Dutch King Willem-Alexander opened the gates to one of Europe's largest gardening fairs, a once-in-a-decade show focusing this year on how to make cities greener.

But critics have denounced the show, which features displays by 200 participants from 25 countries, as a "money pit" that has massively over-run its budget.

The Floriade 2022 exposition, which runs until early October, is expected to draw more than two million enthusiasts to the central city of Almere.

The Floriade 2022 shows "what a green city could be like in the future... what kind of materials could be used for this and what role the horticultural sector could play in it", said its curator, Annemarie Jorritsma, a former mayor of the city.

"On top of that, when the show is finished it will be a fantastic residential area," she told AFP.

Each decade, a different Dutch city gets to host the gardening extravaganza. Almere, the latest, is a city that was itself created by the Dutch by draining part of the former Zuiderzee bay to reclaim land.

As well as being a showcase for Dutch horticulture, each participating country has its own pavilion.

China's is showing "new ways of using bamboo", said Jorritsma. Italy is focusing on permaculture, while France shows how metallic imitations of trees can be used to cool cities.

The German pavilion is decorated with plants including garden plants, trees, food crops and wildflowers to form a "living ecosystem whose appearance would change throughout the exhibition", organisers said.

"The Floriade is the best place to show what countries have to change their cities," Detlef Wintzen, one of the exhibitors at the German pavilion, told AFP.

- Cost controversy -
The event has however been criticised for budget overruns that threatened its very existence.

Dutch media have reported that Almere has significantly over-run its 10-million-euro budget ($10.8 million) for the project.

Financial daily Financieele Dagblad estimated that costs could be as high as 200 million euros -- with losses of up to 100 million -- but said there was a "thick fog" hanging over the official costs.

First held in Rotterdam in 1960, the organisers of the last three Floriades -- 1992, 2002 and 2012 -- have all been criticised for losses totalling millions of euros.

And some media reports have even suggested that this could be the last-ever edition of the show.

Almere -- the country's youngest city -- plans to have a "green residential area by the water" after the end of the Floriade designed by Dutch architect Winy Maas.

Some 660 homes will be built in the "Hortus" district, many of them made from durable materials such as moss and mushrooms.

An imposing colourful building in the middle of the exhibition will eventually serve as social housing, and "floating homes" are also planned.

Members of the public can visit the Floriade from Thursday onwards.

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A sandy-coloured tower glints in the sunlight and dominates the skyline of the Swedish town of Skelleftea as Scandinavia harnesses its wood resources to lead a global trend towards erecting eco-friendly high-rises.

The Sara Cultural Centre is one of the world's tallest timber buildings, made primarily from spruce and towering 75 metres (246 feet) over rows of snow-dusted houses and surrounding forest.

The 20-storey timber structure, which houses a hotel, a library, an exhibition hall and theatre stages, opened at the end of 2021 in the northern town of 35,000 people.

Forests cover much of Sweden's northern regions, most of it spruce, and building timber homes is a longstanding tradition.

Swedish architects now want to spearhead a revolution and steer the industry towards more sustainable construction methods as large wooden buildings sprout up in Sweden and neighbouring Nordic nations thanks to advancing industry techniques.

"The pillars together with the beams, the interaction with the steel and wood, that is what carries the 20 storeys of the hotel," Therese Kreisel, a Skelleftea urban planning official, tells AFP during a tour of the cultural centre.

Even the lift shafts are made entirely of wood. "There is no plaster, no seal, no isolation on the wood," she says, adding that this "is unique when it comes to a 20-storey building".

- Building materials go green -
The main advantage of working with wood is that it is more environmentally friendly, proponents say.

Cement -- used to make concrete -- and steel, two of the most common construction materials, are among the most polluting industries because they emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.

But wood emits little CO2 during its production and retains the carbon absorbed by the tree even when it is cut and used in a building structure.

It is also lighter in weight, requiring less of a foundation.

According to the UN's IPCC climate panel, wood as a construction material can be up to 30 times less carbon intensive than concrete, and hundreds or even thousands times less than steel.

Global efforts to cut emissions have sparked an upswing in interest for timber structures, according to Jessica Becker, the coordinator of Trastad (City of Wood), an organisation lobbying for more timber construction.

Skelleftea's tower "showcases that is it possible to build this high and complex in timber", says Robert Schmitz, one of the project's two architects.

"When you have this as a backdrop for discussions, you can always say, 'We did this, so how can you say it's not possible?'."

Only an 85-metre tower recently erected in Brumunddal in neighbouring Norway and an 84-metre structure in Vienna are taller than the Sara Cultural Centre.

