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TOPIC: gabon

Geopolitics

Au Revoir Françafrique? Macron Tries To Bury The French Colonial Mindset In Africa

French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined a new policy for France's relationship with Africa, recognizing the need for a departure from post-colonial mindsets. But he faces challenges at home and abroad.

-Analytics-

PARIS — One cannot accuse Emmanuel Macron of being unaware that Africa has changed — and that France's approach to the continent must change too. As early as his election in 2017, the French President expressed this sentiment in a speech to students in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, and reiterated it last year at the Africa-France Summit in Montpellier, where he once again spoke to the younger generation.

He has finally outlined the contours of a new policy that breaks with a colonial past, which is still not forgotten, before embarking on an important trip to Central Africa (Gabon, Angola, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo) on Wednesday.

The problem is that changing direction is particularly difficult when burdened with the weight of colonial and post-colonial history, as well as France’s misguided old reflexes.

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Tech Giants With Feet Of Clay

It was the week two U.S. tech giants saw their seemingly unstoppable sprint toward global domination hit a wall.


First, on Tuesday, Apple was ordered to pay up 13 billion euros in back taxes after the European Union ruled that a series of sweetheart tax deals made with the Irish government were illegal. That's a big bill, even for Apple, and company chief Tim Cook denounced the ruling as "political" and based on "false numbers."


Meanwhile, Facebook's bad news came with a louder, though not quite as costly, impact. The company's first satellite the Amos-6 went up in smoke after the rocket SpaceX exploded during a pre-launch test at Cape Canaveral on Thursday.

Valued at more than $200 million, the Amos-6 was due to take flight on Saturday with the goal of bringing Internet connectivity to Africa, as well as parts of the Middle East.


Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who is currently visiting Africa, said he was "deeply disappointed" to hear that the satellite was destroyed.


Indeed, Silicon Valley titans like Zuckerberg and Cook are sometimes portrayed as modern superheroes, and the roadmap of the American-led technology revolution often appears as a foregone conclusion. But this week is a reminder that such massive changes in the way we live and do business are bound to come up against global forces beyond the control of any single company, or even a seemingly unbeatable technology.


The massive explosion on Thursday was also a big blow to another Silicon Valley titan, SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk. He lost $390 million of his personal fortune as shares in his other tech firms Tesla and SolarCity also took a dive following the accident.


Musk's ambitions, of course, go beyond just world domination. By 2024, he wants to conquer Mars.

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In Gabon, Ecotourism Vs. Elephant Poachers

MINKEBE — Seen from the helicopter, the canopy of Minkébé National Park, in northern Gabon, looks like a green carpet that stretches to the horizon. The immobile uniformity is only broken up here and there by the veins of muddy rivers or a flock of birds flying. There’s no road or village here near the Cameroon and Congo borders.

Minkébé is a miracle of biodiversity that’s been carefully preserved from human attacks. Well, almost.

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Geopolitics

Tracking The Dirty Money Trail To End Illegal Logging

International organized crime networks earn billions of dollars every year from illegal logging. A new World Bank report suggests that if authorities really want to save the forests, they should follow the money.


*NEWSBITES

Every two seconds, an area of forest the size of a football field is cut down by illegal loggers around the globe, according to a World Bank report released this week. What can law officials do to stop it? "Follow the money," says the World Bank, which has been working on the issue for more than a decade.

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Future

Quaero, Europe’s Answer To Google, Still Searching For Results

The French-based mega technology project shows some small signs of progress, but critics say its top-heavy, public structure stands in the way of any real innovation

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