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".

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"The only option is to try to keep your head above water and be tossed by the waves, or to go out of business," said Anna Barker, whose Mississippi-based firm Glo sells luminous toys designed in the United States and made in China.

She told AFP that the 90-day reprieve beginning Wednesday is just a mere "blip on the radar." Placing orders, manufacturing products and shipping them to the United States takes much longer.

Trump's escalating trade war since his return to office saw US duties on Chinese goods -- including toys -- reach a whopping 145 percent, while Beijing's countermeasures hit 125 percent.

The world's two biggest economies however agreed at talks last weekend in Switzerland to temporarily lower the levies, bringing US tariffs down to 30 percent and China's corresponding duties to 10 percent.

While cautiously optimistic about the ongoing negotiations, Barker warned the 30 percent rate remains "massive for a small company."

Trump has argued that companies will enjoy zero tariffs if they manufacture in the United States, overlooking costs for any machinery or raw materials that would still need to be imported.

"We're an American company," Barker said. "Our biggest priority, if it was just up to us, will always be the US market. But it simply can't be right now."

To stay afloat, she is looking abroad for growth.

- 'Clogged pipeline' -

The pause "may temporarily help unstick" an effective trade embargo since April 9, when steep levies forced many firms to halt imports, said Steve Lamar, president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA).

He warned, however, that the residual 30 percent tariff, stacking on duties from past administrations, will "make for an expensive back to school and holiday season."

"The tariffs are still so large that you can't help but pass them along," said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk.

This means producers, retailers and consumers could all bear some burden, with small businesses hit particularly hard due to their narrower margins.

Freight rates could also surge due to shipping disruptions from the tariffs.

"There's a lot of inventory piling up in factories in China that now need to hit the water," said Josh Staph, chief executive of Ohio-based Duncan Toys Company.

Barker said her company was hurrying to join an "already very clogged pipeline of people racing to shipping ports."

Policy shifts have "triggered both panic and paralysis" among companies, said Swonk.

"Every time they see a window like what we have for 90 days now, they've got to rush," she said. "In that rush, you have a self-fulfilling prophecy that shipping costs are going to go up."

- 'Depressed investment' -

The AAFA's Lamar has called for Trump to strike lasting deals with China and other countries to give businesses more long term certainty.

Without a permanent tariff rollback, the United States will likely continue seeing "depressed investment," said Philip Luck, economics program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Firms remain in limbo as they try to plan long-term sourcing and investment decisions," he added.

For Barker's start-up Glo, born of a school project in Mississippi where she and her business partner were college students, the answer for now may be expanding outside the United States.

This means shipping Chinese-made products to countries in Europe or elsewhere, even as it remains based in the southern state with around 30 staff.

"As contrary as it might seem," Barker said, "by shifting our focus international, that is to maintain American jobs."

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"More and more women are writing their stories, turning them into films," said writer-director Reema Kagti, who believes the trend brings a more "real and healthy perspective" to movies, with complex, outspoken women characters who are masters of their own story.

The world's most populous nation churns out 1,800 to 2,000 films in more than 20 languages annually -- and Hindi-language Bollywood is one of the largest segments, with more than 300 productions.

Yet the films have often failed to portray women authentically, choosing instead to box them into being passive housewives or mothers who bow to societal pressure.

A 2023 study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) found that female characters in most chart-topping Indian films play the role of a romantic interest -- and are "fair skinned with a thin body type and a small screen time".

But industry insiders point to a slate of women-directed movies earning international acclaim that have also scored well at the tough domestic box office.

Malayalam-language film "All We Imagine as Light", a poetic tale about two nurses forging an intergenerational friendship, was the first Indian production to win the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Director Payal Kapadia shunned the one-dimensional portrayal of women on Indian screens which tends to mimic "unrealistic standards set by society", she said, in favour of one that allows women to "just be ourselves, authentic and true to how we are in everyday life".

India's official entry for the 2025 Oscars was Kiran Rao's "Lost Ladies" -- "Laapataa Ladies" in Hindi -- a comedy which challenges convictions surrounding marriage and womanhood, a sign of a shift -- even if it missed the final shortlist.

