Nobel chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi was born to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, a quiet, studious child in a “large, rowdy family” that shared a single room with cattle they raised.Which made Wednesday’s news that the chemist at the University of California, Berkeley was among 2025’s class of Nobel winners all the more emotional, Yaghi told journalists as he heralded the US public school system he said he is a product of.He also emphasized that publicly financed education and research have been key to his career, at a moment when US President Donald Trump is upending the long-standing funding structures that undergird the work of universities.”This recognition is really a testament of the power of the public school system in the US that takes people like me with a major disadvantaged background, a refugee background, and allows you to work, and work hard, and distinguish yourself,” Yaghi said.He described how his parents spent “every minute of their time dedicated to their kids and to their kids’ education, because they saw that as a way to lift themselves and the kids out of challenging situations.”Their home had no electricity or running water. His father had finished school through sixth grade and his mother could neither read nor write.”We didn’t have a lot of the conveniences that many others do, but we had a lot of love and a lot of care,” the scientist said.Yaghi won the 2025 prize together with Susumu Kitagawa of Japan and UK-born Richard Robson for their groundbreaking discoveries on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), whose uses include capturing carbon dioxide and harvesting water from desert air.Born in 1965, he spent his childhood in Amman, Jordan, before leaving for the United States at the age of 15, on the advice of his stern father who saw for his son an opportunity to thrive. At that point young Yaghi had already grown enamored with molecular structures after being drawn to “unintelligible but captivating” images in a book.”I fell in love with them, even before I knew they were molecules,” Yaghi said. – ‘Equalizing force’ of science -He began at a community college in upstate New York before transferring and finishing a degree at the State University of New York at Albany, supporting himself by bagging groceries and mopping floors.Yaghi completed his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990 and went on to work at a number of US universities before landing at UC Berkeley in 2012.He emphasized Wednesday that groundbreaking research was made possible with grants that stemmed from federal sources.”They were absolutely key in enabling me to go off in my own direction” and experiment, Yaghi said. “Science costs money, and it’s an investment into our future.”He louded the “amazing” higher education, research and mentorship system in the United States that public funding is vital to: “Science is a jewel in the crown of our country.””We cannot allow that to slip.”Yaghi was en route to Brussels via Frankfurt for a chemistry conference when the Nobel organizers got in touch with him with news of his prestigious honor, which he said “surprised and delighted” him.”You cannot prepare for a moment like that,” he said. Yaghi’s accomplishments include leading a research group that extracted water from desert air in Arizona, work his students have told him has garnered more than 250,000 citations.The child of refugees told the Nobel Foundation Wednesday that “science is the great equalizing force in the world.””Smart people, talented people, skilled people exist everywhere,” Yaghi said.”That’s why we really should focus on unleashing their potential through providing them with opportunity.”

The global economy is doing better than expected, even as it faces prolonged uncertainty and underwhelming medium-term growth prospects, the head of the IMF said Wednesday. The world economy is doing “better than feared, but worse than we need,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters in Washington.She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced, emerging market and developing countries. Georgieva’s remarks came ahead of next week’s gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors at the World Bank and the IMF in Washington. Trade is once again likely to dominate the agenda at the annual meetings, following US President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to unleash sweeping tariffs against many trading partners.- ‘Multiple shocks’ -“All signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said, pointing to “improved policy fundamentals,” the adaptability of the private sector, lower-than-expected tariffs, and supportive financial conditions. “The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. She noted that the average US tariff rate has fallen from 23 percent in April to 17.5 percent today, while the US effective tariff rate of around 10 percent remains “far above” the rest of the world.But, she warned, the full effect of those tariffs “is still to unfold,” adding that the resilience of the world economy has yet to be “fully tested.” Against this backdrop, the Fund still expects global growth to remain at roughly three percent over the medium term, in line with previous forecasts — below the 3.7 percent, on average, seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.”Global growth patterns have been changing over the years, notably with China decelerating steadily while India develops into a key growth engine,” Georgieva said. To boost lackluster growth prospects elsewhere, she called on countries to act swiftly to “durably” lift output, rebuild fiscal buffers, and address “excessive” trade imbalances. The Fund’s prescriptions for policymakers differed by region, with Asia urged to deepen its internal trade, and to strengthen the service sector and access to finance. Carried out correctly, this could raise economic output by as much as 1.8 percent in the long run, Georgieva said. African countries should promote “business-friendly reforms” and continue with efforts to build up the Continental Free Trade Area which, she said, could lift their real GDP per capita by “over 10 percent.””Gains from this region can be especially large,” she said. – Tough love for Europe -Georgieva reserved her harshest criticism for Europe, which has struggled with economic growth in recent years, in marked contrast to the United States.To raise competition in the bloc, Georgieva called on the European Union to appoint a new “single market czar” to drive reforms, a move that would simplify the EU’s structure and consolidate the power to make the changes required. These changes include steps to deepen EU single market integration in financial services and energy. “Catch up with the private sector dynamism of the US,” she said, adding that Europe must “recognize that there will be some sacrifices on the way.”For the world’s largest economy, Georgieva urged the Trump administration to address the country’s federal deficit and to take steps to incentivize household savings. And for China, the world’s second-largest economy, Georgieva reiterated the IMF’s ongoing calls for fiscal reforms to boost private consumption and reduce dependence on industrial policy to drive growth.