Category World News

Following Morocco’s victory in the Arab Cup final on Thursday in Qatar, it was a big night for Morocco fans. Andrew Richardson from Al Jazeera spoke with some of them.

African football’s finest teams and brightest stars will take centre stage in Morocco when the continent’s premier showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations, kicks off on Sunday.

Ivory Coast will look to defend the title they won in 2023, while Morocco, Egypt and Senegal are also among the pretournament favourites.

With high-profile players such as Mohamed Salah, Achraf Hakimi and Victor Osimhen set to feature, the 2025 edition is expected to deliver top-tier football and storylines that extend well beyond the pitch.

Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming AFCON:

What are the key dates and where will the AFCON final be played?

The CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2025 will begin on Sunday, as host nation Morocco play Comoros in the opening game.

The final will be played on January 18 at the 69,500-capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, marking the conclusion of the 52-match tournament.

• Group stage: December 21 to 31
• Round of 16: January 3 to 6
• Quarterfinals: January 9 and 10
• Semifinals: January 14
• Third-place playoff: January 17
• Final: January 18

Why is AFCON 2025 starting in December?

The tournament in Morocco was due to be played in June, but that clashed with the expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, which was held in the United States at the time.

It marks the first time AFCON will take place over the Christmas and New Year period.

Where is the tournament being held?

Morocco is hosting the 35th edition of AFCON across nine venues in six cities – the most ever for an AFCON.

Guinea was initially due to host this edition, but the West African country, which is among the poorest on the continent, was stripped of hosting rights due to concerns about its readiness.

The 2025 edition marks the second time Morocco has hosted the African championships, having first done so in 1988.

Here’s a list of the venues and cities:

⚽ Agadir: Adrar Stadium (capacity: 45,480)
⚽ Casablanca: Stade Mohammed V (capacity: 67,000)
⚽ Fez: Fez Stadium (capacity: 45,000)
⚽ Marrakesh: Marrakesh Stadium (capacity: 45,240)
⚽ Rabat: Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium (capacity: 69,500)
⚽ Rabat: Moulay Hassan Stadium (capacity: 22,000)
⚽ Rabat: Rabat Olympic Stadium (capacity: 21,000)
⚽ Rabat: Al Barid Stadium (capacity: 18,000)
⚽ Tangier: Ibn Batouta Stadium (capacity: 75,600)

How many teams are taking part?

Twenty-four teams from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will play in the tournament.

Defending champions Ivory Coast, record seven-time winners Egypt, giants Morocco and Nigeria are among the participants.

The nations have been divided into six groups:

⚽ Group A: Morocco, Mali, Zambia, Comoros

⚽ Group B: Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe

⚽ Group C: Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania

⚽ Group D: Senegal, DR Congo, Benin, Botswana

⚽ Group E: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan

⚽ Group F: Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique

What is the tournament format?

The teams will play in a round-robin format, with the top two from each group, along with the best four third-placed teams, advancing to the knockout stage, which begins with the round of 16.

That is followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final. There is also a third-place playoff between the two losing semifinalists.

In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, it will go to 30 minutes of extra time and, if required, penalties.

A full AFCON 2025 match schedule is available here.

When were the players released for AFCON?

FIFA announced in early December that clubs would only be obliged to release players from December 15 – a week later than the standard international window. The decision left AFCON teams less than a week to prepare once all players were available, posing a logistical challenge for coaches and organisers.

FIFA said the shortened release period, the same approach used for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was agreed after consultations with CAF and other stakeholders to “reduce the impact on various parties”, without elaborating.

Mali coach Tom Saintfiet said it showed a lack of respect for African football and that European clubs were given a higher priority by FIFA. “Everyone in Europe thinks African football is not important,” he added. “It shows a lack of respect, and I’m angry.”

The late notification was also criticised by the coaches, given that the dates for the AFCON finals were announced in June last year, giving FIFA ample time to make its ruling.

Who are the previous AFCON champions?

Egypt are the most successful African nation with seven AFCON titles. However, the Pharaohs haven’t won the title since 2010.

Cameroon are the second-most successful team with five titles, followed by Ghana with four, though they will be absent from this year’s edition after failing to qualify.

Nigeria and the Ivory Coast have won three each, with the latter beating the former in the last edition’s final.

