Pope Francis lashes out at Portugal’s Catholic hierarchy for ignoring clergy sexual abuse

By Euronews, AP

Published on 03/08/2023 - 16:25

The pope said that ignoring the clergy sexual abuse scandal for so long marred the Catholic Church and drove people away from it.

Pope Francis blasted members of Portugal's Catholic hierarchy for ignoring the country's clergy sexual abuse for so long, a reaction that he said drove people away from the Catholic Church and marred its reputation.

Talking in his native Spanish, Pope Francis acknowledged that many clergy and nuns are feeling weary because people are losing faith. "It is often accentuated by the disappointment and anger with which some people view the church, at times due to our poor witness and the scandals that have marred her face and called us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to," he said, referring to Portugal's sexual abuse scandal. 

On Thursday, the first day of a five-day visit to Lisbon for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival, the pope also met with 13 survivors of sexual abuse, with whom he talked for over an hour.

The meeting was aimed at trying to help members of the church in Portugal, as well as the faithful, overcome the difficult moment they're now facing as the country comes to terms with the same legacy of abuse and cover-up which has recently been revealed in other European countries.

In February, a panel of experts hired by Portugal's bishops reported that priests and other church personnel may have abused at least 4,815 of boys and girls since 1950. The report revealed the problem of child sex abuse within the church to be much bigger than previously suggested when bishops tried to minimise it saying there were only a handful of cases. 

After the release of the report, Portugal's bishops initially refused to remove abusers from ministry and said they would only compensate victims if courts ordered them to.

Following the Pope's comments earlier in the day, Bishop Jose Ornelas, the head of the Portuguese Bishops' Conference, said that the country's church will devote "special attention to the protection of the welfare of children and the undertaking to protect them from all kinds of abuse."

Portugal's bishops are committed to "putting the victims first," and "working together" with victims on reparations and their recovery, a statement after the conference said.

António Grosso of "Coração Silenciado" (literally, "Silenced Heart") -- the only association for victims of Church abuse in Portugal -- told the Spanish news agency EFE that the Pope "had an obligation" to talk about the scandal to "warn the world youth who are present in Lisbon not to allow themselves to be manipulated by abusers within the Church, but to denounce them."

Body found trapped in Greg Abbott’s anti-migrant buoys along Mexico-Texas border


Bevan Hurley
Thu, August 3, 2023 

A body has been found stuck to buoys that were installed by Texas authorities in the Rio Grande along the US-Mexican border to deter migrants, Mexican officials say.

A person was found dead in the southern part of the floating barrier near Eagle Pass on Wednesday afternoon, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Barcena said in a statement.

Search teams from Mexico’s National Institute of Migration are trying to recover the body, whose nationality and cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

The body of a second unidentified person was found floating about 3 miles (5kms) upriver near the buoys earlier in the week, Mexican officials said.


It’s unclear if the deaths are connected.

The 1,000 foot floating barrier was erected in July at the orders of Texas Governor Greg Abbott despite warnings they posed a grave danger to migrants.

The Justice Department is suing the state of Texas over the buoys, arguing they flout federal law, pose a public safety threat and risk damaging US-Mexican relations.

Buoys placed in the Rio Grande by Texas officials have been roundly condemned as a human rights violation (Associated Press)

The Mexican foreign ministry again condemned the barrier as a “violation” of their sovereignty.

“We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants that these state policies will have, which run counter to the close collaboration between our country and the federal government of the United States.

“We made clear our concern about the impact on migrants’ safety and human rights that these state policies would have,” officials said in a statement.

The buoys are part of a military-style buildup along the border by Mr Abbott’s administration that includes razor wire and hundreds of national guard troops.

Hundreds of migrants drown along the Rio Grande every year.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, other progressives to visit left-ruled Latin American nations

Tracy Wilkinson - Los Angeles Times (TNS)


WASHINGTON — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a group of fellow progressive Democrats are heading to South America later this month on a congressional trip that will also challenge Biden administration policy in the region.

An 11-member group of lawmakers and staff plan to leave Aug. 14 to meet with officials and civil society groups in the region's three largest leftist-ruled democracies: Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The weeklong trip to the countries' capitals, which has not yet been announced, will be sponsored by a progressive advocacy group based in Washington and won't use taxpayer funds, the organizers said.

"It's long past time for a realignment of the United States' relationship to Latin America," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement provided to The Times. "The U.S. needs to publicly acknowledge the harms we've committed through interventionist and extractive policies, and chart a new course based on trust and mutual respect."

