Armenia's underground salt clinic at centre of alternative medicine debate

A mining cage drops deep beneath the Armenian capital, carrying asthma patients in helmets down into a salt cave clinic -- an alternative treatment centre whose future is now at risk.

State funding for the speleotherapy centre in the Avan salt mine was recently cut as the small Caucasus nation rolls out a new universal healthcare system that does not cover alternative medicine.

The fate of the facility is a snapshot of a global debate over the effectiveness and role of alternative treatments in modern healthcare, a particularly pressing issue in developing countries.

Speleotherapy -- where patients spend several hours a day in caves breathing mineral-rich underground air believed to reduce respiratory irritation -- has been practised for decades in parts of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

At the bottom of the Avan salt mine, a dim tunnel carved from grey rock salt leads to the Soviet-era centre.

"We are 235 metres (770 feet) underground, and yet this is a hospital," doctor Anush Voskanyan said as she guided visitors into a vast chamber illuminated by rows of electric lamps.

Opened in 1987 inside a former mine, the centre spans about 4,000 square metres of tunnels converted into treatment and recreation areas. For decades, patients received therapy for free under the state's healthcare programme.

But in 2019, Armenia's health ministry stopped financing the clinic, arguing that speleotherapy does not meet evidence-based medical standards required for public funding.

Annual patient numbers dropped from more than 300 to around 50.

"We struggle to pay salaries and cannot renew equipment that has not been replaced since opening," clinic director Gurgen Hakobyan told AFP, saying its future was "uncertain."

- Global strategy -

Globally, supporters of traditional or complementary remedies say they have been overlooked by Western medicine.

The World Health Organisation's members have called for a global effort to build a solid evidence base, regulate practitioners and integrate treatments that are proven safe and effective.

Supporters of speleotherapy say the cave environment, free from dust and allergens and with a constant temperature of around 19-20C, helps ease symptoms of asthma and allergies.

Voskanyan, the doctor, said she had seen children make full recoveries after treatment.

But the scientific evidence remains limited.

"Since 1985, only two dissertations have been written on the subject," said Lamara Manukyan, chair of the Armenian Association of Internal Medicine. 

"We lack statistics and large-scale research."

She said speleotherapy "helps conventional medicine ease a patient's condition" and should be considered a "complementary therapy rather than a standalone treatment."

- 'Salvation' -

Armenia's health ministry said its decision to stop the clinic's funding reflects broader healthcare priorities as the country transitions toward universal medical insurance.

"At this stage, priority is given to diseases with high mortality rates such as cancer and cardiovascular illnesses," ministry spokeswoman Mariam Tsatryan told AFP. 

"Alternative and wellness treatments cannot be included in insurance coverage."

Many of the centre's patients -- and its doctors -- lament the decision to strip funding.

Armen Stepanyan, a 63-year-old engineer from Russia's Siberian city of Kemerovo, has travelled to Yerevan annually for more than a decade after developing severe asthma.

"I tried everything -- sanatoriums, treatments -- nothing helped," he said. "Here I felt improvement after the first course."

Supporters argue the centre's significance extends beyond medicine. 

Manukyan, the chair of the internal medicine association, described it as part of Armenia's tradition of natural therapies, including mineral springs and spa resorts.

"There is no reason to dismantle an existing structure and lose a valuable tradition."

The government, which holds a stake in the centre, is trying to privatise its shares, raising hopes that private investment could preserve or repurpose it as a research or medical tourism centre.

"It would be really sad if the clinic had to shut down because it simply ran out of funding," said Stepanyan, the patient.

"I realised this was my salvation. This is the only place where I see real results."

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While recent restrictions by a number of African nations on LGBTQ rights have elicited fierce criticism, international reaction has been more tepid as Senegal doubled its penalty for same-sex relations this week.

Senegal's president signed the law, which appeared in the country's official gazette out Tuesday, amid a crackdown on the gay community that has seen dozens of arrests and an increase in heated anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

After the bill passed parliament in mid-March, a regional Belgian minister made headlines by questioning the French-speaking Wallonia region's funding for climate cooperation in the west African nation, infuriating Senegal's leadership.

But further calls to action by international actors have been few and far between.