As many as 15 countries have won the championship since the tournament started in 1957.

Why is the AFCON important?

The Africa Cup of Nations brings together some of the strongest teams on the continent, including several capable of making deep runs on the global stage at events like the FIFA World Cup.

Seven teams featuring at AFCON 2025 – Algeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – have also qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

“AFCON is special because it reflects the rich cultures of our continent. Every edition has its own identity – from the fans to the rhythm of the matches,” ex-Zambia Christopher Katongo, who led them to the title in 2012, told CAFOnline.

“It’s not just about football; it’s about pride, history, and representing your people. The level of competition keeps growing because African football is constantly improving, and that makes every tournament a fresh challenge.

“AFCON has become a global showcase for African talent,” he added.

For host nation Morocco, this tournament doubles up as an opportunity to identify areas for improvement and a timely warm-up before the 2030 World Cup, which they will co-host with Spain and Portugal.

Who are the favourites to win AFCON 2025?

Host nation Morocco and defending champions Ivory Coast are among the frontrunners for the title.

Morocco, Africa’s highest-ranked nation at 11th in the world, are in great form, having extended their record-breaking run of successive victories to 18 last month.

The North Africans, whose squad is widely regarded as a golden generation and was the surprise package at the 2022 Qatar World Cup with a semifinal achievement, will also enjoy the advantage of playing in front of home crowds as they aim for their first title in 50 years.

After stunning Nigeria in the 2023 final on home soil, title holders Ivory Coast enter the tournament this year in high spirits. The Elephants sealed their ticket to the 2026 World Cup in remarkable fashion, finishing top of their group in the qualifying stage, without conceding a goal in their 10 games.

Egypt, spearheaded by Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah, could also be one to watch. Senegal, Tunisia and Algeria are among the other fancied teams.

What is the prize money for AFCON?

The prize money remains the same as the last edition, with the winner receiving $7m, while the runner-up takes home $4m.

The total prize pot for the tournament is $32m.

Where to buy tickets and watch the tournament?

Tickets went live on CAF’s official platform in mid-October, with the federation saying 298,000 tickets were sold during the first two phases, with buyers in 106 nations worldwide. A third phase was announced in mid-November.

Tickets for the final, starting from about $43, were sold out in the third phase. Overall, the cheapest ticket available for a game is priced at a little over $10.

Regional broadcasters, including Channel 4, beIN Sport, SuperSport and Canal+, will telecast the tournament.

A group of mothers and a scientist examine the water supply after three girls in a Mexican town pass away from cancer.

As efforts to advance the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, even as Israel repeatedly breaks the truce on the ground, Steve Witkoff, the United States Middle East envoy, will meet with senior officials from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye in Miami, Florida.

A White House official confirmed to Al Jazeera Arabic on Friday that Witkoff will meet with representatives from the three nations to discuss the status of the peace agreement, which would put an end to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty will attend the meeting, according to Axios’ reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a restricted security consultation to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire and possible scenarios, according to Israel’s public broadcaster, quoting an Israeli official.

If US President Donald Trump were to withdraw from the Gaza process, Israel might launch a new military campaign, the official said, acknowledging that Trump wants to maintain calm in the region.

Israeli attacks have continued almost uninterrupted despite Washington’s insistence that the ceasefire is still in place because it is preventing the flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Only 11 days of the 69 days since the truce have been reported without any reported deaths, injuries, or violence, according to an Al Jazeera analysis. Israeli forces have attacked Gaza on 58 of those days.

Trump, a top US official, announced on Thursday that Netanyahu would likely visit him in Florida over the holiday season as the US president called for the start of the second phase of the agreement.

“Yes, he’ll likely stop by Florida to see me. He wants to meet me. He wants to meet me, Trump told reporters, “even though we haven’t yet set the dates.”

Following the devastating two-year genocide in Gaza, Qatar and Egypt have pressed for a transition to the second phase of the agreement. A full Israeli military withdrawal is included in the plan, as is the deployment of an international stabilization force (ISF).

weakened occupation, fragile truce

The prime minister of Qatar called for urgent progress in the negotiation process to put an end to Israel’s bloody occupation of the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday, as he warned that daily Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire are threatening the entire agreement.

