Lamine Yamal is said to offer a “similar feeling” to the Barcelona group as Lionel Messi did.
Yamal’s remarkable ascent through the ranks at Barcelona and the Spanish national team has not gone unnoticed, with parallels to Messi becoming more pronounced by the week. At only 17 years old, the brilliant attacker is invoking memories of the Argentine legend’s early days in Catalunya, when both players emerged as left-footed prodigies from La Masia and shone on the great stages.
Midfield maestro Pedri, a vital element in Barça’s current system, has publicly praised Yamal’s distinct spark. “The feeling is similar to the one we had with Leo: knowing that something good could happen to us,” Pedri told Sport, referring to Yamal’s explosive presence on the game.
While Yamal garners the spotlight, Pedri’s own journey has been one of persistence and determination. A player known for his technical finesse and ability to dictate the tempo of matches, Pedri has long been hailed as one of the brightest midfield prospects in Europe. However, recurring injuries in recent seasons slowed his progress and kept him out of action at crucial moments. This campaign has seen the Canary Islander bounce back in style, rediscovering his rhythm and regaining a central role in Barça’s midfield.
Pedri was quizzed about the Ballon d’Or – a prize that remains elusive for many midfielders. With Rodri breaking that barrier in 2024, the possibility of another central player claiming the crown seems more realistic than ever. “Andres, Xavi, and Busquets deserved it and did not win it. It was time to give a midfielder (Rodri) the prize. I hope this will be useful in the coming years,” he said.
“To any player in the world, if you ask him about the Ballon d’Or, he will say yes. But I prefer to win team titles rather than individual prizes.”
With Messi long departed, Barcelona appears to have found a natural successor in Yamal. His blend of creativity, fearlessness, and technical excellence has breathed new life into the Blaugrana faithful, who had been yearning for a player capable of bringing them to the edge of their seats once more. As Yamal continues to shatter age-related records and leave defenders in his wake, and Pedri orchestrates play from the middle of the park, the foundations of a new golden generation are firmly in place.
Tehran acknowledged on Tuesday that negotiations with the US in Oman will take place, but reiterated that they would be “indirect” and conducted via a mediator. “The negotiations, as the foreign minister announced, will be indirect and held in Oman,” said Fatemeh Mohajerani, an Iranian government official.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States will conduct direct discussions with Iran regarding its nuclear program, warning the Iranians that if the talks fail to persuade them to quit their nuclear weapons development, they will be in “great danger”.
Trump, in comments to reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the talks will start Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on the social platform X that is banned in Tehran, insisted the talks would be indirect. “Iran and the United States will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect high-level talks,” he wrote. “It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court.”
In the midst of mounting worries about possible hunger in the Gaza Strip, a charity has sent food to war-weary Palestinians in the devastated northern region.
An Israeli embargo has prevented any kind of help from entering Gaza for 37 days.
Israel’s continued prohibition on aid entering Gaza has made it difficult for Palestinians to provide for their families. To secure food for their kids, many have turned to charitable organisations.
“I came to get lunch from the charity because the situation in Gaza is generally catastrophic and difficult, and my situation is below zero,” said Yasmin Battah, a mother of five children.
“I don’t have anything to buy any of my needs, and what is available is very expensive,” she added.
The war has left most of Gaza’s population of over 2 million dependent on international aid.
Aid groups have expressed concerns that gains they made during the six-week ceasefire to avert famine in parts of the strip have been diminishing as Israel continues to block aid entry to Gaza.
Following heavy rains over the weekend, flooding in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has claimed the lives of over thirty people.
Authorities rushed to rescue and assist hundreds of individuals who were stranded in their houses on Monday.
Hundreds of buildings were submerged on Friday night as the Ndjili River, which flows through the city of around 17 million people, burst its banks.
According to officials, barriers that fell soon after the flood started were responsible for the majority of the deaths.
While the situation had improved by Monday morning, some access roads remained blocked and traffic was limited.
Many residents blamed the government for not responding quickly enough to the disaster.