A building under construction in the US city of Milwaukee and due to be completed soon is expected to clinch the title of the world's tallest, at a little more than 86 metres.

- 'Stacked like Lego' -
Building the cultural centre in spruce was "much more challenging" but "has also opened doors to really think in new ways", explains Schmitz's co-architect Oskar Norelius.

For example, the hotel rooms were made as pre-fabricated modules that were then "stacked like Lego pieces on site", he says.

The building has won several wood architecture prizes.

Anders Berensson, another Stockholm architect whose material of choice is wood, says timber has many advantages.

"If you missed something in the cutting you just take the knife and the saw and sort of adjust it on site. So it's both high tech and low tech at the same time", he says.

In Stockholm, an apartment complex made of wood, called Cederhusen and featuring distinctive yellow and red cedar shingles on the facade, is in the final stages of completion.

It has already been named the Construction of the Year by Swedish construction industry magazine Byggindustrin.

"I think we can see things shifting in just the past few years actually," says Becker.

"We are seeing a huge change right now, it's kind of the tipping point. And I'm hoping that other countries are going to catch on, we see examples even in England and Canada and other parts of the world."

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"Go pee on the rhubarb!"

Engineer Fabien Esculier has never forgotten his grandmother's unconventional approach to gardening -- in fact, it has inspired his career.

Human urine may seem like a crude way of fertilising plants in the era of industrial agriculture, but as researchers look for ways to reduce reliance on chemicals and cut environmental pollution, some are growing increasingly interested in the potential of pee.

Plants need nutrients -- nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium -- and we ingest these through food, before "excreting them, mostly through urine", said Esculier, who runs the OCAPI research programme in France looking at food systems and human waste management.

This presents an opportunity, scientists think.

Fertilisers using synthetic nitrogen, in use for around a century, have helped drive up yields and boost agricultural production to feed a growing human population.

But when they are used in large quantities, they make their way into river systems and other waterways, causing choking blooms of algae that can kill fish and other aquatic life.

Meanwhile, emissions from this agricultural ammonia can combine with vehicle fumes to create dangerous air pollution, according to the United Nations.

Chemical fertilisers also create emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, contributing to climate change.

But the pollution does not just come directly from the fields.

"Modern-day sanitation practices represent one of the primary sources of nutrient pollution," said Julia Cavicchi, of the United States Rich Earth Institute, adding that urine is responsible for around 80 percent of the nitrogen found in wastewater and more than half of the phosphorus.

To replace chemical fertilisers, you would need many times the weight in treated urine, she said.

But she added: "Since the production of synthetic nitrogen is a significant source of greenhouse gases, and phosphorus is a limited and non-renewable resource, urine diverting systems offer a long-term resilient model for human waste management and agricultural production."

One 2020 study by UN researchers found that global wastewater has the theoretical potential to offset 13 percent of the world's demand for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in agriculture.

But pee diversion is easier said than done.

- 'Very radical' -
In the past, urban excrement was transported to agricultural fields to be used as fertiliser along with animal manure, before chemical alternatives began to displace them.

But now if you want to collect urine at source, you need to rethink toilets and the sewage system itself.

A pilot project to do just that began in Sweden in the early 1990s in a selection of eco-villages.

Now there are projects in Switzerland, Germany, the US, South Africa, Ethiopia, India, Mexico and France.

"It takes a long time to introduce ecological innovations and especially an innovation such as urine separation which is very radical," said Tove Larsen, a researcher at Switzerland's Eawag aquatic research institute.

She said the early urine-diverting toilets were considered unsightly and impractical, or raised concerns about unpleasant odours.

But she hopes a new model -- developed by the Swiss company Laufen and Eawag -- should solve these difficulties, with a design that funnels urine into a separate container.

Once the pee is collected it needs to be processed.

Urine is not normally a major carrier of disease, so the World Health Organization recommends leaving it for a period of time, although it is also possible to pasteurise it.

Then there are various techniques for concentrating or even dehydrating the liquid, reducing its volume and the cost of transporting it to the fields.

- 'Surprise' -
Another challenge is overcoming public squeamishness.

"This subject touches on the intimate," said Ghislain Mercier, of the publicly-owned planning authority Paris et Metropole Amenagement.

It is developing an eco-district in the French capital with shops and 600 housing units, which will use urine collection to fertilise green spaces in the city.

He sees significant potential in large buildings like offices, as well as houses not connected to mains drainage.

Even restaurants. Also in Paris is the 211 restaurant, equipped with waterless toilets that collect urine.

