Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting was a bit like a Wes Anderson film: what mattered was not so much the ending as the way the story was told. The outcome came with a spoiler alert. More than 90% of analysts expected no change in interest rates, and they were right. The Fed left rates unchanged at 3.75% to 4%, less than a week before the U.S. midterm elections, which are being shaped by an affordability crisis fueled by persistent inflation.
Avocado harvesting has come to a halt in parts of Michoacán, Mexico’s leading producer and exporter of the fruit. Small growers have called a strike to demand a substantial increase in the price they receive from packing houses, distributors and exporters, a move that has already affected nearly half of shipments to their main buyer, the United States.
The war in Iran has caused an earthquake in global maritime transportation, with the epicenter located in Hormuz. The blockage of this strait has forced ships to take longer routes and reduced the number of available vessels, while the insecurity caused by Iranian strikes is being passed on through soaring costs to transport goods and, above all, energy. Average earnings in maritime shipping grew 75% from last year, and remained 92% above the average of the last 10 years. It is a juicy business that’s controlled by just a few companies that dominate the market. Those that are publicly listed have seen their share value more than double.
Dolores Huerta, an icon of the migrant community in the United States and a steadfast defender of migrant workers’ rights, died this Wednesday. She was 96 years old. The cause of death was cancer, a family spokesperson told The New York Times.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez traveled to Urda, in the province of Toledo, near the site of the devastating train crash that killed at least 68 people after two high-speed trains collided early Wednesday morning. Sánchez said he had come to support emergency workers and those affected by the accident, stressing that a full investigation would be carried out.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the media from the command center set up at the site of the train accident in the province of Toledo on Wednesday.
After the outburst of enthusiasm that accompanied her return, María Corina Machado and her political circle have begun a “soft” reintegration into Venezuela. The opposition leader’s collaborators say it is a strategy designed to manage energy and time the next move. Machado is preparing for a press meeting on Thursday where she is expected to provide details about her return to the country after 10 months, and to outline the strategy she intends to use to challenge the regime and push for democratic change. So far it is known that the opposition leader will launch an ambitious national tour for which significant precautions are being taken.
In a single week, Christopher Lloyd, the mad scientist of the 1980s trilogy Back to the Future, turned 88 and published In My Own Time: A Memoir. The 250-plus-page book traces his lonely childhood in Waveny House, in Connecticut; the start of his acting career in 1960s New York; and his battle with alcohol and cocaine addiction, subjects he has rarely discussed publicly. In the book he says the first time he took drugs was outside a comedy club in Los Angeles in the 1970s. He went up to the car of a woman he had just met and did “a couple of lines.” He writes: “That was all it took,” he writes. He got hooked almost immediately, and that’s where his cocaine abuse began.
Set against the snow-capped mountains of the Andes, Esquel is one of the most beautiful towns in Argentine Patagonia. Since last Thursday, this quiet municipality has been in an uproar over the arrest of Miguel Edgardo Battista, a biochemist accused of holding his wife and three children captive for at least four years. The situation came to light following reports from neighbors, who found it strange that only he would occasionally leave the house, that the children did not attend school, and that the windows were covered with cloth or paper. They heard desperate screams and noticed that the house seemed to come alive only at night.
The plane carrying Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday morning. The Brazilian senator arrived at Opa-locka Executive Airport, north of Miami, at 9:20 a.m., after fleeing Brazil less than two days after losing the Brazilian presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line, where two trains collided on Wednesday, has several signalling and protection systems designed to regulate traffic, control the distance between trains and reduce the risk of accidents. According to government sources, early evidence suggests the collision may have been triggered by human error after a failure in the line’s main signalling system.
At least 68 people were killed on Wednesday in a train crash near the Spanish town of Urda, in the province of Toledo, according to the regional government of Castile-La Mancha, although officials fear the death toll could rise further.
Cottonwood Falls, in the heart of Kansas, is a small town surrounded by prairie as far as the eye can see and dotted with idyllic farms and red barns. This ranching community of roughly 850 people proudly hosts a tiny museum whose centerpiece is a perfectly preserved settlers’ wagon. Next to it is the “House of God,” a café that also functions as a church, or vice versa. The cobblestone main street features at one end a hotel where what may once have been a saloon is now a bar. At the other end stands a startling stone building in French Renaissance style: one of the oldest courthouses still in operation west of the Mississippi River. Currently, it also serves as an early voting polling place for next Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Screen capture of a video made from a Civil Guard helicopter at the site of the crash in Urda (Toledo). Spanish state rail company Renfe has reported that train service between Madrid, Ciudad Real, and Andalusia has been suspended.
Emergency services providing assistance to the survivors of the crash. “A human error by an [state-owned railway infrastructure company] Adif operator in response to a malfunction in the main signaling system is the likely cause of the accident,” government sources said.
There were 30 people reported dead by noon local time, and the government warned the number could still rise. “It could be worse than Adamuz [the rail accident in Córdoba that claimed 46 lives on January 18],” government sources said.
Rescuers working to pull out victims from the train cars that crashed near Urda (Toledo). According to initial reports, the AVE train may have struck the Iryo train from behind, causing two cars of the latter train to derail.
An AVE high-speed train collided with an Iryo train that was stopped on the tracks, according to sources from the emergency services, who indicated that two cars fell down an embankment.
A helicopter from the emergency services at the site of the crash. A passenger traveling in one of the rear cars of one of the trains told EL PAÍS that he felt a “strong impact” about 40 minutes into the trip.
