Europe sizzles and the Eiffel Tower's summit closes

PARIS (AP) — Europe sizzled in its first major heat wave of the summer on Tuesday, as Barcelona recorded its hottest June in over a century and the summit of Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors.

Health warnings remained in effect in several countries. The abnormally hot weather “is exposing millions of Europeans to high heat stress” with temperatures more typical of July and August, said Samantha Burgess of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

Barcelona's Fabra Observatory reported an average temperature for last month of 26 C (78 F), breaking records since the data began in 1914. It said a single-day high of 37.9 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) for June was recorded Monday. Barcelona is usually spared the worst heat in Spain, thanks to its location between hills and the Mediterranean.

Ramón Pascual, a delegate for Spain’s weather service in Barcelona, told The Associated Press the "very intense heat wave” is clearly linked to global warming.

Pascual said inhabitants of the Mediterranean region are not being helped by the rising sea temperatures, which greatly reduce any cooling effects of a nearby body of water. Spain’s weather service said recent surface temperatures for the Mediterranean near the Balearic Islands are 5 to 6 degrees Celsius higher than average.

Spain's national average for June of 23.6 degrees Celsius (74 degrees Fahrenheit) was 0.8 C hotter than the previous hottest June in 2017.

Madrid was forecast to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit).

“We’re just surviving,” said Miguel Sopera, 63. “At night it’s impossible due to the terrible heat.”

Temperatures were forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Paris. National weather agency Météo-France placed several departments under the highest red alert. More than 1,300 schools were partially or fully closed.

Visitors to the Eiffel Tower without tickets were told to postpone their visits as the summit was closed until Thursday for "everyone's comfort and safety.”

Climate experts warn that future summers are likely to be hotter than any recorded to date, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius expected every year by 2100.

Italy's health ministry said 17 of the country's 27 major cities were experiencing a heat wave.

In Florence, where temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, parts of the city center experienced a blackout following a surge in electricity demand. Backup systems restored power, energy company Enel said.

Near Bologna, the 46-year-old owner of a construction company collapsed and died while repaving a school parking lot, state-run RAI reported. An autopsy was being conducted but heat was suspected.

In the Dutch town of Soest, first responders said they were bringing a fire hose to an evening water gun fight.

“Bring your water pistol and swimming clothes with you, because you’re guaranteed to get soaked!” the firefighters said on social media.

The weather service in a statement Monday night confirmed the highest single temperature ever recorded in mainland Portugal for the month of June at 46.6 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) on June 29 in the town of Mora, west of Lisbon.

Firefighters across Turkey tried to contain wildfires that have forced the evacuation of some 50,000 residents for the third consecutive day.

Temperatures were expected to reach 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by Wednesday in parts of the Czech Republic.

The Prague zoo distributed up to 10 metric tons of ice, with special attention given to polar bears. Zoo director Miroslav Bobek said twin brother bears Aleut and Gregor discovered frozen pieces of squid.

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Iain Sullivan in Madrid, Mike Corder in The Netherlands, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Karel Janicek in Prague and David Biller in Rome contributed to this report.

A man eats an ice cream during a heat wave, Tuesday, July 1, 2025 in Rennes, western France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

A billboard of the Municipality of Milan in Italian reads 'Hot and lonely?' in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A polar bear cools down on a pile of ice that was brought to its enclosure on a hot and sunny day at the Prague zoo, Czech Republic, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

A vendor sells hats during a heat wave in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Two nuns walk in a street in downtown Rome, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The Television Tower silhouettes in the sunset on a day with hot summer weather in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Swimmers jump into the water on a hot day in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Men jump into the water on a hot day in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman cools herself with a handheld electric fan during a heat wave in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A woman cools herself with a hand fan at a restaurant terrace during a heat wave in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

People use umbrellas in hot weather to shelter from the sun while walking past the Colosseum, in Rome, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A man runs towards the rising sun on a small road on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

A man refreshes his hands Monday, June 30, 2025 on the seafront in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, southwestern France. (AP Photo/Nicolas Mollo)

A woman eats an ice cream, Monday, June 30, 2025 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, southwestern France. (AP Photo/Nicolas Mollo)

The sun shines over the the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave, Monday, June 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

LOS LLANITOS, México (AP) — On a dirt field on Mexico’s Pacific coast, five cousins between the ages of 8 and 13 strip down and kick off their shoes. Nearby, adults help them fasten the pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” securing loincloths and leather belts that wrap around their hips.

The Osuna children grab the rubber ball, all 3.2 kilograms of it — around 7 pounds or seven times heavier than a soccer ball — and begin playing. Only the hips may touch it, forcing players to leap through the air or dive low when it skims the ground.

As Mexico prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the nation is looking back 3,400 years to one of the oldest team sports: the ancient ballgame known as ulama, a ritual practice nearly erased during the Spanish conquest that survived only in the remote pockets of northwestern Mexico before its late 20th-century rebirth. Today, authorities and its modern players are leveraging the momentum of international soccer to shine a spotlight on the ancient sport once again.