"We have had quite positive feedback," said owner Fabien Gandossi.

"People are a little surprised, but they see little difference compared to a traditional system."

But are people ready to go to the next level and eat urine-fertilised foods?

One study on the subject highlighted found differences from country to country. The acceptance rate is very high in China, France and Uganda for example, but low in Portugal and Jordan.

- Water works -
Prices of synthetic fertilisers are currently soaring because of shortages caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has also spurred countries to consider shoring up their food security.

That could be an opportunity help "make the subject more visible", said Mercier.

Marine Legrand, an anthropologist working with Esculier at the OCAPI network, said that there are still "obstacles to overcome".

But she believes that water shortages and increased awareness of the toll of pollution will help change minds.

"We are beginning to understand how precious water is," she told AFP.

"So it becomes unacceptable to defecate in it."

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Behind an unmarked gate, on a residential street in South Africa's Soweto township, Thami Mazibuko makes his way down a corridor and up a stairwell, all lined with books.

Here in his childhood home, the 36-year-old has turned the upper level into a bookstore and library, seeded with 30 of his own books, now overflowing with hundreds of donations.

The slender man's face lights up as he rummages through the stacks to find some of the most popular reads -- currently Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" and Sol Plaatje's "Mhudi", the first novel in English by a black South African.

"Books, they put you in other people's shoes," Mazibuko told AFP. "I want people to visit here, and be transported into other communities."

As a child, he can't remember having any books in his home.

After he finished school, he left Soweto and moved into the formerly white suburbs of Johannesburg, staying with relatives who were artists, with a home full of books.

He developed an insatiable appetite for reading, even bring books into the reggae club where he liked to listen to music.

When he decided to move back home, he brought his growing personal collection with him.

"Readers who do not have access to books, your old aunties, they are like 'you have books! Can I borrow one?'" he recalled. "And I am like, okay aunty it's fine."

So began the Soweto Book Cafe, officially founded in 2018.

Now, he sells books to those with enough money to buy them. And he offers a membership fee of 50 rand ($3.50) a year for people who want to borrow books -- though in reality, he loans them to almost anyone who asks.

"That's one of the reasons I started this place, to advance literacy and to provide the community with access to books and information, which is a basic human right," he said.

- 'Reading Is Super Cool' -
The Book Cafe also hosts a youth group, called Reading Is Super Cool, with 50 regular members from ages four to 16. Older kids read to younger ones, and Mazibuko teaches them board games like chess and go.

Sindisiwe Zulu, 27, started the book club to help her niece get through school.

"She was failing dismally and I asked her," why.

The reply was that she didn't know how to read: 'I don't understand a thing that is why I am failing.'

"I have a lot of books at home, and I initially started with her and a few friends, and started the book club," Zulu said.

Neighbourhood start-ups like the Book Cafe took on even greater importance during South Africa's stringent Covid lockdown, when public libraries were closed for more than a year.

Small bookshops such as this one proliferate across Johannesburg, usually offering second-hand books, but also a sense of community.

The last major survey of Johannesburg's books scene was completed a decade ago, as part of the World Cities Culture Report, which found the city has 1,020 bookshops -- just five less than Paris, and about 250 more than New York.

Mazibuko likes to focus on African literature, and has hosted book launches and readings on his unassuming residential street.

More importantly, he provides a quiet, safe space for his neighbourhood.

"I come to do my assignments, read and de-stress," said 14-year-old Anele Ndlovu, one of the Soweto Book Cafe's regulars.

"It's where I like to think about what I want in my life."

Her dream is to go into finance, and become a forex trader. So while she's enjoying a Michael Connelly's thriller at the moment, she knows what she'd like to read next: "Books that can teach us how life is, and how markets work."

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Brazilian businesswoman Luiza Trajano has made it onto a lot of lists: TIME's most influential people, Forbes' billionaires, the biggest fortunes in Brazil...

But although she has been touted as a potential contender in Brazil's presidential elections this year, there is one list she says she is determined to stay off: the ballot.

With the country deeply polarized ahead of October's polls, "I want to unite Brazil," not divide it further, says the 73-year-old entrepreneur, who made her fortune building her family store, Magazine Luiza, into one of Latin America's biggest online retailers.

Not that Trajano, a household name in Brazil, is shying from the spotlight as the race heats up between far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and his nemesis, leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Known for her trailblazing work promoting women's equality, fighting racial discrimination and pushing to speed up Brazil's vaccination campaign against Covid-19, Trajano says she remains engaged as ever in this clutch election year.

