Mexico

The US has not confirmed the revocation, which comes amid crackdown on Mexican politicians with alleged ties to cartels.

The son of former Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has accused the United States of revoking his visa in a politically motivated manoeuvre.

Andres Manuel Lopez Beltran made the allegation late on Thursday in a public letter addressed to US President Donald Trump and posted on social media.

He accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his deputy, Christopher Landau, of ordering the visa revocation.

“There is no reason whatsoever to justify such an arrogant action,” Lopez Beltran wrote to Trump. “It is worth emphasising that these officials have no evidence against me regarding any immoral or criminal act.”

The US State Department has not publicly responded to his claim.

His letter comes as part of a trend of visa revocations from the US. Several Mexican officials, across the political spectrum, have had their visas cancelled, as part of what the Trump administration characterises as a broad crackdown on individuals linked to drug cartels.

Who is Lopez Beltran?

The 39-year-old Lopez Beltran is a prominent politician in Mexico, having recently stepped down from the leadership of the left-wing Morena party.

His father founded the party in 2011 and went on to govern Mexico as its president from 2018 to 2024.

Currently, another Morena politician, Claudia Sheinbaum, holds the presidency, and Morena boasts decisive majorities in both chambers of Mexico’s Congress.

Lopez Beltran is expected to run for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies next year.

For much of his father’s presidency, Lopez Beltran stayed out of party politics, instead focusing on his chocolate business.

However, he was elected Morena’s secretary of organisation in September 2024, just weeks before his father left office.

In his letter, Lopez Beltran called the revocation “a ⁠⁠crude and perverse act”, saying US officials target Mexican politicians by falsely labelling them as “communists”, “threats to US security” or “narco-terrorists”.

Sheinbaum reacts to letter

On Friday, Sheinbaum said she was unaware of any investigations by Mexican prosecutors into Lopez Beltran.

“This amounts to interference ⁠⁠in Mexican politics,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news briefing. “I see no other reason for it.”

Sheinbaum has also walked a careful line in responding to the Trump administration’s hardline approach to cartels and cross-border crime, pledging to cooperate.

But she has also said she would protect Mexico’s sovereignty from any foreign interference, and while she has welcomed collaboration with US intelligence, she has reportedly declined Trump’s offers of US military action on Mexican soil.

Last month, she also rejected a statement by the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that her government has ties to organised crime, a frequent Trump talking point.

In April, she decried the US’s decision to charge Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha, another Morena party official, with drug trafficking and weapons-related offences.

She has argued that the indictment lacks evidence and that such investigations should be left to Mexican prosecutors.

The Trump administration has accused Rocha’s campaign of having worked with the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal organisation it considers a “foreign terrorist organisation”.

Rocha announced in May that he would take a temporary leave of absence from his position as governor to defend himself from the charges.

Hugo Lara and Manolo Cabrera — the Mexican DJ pair better known as RØZ — casually strolled through Sightglass Coffee in Hollywood, one gripping a half-melted iced coffee, the other an empty Erewhon juice bottle.

To any onlooker, they might appear as two standard Gen Z Angelenos in sardonic streetwear: 22-year-old Cabrera flaunted a hat that referenced the 2008 financial crisis while 25-year-old Lara’s faded tee read, “You don’t dream of a better version of yourself.”

But over the past year, this fresh-faced pair from Querétaro, a small state just outside Mexico City, has dominated the festival world circuit. Spinning heart-thumping electronic beats and Latin house rhythms, RØZ has taken the stage at many a popular event, such as the most recent Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Lollapalooza Chicago, Hard Summer, EDC Las Vegas and Sueños.

“We’ve had huge crowds at festivals, even the workers on stage are like, ‘No way, you filled more venues than yesterday’s headliner,’” Cabrera told The Times. “We filled it up and people started leaving for the next person, which is obviously not cool. It feels awful. But you do think: good! They value Latinos and Mexicans now.”

Besides regaling ravers at their concerts — which will continue for the remainder of the calendar year, including a 20-city North American tour that kicks off in Boston on Oct. 21 — RØZ has landed another major artistic goal.

“Everyone will give [the album] a different interpretation, but I think the through line is the idea of drama, or poetic essence,” said Hugo Lara.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Last Friday, they released their first full-length album, “Se Esta Haciendo Tarde.” It’s a 19-track, introspective debut that solidifies the duo’s standing in the EDM world as both masterful mixers and vocalists.

“We are neither fully DJs, or fully singers, but artists,” said Cabrera. “Our shows, with the album, are going to be us playing synths, at another point singing and at another point we mix some songs.”

Featuring cameos from Latin superstars like Peso Pluma, J Balvin and Ryan Castro, the LP itself is hard to define as simply house music; RØZ is known best for peppering its EDM with a heavy dose of Latino sazon. It’s a sonic recipe that the two former schoolmates have been mastering since they were under lockdown from COVID.

This era also saw the commercial rise of other Mexican artists in their generation: Natanael Cano and Latin Mafia were among the most prominent Mexican acts who maximized their creativity during the isolation period and used social media platforms like TikTok to gain traction.

“It’s like if Fred Again, Skrillex, Frank Ocean, Mora and Bad Bunny adopted a child and raised him,” said Cabrera about their own music, which they began uploading to the streaming platform Soundcloud in 2022.

At the start of their disc jockey journey, they remixed already established songs, from Bad Bunny and Bomba Estéreo’s “Ojitos Lindos” to Bellakath’s “Gatita.” By 2024, they would release their frosty original track, “Cora de Hielo” under Warner Music Mexico; this featured Natt Calma and Mau Moctezuma, artists whom they met through the local indie scene.

Their subsequent releases went viral — including the dark-synth pop “Flashes” with Yng Lvcas and atmospheric “Apaga la Luz” with a rather mellowed performance from Peso Pluma — which were released under LT:Vision Records, Queens Road Music and Atlantic Records.

“At that time, emotions were secondary [in the music],” said Cabrera when looking back on those early songs. “Perhaps we didn’t resonate with the artist’s lyrics, we might have helped with some ideas. But with this [new] project, we wanted to find more of a balance — we want to be transparent, while also releasing f— bangers.”

Inspired by the transient beauty of cherry blossoms, known in Japan as sakura — which is illustrated in their album cover, alongside a dark pegasus — much of the LP also hinges on melodrama. Glitchy beat drops in “Acelero Lento” (featuring Chitra) fade into acoustic ballads. The bouncy freestyle rhythm in “Soho” melts into feverish pop harmonies. There’s also an interlacing spiritual hymn in “Yo Gospel” (featuring Rodrii) that showcases the heavenly vocals of an American-style church choir.

“Everyone will give [the album] a different interpretation, but I think the through line is the drama, or poetic essence,” said Lara. “Perhaps in 10 years we will listen to the same song and have a different interpretation.”

The new LP is imbued with various Latin genre fusions. In “Ya es de Noche” (featuring Rodrii and Olisso) they open with neo-perreo rhythms that slowly wade in and out of a cumbia-guided trance. In “Hanami,” named after the traditional Japanese custom of observing a floral bloom, RØZ is joined by Colombian producer Sky Rompiendo, whose pulsating reggaeton beats undergo a warping process, as their lyrics harp on romantic tension.

“Cherry blossoms only last a while, so it was our way of saying that we must appreciate the moment in which beauty exists,” said Lara.

The magnetic pull of RØZ — whose stage name is pronounced like the second syllable in “arroz” — cannot be overstated. They’ve already sold out six shows in their upcoming tour, which will wrap up Feb. 27 in their home state of Querétaro. Their popularity comes at a time when electronic music was registered as the largest-growing genre in the U.S. in the first half of 2026, per Luminate’s 2026 data report, which also found that casual monthly listenership in Latin music peaked at 54% of streams in the first quarter.