According to initial reports, the AVE train may have struck the Iryo train from behind, causing two cars of the latter train to derail. A passenger, Miguel Ángel Pérez, who had already exited the train, told state broadcaster TVE by phone that the accident was “terrible, indescribable.”
Residents of Urda (Toledo) have reached out to help the passengers of the trains that collided near their town. “We were able to get out of the car by breaking the windows,” said one passenger.
Screenshot of a video taken by one of the passengers inside one of the train cars that crashed. “With the huge impact and the rattling, we started clinging to our seats,” said a passenger named Miguel Ángel Pérez.
Passengers at Atocha train station in Madrid waiting for information following the railway accident in Urda (Toledo). Traffic was halted on the Madrid-Seville line.
He had done it before, but it has escalated during the campaign for next Tuesday’s midterm elections. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, increasingly unfiltered in public remarks, seems obsessed with the arms, shoulders, hands and faces of his allies. When praising Republican candidates, Trump, rather than highlighting their intelligence or political vision, calls attention to their physical attributes.
Nobody in Brazil doubted what Flávio Bolsonaro’s priorities would be if he reached the presidency: to pardon his father and push for the removal of the judge who brought the case against him, Alexandre de Moraes. Then came the big surprise — the comeback by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that almost nobody expected. So it was the Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice who went on the offensive without waiting even a day: at the Federal Police’s request he ordered the withdrawal of passports belonging to Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son and defeated candidate. Flávio decided instead to flee to the United States, as his father had done in 2022 and as his brother Eduardo has done — both now convicted by Brazil’s courts.
Just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, a high-speed train operated by Renfe, Spain’s state-owned rail company, collided with an Iryo high-speed train that was stationary on the tracks at kilometer 118 of the Madrid-Andalusia line. Several carriages derailed: at least three from the Iryo train and one from the Renfe service plunged down an embankment. The crash killed at least 68 people and injured dozens more.
Not even two days after losing the presidential runoff to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Flávio Bolsonaro fled Brazil. He did so despite Judge Alexandre de Moraes having ordered him to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving — or perhaps it was for that very reason. He traveled to the United States with his wife, Fernanda, and their two daughters. A State Department spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the United States will issue visas for all four of them.
Nine months after the Adamuz accident in Córdoba that claimed 46 lives, the Spanish rail system has suffered another fatal accident. Two trains traveling from Madrid to Seville — one operated by state rail company Renfe and the other by the private company Iryo — collided Wednesday morning between the towns of Mora, Orgaz, and Urda, in Toledo province. The collision has left at least 30 people dead among the 544 passengers traveling on the two trains. Renfe has reported that services between Madrid, Ciudad Real, and Andalusia are currently suspended. Here is what is known so far.
At least 68 people have died in a train accident that occurred Wednesday morning near Urda station in Toledo, Spain, according to the government, which fears there may be more fatalities. “It could be worse than Adamuz [the rail accident in Córdoba that claimed 46 lives on January 18],” government sources said. The authorities also said 80 people had been injured, 50 of them seriously. At least 55 people had been transferred to hospitals in the area, the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha confirmed.
Efectivos de Bomberos, unidades del Equipo de Grandes Catástrofes del Servicio de Criminalística de la Guardia Civil, además de personal de Seguridad Ciudadana, agentes del SEPRONA (medioambientales) y de la Jefatura de Tráfico, en el lugar del accidente ferroviario ocurrido este miércoles en Urda (Toledo).
Los servicios de emergencia atienden a las víctimas del accidente de dos trenes de alta velocidad, uno de Renfe y otro de Iryo, a la altura de la localidad toledana de Urda.
Dos trenes de alta velocidad, uno de Renfe y otro de Iryo, han colisionado a primera hora de este miércoles a la altura de la estación de Urda (Toledo).
Dos trenes de alta velocidad, uno de Renfe y otro de Iryo, han colisionado a primera hora de este miércoles a la altura de la estación de Urda (Toledo).
Vecinos de Urda (Toledo) se movilizan para auxiliar a los pasajeros afectados por el accidente ferroviario registrado entre dos trenes de alta velocidad cerca de su localidad.
El pabellón municipal de Urda, a ocho kilómetros del lugar del accidente ferroviario, acoge a decenas de heridos, a quienes se identifica para organizar su traslado a hospitales o su recogida por familiares, según su estado.
Dispositivo de emergencia desplegado junto a un grupo de viajeros tras el accidente entre dos trenes de alta velocidad en las proximidades de Urda (Toledo).
Miembros de la Guardia Civil y equipos de rescate atienden a un grupo de viajeros tras el accidente ferroviario entre dos trenes de alta velocidad en Urda (Toledo).
Captura de vídeo en la que se aprecian los daños causados por la colisión entre dos trenes de alta velocidad, uno de Renfe y otro de Iryo, a la altura de la estación de Urda (Toledo).
Accidente entre dos trenes de alta velocidad en Urda (Toledo), este miércoles.
Viajeros en la estación de Santa Justa, en Sevilla, tras las incidencias provocadas por el accidente ferroviario entre dos trenes de alta velocidad ocurrido en las proximidades de Urda (Toledo), este miércoles.
This story was co-published with El Pais and Puente News Collaborative a bilingual nonprofit newsroom, convener and funder dedicated to high-quality, fact-based news and information from the U.S.-Mexico border. KTEP News is a founding member of Puente News Collaborative.
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