Event: the Trocadero Fountain

Spain wins World Cup group, beating Uruguay 1-0 as Muslera’s error sends two-time champions home.Uruguay bowed out of the World Cup as goalkeeper Fernando Muslera’s howler gifted Spain a 1-0 win in Guadalajara to secure top spot in Group H.Alex Baena’s weak shot slipped through Muslera’s grasp for the only goal as Spain avoided a last 32 showdown against Argentina.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4VIDEO: Watch World Cup Day 15: Netherlands, Australia advance; Curacao outlist 2 of 4‘This time’: The World Cup commercials capturing Egypt’s soaring hopeslist 3 of 4World Cup 2026: Day 16 schedule, predictions and Round of 32 racelist 4 of 4Dembele scores hat-trick as France beat Norway 4-1 to top World Cup groupend of listThe European champions will instead face Austria or Algeria next in Los Angeles on Thursday.Uruguay’s defeat allowed debutants Cape Verde to secure second place and a meeting with Lionel Messi and the defending champions, thanks to a 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia.Two-time winners Uruguay become the highest-ranked side to crash out in the group stages as the defeat rounded off a miserable tournament for Marcelo Bielsa and his squad.After draws against Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia, reports of a revolt in the Uruguay camp emerged, with leading players, including Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde, clashing with Bielsa over his tactics.Spain’s King Felipe was among those in attendance, but the only clash between two former winners of the World Cup in the group stages was a huge disappointment.Lamine Yamal in the starting lineup had sparked the Spanish attack into life in a 4-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia after La Roja began in underwhelming fashion with a goalless draw against Cape Verde.But another laboured attacking performance leaves Luis de la Fuente with plenty to ponder before the knockout stages begin on Sunday.A hero…

Swiss glaciers are set to lose an enormous amount of ice due to the heatwave battering Europe, according to the head of Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (Glamos).The snow and ice accumulated last winter by Switzerland’s glaciers is expected to have all melted away by Monday, marking the alarming second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as glacier loss day.All further melting between now and October will see the size of glaciers in the Swiss Alps shrink.In data going back to 2000, the only time that the tipping point arrived even earlier was in 2022, when it came on 26 June. The grim scenario is driven by the current heatwave, as well as the one in May – both coming on the back of another winter with poor snowfall.“We’re just seeing enormous ablation, ice melt rates and snow melt rates all over the Alps,” Glamos network chief Matthias Huss told AFP on Friday, as multiple Swiss weather stations registered new all-time records.“We are three months too early compared to a healthy state.”This century, the tipping point, on average, has been reached in mid-August – already bad news for the nation’s glaciers, which are shrinking at a staggering rate.Much of the water that flows into the Rhine and the Rhone – two of Europe’s major rivers – comes from the Alpine glaciers.Huss said he had just returned from the Rhone Glacier and that in the 10 days since his previous visit “there was one metre of ice melted in the vertical direction – one metre of melting within just the last 10 days”.“It’s very impressive to see, and this is just the effect of the heatwave.”“The more days that are added that are very high temperatures, not even mattering whether it’s 35C or 40C, this is just very bad for…