- 'More inclusive narratives' -

It is not only arthouse films that are winning hearts.

Mainstream movies with strong women co-leads are filling up theatres as well.

"Stree 2", a horror comedy featuring Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor, smashed box office records last year, beating earnings by superstar Shah Rukh Khan's action flick "Jawan".

And "Crew", a heist comedy about flight attendants, was widely seen as a win for women-centric movies.

"Women still face challenges in telling stories from their perspective", said actor-producer Dia Mirza.

"However, the increasing presence of female directors, producers and writers is paving the way for more inclusive narratives."

Movies can also tackle the way regressive traditions manifest in the daily lives of Indian families.

"Mrs.", a Hindi-language film released in February, dives into the unseen labour of a newlywed housewife, her silenced aspirations and the societal conditioning she struggles with.

"Across social media, you can see people posting -- that the majority of women in India go through this turmoil," said Lakshmi Lingam, a Mumbai-based sociologist.

She points out that there was no backlash to the film.

"The voices of women saying, 'Yes, this is true and I can see myself there' is very high," she said.

"So, there is that kind of ecosystem of women resonating with many of the ideas these women filmmakers are making."

- 'Still misogynistic' -

Industry figures suggest progress is being made, albeit slowly.

Last year, 15 percent of Indian movies surveyed hired women for key production positions, up from 10 percent in 2022, according to a report by Ormax Media and Film Companion Studios.

Konkona Sen Sharma, an actor-director who is a champion of women-oriented cinema, is cautiously optimistic about the role women will play in the future.

Women are increasingly present in the film industry, but "we still don't have enough women in positions of power," she said.

Filmmaker Shonali Bose points out that women directors need the independence and financial backing to tell new stories.

"Our problem is not to do with gender, it is getting to make what we want to make," Bose said.

"When we want to make world cinema, we are facing market forces which are getting increasingly conservative."

Lingam, the sociologist, said that while moviegoers are being "exposed to the changing discourse", mainstream films are "still very male-orientated" and plotlines "still misogynistic".

"Some of the women scriptwriters have great ideas, but producers don't want to back those stories," she said.

"They intervene and make so many changes by converting the female protagonist into a male to make a 'larger-than-life character'. At the end of the day, the buck actually dictates what can be made and what cannot."

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Once a minnow on the world stage, Japan qualified for last year's Paris Olympics and took eventual silver medallists France to overtime in the group phase, helped by a handful of NBA-based players including Los Angeles Lakers forward Hachimura.

At home, the domestic B. League is enjoying record attendances and revenue, with new arenas being built and ambitions to become the second-best league in the world behind America's NBA.

Chairman Shinji Shimada says the B. League's "mix of sport and live entertainment" offers Japanese fans something different.

"Lots of people watch a B. League game for the first time and say it's more interesting than football or baseball, and they want to come back," he told AFP in the B. League's plush office in central Tokyo.

Shimada says the B. League is already catching up on a business scale with leagues in Europe and China and is taking steps to close the gap on the court too.

Teams have signed players with NBA experience such as Alize Johnson, who played alongside the "Big Three" of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden at the Brooklyn Nets.

Johnson says he knew nothing about the B. League when he was in the NBA but he would recommend it to other players dropping below the elite level.

"In terms of the money being guaranteed and the lifestyle, how they go about making sure everything is by the book, it makes players feel comfortable knowing there's not going to be anything fishy going on," he said.

- Hachimura hold-out -

The B. League has also invested in local talent and last year brought back national team star Yuta Watanabe after six seasons in the NBA.

The 30-year-old, who had never played professionally in Japan before, has struggled with injuries but he is back in action as the B. League play-offs approach.

Watanabe and Hachimura are the two main faces of Japan's national team, who captured the public's imagination at the 2023 World Cup in Okinawa when they qualified for the Paris Games.