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, the top Democrat on the influential House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, is also scheduled to join the delegation. His office confirmed his plans but declined to comment further.

With the arrival to the White House of President Biden — A Democrat who prides himself on decades of familiarity with Latin America — many activists, advocates and progressive political organizations believed he would reverse some of Republican predecessor Donald Trump's policies that they felt ignored or were hostile to the region.

But two and a half years into his presidency, Biden has maintained some of Trump's controversial immigration policies involving Latin America; kept in place punitive measures against Cuba while opting not to revive Obama-era rapprochement; and overlooked human rights or other abuses in Mexico, Colombia and other countries in favor of U.S. economic and trade interests.

Biden's critics on his party's left flank believe the president fumbled last year when he refused to invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders that traditionally includes all countries in the region.

The summit, held every three or four years, was held in Los Angeles in 2022, hosted by the U.S for the first time in nearly three decades. Biden's exclusion of the three generally authoritarian countries triggered a boycott of the event by several Latin American leaders.

Meanwhile, a democratic left wave was sweeping parts of the continent.

In Brazil, veteran leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was returned to power on Jan. 1 after defeating a hard-right populist and staunch Trump ally.

Voters in Chile — where democracy has flourished after decades of right-wing authoritarian military rule and governments have transitioned peacefully between progressive and conservative leaders — last year elected Gabriel Boric as the youngest president in the hemisphere.

And Colombia, Washington's closest ally in the region, for the first time in its history elected a president who did not hail from either of the country's two traditional, mainstream pro-U.S. parties. Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, was sworn in to office late last year.

"We have much to learn from our counterparts in these countries, including how to confront disinformation and violent threats to our democracies, how to protect our environment from capitalist pressures, and how to engage in productive truth-and-reconciliation efforts that provide true justice to citizens that have been harmed by their governments," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Brazil's Da Silva, widely known as Lula, confronted his own version of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol when supporters of his defeated rival, Jair Bolsonaro, fueled by misinformation about election fraud, stormed and trashed the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Federal Court and presidential palace on Jan. 8 of this year, hoping to overturn Lula's victory.

The Biden administration has also confronted numerous obstacles in its efforts to promote better governance and economic prosperity in Central America, partly in hopes of eradicating the violence and poverty that have stoked migration and requests for U.S. asylum.

Guatemala, which was not long ago on the road to cleaning up corruption and electing better leaders, is in the throes of political turmoil in which the military and wealthy business class are attempting to block a leftist presidential candidate who is leading in some polls. Meanwhile, El Salvador has been taken over by Nayib Bukele, a millennial autocrat who is ruling with an iron fist and little regard for human rights.

"The United States shares critical challenges with our friends in Latin America, but we have too often prioritized corporate interests or great power competition in our historical engagement with the region," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said in a statement ahead of the trip, which his chief of staff, Misty Rebik, is joining.

"I hope this delegation will help present a new face to the hemisphere, one based on engagement for the sake of people and planet," Sanders added.

Other participants include Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Nydia M. Velázquez of New York and Greg Casar of Texas, according to organizers at the Center for Economic Policy Research.

In addition to delving into issues surrounding democracy, the organization said, delegates will hear from South Americans on environmental protection — with a particular focus on the vast Amazon jungle, where Lula has made progress in arresting rampant deforestation.

They also plan to discuss reconciliation projects following civil wars and other unrest that have plagued the continent.

©2023 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Henrietta Lacks' family settles with biotech company that used her cells. Here's why her story is so important.


Rachel Grumman Bender
Updated Tue, August 1, 2023 

During a biopsy in 1950, Henrietta Lacks' tissue was removed and used in medical research without her knowledge or consent. She died of cervical cancer in 1951.

 (Photo: Getty Images)

On Tuesday, Henrietta Lacks’ family settled their lawsuit with biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific, which reportedly profited from the use of Lacks’ cells in biomedical research. The cells were taken without permission during a biopsy more than 70 years ago. (The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.)

Lacks’ story gained national attention after Rebecca Skloots’ bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, came out in 2010. Lacks’ cells — known as the HeLa cell line (named after Lacks) — have played an incredibly important role in medical research, leading to numerous scientific breakthroughs. But her family has argued for years that the cells were obtained unethically, and they haven’t “seen a dime” despite “staggering profits” from biotechnology companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific “using the HeLa line.”

So who was Henrietta Lacks? And why is her story and the settlement important? Here’s what you need to know.

Who was Henrietta Lacks?

