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Macron Backs Heritage Bid of Remote Polynesian Islands

Taputapuatea marae on Raiatea in French Polynesia Photo: AFP
Taputapuatea marae on Raiatea in French Polynesia Photo: AFP
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Macron Backs Heritage Bid of Remote Polynesian Islands

Taputapuatea marae on Raiatea in French Polynesia Photo: AFP
Taputapuatea marae on Raiatea in French Polynesia Photo: AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday backed a bid by the Marquesas Islands to gain UNESCO world heritage status.

Macron, the first head of state to visit the remote archipelago in French Polynesia, was greeted by a traditional ceremony of 600 dancers and musicians from its six islands, said AFP.

He was the only person at the gathering wearing a suit -- with everybody else clad in costumes made of leaves from the local auti plant -- as he addressed a crowd from onboard a traditional Polynesian double-hulled canoe.

"This nature and this culture is our treasure," Macron said. "This is why I will fight alongside you for the Marquesas to get the UNESCO classification."

The UN cultural body awards world heritage status to sites judged to be of special universal value to humanity.

Top heritage sites include the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Acropolis in Greece.

Marquesa Islands authorities have been campaigning for years to get the archipelago's unique combination of "nature and culture" recognized.

"We may just be a group of small rocks in the Pacific, but we have riches that deserve to become part of the world's heritage," Polynesian culture minister Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu said.

Macron is on his first official trip to French Polynesia, mostly dedicated to discussing the French overseas territory's strategic role, the legacy of nuclear tests and rising seas due to global warming.

The trip is seen as a chance for Macron to highlight the extent of France's global footprint through its overseas territories, which extend from the Pacific to the Caribbean to Latin America and the Indian Ocean.

The Pacific is of particular strategic importance in the context of China's rising power.

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Varieties

Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
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Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.
The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).
After following the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.
As of Saturday morning, the US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.
The US Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.
It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.