While the UN human rights chief and UNAIDS urged the president not to sign the bill, "government-level reaction has been notably muted", Arlana Shikongo, communications officer with Pan Africa ILGA, the regional chapter of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, told AFP.

Experts consulted by AFP said that a variety of factors could be at play, from the US exit as a major humanitarian actor to reluctance from the West, including former colonial power France, to lecture what is seen as a relatively stable democracy and critical partner.

- 'Vacuum' -

Senegal's law was signed by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye after passing by an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly on March 11, where debate centred on whether the bill went far enough.

The new law punishes "acts against nature", a term used to signify same-sex relations, by five to 10 years' imprisonment, compared with one to five years previously.

It also provides for three to seven years in prison for those found guilty of promoting or financing same-sex relationships.

Same-sex relations are seen as deviant by many in Senegal, a Muslim-majority country where defence of LGBTQ rights is viewed as a Western import, incompatible with local values.

Videos of deputies ricocheted across the internet following the parliamentary debate, with lawmakers such as Diaraye Ba declaring that "homosexuals will no longer breathe in this country".

Ari Shaw, senior fellow at US-based LGBTQ research centre the Williams Institute, said that "anytime there are laws or policies passed that undermine the rights of LGBTQ people, that's something that demands global attention."

"The United States has historically been a primary driver of diplomatic pressure on LGBTQ rights globally," he told AFP. 

But now under the administration of President Donald Trump "what we're seeing is a real vacuum in terms of global leadership on these issues."

Asked about the law, a US State Department spokesperson referred AFP "to the government of Senegal regarding legislation in its country".

- 'Important partner' -

That said, "Senegal is a really important partner in the Western context", Paul Melly, a consulting fellow with Chatham House, told AFP.

This holds true particularly for "France and Spain, for whom relations with Senegal are a higher priority", he said.

President Faye was in Spain last week for an official visit, his first to the country as head of state.

"There are some sensitivities around, particularly for the French as the one-time colonial power, on commenting" on internal affairs in Senegal, he added.

Cecile Neven, the Walloon minister, prompted an angry rebuke from Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who campaigned on the issue and presented the legislation to parliament.

"We do not need their funding. They can go back to their own country and let us get on with our work," Sonko responded according to local media, adding that "sovereignty comes at a price".

- 'Increasing homophobia' -

The tepid response to Senegal's law could additionally be because it simply doubles "the theoretical prison term for something that was already punishable", Melly said.

When Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act became law in May 2023, it was seen as one of the harshest in the world, with penalties of up to life imprisonment for consensual same-sex relations, while "aggravated homosexuality" is punishable by death. 

The World Bank subsequently suspended funding to the country, though it resumed in mid-2025.

Although rights group Amnesty International has been vocal on anti-LGBTQ legislation across Africa, it declined to comment when asked by AFP about Senegal's new law.

At least 32 out of Africa's 54 countries have laws prohibiting and punishing same-sex relations.

Passage of Senegal's law comes in an environment of "increasing homophobia and attacks on the continent and around the world", Shikongo of Pan Africa ILGA said.

Approximately 10 countries or territories in Africa impose sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison, including Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and Sierra Leone.

The death penalty is imposed in Uganda, Mauritania and Somalia.

bfm/giv/jfx

It's Friday night and the port in Nuuk is a hive of activity. Passengers loaded down with heavy bags hurry aboard a rusty red and white ship -- Greenland's last ferry.

Among them are an ethnologist and a few Danish tourists, but most are Greenlanders from the 74 villages and settlements that dot the west coast, a thin strip of land squeezed between the ice sheet and the open sea just south of the Arctic Ocean. 

Linking Qaqortoq in the south to Ilulissat almost 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) north, the ferry was for a long time the only means of transport in Greenland, until air travel took over.

With its old-fashioned charm and pervasive smell of linoleum, the vessel feels stuck in 1992, the year it was built.

The engine rumbled, and a last kiss was blown toward the quay. On deck, a passenger watched as Nuuk faded into the distance, just a glimmer under the northern lights.

Welcome aboard the Sarfaq Ittuk.