The growing admiration for Latin-fused EDM by Latino listeners was most visually evident during their Coachella debut in April. One attendee uploaded a video to Instagram showing the jammed entrance to the Sonora Tent, which reached full capacity before the duo began their Sunday set: “Coachella underestimating the Latino crowds like [what do you mean] I can’t see RØZ [because] it’s at full capacity both weekends,” the subtext on the video read.

Even before their breakout year, on the night of their first U.S. performance on the rooftop of the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles last August, the line to get inside stretched across the Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk with attendees eager to hear the pair’s early tracks.

Still, it doesn’t surprise RØZ that a Latino act like themselves might be early on the call sheet — or left to assemble a last-minute crew after their original team ran into visa processing delays ahead of the first Coachella weekend. “In this genre that we’re moving in, you’d never picture a Latino headliner. Latinos are always put down, down, down,” said Cabrera.

But some milestones have given them faith that the mainstream world is opening up to putting Latino acts at the top of the bill; including the fact that Colombian singer Karol G was the first Latina Coachella headliner this year. “And with music in Spanish, not English,” marveled Lara.

And rather than sulk about the conditions of Latino artists, RØZ is ready to put up a fight.

“Just because I’m Mexican or Latino doesn’t mean that I can’t connect with people the same way a person from the United States can,” said Cabrera. “Headlining is possible, without a doubt.”

Growing up, filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke didn’t get to watch the scene in “The Breakfast Club” where the teenage characters smoke marijuana. That moment was removed from the VHS copy of the 1980s classic he’d rented because of strict censorship in Mexico at the time.

Drug use or not, that John Hughes movie, as well “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” impacted him profoundly. “Those were movies that spoke to young people, and in Mexico there wasn’t much cinema aimed at teens,” Eimbcke tells me in Spanish on a video call from Mexico City.

From his indie trench, Eimbcke, 55, has tried to fill that void in Mexican cinema — starting with his 2004 acclaimed debut “Temporada de patos” (Duck Season), about two teen boys spending a day without adult supervision. Since then, in films like “Lake Tahoe” (2008) or “Club Sandwich” (2013), the woes of adolescence have dominated his purview.

With “Olmo,” in theaters Friday, Eimbcke has adapted his career-long interest on the youth’s preoccupations to a story on this side of the Mexico-U.S. border for the first time.

Set and filmed on location in Las Cruces, N.M., his bilingual coming-of-age dramedy follows the titular Olmo (played by Aivan Uttapa), a charismatic Mexican American 14-year-old boy in the 1970s, whose bedridden immigrant father requires around-the-clock care.

The tightly written and humorously bittersweet narrative (co-penned by Eimbcke and Vanesa Garnica) unfolds over the course of a fateful Saturday. Nina Sandoval (Melanie Frometa), Olmo’s crush, invites him and his boot-wearing best friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) to a party, with the condition that they bring a stereo. But Olmo has also been tasked with looking after dad Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), while his mother works.

Olmo must decide between fulfilling his duty or pursuing his age-appropriate impulse for fun.

Fernando Eimbcke’s new coming-of-age dramedy “Olmo” follows a charismatic Chicano teen in 1970s New Mexico.

(Andrew Bohn / Olma 2023 LLC)

It was during the six years that Eimbcke lived in Germany that Plan B, the American production company behind titles like “Moonlight,” reached out with an idea for him to write a screenplay about a Mexican American character. That project didn’t come to fruition, but Eimbcke took advantage of their initial interest to create his own story.

Eimbcke had long been interested in stories of migration, and in the dynamics that occur within “bicultural” families. His experience living abroad heightened this curiosity.

“I’m surprised to see the fear that governments and society have regarding migration today. It’s one of the best things that can happen to a culture,” Eimbcke says. “Everyone is talking about Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ and the story of Odysseus is a story of migration.”

Among the key inspirations that shaped how Eimbcke and Garnica (who have been friends since they were 14 years old) conceived “Olmo” were Dominican American author Junot Díaz’s work, as well as Kevin Bubriski’s photography book “The New Mexicans: 1981-83.”

“He photographed Mexican Americans in the 1980s in New Mexico, and that gave us many ideas,” he says. “He has some incredible, truly beautiful photos of Mexican Americans.”

While scouting locations in New Mexico, the production interacted with local Latino families. In those households, Eimbcke witnessed immigrant parents speaking Spanish to their children who replied to them in English. Similar exchanges happen in “Olmo.”

“If communication is already difficult within a family when everyone speaks the same language, the idea of a family speaking two languages struck me as absolutely fascinating. Rather than an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity to explore their relationship,” he explains. “Language isn’t always that important. When Olmo and Néstor argue over the stereo, you never really know if they actually understand each other through words or not.”

The complex intricacies of language manifested on Eimbcke’s first bilingual set.

During a scene where Olmo and Miguel finally fix the stereo and begin dancing, Eimbcke wanted a more rambunctious reaction. He started yelling, “More caos. More caos.” The assistant director looked puzzled, thinking the director was asking for “cows.” Eimbcke meant “chaos,” but pronounced it Spanish, which sounds like the farm animal in English.

“It was very difficult for me, because my English is far from perfect, it’s actually quite imperfect,” Eimbcke says sincerely.

For Uttapa, 17, these interactions seemed authentic; he is a second-generation Mexican American whose grandmother came to the U.S. from Mexico, while his mother was born here.

“My grandma speaks fluent Spanish, and she talks to me, my brothers, and my sister in Spanish, and we answer in English,” says Uttapa on Zoom. “That dynamic and that detail in the movie really did make it real to me.”

Fernando Eimbcke’s new coming-of-age dramedy “Olmo” follows a charismatic Chicano teen in 1970s New Mexico.

(Andrew Bohn / Olma 2023 LLC )

Based in Las Vegas, the fresh-faced Uttapa started acting at 12. He shared his interest in performing with his parents, who enrolled him with acting coach Frank Parillo. “I remember telling my mom, ‘I just want to entertain. I just want to be relatable and make an impact on people.’ If you can impact one person, then it pretty much is worth it,” he says.

Eimbcke cast him solely based on his self-tape after a long search for the right actor to become Olmo, primarily in Los Angeles and New York.

Since shooting “Olmo” when he was 14, Uttapa has appeared in the latest season of the hit medical drama “The Pitt,” playing Grady Barnhill, who has an asthma attack, in two episodes. Still, playing Olmo remains the highlight of his short but burgeoning career.

“I’ve gotten some auditions here and there about Mexican American or Latino characters, but if I’m being honest, none of them really clicked to me as much as it did with Olmo. I really felt a connection with the character,” Uttapa notes.

That Eimbcke set “Olmo” in the ’70s — based on his memories of watching “Saturday Night Fever” as a child and being enamored by disco music — helped Uttapa connect with the character. At several points in their adventure, Olmo and Miguel break out their best dance moves.

His mother, Uttapa says, thinks of him as an “old soul,” given his eclectic taste in music, from Elvis Presley and Del Shannon to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

“I was already familiar with cumbia, because my mom would always teach me,” Uttapa says. “The disco dancing wasn’t really that hard for me because I grew up loving ’70s music, so I’d always dance in my room to it. And being able to show it on screen was really special.”

Eimbcke says he has no secret technique to obtain wonderful performances from his teen stars; the only strategy that works is to lean into fun. “Teenagers are very willing to play. They are willing to take risks,” the director adds. “And I always love combining two schools of acting: the professional and the nonprofessional.” The actors who play Olmo’s parents, Gustavo Sánchez Parra and Andrea Suárez Paz, are seasoned Mexican thespians.

And while Eimbcke may very well be the Mexican John Hughes, there are certainly uniquely Mexican, and perhaps unexpected, references that were foundational for him as an artist.

“I also grew up watching a lot of telenovelas. They were really formative for me, specifically, the telenovelas on the local Channel 2,” Eimbcke confesses. “I remember there was one I followed religiously called ‘Quinceañera,’ starring Thalia. I loved it.”

