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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have reached an outline economic cooperation accord during their first talks since signing a peace deal, the United States said late Friday.

A peace agreement reached in June aimed to end decades of conflict in eastern Congo. It was overseen by Washington which has sought to increase its access to the region's vast mineral wealth.

The "economic integration framework" initialled on Friday is part of the peace accord, the US State Department said.

It is designed, according to the peace deal, to introduce greater transparency into supply chains for critical minerals such as coltan and lithium and should be effective by the end of September.

The State Department said the two countries had agreed to coordinate "in areas including energy, infrastructure, mining, national park management and tourism, and public health", without giving further details.

Eastern DRC, a region bordering Rwanda with abundant natural resources, saw a fresh surge of violence this year when the M23 armed group, backed by Rwandan troops, captured the key cities of Goma and Bukavu.

After months of broken truces, the DRC and M23 signed a declaration of principle on 19 July reaffirming their commitment to a permanent ceasefire.

Earlier, the Kinshasa government inked an agreement with US group Kobold Metals, which specialises in exploring for critical metals.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi said in April he had met US envoy Massad Boulos to discuss access to minerals.

The DRC is the world's leading producer of cobalt.

It also has deposits of gold and other valuable minerals including coltan, a metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, and lithium, which is essential for electric car batteries.

On Thursday and Friday, representatives from the DRC and Rwanda, alongside observers from the United States, Qatar and the African Union, held their first meetings in Washington since signing the peace deal in June.

The US said the economic framework and a meeting on Thursday of the countries' peace deal monitoring committee were "significant step", saying the African neighbours were "taking meaningful actions to advance security and economic cooperation".

The peace deal has been welcomed by the African Union and the United Nations, even if analysts remain sceptical about the chances of long-term peace while militias still hold sway in much of eastern DRC.

The UN says thousands have been killed in the recent unrest and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Rwanda denies providing military support to the M23 but says its security has long been threatened by the presence in the region of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Kinshasa and the M23 have given themselves until 8 August to start talks on a comprehensive peace accord, to be signed by 17 August.

Analysts view such deadlines as unrealistic, especially given the M23's reluctance to withdraw from areas it controls.

(with AFP)

Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey on Saturday began supplying natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria, whose infrastructure has been ravaged by a long civil war, with annual deliveries expected to reach up to two billion cubic metres.

Syria's Islamist authorities, who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, are seeking to rebuild the battered country where power cuts can last for more than 20 hours a day.

Speaking at a ceremony attended by Syria's energy minister and Azerbaijan's economy minister as well as the head of Qatar's development fund, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the initiative would help Syria get back to normal.

"In the initial phase, up to two billion cubic metres of natural gas per year could be exported to Syria," Bayraktar said in the southern province of Kilis near the Syrian border.

Damascus has said the gas would be used to generate electricity.

"The gas will help activate a power plant with a capacity of around 1,200 megawatts, meeting the electricity needs of approximately five million households, and making a significant contribution to the normalisation of daily life in Syria," Bayraktar said.

"We will transport natural gas to Aleppo and from Aleppo to Homs. This will enable the power plants there to be put into operation in the near future," he added.

A first phase of the Qatari scheme to fund gas supplies for power generation in Syria rolled out in March via Jordan and provided 400 megawatts of electricity per day.

Brasília (AFP) – Brazilians set fire to effigies of Donald Trump in protests across several cities Friday, denouncing the US president's politically motivated trade tariffs.

Anti-Trump protests were held in Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a sign of souring ties between two of the Americas' largest economies.

The demonstrations were modestly attended, but reflected broad anger at Trump's decision to put a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian exports and to sanction a top judge.

The mercurial US president has openly admitted he is punishing Brazil for prosecuting his political ally, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.

The far-right Brazilian firebrand is currently on trial for plotting a coup after failing to win reelection in 2022.

"This Court, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Federal Police will not bow to these threats," he said during a court session.

And he vowed the court would remain "absolutely uncompromising in defending national sovereignty and its commitment to democracy."

Moraes has repeatedly taken aim at the Brazilian far-right and its figurehead Bolsonaro, as well as tech titan Elon Musk, over online disinformation.

He is also the presiding judge in the coup trial of Bolsonaro, who risks a 40-year prison sentence.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Moraes of "serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention involving flagrant denials of fair trial guarantees and infringing on the freedom of expression."

Moraes recently ordered Bolsonaro to wear an electronic ankle bracelet pending the conclusion of his trial, and barred him from leaving his home at night or using social media pending an investigation into potential obstruction of justice.

