While classified as a "special government employee" and "senior advisor to the president," the South African-born tycoon has left indelible marks on American politics as Trump's most visible backer.

- The 'Nazi' salute -

Being Trump's right-hand man took on a new meaning when the world's richest person made headlines by dramatically throwing out his arm -- twice -- at a rally celebrating Trump's January 20 inauguration.

Standing at a podium bearing the presidential seal, Musk's right arm was straight, his hand open, his palm facing down. Historians agreed with Democratic politicians that the sharp gesture looked exactly like a Nazi salute.

The Tesla boss -- whose electric vehicles were soon dubbed "swasticars" by critics -- dismissed the claims, posting on his X social media platform: "The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired."

Whatever the display meant, Nazi-related jokes and memes dominated public reactions to the day meant to mark Trump's triumphant return to office.

- Endorsing Germany's extreme-right -

Hot off his salute shock, Musk participated virtually at a January rally for Germany's anti-immigration, ultra-nationalist AfD party.

Musk told the crowd "you really are the best hope" for Germany and urged them to be "proud of German culture and German values."

His endorsement of the AfD shook mainstream German parties, which said they viewed it as foreign interference by Trump's advisor. Vandals burned four Teslas in the streets of Berlin afterward.

Despite record gains at the polls, AfD ultimately took second place in the election behind Germany's conservatives.

- Brings kid to work -

Dressed down in MAGA hats and t-shirts, Musk became a near-constant presence in the White House. For a while, so did his four-year-old son named X.

During Musk's first appearance before reporters since his arrival in Washington to run DOGE, the child was trotted out and Trump said: "This is X and he's a great guy."

The boy was filmed picking his nose while his father boasted about his cost-cutting exploits while standing next to the Oval Office's Resolute Desk.

- Brings chainsaw to budget -

Unelected and unconfirmed by the Senate, Musk has repeatedly bashed the "unelected, fourth unconstitutional branch of government, which is the bureaucracy" and immediately made brutal cuts to the federal workforce and budget.

To illustrate his management style, Musk donned sunglasses and brandished a chainsaw on stage at a conservative get-together in Washington.

It was handed to him -- not turned on -- by right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei, who made the machine a symbol of slashing bureaucracy and state spending in his own country.

- Overshadowing Trump's cabinet -

At Trump's first cabinet meeting on February 26, Musk had a starring role even though he is not part of the cabinet. He stood looming near a doorway, wearing a t-shirt with the words "Tech Support" across the chest as the cabinet met.

Even without a literal seat at the table Musk, who helped bankroll Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, overshadowed the country's most powerful officials.

Trump downplayed this tension shortly before the meeting, posting on his social media platform: "ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON."

- Trump the Tesla salesman -

With Musk's Tesla car company taking a battering on the stock market and sales dropping sharply, and with vandals targeting his brand, the White House hosted a highly publicized test drive to boost Tesla's reputation.

With a Tesla Cybertruck and a Model S parked on the South Portico, Trump and Musk mounted a sales pitch.

Trump even said he had purchased one.

The stunt didn't ultimately turn around Tesla's plummeting sales, with the electric vehicle maker reporting a 71 percent drop in first-quarter profits.

- Fails to sway court election -

Money can't buy you everything, Musk discovered, after pouring $25 million into the most expensive court race in US history to try to get a pro-Trump Republican judge elected to Wisconsin's Supreme Court.

Musk paid voters $100 to sign a petition opposing "activist judges" and even handed out $1 million checks to voters, beseeching the public to select the conservative judge.

The court's docket was packed with precedent-setting cases over abortion and reproductive rights, the strength of public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries.

The US state instead chose a liberal judge by a wide margin in April, dismaying the billionaire -- who had spent roughly $277 million in 2024 in the national race to help get Trump elected.

- Tariff dissenter -

After Trump announced his sweeping US tariffs, deeply affecting major trading partners China and the European Union, Musk made the case for a free-trade zone between the United States and Europe.