“I was born, grew up, and had my children here in Congo. I have never encountered these kinds of situations,” said François Munday. “The country is not working.”
The government has set up at least four emergency shelters for hundreds of displaced families, and many across the city are without water after infrastructure was damaged
Françoise Mutela sells bananas and okra in the city, and was stopped on her way to her usual spot by the floodwaters.
“I have never seen something like this before,” she said.
With many having lost everything, and homes, buildings, and infrastructure damaged or destroyed, it is unclear how long it will take the city to recover.
The disaster comes at a difficult time for the DRC which is battling M23 rebels in the east of the country, intensifying a humanitarian crisis there.
The Chinese Government has expressed strong opposition to the United States’ (US) tariff policy under the Trump Administration, raising concerns about its impact on the rules-based multilateral trading system.
China cautioned that the policy infringed upon the legitimate rights of all countries and threatened the global economic order.
“By taking such action, the US defies the fundamental laws of economics and market principles, disregards the balanced outcomes achieved through multilateral trade negotiations, and weaponises tariffs to exert maximum pressure for selfish interests,” a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The statement, shared with journalists in Beijing, described the US tariff policy as “a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying.”
“Under the guise of reciprocity and fairness, the US is playing a zero-sum game to pursue in essence ‘America First’ and ‘American exceptionalism.
“It attempts to exploit tariffs to subvert the existing international economic and trade order and put US interests above the common good of the international community,” the statement noted.
Tariffs have been central to the Trump Administration’s “America First” trade policy since it took office in January.
This policy has faced global condemnation due to its impact on international trade.
Recently, the US imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports from all foreign countries, deepening the global trade conflict as nations like China retaliate with their own tariffs.
The European Union (EU), in response to the Trump Administration’s decision to impose levies on aluminum and steel, has dropped a planned 50 percent retaliatory tariff on American whiskey.
The EU is now proposing 25 percent tariffs on a range of US goods. Some EU member states are pushing to exclude whiskey to protect European wine and champagne producers from facing 200 percent tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump.
The White House maintains that the US tariff policy is not a negotiation tactic, but rather a strategy to strengthen US manufacturing and domestic industry.
In response, China reaffirmed its commitment to global openness.
“As the second largest economy and second largest market for consumer goods, China is committed to opening ever wider to the world, no matter how the international situation changes,” the statement said.
China emphasized that it would continue to pursue high-standard opening-up policies, expand institutional opening-up in rules, regulations, management, and standards, while promoting trade and investment liberalization.
The statement assured that China would foster a first-class market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment and “we will share our development opportunities with the world to achieve mutual benefits.”
The Chinese Government said that economic globalization remained the path to human progress and that the World Trade Organisation’s multilateral trading system had been vital in promoting global trade, economic growth, and sustainable development.
“Openness and cooperation are a historical trend. The world will not, and should not, return to mutual isolation or fragmentation.
“The whole world aspires for win-win cooperation. Economic bullying that shifts risks onto others will ultimately backfire.
Making economic globalisation more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all is a shared responsibility of the international community”, the statement noted.
The President’s Nominee, Mr King Osei Owusu has been confirmed as the District Dormaa East District Chief Executive in the Bono Region.
He secured 22 ‘yes’ votes, representing 73.33 percent of the total ballots cast of the 30-Member Assembly at an election organised and supervised by the Electoral Commission at Nkrankwanta.
Eight of the assembly members voted ‘No’. The Assembly also elected Mr Isaac Afia as its Presiding Member with 22 ‘yes’ votes.
In his acceptance speech Mr Owusu thanked the Assembly Members (AMs) for his endorsement and pledged to work together with all the stakeholders, including traditional authorities in the area to bring the development of the district to the next level.
Mr Joseph Addae Akwaboa, the Bono Regional Minister advised the members to bury their differences, forge ahead in unity in support of the DCE.
“This is not a moment for retribution, but rather an opportunity to assist the DCE in advancing the government’s development initiatives”, he advised.
The Sunyani High Court Judge, Justice Gabriel Martey-Teye, took the DCE through the oaths of Office, Allegiance and Secrecy.