Japan performed respectably at the Olympics but the mood soured three months later when Hachimura threatened to quit the team after a scathing attack on Japanese basketball chiefs.

The 27-year-old, by far the country's most successful player, accused the Japan Basketball Association of having a "profit-first" mentality.

He also aimed a barb at head coach Tom Hovasse, who got the job after leading Japan's women to silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, saying the American had "not managed at a world level".

Hachimura has still not said whether he will return and Watanabe hopes relationships can be mended.

"For him to say that publicly, there must have been a big build-up of stress," said Watanabe.

"The lack of communication became a problem and I hope that can be fixed properly."

- Internal strife -

Watanabe fears that communication issues could also derail the domestic league as it prepares to relaunch as the B. League Premier from the 2026-27 season.

The league plans to introduce a salary cap and raise the number of overseas players allowed on the court at any one time from two to three.

The plans have brought the league into conflict with the players' association, who worry that Japanese players will end up with less money and time on the court.

Shimada insists the changes are necessary to raise the overall level and narrow the gap in quality between teams, giving fans more exciting games to watch.

At such a delicate time for Japanese basketball, Watanabe is urging everyone to work together.

"I'm a little worried what fans will think if it's a Japanese league but there aren't many Japanese players on the court," he said.

"It's fine for people who want to watch high-level basketball but for fans who want to support the players, that's where a gap starts to appear.

"A lot of fans are coming to games now but I worry if that will continue," he added.

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With a population of 180,000, Switzerland's third-biggest city after Zurich and Geneva straddles the River Rhine and sits right on the northern border with both France and Germany.

Basel's location played a major role in its growth and continental importance through the ages.

From May 11 to 17, it will be centre-stage in Europe again as it hosts Eurovision 2025, the pop music extravaganza that has become one of the world's biggest annual live television events and a giant international party.

The influence of the Rhine can be felt in Basel's historic centre, dominated by the twin towers of Basel Minster, where the Dutch thinker Erasmus is buried.

But Basel's modern emblems are the two Roche Towers, Switzerland's tallest buildings. Completed in the last decade, standing 205 metres and 178 metres (673 and 584 feet) high, they are the headquarters of the eponymous giant pharmaceutical firm.

The chemical and pharmaceutical industries now drive the city's economy.

- Carnival and the arts -

Basel is one of Europe's great centres of culture.

The first edition of Sebastian Brant's "Ship of Fools", one of the bestsellers of the European Renaissance, was printed in the city.

The Rhine spirit is vividly expressed every spring at the three-day Basel Carnival, which transforms the city streets into a river of painted lanterns, colourful masks and creative costumes, flowing to the sound of pipes and drums.

The world's biggest Protestant carnival features on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list and attracts thousands of tourists.

The city has world-renowned museums -- none more so than the Kunstmuseum, the oldest public art collection in the world dating back to 1661.

In a referendum in 1967, citizens decided to buy two paintings by Pablo Picasso, who, moved by the vote, would later donate several more works to the city.

Across the Rhine, the Museum Tinguely draws in thousands of visitors with its kinetic art sculptures, while just outside the city, the Beyeler Foundation hosts an outstanding collection of modern and contemporary artworks.

And every year, art lovers and gallery owners from around the world flock to Art Basel, one of the world's top contemporary art fairs.

In sports, Basel is home to tennis all-time great Roger Federer, while FC Basel are on the verge of winning their 21st Swiss football championship.

- Chemicals and quakes -

Besides its culture, Basel is now synonymous with the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, home to globally important groups such as Roche, Novartis, Sandoz and Syngenta.

The psychedelic drug LSD was created at the Sandoz laboratories there in 1938.

Pharma and chemicals make Basel a major player in the Swiss economy, attracting researchers and students as well as cross-border workers.

Around 35,000 people cross over from France and Germany, attracted by higher Swiss wages.

Basel is the home of the Bank for International Settlements, considered the central bank of central banks.

The city is left-leaning, perhaps due to the influence of its university, the oldest in Switzerland, founded in 1460.

It has approximately 13,000 students from 100 countries, around a quarter of whom are studying for their doctorates.