The Galaxy announced on Friday Hirving “Chucky” Lozano is joining its roster, making one of the most significant moves of the MLS transfer window in an attempt to turn around a disappointing season while the team still has a chance to make the playoffs.

The Mexican forward arrives on loan from San Diego FC through December with an option to buy. Lozano will occupy a designated player spot, becoming the new offensive leader of the team coached by Greg Vanney for the final stretch of the season.

Although his time with San Diego FC began in June 2024 with high expectations as the first designated player signed in the club’s history, the relationship between Lozano and the club deteriorated.

The Mexican forward suffered several muscle injuries that limited his playing time last season and toward the end of Lozano’s tenure, coach Mikey Varas opted not to feature Lozano because he didn’t fit with the club’s sporting vision.

The combination of physical problems and internal disagreements ultimately paved the way for his departure even though he made a strong offensive impact.

“Hirving is a player whom we tried to acquire three years ago, so this feels like something of a full-circle moment. He is a fierce competitor with an excellent track record of performing on teams that have competed for titles in multiple leagues, including his debut season in MLS,” Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz said.

Kuntz said after evaluating various options to strengthen the roster, the club concluded that Lozano was the ideal fit to help them tackle the final 15 games of the season.

“We have a talented group, a strong locker room, and a clear objective over these final 15 games of the season, and we are thrilled that Hirving and his family are joining the Galaxy,” Kuntz said.

In 33 matches with San Diego FC, Lozano recorded 20 goal contributions, including goals and assists.

Before arriving in MLS, Lozano made his professional debut with Pachuca, where he won the 2016 Clausura and the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League, a tournament in which he finished as the top scorer.

He later moved to PSV Eindhoven, where he won the Eredivisie title in the 2017–18 season before signing with Napoli in Italy. With the Neapolitan club, he played in 155 matches, scored 30 goals and was part of the historic squad that won the Scudetto in the 2022–23 season, ending a wait of more than three decades for the club.

He returned to PSV in 2023 and added two more consecutive Dutch league titles before embarking on his MLS adventure.

With the Mexican national team, he has accumulated more than 70 international appearances, 18 goals, and 12 assists.

He etched his name into Mexican soccer history by scoring the goal that gave El Tri a 1-0 victory over Germany at the 2018 World Cup in Russia — one of the national team’s most important World Cup victories.

He also represented Mexico at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, in addition to competing in the Copa América, the Confederations Cup, the Gold Cup and the CONCACAF Nations League. In 2018, he was named CONCACAF Player of the Year.

At 31, Lozano joins the Galaxy —which no longer has Gabriel Pec — as the team seeks to strengthen its attack to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.

The Galaxy hope to capitalize on his speed, ability to play on both wings and experience in high-pressure situations.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — A New Mexico state court ordered Meta to pay more than $550 million and implement changes to protect children after finding the social media behemoth created a public nuisance that harmed young users.

The court issued its order Thursday, creating a $567 million fund, of which $420 million is earmarked for treatment for social media-related harms inflicted upon children in the state. The fund is on top of the $375 million Meta was fined in March for violating the state’s consumer protection laws in the first phase of the case.

“This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence,” New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a statement.

“Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.”

Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Torrez sued Meta in late 2023 to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation and human trafficking, following a months-long operation involving decoy accounts of children 14 years and younger that found children were being served sexually explicit images and content while enabling adults to find, contact and pressure them into providing sexually explicit or pornographic materials, among other harms.

The court then bifurcated the case into two phases, with Phase 1 being a jury trial that found Meta liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms on March 24. Phase 2 was a bench trial considering whether Meta’s platforms created a public nuisance under New Mexico law.

In the 68-page order on Thursday, Chief District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid found Meta liable for public nuisance.

“The evidence developed at trial reflects that Meta operates its platforms in a manner that injures community-wide youth mental health and safety,” Biedscheid wrote.

“Meta’s platforms are designed to capture attention, including by taking advantage of teenagers’ developing brains and encouraging problematic use. Even without the evidence and testimony that certain percentages of youth with mental health conditions would not have those conditions but for social media use, the highly probable results of Meta’s engagement optimization practices, including employing features that quantify popularity and encourage use at all hours of the day, is that such practices would increase anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation among teenagers.”

Meta is ordered to implement several changes, including improving age verification, restricting use of Facebook and Instagram by minors to 90 hours a month, turning off most push notifications for minors from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days, hiding “like” counts by default for minors and runing a New Mexico public-education campaign.

Mexico deployed more than 1,500 troops to its main avocado-producing state after the US suspended export inspections over security concerns. The halt has frozen shipments to Mexico’s biggest market, threatening thousands of jobs and a multibillion-dollar industry.

24-year-old TikToker Cesar Gastelum, was shot dead while livestreaming with friends outside a fast-food restaurant in Culiacan, Mexico. The city is at the centre of a gang turf war between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.

McALLEN, Texas — A Texas mother deported to Mexico despite having legal permission to stay in the U.S. has filed a lawsuit against the federal government after it notified her it would be terminating her permission because of “unauthorized travel” stemming from her deportation.

Jessica Treviño, 34, filed a lawsuit through her attorney this week asking a federal judge to intervene.

Treviño and her husband were arrested in December after federal agents followed them and two of their daughters into a Home Depot parking lot in South Texas. Both were deported and are living in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas. Their three children, all U.S. citizens, are living with family on the U.S. side near the border.

After being brought to the country as a child at the age of 7, Treviño subsequently received legal permission at 20 to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Introduced in 2012, DACA does not confer legal status but has allowed hundreds of thousands of people who had come to the U.S. as children to temporarily remain and obtain work permits.

As a DACA recipient, she must maintain a clean criminal record and is not allowed to travel outside the United States.

Her attorney, David Rozas, filed the lawsuit. He noted her status and work permit were most recently authorized until April 2027.

Notice to terminate DACA cites ‘unauthorized travel’

Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent her a notice of intent to terminate her status for “unauthorized travel outside of the United States on or about March 25, 2026,” the same day she was deported from the country by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement, DHS said Treviño’s husband was in the country without permission and driving at the time of the arrest. After a collision between the couple’s vehicle and an unmarked Homeland Security Investigations vehicle, the couple was arrested. DHS claimed she “knowingly accepted voluntary departure and waived appeal. She left the U.S. on March 25, 2026, and will NOT return.”

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Treviño said she did not sign any forms at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility and did not want to be deported.

Lawsuit seeks restitution of status

Rozas filed a petition asking a federal judge in Brownsville to declare the woman’s expulsion was unlawful, order the government to facilitate Treviño’s return to the U.S. and allow her DACA status to remain valid.

“The government had no lawful basis to remove her, and we filed this petition to demand she be brought back home,” her attorney added.

An immigration judge under the Justice Department had issued a voluntary departure order for Treviño in February while she was in ICE custody, but a valid DACA status prevents the Department of Homeland Security from deporting her.

“I would be so blessed to be able to go back home, because that’s what I long for most right now. I’m really desperate. It’s been seven months since I’ve been home,” Treviño said Thursday. Her three children are set to start school next month and Treviño said she would like to be there.

The current Trump administration has deported 86 DACA recipients and arrested 241 others, according to a DHS letter sent in February to Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

Advocates for DACA recipients say Treviño’s deportation is part of a pattern.

“This is what a deliberate, systematic effort to destroy DACA looks like in practice: target recipients one by one, manufacture justifications after the fact and leave their children to grow up without them,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a policy organization defending immigration rights.

Gonzalez writes for the Associated Press.

July 31 (UPI) — Some 6.5 million cruise passengers visited Mexico during the first half of 2026, a 17.1% increase from the same period a year earlier, government figures show.

Pacific destinations, in general, showed increases in visits, while the Mexican Caribbean maintained its position as the country’s main hub for maritime tourism, the Tourism Secretariat said.