Washington (AFP) – Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas, the Bureau of Prisons said Friday, triggering an angry reaction from some of their victims.

No reason was given for Maxwell's transfer but it comes a week after a top Justice Department official met with her to ask questions about Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for allegedly sex trafficking underage girls.

"We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas," a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, interviewed Maxwell for two days at a Florida courthouse last week in a highly unusual meeting between a convicted felon and high-ranking Justice official.

Blanche has declined so far to say what was discussed but Maxwell's lawyer, David Markus, said she answered every question she was asked.

Maxwell has offered to testify before Congress about Epstein if given immunity and has also reportedly been seeking a pardon from Trump, a one-time close friend of Epstein.

She had been subpoenaed to give a deposition to the House Oversight Committee on August 11, but Politico reported Friday it had been postponed indefinitely.

The former British socialite is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein.

Two women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell and the family of another accuser who recently committed suicide condemned the prison transfer.

"It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received," Annie and Maria Farmer and the family of Virginia Giuffre said in a statement Friday.

"Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency," they said.

"Yet, without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas," they said. "This move smacks of a cover-up. The victims deserve better."

Tim Hogan, a senior Democratic National Committee advisor, also denounced what he alleged was a "government cover-up in real time."

"Donald Trump's FBI, run by loyalist Kash Patel, redacted Trump's name from the Epstein files -- which have still not been released," Hogan said.

"While Trump and his administration try to cover up the heinous crimes included in those files, they're simultaneously doing favors for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell."

Trump is facing mounting demands from Democrats and many of his conspiracy-minded Make America Great Again supporters to be more transparent about the case of the wealthy and well-connected Epstein.

Trump's supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said last month that Epstein had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a "client list."

The president raised further questions this week as he told reporters he fell out with Epstein after the financier "stole" female employees from the spa at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

One of those girls was Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave and committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.

Giuffre's family issued a statement this week appealing to Trump not to consider pardoning Maxwell, who they called a "monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life."

Bogotá (AFP) – A Colombian judge on Friday sentenced still-powerful former president Alvaro Uribe to 12 years of house arrest, capping a long and contentious career that defined Colombian politics for a generation.

Uribe, aged 73, received the maximum possible sentence after being found guilty of witness tampering, a legal source told AFP.

The sentence, which is due to be publicly announced later on Friday, marks the first time in Colombia's history that a former president has been convicted of a crime and sentenced.

Uribe led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 and led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the FARC guerrilla army.

He remains popular in Colombia, despite being accused by critics of working with armed right-wing paramilitaries to destroy leftist rebel groups.

And he still wields considerable power over conservative politics in Colombia, playing kingmaker in the selection of new party leaders.

He was found guilty of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him.

A judge on Monday found him guilty on two charges: interfering with witnesses and "procedural fraud."

Uribe insists he is innocent and is expected to appeal the ruling.

A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was a close ally of the United States and retains ties to the American right.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier decried Uribe's prosecution, claiming, without providing evidence, that it represented "the weaponization of Colombia's judicial branch by radical judges."

Recent opinion polls revealed him to be the South American country's best loved politician.

In 2019, thousands protested in Medellin and capital Bogota when he was first indicted in the case.

On Monday, a smaller group of followers gathered outside the court wearing masks fashioned after his image and chanting: "Uribe, innocent!"

The investigation against Uribe began in 2018 and has had numerous twists and turns, with several attorneys general seeking to close the case.

It gained new impetus under Attorney General Luz Camargo, picked by current President Gustavo Petro -- himself a former guerrilla and a political arch-foe of Uribe.

More than 90 witnesses testified in the trial, which opened in May 2024.

During the trial, prosecutors produced evidence of at least one ex-paramilitary fighter who said he was contacted by Uribe to change his story.

The former president is also under investigation in other matters.

He has testified before prosecutors in a preliminary probe into a 1997 paramilitary massacre of farmers when he was governor of the western Antioquia department.

A complaint has also been filed against him in Argentina, where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world.

That complaint stems from Uribe's alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the Colombian military when he was president.

Uribe insists his trial is a product of "political vengeance."

At least seven people have died in Conakry due to heavy overnight rain, exposing the city’s vulnerability to extreme weather.

The downpour, which struck overnight from Wednesday 30 July to Thursday 31 July, brought chaos to numerous neighbourhoods, collapsing homes and sweeping vehicles into the floodwaters.

The government said seven people had died, though civil protection services suggest the death toll could be even higher, as several people are still missing.

Several buildings collapsed during the downpour, trapping residents in floodwaters, local media and witnesses said.

A resident of the Soumanbosiya neighbourhood, Benjamin Kamano, lost his three children and their mother when part of their home collapsed.