- Rural exodus -

The ship's crew swiftly got down to work, the cook battling heavy seas to line up colourful hors d'oeuvres. 

Passengers shuffled cards and rolled dice, laughter rising up around the formica tables in the cafe, the ferry's social hub.

"We know each other. We're talking about family, friends, weddings," said Karen Rasmussen, 60.

The ferry offers villagers a chance to reconnect with those who left for the capital Nuuk during the rural exodus of the 1980s.

Karen looked out the porthole, her gaze absent. "I'm on morphine," she said, gingerly holding her broken arm to her chest.

Next to her, 56-year-old Arne Steenholdt was just diagnosed with cancer "around here", he said, pointing to his stomach.

Both residents of remote communities, they were returning home from hospital in Nuuk, the only facility offering advanced care.

In the evening, Steenholdt retired to his bunk, pulling the curtain to block out the light. Karen wasn't able to sleep a wink.  

- Climate warming -

The ferry crossed the Arctic Circle on Saturday.

As waves crashed against the hull, a deckhand swept away the ice building up on deck. "You gotta take care of the old lady," he shouted, referring to the ferry.

Normally ships only resume sailing at these latitudes in late April, when the coast is free from the pack ice that drifts in from neighbouring Canada.

But in this exceptionally mild year, the Sarfaq Ittuk resumed its route in mid-February because the ice was "very late" and formed only a thin layer, Captain Jens Peter Berthelsen said.

Greenland's west coast registered its warmest January on record, with temperatures up to 11C warmer than usual, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. 

Berthelsen kept his eyes fixed on the horizon. "The challenge is to detect the underwater icebergs."

Global warming has made it more difficult to predict when the pack ice will return. 

"Ten or 15 years ago it was in September, and now it's only late December or January," he said.

- Rise of air travel –

Mass was held in Greenlandic in the cafe on Sunday, glassware rattling from the ferry's vibrations. As it approached Ilulissat, it steered through the thin pack ice scraping against the hull.

In the bay, the ice rippling in the ship's wake had something magical about it, but not for Ludvig Larsen. He was bored. 

"The helicopter was cancelled, so I had to take the boat," said the 60-year-old referee headed to Ilulissat for a football tournament. 

In recent years, he's started flying instead of taking the ferry, enabling him to reach Greenland's "iceberg capital" in just 25 minutes.

Now he was spending the day at sea.

On the west coast, climate change is causing more humidity and fog, leading to more flight cancellations.

Greenland has gambled on air travel: Nuuk's international airport opened in 2024, and two others will follow this year in the south and north to better connect the island's 57,000 inhabitants and attract tourists.

Due to a lack of sufficient funding, the government must choose between taking the Sarfaq Ittuk out of service in 2027, despite some 22,000 passengers a year, or investing in a high‑end tourist vessel.

Asked if he was worried the ferry may stop running, Ludvig Larsen said he "didn't think about it".

In the bay behind him, a wall of ice loomed out of the mist, before the small town of Ilulissat emerged from the white vastness: the end of the line.

As passengers disembarked, a young girl ran into a friend's arms, sobbing. Children chased each other, laughing. Tourists snapped photographs of every falling snowflake.

Meanwhile, the new passengers hauled their luggage up the gangway.

On deck, the captain and crew used heavy sledgehammers to break up the thick shell of ice covering the ferry.

That evening, the Sarfaq Ittuk would head south again.

fv/po/fg

A singer emerges from the grave, his beard covered in mud, head bowed and fist raised as he extends a Ukrainian flag towards the audience: this is his entrance onstage.

Around him, in a concert hall in Warsaw, a shrill guitar tremor rises and falls whilst the drums unleash a barrage of semiquaver notes.

Finally, clad in a costume resembling a butcher's tunic, Dmytro Ternushchak releases guttural, growling death-metal vocals, and proclaims, in English: "One day, the Empire will fall."

Going by the stage name Dmytro Kumar, he is the frontman of 1914, one of the best-known Ukrainian metal bands.

But their career has been upended by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The band cancelled a tour in 2023 because they did not have permission to leave Ukraine, required for men aged 23-60.

Having finally obtained the necessary authorisation, 1914 began their first proper tour in six years in Poland, and their political message is amplified.