This clashes with Trump's trade policy.

Shortly after, he called Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro, a longtime advocate for trade barriers, "dumber than a sack of bricks."

Navarro had taken aim at Tesla, saying the carmaker mostly sourced assembled major components from factories in Asia.

Musk retorted with studies he said showed "Tesla has the most American-made cars."

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt tried to play down the public feud, saying that "boys will be boys."

- Big, Beautiful Bill -

Musk said he was "disappointed" by Trump's divisive mega-bill, which offers sprawling tax relief and spending cuts, in a rare split with the Republican president.

The tech tycoon said the "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act" -- which passed the US House last week and now moves to the Senate -- would increase the deficit and undermine the work of DOGE, which has fired tens of thousands of people.

Critics warn the legislation will gut health care and balloon the national deficit by as much as $4 trillion over a decade.

"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk told CBS News.

Musk announced he was quitting his US government role shortly after.

cat/rmb/dw/sla/sms/cms/pbt

© Agence France-Presse

The 24-year-old demolished China's unseeded Lu Guangzu 21-6, 21-10 in just 37 minutes with his range of powerful smashes and deceptive drop shots.

Paris Olympics silver medallist Kunlavut will replace another Chinese player, Shi Yuqi, as world number one in a landmark for Thai badminton.

It was his fourth title this season.

"There will be pressure to be the best player in the world, but it's going to be a good pressure as that will give me the added motivation of doing my best to win all the tournaments I take part in," said Kunlavut, who lost the Paris final to Viktor Axelsen.

Denmark's two-time Olympic champion Axelsen, the former number one, is currently working his way back to fitness following surgery for a back problem.

In an all-Chinese women's final at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the fifth seed Chen Yufei outplayed second-seeded Wang Zhiyi 21-11, 21-11.

Chen was runner-up to world number one An Se-young last year.

Chen ended the South Korean's unbeaten run in 2025 by defeating her in the quarter-finals this year.

"I’m really very happy with this win because the draw was not exactly in my favour and every match felt like a battle," said Chen.

"To make it all the way to the final was honestly something unexpected.

"I felt like I was not under too much pressure this time, so I played more freely and showed what I’m capable of."

str/pst

© Agence France-Presse

It meant that Thailand's Sawang was all but certain to win gold in the men's 100-plus discus, javelin, shot put and 100 metres.

All he had to do was finish, and the former school principal reached the 100m line in his solo race in a very respectable 38.55 seconds.

"I'm proud he's brought honour to our family," his 73-year-old daughter Siripan, a fellow evergreen athlete, told AFP.

They are among 25,950 athletes from 107 countries at the two-week World Masters Games in Taipei.

Held every four years, the event brings together competitors aged 30 and over from all walks of life for the sheer joy of taking part.

This year's edition is more than twice as big as the 2024 Paris Olympics in terms of competitor numbers.

Sawang, a father of five, began exercising at the age of 90, inspired by Siripan and a desire to avoid becoming bedridden like his friends.

Three to four times a week, Sawang joins his daughter to trot on a beach near their home in Rayong in eastern Thailand.

"I sometimes like to walk, sometimes run," said Sawang, peering at AFP through aviator sunglasses as he explained his training regimen.

"Sometimes I do javelin throw, depending on what I have to do for competitions."

Other times, Sawang said he just goes to the local market.

It's proved to be a winning strategy, with the wiry centenarian winning more than 60 medals on the masters circuit.

Sawang added four more golds to his collection this week.

- 'Exercise makes life better' -

A smattering of spectators was in the stadium as Sawang competed in the shot put, his last event of the Games.

Before the first throw, Sawang lined up with other sprightly shot putters in the 80+, 85+ and 90+ age groups to be introduced.

Wearing knee braces, Sawang threw more than four metres on each of his five attempts, drawing cheers and claps from the younger athletes.

Siripan, who also won two gold medals and a silver in her throwing events, joined her father on the podium after he received his fourth gold.

"I'm so proud of my father that he can still do this and that he is strong," Siripan said.

