital on Saturday, with a heavy police and paramilitary presence on the streets and road diversions around the "red zone" where government and diplomatic buildings are located. 

The city's main luxury hotel, which could host delegations, has been cleared of its normal well-heeled clientele.

It was not known whether the two sides would meet face-to-face, or whether they would mirror an indirect format used in Oman-mediated talks before the war. 

Pakistan has formulated a team of subject matter specialists to facilitate the two sides in negotiations on navigation, nuclear and other key matters, a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told AFP.

The negotiations will be closely watched by other key regional players, with Egypt and Turkey having helped with mediation, along with China, all of which Pakistan was still coordinating closely with for the talks, the source said. 

Beijing has been sought as a possible guarantor of any lasting agreement, official sources have said, with Trump confirming to AFP that China helped get Tehran to the negotiating table.

It was not clear whether China would have any direct presence during the talks or would be willing to take on a formal role. 

- Violence in Lebanon -

Complicating the path to a permanent ceasefire was Israel's assertion that the current truce does not cover Lebanon, at odds with Iran and Pakistan's stance.

Israeli air strikes continued in Lebanon on Friday against Iran-backed Hezbollah despite the Iranian demand that they be halted as a condition of the truce with Washington.

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said his country will hold discussions with Lebanon's government in Washington next week but would not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The militant group said overnight that it had carried out drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, as well as on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

In Tehran, a 30-year-old resident told AFP he was skeptical negotiations would be successful, describing most of what Trump says as "pure noise and nonsense."

burs/cl/mlm/ceg/smw

How blue really is Blue Curacao, the sapphire-colored liqueur used to make Blue Lagoon or Blue Hawaii cocktails?

Not blue at all is the answer.

The brilliant hue of the drink is synthetic, added to evoke the tint of the Caribbean waters surrounding the eponymous Dutch island, the smallest country to qualify for this year's World Cup.

Curacao, which is flavored with orange peel, has been manufactured in the nation of 185,000 inhabitants for more than a century.

"Most people know it as Blue Curacao but the original Curacao liqueur was never blue to start with. It is clear," Genesis Riley, a 39-year-old guide at the Senior distillery told AFP.

"But we do have a blue version that inspires the rest of the world," she added.

The drink gained worldwide renown in the 1960s after featuring in the romantic comedy Blue Hawaii, starring singer Elvis Presley as an ex-soldier trying to dodge being drafted into the family pineapple business.

Because Curacao is the name of a territory, Senior cannot patent the liqueur, which is produced around the world.

Initially more popular in Europe, Blue Curacao has also been adopted in the Caribbean, Riley said.

Senior also produces colorless, red, green and yellow curacao but the thirst for these is dwarfed by demand for the blue variety.

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With Artemis II successfully completing its historic lunar mission on Friday, NASA is banking on billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk for the next step: landing astronauts on the Moon.

The Apollo program -- which sent the first and only humans to the Moon's surface between 1969 and 1972 -- was designed so that only two astronauts could land on the lunar surface for a maximum of a few days.

More than 50 years later, American ambitions and expertise have grown, with NASA hoping to send four people on a mission lasting several weeks and eventually building a lunar base.

For the second phase of its mission, the space agency is looking to commercial landers designed by Musk's SpaceX and Bezos's Blue Origin to get its astronauts on the Moon.

After Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after its record-breaking journey, NASA officials urged all hands on deck for a crewed landing in 2028.

"We need all of industry to work and come along with us, and they need to accept that challenge and come with us and really start the production lines that are going to be required in order to achieve that goal," Lori Glaze, the acting associate NASA administrator, told a press conference.

The Apollo program relied on a single rocket, the Saturn V, which carried both the lunar lander and the capsule carrying the astronauts.

NASA has opted for two separate systems for Artemis: the first to launch the Orion spacecraft carrying the crew from Earth, and another to launch the lunar lander, which will be privately contracted.

- 'Camping trip' -

The decision was driven by the technical limitations of the Apollo program, Kent Chojnacki, a senior NASA official in charge of lunar lander development, told AFP.

"It was very not expandable to long-term exploration and long-term stays," he explained.

Although spectacular, the Apollo missions were like "camping trips," said Jack Kiraly, director of government relations at the Planetary Society, which encourages space exploration.

The systems NASA is looking at now are "huge compared to Apollo," said Chojnacki, noting that the new lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX are two to seven times larger than before.

The space agency is also drawing from external partners, such as the European companies that built the propulsion module for Orion.

The new approach opens access to more equipment and resources, but also significantly complicates operations.