Between January and June, 1,839 cruise ships called at Mexican ports, a 12.2% increase compared with the first half of 2025, according to the Secretariat of the Navy.

The Pacific Coast recorded the strongest growth. Puerto Chiapas, in the southern state of Chiapas, led during the first half by nearly doubling its number of passengers compared with the previous year.

According to the Mexican government, the port is the main maritime gateway to southern Mexico and the Soconusco region, where excursions depart for coffee plantations, the Izapa archaeological site and the mangroves along the Chiapas coast.

Mazatlán, one of the Mexican Pacific’s main cruise ports, also stood out, recording an increase of more than 60% in passenger traffic. The destination is known for connecting routes along the so-called Pacific nautical ladder and for its beaches, oceanfront promenade and historic downtown.

Cabo San Lucas, situated at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, also reported passenger growth of more than 60%. The port is one of the main stops on Mexican Pacific cruise itineraries and is known for natural attractions, such as El Arco, and for marine wildlife watching excursions, according to tour operator Civitatis.

Tourism Secretary Josefina Rodríguez Zamora said the results reflect the confidence that the world’s leading cruise lines have in Mexico and highlighted that each cruise ship creates economic opportunities for communities that depend on tourism activity at the country’s ports.

Although the Pacific was the fastest-growing region, the Mexican Caribbean continued to account for most of the activity.

The ports of Cozumel and Mahahual, in the state of Quintana Roo, jointly welcomed more than 4.2 million cruise passengers between January and July, equivalent to nearly 64% of the national total, according to data from the Quintana Roo Comprehensive Port Administration, or Apiqroo, published by Reportur.

Cozumel, considered Mexico’s leading cruise port, received 795 cruise ship calls through July 19, an 8% increase from the same period in 2025. Mahahual, meanwhile, saw more than 1.29 million passengers during the first half of the year, consolidating its position as the state’s second-largest cruise destination.

Apiqroo Director Vagner Elbiorn Vega attributed part of the growth to a season with favorable weather conditions, allowing cruise ships to maintain their itineraries without the storm-related diversions required last year, Reportur reported.

If the trend continues, Apiqroo expects Cozumel to end 2026 with about 1,377 cruise ship calls, which would make it one of the port’s busiest years on record.

THE world’s best beaches have been revealed and the top pick has been described as being so beautiful it doesn’t look real.

The coastal spots were ranked from criteria like water-quality, popularity, public opinion, expert input as well as accessibility and climate.

Beach.com has announced the best beach in the world is Trunk Bay in the US Virgin Islands.

The beach is known for its white sand with clear turquoise water that has been described as looking ‘unreal’ by visitors.

It’s named after the Leatherback turtle (known locally as ‘trunks’), where smaller turtles are known to nest in the summer months.

The publication said that Trunk Bay is “truly the best beach in the world” with “top marks for beauty, water quality and an all-around perfect experience.”

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Not only is it aesthetically beautiful, but the beach also has a 650ft long underwater snorkelling trail where its easy to spot tropical fish and colourful coral.

The second best beach, Elafonissi Beach in Greece, is no stranger to appearing on these lists.

It’s constantly recognised as being beautiful thanks to its rare pink sand.

The pink shimmer to the sand is essentially down to crushed shells from oyster-like micro-organisms called Benthic foraminifera.

The Sun’s Lizzie Parry who visited the beach a few years ago said: “I won’t lie, wandering down to the water it did just look like any other sandy beach. But the closer we got to the water’s edge it was clear to see what all the fuss was about.

“Dipping my slightly sunburnt toes into the sea, my pink foot blended in perfectly with a stunning stretch of bright pink sand.”

There are little coves to explore away from the mainland and it’s not far to get to from the UK as it’s just a few hours to Crete.

The third best beach is Grace Bay Beach which is found on Providenciales which is the main island on the Turks and Caicos archipelago.

Thanks to its beautiful clear waters, it’s a renowned snorkelling spot- and came in number one spot when it came to public opinion.

Deputy Travel Editor Kara Godfrey who visited said: “Grace Bay Beach is everything you’d imagine from an exotic beach. Soft white sands stretch for miles, with very few tourists if you get up early enough.

“Lined with hotel resorts, wait until the evening and you’ll get pink sunsets too.

Other top beaches include Golden Horn Beach in the Dalmatia region of Croatia – it got its name from its horn shape.

The beach has clear waters and is backed by a pine tree forest.

Praia da Falésia has been named one of the best beaches in Portugal, one of the best beaches in Europe and comes in the world’s best at number nine.

Found in the Algarve, it has striking orange-coloured cliffs behind it.

Two beaches on the Canary Islands made the list, the first being Playa de Cofete in Fuerteventura.

Playa de Maspalomas in Gran Canaria came in at number 25 – it’s famous for its sprawling Sahara-like golden sand dunes which lead down to the water.

Sadly, no UK beaches made the cut.

Here is the full list of the world’s best beaches…

1. Trunk Bay, USVI
2. Elafonissi Beach, Greece
3. Grace Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos
4. Flamenco Beach, Puerto Rico
5. Golden Horn Beach, Croatia
6. Palolem Beach, India
7. Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, USVI
8. Playa Balandra, Mexico
9. Praia da Falésia, Portugal
10. Eagle Beach, Aruba
11. Gulf Shores Public Beach, Alabama, USA
12. Boulders Beach, South Africa
13. Playa de Cofete, Spain
14. Falasarna Beach, Greece
15. Huntington Beach, California, USA
16. Seven Mile Beach, Cayman Islands
17. Magens Bay Beach, St. Thomas, USVI
18. Mont Choisy Public Beach, Mauritius
19. Spiaggia Su Giudeu, Italy
20. Tropic of Cancer Beach, Bahamas
21. Balos Beach, Greece
22. South Beach Park, Vero Beach, Florida, USA
23. Cas Abao Beach, Curaçao
24. Baby Beach, Aruba
25. Playa de Maspalomas, Spain

The cyclospora parasite causes explosive diarrhoea and contaminated food, particularly herbs, salad and soft fruit, are common sources of infection

There has been a rise in Brits contracting a parasite that causes explosive diarrhoea.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data shows a “sharp rise” in cyclospora infections among people who’ve travelled to Mexico. Cyclospora is a parasite that causes explosive diarrhoea.

Contaminated food, specifically herbs, salad and soft fruit, are common sources of outbreaks and infections. Infection is acquired via consumption of contaminated food.

Cyclospora doesn’t naturally occur in the UK and there is no risk of spread from person to person, UKHSA said. A total of 67 cases have been reported across the UK between April 30 and July 15.

The agency has now advised all travellers to take precautions when going abroad by maintaining good food and water hygiene to reduce the risk of infection. Besides frequent watery diarrhoea, cyclospora also causes abdominal cramping, bloating, nausea, flatulence, low-grade fever, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Infections are usually mild and most people improve within a few days without treatment. However, these can present as more severe or prolonged in people who are immunocompromised and antibiotics may be prescribed.

Data published today shows that, out of the 67 cases reported in travellers returning to the UK, 30 of those were in England, 27 in Scotland and 10 in Wales. The UKHSA says this is a “sharp rise” compared to the annual average of 93 cases recorded between 2022 and 2025.

Travel information is available for 52 out of the 67 cases, with 48 of those reported to have travelled to Mexico. One of the 48 also reported travelling to the United States of America.

A further case reported travelling to the USA only and one to Kenya. Those who travelled to Mexico reported staying at a range of hotels in the Riviera Maya and Cancún regions and consuming a variety of food and drink as part of all-inclusive holiday packages.

Further investigations around the cases are ongoing. UKHSA said it anticipates a continued rise in travel-associated cases as an increased number of people travel to Mexico during the summer.

Travel to the USA, where a widespread outbreak has been reported, could also potentially increase the number of cases in the UK.