Lacks was a young Black mom with five children who lived in Baltimore. She died of an aggressive cervical cancer in 1951 at just 31 years old. Before her death, she sought treatment for vaginal bleeding at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1950. A gynecologist found a large, malignant tumor on her cervix and began treating her with radium, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. While receiving treatment, samples of tissue from Lacks’ cervix were taken without her knowledge or consent during a biopsy and were given to a research team — a practice that was not unusual at the time.

In the lab, the researchers discovered that Lacks’ cells were remarkably unique. According to Johns Hopkins, while other cell samples would die, Lacks’ cells “doubled every 20 to 24 hours.” Because of this, they were considered the first “immortal” cell line, allowing scientists to cultivate her cells and use them in biomedical research. HeLa cells are the oldest and most widely used human cell line.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has said they "never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells" and do not own the rights to the HeLa cell line. Rather, HeLa cells are offered freely and widely for scientific research.

Despite the fact that Lacks’ cells were a crucial part of a multi-billion dollar biotech industry, her family, who have struggled financially, had never received any compensation in the past.

Although Johns Hopkins said they didn’t profit from the HeLa cell line, they did admit that they “could have — and should have — done more to inform and work with members of Henrietta Lacks’ family out of respect for them, their privacy and their personal interests.” They added that, even though collecting and using Lacks’ cells in research was “an acceptable and legal practice in the 1950s, such a practice would not happen today without the patient’s consent.”

Why it matters

Women’s health expert and author Dr. Jennifer Wider tells Yahoo Life that it’s “very important for people to recognize the impact that Henrietta Lacks had on modern medical advancements,” pointing out that Lacks' cells are “directly responsible for many medical discoveries in biomedical research including the polio vaccine” and medications to treat HIV, as well as “cancer treatments and gene sequencing.”

According to the National Institutes of Health: “HeLa cells have served as a standard for understanding many fundamental biological processes, such as testing the polio vaccine, establishing basic techniques for cloning and in vitro fertilization" and "advancing the development of anti-cancer drugs.”

Along with being used to develop COVID-19 vaccines, Lacks' own cell line helped identify that HPV can lead to certain types of cervical cancer — the disease that ultimately took her life.

Despite these medical advances, Lacks’ story also serves as a reminder of why medical consent is crucial. “The story of Henrietta Lacks not only underscores the importance of patient consent, it highlights other ethical principles in medicine, including the right to privacy and proper communication between donors and researchers,” says Wider.

Additionally, her story illustrates how some patients, particularly patients of color, have been exploited. According to the Associated Press, the suit stated that “the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history. Indeed, Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition.”

Although statements released from both the Lacks’ estate and Thermo Fisher said that the parties are “pleased” with the settlement, Wider says that, in her opinion, “a financial settlement does not fully right the wrong that was committed against Ms. Lacks. All patients should have their rights respected and protected. But a settlement in favor of Henrietta Lacks' family is an acknowledgment” that biomedical companies had and have “an ethical obligation to inform and work directly with the Lacks family in the past, present and future.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Lacks’ family, said on Tuesday that the lawsuit also served to raise awareness of Lacks’ invaluable contributions to medicine. Crump stated that it’s “an injustice” that “everybody in America doesn’t know who Henrietta Lacks is,” adding: “And that’s why we’re fighting. Because Black history is American history. Henrietta Lacks is American history.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen agrees that Lacks' contributions to medicine should be recognized. “Henrietta Lacks changed the course of modern medicine," he said in a recent statement. "It is long past time that we recognize her life-saving contributions to the world."

Additional reporting by Tayler Adigun

'Astonishing’ number of wine glasses unearthed at mysterious ancient city in Albania

Aspen Pflughoeft
Thu, August 3, 2023 

Looking toward the top of a ridge in Albania, viewers see a rocky landscape with lush bushes. From down below, the hilltop doesn’t look particularly unusual.

But something “unique” has been hidden in the hillside — for millennia.

An “unknown city” was rediscovered by archaeologists in Bushat in 2018, according to a July 25 news release from the University of Warsaw.

The long-forgotten ruins, considered by archaeologists to be of an “important urban center,” are situated on two ridges with a small valley in between, giving the city a roughly triangular shape, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Antiquity.


“Nowadays ruins of extensive ancient towns of unknown name are generally no longer discovered,” archaeologists said.

Hoping to find answers about the mysterious place, archaeologists with the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Centre excavated a “very large building” at the highest point in the city, the organization said in a news release.