For Mykyta Dokiychuk, 15, this was his first metal concert.

His family fled Ukraine at the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.

"I love this genre, it fires me up," said the long-haired, bespectacled teenager. He accused Russia, ravaging Ukraine, of seeking to "destroy the Ukrainian people".

During the concert, Dokiychuk moved gingerly. Next to him, a man performed a majestic display of headbanging, his hair flying back and forth to the rhythm like windscreen wipers.

"It's important that we... stand against these imperial ambitions of Russia," said Mikolaj Boratynski, 33, a Polish concertgoer with a thin moustache.

The chorus of his favourite 1914 song encourages people to smash the Russian aggressor.

"It is important for art to address these issues, not just love and beer," agreed Katsiaryna Mankevich, stage name Nokt, a 37-year-old Belarusian who lived under occupation near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv until 2022 before fleeing to Poland.

Herself a metal band singer, she was one of the few women in the audience.

- 'Aberration' -

Kumar, 43, founded the group in 2014, at the beginning of the war between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

A former journalist, he spoke to AFP before the show, talking of his love for Polish punk and his loathing of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kumar's band is dedicated to the First World War. The five members dress as soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which, in 1914, controlled the historical region of Galicia where Lviv is located.

Across their four albums, 1914 recreate the horror of World War I. Their tracks are interspersed with poignant period music and film excerpts.

On stage, Kumar either stands still or frantically paces around, clutching his face like a demon or a man in tears.

His lyrics are based on thorough historical research.

He joked that he practised "necrophilia, or as they call it, history".

Kumar said his anthropological obsession was to understand "aberration", how humans revert back to their primal instinct and engage in "its most vulgar form of aggression": war.

- 'Strong Ukrainian spirit' -

Ukrainian soldiers have worn 1914 merchandise whilst attacking on the front line, and have used the band's tracks in videos showing strikes on Russian troops.

Kumar said he was "shocked" when he found this out. But if his music can inspire Ukrainian soldiers, then "well damn, that means I did something useful".

He himself cannot enlist into the army, having had surgery for cancer that still requires him to take medication.

Kumar feels "ashamed" of not being able to fight, he said. He currently refuses to tour in Ukraine, saying he does not have the right to perform in front of people who have truly experienced the trenches.

Like other bands, 1914 are raising money for the Ukrainian army. Kumar is attempting to "open the eyes" of Europeans to the Kremlin's warmongering, showing that Ukraine was the continent's "eastern shield", he said.

Their latest album, "Viribus Unitis", follows the story of a Ukrainian from Galicia in their fight, notably against Russia, in World War I.

At the Warsaw gig, several cries of "Glory to Ukraine" rang out, along with chants against the Russian troops.

Mykyta Dokiychuk cracked a smile.

During the concert, he felt a "strong Ukrainian spirit".

rco/blb/ali/mmp/jhb

Violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has reached unprecedented levels since the start of the war with Iran, with NGOs and opposition figures denouncing an environment of impunity. 

While so-called "Jewish terrorism" has drawn widespread condemnation both in Israel and abroad, little has been done to curb it.

Assaults by violent settlers against Palestinians have been carried out for years, often to the indifference of mainstream Israeli society.

But the recent surge has prompted criticism from influential rabbis, settler leaders and even military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, who described the attacks as "morally and ethically unacceptable".

According to Reem Cohen, a researcher at the Tel Aviv‑based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), "there has been an increase in acts of Jewish terrorism since the start of the war with Iran", along with a rise in "the severity of the acts".

In an interview with AFP, Cohen, who authored a report on the issue in January, denounced the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators.

"The Israeli government and security forces... have not responded with determination," Cohen wrote in his report.

One of the first measures taken by Defence Minister Israel Katz upon assuming office in 2024 was to cancel administrative detention -- a form of virtually unlimited custody -- for Israeli suspects of violent crimes in the West Bank. It was maintained for Palestinians.

At least six Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of March in violence attributed to extremist settlers. 

That figure for the whole of 2024 stood at five, according to UN data.