Dr Philip Veal, consultant in travel health at UKHSA, said: “We have recently detected a rise in Cyclospora infections among travellers returning from Mexico. These infections are caused by a parasite and can affect the stomach and intestines.

“Travellers to Mexico and other areas where the infection is more common can reduce their risk by following good food and water hygiene measures, including drinking bottled water and eating thoroughly cooked food, even when staying in high-end all-inclusive resorts. We also advise avoiding certain foods such as fresh uncooked berries and herbs, unpeeled fruit and salad items.

“If you develop symptoms after returning from travel, such as watery diarrhoea, loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps or pain, bloating, increased wind, nausea, fatigue or other flu-like symptoms, please seek medical attention and inform your healthcare professional of your travel history.”

UKHSA is liaising with ABTA, the travel association, and Mexican public health authorities to inform investigations into the rise in cases.

July 25 (UPI) — The Department of Agriculture on Friday lifted a ban on cattle imports from Mexico that had been in place to contain the spread of a parasite threatening U.S. livestock.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said Douglas, Ariz., would be the first port of entry to be open on Aug. 24.

All cattle imports from Mexico were halted by the Biden administration in November 2024, when the first cases of the flesh-eating New World screwworm were detected in the south of the country.

“The closure of the Southern ports of entry for the last year has been a tough but necessary action to control the spread of NWS in Mexico and protect the American livestock industry,” Rollins said in a statement.

But closing the border came at a cost, Rollins said, causing “a significant economic challenge to various sectors of our industries in Texas.”

“There is no doubt that closing the ports last May caused higher prices in beef,” the agriculture secretary told reporters last month. “We’re obviously very focused on affordability, but the president agreed when we briefed him that we had to keep our livestock producers as safe as possible with this outbreak moving through Mexico.”

Despite border closures, there have been multiple cases of New World screwworm detected in the United States.

Mexican journalist Alejandro Leyva Aguilar was shot dead while eating at a street food stall in Oaxaca. He had spent years reporting on alleged corruption and criminal violence. His murder marks the fourth journalist killing in Mexico since June.

The 41-year-old, who played in six FIFA World Cups, announces he will retire from both club and country.

Guillermo Ochoa, widely considered among the greatest Mexican goalkeepers in history, has announced his retirement from professional football, bringing an end to a distinguished 22-year professional career.

Ochoa, who turned 41 last week, had previously stated that the 2026 FIFA World Cup would be his last tournament although speculation had swirled about whether he might sign with a new club to extend his playing days.

He put those rumours to rest on Tuesday.

“I gave it my all; I left everything on the field for my clubs and the national team, and today I hang up my gloves,” Ochoa posted on social media. “Being a goalkeeper means knowing you might wait 90 minutes for a single moment when everything depends on you. And when that moment arrives, you cannot hesitate.”

Ochoa was on Mexico’s roster for six World Cups – a number shared only by icons Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. He served as Mexico’s starting goalkeeper in three of them: Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022.

Ochoa made his top-flight debut with Mexico City’s Club America in February 2004. He spent his first seven seasons there before transferring to French club Ajaccio in 2011, becoming the first Mexico-born goalkeeper to play in Europe. His European career also included stints with Malaga, Granada, Standard Liege, Salernitana, AVS Futebol and AEL Limassol, punctuated by a three-year return to Club America from 2019 to 2022.

“I never imagined how far a dream could take me. Today, I can only look back with pride and say: Thank you,” Ochoa wrote. “I take with me the affection of millions and the peace of mind that comes with knowing I gave everything for Mexico.”

Although he served primarily as a backup to Raul Rangel in the recent World Cup in North America, manager Javier Aguirre brought Ochoa on for the final 13 minutes against Czechia in Mexico’s last group-stage match. After the final whistle, an emotional Ochoa kissed the goalposts at Azteca Stadium – the venue where his career began – before kneeling to accept an embrace from his teammates. Long after the stands had cleared, Ochoa walked out to the centre circle one last time to take in his final farewell.

At the club level, Ochoa captured a league title with Club America during the 2005 Clausura tournament and won the Belgian Cup with Standard Liege. On the international stage, he led Mexico to six CONCACAF Gold Cup titles and earned a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

I’m one of those rare Mexicans who never cared for soccer.

My family is from the north-central Mexico state of Zacatecas, where baseball is king and even volleyball was more popular in the ranchos of my parents than futbol. The childhood sports idols for my generation of cousins were Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela and boxing champion Julio César Chávez, not Mexican soccer legends Hugo Sánchez and Jorge Campos. Our dads bought us hats and bats to occupy our summer, not kits and cleats. I don’t even remember any of us ever owning a soccer ball — and I have nearly 100 cousins.

The first World Cup I remember was the 1994 edition hosted by the United States. I remember reading a huge Times special preview section on the affair and collected some of the commemorative pins that McDonald’s sold. But the matches were background noise in our living room during family parties as we splashed around in the swimming pool at our Anaheim home. When the tournament finale happened at the Rose Bowl, my favorite cousins and mutual best friend instead caught a baseball game at Angel Stadium and knew about Brazil’s victory over Italy only because the people above us in a private suite let us know.

As a sports fan, I paid enough attention to soccer as the decades passed to know who was who and what team was what and which sides kept winning — and that was mostly because I enjoyed EA Sports’ excellent video game version of it. What made playing soccer on consoles so fun — an exponential number of domestic leagues and international tournaments, the fact that every English-language match seemed to have a Scottish color commentator, the seeming aimlessness and formlessness on the pitch broken up by flairs of beauty — made it a slog when watching in real life.

As a reporter, I knew enough about soccer culture to file stories from watch parties across Southern California’s cornucopia of diasporas every World Cup. As a Mexican American, I cared enough about Mexico’s perpetually heartbreaking El Tri squad to watch their runs and sigh about how we’ll always have it harder than most. But I never bothered to tune in to other matches even as soccer leagues from across the globe have stormed network, cable and streaming channels in recent years.

I never hated the sport — it just never moved me. But when the final whistle blew on this year’s World Cup finale and three-quarters of the packed house at Chapter One: The Modern Bistro cheered wildly, I realized I was finally, truly a soccer fan.

Over 104 games, a bunch of questionable VAR calls, another heartbreaking downfall by Mexico, a bizarre Tom Cruise pregame monologue in the last match and the brilliant goal by Ferran Torres in extra time that let Spain squeak by Argentina 1-0, I slowly learned and felt why soccer is the world’s most popular sport, why a billion-plus people watched alongside me Sunday afternoon, and why this Cup kept setting viewership records in the United States and beyond until the end.

Who wouldn’t be moved by the heroic performances of underdog countries against the game’s traditional powers, such as tiny Cape Verde and ancient Egypt? Who couldn’t feel the thrill of seeing young stars meet the hype around them and exceed it — Erling Haaland of Norway, Lamine Yamal of Spain, Mexican midfielder Gilberto Mora, to name the most fabulous? Who didn’t want to interact with fan bases that distilled the best of their side’s cultures and traditions and showed it off to everyone and anyone — I’m doing Norway’s Viking Row even as I type.

Who can’t learn from the life lessons soccer offers — and I’m not talking about the obvious geopolitical metaphors? I knew some of them, yet I never really absorbed them until I decided to make Chapter One my gustatory church for the Cup and watch as many games there as possible. I caught so many that I effectively became a walking Manhattan cocktail for the summer, and while my liver won’t forgive me for a while, my heart and soul absolutely have.

The one thing I always admired about domestic leagues — well, except Major League Soccer — is the relegation system, where the bottom teams in one league swap places with the top teams in a lower-ranked league at the end of each season. For national tournaments, the corollary is how poorer countries always have to match up against richer ones for regional face-offs and qualifiers that culminate in the quadrennial dream that is the World Cup.

