The Azcatitlan Codex, a 50‑folio summary of the Aztec empire’s history, has temporarily returned to Mexico on loan from France to mark the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The document left Mexico in 1840 and has come back nearly two centuries later to be exhibited for three months at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum and French president Emmanuel Macron agreed in November 2025 to exchange this codex and the Boturini Codex to mark the relaunch of Franco‑Mexican relations.

The manuscript recounts the departure of pre‑Hispanic peoples from Aztlán in search of the place where they later founded Tenochtitlan, the Aztec empire’s capital and the site of present‑day Mexico City. It also narrates the most significant episodes in the reigns of several of its tlatoani (rulers) up to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519, led by Hernán Cortés, and the establishment of the caste system in New Spain. The Azcatitlan Codex dates to the late 17th century, and historians estimate its first owner was Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, a politician descended from Nezahualcóyotl, one of Texcoco’s greatest rulers.

The codex is considered a late work because it was produced several years after the establishment of the colonial government of New Spain, and because it was drawn in color on European paper and bound like a book. “In that sense, I believe the codex is very important, because although it may be a somewhat late version, it is one that provides various relevant insights into the history of the Aztec people,” explains Baltazar Brito Guadarrama, director of the National Library of Anthropology and History. The illustrations, for example, already contain some Spanish words, which have made it possible to confirm the location of some of the sites on which the account of the founding of Tenochtitlan is based.

The Azcatitlan Codex’s journey from its origin has been an eventful one. After the death of its first owner, the document passed to the scholar Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, who bequeathed it to the library of the Society of Jesus. Part of the Jesuit order’s holdings was acquired by the Italian historian Lorenzo Boturini in 1737. His collection was ultimately confiscated by the viceroyalty and kept at the university. Finally, in 1830, the French historian Joseph Aubin acquired the codex and took it by ship to Paris, where he sold it to the Franco‑Mexican collector Eugène Goupil. After Goupil’s death, his family donated it in 1896 to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, where it has remained under the custody of the French government.

The codex is on display in a small temporary gallery at the National Museum of Anthropology and History. In the center of the room, protected by glass and under dim lighting, sits the original book opened to pages four and five, which show eight Indigenous peoples (Matlatzincas, Tepanecs, Chichimecas, Malinalcas, Cuitlauacas, Xochimilcas, Chalcas and Huejotzincas) organizing the search for the place where Huitzilopochtli (the god of the Sun and war) instructs them to found Tenochtitlan. Brito Guadarrama says those pages were chosen because they show the Aztecs’ multicultural origins and their foundational myth. “They allowed many other peoples to identify themselves, not just the Aztec people but seven other peoples as well. And in that sense I think it’s more appropriate that people come and identify with their historical heritage,” he says. The remaining folios can be seen in photographs on a museum wall. “Some of its pages were lost over time, but its content remains open to interpretation,” said Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza.

While Mexico receives the Azcatitlan Codex, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris will, beginning next week, exhibit the Boturini Codex, also known as the Tale of the Mexica Migration, produced in the 16th century and recounting the Aztecs’ journey from Aztlán to their arrival in Tenochtitlan. That document has also been sent on loan — something that had not happened in nearly two centuries — because it belongs to the holdings of the National Museum of Anthropology and History. In December, the Azcatitlan and Boturini codices will return, respectively, to the countries that are hosting them. The Mexican government has no intention of reclaiming the Azcatitlan Codex from France. “Codices do not belong to institutions; they belong to the people and to the generations who recognize themselves in them,” said Roberto Velasco, secretary of foreign affairs, at the exhibition opening.

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In July 2024, during a crypto conference held in Nashville, Donald Trump vowed that if he returned to the White House he would turn the U.S. into the crypto capital of the world. Two years later, the largest market for digital assets still lacks a law to regulate the industry, while Europe has had one since December 2024. On Tuesday, the Senate blocked the progress of the Clarity Act yet again, citing insufficient safeguards to prevent public officials — including the president himself — from benefiting from their crypto businesses. Despite the legislative setback for a bill that includes many of the industry’s proposals, the sector has not lost faith: crypto firms and entrepreneurs continue to pour money into Republicans and pro-crypto candidates ahead of the November midterm elections.

The bill, stalled in the Capitol, seeks to clarify that business and to split oversight between two federal agencies: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The law also promises to provide investor protections and define companies’ obligations.

After clearing the House last summer, only the Senate vote remained for the Clarity Act to become law. Just as the bill’s path seemed clear, the release of Trump’s financial disclosure — which revealed $1.4 billion in revenue from his crypto businesses during the first year of his second term — set off alarm bells among opponents. Democrats regard the ethical provisions in the bill as insufficient because they might not apply to Trump, who launched his crypto ventures before his reelection. After months of negotiations, Tuesday’s vote ended in defeat for Republicans, with 49 votes in favor of advancing the bill and 50 against. No Democrat backed the bill’s advancement, and four Republicans joined them, thwarting the goal of reaching the 60 votes needed to clear the procedural hurdle.

This latest failure is a setback for an industry that hailed Trump as a savior after years of frustrated hopes under a skeptical administration and regulators. The president himself has since become one of the biggest obstacles to regulating the sector, but the industry has doubled down on its bet. In the current campaign cycle, the sector has spent $206 million to support candidates from both parties, both through direct candidate donations and through political action committees (PACs) such as Fairshake, Stand with Crypto Alliance, and Digital Freedom Fund. No other economic sector, including the artificial intelligence industry, spends as much on campaign contributions, according to a Public Citizen analysis based on data from OpenSecrets and the Federal Election Commission.