"People admire him wherever he goes."

The next World Masters Games will be in Japan in 2027 after it was postponed twice during Covid-19.

Whether he competes there or in another masters event will be "up to my health", Sawang said.

Before athletics, Sawang used to work on his farm, where he grew durian and rubber trees.

Now he just focuses on sport.

"Excercise makes our life better and we get to meet friends who also exercise," Sawang said.

"It's like our lives are livelier and we do not feel lonely at home."

joy-amj/pst/fg

© Agence France-Presse

The French winemaker's daughter has stood in for Scarlett Johansson -- twice -- on "Avengers 2" and "Black Widow" and appeared in a dozen films including "The Batman".

The 32-year-old is one of a very rare breed of motorcycle stuntwomen, with a massive social media following that helped bring her from the vineyards of France's Champagne region to Hollywood.

AFP caught up with her on her own personal training track amid the otherwise tranquil vineyards near Epernay, the Champagne capital in northeast France.

Barely astride her red chrome Kawasaki, she was off down the track performing stunts with disconcerting dexterity, her long brown hair trailing out of her helmet in the wind.

"This is kind of my temple," she said after performing a series of gravity-defying tricks including standing with both feet on top of her 200-kilo (440-pound) machine and then flipping herself onto the handlebars.

"People think I'm working, but it mostly allows me to release all the pressure," said Lezito, whose lucky charm -- a plastic beaded bracelet -- is wrapped around the throttle of her bike.

- 'Doing wheelies in a field' -

The woman now popularly known as the "world stunt champion" (although there is no recognised world championship) began her acrobatics career young on the family holding near Epernay.

"I fell into stunts by watching videos," she told AFP. "No one in my family was in the motor sports world. My father only had an agricultural quad, not at all made for sports, but I started trying to do wheelies with it in a field."

Then she began posting her stunt videos on YouTube.

But she seemed destined to follow her family into wine and viticulture until she posted a video of a medley of tricks one day in March 2013 called "One out of Billion Girls".

"It was thanks to this video that they noticed me," she said.

The "they" being the team from the Hollywood blockbuster "Avengers 2".

A few months later, she abandoned her winemaking studies to fly to South Korea to perform Johansson's stunts in the movie.

Because she "adapted quickly" to stunt work, Lezito decided to go professional, appearing in several major movies, including "Inferno", "Millennium" and "The Batman" with Zoe Kravitz.

"I met all the actresses I've doubled for," she said.

- 30 million followers -

She has had her moments on some of the movies, although she insists she has never felt fear on those she does "at home" for social media.

"I had to ride through flames for 'Bad Girl', a film which was never released. On paper, it was very simple, but I didn't have a helmet," she recalled.

And in the summer of 2023 while filming David Fincher's "The Killer" in Paris, starring Michael Fassbender, Lezito had a severe fall.

"I flew off the motorcycle, I wasn't going very fast but fast enough to land on my head and the helmet cracked."

She ended up in the emergency room with a head injury.

It "made her think", she told AFP, and she "decided to take a break" and put her Hollywood career on hold.

Lezito now devotes herself to her social media channels, posting videos of her stunts to her more than 30 million followers -- including 9.5 million on Instagram, some two million more than MotoGP star Marc Marquez.

Her garage doubles as a studio, with her YouTube trophies and gifts from her fans displayed on the walls.

But it is also where she gets her hands dirty repairing her fleet of roughly 10 motorcycles.

"As long as I enjoy sitting on the motorcycle, I'll keep doing this," she said.

hdy/cyj/fg

© Agence France-Presse

Iran rejected the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the latest move in years-long efforts to restrict its nuclear activities over fears that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The IAEA report, seen by AFP, said Iran had sharply increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent, close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.

Iran rejected the report, which came amid high tensions in the Middle East over Israel's military offensive in Gaza, with Tehran's foreign ministry calling it a "political" manoeuvre.

