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Received — 26 October 2026 ⏭ El País - English

An empty airport, shuttered storefronts and abandoned hotels: The tourism decline in Tulum is worsening

26 October 2026 at 19:27
A worker inside Tulum National Park, Quintana Roo, on October 19, 2026.

On Tulum airport’s runway there is only one plane: a Viva Aerobus Airbus A320. For several hours that is the only aircraft that will remain at the air terminal inaugurated in 2023. The aerodrome is nearly empty after Aeroméxico, Volaris, and American Airlines announced the cancellation of most of their routes to this destination on the Mexican Caribbean. The loneliness in the terminal is unsettling and, in the distance, all that can be heard is the echo of children playing. The crisis caused by the collapse in tourism, in what was once the jewel of the Riviera Maya, has deepened over the past year and has begun to touch various sectors that had set their sights on the booming future of this municipality in the state of Quintana Roo.

Felipe Carillo Puerto Airport, in Tulum, Quintana Roo, on October 18, 2026.

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A storefront for rent, in Tulum, Quintana Roo.

© Nayeli Cruz

Tourists relax on the beaches of Tulum, Quintana Roo.

© Nayeli Cruz

A worker removes the sargassum that has accumulated on the beach in Tulum National Park.

© Nayeli Cruz

An abandoned tourist business in the municipality of Tulum.

© Nayeli Cruz

Empty beaches in the municipality of Tulum.

© Nayeli Cruz

A closed restaurant in Tulum, Quintana Roo.

© Nayeli Cruz

Tourists stroll along the beaches of Tulum, Quintana Roo.

© Nayeli Cruz

A permanently closed store, still decorated for Christmas, in Tulum.

© Nayeli Cruz

Pueblo Beach in Tulum, Quintana Roo, on October 19.

Latin America’s left celebrates Lula’s victory: ‘The Pelé of progressivism’

26 October 2026 at 18:30

The weakened Latin American left is celebrating Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s epic comeback in grand style — the “Pelé of progressivism” who is preparing to become president of Brazil for a fourth time. From Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum to Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, and including Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Chile’s Gabriel Boric, the bloc was quick to hail Lula’s victory as soon as it became irreversible, despite the defeated Flávio Bolsonaro’s promise to seek to annul the election. The right, split between acknowledging the result and remaining silent, has left Bolsonaro alone in his challenge.

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© Presidencia de Brasil (REUTERS)

Lula da Silva greets Claudia Sheinbaum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2024.

Why ‘You Can See Everything’ dominates conversations, social media, Halloween costumes, and has even been Oscar-tipped

26 October 2026 at 18:30

How long has it been since a documentary dominated public conversation, the box office, chats between friends and social media memes? You might have to go back to 2004 and Fahrenheit 9/11, by Michael Moore, or that hybrid (but a film, nonetheless) that blew many minds — The Blair Witch Project in 1999 — to see something similar to what’s happening in the United States surrounding You Can See Everything, this season’s cultural phenomenon.

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Amanda Seyfried in 'The Dropout.'

© A24

Elizabeth Holmes, in the documentary 'You Can See Everything.'

Tech stock sell-off reopens debate on who will foot the AI bill

26 October 2026 at 16:44

On Wall Street, the question is no longer how much artificial intelligence will grow, but who will foot the bill. After years of market domination, tech companies have stopped being a safe bet, and the time has come to pick carefully, identifying which ones are going to fall prey to their own pharaonic investment plans and which ones are not.

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© Dado Ruvic (REUTERS)

AI is reliant on increasingly expensive financing.

Pedro Sánchez: ‘These elections can be summed up in a very simple idea: either the past moves forward, or Spain moves forward’

26 October 2026 at 16:27
Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on Friday at Socialist Party headquarters on Ferraz street in Madrid.

The prime minister is a candidate again. And it shows. He speaks fluidly, dodges jabs, and stands his ground with a smile. Pedro Sánchez, who seemed somewhat weakened after his brother’s conviction and the Ceuta migrant crisis, appears to have been energized by the general election of November 29, which will be his sixth. “These elections can be summed up in a very simple idea: either the past moves forward, or Spain moves forward,” he says.

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Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (l) on Friday at Ferraz during the interview with EL PAÍS editor Jan Martínez Ahrens (r) and political correspondent Carlos E. Cué.The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, at various moments during the EL PAÍS interview at Ferraz on Friday.Pedro Sánchez during the interview with EL PAÍS at PSOE central headquarters on Ferraz street in Madrid.The prime minister and PSOE leader, Pedro Sánchez, on Friday at the party’s central headquarters on Ferraz street in Madrid.

Journey to ground zero of the unrest in France

26 October 2026 at 15:11
A drug-selling spot in Bobigny, a 'banlieue' north of Paris.

Moktar, 21, pulls up his neck gaiter, tightens the hood of his puffer jacket and steps out of the house in the late afternoon, dressed in immaculate black from head to toe. Behind the little mustache and the thick-lensed glasses with gold-rimmed temples, he smiles — a third-year college student from a very modest Tunisian family. Friendly, sharp, with an unusually political sense for his age and skin toughened by his surroundings, Moktar grew up in one of the poorest buildings in the L’Abreuvoir neighborhood in Bobigny (population 48,873), right opposite one of the drug-dealing hotspots where traffickers, police, customers, and addicts come and go all day. “Ballon here,” reads graffiti on the wall, advertising the nitrous oxide gas sold for inhalation.

