ОГЛЯД

A film taking place during Russia’s war on Ukraine was recently screened before the U.S. Congress. It tells the story of two Ukrainian teens who were forcibly transferred to a Russian-occupied territory. Andriy Borys has this report, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Viacheslav Filiushkin
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The group stages of the women’s soccer World Cup in Australia and New Zealand have ended with the unexpected elimination of Germany, Brazil and the current Olympic champions, Canada. Starting Saturday, the tournament moves into its knockout phase where three African nations hope to advance. Organizers say more than 1.7 million tickets have been sold for the event, so far.

The knockout round begins Saturday.

What started as 64 matches featuring 32 teams now stands at eight matches played by 16 teams.

The tournament started with group play: eight groups of four teams each. The top two teams in each group advance to the round-of-sixteen, or knockout round.

On Sunday, the world’s top-ranked side, the United States, will face Sweden. The U.S. is attempting to win the tournament for a third consecutive time.

The world’s second-ranked nation and two-time winners of the Women’s World Cup, Germany, was eliminated when Morocco beat Colombia in Perth. The Germans, who could only draw with South Korea, were left with fewer points than the North Africans.

Canada and Brazil, ranked seventh and eighth respectively, are also out of the tournament.

Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa have all progressed to the knockout round, where they are expected to face tough matches against France, England and the Netherlands respectively.

Francis Awaritefe, chair of Professional Footballers Australia, which represents the country’s elite players, said he is not surprised African nations have played well.

“They have always been very strong,” he said. “I think Nigeria has always performed very strongly. But I think in recent times there has been a lot of investment in football in a country like Morocco where they have invested a lot of money specifically into coaching and infrastructure and resources for women’s football, and we can see that result in the performances of the team, the Moroccan national team in terms of the way it has performed. South Africa has also been reasonably strong as well, but it is good to see them now actually producing those results on the field.”

Co-host New Zealand has been eliminated, but Australia has reached the next round where it plays Denmark at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney on Monday.

Awaritefe said fans in both host nations are embracing the Women’s World Cup.

“Look, I think it has gone beyond our expectations not just in terms of the performances on the field, which has been absolutely wonderful,” he said. “The standard has just gone up another notch or two in this tournament. But, also, in terms of the crowds and the way that Australians have really embraced the Football World Cup. It has been absolutely phenomenal and also in New Zealand as well. Japan, England and Australia for me are the strongest sides right now and they are the ones I can see going very, very deep into the tournament.”

As the knockout phase begins, soccer fans around the world are anticipating more drama in the days to come. The final will be played in Sydney on Aug. 20.
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The Somali government has suspended its head of athletics after a sprinter finished more than 10 seconds behind the winner in the 100-meter dash at the 2023 World University Games in Chengdu, China.

Youth and Sports Minister Mohamed Barre Mohamud told VOA Somali that Khadijo Aden Dahir had been suspended pending an investigation.

 

He alleged that the runner, Nasro Abukar Ali, had been selected to represent Somali schools because of nepotism rather than her performance.

On Tuesday, Ali ran the 100-meter-dash in 21.81 seconds, compared with the winning time of 11:58 seconds.

“When we investigated how she went there, she went there through [an] inappropriate process which was not transparent and not in line with the rules,” Mohamud said.

“We can confirm that she was taken there through corruption.”

Mohamud said Dahir and Ali are related.

VOA Somali has reached out to Dahir, but she has not responded to repeated calls and requests for comment.

Politicians and Somali observers have taken to social media, describing the matter as a “national embarrassment.”

“So Embarrassing for the young lady who cannot run. … This is a national tragedy,” wrote Ali Said Faqi, a Somali federal lawmaker, on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

 

A civil society leader in the diaspora, Zahra Shirwa, was kinder to Ali.

“The only ‘tragedy’ here is that this young woman is turned to a national punching bag,” she wrote. “She was clearly not ready for the competition but, tragedy?

 

Last week, Ali was seen off from the Mogadishu airport by Somali officials and the Chinese ambassador to Somalia, Fei Shengchao, according to a post on X by Somali National Television.

The Ministry of Youth said the government would investigate the matter and submit conclusions to the justice department.
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