Mr Adama Yeboah, a teacher, and the Assembly Member for Besease Electoral Area in the Dormaa Municipality, has been elected as the Presiding Member (MP) of the Dormaa Municipal Assembly in the Bono Region.
In an election conducted and supervised by the Electoral Commission at Dormaa-Ahenkro, Mr Yeboah secured 36 “yes” of the 44-Member Assembly. Six of the Assembly Members voted ‘No’.
Last year the assembly made several attempts to elect the PM but did not succeed.
Baffour Kwadwo Damoah Afari, the Sanaahene (sub-chief) of the Dormaa Traditional Area, commended the Assembly Members for electing the PM saying that would facilitate the development of the Municipality.
Mr Nar- ire P David, the Dormaa Central Municipal Coordinating Director commended the assembly members for the peaceful conduct of the elections.
President John Dramani Mahama has hailed the Africa’s Higher Education Centers of Excellence’s (ACE) role in addressing critical challenges facing higher education on the continent.
“The ACE programme has emerged as a model of distinction, fostering innovation, nurturing world-class expertise and strengthening institutional capacities in critical sectors such as health, agriculture, engineering and the applied sciences,” President Mahama stated in his remarks at the opening of the 2025 ACE Forum in Accra
He noted that ACE’s transformative journey was a powerful testament to what could be achieved through collaboration in higher education.
The three-day event on the theme “ACE@10: Celebrating a Decade of Impact and Innovation of Africa Centers of Excellence Programme”, is being co-organized by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, the Association of African Universities (AAU), the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), with the support of the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD).
The Forum will take stock of the transformational journey of the ACEs over the last 10 years (ACE@10), and highlight key successes, research breakthroughs, innovations, and impact.
President Mahama said with over 80 centers across more than 20 countries, the ACE initiative had demonstrated that when nations, institutions and development partners come together, the impact could be exponential.
He said from advancing innovative research in infectious diseases and renewable energy to drive innovation in agriculture and digital technology, ACE had become a beacon of regional integration and cooperation.
He reiterated that its results-based approach linking funding to tangible outcomes had not only elevated academic standards but also driven institutional reforms, attracted global partnerships and expanded opportunities for tens of thousands of postgraduate students across Africa.
“ACE has made universities more relevant to the communities in which they are situated,” the President stated.
He said through shared thematic networks, inter-university mobility and academic industry partnership, the ACE initiative had facilitated joint research, co-created curricula and fostered innovation ecosystems that would have been difficult to build in isolation.
He said by leveraging economies of scale and promoting peer learning, this collaborative framework had enhanced regional capacity while directly responding to national development priorities.
“The ACE journey is a reminder that the future of higher education in Africa and indeed globally does not lie in working alone,” President Mahama said.
“It lies in uniting our efforts to unlock talents, to transfer knowledge and build a resilient, skilled work task force that is ready to drive sustainable development across the African continent.”
The President said Ghana had been privileged to host some of the most impactful centers of excellence under the ACE programme; notably the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) and the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), all at the University of Ghana.
The President said WACCI since its establishment had become a key player in enhancing agricultural productivity across the West African region.
He said WACCI focuses on improving crop varieties and empowering local farmers through advanced training in crop improvement and that it had made significant strides in their collective effort to address food security in the sub-region. “The centre has also produced numerous highly trained graduates who are now leaders in agricultural research, positively impacting food systems in Ghana and across the broader West African sub-region.”
He said the prospects for the ACE programme were very bright, and that the demand for research-led solutions, skilled professionals and regionally relevant innovations continues to grow across the continent.
The President said the ACE Centers were uniquely placed to meet this demand, serving as hubs of excellence that could drive socio-economic transformation.
President John Dramani Mahama has lauded the contributions of the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University Ghana towards addressing food security in West Africa.
The Centre, which is one of Africa’s Higher Education Centers of Excellence’s (ACE), contributes to food security in West Africa by training plant breeders and seed scientists, fostering partnerships for agricultural transformation, and developing climate-resilient agricultural systems, aiming to improve crop productivity and sustainability.