The main crypto super PAC is Fairshake, founded in 2023 with funding from Coinbase and Ripple. It spent $133 million in 2024, according to OpenSecrets. In this election cycle, which will take voters to the polls on November 3, it has been seeding millions into contests across the country. In Alabama it spent $9.8 million to support Republican candidate Barry Moore, according to AdImpact, a website that monitors how political “dark money” is spent on campaign ads, and how much of it. In Iowa, the beneficiary was Zach Nunn, also a Republican and pro-digital-currency, for whom it paid to run an AI-generated ad defending family values.

But they were not alone. A recent Financial Times article revealed that a handful of U.S. billionaires have mobilized to fund the Republican electoral push. Beyond Coinbase and Ripple, companies such as Crypto.com, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, also appear on the list.

Elon Musk, also a staunch supporter of digital currencies and who set records in the 2024 presidential cycle by contributing about $290 million to Trump’s campaign, is expected to spend roughly $100 million this time. The billionaire’s shell entity, America PAC, injected funds into key Senate races in August — including Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Texas and Alaska — as well as into critical House of Representatives contests, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on September 2.

In the background is the controversial Supreme Court ruling Citizens United, which in 2013 allowed companies to pay politicians so those officials would later conveniently represent their interests in the Capitol. Emerging industries like digital assets and artificial intelligence have in recent years been occupying a space traditionally dominated by Wall Street.

‘Cryptobros’ flaunt their influence

The path of the Clarity Act had already exposed the growing political weight of the cryptocurrency industry. Earlier this year, a battle erupted between big banks and the crypto sector: the flashpoint was the possibility that stablecoins (cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar) could offer yields to their users. While banks saw unfair competition with their traditional deposit business and risks of capital flight, part of the crypto industry viewed it as a matter of survival. In an unusual show of force, Coinbase walked away from negotiations and the Republican Party responded by revising the proposal.

Now it is Trump himself who has again complicated the bill’s prospects, putting its future in doubt and making the chance of winning approval before the November elections — in which Republicans could lose control of the Senate — seem increasingly remote. “The Clarity Act would have shielded the industry from political swings and changes in administration,” analysts at Bernstein say.

As a result, the industry is already looking for shortcuts: “We can’t wait on Congress anymore. The SEC and CFTC have the tools they need to create clear rules under existing authority, and I expect will begin working on this in earnest,” Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive, said on X. Since Trump’s return to the White House, both agencies have dismissed or shelved dozens of lawsuits against crypto companies alleging market-law violations.

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Around 150 police officers began the process of moving migrants encamped on two beaches in Ceuta on Friday to facilities set up at the port in the Spanish exclave city, after the National High Court allowed their temporary use on Thursday following repeated judicial and political disputes. The start of the operation was marked by an initial stampede that led officers to fire warning shots into the air and left several people injured. Once that initial phase had passed, police organized the migrants into groups along the entire promenade, from Benítez beach to the start of the industrial area of the port, occupying a distance of just under 1,000 meters.

The operation was launched in response to growing public concern over the presence of thousands of migrants in Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city on the coast of North Africa, after a mass breach of the border in late July during which an estimated 80,000 people crossed into the territory. The majority of the migrants returned to Morocco but thousands remain seeking to file asylum claims while living in makeshift camps on the city’s beaches, leading authorities in Madrid to order the temporary opening of more facilities to house them.

Through a megaphone the authorities called for calm, and the migrants waited for their transfer behind a heavy police cordon. For now, those being moved belong to the Benítez beach settlement, adjacent to the larger El Trampolín settlement. The operation began shortly before 7.00 a.m. Migrants on El Trampolín beach were cordoned off but there was no tension as they already knew they will not be moved today and returned to their usual routine.

Before the police operation began, hundreds of migrants were already waiting on the beaches. When only a few Civil Guard units were in the area, migrants began to run toward the port, causing a crowd surge along Ceuta’s seafront promenade. At around 7 a.m., when police units arrived, the stampede was brought under control and the migrants were organized for the transfer to commence.

Just as the streetlights were going out, the transfer operation to the Port of Ceuta facilities officially began. After the first chaotic hour, police units started the foot transfer toward the temporary reception center. The operation was carried out jointly with military units and the Civil Guard. The migrants, mostly men, greeted the start of the march with applause after a sleepless night spent waiting, prepared to leave with their belongings. The new facilities have capacity for about 1,700 people.

The operation to transport migrants to the port experienced several tense moments. The migrants crowded around the riot police, and as they tried to cross along the designated route, a stampede broke out. The police fired shots into the air and struck several of the migrants, who had been holding their ground for nearly an hour against the pressure of the hundreds of people crowding behind them.

Removal of minors

Officers involved in the transfer located several children who were waiting to be relocated to the port facilities. They were removed from the group, which had been sitting on the ground following officers’ instructions. The temporary reception center is intended for adult males, and unlike a previous operation to move migrants to a facility at Loma Colmenar, where unaccompanied minors were initially admitted, on this occasion authorities are preventing them from blending in with the others. For now, there are no new facilities designated for minors in Ceuta.

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