The ministry accused Israel of providing "unreliable and misleading information" to the IAEA for the report, "contrary to the IAEA's principles of professional verification".

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier Saturday that he had received "elements" of a US proposal for a potential nuclear deal following five rounds of talks mediated by Oman.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi "paid a short visit to Tehran today to present elements of a US proposal which will be appropriately responded to in line with the principles, national interests and rights of the people of Iran," Araghchi said on X.

The IAEA report said Iran had an estimated 408.6 kilogrammes of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent as of May 17, up by 133.8 kilogrammes since the last report in February.

Iran's total amount of enriched uranium now exceeds 45 times the limit authorised by the 2015 agreement with world powers, and is estimated at 9,247.6 kilogrammes.

"The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear weapon State to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern," the IAEA said.

In a separate in-depth report, the IAEA criticised "less than satisfactory" cooperation from Tehran over its scrutiny of its nuclear programme, specifically noting Iran's lack of progress in explaining nuclear material found at undeclared sites.

- Iran says nuclear arms 'unacceptable' -

Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter the widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of its arch-foe Israel.

Iran has denied seeking nuclear arms and says it needs the uranium for civilian power production.

Following the IAEA report, Israel on Saturday accused Iran of being "totally determined" to acquire nuclear weapons.

"Such a level of enrichment exists only in countries actively pursuing nuclear weapons and has no civilian justification whatsoever," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

In response, Araghchi reaffirmed the country's longstanding position, saying Tehran rejected nuclear weapons.

"If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable," Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. "We agree with them on this issue."

Araghchi's remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump said Iran "cannot have a nuclear weapon", while expressing hope of striking a deal soon.

On Thursday, Araghchi hit out at what he called "media speculation" that the two sides were close to an agreement, saying he was "not sure if" a deal was "imminent".

Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States on a new agreement with major powers after Trump abandoned the process during his first term as president in 2018.

No date or venue has yet been announced for the next round but Araghchi said Wednesday that he expected an announcement from mediator Oman in the "next few days".

Washington has said Iran's uranium programme must cease but Tehran insists it has a right to pursue it under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

- 'Very good talks' -

Israel has repeatedly threatened military action, after pummelling Iranian air defences during two exchanges of fire last year.

Trump said Wednesday that the United States was having "very good talks with Iran", adding that he had warned Netanyahu against striking its nuclear facilities as it would not be "appropriate right now".

Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes.

Trump adopted a "maximum pressure" policy against Tehran after abandoning the 2015 agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions which the deal had lifted in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities.

Iran continued to honour the agreement for a year, but then began rolling back its own compliance with its terms.

Uranium enriched to up to 60 percent is far beyond the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 agreement.

In recent days, Tehran has said that if a deal is reached, it may consider allowing US inspectors to join the IAEA monitoring teams.

sbr-ap-kym/rlp/js

© Agence France-Presse

About 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Seoul, Tongilchon -- the name translates to "unification village" -- is one of a handful of settlements set up by the South Korean government in the 1970s.

The plan was for the villages to help the border areas recover from the devastation of the 1950-1953 Korean War, with the land allocated to former soldiers and people originally from the area but displaced by fighting.

Most residents are old. They have lived through the war, presidents from the hard-right military rulers of the 1970s-1980s and the dovish left-wing pro-engagement leaders of the 1990s-2000s.

When AFP visited the village of about 450 people days before South Korea was set to vote on June 3 for a new leader to replace disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, the focus was on one thing.

"We live very close to the North, so we just hope relations improve and there's no war," 87-year-old Kwon Yeong-han told AFP.

The election could upend Seoul's policy towards the nuclear-armed North. The frontrunner, the Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung, is likely to take a much more conciliatory tone towards Pyongyang than hardliner Yoon.

- 'Ghost sounds' -

From the square in front of the polling station, a giant North Korean flag atop a 160-metre-high (520-foot) pole on the other side of the border is clearly visible.

When tensions between the two Koreas rise -- as they did under Yoon -- life for Tongilchon residents gets significantly more difficult.