The President gave the commendation in his address at the opening of the 2025 ACE Forum in Accra
The three-day event on the theme “ACE@10: Celebrating a Decade of Impact and Innovation of Africa Centers of Excellence Programme”, is being co-organized by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, the Association of African Universities (AAU), the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), with the support of the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD).
The Forum will take stock of the transformational journey of the ACEs over the last 10 years (ACE@10), and highlight key successes, research breakthroughs, innovations, and impact.
Ghana hosts nine ACE Centers: three each at the University of Ghana, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and one each at the University of Cape Coast, the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, and the University for Development Studies, Tamale.
The three ACE Centers at the University of Ghana include WACCI, West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) and the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC).
The President said WACCI since its establishment had become a key player in enhancing agricultural productivity across the West African region.
He said WACCI focuses on improving crop varieties and empowering local farmers through advanced training in crop improvement and that it had made significant strides in their collective effort to address food security in the sub-region. “The centre has also produced numerous highly trained graduates who are now leaders in agricultural research, positively impacting food systems in Ghana and across the broader West African sub-region,” President Mahama said.
“We also have the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), which has also been made as a beacon of scientific research and innovation in the health sector.”
The President said with a focus on infectious diseases, WACCBIP had contributed immensely to the study and diagnosis of pathogens that affect millions of people across Africa.
He said the centre’s achievements include training a diverse pool of scientists who had played a pivotal role in advancing diagnostic tools and therapeutic methods, especially in the fight against emerging diseases.
President Mahama said during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre’s role in research and testing was invaluable, further cementing its place as a leading health research institution.
“And I remember meeting the Vice-Chancellor for the University of Ghana, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, who was lamenting the loss of fund funding because the United States of America had pulled their USAID funding,” President Mahama said.
“And I assured her that we’ll make it up in our own budget, and I’m happy that the Minister of Finance fully provided for the $156 million that was pulled out to be able to allow the critical research that they’re undertaking to go ahead.”
President Mahama said Ghana also boasts of hosting the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), which stands out as a pioneer in genetic research and counselling services.
Adding that as the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa, WAGMC had made remarkable progress in tackling genetic health issues, such as sickle cell disease, through innovative diagnostic methods and personalised care.
He said its efforts in promoting genetic testing and awareness had been transformative, particularly in Ghana where genetic health challenges are of major concern.
The President said these centres had not only fostered innovative research and innovation but had also trained a new generation of African scientists, positioning Africa as a key contributor to academic research and research advancement.
He said it was important that these remarkable achievements and the increasing potential of these institutions across the continent were sustained.
“Sustainability is a shared responsibility, and as the African Centres of Excellence enter their second decade, there is a growing commitment to building strong foundations for long-term impact,” the President said.
“While continued donor support remains a vital part of this journey, we also recognise that we must accelerate efforts to complement such funding.”
The President underscored that with increased national investments, Africans must put more money themselves into these Centres of Excellence.
He also advocated for institutional resource mobilisation and stronger linkages with industry.
Mr Stephen Adom, the Ho Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) nominee has been unanimously approved by the General Assembly.
He polled 43 ‘Yes’ votes out of total votes cast representing 100 per cent.
Mr Adom in his speech said the confirmation had sealed all processes that involved in the race to the MCE slot adding that all must come on board to help develop the Municipality.
He said his programme ranged from agriculture to scholarship schemes for all in the Municipality.
Mr Adom said his nomination was a testament of confidence reposed in him by President John Dramani Mahama.
He said he was committed to serving with dedication and humility, adding that unanimous approval meant a lot for him.
Mr James Gunu, Volta Regional Minister, noted that most Assemblies were debt-ridden and there was the need to work around the clock to turn the fortunes of the Assemblies.
He said despite the challenges and differences in the nine Assemblies that confirmed the respective nominee, they united to ensure that their areas were developed.
Mr Gunu said the development of Volta Region must start from the regional capital, which would manifest in other Municipals and Districts in the Region.