To send these giant spacecrafts to the Moon, the private space exploration companies will need to master in-flight refueling, a complex maneuver that has not yet been fully tested.

After the lunar lander is launched, additional rockets will be needed to deliver the fuel required for the journey to the Moon, some 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth.

- 'Lose the Moon' -

Given this risky undertaking and the numerous delays -- particularly those experienced by SpaceX that was supposed to have its lander ready first -- pressure has mounted in recent months.

"We are once again about to lose the Moon," three former NASA officials warned in an article in SpaceNews last September.

China, which is hoping to send humans to the Moon by 2030, has been making progress as well, raising fears in the Trump administration that the United States could get left behind.

With that in mind, NASA raised the possibility last fall of reopening the contract awarded to SpaceX and using Blue Origin's lunar lander first, sending shockwaves through the rival companies.

Both firms announced they were realigning their strategies to prioritize the lunar project -- and keep their lucrative contracts with NASA.

But concerns remain, particularly regarding the feasibility of in-orbit refueling.

"We do have a plan," Chojnacki said, noting that NASA has a back-up plan in case of failure.

The timeline is also up in the air. 

NASA says it plans to test an in-orbit rendezvous between the spacecraft and one or two lunar landers in 2027, and carry out a crewed lunar landing in 2028.

Before that, companies will need to test in-orbit refueling and send an unmanned lunar lander to the Moon to demonstrate its safety.

That all needs to happen within the next two years.

"It feels like a very small amount of time," said Clayton Swope of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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Tourists crowded beneath the Door of No Return, an arch built by the beach at Ouidah in southern Benin in memory of those crammed onto slave ships bound for the New World.

Benin, which holds a presidential election on Sunday, has in recent years leaned into its painful past to encourage tourism. 

Once a key departure point in the transatlantic slave trade, the coastal town of Ouidah lies at the heart of the push to reclaim the country's history, culture and heritage.

Standing nearly 17 metres (56 feet) tall on the seafront, the Door of No Return has been fully restored, now a must-see landmark for visitors.

Its ochre-and-gold facade is carved with figures of chained slaves, frozen mid-stride towards the ocean.

Nearby, a life-size replica of L'Aurore -- one of the last three-masted ships to leave Ouidah for Cuba around 1860 -- is set to open soon as an immersive museum of the slave trade.

"It reminds us of where we come from. It's important to develop tourism around our history because it's very rich, little known, and we want to showcase it," said Arsene Ahounou, an engineer from the commercial capital Cotonou visiting for the day.

"For us natives, understanding our history matters," he added.

Pausing for selfies with friends visiting from Nigeria, Onyinye Anumba said that seeing the site with her own eyes was "awesome".

"As an African, I've read many things about this place... so just being here makes me proud about what Africa has," she said.

- 'Demystify Vodun' -

Elsewhere, tourists explored the 13th-century Python Temple to learn about Voodoo culture -- the popular animist religion rooted in Ouidah.

As many posed for photos with snakes draped around their shoulders, guides explained the reptile's spiritual significance in Voodoo (Vodun in the local Fon language) beliefs.

Having worked in Beninese tourism for more than 35 years, Modeste Zinsou, the temple's head guide, said the sector had evolved.

"This isn't mass tourism, it's cultural tourism. The sacred element remains. We're reconstructing our own history, in which we completely demystify Vodun and the cliches around it," he said.

Benin is the birthplace of Voodoo, which now has its own international festival, the Vodun Days.

The three days of dancing, mask parades and traditional ceremonies have become a major tourist attraction.

This year it drew around two million visitors, most of them Beninese.

"The government has worked to encourage domestic tourism, meaning Beninese people going out and reclaiming their identity," added Zinsou.

- 'Our Eiffel Tower' -

To boost tourism, Benin has launched major infrastructure projects, including road and hotel renovations.

A Club Med resort is planned for 2027 and visa procedures have been eased for many nationalities.

"We're not a country with mineral wealth, so we had to identify where our wealth lies," said Alain Godonou, an adviser to the president on heritage and museums.

"History shows that Benin is a land of great cultures and traditions, and a witness to a pivotal moment in human history -- the slave trade," he said. 

Godonou hopes tourism will account for 10 to 15 percent of GDP within a decade, up from about six percent today.

Sunday's election in the west African country is to replace the architect of this tourism drive, outgoing president Patrice Talon, who is stepping down after two five-year terms. 

The frontrunner to succeed him, Romuald Wadagni, the finance minister from the ruling party, has pledged to carry the projects forward. 

Since 2024, Benin has allowed anyone with an African ancestor who was enslaved and shipped to the Americas to acquire Beninese nationality. 