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Moktar talks with his friends in an abandoned apartment in Bondy, a 'banlieue' north of Paris.Street market in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris.Timeo, photographed in Bobigny, a 'banlieue' north of Paris.A mural in Saint-Denis reads: Didi, 27, in Saint-Denis, in the north of Paris.The Paul Éluard high school in Saint-Denis.

© Samuel Aranda

Ibrahima, in Saint-Denis.

© Samuel Aranda

Kenan, photographed in Bondy.

© Samuel Aranda

Qusei, in Bondy.

© Samuel Aranda

Lyes, A 38-year-old Algerian, in Saint-Denis.

Cambridge Analytica, 10 years on: Meta still struggles to shake off the specter of political interference

26 October 2026 at 14:30

2016 was a pivotal year in the 21st century. In June, Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. In November, U.S. voters elected Donald Trump as president, a figure widely regarded as a bad joke by both Democrats and establishment Republicans. Both events marked the beginning of a far-right wave that, a decade later, continues to sweep across much of the world. And both were aided, perhaps decisively, by a small London-based political consultancy: Cambridge Analytica. The company collected data from 87 million Facebook users without their consent and used it to create personalized political propaganda to boost the campaigns for Trump and Brexit, among others.

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© AFP

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of Facebook, testifies before Congress in the U.S. in December 2018.

Bukele sends elite troops to Haiti after four Salvadoran soldiers disappear

26 October 2026 at 13:51

President Nayib Bukele has ordered a troop deployment to Haiti after the disappearance last Sunday of four Salvadoran soldiers in an area controlled by gangs in Port-au-Prince. As of Friday, at least six aircraft — three Salvadoran and three American — have landed in the Haitian capital with around 100 elite members of the international Gang Suppression Force (GSF) coalition, to carry out search-and-rescue operations.

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© Patrice Noel (REUTERS)

A Gang Suppression Force vehicle patrolling after El Salvador’s announcement, Friday in Port-au-Prince.

Justin Trudeau quit politics, but not fame: From his life with Katy Perry to his new projects

26 October 2026 at 13:15

Mark Carney has become one of the most watched figures on the international stage. The Canadian prime minister draws admiration and recognition for the way he has steered his country amid trade hostilities with the United States; also for the alliances he seeks to forge with other middle powers as the geopolitical landscape shifts. His predecessor, Justin Trudeau, also enjoyed high levels of popularity, though for different reasons. In fact, fame has followed Trudeau since birth, being the son of another prime minister — Pierre Trudeau, who served in the 1980s. Even though Justin Trudeau’s final years in politics were marked by an unstoppable decline from the summit, he has comfortably settled into a new stage of his life, and has not abandoned the public spotlight.

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© Gilbert Flores (Variety via Getty Images)

Justin Trudeau at the inaugural gala of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on September 19, 2026, in Los Angeles, California.

The race for Los Angeles mayor: Two Democrats battle over housing, affordability and the Olympics

In the race for the mayoralty of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, two things are certain: a woman will win, and she will be a Democrat. But with a high share of undecided voters and only days remaining before the election, it is still unclear whether Karen Bass will win another term or whether the progressive challenger Nithya Raman will take the post.

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© Mel Melcon (Los Angeles Times vía Getty Images)

Nithya Raman and Karen Bass, at an event in Sherman Oaks, California, in February 2024.

Lula pulls off a historic comeback in Brazil and leads the left to victory over Flávio Bolsonaro

26 October 2026 at 07:12

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, Brazil’s president and one of the most influential politicians in Latin America this century, achieved the comeback he had been seeking on Sunday. Lula defeated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, the political heir to the far-right Bolsonaro clan, with 51.7% of the vote to 48.2%, a margin of four million votes. He has become the first president in Brazil’s history to win after losing the first round of a presidential election.

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© Sebastiao Moreira (EFE)

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva delivers a speech alongside his wife, Rosângela da Silva, after winning Brazil's presidential election on Sunday.

How Trump could challenge or undermine the midterm election results

26 October 2026 at 11:37

Election officials, activists, voting-rights lawyers, legal experts and other watchdogs of U.S. civil society have spent the past year and a half warning about what they describe as a campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump to undermine confidence in the conduct of free and fair elections. Their concern is that he is laying the groundwork to overturn the outcome if it does not favor the Republican Party.

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© Mark Schiefelbein (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks beside First Lady Melania Trump after casting his early vote in the midterm elections at the Palm Beach County Library in West Palm Beach this Saturday.

The story of baby Poppy: From surrogate birth to youngest victim of Los Angeles’ ‘house of horrors’

26 October 2026 at 10:12

Three numbers and a letter opened the negotiations in a private message: 135K. That was the $135,000 that Silvia Zhang, a Los Angeles businesswoman, offered Tronderrica James, a Nevada woman, in 2023 to carry a child she claimed she was unable to have by any means. Later, an assistant at a surrogacy agency provided more details: “They are a Chinese couple looking for their miracle baby.” A contract sealed the arrangement.

