{"schema":"hottub-news/story/v1","story":"st_xw4b7k45trf5zta4iu4a","title":"Economic growth and deomcratic decline: the ‘cotton king’ who reshaped Benin","title_en":null,"outlets":1,"brief":null,"page":"https://hottub.news/stories/economic-growth-and-deomcratic-decline-the-cotton-king-who-reshaped-xw4b7k45tr","count":1,"items":[{"id":"n_xw4b7k45trf5zta4iu4a","seq":820603,"kind":"article","title":"Economic growth and deomcratic decline: the ‘cotton king’ who reshaped Benin","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/30/benin-patrice-talon-cotton-king","summary":"Patrice Talon has transformed the west African country’s economy and infrastructure at the expense of political freedom In recent years, a building boom has reshaped Benin’s largest city, Cotonou, and a shiny new coastal road has reduced journey times to Ouidah, the west African country’s spiritual and cultural capital. In the last decade, Benin’s annual GDP has grown from 3% to 6%, a regional high, and an industrial zone has been launched north-west of Cotonou to help…","published":"2026-09-30T04:00:11Z","seen":"2026-09-30T04:35:33Z","lang":"en","source":{"id":"kite-theguardian-com-3a4388","name":"theguardian.com","domain":"theguardian.com","outlet":{"wikidata":"Q11148","name":"The Guardian","type":"newspaper","country":"GB","designations":["daily newspaper","newspaper"]}},"via":"kite-theguardian-com-3a4388","topics":["africa","benin","world news"],"authors":["Eromo Egbejule in Cotonou and Porto Novo"],"entities":[{"id":"Q962","name":"Benin","type":"place"}],"image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ba9e4faa8267ae2e4d4796549c21882f5c45f2af/2031_931_2994_2395/master/2994.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&quality=85&s=753055ca40e81453cff966cd1fb00bec&width=140","mentions":2,"story":"st_xw4b7k45trf5zta4iu4a","category":"politics","category_p":0.4699999988079071,"category2":"economy-business","sentiment":"positive","tone":0.2800000011920929,"political":0.6700000166893005}]}