Under Yoon, activists in the South once again started floating balloons carrying propaganda, dollar bills and USB sticks of K-pop and K-drama into the North.

It infuriated Pyongyang and triggered a tit-for-tat exchange, where the North floated balloons carrying trash southwards.

As ties deteriorated, both sides switched on the loudspeakers along the border.

Residents of Tongilchon now have to listen to terrifying sounds worthy of a horror movie soundtrack -- screams and moans, which Pyongyang broadcasts at any time of day or night.

"It's just noise, like ghost sounds," village chief Lee Wan-bae, 73, told AFP.

"It keeps us awake, it makes working in the fields difficult."

South Korea blasts K-pop and news bulletins into the North in response, but the loudspeaker noise from Pyongyang is so disturbing that border residents have pleaded with parliament to make it stop.

Tongilchon is located in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ), a restricted area next to the more famous Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas.

The countries remain technically at war because the conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

At the elementary school, which is flanked by air raid sirens, only six of the students live in the CCZ, the rest are bussed in daily.

"We make a lot of efforts to keep the school going, such as offering programmes that others don't have and free extracurricular activities after school and during vacations," said vice-principal Jong Jae-hwa.

When the CCZ is sealed off due to North Korean military activity and the school bus suspended, it falls to the teachers to drive children home.

Rising tensions also hit tourism, which is a key source of revenue for the village. It sells its agricultural products as "DMZ rice" or "DMZ ginseng".

"Life is hard here. No matter who is elected president, what we just want is to live peacefully," said the village chief Lee.

- 'Very suspicious' -

Long-term resident Min Tae-seung, 85, said that life in Tongilchon is already much easier than it used to be.

"In the first few years after we moved here there were military threats and North Korean infiltration," he said.

He's planning to vote for the conservative party's Kim Moon-soo, the candidate of Yoon's ex-party and a hardliner against Pyongyang.

According to Min, South Korea's "progressives are too lenient toward North Korea".

"The conservative camp does not take North Korea lightly -- they remain very suspicious."

But whoever the next president is, he said: "I don't think inter-Korean relations will improve quickly.

"Of course it would be ideal to reconcile and move freely, but that seems a long way off."

His 45-year-old daughter has a different view.

"Living here, the desire for reunification has naturally become a central concern for me," she said.

"Even if reunification is not possible, I really hope we could see travel between the two countries. I would love for my parents to see that day come."

roc/ceb/oho/pst

© Agence France-Presse

The 42-year-old Nawrocki was endorsed by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.

The party is closely allied with outgoing President Andrzej Duda -- who has publicly backed Nawrocki -- and is a long-standing rival of the ruling Civic Coalition.

Final official results released early on Monday showed that Nawrocki won the presidency with 50.89 percent of the vote, against 49.11 percent for his rival, Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, according to the national election commission.

Nawrocki campaigned under the slogan "Poland first, Poles first".

While he has pledged to continue Poland's support for neighbouring Ukraine against Russia's invasion, he has denounced the benefits given to war refugees.

He said in a campaign video in April that "social benefits will be above all for Poles" and that "in queues for doctors and clinics, Polish citizens must have priority".

In May, he claimed Ukraine "has not shown gratitude for what Poles have done" and accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of "insolence".

He opposes Ukraine's bid to join NATO.

- Photos with Trump -

Nawrocki is an admirer of Donald Trump and has said Poland should focus on shaping and leading Europe's relations with the US president.

Nawrocki met Trump at the White House in May and claimed Trump had told him: "You will win".

The two were shown giving a thumbs up in photos released by the White House.

Some lawmakers from the governing coalition accused Trump of election interference.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also endorsed Nawrocki when she attended a conservative conference in Poland, saying: "He needs to be the next president."

Nawrocki has called for controls on the border with Germany to keep out migrants, and would like Berlin to pay wartime reparations to Poland.

While wooing voters during the campaign, Nawrocki signed an eight-point pledge prepared by far-right leader Slawomir Mentzen.

