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Who: Nigeria vs Madagascar What: AFCON 2027 qualifier Where: Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, Nigeria When: Friday, September 25, at 5pm (16:00 GMT) How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport   will bring you all the build-up from 13:30 GMT before our live text commentary stream. Nigeria and Madagascar kick off their qualifying campaigns for the  2027 Africa Cup of Nations , which will be held across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. While  the Super Eagles reached the semifinals of the last two AFCON tournaments, they have failed to qualify for successive World Cups and coach Eric Chelle will be extra eager to start the qualification campaign with a win, and his side will be strong favourites. Meanwhile, Madagascar, whose national team are nicknamed Barea, will attempt to emulate their last shock win over the Super Eagles – a 2-0 victory at AFCON 2019. The Madagascans were making their AFCON debut that year and got as far as the quarterfinals but have not reached a...

Sept 24 (Reuters) - North Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday rejected an international statement urging it to halt nuclear ​tests, with a spokesperson calling it "a grave ‌political provocation against our state" by "hostile forces". A meeting of ministers from the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty  — a grouping ​of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan and ​the Netherlands — said any new nuclear test ⁠by North Korea would be irresponsible and unacceptable. The ​meeting in New York on Tuesday urged Pyongyang to fully comply ​with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. The spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry described the country as a ​responsible nuclear-armed state, in a statement carried by ​state media KCNA. In another statement carried by KCNA earlier in ‌the ⁠day, North Korea's foreign minister Choe Son Hui said Pyongyang's nuclear weapons status is irreversible. Choe was respo...

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday, with talks on trade and artificial intelligence ​and the growing strategic rivalry between the countries all in the spotlight during an elaborate state visit. Here are some major takeaways from the talks: TRADE DEAL EXTENDED, FOR ‌NOW US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides had extended a trade truce that was due to expire in November during talks, but only by two months.  He said the extension would give the two sides "more time to see what we can do on the economic front." But rather than locking in a durable agreement, the extension appears to push the central questions — tariffs, Chinese purchases, rare-earth supplies and technology restrictions — into the next round of negotiations. Bessent said ​on Wednesday that Beijing was meeting its requirement in the earlier agreement to buy 25 million tons of soybeans but was la...

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that Washington has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to December’s G20 meeting  in Miami amid efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Following a meeting with Russian Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Rubio said the US remained open to speaking with Moscow about Ukraine. "We’ve just invited President Putin to the G20. We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said. Trump and Putin last met, face to face, in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025, but failed to reach any agreement over Ukraine. Putin has not visited the contiguous United States since he invaded Ukraine in 2022. Here’s what we know. What is the G20? The G20, or Group of 20, is a forum bringing together the world’s major and emerging economies....

ABUJA, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Nigeria's $300 million Distributed Renewable ​Energy Fund has been ‌commercially launched, moving from structuring to capital deployment, ​the country's sovereign wealth ​fund said on Monday. Nigeria ⁠Sovereign Investment Authority said ​the fund brings together ​public and private capital to fund clean-energy projects. The fund seeks ​to scale off-grid ​and distributed renewable energy investments and ‌connect ⁠around 300 million people across Africa to electricity by 2030. The World Bank ​Group, ​as ⁠a founding partner in the initiative, ​has backed the ​fund ⁠with an initial $25 million through its IDA arm, ⁠the ​NSIA said.

Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye, known as King Sunny Adé ’, is 80 this year. He has devoted more than 60 years of his life to influencing Nigeria’s popular music and promoting the unique sounds of jùjú music. Jùjú is a Nigerian musical tradition that combines intricate rhythms, percussion, guitars, talking drums, call-and-response and Yoruba oral culture. It’s not only entertainment but a vehicle for expressing cultural identity, transmitting proverbs and praise traditions, and social life commentary. Sunny Adé’s career embodies an impressive blend of cultural grounding, musical innovation, entrepreneurial insight and global acclaim. From his beginnings in Lagos to his rise as the globally celebrated “King of Jùjú”, his story is intertwined  with the development of contemporary African popular music. As a social philosopher , I regard Sunny Adé’s music as a tool for social change. This is because it transforms cultural expression into a medium of moral reflection and s...

Patrick Vieira has been officially presented as the new head coach of Senegal, describing his appointment in Dakar as an emotional homecoming. In his maiden 29-man squad selection, the former France international made bold choices by omitting star forward Sadio Mane due to physical issues. Vieira takes charge of Senegal and makes bold selection statement Patrick Vieira has been officially presented as the new head coach of Senegal in Dakar, launching a four-year cycle aimed at maintaining international competitiveness and building toward 2030. Senegalese Football Federation president Abdoulaye Fall called the appointment an absolute necessity for the national team. Born in Dakar before moving to France as an eight-year-old, the 50-year-old manager described taking charge of the Lions of Teranga as a deeply personal homecoming. In his first major act, Vieira named an expanded 29-man squad that features significant tactical adjustments and high-profile omissions. ...

LAGOS, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Several Nigerian digital investment platforms suffered outages as retail investors rushed to buy shares  ​in Dangote Petroleum Refinery, highlighting the strain Africa's largest-ever share sale is placing on fintech infrastructure. Regulators and market participants have urged first-time ‌investors to be cautious as the record $1.6 billion offering, launched this week by Aliko Dangote , seeks broad public participation through banks, mobile operators and fintech platforms. Neither Dangote nor the underwriters have provided any figures for demand for the shares. However, the disruptions point to strong retail investor interest in the offer and illustrate the growing role fintech firms may play in widening access to Nigeria's ​capital markets. When the IPO launched on Monday, Temi Popoola, CEO of NGX Group, said demand was so high that some investment apps crashed.  "I think ​this particular IPO is stress testing Nigeria's financi...

SEOUL, Sept 16 (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung hosted the country's first summit with the leaders of five Central Asian countries on Wednesday, putting critical minerals, energy and supply-chain cooperation at ​the centre of Seoul's push to deepen ties with the resource-rich region. The summit brought ​together the leaders of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and capped three ⁠days of bilateral meetings that produced more than 70 agreements and memorandums of understanding spanning ​energy, mining, infrastructure, technology and investment. Speaking at a business forum after the summit, Lee said South Korea ​was seeking to expand cooperation beyond resource imports and deepen industrial partnerships. "Beyond simple raw materials trade, we must strengthen cooperation across the entire critical minerals value chain, from exploration and refining to high-value materials processing and finished-product ​manufacturing,...

JAŸ-Z  brought out some familiar faces in New York City on Sunday night for the world premiere of his upcoming HBO documentary series,  JAŸ-Z in 8 . The rapper joined longtime friend Rick Rubin at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center on September 13, five days before the eight-part series makes its television debut. Rubin, who has collaborated with JAŸ-Z throughout his career, directed the project in his first documentary outing. Several stars were on hand for the premiere, including SZA, Daniel Kaluuya and Leonardo DiCaprio. Questlove attended the screening, along with Fat Joe and Gunna. Slick Rick, Angie Martinez and DJ D-Nice were also among the guests. Following the red carpet, attendees watched a special screening before heading to an after-party at Lincoln Center Plaza. JAŸ-Z In 8 pairs the Brooklyn rapper with Rubin for an extended conversation about his life and the thinking behind some of his best-known work. The series arrives 30 years after JA...