“I heard the children calling for help,” he told AFP reporters. “I got up quickly and found myself underwater… There was no one in the children's room. I realised they were gone, because their crying had stopped.”

The municipality of Matoto – Conakry’s largest – also suffered heavily, with at least five reported deaths after two homes collapsed.

The rainfall recorded in Conakry on Wednesday evening reached 70.8mm, according to national meteorological services.

The effects have been compounded by longstanding urban planning issues, with unregulated construction and blocked drainage systems making many parts of the city vulnerable to severe flooding.

Since the end of June, flooding in Guinea has resulted in at least 15 deaths and affected over 1,200 households.

The director of the National Agency for Emergency and Humanitarian Disaster Management, Lancei Touré, acknowledged that poor infrastructure and overwhelmed drainage systems have exacerbated the crisis.

In a statement issued Thursday, the government expressed “deep sadness” over the loss of life and widespread damage.

It pledged ongoing efforts to assist affected families and address the root causes of the city’s vulnerability to extreme weather events.

As the rainy season continues, many residents remain on high alert.

There are growing calls for sustainable urban reforms to better protect Guinea’s capital from future disasters.

(With AFP)

Jakarta (AFP) – An Indonesian volcano spewed a 10-kilometre (6.2-miles) molten plume of ash topped by lightning into the Friday night sky, weeks after another huge eruption triggered dozens of flight cancellations in Bali.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,584-metre-high volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted at 20:48 pm (1248 GMT), the volcanology agency said in a statement.

"The height of the eruption column was observed to be approximately 10,000 metres above the summit," the agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.

The eruption was triggered by a gas buildup in recent weeks, geological agency head Muhammad Wafid said in a statement.

He also warned of the possibility of hazardous lahar floods -- a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials -- if heavy rain occurs, particularly for communities near rivers.

Tourists and residents were told to avoid a six-kilometre radius around the crater.

Pictures shared by the country's geological agency showed volcanic lightning near the top of the ash plume.

Last month, the volcano spewed a colossal 18-kilometre tower of ash, scrapping 24 flights at Bali’s international airport.

There were no immediate reports of cancelled flights after Friday’s eruption.

Laki-Laki, which means man in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1,703-metre (5,587-foot) volcano named Perempuan, after the Indonesian word for woman.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire".

Seoul (AFP) – South Korea's impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol lay on his prison cell floor in his underwear to resist attempts to interrogate him, prosecutors said Friday.

Prosecutors obtained a fresh arrest warrant on Thursday to forcibly bring the former leader in for questioning over allegations of election tampering.

However, they were "unable to do so due to his strong refusal", prosecutor Oh Jeong-hee told reporters.

"The suspect refused arrest while lying on the floor without wearing his prison-issued clothing," she said.

"Due to concerns over safety incidents, physical force was withheld, and the execution of the warrant was temporarily suspended."

Yoon was wearing "a sleeveless top and prison-issued briefs," prosecutors said, calling it the "most appropriate way" to describe his attire given the "serious nature of the situation".

There was no information on the colour of his underclothing, they added.

Prosecutors informed Yoon they would have to carry out physical force if necessary in the next attempt.

Yoon was arrested after he tried to impose martial law on December 3, sending troops to parliament to prevent lawmakers from voting down his declaration and plunging the country into political turmoil.

He faces a litany of charges, from insurrection to election tampering, but has refused multiple times to appear at his summons.

Yoon's legal team said the prosecutors had shown a "disturbing disregard" for "basic human decency".

"The special counsel turned what should have been a press briefing into a stage for personal humiliation," Yoon's lawyer Yoo Jeong-hwa told AFP.

"What kind of legal institution in a civilised country gives a real-time report and commentary to journalists on a detainee's clothing, especially in a cramped cell nearing 40 degrees (Celsius) (104 degrees Fahrenheit)?"

Yoon's lawyers said the former president suffers from "several underlying conditions that pose significant challenges to maintaining his health", making it difficult for him to fully cooperate with the investigation.

San Salvador (AFP) – El Salvador's lawmakers on Thursday adopted a constitutional reform to abolish presidential term limits and allow current leader Nayib Bukele -- who enjoys overwhelming majority support in parliament -- to run indefinitely.

The reform, reviewed under an expedited procedure, was adopted by Bukele's 57 supporters in the Legislative Assembly, and voted against by only three opposition members.

The move will allow re-election "without reservations," extend the term in office from five to six years, and do away with a second round of voting in elections as Bukele tightens his grip on the Central American nation.