"Jewish terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank has evolved from marginal, local incidents into a widespread phenomenon that occurs as part of a fight for control of the territory and an increasing effort to uproot Palestinian presence," Cohen wrote.

- 'Ideological support' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live there in settlements considered illegal by the UN, among some three million Palestinians.

Settlement building in the territory has continued under every Israeli government since the occupation began. 

But it has accelerated significantly under the current coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which contains far-right parties and is considered one of the most right-wing in Israeli history.  

It has surged even more since the October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that triggered the Gaza war.

After the outbreak of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, groups of radicalised settlers living outside formal settlements, known as the "hilltop youth", pursued what they called a "price tag" policy, carrying out random revenge attacks on Palestinians after every anti‑Israeli assault.

Since October 7, such violence has become a daily occurrence, "with the ideological support of certain members of the government", Cohen said, in a reference to far‑right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

During the ongoing war with Iran, the head of the left-wing Democrats party, Yair Golan, accused the government of "supporting Jewish terrorism" and harming Israel's security by forcing the army to "put out fires (the government had) lit" in the West Bank.

Videos posted on social media, sometimes by the perpetrators themselves, show hundreds of young men -- often masked and armed with sticks or automatic weapons -- entering Palestinian villages to sow terror.

- 'Hilltop barbarians' -

Violent settlers have with increased frequency torched Palestinians' homes, uprooted their olive trees and killed their cattle. 

In a recent investigation into these groups, which operate mainly in rural areas near the cities of Nablus in the northern West Bank and Hebron in the south, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth called them "hilltop barbarians".

Since October 7, settlers have established more than 175 farms and outposts in the West Bank with the tacit consent of Israeli authorities.

Though illegal under Israeli law, these outposts are meant to create facts on the ground and receive protection from the army, according to the NGO Peace Now.

The hardcore "hilltop youth" reject all authority and espouse a theocratic and anti‑democratic vision of Jewish sovereignty over the West Bank -- with any means to achieve it deemed legitimate.

According to several Israeli media outlets, Netanyahu recently requested that the army take action against the extremists, whom he publicly condemned in November, saying they were not representative of the settler movement.

According to the INSS, "90 percent of settler violence cases in the West Bank are closed without indictments", and Israeli soldiers, instead of arresting the culprits, at times take part in the assaults.

mib/cf/mj/glp/acc/smw/jfx

The European Space Agency will negotiate future participation in NASA missions after the US space agency revamped its lunar program, the ESA head told AFP Wednesday.

The US space agency announced recently it is suspending its so-called Gateway lunar orbital space station efforts in order to focus on building a base on the Moon's surface.

This left the European role in future exploration unclear. The ESA had an agreement with NASA for three astronaut flights to Gateway.

"The Gateway is postponed, therefore I will need to sit down with the administrator, that means Jared Isaacman, and the NASA team, to negotiate how these seats that have been earmarked for the Gateway can be utilized for the surface," ESA head Josef Aschbacher told AFP, speaking in English.

A German astronaut had been slated to fly first, followed by a French astronaut and later an Italian.

Aschbacher was speaking from the Kennedy Space Center, where phase two of the Artemis program proceeded Wednesday with a successful rocket launch of three Americans and one Canadian astronaut on a mission to fly around the Moon. 

The ESA director general said "this is a discussion that needs to take place right now."

"How many seats for the surface flight, or under which conditions, or what is the countervalue that Europe needs to bring into this bargaining and this discussion?" he said.

"The goal is to have Europeans walking on the Moon," said Aschbacher, an Austrian who has helmed ESA since 2021.

"But of course, the dream, or the objective, is that eventually Europe develops its own technologies and capacities to have more autonomy on human spaceflight."

Europe was to provide components of Gateway -- some already built, others under development. The Japanese space agency (JAXA), another NASA partner, was carrying out similar efforts, and currently has a Japanese astronaut scheduled to travel before the first European.

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Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has checked himself into rehab, his attorney told US media Wednesday.

The Rams star "voluntarily entered a holistic care facility to focus on his personal growth," lawyer Levi McCathern told NFL Network.

Nacua topped the entire league with 129 receptions last season, adding a total of 1,715 yards, as the Rams reached the NFC Championship game before losing to eventual Super Bowl winners Seattle.

