Is The Era Of European Football Ending?

OHHHH SINCE WE LAST SPOKE!!

🌍 IS THE ERA OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ENDING?
So much going on at the World Cup right now. Two giants, Netherlands and Germany, both got knocked out in the round of 32 on the same night (Germany losing to 41st-ranked Paraguay), and people are asking if this is where European dominance starts to end. We get into the unprecedented run for African teams, with 9 of 10 advancing from the group stage, and which European sides are still expected to go far.

❄️ ARE YOU A BAD PERSON FOR USING AC IN A HEATWAVE?
That’s the genuine debate raging across Europe right now. We get into the WHO’s grim figures (1,300 excess heat deaths since June 21st and 200,000 lost to heat in four years, most of them preventable), Germany hitting an all-time record of 41.7°C, and the wild infographics telling people that cooling down is heating up the planet. Plus the alternative ways people are coping, from foil on the windows to standing under riot police water cannons.

🗺️ WORLD CUP REPORTER BACKLASH
ABC journalist Abigail Velez is facing huge backlash after a clip asking someone to point out Bosnia and Herzegovina on a map went viral with over 11 million views. We cover her apology, the awkward detail that the president of her own network was born in Bosnia, and the people defending her.

🇿🇦 SOUTH AFRICA DEADLINE DAY
Thousands are fleeing South Africa out of fear ahead of an unofficial deadline. An anti-illegal immigration group called March and March told undocumented foreigners to leave or the country gets shut down, but documented foreigners are reportedly being targeted too, with attacks, homes set on fire and chilling threats. We cover the roughly 13,000 who’ve already gone home and the government’s response.

✊ THE CONGO MAN’S WORLD CUP GESTURE
Was this gesture deliberately kept off the FIFA broadcast? We tell the story of Lumumba Vea, famous for standing still with one arm raised during DR Congo games to mark the 1961 assassination of the country’s first prime minister, the even deeper second gesture he made before kickoff, and why fans believe FIFA cut it from the live feed.

📢 MEXICO’S HOTEL NOISE TACTIC
Mexico, what you’ve done is diabolical. Ahead of their knockout match against Ecuador, Mexican fans found the Ecuador team’s hotel and gathered outside to keep the players awake all night, honking horns, revving engines, blasting music, someone even pulled up with a full drum set. And apparently it worked.

🦇 THE BATMAN OF MEXICO
This might be the best story we’ve read in a long time. A real-life vigilante is cracking down on crime in Lagos de Moreno, tying alleged motorcycle thieves to lampposts with “rats” written on their foreheads (sometimes with drawn-on mustaches) and leaving cardboard signs listing their crimes for police. We get into the mystery of who he is, and whether he’s a hero or not.

☄️ TODAY IN HISTORY: THE TUNGUSKA EVENT
The world’s favourite segment is back. In 1908 the sky split in two over Siberia when a space rock the size of a 25-storey building detonated mid-air with the force of around 15 megatons, a thousand times the Hiroshima bomb. It flattened 80 million trees, left no crater, and we get into why it’s the reason June 30th is International Asteroid Day.