The 44-year-old self-described "cool dictator" has been president since 2019. He was re-elected in 2024 with a whopping majority after a Supreme Court ruling allowed him to bypass a constitutional ban on successive terms.

That election handed Bukele control over state institutions and the parliament, which adopted the changes slammed as anti-democratic by the opposition -- the same day as it began debating them.

Thank you for making history, fellow deputies," said the president of the Legislative Assembly Ernesto Castro, from the ruling Nuevas Ideas party, after counting the votes.

"This day, democracy has died in El Salvador... The masks were removed," said opposition lawmaker Marcela Villatoro during the parliamentary session, criticizing the proposal being brought to parliament as the country begins a week of summer holidays.

Lawmakers voted to synchronize legislative, presidential and municipal elections, and the shorten the current presidential term by two years from 2029, with general elections due in March 2027.

With the constitutional reforms, Bukele will be able to run again.

Bukele enjoys enormous support at home for his heavy-handed campaign against criminal gangs, which has reduced violence in the country to historic lows.

But it has also drawn sharp criticism from international rights groups.

His government is also facing accusations of repression against rights activists and critics of Bukele's government, which has forced dozens of journalists and campaigners into exile.

"The reforms lead to a total imbalance in the democracy that no longer exists," Miguel Montenegro, director of NGO the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, told AFP.

In April 2024, the parliament approved a reform so that constitutional changes no longer require ratification in another legislative session.

Opposition politician Claudia Ortiz slammed the reform as "an abuse of power and a caricature of democracy."

Beijing (AFP) – Nvidia chips do not contain "backdoors" allowing remote access, the US tech giant has said, after Beijing summoned company representatives to discuss "serious security issues".

The California-based company is a world-leading producer of AI semiconductors, and this month became the first company to hit $4 trillion in market value.

But it has become entangled in trade tensions between China and the United States, and Washington effectively restricts which chips Nvidia can export to China on national security grounds.

"Cybersecurity is critically important to us. Nvidia does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them," Nvidia said in a statement Thursday.

A key issue has been Chinese access to the "H20" -- a less powerful version of Nvidia's AI processing units that the company developed specifically for export to China.

Nvidia said this month it would resume H20 sales to China after Washington pledged to remove licensing curbs that had halted exports.

But the tech giant still faces obstacles -- US lawmakers have proposed plans to require Nvidia and other manufacturers of advanced AI chips to include built-in location tracking capabilities.

Beijing's top internet regulator said Thursday it had summoned Nvidia representatives to discuss recently discovered "serious security issues" involving the H20.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said it had asked Nvidia to "explain the security risks of vulnerabilities and backdoors in its H20 chips sold to China and submit relevant supporting materials".

China is aiming to reduce reliance on foreign tech by promoting Huawei's domestically developed 910C chip as an alternative to the H20, said Jost Wubbeke of the Sinolytics consultancy.

"From that perspective, the US decision to allow renewed exports of the H20 to China could be seen as counterproductive, as it might tempt Chinese hyperscalers to revert to the H20, potentially undermining momentum behind the 910C and other domestic alternatives," he said.

Other hurdles to Nvidia's operations in China are the sputtering economy, beset by a years-long property sector crisis, and heightened trade headwinds under US President Donald Trump.

CEO Jensen Huang said during a visit to Beijing this month that the company remained committed to serving local customers, adding that he had been assured during talks with top Chinese officials that the country was "open and stable".

Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump, who is remodeling the White House to his tastes, will build a massive ballroom for hosting official receptions, one of the largest projects at the US executive mansion in over a century.

Trump himself and unspecified donors will foot the bill for the $200 million project, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing on Thursday.

"For 150 years, presidents, administrations and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex," the spokeswoman said.

"There's never been a president that was good at ballrooms," the 79-year-old president and former real estate developer told reporters of the latest bid to leave his mark on the White House.

"I'm good at building things, and we'll get it built quickly and on time. It'll be beautiful," said Trump, assuring that the character of the original building would be preserved.

The new structure will span over 8,000 square meters (90,000 square feet) and have space to seat 650 people, according to Leavitt.

Work on the ballroom -- one of Trump's long-time ambitions -- will begin in September and is expected to be completed "well before" the end of his second term in January 2029, Leavitt said.

The hope is it will host grand state dinners, given in honor of foreign heads of state visiting Washington. Until now, these were generally done by erecting a huge tent on the White House grounds.

A model of the ballroom presented by the government shows it will be a white building with tall windows. Its columns and front look reminiscent of the main White House building, a facade is known worldwide.

The ballroom building will replace the East Wing, which usually houses the offices of the US first lady.