"I want to take Brazil where I think it should be, where I think it deserves to be," she told AFP in an interview.

"I want to end these deep divisions that are causing the country a lot of harm," said the elegantly dressed businesswoman, a forceful speaker with an imposing personality offset by her contagious laugh and bright red lipstick.

- 'Different' odyssey -
Plenty of Brazilians would like to see Trajano get into politics.

With the business sector and political middle desperately seeking centrist alternatives to Lula and Bolsonaro, her name was floated as a potential "third-way" candidate.

There was also talk Lula could ask her to be his running mate.

"I've been invited plenty of times (to run), including for president," Trajano said.

But she added she doesn't want labels, beyond the ones she already has: chair of the board at Magalu, as her company is popularly known, and president of Women of Brazil, her 100,000-member empowerment initiative.

"I'm nonpartisan, but political," she said.

That has not stopped Bolsonaro from attacking her as a "socialist businesswoman."

Lula has meanwhile sung her praises.

When TIME named Trajano to its list of 100 most influential people last year, the ex-president (2003-2010) wrote the magazine's blurb on her.

"In a world where billionaires burn their fortunes on space adventures and yachts, Luiza is dedicated to a different kind of odyssey... building a commercial giant while constructing a better Brazil," waxed the Workers' Party (PT) founder.

But Trajano wants to be clear: The PT has "never" asked her to run for office, she said.

- Salesgirl to chairwoman -
Trajano grew up the only child of a modest family in the city of Franca, in southeastern Brazil.

She started working at 12 during school vacation, helping out at the household goods store founded in 1957 by her aunt, also named Luiza.

"I had the fortune to come from a family of women entrepreneurs, who believed in the power of women at a time when most women didn't work outside the home," said Trajano.

She took the helm in 1991, and soon turned the business into one of the biggest retail chains in Brazil, with nearly 1,500 stores, and an e-commerce pioneer.

"I've broken a lot of beliefs that limited me," said Trajano.

"I love doing that."

- No slowing down -
Trajano rejects Bolsonaro's label of "socialist." But paradoxically, the fifth-richest woman in Brazil, whose fortune is estimated at $1.4 billion, says she is no fan of capitalism either, calling it "savage."

She prefers to focus on ways to better society.

When Covid-19 hit Brazil hard and Bolsonaro flouted expert advice on containing it, Trajano mobilized a campaign called "United for the Vaccine" that rallied private-sector support for the public-health system.

Seeking to fight structural racism in Brazil, she launched a trainee program at Magazine Luiza in 2020 to recruit promising black employees -- drawing both applause and criticism.

Now she is setting her sights on including more women in politics.

Women currently hold just 15 percent of seats in Brazil's Congress. Trajano wants them to hold half.

She won't run herself -- but she's not slowing down, either.

"I change cycles, but I'll never retire," she said.

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In a country where a Muay Thai right hook is more familiar than a batter's hook shot, Thailand's pioneering women cricketers are winning hearts with smiles, dance moves -- and skill.

In contrast to Asian powerhouses India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where the game has deep historical roots going back to British imperial rule, cricket remains in its infancy in Thailand and is still virtually unknown.

Thailand qualified for the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup in Australia, where the hosts beat India in the final, but further progress is being hampered by minimal exposure on TV and lack of access to equipment.

They have suffered heartbreak too.

Thailand were on course to reach the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand in March-April, but saw their dream shattered when the qualifying tournament was abandoned because of the pandemic.

None of it helps when trying to raise awareness of cricket in Thailand.

All-rounder Chanida Sutthiruang played in the T20 World Cup, where Thailand failed to win in four games and bowed out in the group stage, and says that even her own family struggle to grasp the sport.

"Most people in Thailand associate cricket with hockey. My parents don't understand what cricket is," the 28-year-old farmer's daughter told AFP.

- Making their mark -
At early morning training on the outskirts of Bangkok, Natthakan Chantam is all smiles as a bowling machine spits 100kph (60mph) deliveries at her.

"I love the celebrations when you score a run or get someone out... there are celebrations in every moment of the game," the 26-year-old opener, Thailand's top run-scorer at the T20 World Cup, told AFP.

"I think that's the charm of cricket."

Thailand made their international debut in 2007 but have drastically improved in the past three years, said their Indian head coach Harshal Pathak.

"We like to play cricket with an aggressive brand... there's an intent in everything -- the way we bat, the way we field, the way we bowl. There's a businesslike attitude," he told AFP.

"The girls want to make a mark for themselves."