The city has also lived through major disasters: the great earthquake of 1356 and the Sandoz chemical spill 630 years later.

The biggest quake in central Europe in recorded history, and the fires it caused, destroyed a city already ravaged by the Black Death.

The 1986 fire at the Sandoz chemical plant on the outskirts of Basel also left its mark due to the ecological disaster caused by toxic chemicals leaking into the Rhine, killing wildlife as far downstream as the Netherlands.

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Their every move is scrutinized by Havana for signs of support for critics of communist rule.

Cubans who meet with the representative of the island's arch-foe, which has toughened its six-decade trade blockade since President Donald Trump returned to power, also risk the ire of the authorities.

Yet the new US chief of mission in Cuba, Mike Hammer, seems unfazed as he crisscrosses the country of 9.7 million, meeting with dissidents and splashing pictures of the encounters on social media since taking the post in November.

It's a sharp contrast to his more discreet predecessors.

Cuba, which restored ties with the United States in 2015 after half a century of hostility, has accused Hammer of an "activist" approach to his mission.

"I travel around Cuba because, as a diplomat with over 35 years' experience, I know... that it is very important to understand a country and its people," Hammer said recently in a Spanish-language video posted on the embassy's X account.

In the message he also invited Cubans to contact him to request a meeting and to suggest places he should visit.

- Church activism -

A former ambassador to Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Hammer arrived in Cuba in the dying days of Joe Biden's presidency.

In the past six months, he has met dozens of dissidents, human rights activists, independent journalists, church leaders and families of jailed anti-government demonstrators, most of whom are under close surveillance.

At every turn, the affable diplomat presses for the release of political prisoners, quoting Cuban nationalist hero Jose Marti on the need for a republic "that opens its arms to all."

In February, he travelled to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba to meet opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, who had just been released from prison under an eleventh-hour deal with Biden.

Cuba agreed to free over 500 prisoners in return for Washington removing the island from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

On his first day back in office Trump tore up the deal by putting Cuba back on the terrorism list.

Havana released the prisoners nonetheless but last month sent Ferrer and fellow longtime opposition leader Felix Navarro, whom Hammer also met, back to prison, for allegedly violating their parole conditions.

Hammer has also shown solidarity with Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White rights group, who has been repeatedly arrested for trying to attend mass dressed in white, which the government considers a dissident act.

On April 13, Hammer accompanied her to a Palm Sunday church service in Havana.

Soler, 61, was briefly detained afterwards, triggering condemnation from Washington of Cuba's "brutish treatment" of its people and its attempt to "intimidate US diplomats."

- Avoiding more sanctions -

Michael Shifter, senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington, said Hammer's style signaled a change in tack under Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who is fiercely critical of the island's leadership.

"Ambassador Hammer has instructions to make visits with greater frequency and visibility," Shifter said.

Cuba's deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio last month lashed out at Hammer, accusing him of "being an activist that encourages Cubans to act against their country."

Another senior foreign ministry official accused Hammer of flouting the historic rapprochement deal struck by his former boss, ex-president Barack Obama with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.

For Cuban political scientist Arturo Lopez-Levy, professor of international relations at the University of Denver, the problem facing Cuba is how to "keep the embassy open without it becoming a platform for subversive activities."

Shifter said he expected Cuba to show restraint.

The island is struggling with its worst economic crisis in 30 years, marked by shortages of food and fuel, recurring blackouts and a critical shortage of hard currency.

As a result, Havana has "an interest in avoiding even tougher sanctions," Shifter said.

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But now Air Force One -- like many other American institutions once considered sacred -- is getting the Donald Trump treatment.

- A name, not a plane -

Technically Air Force One is the callsign for whichever US Air Force plane, no matter how small, is carrying the US president.

But most people identify it with the two heavily modified versions of the Boeing 747-200 jet liner that usually shuttle the US president around the world.

The two current models, called the VC-25A in military speak, both entered service in 1990 during the presidency of George H.W. Bush.