That makes soccer a beacon of hope and possibility that few other team sports can offer, especially in an era where top teams try everything possible to keep everyone else out of their riches (which is why relegation will probably never come to MLS). In a world where the haves are grinding down the have-nots, soccer is a reminder that anything truly is possible for anyone — you just have to keep at it.

The Chapter One gatherings quickly taught me how the long lulls broken up by spurts of passion that I once found a drag were actually as stirring as a religious experience. It’s impossible not to feel this watching even one game — but a succession of them have the effect of a full conversion.

Cheers and chants turned into prayers. Boos against opponents and bad referees and yells at your side to do better was the Spirit moving you to testify. Text threads among friends became daily missals. When your side scored, it was like the gift of life itself — I’ve never been in a louder environment than when Mexico scored against England, a roar that rivaled a jet engine.

When your side lost, like Mexico eventually, inevitably did, it was a reminder that we all must at some point — but that we shouldn’t dwell on defeat because while eternal glory isn’t guaranteed, it can happen. And that’s why soccer teaches we must continue no matter how bad our team performed, no matter how terrible things get or how hopeless life seems.

After every Mexico match, downtown Santa Ana became the most wonderful expression of happiness I’ve ever been lucky enough to join — fireworks, conga lines, street takeovers or just standing among thousands of strangers and soaking it all in. It was the revival of a people whom a year early were angrily protesting on those same city blocks if they weren’t sheltering in place because ICE was running roughshod over Southern California.

Only soccer could’ve caused such a joyous revolt. We should all channel some of that magic into our daily lives.

And in the middle of all this emotion, I actually watched what was going on. I saw talented teams such as South Korea collapse under pressure and my beloved Mexico valiantly fall against an English squad that was taller, faster and just better — for now. Haaland’s singularity was a testament to how humanity seeks heroes — but Spain’s ultimate triumph via crisp passes and selfless teamwork offered a stirring, convincing collective counterpoint.

Soccer probably won’t supplant my love for baseball, football, basketball and hockey — but I can now mention it in the same breath as them.

International and professional soccer is rife with corruption and avarice and increasingly embraces the worst tendencies of late-stage capitalism. And yet fans suspend their cynicism for a few hours — for a tournament, for a season — because they know that the communion that soccer offers is pure and holy.

It truly is the people’s game. And no amount of Gianni Infantino or mysteriously suspended red cards can ever take that away.

Now that the Cup is over, my mind is racing with what club teams I should start to follow and continue my World Cup experience. I already kind of like Bayern Munich because that was the side I chose in EA Sports FIFA 18 (to show how retrograde my soccer knowledge remains, I still think James Rodriguez, Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski play for them), but who will I root for in Premier League? I can’t do Arsenal even though Chapter One is the official Orange County home for Gooner fans because that would be too obvious. Maybe Crystal Palace, about which I know nothing other than that was also the name of the Bakersfield music hall owned by country legend Buck Owens?

Zacatecas has never had a successful club team — baseball still rules there, after all — so I think I’ll root for Pumas UNAM to honor all my Mexico City friends who urged me forever to give soccer a true chance. I don’t really know any La Liga squads besides Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and FC Barcelona, so I have a lot of studying to do there. And between the Galaxy and LAFC? Well, time for me to catch a home-and-home El Tráfico and let their support groups court me.

One team I know I’ll now follow: Angel City, the L.A. women’s soccer side brilliant enough to rebrand itself “Immigrant City Football Club” last summer in the midst of President Trump’s deportation deluge while the city’s other professional sports teams stayed quiet. And I’m already counting down the months before Brazil hosts the Women’s World Cup a year from now and Chapter One becomes my Cheers anew.

Soccer: it’s been a long time coming between you and me. But here I am! Drop those hydration breaks, and you’ve got a fanático for life.

Waving a Mexican flag with a vaquero sombrero on, El Malilla made history at Coachella last year as the first reggaeton Mexa act on the lineup.

To keep the momentum going, the rising Mexican star had planned for his first U.S. tour to take place last summer. After the Trump administration ramped up the ongoing ICE raids around the same time, El Malilla decided to put the safety of his fans first and postpone the tour.

“With what was happening with Mexicans and immigrants — the big problem being ICE — I decided to pause the tour, because I didn’t feel comfortable exposing my fans to that kind of situation,” El Malilla says over Zoom from his home in Valle de Chalco. “For me, it was important to bring this tour to the U.S., but in a safe way without putting anyone in harm’s way.”

After wrapping up the Mexican leg of his “Tu Maliante Bebé” Tour, El Malilla, who was born Fernando Hernández Flores, is now preparing to bring his show to the states. The 19-show trek will kick off July 24 in Palm Springs, followed by a concert at The Novo in Los Angeles the next day.

Mexican artist El Malilla.

(Joss Andreu)

“The Novo is very important for me because it’s going to be my biggest venue for this U.S. tour,” he admits. “To see how Los Angeles has adopted me, embraced me, and shown me love, I’m going to feel like I’m home.”

Following his Coachella debut, El Malilla has pushed reggaeton from Mexico into the mainstream. He imbues the genre with Mexican swagger, slang and sex appeal in his explosive hits such as “B de Bellako,” “Mami Tú” and “Balenciaga” featuring corrido singer Luis R. Conriquez.

Since then, El Malilla has expanded the scope of reggaeton Mexa following collaborations with Puerto Rican pioneers such as Jowell y Randy and Colombian superstar J Balvin. The perreo heartthrob is also tapping into new genres for his upcoming sophomore album. In an interview with The Times, El Malilla opened up about leading the reggaeton Mexa movement and what to expect from his tour.

How do you feel about representing Mexican culture and reggaeton Mexa with this tour in the U.S.?
I feel very happy to bring a bit of our culture, our slang, our sound and our essence to the U.S. for my fans that haven’t had a chance to see a show of mine. Something that’s very crazy for me is when I performed in Chicago last year, there were people with signs that said they were from different places in Mexico like the State of Mexico. It made me very nostalgic to know that I’m also from the State of Mexico and we’re here. It’s important for me to represent our roots. Get ready, because I’m coming with perreo sucio. [Laughs.]

What do you think when you fans always ask for you to take off your shirt at your concerts?
It makes me laugh because when I sing “Rodillas,” people start screaming for me to take off my shirt. My show lasts like two hours and that’s barely the first song. I enjoy it, because I consider El Malilla to be a showman. I love to be onstage and have fun with my fans. Though some people might see me as a sex symbol, I don’t see myself that way, but to each their own.

What does it mean for you to be breaking down barriers for reggaeton Mexa?
It makes me very happy. I’ve been thinking about that recently. When would you think that an iconic pop star like Danna would collaborate with an iconic chacalón [Mexican slang for “bad boy”] like myself? That never crossed my mind before, but now in 2026, our reggaeton, our essence and our sound has become important in Mexico and even more so on a Latino level. Now everything is possible. There [are] no longer barriers for reggaeton Mexa, or for Mexican singers. Today, your biggest dream is possible.

Who else would you love to collaborate with in the future?
Lately, I’ve spent more time in the U.S. and I’ve been soaking up more English music. I discovered that I really like The Weeknd. A collaboration with him would be crazy! I returned to Coachella this year to sing with Cachirula & Loojan … and to be able to see Justin Bieber live was incredible. I would love to collaborate with him. On the Latin side, I would love to collaborate with Nsqk, De La Ghetto, Ñengo Flow or a reggaeton pioneer like DJ Blass.

What’s the process been like working on your next album?
I spent a year and a half working on this album. I enjoyed that process so much. Music has given me so much that this album is my way of repaying music for all the blessings it’s given me. You’ll be surprised at what I’m capable of. This is a Malilla that’s now 26 and a little more mature. It’s a more experimental and professional Malilla. I had never made a bolero song and I dared to do that this time. I did my research by listening to Luis Miguel, José José and singers and genres that I wasn’t used to listening to. I found love for those genres and singers. It was a very fun and cool way for me to explore different genres.