Cape Verde’s third draw gives them second-place finish in Group H and pits them against world champions in knockouts.World Cup debutants Cape Verde will face reigning champions Argentina in the knockout rounds after drawing 0-0 with Saudi Arabia to extend their fairytale journey.The stalemate in Houston and Spain’s 1-0 win over Uruguay, both on Friday, meant the team ranked 67th coming into the tournament finished runners-up behind Spain in Group H.Unbeaten in their three group matches, the archipelago nation of just over 500,000 will play Lionel Messi’s Argentina in Miami on July 3 in another chapter of their remarkable story.Spain, held 0-0 by Cape Verde in the first round of games, finished with seven points, with the debutants on three and Uruguay and Saudi Arabia both on their way home with two.Spain face the team that comes second in Group J, which will be either Algeria or Austria.With history beckoning, Cape Verde coach Bubista changed half his starting side, some of it enforced, but retained his heroic goalkeeper Vozinha.The 40-year-old stopper single-handedly kept Cape Verde in it as they held out for a famous point against European champions Spain in their first-ever World Cup match.Cape Verde, which is off the west coast of Africa, then claimed a brave 2-2 draw with two-time former champions Uruguay.That gave them a scarcely believable shot at the knockout rounds coming into the encounter against Saudi Arabia, who themselves were still alive.At the same time, in Guadalajara, Spain and Uruguay met as an unexpectedly tight group that went down to the wire.Cape Verde had slightly the better of the first half in Houston against a Saudi side who drew 1-1 with Uruguay before being thrashed 4-0 by Spain.The Saudis suffered a blow in the 33rd minute when experienced defender Hassan al-Tambakti was stretchered off injured.Cape…

Temperatures broke June records in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands on Friday as the death toll from Europe's heatwave climbed in Spain and France and authorities cancelled concerts and other public events because of health risks.Germany's highest ever temperature of 41.3C was recorded provisionally in the south-western city of Saarbrücken, just over the border from France, which this week endured its hottest temperatures three days in a row.Although France's heatwave has peaked, its health minister said the "emergence of deaths at home" was of particular concern.The World Meteorological Organization warned of "major impacts" to health, ecosystems, agriculture and labour.Spokeswoman Clare Nullis said: "We need to get used to it, unfortunately."Europe's deadly June heatwave has moved slowly north and east, and Belgian forecaster David Dehenauw said unofficially that 40C had been recorded in Kleine Brogel, close to the Dutch border.A top temperature of 39.4C was recorded in the southern Dutch province of Limburg. Meanwhile, in the UK a provisional June record of 37.1C was recorded at Cavendish in Suffolk.At least 150 million people across the European continent were facing temperatures higher than 35C on Friday, according to calculations by the AFP news agency.Czech meteorologists believe a 2012 record temperature of 40.4C could be broken on Saturday, while Austrian forecasters believe the national record will fall on Sunday. Balkan countries are seeing extreme heat too, with up to 39C forecast in Serbia over the weekend. In Switzerland, the Beznau nuclear power plant took both reactors off grid on Friday because the temperature in the River Aare reached 25C, which is considered too high to cool the reactors sufficiently.Health fears led to the cancellation of two big Paris events at the weekend, following pressure from the local prefecture, which said the hospital system was "saturated" and resources had to be focused on "helping…