But he has been beset by recent off-field controversy. 

In December, Nacua apologized after making an antisemitic gesture during a livestream appearance.

Nacua was encouraged to perform the gesture -- rubbing his hands together -- as a potential new touchdown celebration while appearing with internet streamers Adin Ross and N3on.

The 24-year-old said he had not been aware that his gesture -- a common stereotype that depicts Jewish people as greedy -- was antisemitic.

Last month, a Jewish woman filed a lawsuit against Nacua alleging that he made an antisemitic statement and later bit her during a night out in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve.

His lawyer said Nacua denies the allegation of antisemitism, calling it a "blatant lie," and describing the bite as "horseplay."

Nacua's decision to enter rehab was prior to and unrelated to the lawsuit, said the attorney.

McCathern did not state the precise reason for Nacua entering rehab, but the center in question helps patients with issues including drug and alcohol addiction, chronic pain and mental health conditions, the California Post reported.

Neither McCathern nor the Rams immediately responded to AFP request for comment.

"Puka takes responsibility for his well-being and increasing his performance during the off-season," said a statement sent by McCathern to NFL Network.

"He is committed to using this time constructively so that he can return in the best possible position -- both personally and professionally -- to continue contributing to his team and the game he loves," it said.

The statement added: "It is unfortunate that a trivial lawsuit has drawn attention to Puka during a time when he is focused on becoming a better overall person."

amz/pst

Brianna Utecht was Mizzou track and field’s lone competitor at the Texas Relays on Wednesday, competing in the women’s heptathlon event. Utecht sits in eighth place of 12 competitors through Day 1 with a score of 3309.

Utecht will conclude the event at 10 a.m. Thursday in Austin, Texas.

Columbia College lacrosse bounces back with road win over Missouri Baptist

The Cougars men’s lacrosse cruised to a 20–9 road victory over Missouri Baptist to regain momentum in conference play.

Columbia College controlled the game from the start, building an 8-1 lead after the first quarter and maintaining offensive pressure throughout all four quarters. The win comes after a loss to Benectine College, with Columbia quickly reseting to execute on both ends of the field.

With the victory, Columbia improves to 6-4 and 3-1 in Heart of America Athletic Conference play. The Cougars will look to carry the momentum with a showdown against Clarke University at 3 p.m. Saturday in Dubuque, Iowa.

Oil prices spiked and stocks sank on Thursday after Donald Trump reiterated that US forces would hammer Iran for another two to three weeks but offered no solution to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that has crippled global markets.

Investors appeared to be unimpressed with the US president's much-anticipated address to the nation, in which he again called on countries that rely on the waterway for their energy supplies to reopen it themselves.

The comments came amid growing fears about the economic impact of the crisis, which has seen governments introduce support measures, with the World Bank saying it was "extremely concerned".

In a speech lasting less than 20 minutes, Trump added little to what he has said in the past, warning that "over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong".

He also told the nation that US forces would meet all their battlefield goals "very, very shortly".

The address dented a nascent recovery in world markets that had come after Trump said earlier this week that the war would be ending "very soon", while his Iranian counterpart said his country had the "necessary will" to end it.

Brent crude, which had fallen back below $100 a barrel Wednesday, surged as much as five percent to hit $106.29, while West Texas Intermediate jumped more than four percent to as high as $104.29.

Trump "spoke of objectives met, but not of resolution. Of continued strikes, not withdrawal. Of optional escalation, not closure", wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.

"The message was not one of panic, but it was unmistakably one of unfinished business. And in markets, unfinished business is oxygen for volatility.

"So oil did what oil always does when the illusion cracks. It surged, not because the war suddenly worsened, but because the market had prematurely priced in the expectation that it would end."

The reaction among equity traders was no better, with Seoul -- which soared more than eight percent Wednesday -- losing three percent. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei and Sydney were also well down.

The speech "did not contain what the market had hoped for -- namely, indications of an end to the fighting", Jumpei Tanaka, of Pictet Asset Management, said. "Instead, he suggested a potential escalation of the situation, which is a clear negative for stocks."