He praised the team's spin attack and said fielding was another strength, with batting slowly developing.

"We're at a stage where we are mastering how to complete games and how to build innings," he said.

The country's cricket association started offering full- and part-time contracts about 10 years ago, which stopped a talent drain caused by women from poorer rural backgrounds being unable to afford to play.

- 'We felt empty' -
But their biggest recent setback was the failure to reach the 50-over Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, the jewel in the sport's international calendar.

Thailand won three out of four matches but the November-December qualifying series in Zimbabwe was abandoned because of the Omicron variant emerging in southern Africa.

The three remaining World Cup places were handed out based on one-day international rankings, meaning Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies qualified instead.

"We felt so empty," Sutthiruang said.

"One minute we were celebrating a win and then a minute later we were told we were disqualified and we had to rush to the airport to get back to Thailand because of Omicron."

The team also missed out on a place in the latest ICC Women's Championship, denying them a chance to test themselves regularly against top sides.

"It sets them back by three years," women's cricket historian Raf Nicholson, from Bournemouth University in England, told AFP.

She said the Thai team needed to play against top-10 nations to take their game to the next level, rather than beating lower-tier teams.

The team could become a model for other nations which have little cricketing history but are keen to develop the game, she said.

"Thailand is an example to any country without a long history of cricket that if you invest enough and are committed enough, good things will happen," she said.

- 'How cool is this?' -
The team now have their sights set on qualifying for the next T20 World Cup in South Africa in February next year.

Whatever happens, former Australian captain turned commentator Lisa Sthalekar said they will continue to win hearts with their captivating smiles, on-field dancing and traditional bowing.

"They played in a spirit... reminded you of when you first started playing the game," Sthalekar said.

"It wasn't: 'I'm in a T20 World Cup, it's do or die, we have to win.'

"It's like: 'How cool is this?'"

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France's prestigious Michelin Guide is among the world's most influential references on gourmet dining, its star ratings highly coveted and sometimes controversial.

- More than 120 years old -
French tyre manufacturer Michelin brought out a travel guide in 1900, the early days of the automobile, to encourage motorists to take to the road and so boost its business.

The free, red guidebook included maps, instructions on how to change tyres and lists of mechanics and hotels along the route.

The first run of 35,000 copies was such a success that guides for Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Spain followed.

In 2021, in a small revolution, an edition was published for those wanting to discover France by regional train, rather than by car.

- Star rating -
The guide included restaurant listings from 1920, when it started charging for the publication. It began sending out undercover inspectors, and from the early 1930s introduced its famous star ratings.

Michelin says it issues up to three stars based on the quality of the ingredients used; mastery of flavour and cooking techniques; the personality of the chef in his cuisine; value for money; and consistency between visits.

One star indicates "High quality cooking, worth a stop"; two stars is for "Excellent cooking, worth a detour"; and three rates "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey".

Of about 20,000 international restaurants listed, only around 130 have attained the highest distinction.

In 2021, the Guide was criticised for keeping its selection in France going, despite the fact that restaurants were closed due to the Covid pandemic. Its competitors had decided to cancel their awards.

- Michelin goes global -
In 2005, the Michelin Guide branched out of Europe with a New York guide, followed in 2007 by editions for San Francisco then Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

It moved to Asia with a Tokyo version in 2008 when 90,000 copies, in English and Japanese, flew off the shelves in 48 hours.

Michelin published its first Shanghai guide in 2016 and today there are versions for several Asian cities, with Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo also covered.

Having long been criticised as biased towards formal dining, the guide in 2016 awarded a star to a Singapore street food outlet known for a braised chicken dish.

A famed Tokyo sushi restaurant, where Barack Obama is said to have enjoyed the best sushi of his life, was meanwhile dropped in 2019 after it stopped accepting reservations from the general public.

- A lot of pressure -
A handful of French restaurateurs have relinquished their Michelin status because of the stress of being judged by its inspectors, including Joel Robuchon (1996), Alain Senderens (2005), Olivier Roellinger (2008) and Sebastien Bras (2017).

The suicide in 2003 of three-star chef Bernard Loiseau was linked, among other reasons, to hints that his restaurant was about to lose its three stars.

Star Swiss chef Benoit Violier took his life in 2016, a day ahead of the release of the Michelin Guide, although his restaurant maintained its three-star rating.

The guide was taken to court for the first time in 2019 when celebrity chef Marc Veyrat sued it for stripping one of his restaurants of a third star and suggesting -- wrongly, he insists -- that he had used cheddar cheese in a souffle.

His lawsuit was rejected.

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