Trump, who does not shy away from the gaudy, has also redone the Oval Office to splash the room in gold -- from the stars surrounding the presidential seal on the ceiling, to the gold statues on the fireplace, to the mantel itself.

The project is shaping up to be one of the most significant to break ground at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since renovation and expansion works undertaken by President Theodore Roosevelt at the start of the 20th century.

President Harry Truman also oversaw notable construction work between 1948 and 1952, but did so without changing the external structure.

Trump has said for some time that he wants to build a White House ballroom inspired by his own properties.

On Thursday, he praised the newly built, lavish ballroom -- named after himself -- at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, one of dozens of properties owned by the Trump family.

It will also be inspired by the ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, which has served as the model for Trump's remodeling of the White House to suit himself.

The Republican billionaire, inspired by the patios of Mar-a-Lago, recently ripped up the lawn at the White House's historic Rose Garden and is paving that area, where official events are often held.

He is flying two huge American flags outside the White House, which has been the residence and workplace of American presidents since 1800.

Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP) – After a two-year around-the-world ocean voyage inspired by Charles Darwin, scientists and crew sailed home on a historic vessel into Rotterdam Thursday bearing a warning about climate change -- but also a message of hope.

The majestic three-masted Oosterschelde, the last remaining vessel from a fleet of Dutch schooners that criss-crossed the globe in the early 20th century, arrived to a welcome befitting a voyage of more than 40,000 nautical miles (74,000 kilometres, 46,000 miles).

Ceremonially escorted by more than a dozen vessels ranging from tall ships to steamships, all blaring horns, the Oosterschelde received a "water cannon salute" from fire service boats, as hundreds waved and cheered from the banks.

Like Darwin in 1831, the Oosterschelde departed the British port of Plymouth in August 2023 to embark on a voyage of discovery that took in the major stops explored during the British naturalist's world-changing mission aboard the HMS Beagle.

From the Falkland Islands to the southern tips of Africa, South America and Australia, the trip closely shadowed Darwin's voyage that inspired his groundbreaking theory of natural selection described in "On the Origin of Species".

Aboard the Oosterschelde at various points of the voyage were some of the world's best young conservationists, 100 scientists aged 18-25, selected to study a species also observed by Darwin, himself aged 22 at the time of his trip.

Giant tortoises, Chilean dolphins, and howler monkeys were just some of the weird and wonderful creatures the young "Darwin Leaders" investigated, tracking changes since their appearance in "Origin of Species" two centuries ago.

With "online classrooms" onboard and slick social media output, the mission also hoped to inspire a new generation around the message: "Conservation isn't about what we've lost, it's about protecting what we still have."

One of the Darwin Leaders, 23-year-old Lotta Baten, spent a week on the ship and conducted a study into the impact of tourism on forests in Tenerife, Spain.

She said only roughly four percent of the forest that Darwin would have seen from the Beagle is still alive today, with much torn down to support the tourism industry.

"There's barely anything left, mainly the strips around the coast," the Dutch-German scientist told AFP.

She said it was "quite something" to follow in the footsteps of Darwin, but noted that the botanist's legacy is divided, as a European in colonial times.

"He basically explored and discovered things that maybe had already been explored and discovered by people at the places themselves. And then he claimed he discovered them," said Baten.

Science co-ordinator Rolf Schreuder admitted that "it's not a rosy picture", with habitat loss and climate change all transforming the environment beyond what Darwin would have recognised.

"You see the natural world degrading in many places," the 55-year-old told AFP.

But Schreuder, like many on board, found the mission inspiring rather than depressing.

He ran more than 100 local projects during the trip with people seeking to preserve their landscapes.

"We met so many great people that are actually on the ground working on the survival of those species," he said.

He found himself inspired too by the young scientists, "full of ideas, full of commitment and determination to really make a difference."

Crew member Daan van Roosmalen was a boy of 17 when he set sail on the Oosterschelde. He returned to his native Netherlands having just turned 19.

"I've just been to so many places. To the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia. We went so far away and to then sail back up this river and see the skyline of Rotterdam again is just super special," he told AFP.

He said he hoped the round-the-world voyage completed by scientists and crew his age would send a message to his generation.

"I think it's very important that we keep inspiring young people to look after our world, because we are going to be the ones taking over," he said.

"So to see all these young conservationists putting so much effort in Mother Earth... I think that should inspire more people to also take care of our planet."

And what of Darwin, the inspiration behind the mission?

"I would say he would have been enthused by his fellow young people taking care of this natural world, which he described so nicely," said Schreuder.

"I think he would hop on this boat again and do another tour."