Markets have endured huge volatility since the US-Israeli war on Iran was launched on February 28, with the president frequently U-turning after making policy statements, particularly with regards to foreign relations and military operations.

His announcements that Washington and Tehran were in peace talks have often been denied by the Islamic republic, while its Revolutionary Guards insisted the strait will remain closed to the country's "enemies".

Trump's repeated demand that countries that rely on energy through the Strait of Hormuz "get your own oil" comes as Britain prepares to host a meeting of about 35 nations Thursday to discuss how to reopen the waterway.

The meeting will "assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and resume the movement of vital commodities", UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

Meanwhile, the World Bank Managing Director Paschal Donohoe said he was fearful about the global economic impact of the crisis.

"We are extremely concerned regarding the effect that this will have on inflation, on jobs and on food security," he told AFP as the Bank announced a new partnership with the International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency to coordinate aid responses.

- Key figures at around 0210 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.6 percent at $103.69 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 4.5 percent at $105.71 a barrel

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.5 percent at 52,937.10 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent at 25,041.49

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,942.78

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1553 from $1.1586 on Wednesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3254 from $1.3305

Dollar/yen: UP at 159.28 from 158.88 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 87.16 pence from 87.08 pence

New York - Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 46,565.74 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 1.9 percent at 10,364.79 (close)

dan/lga

When wildfires raged around Los Angeles last year, Rene Amy’s home was razed to a pile of toxic ash.

But his plot now shimmers with delicate orange blooms -- the California poppies he has sown throughout the charred town of Altadena as a symbol of hope.

"These flowers will grow and proliferate anywhere on the globe that humans can survive," the 65-year-old told AFP.

"They are so resilient. They look super fragile, but they're not; they're pretty tough underneath... kind of like Altadenans."

Nestled against the mountains overlooking Los Angeles, Altadena was ravaged by the wildfires that tore through America's second-biggest city in January 2025.

Of the 31 people who perished in the fires, 19 died in Altadena. The rest were killed in the upmarket coastal enclaves of Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

More than 9,000 buildings were destroyed, transforming the area into a vast wasteland. 

Fifteen months later, Altadena is slowly and painfully rising from its ashes. 

A few house frames are beginning to go up. But for survivors, rebuilding often turns into a battle — caught between the complex process of filing insurance claims and the slow-moving bureaucracy of an area many complain is over-regulated.

 — Symbol — 

Over the past few months, Amy has sown 250 million poppy seeds across more than 750 empty lots, spending $12,000 of his own money.

It is his way of bringing color to this somber landscape and boosting the spirits of survivors.

"What I found is, for me, personally, helping others makes me feel not only alive, but some of the best moments I've had since the fire involved helping others," he said.

His choice of the California poppy is no accident: The plant, with its tulip-like bloom, is the official flower of the Golden State.

Before Los Angeles expanded its sprawl as far as the eye could see, Altadena was renowned as a "poppy paradise," Amy says, and the flower appears on the town's official seal. 

In the 19th century, Angelenos and wealthy tourists from the East Coast would flock to the hills every spring to witness the blooms blanketing the slopes in undulating oranges and golds. 

— 'A new beginning' — 

But with the global climate being changed by humanity's unchecked use of fossil fuels, nature's patterns are being interrupted.

California has just wrapped up one of the driest months of March on record, leaving many of the poppies Amy sowed in trouble.

Yet, in scattered spots, they have pushed their way through the soil, like on the sidewalk in front of a fast-food restaurant, where blooms have sprouted beneath a mural of a young girl holding a poppy. 

"Seeing nature come back after the fires is just so heartwarming," said Roxanne Albee as she left the restaurant.

"It's like a new beginning," added the 77-year-old former actress who lost her home to the flames and is struggling to compile a detailed inventory of lost possessions for her insurance company. 

"To have these flowers, have the poppies come back... that's part of the vibe of Altadena."

In a few years' time, Amy, who has dubbed his vehicle "The Poppymobile," hopes his flowers will have spread, restoring the town to its former glory.

"My hope is that in subsequent years and decades, Altadena is once again justifiably renowned for its poppies," he said.

It's "a way to bind us together, and yes, to remember our history, where we've come from, and to look forward to the future."=

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