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© Cedida

Tronderrica James after giving birth to Poppy.

The opposition returns to the streets in Venezuela after María Corina Machado’s return: ‘She’s coming to step on the accelerator’

26 October 2026 at 08:59

It was a long and emotional day for thousands of Venezuelans who could not believe it when they heard on Sunday morning that the opposition leader María Corina Machado had returned to Venezuela. When her message started circulating on cellphones — “I am here. With you.” — thousands of supporters of Machado and opponents of Chavismo began pouring into the streets to follow her slow march to the capital, Caracas, in an epic demonstration of Venezuelans shedding the fear of repression that had been holding them back for so long.

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© Pedro Mattey (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)

Supporters of María Corina Machado in Valencia, Venezuela.

Lula's historic comeback is a defeat for Trump

26 October 2026 at 08:34

Since Brazil adopted a two-round system in 1989, no one has won the presidency after finishing second in the first round. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva broke that rule on Sunday: he defeated Flávio Bolsonaro with 51.8% of valid votes to 48.2%. His lead — more than four million votes — is roughly double the margin in 2022, when he beat Jair Bolsonaro by just 1.8 percentage points.

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© Sebastiao Moreira (EFE)

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva delivers a speech after winning Brazil's presidential election in São Paulo.

Bolsonaro refuses to concede defeat in Brazil and calls for result to be annulled

26 October 2026 at 07:56

Just as in 2022, Bolsonarism does not accept defeat. Back then it was the father, Jair Bolsonaro, and now the son Flávio, both defeated at the polls by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The far-right candidate announced late Sunday night in Brasília that he does not recognize the result of the election and will fight to have it annulled. His argument rests on a Supreme Federal Court (STF) judge’s decision to extend polling hours by two hours after complaints about the lack of transportation for voters. The request had originally been made by the Workers’ Party (PT), but Bolsonaro’s own Liberal Party (PL) later joined it.

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© Adriano Machado (REUTERS)

Flávio Bolsonaro, this Sunday in Brasília, at the news conference after his electoral defeat.

Lula pulls off a historic comeback in Brazil and leads the left to victory over Flávio Bolsonaro

26 October 2026 at 07:12

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, Brazil’s president and one of the most influential politicians in Latin America this century, achieved the comeback he had been seeking on Sunday. Lula defeated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, the political heir to the far-right Bolsonaro clan, with 51.7% of the vote to 48.2%, a margin of four million votes. He has become the first president in Brazil’s history to win after losing the first round of a presidential election.

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© Sebastiao Moreira (EFE)

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva delivers a speech alongside his wife, Rosângela da Silva, after winning Brazil's presidential election on Sunday.
Received — 25 October 2026 ⏭ El País - English

María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela

25 October 2026 at 16:46

After nearly 10 months abroad, María Corina Machado, the anti-Chavista opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has returned to Venezuela. “I am here, with you,” the opposition figure wrote on social media on Sunday morning.

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© Vente Venezuela (EFE)

Supporters welcome María Corina Machado this Sunday at the Divina Pastora Shrine in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

Steering clear of the Postal Service and delivering ballots in person: Voter fears ahead of the midterms

25 October 2026 at 04:00
Lidia Sánchez drops her ballot into the Los Angeles Registrar's main office drop box on October 16.

Lidia Sánchez, a Nicaraguan immigrant who arrived in California as a child, had two items on her agenda on a warm October morning: a routine doctor’s appointment and personally dropping off her ballot at an election office drop box in Los Angeles. She had always voted by mail, but this time she feared her ballot might not reach its destination and that her vote would not be counted.

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Lidia Sanchez at the Los Angeles County Registrar's main office.Gloria Tiscareño casts her ballot for the midterm election in Los Angeles.Official election drop box in Los Angeles, California.Teresa Burns after dropping her ballot at the Los Angeles Central Office drop box on October 16.

Ukraine, at an impasse: Besieged by Putin and abandoned by Trump

25 October 2026 at 04:00
A woman in front of a building split in two by a Russian bombardment in Kramatorsk.

Dawn breaks under rainfall in Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian stronghold under Russian threat on the eastern front. What makes it harder for drones to fly becomes an opportunity for Russian infantry to try to gain ground. These are, in any case, small skirmishes. EL PAÍS reports this from a military command post in Kramatorsk based on images captured by drones on October 15. The front line shows hardly any change and the war is stuck in a complex tangle as the fifth anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches. Kyiv has also recently suffered serious setbacks: at home, with attacks across around 20 of its regions, and internationally, the blow represented by the United States’ overt alignment with Russia.

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Ukrainian soldiers in Kramatorsk, October 18. A building in Kramatorsk that was hit by a Russian strike last week.A group of women harvesting potatoes in a village in the southern region of Kherson, October 17.A woman on a street in Kramatorsk, a city under constant Russian bombardment.A vehicle on a road with anti-drone protection between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv.
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