Blind football matches are in full swing at China's 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and 9th National Special Olympic Games, which opened on Monday.
In Monday's face-offs, Yunnan defeated Liaoning 2-1 while Shanghai beat Xinjiang 2-0, with both teams securing their second consecutive wins in the group stage.
Yunnan entered this match after an opening victory over Xinjiang, while Liaoning was coming off a loss to Fujian.
Blind football is a sport specifically designed for athletes with visual impairments. The ball is equipped with a built-in bell, and the players rely entirely on sound to navigate direction and shoot goals.
Each team has five players: four are classified as B1 and must wear eye masks during matches. The goalkeeper can be B2 or B3, which means partially sighted or sighted. Played on a small five-a-side pitch surrounded by barriers, the game involves coaches providing tactical guidance from outside the barriers at the midfield area, goalkeepers offering real-time defensive updates, and guides giving shooting instructions from behind the opponent's goal.
It is a highly competitive contact sport, and collisions are inevitable.
"In our sport, injuries are common. In fact, we are afraid sometimes, as all humans fear naturally, but we gradually overcame it. For me, playing football has brought immense confidence," said Li Shimin, a player at the Shanghai Blind Football Team.
Jointly hosted by south China's Guangdong Province and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, this year's games run from Dec. 8 to 15, gathering a total of 7,218 athletes, an increase of 2,734 from the previous edition.
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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday depicted as "untrue" the reasons given by the United States for its withdrawal from the global health watchdog.
On the social platform X, the WHO chief noted that the move will make the United States itself and the world "less safe."
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term to formally initiate the U.S. exit from the UN specialized agency. The United Nations received the formal notice two days later.
Under the UN charter, the withdrawal takes effect one year after notice is given.
Commending the contribution made by the United States as a founding member to many of WHO's greatest achievements, Tedros wrote in the X post, "Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the U.S. decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue."
The U.S. move "makes both the U.S. and the world less safe," he said, expressing hope that the United States "will return to active participation in WHO in the future."
Also on Saturday, the WHO issued a statement, voicing regret over the U.S. withdrawal and rejecting accusations made by the Trump administration.
The U.S. withdrawal raises issues that will be considered by the WHO Executive Board at its regular meeting starting on Feb. 2 and by the World Health Assembly at its annual meeting in May 2026, it said.
In dealing with the consequences, the WHO Secretariat "will act on advice and guidance of our governing bodies accordingly," a WHO press official told Xinhua in an email Wednesday.
The United States has yet to pay its outstanding membership dues, according to the official. "As of today, the USA has not paid the invoiced amounts for its assessed contributions for the biennium 2024-2025," the official said.
The U.S.-based National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the outstanding amount is estimated to total some 278 million U.S. dollars.
WHO chief says U.S. reasons for withdrawal 'untrue'