With its classic blue and white livery the current jumbo jet has become so famous that it even spawned a Hollywood thriller named after it, starring Harrison Ford.

Sometimes presidents use smaller planes based on Boeing 757s for shorter flights, dubbed "Baby Air Force One."

- Presidential suite -

"Big Air Force One" boasts luxury features fit for a commander-in-chief.

The president himself has a large suite that includes an office with leather chairs and a polished wooden desk -- a space Trump used for a press conference to sign a proclamation renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

A medical suite on board can also function as an operating room, should the worst happen.

There are special cabins for senior advisors, Secret Service members and 13 traveling press. It has two galleys that can feed 100 people at a time, all on specially branded crockery.

- Special features -

But the plane's main role is keeping the US president safe.

Inflight refueling capability means it can stay in the air almost indefinitely.

A hardened electronics system protects against electromagnetic pulses -- whether from nuclear explosions or hostile jammers -- "allowing the aircraft to function as a mobile command center in the event of an attack on the United States," the White House said.

Those communications also keep Trump constantly in touch with the ground -- and able to send social media posts in mid-air.

The jet also has top secret air defenses, according to aviation specialists.

These reportedly include countermeasures that can jam enemy radars and infrared tracking systems, plus dispensers for chaff -- metal shavings that distract radar-guided missiles -- and flares that blind heat-seeking missiles.

- Historic roles -

Inevitably, Air Force One has also played its role in history.

The first specially-designed jets were brought in by John F. Kennedy in 1962, using modified Boeing 707s. One of those jets brought Kennedy's body back to Washington after his assassination in Dallas in 1963.

Then in 2001, George W. Bush took to the skies aboard Air Force One after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

- Trump obsession -

But Trump has long had something of an obsession with the presidential jets.

The Republican has consistently sought to upgrade them, agreeing a deal with Boeing in 2018 during his first term for two new models based on the newer 747-8 jet.

He also dreamed up a new color scheme -- replacing the one largely in place since Kennedy's time -- with a deep red stripe down the middle of the aircraft and a dark blue underbelly.

Trump likes the new look so much that he still has a model of it on his coffee table in the Oval Office, and showed it off at his inauguration for a second term.

But now he has repeatedly complained about delays and cost overruns.

"We're very disappointed that it's taking Boeing so long... We have an Air Force one that's 40 years old," Trump said on Monday.

"You look at some of the Arab countries and the planes they have parked alongside of the United States of America plane, it's like from a different planet."

One of those same Arab countries, Qatar, has now offered the United States a Boeing 747-8 from the royal family to use as a stopgap Air Force One.

But with ethical concerns and security worries about using a plane from a foreign power for such an ultra-sensitive purpose, it's unclear whether the scheme will ever leave the ground.

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The ambitious restoration of the derelict Argo factory has made it "one of the most beautiful buildings of Tehran", said architect Nazanin Amirian, visiting the latest exhibition there.

While the former factory with its towering chimney and cavernous cellar has been given a new life, many other historic buildings in the Iranian capital face a grimmer fate.

"We hoped restoring Argo would inspire others to preserve similar buildings," said Hamid Reza Pejman, director of the Pejman Foundation that took on the project.

But "economic conditions are tough", said Pejman, after years of crippling sanctions and with no government funding to support restoration endeavours.

Established more than a century ago, the Argo factory had produced one of Iran's oldest and biggest beer brands before falling into disuse.

It had ceased operations just a few years before the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled Iran's Western-backed shah and ushered in a strict ban on the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The brand itself lives on alcohol-free, with rights to the Argo logo transferred to a local beverage company, Pejman said.

He said that since the factory was "out of operation" at the time, it was spared the fate of some other breweries which were set ablaze during the revolution.

Ever since the Islamic republic banned alcohol, bootleg beverages proliferated on the black market, with toxic methanol occasionally contaminating the natural ethanol and resulting in mass poisonings.

- 'Transform the city' -

Left a crumbling structure of weathered brick walls that also served as a shelter for homeless people, the Argo building was eventually purchased by the Pejman Foundation in 2016.