Sheikh Mohammed appealed in Washington following discussions with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state of the United States, who argued that “delays and ceasefire violations endanger the entire process and put mediators in a difficult position.”

In light of Israeli violations and Gaza’s rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, Palestinians and rights organizations claim that the ceasefire is only a ceasefire in name.

Israel has repeatedly broken the truce, killing hundreds of Palestinians, since it became effective on October 10, 2025.

Between October 10 and December 12, Israel, according to the government media office in Gaza, carried out at least 738 violations, including direct shootings, air strikes, and artillery fire.

According to the Israeli military, they shot at civilians 205 times, shelled or bombed Gaza 358 times, destroyed property 138 times, and detained 43 Palestinians, according to the office.

Additionally, Israel has continued to systematically destroy homes and infrastructure while preventing essential humanitarian aid.

According to an Israeli security official, the so-called “yellow line” now marks Israel’s new border inside Gaza, adding that Israeli forces won’t leave unless Hamas is disarmed, according to Israel Hayom. The army is planning to remain there indefinitely, according to the official.

Additionally, according to the newspaper, Israeli military leaders are proposing continuing to rule half of Gaza, which highlights Israel’s alleged desire to bolster its position rather than pursue a genuine ceasefire.

A massive storm that recently struck the Strip has caused at least 13 people to die as a result of torrential rains and fierce winds flooded tents and knocked down damaged buildings in Gaza, adding to the already dire state.

United States President Donald Trump has often said that since he took office in January, the US has received trillions of dollars in promises of investments, and the dollar amount he cites changes.

On his second day in office, January 21, Trump said the US had “already secured nearly $3 trillion of new investments”.

By May 8, that figure had risen to “close to $10 trillion“. It eventually peaked on October 29 during a meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok: “I think by the end of my first term, we should have $21 or $22 trillion dollars invested in the United States from other people and countries,” Trump said.

Since then, Trump has reported varied investment figures:

• On November 27 and December 2, he said they were worth nearly $20 trillion.
• On December 2, December 3, December 4 and December 9, he said about $18 trillion, a figure he had first cited on October 10.

Sometimes Trump has phrased the commitments as approaching a dollar figure; other times, he’s said they’ve already hit that number.

In May, when Trump said, “We have now close to $10 trillion” in investments, we rated that False. The White House had documented at least $4.9 trillion less than what Trump claimed.

That $10 trillion number has about doubled in the seven months since, according to Trump, but it’s unsubstantiated. On the higher end, $22 trillion would be equal to about three-quarters of the United States’ entire 2024 annual gross domestic product (GDP), an extraordinary total for the richest country in the history of the world.

The White House website documents $9.6 trillion, and not everything cited on the website was newly pledged during Trump’s second term. Experts say there’s no guarantee the full amounts promised will come to fruition, and some of this investment would have occurred regardless of who was president.

The White House did not respond to PolitiFact’s questions about Trump’s statements.

One way to benchmark Trump’s investment figure is to look at what the White House officially documented.

The White House launched a webpage in April that includes a list of countries and companies it said have announced investments during Trump’s second term.

Using the internet archive Wayback Machine, we tracked the amount of investment the White House website cited over time. The figures Trump has used were usually at least double the amount listed on the website.

In recent weeks, as Trump cited figures from $18 trillion to $22 trillion, the White House website reported $9.6 trillion.

Is Trump accurately framing the foreign and corporate investments?

The White House website’s figure includes aspirational goals over multiple years and counts future purchases of products rather than capital investments. For some of the biggest line items – such as commitments by the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – the pledges are multiple times those countries’ annual gross domestic product, which calls their feasibility into question.

A Bloomberg Economics’ analysis found that of the $9.6 trillion the White House listed on its website in late November, $7 trillion could be considered “real investment pledges”. The remaining $2.6 trillion included countries’ agreements to purchase items such as natural gas or to expand future trade. The analysis characterised some of the investment pledges by other countries as “amorphous”.

More than 80 percent of the investments from private companies stemmed from artificial intelligence-related spending.

“Many of the pledges cited by the White House are part of overlapping multi-company projects, making it difficult to determine how much may be counted more than once,” Bloomberg said.

Ten items on the White House’s website accounted for the vast majority of the $9.6 trillion the White House detailed. Some of the White House’s documentation includes details such as specific companies getting involved and the types of facilities or infrastructure envisioned; other examples are more vague. Some involve conventional investments, while others have to do with projected trade increases.