The building was about 2,400 years old with “three spacious rooms and a long corridor,” archaeologists said. Photos show the outline of the ruined structure.

The ruins of a central building for public and religious activity.

Inside, archaeologists found “an astonishing number” of “wine drinking vessels of various sizes,” Piotr Dyczek, an archaeologist with the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Centre, told the university.

“We have discovered a unique building,” Dyczek said. He identified the building as a prytaneion, an ancient Greek structure where government officials met, or a “hestiateron, (which) is one of the public structures in which an eternal fire should burn.”

These “surprising” findings suggest the mysterious city was planned and run like ancient Greek cities, archaeologists said. The settlement, however, was not Greek.

The city was part of ancient Illyria, archaeologists said. The Illyrians controlled much of the modern-day Balkans until being conquered by the ancient Romans in 168 B.C., according to Britannica.

Ruins of the “unknown city” as seen from above in 2022.

Excavations previously unearthed the ruins of defensive walls and two city gates, evidence of the site’s size and importance, the university said.

Archaeologists will continue excavations next year, according to the research center.

Bushat is about 50 miles northwest of Tirana, the capital of Albania, and near the border with Montenegro.

COMMODITY FETISH

Adidas sells £344m worth of Yeezy stock

Sales of Yeezy's generated around €400million from April to June this year

Adidas donated €10million in the second quarter

By DANIEL FESSAHAYE

 3 August 20

Adidas generated around €400million (£344million) in sales of Yeezy stock in the second quarter as the sportswear giant attempts to rid itself of the brand.

It was the first release of Yeezy goods after the group in October cut ties with designer Ye, the rapper previously known as Kanye West, over his antisemitic comments as Adidas attempts to offload unsold shoes.

The group, which plans to donate part of Yeezy proceeds to anti-hate groups, showed signs of a turnaround in the three months to June with sales better than expected as the company revealed plans to 'build a business without Yeezy'.


Adidas dropped Kanye 'Ye' West after the rapper launched several anti-semitic attacks back in October last year

The €400million generated in the second quarter was better than expected which helped the company reduce its estimated loss for the year to €450million from its previous estimation of €700million

Yeezy sales helped the company reduce its estimated loss for the year to €450million from its previous estimation of €700million.

Although Yeezy stocks have helped the group narrow its projected full-year loss, Adidas executives played down expectations for the next releases.

Bjørn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, told reporters on a call: 'Our task now is to limit the damage, get rid of the inventory, use the proceeds to (do) good stuff, and then build a business without Yeezy.'

The rapper's $220million annual deal with the German sports brand, which is worth $1.5billion in total, was terminated back last October after his controversial behaviour.

West has claimed he lost $2billion in a single day as multiple companies severed ties with the rapper.

A statement that Adidas released last year stating that it had terminated its contract with West with immediate effect

Gulan said in a statement: 'We are happy with the way the second quarter developed. The core adidas business was slightly better than we expected. Although we still have too much slow-moving inventory in the market, sell-through has been improving.


'We will continue to carefully sell off more of the existing Yeezy inventory.'

Adidas donated €10million in the second quarter and set aside €100million for further donations to charities including the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and the Anti-Defamation League.

Gulan added: 'This is much better than destroying and writing off the inventory and allows us to make substantial donations to organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change and Robert Kraft's Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

'And it is of course also helping both our cash flow and general financial strength.'

Generative AI could increase access to justice: High Court judge

Justice Aedit Abdullah (second from left) said generative AI could soon be used to help unrepresented litigants. 

PHOTO: SINGAPORE ACADEMY OF LAW

Lee Li Ying
Correspondent

SINGAPORE - Generative artificial intelligence (AI) could soon be used to help unrepresented litigants navigate the legal system better and improve access to justice, said Justice Aedit Abdullah in a panel discussion on technology and the legal profession on Thursday.

Generative AI refers to deep-learning algorithms, such as ChatGPT, that can generate high-quality text, images and other content based on the data they were trained on.

Justice Aedit’s comments came at a two-day conference, The Next Frontier Of Lawyering: From ESG To GPT, organised by the Singapore Academy of Law and Singapore Management University.

When asked by moderator David B. Wilkins, Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, on how he and the Singapore courts viewed the role of generative AI, Justice Aedit said the technology provided a tremendous opportunity to ensure a proper mode of legal representation for people who might not be able to hire lawyers due to reasons like financial difficulties.

He detailed what he called a “gold standard” for a service in the courthouse that would help those unrepresented to file necessary claims of defence, identify strengths and weaknesses of their case, consider the necessary evidence they can present to a judge, or nudge them towards a settlement or resolution out of a courtroom if that is feasible.

