Sevilla manager Garcia Pimienta has admitted that Kelechi Iheanacho is still struggling to find his form at the club, according to online reports

.The Nigerian striker, who joined Sevilla in the summer after building a strong reputation during his time with Manchester City and Leicester City in the Premier League, has yet to live up to expectations.

Iheanacho has not registered a goal or an assist in four league appearances for the Rojiblancos.Despite his slow start, Pimienta remains confident that Iheanacho will regain his best form soon.

“He [Iheanacho] has quality, but he joined the team a month late and was training on his own. He’s still adapting. The two weeks with the national team, where he didn’t play, didn’t help,” Pimienta told Spanish outlet Ondacero.“We need to give him confidence.

He’s a quality player, and based on what he’s achieved, it’s only a matter of time before we see him at his best. He has the talent and ability to succeed.”

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has praised Marc Cucurella as a “very important” member of the squad, expressing that he wishes to have “seven players” like him.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Brighton, Maresca was asked about the defender’s performance this season.

The Chelsea boss emphasized that the 26-year-old not only excels individually but also enhances the performance of his teammates.”Marc [Cucurella] is very important,” Maresca told reporters on Friday.

“He has qualities that are sometimes hard to find in players.

He makes those around him better because he’s always talking and demanding more.

“Having five, six, or seven players like Marc, who are constantly pushing others to improve, is very valuable. I’m very happy with Marc.”

Lebanon’s health ministry has announced that hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs will be evacuated following a series of heavy Israeli airstrikes in the area.

In response to the escalating situation, the ministry has called on hospitals in regions not impacted by the strikes to halt the admission of non-emergency cases.

This directive is intended to ensure sufficient capacity to treat patients from the evacuated hospitals.

The ministry’s statement, issued on Saturday, urged unaffected hospitals to keep beds available for patients transferred from the southern suburbs, asking them to refrain from taking in non-urgent cases until the end of the following week.

Although the statement highlighted the seriousness of the situation, the health ministry has not yet provided an updated figure on casualties resulting from the attacks, according to Agence France-Presse.

Donald Trump on Friday accused Google of showing only “bad stories” about him and vowed to have the tech giant prosecuted if he gets back in the White House.

Trump provided no backing for his accusation in a post on his Truth Social platform, in which he added that the search engine displays only positive articles about his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” he said in the post.

“If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the election.”

The Trump post came after a conservative group reported on what it said it found when doing a search on “Donald Trump presidential race 2024.”

“Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries,” Google said in response to an AFP inquiry.

“This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day a few weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates’ websites ranked in the top results on Google.”

Google has been adamant that it does not manipulate search results to favor any political candidate.

The company does not disclose the inner workings of the software that powers its ubiquitous search engine.

However, factors known to influence search results for news stories include the timeliness and popularity of topics.

Trump is at the center of numerous criminal and civil cases in which he faces accusations including sexual abuse, paying hush money to a porn star, interfering with the 2020 election and trying to thwart the peaceful transition of power after President Joe Biden defeated him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has arrested a former governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, over an alleged fraud of N27bn.

Ishaku was reportedly picked up at his Abuja residence in the early hours of Friday.

The former governor was said to still be in the anti-graft agency’s custody as of the time of filing this report.

According to Daily Trust, at least 15-count charges have been filed against Ishaku and he would be arraigned in court soon as evidence against him has been compiled.

“Yes, he’s in our custody right now. We have been investigating him covertly since he left as the State governor. There is a lot of financial malfeasance he perpetrated,” the source said.

The spokesman of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, confirmed the development but declined further comments when contacted by the paper.

Ishaku’s arrest is coming on the heels of ongoing face-off between the commission and the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who was alleged to have stolen N80.2bn.

Experts led by Heads of State and Government at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly have warned that malaria may afflict 137.2 million more people, and kill up to 337,000 persons by 2029 if critical funding is not received.

According to new modelling conducted by the Malaria Atlas Project, in the event of a cut in resources at the next Global Fund replenishment, and any changes in the allocation of resources to malaria, there could be 137.2 million additional malaria cases and up to 337,000 additional deaths from 2027 to 2029.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is one of the primary sources of funding for the control and elimination of all three diseases.

Funded largely by governments, it pools the world’s resources to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, raising and investing money in three-year cycles known as Replenishments.

The new models show that if there is a flat-lining of malaria resources (with the Global Fund Replenishment again achieving approximately $15.6 billion in total and allocations across the three diseases remaining on par with the current cycle), the world could see an additional 112 million malaria cases and up to 280,700 additional deaths across the three-year period, with upsurges and outbreaks happening right across the continent of Africa.

The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, in a statement, said current funding levels would be inadequate to tackle the disease because of multiple challenges converging: Insecticide and anti-malarial drug resistance are on the rise, reducing the effectiveness of existing malaria interventions. There are now highly effective new tools, such as dual-insecticide mosquito nets, that address resistance but the costs to roll out these interventions are higher. Climate change and humanitarian crises are also coinciding with deadly effect and leave those affected even worse off and more vulnerable to malaria.

The situation will be even worse if the total Global Fund Replenishment sees a cut to resources and takes funding away from malaria.

The new projections were raised by President Umaro Sissocco Embaló of Guinea-Bissau at a fireside chat – ‘Confronting the Malaria Perfect Storm, convened by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance. They expressed concerns that malaria would quickly resurge, if appropriate action is not taken in this Replenishment cycle.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, Dr. Michael Charles, said: “The evidence is clear that there is significant risk of malaria epidemics if funding isn’t increased and high-burden areas are unable to deliver critical malaria prevention services. Unlike Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and TB, malaria is concentrated in lower income countries, particularly across Africa, so often these countries have the least ability to afford the fight. Everyone, no matter where they live, has a right to health. Malaria is straining health systems and making it difficult for people in low income countries to fully enjoy their right to health.”

“Allocating the funds from the Global Fund Replenishment is complex, as of course all three diseases urgently need attention. But it is crucial that malaria receives an increase in its funding from the Global Fund, if we are to avoid a wide-scale resurgence. If this doesn’t happen, we can expect cases to spike and increased mortality.

We already know this will impact women and young children hardest, as they are disproportionately affected by the disease. It will also push more people into poverty and overwhelm already fragile health systems, with economic consequences that will ripple across the world. We simply cannot afford to let this happen. The world has a duty to ensure our most vulnerable populations are not further disadvantaged, and to do this, we need to ensure the right funding is in place, starting with the global fund replenishment.”