Its brick walls and chimney were restored, keeping their distinct industrial look, while other parts like the roof had to be entirely rebuilt.

Since 2020, the building has been open to the public as a museum, featuring local and international artists.

In a nod to its past life, the Argo arts centre offers non-alcoholic beer for sale.

The current exhibition is a collection of installation works, sculptures and paintings by Iranian multidisciplinary artist Maryam Amini.

Over the years, the building has been swallowed by Tehran's rapid urban expansion, now surrounded by high-rises, modern cafes and sprawling commercial centres in one of the city's busiest neighbourhoods.

Much like the Argo factory until 2016, some of Tehran's historic buildings including old movie theatres have been abandoned for years, largely due to economic hardship.

Others were demolished as shifting urban priorities have favoured modern developments over restoration.

Amir Ali Izadi, a 43-year-old artist visiting the factory-turned-museum, expressed his hope that similar buildings would undergo renovation.

"It would transform the city's landscape," he said.

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The US and Russian presidents' phone call on March 18 focused on Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy sites, US military aid to Kyiv, and peace negotiations.

But according to the Kremlin, Putin also brought up a subject close to his heart -- ice hockey -- and raised the possibility of matches between players of both countries.

"We've been seeing efforts by the Russians to warm up the situation with Donald Trump and vice versa... Putin is a big hockey fan," Gary Smith, a former Canadian diplomat and author of "Ice War Diplomat", told AFP.

Smith's book focuses on a series of hockey matches between Canada and the Soviet Union during the Cold War in 1972, which is considered one of the most significant events in 20th-century Canadian history.

"The advantage of sports is that it impacts foreign societies from top to bottom because there's such a mass interest in sports," he added.

"So you have an opportunity to really convey a message, a cultural message. And what it does is it helps break down cultural stereotypes.

"For instance, we didn't like the communists at all but they had a goaltender, 20 years old, named Vladislav Tretiak, and he put a human face on communism."

- 'Relationships of trust' -

Whether ice hockey can help to "humanise" modern-day Russia more than half a century later remains to be seen.

First, games would have to actually take place between the Americans and Russians and despite Trump's agreement in principle, this is not yet a done deal.

The North American NHL cut ties with its Russian counterpart, the KHL, after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Russia is banned from international competitions until at least 2026.

Smith assesses the chance of the offer coming to fruition as "50-50" -- and dependent on the course of the war.

"The longer the war in Ukraine goes on, the less likely this series will happen," he said, noting that the White House read-out of the call made no mention of ice hockey.

Putin, 72, portrays himself as having a healthy and athletic lifestyle and took up ice hockey late in life, playing in high-profile gala matches every year.

Ice hockey "brings people together and helps build relationships of trust", he said during one match in 2019 when asked about possible "hockey diplomacy".

By coincidence, Russian Alex Ovechkin, who plays for NHL franchise the Washington Capitals, is closing in on the league record of 894 goals set by the player widely considered the greatest of all time, Wayne Gretzky.

Ovechkin founded "PutinTeam" to support the Russian president in the 2018 election and his Instagram profile picture shows him standing with Putin.

- Elbows up! -

In recent weeks, ice hockey has also emerged as a proxy for tensions between North American neighbours the United States and Canada.

In February, a clash on the ice between the two countries in an international tournament in Montreal was marked by three fights in the first nine seconds and a chorus of deafening boos.

Faced with Trump's repeated calls to make their country the "51st state", Canadians have adopted a rallying cry of resistance directly drawn from the vocabulary of their national sport: "Elbows up!"

New Prime Minister Mark Carney, himself a former player, also alluded to ice hockey in a speech about the trade war with Washington over tariffs.

"Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves," he said, referring to ice hockey's notorious punch-ups.

"The Americans should make no mistake: in trade as in hockey, Canada will win."

The former central banker donned his national team jersey for the final of the tournament.

Despite a phone call from Trump himself to the American players before kickoff, the United States lost the final 3-2 to Canada.

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