“We are working on multiple streams with different project teams... and some of the discussions are more advanced than others. We hope, before too long, you’ll at least see some of the early-stage progress we can make. We are very excited and this will mean a tremendous shift in power and capability,” he said.

Justice Aedit also commented on how generative AI has been used in courtrooms elsewhere to give judicial officers recommendations on setting bail and sentencing, and to help lawyers analyse which arguments have the likeliest probability of success before judges.

Describing a situation where technology may be able to highlight the questions that opposing counsel may ask a witness, and the essential points a judge may take into account in coming to a decision, Justice Aedit said: “Will we reach a point where everyone knows what is happening, and really what is the point of cross-examination then?”

“It may not be a bad thing, it will be an interesting point to see how it plays out in terms of what the impact will be on the business of litigation and judging... We should perhaps rethink the use of an adversarial system, and maybe, as we have in family justice, consider a more judge-led (approach), taking into account what we have seen in the use of these technologies,” he said.

Other panellists taking part in the discussion included Mr Eric Chin, Asia Pacific director of NewLaw at PWC; Mr Adrian Fisher, Asia head of technology, media and telecom at Linklaters; and Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh from the Yong Pung How School of Law.

The discussion spanned how technology would reshape the role of a lawyer, and how lawyers can add value to their profession.

The conference was held at the Yong Pung How School of Law and was attended by 170 people including lawyers, academics, in-house counsel and students from the region and China.

On whether technology would replace the role of lawyers, Mr Chin said it was not possible for now.

“Generative AI is what a calculator is to maths. It’s just really useful in calculating something really fast, but you still need subject-matter experts to provide the structure and contextualise the information that gets generated,” said Mr Chin.

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Deep sea mining: Here’s which countries oppose and support the controversial practice

By Angela Symons  with AP

Published on 02/08/2023 - 14:41

Finland, Germany and Portugal were among the countries that blocked deep sea mining licences.

After weeks of fierce debate, deep sea mining has failed to get approval during international talks.

The controversial practice involves removing precious metals and minerals from the ocean’s seabed. So far, only small tests have been carried out but companies were hoping to get the green light to start full-scale production.

Opponents point to the destruction it would cause to marine ecosystems and the climate.

The UN’s 36-member International Seabed Authority (ISA), which governs international waters, began a lengthy conference on the issue on 10 July in Jamaica. It ended on 28 July with more than 20 governments opposing fast-tracked licences.

However, a legal loophole remains, which could allow companies to start mining next year.

What is deep sea mining and why is it problematic?

Deep-sea mining would see heavy machinery scoop up small rocks containing rare metals and minerals from the ocean floor. These would then be pumped to the surface.

Companies are particularly interested in cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese, which could be extracted for electric car batteries and smartphones.

These precious metals and minerals have built up on the seafloor over millions of years. They form an important habitat for marine life.

Scientists have warned that such extraction could kick up silt storms and create noise and light pollution in the little-explored ocean deep.

Environmentalists are also concerned about the impact of deep sea mining on the ocean as a heat and carbon sink. Others say it could negatively impact the fishing industry.

Companies pushing for deep sea mining, however, argue that undersea mining would be cheaper and have less of an environmental impact than land mining.

Greenpeace, a vocal opponent of deep sea mining, says we should instead focus on improving recycling and reducing dependence on cars.

• Deep-sea mining: green-tech enabler or environmental catastrophe?
• Coal mining is to blame for Oder River mass die-off, Greenpeace Poland warns

Where has deep sea mining taken place so far?

The ISA has issued more than 30 exploration licences but none for actual mining so far.

Most of the exploration is focused in an area between Hawaii and Mexico that spans some 4.5 million square kilometres, with the activity taking place at depths of up to 6,000 metres.

As well as debating the future of licensing, the recent conference looked at laying out regulations for the budding industry.

A deadline of 9 July was set to finalise the regulations. This is because in July 2021 the Micronesian island of Nauru announced its intention to begin deep sea mining. That announcement triggered a loophole called the ‘two-year rule’, which obliged the ISA to provisionally approve the application by July 2023, regardless of whether regulations were in place.

The regulatory framework is still stuck in draft mode, however, and will be discussed again at the body's November meeting, the third one of the year.

Which countries are opposed to deep sea mining?

A growing number of countries are calling for a temporary suspension of deep sea mining, saying they are concerned about the potential environmental impact. They want more scientific studies to be done first.

Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland and Vanuatu were among the 21 countries that support a ban, moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea mining.

China, Norway, Nauru, Mexico and the UK, meanwhile, were in support of fast-tracking licences for deep sea mining.

The next meeting of the Assembly will take place in mid-2024.

South Africa: Ellis Hails South African Heroes After Landing WWC Round of 16 Berth

2 AUGUST 2023

The New Times (Kigali)

By Edmund Okai Gyimah

Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis has praised her girls after Wednesday's 3-2 win over Italy saw them become the second African team, after Nigeria, to book their place in the round of 16 in the FIFA Women's World Cup which is underway in Australia and New Zealand.

In a tense game at the Wellington Regional Stadium, South Africa were out of the World Cup until Thembi Kgatiana scored a 92nd minute winner to send Italy packing their bags back at home as Ellis' girls progressed to the round of 16 after finishing second in Group G with four points behind table leaders Sweden.

Ellis, who came under incessant pressure from the fans after deciding to bench first choice goalkeeper, and arguably the biggest star in the team, Andile Dlamini for Kaylin Swart commended her team for the fighting spirit they exhibited against Italy.

"They fought like warriors," an emotional Ellis stated doing the post-match press conference

"They fought like the heroines that we know that they are. They fought to be historically remembered and they've made history by not just getting our first win, but also going to the round of 16 and that is freaking amazing," she added

South Africa will play Group E winners the Netherlands on Sunday.

DEFENCE

‘Resilient’ Jamaica create World Cup history as Brazil and Marta exit


Jamaica 0-0 Brazil: The Reggae Girlz denied their illustrious opponents in Melbourne to secure a last 16 debut

Ian Ransom

'We've been hugely underestimated' says Jamaica goalkeeper after shutting out Brazil to reach WWC knockout stages

A courageous Jamaica held Brazil to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday to reach the knockout phase for the first time in only their second Women’s World Cup while condemning the South Americans to their earliest exit since 1995.

Needing a point to go through, the Reggae Girlz barely threatened to score but were tight in defence, repelling wave after wave of Brazilian attacks in a frenetic atmosphere at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

At the final whistle, the overwhelmed Jamaicans slumped to their knees and roared in joy before forming a circle to dance and sway to the Bob Marley song “One Love”.

Having lost all their matches in France four years ago, the Jamaicans have come a long way in a short time.

They held France 0-0 and beat Panama 1-0, finishing second in Group F behind the French while advancing courtesy of a single goal.

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“I feel like we’ve been hugely underestimated,” said goalkeeper Becky Spencer, who won the player of the match award after her third clean sheet of the tournament.


“I don’t think anyone took us seriously. We’re resilient and we had a point to prove.”

Brazil, who needed three points, were left to lament a slew of missed chances in a dismal end to Marta’s sixth and final World Cup.

“They (Jamaica) did a good job and we weren’t able to make many chances,” stone-faced coach Pia Sundhage told reporters.

“When we could not break the defence, you get a little bit stressed. And if you get stressed, it was a little bit slow and you lose a little bit of the courage.”

Sundhage started 37-year-old Marta on the field for the first time in the tournament but the iconic forward was unable to inspire her team and her touch deserted her twice in front of goal early.

(REUTERS)

She fired a shot into a defender in the fourth minute and then blew another good opportunity seven minutes later with a heavy touch, leaving unmarked team mate Ary Borges fuming at the far post.

Charging towards goal, Borges finally had her chance when Luana found her with a cross but the playmaker steered her header well wide in the 24th minute.

Borges then set Tamires up with a delightful cross into the inside-left channel late in the half but she thumped a volley straight at Spencer.

Jamaica rode their luck to halftime and Brazil’s desperation grew after the break as their attacks came to nothing.

Jamaicans hearts were in mouths in the 79th minute when defender Allyson Swaby nearly put the ball into her own net with a terrible attempted clearance that forced Spencer into a fine save at the far post.

Marta waves to the crowd after Brazil are eliminated from the World Cup
(AFP via Getty Images)

In search of a goal, the Brazilians exposed themselves to the counter-attack and Khadija Shaw all but made them pay.

Needing only the keeper to beat, she blazed just over the bar in the 82nd minute.

Brazil had one last chance in a final-minute goal-mouth scramble but Debinha headed straight to the keeper, allowing the Jamaicans to celebrate arguably their finest moment in international football.

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“The mentality of us is nothing is impossible,” said Lorne Donaldson.

“Right now, with the females, we have never had this much fun.”