1. United Arab Emirates: $1.4 trillion. The White House says this investment focuses on AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, quantum computing, biotechnology and manufacturing. Companies cited in a White House news release include Boeing, GE Aerospace, Emirates Global Aluminum, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Qualcomm and Amazon Web Services. It’s unclear how much of this investment would come from new investments.

The UAE’s 2024 gross domestic product was $537bn, making the pledge equal to three years of the country’s entire economic output.

2. Qatar: $1.2 trillion. The White House press release described this as an “economic exchange”, rather than a one-way investment. It cited the involvement of companies including Boeing, GE Aerospace, Raytheon, General Atomics, ExxonMobil and Chevron Phillips. The announcement described a mixture of trade deals, purchase agreements and investment intentions – items that analysts say often include future-looking efforts rather than capital injections.

In 2024, Qatar’s gross domestic product was $218bn, making this pledge equivalent to nearly six years of the country’s entire economy.

3. Japan: $1 trillion. The White House has said Japan is moving towards $1 trillion, following an initial agreement to invest $550bn in sectors such as semiconductors, shipbuilding, energy, pharmaceuticals, metals and minerals by the end of Trump’s term. Japan also disputes that this will be a one-way flow of cash into the US. Bloomberg News quoted Japanese trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa saying, “It’s not that $550bn in cash will be sent to the US” but rather a combination of investments, loans and loan guarantees provided by financial institutions backed by the Japanese government.

4. Meta: $600bn. The White House and the social media company said $600bn is tied to Meta’s US AI infrastructure and workforce expansion plans through to 2028.

5. Apple: $600bn. Apple’s long history of multi-year domestic investment pledges  means the $600bn figure incorporates prior commitments plus recent accelerations. Apple’s news release described a new $100bn boost to bring its total US commitment to $600bn over several years. The release cites a new American Manufacturing Program, supplier investments and training programmes.

6. Saudi Arabia: $600bn. The administration said $600bn from Saudi Arabia would involve the energy, critical minerals and defence sectors.

The amount cited would be equal to about half of Saudi Arabia’s 2024 gross domestic product.

7. European Union companies: $600bn. The EU said in August that “European companies are expected to invest an additional $600bn across strategic sectors in the United States through 2028.” However, the statement frames this as aspirational, not as a commitment.

8. Stargate: $500bn. This consortium between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle was unveiled during a January 21 White House event. Stargate said $100bn will be invested “immediately” and that the consortium “intends to invest” a total of $500bn over the next four years. OpenAI, among others, published blog posts describing its plans for five new sites that would bring the project to “over $400bn” in near-term investment, positioning it on a path to the $500bn target.

9. NVIDIA: $500bn. The White House said NVIDIA has pledged to build $500bn-worth of AI infrastructure in the US over the next four years. NVIDIA has said it is pursuing “ambitious” manufacturing and server production in the US, but the $500bn figure remains a goal.

10. India: $500bn. What is being called “Mission 500” aims to reach $500bn in annual bilateral trade by 2030. But it is a trade goal, not an investment pledge, and its end date would come after the end of Trump’s term. Further, the framework seems to allow US purchases of Indian goods to count towards the goal, which does not foster US investment and production.

Importantly, experts said, some of these pledges won’t materialise.

“Historically, large-scale investment announcements often overpromise and underdeliver,” Roman V Yampolskiy, an AI specialist at the University of Louisville told PolitiFact in May. “There is a performative element to them, especially in politically charged contexts. They function as political theatre as much as economic commitment.”

Trump isn’t the first to overstate new investments. President Joe Biden said in 2024 that his bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act had attracted $640bn in private investments; economists told PolitiFact that Biden’s numbers were based on what companies had announced, which is not the same as dollars already spent.

Our ruling

Trump says the US has received investment commitments totalling $18 trillion to $22 trillion since he took office in January.

The number Trump cites is about double what the White House’s website lists. And experts say the website’s current figure, $9.6 trillion, should be viewed with caution.

It includes aspirational, multi-year goals that might or might not come to fruition, and some items are future purchases or sales of products, rather than capital investments.

For the two biggest line items – commitments from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – the amounts are multiple times those countries’ annual gross domestic product.