For as long as she can remember, 13-year-old Lauryn struggled to find a map that included Cape Verde. Now, to her great delight, the tiny African island nation is finally centre stage.“Seeing our country shown across the world at the World Cup makes me feel incredibly proud,” Lauryn says. “After the first match, everyone was talking about Cape Verde. People saw the talent and the skill of our players.”Cape Verde, or Cabo Verde as the diaspora community in the UK knows it, are having a historic run at their first ever World Cup. The African nation, made up of 10 islands, has defied expectations by holding its own against the tournament’s leading teams.Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 370 miles (600km) off the coast of mainland Africa, and with a population of just over 500,000, it is one of the smallest nations to compete at the tournament.Lauryn, who has already published her first book, Lauryn That’s Me: The Journey of a Powerful African Girl, says she scrolled through social media before Cape Verde’s opening match against Spain. “There were lots of posts on social media saying Cape Verde only had a 1% chance of winning. But after everyone saw our goalkeeper’s performance, everything changed.”Goalkeeper Vozinha celebrates after Cape Verde’s draw with Uruguay. Photograph: Xinhua/ShutterstockThat 1% prediction has since become a rallying cry for the Cape Verdean diaspora in Britain, which is estimated to number in the low thousands. “Our slogan in the Cape Verdean community became: ‘They gave us 1% chance, but we had 99% faith,’” Lauryn says.The team held a stunned Spain to a 0-0 draw. Their next match, against Uruguay, felt like a “constant heart attack”, says Annabella Lopes of the Cape Verdean Association UK. The game ended 2-2.Now, the team, quickly becoming fans’ favourite underdogs, face Saudi…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Parts of Spain, France and other countries are seeing slight relief, but the record-breaking heat wave is far from over. June 26, 2026The “heat dome” behind the record-breaking temperatures in Europe was moving east on Friday, bringing marginal relief to some areas in the west and threatening parts of Central and Eastern Europe with a scorching weekend.The heat wave, Europe’s second in two months, has disrupted daily life for millions and contributed to at least some deaths. Temperature records for June were broken in Britain, France, the Netherlands and elsewhere. Though temperatures have begun to fall slightly in Britain, Belgium and parts of France, the sweltering conditions are by no means over there. The heat has tested Europe’s infrastructure, much of which was designed for a pre-climate-change world. Electricity grids and rail transportation have been put under strain in several countries, and various public events have been canceled. In Paris, the authorities are suspending sports events and imposing a temporary ban on buying alcohol or drinking it in public, hoping to ease the strain on the health care system.Here’s what to know.How hot is it?Heat warnings are still in place for much of Western Europe. Large parts of France were under a red alert, the highest-level warning, on Friday, with temperatures expected to peak between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius, or 102 to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Areas along the west coast had cooled slightly, but an orange heat alert was in place.Much of Germany was under an extreme heat warning. The national weather agency, the Deutscher Wetterdienst, said high temperatures would hover between 36 and 41 degrees Celsius, or 97 and 106 degrees Fahrenheit, in…

Temperatures are forecast to rise dramatically in parts of central and northern Europe this weekend as the intense heatwave continues. In Germany and Poland, highs up to or exceeding 40C (104F) are expected on both Saturday and Sunday, days after swathes of France experienced similar extreme temperatures. The Austrian Grand Prix, taking place this weekend in Spielberg, has declared a heat hazard, the first race to do so this season. Temperatures are expected to rise into the low 30s celsius during the race, almost 10C warmer than usual for the venue.Across Europe, the intense heat has led to severe thunderstorms. In the Sverdlovsk region of central Russia, a strong tornado was reported on the evening of 22 June. Rated a 3 out of 5 on the international Fujita scale, the twister injured 16 people and destroyed or damaged about 100 homes and businesses in the town of Kushva. Emergency services have been working on restoring power to the town. Tornadoes are not unheard of in Russia but are rare. Forecasters say they may become more common in future as the climate breaks down. Storm warnings remained in effect in the southern part of the country on Friday.In parts of China, thunderstorms have brought extreme rainfall. The district of Zengcheng, near Guangzhou, recorded more than 100mm of rain in a three-hour period on Thursday evening, prompting warnings from the China Meteorological Administration. These storms come during south China’s Meiyu, or plum rain, season, occurring in June and July in the region, as part of the country’s wider rainy season from May to September. Such extreme rainfall in a short period of time can lead to flash flooding, mud flows and rock falls in mountainous and even urban areas.

People cool off in the Trocadero Fountain near to the Eiffel Tower as temperatures rise during a heatwave affecting a large part of the country, in Paris, France, on June 24, 2026 | Photo Credit: Reuters Parisians will ⁠be banned from drinking alcohol in public from midday ‌onwards on Friday (June 26, 2026) in order to ‌try and curb ‌the ⁠health issues arising ⁠from the heatwave gripping France and much of Europe, ​the head ‌of the Paris police said on Thursday (June 25, 2026).“I will publish an ‌edict this evening ​which will ban the consumption of alcohol ⁠in public from tomorrow midday onwards. As ‌you know, drinking alcohol with the sun beating down can have a devastating effect,” Paris police ‌chief Patrice Faure told ​BFM TV.He added there would also be ⁠a ban on the ⁠sale of alcoholic products from Friday ‌evening onwards in Paris. Published - June 26, 2026 05:08 am IST