"It was important for Benin to do justice to this diaspora by granting the nationality that should have been theirs," Godonou said.

In the heart of Cotonou, the country's largest city, the Amazon Monument is now a major attraction. 

The towering 30-metre metal statue depicts a warrior of the Dahomey kingdom, rifle at her side and dagger in hand. 

On Easter Monday, a public holiday, crowds of Beninese visitors strolled through the plaza, snapping pictures of the statue.

"It's a source of pride! We don't have the money to go on holiday in France or elsewhere," said vendor Geraldine Sedami Yagbo.

"This statue is our Eiffel Tower."

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When NASA flight director Zebulon Scoville was working a shift during the uncrewed Artemis I test flight, he realized the US space agency wasn't consistently livestreaming the spacecraft's journey to Earth.

"They said, well, we don't have bandwidth, we've got to get all this vehicle and engineering data down," Scoville recalled. "I was like -- wrong."

"This program will be over if people don't buy it and they don't come with us."

NASA eventually got a low-bandwidth live stream up for that 2022 uncrewed mission.

And once it was over, senior officials named the NASA veteran "imagery czar" to boost engagement.

He told AFP he spent two years working across the agency to figure out how better to take the public on NASA's new Moon missions.

That included adding an optical communications system onto the Orion spacecraft, a laser that transmitted to a ground station on Earth, sending streaming video in higher resolution.

Throughout the more than nine-day Artemis II crewed test flight -- which ended Friday with an emotional splashdown off the California coast -- NASA has maintained live programming on its own streaming platform and across social media. 

That, combined with third-party streamers and broadcast news, has earned millions of views.

And as NASA official Lori Glaze said Friday: "To all of our new followers out there, please stay tuned."

- NASA on Twitch -

From social media posts clipped from livestreamed events with the astronauts to an extraordinary portfolio of celestial photographs, viewers caught an eyeful of Artemis II.

Insitutions including museums held Artemis splashdown parties, and some teachers integrated the launch into their lessons.

Alex Roethler, a Wisconsin physics teacher, said watching the mission helped his students get "more engaged," and made lessons "feel more real."

"I love having the livestream available, and I also think it's cool that they use Twitch," Roethler said, referring to a video streamer site favored by gamers. "That is a platform more of our students use."

The crew themselves have been integral to the storytelling. 

During the nearly seven-hour lunar flyby, astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Reid Weisman gave near-literary descriptions of lunar surface features and left scientists in Houston awe-struck. 

With Artemis II, there have been "just smiles and actually showing emotion through NASA, where we have sometimes had a history of being a little bit dry," Scoville said.

"It's okay to jump up and down and howl at the moon," he added. 

- Apollo-Artemis parallels -

Before Artemis II, the United States hadn't sent astronauts around the Moon since 1972 for the Apollo 17 mission -- the last of that famed space program that saw humans walk on the lunar surface.

In the lead-up to the 10-day test flight, NASA faced both a blase populace and a fractured media environment.

The space agency had to battle for attention across traditional and social media in a way the three-TV-channel era of Apollo never experienced. The Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 saw approximately one-fifth of the global population tune in.

Yet for all the mythical qualities of Apollo, Jack Kiraly, director of government relations at the Planetary Society, said "nostalgia" perhaps "glosses over some of the issues that the program at the time faced."

"Everything that led up to that was actually broadly unpopular with the American electorate, with the public writ large," Kiraly told AFP.

Still, even with that in account, the analyst said "I don't think this moment is living up to the hype" of most Apollo missions, and added he hopes NASA's communications strategies continue to improve.

- 'Longing for something good' -

Ahead of Artemis II, Scoville had conversations with mission commander Reid Wiseman in which they reflected on parallels between the Apollo 8 lunar mission and this most recent Moon flyby.

The United States in 1968 was politically fractured and at war. 

Nearly 60 years later, not so much has changed.

"We're watching the news today, with wars, with division, and, like, how much everyone is just so longing for something good to happen," Scoville said. 

In a recent space-to-Earth press conference, Wiseman said their only news source during the mission was their families, who said Artemis has captivated people worldwide, though he admitted they are "biased."

Wiseman said he hoped the trip could "have the world pause" to take in the beauty of our planet and universe.

"I think for the folks that decided to tune in -- and it sounds like it was quite a few -- this has happened," he said. 

Throughout their journey, all four astronauts emphasized how unified Earth looks from afar -- a takeaway they hoped would permeate public consciousness.

"People are wanting to reach out to their inner rocket nerds," Scoville said. "This is just a glimpse of what's to come."

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