The election campaign also saw Nawrocki embroiled in a series of scandals.

While arguing against a property tax, he claimed to only own one flat. Later it was revealed he had acquired a second one through a convoluted deal with an elderly man.

A bombshell news report also alleged he had arranged prostitutes for guests while working as a hotel security guard.

Nawrocki called the accusations "a bunch of lies" and said he would sue the news site.

Born in the Baltic port city of Gdansk, Nawrocki boxed and played football in his youth before earning a PhD in history and an MBA.

He served as the director of the World War II museum in Gdansk from 2017 to 2021. Since then, he has led the Institute of National Remembrance, which investigates Nazi and communist-era crimes.

His research focused on Poland's anti-communist opposition, organised crime during the communist era and sports history.

Last year, Russia added Nawrocki to its wanted list for his alleged efforts to remove Soviet-era monuments in Poland.

Nawrocki said he obtained a gun licence and firearm after winding up in Russia's crosshairs.

- Dual identity -

Nawrocki has written several books, including one under a pen name that landed him in an unusual controversy.

In 2018, he secretly published a book about the communist-era gangster Nikodem Skotarczak using the pseudonym Tadeusz Batyr.

That same year, a blurred and voice-altered "Batyr" appeared on state television claiming Nawrocki had inspired the book.

Nawrocki later wrote on social media that Batyr had sought his advice and "thanked me with an interesting book, which I recommend".

But local media recently uncovered that Batyr and Nawrocki were one and the same.

Political opponents seized on the revelation.

Nawrocki has also faced accusations of ties to gangsters and neo-Nazis, which he has rejected as "deep manipulation", insisting his contacts were for professional purposes.

"No one has ever heard a good word from me about Nazism," he said.

Nawrocki speaks English and still boxes in his spare time. He has said Poland needs "a strong president for tough times".

He lives with his wife, Marta, and has two children and an adult stepson.

amj/dt/yad/dhw

© Agence France-Presse

That is good news for consumers but not so much for producers, analysts say.

A barrel of Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, stands below $65, a far cry from the more than the $120 reached in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine by major oil producer Russia.

- Lower inflation -

The fall in oil prices has contributed to a global slowdown for inflation, while also boosting growth in countries reliant on importing crude, such as much of Europe.

The US consumer price index, for example, was down 11.8 percent year-on-year in April.

Cheaper crude "increases the level of disposable income" consumers have to be spending on "discretionary items" such as leisure and tourism, said Pushpin Singh, an economist at British research group Cebr.

The price of Brent has fallen by more than $10 compared with a year ago, reducing the cost of various fuel types derived directly from oil.

This is helping to push down transportation and manufacturing costs that may, in the medium term, help further cut prices of consumer goods, Singh told AFP.

But he noted that while the drop in crude prices is partly a consequence of Trump's trade policies, the net effect on inflation remains difficult to predict amid threatened surges to other input costs, such as metals.

At the same time, "cheaper oil can make renewable energy sources less competitive, potentially slowing investment in green technologies", Singh added.

- Oil producers -

As prices retreat however the undisputed losers are oil-producing countries, "especially high-cost producers who at current and lower prices are forced to scale back production in the coming months", said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

Oil trading close to or below $60 "will obviously not be great for shale producers" either, said Rystad Energy analyst Jorge Leon.

"Having lower oil prices is going to be the detriment to their development," he told AFP.

Some companies extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock have already announced reduced investment in the Permian Basin, located between Texas and New Mexico.

For the OPEC+ oil alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, tolerance for low prices varies greatly.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have monetary reserves allowing them to easily borrow to finance diversified economic projects, Leon said.

Hansen forecast that "the long-term winners are likely to be major OPEC+ producers, especially in the Middle East, as they reclaim market shares that were lost since 2022 when they embarked on voluntary production cuts".

The 22-nation group began a series of cuts in 2022 to prop up crude prices, but Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other members surprised markets recently by sharply raising output.