July 17 (UPI) — A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the Mexico-Guatemala coast in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, being felt as far as El Salvador.

Authorities said there were no casualties or major damage from the quake.

The epicenter was located some 36 miles off the coast of the Mexican state of Chiapas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Four people were injured in Chiapas, and authorities have also responded to reports of minor structural damage, CNN reported.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said emergency protocols were activated in several Mexican states.

“Authorities from all three levels of government are conducting inspections on the ground to assess any possible structural damage and coordinate preventive measures,” Sheinbaum said on X.

In Guatemala, President Bernardo Arevalo said the quake caused landslides in the city of San Pedro La Laguna, but no major incidents were reported.

“We are already clearing the affected section and taking steps to ensure public safety,” Arevalo said on X.

Officials in El Salvador, where the tremor triggered evacuations, said no major damage was reported.

Gov. Salomon Jara Cruz, of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, said the quake was felt “with moderate intensity.”

The only thing you might have in common with a World Cup football player is posting on Instagram as soon as you’re back home from a social gathering. Or, in the case of Erling Haaland, while you’re still in the dressing room after a win.

Football’s biggest stars are giving an insider look into the World Cup, their training, and personal lives at the six-week tournament through social media, and for some of them, their following has grown by tens of millions. Their on-pitch heroics, popularity, and personal stories have led them to overnight social media stardom during the World Cup.

Of course, football icons like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Neymar have seen an exponential rise in their Instagram following as well. But the 2026 World Cup wasn’t the first rodeo for these veterans, who have an evergreen social media boom outside the tournament.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at some of the biggest social media stars from this World Cup:

Erling Haaland — Netherlands

The goofy, witty and relatable six-foot-five-inch (195cm) Viking has been one of the World Cup’s most loveable personalities on the pitch and online.

The 25-year-old Norwegian striker, like many Gen Z social media users, seems to be chronically online when he’s not leading his country to new World Cup heights.

From candid Snapchat stories to Instagram posts right after winning to taking a taxidermied raccoon on the plane ride home, Haaland has become a social media phenomenon this World Cup.

It’s all thanks to his authentic posting style, compared with more carefully curated accounts that PR firms manage for similar high-profile personalities.

Of Haaland’s Instagram following of more than 70 million, 29 million were added in the past 30 days, according to analytics tool Social Blade. He is projected to reach 75 million after the World Cup final and nearly 322 million by the end of the year.

Vozinha — Cape Verde

One of the best feel-good stories of the tournament belongs to Vozinha, the Cape Verde goalkeeper whose heroics kept some of the world’s best teams from scoring a single goal against the island nation — all of which his mother eventually saw in person after she finally received a US visa to attend the World Cup.

He leapt, dived and executed a string of saves in Cape Verde’s tournament opener against Spain to end the match in a shock 0-0 draw. By the time he opened his Instagram a few hours later, his following surged from 500,000 to nearly five million.

It currently sits at 29.3 million followers, and the initial hype around him still stands as his posts garner millions of likes and interactions.

The 40-year-old joked how most people couldn’t even point out Cape Verde on a map before the World Cup, but his team’s standout performance in the group stages and knockout match helped change that.

Jude Bellingham — England

Good looks, loveable personality, Golden Boot contender — is there anything Jude Bellingham isn’t great at? And a massive 50 million Instagram following, of course.

The English midfielder’s World Cup journey may have ended in disappointment earlier this week, but there’s a lot to be said about a player whose fans sing “Hey Jude” for him after leading his team to victory at previous World Cup stages before the semifinal loss.

Bellingham, 23, has gained nearly nine million followers in the past 30 days, according to Social Blade, but his online popularity spiked by three million in October, when he opened up about his struggles with mental health.

Lamine Yamal — Spain

The teen sensation has been on the up and up since bursting to stardom two summers ago with Spain’s UEFA 2024 win, and his social media reflects the cool, candid, level-headed personality he carries on and off the pitch.

The 19-year-old’s Instagram feed is a mix of post-match photos, brand partnerships, multiple trophy wins and pictures with family members with whom he shares a close relationship.

His younger brother, Keyne, has become something of a celebrity at the World Cup, too, with his endearing antics as Yamal shepherds the three-year-old around the stadium pitch or watches him try — and fail — at golf.

The Barcelona striker could see his popularity gain new heights — and more Instagram followers, which currently number 49.6 million — after this Sunday’s World Cup final as Spain take on Messi’s Argentina.

Social media has already been fawning over the full-circle moment that began with a now-viral photo of Messi and Yamal in 2007 for a UNICEF fundraising shoot.

Tim Payne — New Zealand

Payne’s viral moment may have come before the World Cup, but it was touching nonetheless.

The New Zealand defender’s Instagram following exploded late in May after an Argentinian influencer decided he was the least-known player at the World Cup.

Valen Scarsini, known as “elscarso” on Instagram and TikTok, made a video encouraging his audience to give the Wellington Phoenix and All Whites defender’s account likes, comments and follows.

Payne’s Instagram following grew from fewer ⁠⁠than 5,000 before the campaign to about 5.8 million, turning the 32-year-old into one of the tournament’s most unlikely viral stars.

He even addressed the outpouring of love in a video on Instagram, and eventually met up with Scarsini at the team’s hotel in Boca Raton, Florida, ahead of the World Cup.

July 17 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday told FIFA officials they should pick the United States to host another World Cup, so long as they don’t include Canada or Mexico.

“You should choose the United States of America again,” Trump said during a FIFA World Cup reception at Trump Tower in New York, Politico reported. “This time we will leave Canada and Mexico out.”

The next World Cup, in 2030, will be co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, followed by Saudi Arabia in 2034.

FIFA has not yet selected a host for the 2038 tournament.

Trump added FIFA should “pick somebody else for the next one and that will take some of the anger, hatred and steam out of everyone,” Politico reported.

Trump has close ties to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

The president earlier this month said he spoke with Infantino to ask for a reversal of a red card suspension to U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun.

After Trump’s call, FIFA followed suit and allowed Balogun to play in the following match against Belgium.

“You made another great decision,” Trump told Infantino of the reversal on Friday. “You’ll never get credit for that.”

It made no difference: the U.S. soccer team was eliminated in a 4-1 loss to Belgium.

The World Cup comes to a close on Sunday. Trump said he would be present for the final match between Spain and Argentina.

July 17 (UPI) — Italy returned to Mexico a collection of 27 pre-Columbian archaeological artifacts and fossils recovered during separate investigations into the illicit trafficking of cultural property, authorities from both countries said.

The handover occurred Thursday at the Mexican Embassy in Rome, where the Italian Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection Unit officially delivered the items to Mexico’s ambassador to Italy, Genaro Lozano.

The artifacts will be transferred to Mexico after being cataloged by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, the institute said.

The collection includes three Teotihuacan heads dating from 200 B.C. to A.D. 650, two Maya terracotta figurines from the Early Classic period, a tripod bowl, 16 other pre-Columbian artifacts and three Late Cretaceous fossil fish, according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

The artifacts were recovered during investigations carried out by Italian authorities in Florence, Rome, Monza, Ancona and Venice.

The objects were found in customs inspections, private collections, online auctions and e-commerce platforms, while the fossils were intercepted in an illegal postal shipment from the Mexican state of Nuevo León, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said.

Brig. Gen. Antonio Petti, head of the Carabinieri unit for the protection of cultural heritage, said the artifacts are in an “absolutely excellent state of preservation” after being recovered during separate operations targeting the illegal trafficking of cultural property, according to El Observador, which cited comments he made to EFE.

During the ceremony, Lozano said the artifacts “represent the living history of Mexico” and said their value lies in “memory, justice, and recovering and keeping history alive,” according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

The diplomat said the restitution is part of the “My Heritage Is Not for Sale” campaign launched by the Mexican government to recover cultural property illegally removed from the country.