While players acknowledge that tourism fueled the sport’s revival, many worry that projecting an “exotic” image undermines a tradition central to their identity.

“We must rid the game of the notion that it is a living fossil,” said Emilie Carreón, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, and director of a project aimed at studying and practicing the sport.

That's exactly what the Osuna family is trying to do. After ulama player Aurelio Osuna died, his widow, María Herrera, 53, continued his legacy, teaching the ballgame to their grandchildren in their small village in Sinaloa, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northwest of Mexico City.

“This seed will bear fruit someday,” she said.

According to the Popol Vuh, the sacred Mayan book, the world was created from a ballgame, where light and darkness clashed to balance life and death and set the universe in motion.

Long before the Maya, the Olmecs — the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization — practiced the sport; the recreation of this clash of opposing forces was common in various pre-Hispanic cultures. The evidence is in millennial rubber balls unearthed in Mexico and in nearly 2,000 ball courts found from Nicaragua to Arizona.

The game, depicted in codices, stone carvings and sculptures, had many variations and meanings, from fertility or war ceremonies, to political acts and even sacrifices.

While some players were beheaded — possibly the losers — Guatemalan archaeologist and anthropologist Carlos Navarrete explained this occurred only during specific periods and in certain regions. The physically demanding game was primarily a big social event, drawing crowds for fun and betting.

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was impressed by the spectacle presented by the Aztec emperor Moctezuma but the Spanish ultimately banned ulama and ordered the destruction of its courts, likely viewing the tradition as a form of resistance to Christianity. For the Catholic Church “the ball was the living devil,” Carreón said.

The game — played by hitting the ball with the hip, the forearm or a mallet — survived only on the Mexican northern Pacific coast, where the colonial process led by Jesuit priests was less aggressive and ulama was accepted in Catholic festivities, said Manuel Aguilar Moreno, a professor of art history at California State University.

On the opening day of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, spectators watched as burly men contorted their bodies in unexpected ways to keep the rubber ball moving for as long as possible. The exhibition sparked studies about the ballgame and how to preserve it in the following decades.

Luis Aurelio Osuna, 30, Herrera’s eldest son, began playing hip ulama after school, just as his father did decades ago in Los Llanitos, a ranch next to the port city of Mazatlán. Now his three children also play.

Osuna and his mother teach the children how to hit the ball and guide them through the complicated rules, which include a scoring system with points that are won and lost.

They do it out of passion, but also out of pragmatism in a state where organized crime is pervasive.

“We need to find a way to keep them entertained with good things,” said Osuna.

Hip ulama teams have up to six players and the Osuna family sometimes participates in tournaments or exhibitions.

Decades ago, matches were big events tied to religious feasts, sometimes stretching on for an entire week. But those days are gone, as interest waned and rubber balls became hard to get.

In the 1980s, filmmaker Roberto Rochín documented the work of perhaps the last rubber ball-maker in the mountains of Sinaloa. The artisan made them similar to the Olmecs, who discovered that mixing hot rubber sap with a plant created a strong, elastic and durable material. This civilization made some of the oldest balls of the world.

During the 1990s, staff from a resort in the Mexican Caribbean traveled across the country in search of Sinaloan families who could represent the ballgame as a tourist attraction in the Riviera Maya, where no one played it anymore.

“It’s pure spectacle: they paint their faces and put on feathered costumes,” Herrera said. Yet, she acknowledges the value. “That’s where the revival began.”

The ballgame began to spread and to be known outside Mexico. Osuna, with the family team his father had formed, ended up playing hip ulama in a Roman amphitheater in Italy. It attracted so much attention that they were hired for a deodorant commercial, he said.

As the World Cup approaches, authorities and corporations are launching exhibitions in Mexico City and Guadalajara, and featuring ulama players in ad campaigns highlighting Mexican heritage — a move that has sparked mixed feelings.

“We’re not circus monkeys,” says Ángel Ortega, a 21-year-old ulama player from Mexico City who recently participated in a TV commercial alongside football players.

Ilse Sil, a player and member of the UNAM project led by Carreón, believes that institutional support will help to preserve ulama but officials need to promote the game in communities and schools to recruit more young players, as it remains a marginal sport with approximately 1,000 players mainly in México and Guatemala.

In Los Llanitos, Herrera’s grandchildren love playing. They don't care where — in the dirt field, in a court or even in the house corridor — but always with the precious inheritance: a handmade decades-old rubber ball from the mountains of Sinaloa. They say it cushions the blows better.

Eight-year-old Kiki is the most enthusiastic. He says he is determined to keep practicing until he fulfills the dream of leading a team of his own.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Juan Osuna plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

The Osuna family poses for a photo before a match of ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, that they organized in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Iker Salgueido plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Iker Salgueiro stands still as an adult fastens a pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” or leather belt, in preparation for ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Youth play ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)