CNN Travel newsletter highlights global food and travel stories

CNN Travel's weekly newsletter, Unlocking the World, was published this week, covering a range of travel stories. It highlights culinary comparisons between France and Mexico, featuring 20 French and 23 Mexican dishes, and promotes the streaming series "Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico" and "Eva Longoria: Searching for France." The newsletter also reports on a hippo charging a tourist boat in Botswana, research on mosquitoes' ability to remember humans, and a warning from Louisiana health officials about flesh-eating bacteria in coastal waters. Additionally, it mentions the Ssese Islands in Uganda and Seoul's shortage of public trash cans.

CNN Travel newsletter highlights global food and travel stories
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Published Aug 15, 2026

Topic overview

Briefly

  • CNN Travel published a weekly newsletter with travel stories.
  • It features 20 French and 23 Mexican dishes to try.
  • Louisiana warns of flesh-eating bacteria on Gulf Coast.

What happened

CNN Travel's weekly newsletter, Unlocking the World, was published this week, offering a roundup of travel stories that span culinary, wildlife, health, and urban topics. The newsletter is part of CNN's ongoing coverage of global travel trends and destinations, and it aims to inform subscribers about both popular and lesser-known attractions and issues.

One of the main features is a culinary comparison between France and Mexico, presenting 20 classic French dishes and 23 Mexican dishes that readers are encouraged to try. This list includes iconic items like tacos, tarte tatin, burritos, and boeuf Bourguignon, highlighting the rich gastronomic traditions of both countries. The newsletter also mentions cancoillotte, a 2,000-year-old low-fat, high-protein cheese that is currently gaining popularity in French dairy aisles, and it promotes the CNN Original series "Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico" and "Eva Longoria: Searching for France," which are available for streaming in the US.

In the wildlife and health section, the newsletter reports on a recent incident in Botswana where a tourist boat had to outpace a charging hippo, underscoring the dangers of wildlife encounters. It also discusses research on mosquitoes, which are becoming more adept at outsmarting humans, including their ability to remember people who have tried to swat them. Additionally, Louisiana health officials are warning Gulf Coast beachgoers about a surge in infections caused by a flesh-eating bacteria found in coastal waters, urging precautions.

The newsletter also covers travel destinations, such as the Ssese Islands in Uganda, which are notable for being a tropical archipelago inside a landlocked country, and it mentions the "Turkish Maldives," a sun-kissed island. A quirky story highlights Seoul, South Korea, where there are only 7,000 public trash cans for a population of nearly 10 million, leading to a mysterious case of missing trash cans. The newsletter concludes with a quiz asking readers what they remember from the week.

Overall, the newsletter provides a diverse mix of travel inspiration, practical advice, and cultural insights, catering to a wide audience of travelers and enthusiasts.

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Updated Aug 15, 2026

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