Since 2013, Italy has returned more than 840 cultural objects to Mexico through cooperation between the two countries to combat the international trafficking of archaeological heritage, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said.

The institute said the 27 pieces have been classified as archaeological monuments and, under Mexican law, are the inalienable property of the nation.

Once they arrive in Mexico, cultural authorities will decide whether the artifacts will be displayed in national museums or returned to the regions from which they were removed, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said.

Erling Haaland and SoFi Stadium, ladies and gentlemen. Your breakout stars of the World Cup.

We’ve all fallen for the blond forward who has rowed Norway to its first World Cup quarterfinal berth — and also for SoFi Stadium.

Or “Los Angeles Stadium,” FIFA’s designation for the $5.5-billion architectural masterpiece that welcomed the world to Inglewood.

I cover Rams and Chargers games there regularly, but the World Cup changed how I feel about the place. It has more soul now, more character.

There is more history attached, “core memories,” as Kevin Demoff, president of parent company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, put it.

The exultation when the United States went up 1-0 in the seventh minute of its tournament-opening, 4-1 victory over Paraguay? “That’s now a core memory of this stadium,” Demoff said.

So is the proud Iranian diaspora showing up en masse to mostly support Team Melli twice, in draws with New Zealand and Belgium.

And the goal by LAFC’s Stephen Eustáquio in the second minute of second-half stoppage time to lead Canada to a 1-0 victory over South Africa in its first knockout game.

And Spain’s taut, 2-1 victory over Belgium in Friday’s high-stakes quarterfinals match.

FIFA might say these sensational scenes put L.A. — our tiny hamlet of more than 18 million people — “on the map.”

What they did was put SoFi Stadium on everyone’s radar as one of the world’s foremost football stadiums.

Jose Ovalle, a 34-year-old from Reynosa, Mexico, has watched matches at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City and Estadio BBVA in Monterey, both sites of World Cup action this summer.

“They’re amazing stadiums — a lot of history, so much history,” Ovalle said Friday. “But [SoFi Stadium] is one of the top stadiums in the world.”

Spain midfielder Fabián Ruiz, left, celebrates after scoring past Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, right, in the World Cup quarterfinals at SoFi Stadium on Friday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Nah, said New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley: “This is the best football stadium I’ve ever been in.”

Swiss center back Manuel Akanji plays for Inter Milan and roots for the Atlanta Falcons. It was a big deal for him to play at their home field, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in last year’s FIFA Club World Cup.

“It’s really nice, but this is the best,” Akanji said after Switzerland defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina in group play at Sofi Stadium. “This is the best I’ve seen overall among all the stadiums I’ve ever been to. It’s amazing.”

Eight matches, five group stage games, two round-of-32 knockout affairs, Friday’s quarterfinal and a partridge in a pear tree — it was a monthlong run that was everything SoFi Stadium’s team could have wished for when it began preparing to host eight years ago. And more.

“I don’t think you can envision the passion of national team fans,” Demoff said. “We’ve seen so many great events here, NFL games, concerts, but the pride of a national event and seeing people come to Los Angeles and the U.S. for the first time, and seeing this building for the first time…

“There’s something magical about 30,000 Bosnians in blue singing, marching from the airport to here. You can’t properly envision that, no matter how many times you’ve been here.”

People raved about sight lines and sound. They admired the architecture and the infinity screen and the way the canopy kept things cool. In line to buy merchandise Friday, Orange County’s Nick Valencia looked around and mused: “Wow, humans made this.”

Players had the run of the place on real grass, not the artificial turf in place for NFL games. (Don’t expect that to change, Demoff said, noting that upkeep would be doubly challenging at SoFi Stadium with two NFL teams using the field.)

Soccer fans amplified their positive reviews online, where the only complaint having to do with SoFi Stadium was that FIFA decided to give the World Cup final to the archaic-by-comparison MetLife Stadium — a.k.a. “New York/New Jersey Stadium” — instead.

The stadium popped in person and on TV, its distinctive, futuristic shape making it immediately recognizable in a way that not every stadium is.

Vibes were good among volunteers and visitors from around the world and every corner of the United States — and among stadium staffers, who won raises in a late-breaking contract agreement that resulted in increases to more than $30 per hour.

The Rams’ house — and Chargers’ — was full almost every match, with four sold-out crowds of 70,492 and an eight-game total of 561,656.

People paid thousands of dollars for tickets and got their money’s worth at the world’s most-expensive stadium, a modern marvel that’s only getting better with age.

Dodger Stadium is dripping in lore, from Kirk Gibson’s legendary walk-off home run in 1988 to more history, like Shohei Ohtani playing perhaps the greatest game ever last postseason.

Staples — er, Crypto.com Arena — is where Kobe Bryant dropped 81. Decathlete Rafer Johnson lit the Olympic flame in 1984 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. And we all can picture Brandi Chastain ripping off her top in her iconic celebration after scoring the game-winning penalty kick in the 1999 Women’s World Cup at the Rose Bowl.

“We may not have the Brandi Chastain moment from ‘99,” Demoff said. “But we’ve had so many great moments off this tournament that I think will be replayed over and over and over again.”

There are more moments to come, with SoFi Stadium slated to host Super Bowl LXI in February and then, in 2028, to stage the Olympic Opening Ceremony and the Olympic swimming competition.

“Where the U.S. scored the opening goal,” Demoff said, “is going to be the middle of the Olympic swimming pool. I think that contrast blows people’s minds. It certainly blows mine.”

And for the past month, Los Angeles’ stadium blew the world’s mind.

Sheinbaum has denounced remarks from DEA head Terry Cole as a baseless ‘political statement’ about Mexico.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected a claim from the head of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that there is a deadly connection between her government and the country’s influential criminal cartels.

During her daily news conference on Wednesday, Sheinbaum pushed back, saying the DEA’s remarks seemed “more ‌like a political statement than one backed by evidence”.

She added that the DEA should focus on combating drug trafficking, distribution and money laundering within its own country. The US, she pointed out, is the world’s largest market for illicit drugs.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly faced accusations under US President Donald Trump that her country is “run” by cartels.

Several Trump officials have mirrored that assertion. On Tuesday, for instance, DEA Administrator Terry Cole said ⁠the Mexican government and cartel networks were “one and the same”.

The Mexican government responded by saying Cole’s remarks did not reflect its efforts to work with the US to combat cartels.

It added that Mexico continues to be willing to collaborate with the US to combat crime, as long as its sovereignty was respected.

Since Trump took office for a second term, Sheinbaum has faced pressure from her northern neighbour to crack down on crime in her country.

In response, she has pledged close cooperation with the US, while pushing back against Trump’s militaristic approach to Latin America.

Her administration has repeatedly rejected the prospect of the US conducting military operations on its soil without the federal government’s consent.

Initially, Trump and Sheinbaum appeared to forge warm relations, with the US president praising his Mexican counterpart as “marvellous”.

But Sheinbaum has become increasingly vocal in her criticism of the Trump administration in recent months.

In April, for instance, she rebuked the US for issuing an indictment against ⁠Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha, amid allegations his campaign worked with the Sinaloa Cartel to violently influence the 2021 gubernatorial election.

Sheinbaum said no evidence had been produced to back the US’s claim against Rocha. She also argued that rooting out corruption was a domestic issue, not an international one.

Earlier this week, Mexico filed criminal complaints with US prosecutors over the deaths of ‌Mexican ‌nationals swept up in Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Sheinbaum’s remarks on Wednesday came as the US Department of the Treasury announced that two more criminal organisations in Mexico — the Juarez Cartel and Los Viagras — had been designated “foreign terrorist ⁠organizations and specially ⁠designated global ⁠terrorists”.

The Trump administration has made such designations in the past, as it has sought to frame its actions in Latin America as a war on so-called “narco-terrorists”.