England will face New Zealand and Costa Rica in their final warm-up games ahead of the 2026 World Cup. The Three Lions booked their spot at this summer's tournament in emphatic fashion, winning all eight of their qualifying matches under Thomas Tuchel. They became just the second European team to win 100% of their qualifying matches without conceding, after Yugoslavia (four games) did so ahead of the 1954 World Cup.
The world's largest pencil maker has accused the Costa Rican government of misusing an old factory that the German manufacturer donated for humanitarian purposes by detaining asylum seekers there who were deported from the US by the Trump administration last year. Faber-Castell produces more than 2bn wooden pencils a year worldwide and used to have a factory in the southern part of Costa Rica, bordering Panama and supplied by trees cultivated in the region.
Perched high above the Pacific coastline in Bahía Ballena, Costa Rica, Ojo de Nila is a house that feels less like an object placed on land and more like a continuation of it. Designed by Studio Saxe, with interiors by Atelier Sandra Richard, the home was created for a Swiss couple seeking a slower, more elemental way of living shaped by air, light, and landscape rather than mechanical systems and rigid enclosures. A clear modular logic guides the architecture.
In Emilio Pena Delgado's home, several photos hang on the wall. One shows him standing in front of a statue with his wife and oldest son in the centre of San Jose and smiling. In another, his two sons sit in front of caricatures from the film Cars. For him, the photos capture moments of joy that feel distant when he returns home to La Carpio, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Costa Rica's capital.
Right-wing candidate from the governing PPSO leads presidential race with 53.01 percent of the vote, early results show. The right-wing law-and-order candidate, Laura Fernandez, has taken a commanding lead in Costa Rica's presidential election, according to early results. With ballots from 31 percent of polling stations counted, Fernandez, of the governing Sovereign People Party (PPSO), had 53.01 percent of the vote, the results showed on Sunday.
Alvaro Fonseca Depth Lens + 7 Architects: JSARQ Area of this architecture project Area: 5900 ft Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2025 Photographs:Alvaro Fonseca Depth Lens Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: Kohler, Mad Living Lead Architects: Janine Schneider Design Team: Janine Schneider, Marcos Ramirez General Contractor: Ravco Engineering & Consulting > Structural: Alberto Apestegui Engineering & Consulting > Mep: Cristian Jimenez Interior Design: Mad Living
Solo travel is one of those things that people are either intimidated by or wholeheartedly embrace. Even though I fall into the latter category-I do it multiple times every month-I still find traveling alone as a woman requires research, thorough preparation, and a constant sense of awareness. Some pretrip nonnegotiables for me include downloading maps to use offline, carrying a fully charged portable power bank, and sharing my location with my friends and family.
"The security alert, issued on Nov. 25, tells Americans to be aware of "recent property crimes, financial crimes, and robberies that have impacted foreigners in Costa Rica, including U.S. citizens." "Tourists have reported break-ins and armed robberies at Airbnbs and other rental properties," the embassy wrote. "Criminal gangs have targeted foreign-owned businesses and residences for crimes that included robberies, break-ins, and extortion."
The vast majority of Costa Rica's radio and television stations are at risk of having to stop broadcasting, after failing to meet the requirements of a spectrum auction ordered by the government of Rodrigo Chaves. The auction was supposedly aimed at democratizing the use of state resources and ensuring that companies pay a fair price for their operations. But dozens of stations announced that they were unable to submit a bid before the Friday midnight deadline set by the authorities for the process.
Last year, I did something that I never thought I would do in a million years: I lost my passport while traveling abroad. To make matters worse, I was traveling solo. My flight home was in two days, and I couldn't remember the last time I had seen it after leaving the airport. To set the scene for you, I had been spending the weekend staying in a gorgeous open-air villa at Origins Lodge, a luxury mountainside ecolodge nestled between dense Costa Rican rainforest.
By night, spectral bats leave their roost and swoop through the tree canopy of Costa Rica, wings outstretched as far as three feet wide, in search of prey: unsuspecting mice and rats, birds called motmots, even other bats. Sometimes, after they snag something good, they will fly back home with the doomed victim in their stalactite teeth and willingly give up a meal to another bat inside the roost. At the end of the day, the world's largest carnivorous bat is a rather cooperative creature.