On Saturday, the countries announced a huge increase in crude production for July with an additional 411,000 barrels a day.

Analysts say the hikes have likely been aimed at punishing OPEC members that have failed to meet their quotas, but it also follows pressure from Trump to lower prices.

That is directly impacting the likes of Iran and Venezuela, whose economies depend heavily on oil revenues.

A lower-price environment also hurts Nigeria, which like other OPEC+ members possesses a more limited ability to borrow funds, according to experts.

Bit non-OPEC member Guyana, whose GDP growth has surged in recent years thanks to the discovery of oil, risks seeing its economy slow.

pml-bcp/jkb/aks/js

© Agence France-Presse

Over five days starting Tuesday, more than 140,000 visitors are expected to view what the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) bills as "the pinnacle of horticultural excellence".

There are stunning gardens, 30 competing for top awards, and more than 400 exhibitors showcasing their gardening knowledge and carefully-cultivated plants to the public and champagne-sipping VIPs.

King Charles III was to visit Monday with Queen Camilla, with an eye on the show's first ever dog garden, designed by celebrity gardener Monty Don.

The head of state was also expected to visit the Wildlife Trusts' British Rainforests garden where the main attraction is a 50-year-old fern that once thrived in the Great Park of Windsor.

The garden was "inspired by the enchanted forests of Arthurian legend" and it "rekindles the wild and wet woodlands that once swathed vast landscapes along the west coast".

- Intelligent Garden -

In the Intelligent Garden, plant-lovers can truly talk to the trees thanks to artificial intelligence.

Pioneering AI sensors called Treetalk have been installed to give updates on the trees' needs in urban environments, whether they are under stress and how to care for them.

"Urban trees filter air pollution, cool the air, support wildlife, and boost community wellbeing. Yet, they face immense challenges," the RHS said about the garden designed by Tom Massey and architect Je Ahn.

About 50 percent of urban trees do not survive beyond 10 years and up to 30 percent die in their first year, it added.

"The use of AI is not going to replace a human being, our intuition and our labour. It's still the core and heart of this garden," said Je Ahn.

But data could give "a clearer picture of what's going on around us".

- 'Challenging conditions' -

The plants on display in the Garden of the Future "have the ability to survive in a range of challenging conditions," the designers told the RHS.

Growing among the more common hawthorn bushes, are sweet potatoes which have "fantastic nutritional value and are drought resistant," sorghum a popular cereal from Africa, rock roses and chickpeas that are "more resilient to warmer climates", they said.

Those are all crops that "can grow right here in the UK", said Ana Maria Loboguerrero, the Gates Foundation's director of adaptive and equitable food systems.

It is the first time the foundation has sponsored a garden at the show.

Designers Matthew Butler and Josh Parker said the show was a chance to reflect on "the future of crops, food and livelihoods in the face of climate change".

The theme of sustainability is echoed across the show, including in the Seawilding garden inspired by the landscape around Loch Craignish, on the west coast of Scotland.

It includes a saltwater pool, planted with seagrass -- the first time that it has ever been displayed at the show and the UK's "only native flowering plant in the ocean," the RHS says.

Designer Ryan McMahon said he "always assumed seagrass grew in warmer climates" so was intrigued when he discovered it in Scotland.

There is also a garden called "Songbird Survival" amid reports bird numbers have fallen in UK gardens by 50 percent in the past two generations.

Or visitors can discover the "Making Life Better with Bees" garden, with insects key to pollination.

The annual horticultural show is organised in the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, and has long championed environmental issues.

In 2021, the RHS it said it would ban the use of peat, a natural captor of CO2 one of the main greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, from the end of 2025.

But growers will be able until 2028 to continue using peat, an organic material made over thousands of years from decaying vegetation in the UK's dwindling wetlands.

The RHS decided to push back the peat ban for growers "due to a complex horticultural supply chain where 60 percent of young plants, many grown in peat, are sourced from abroad".

bd/jkb/srg/rmb

© Agence France-Presse