Chirp to arms: musicians record album to help conserve endangered birds

Ten-track record samples recordings of endangered, vulnerable or near threatened birds by artists from same country

The song of the black catbird – with its flute-like chirps and screeching single-note squalls – was once heard across Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico until large-scale farms began to destroy its habitat.

Now, thanks to a collective of musicians, producers and DJs, the tiny bird’s song – and that of nine other endangered species from the region – could be heard on dancefloors around the world, with proceeds going to conserving the endangered birds.

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Mexico journalist gunned down – the fifth to be killed this year

  • Police guard also dies in shooting at restaurant in Guerrero
  • More than 120 Mexican journalists killed in 20 years

Press groups have called for justice after unidentified gunmen killed a journalist in southern Mexico, along with a police officer assigned to protect him after a 2016 attack.

Pablo Morrugares was the fifth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year, in attacks which are increasingly killing police guards assigned to the victims. More than 140 journalists have been killed over the past 20 years.

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Coronavirus global report: ‘response fatigue’ fears as Mexico hits 9,000 daily cases

Many countries that believed they were past the worst are grappling with new outbreaks, says WHO

Mexico has recorded more than 9,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time, as the country overtook the UK with the world’s third-highest number of deaths from the pandemic after the US and Brazil.

The surging numbers were reported as the World Health Organization warned of “response fatigue” and a resurgence of cases in several countries that have lifted lockdowns.

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Global report: curfew in Australia’s second-largest city as Mexico racks up daily record

Surging ‘mystery cases’ put Melbourne in stage 4 restrictions; media banned from Republican convention; Mexico deaths are world’s third highest

The Australian state of Victoria has declared a state of disaster and placed Melbourne, the country’s second biggest city, under nighttime curfew as it grapples with hundreds of “mystery cases” of coronavirus.

As countries around the world including the US, the UK and Spain reimpose varying degrees of lockdowns, the Victorian premier announced that the state had to impose the highest level of restrictions in order to overcome a stubbornly high number of cases that cannot be traced.

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Mexican president Amlo says he will wear mask ‘when there is no corruption’

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has consistently avoided wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus

Mexico’s president has said he will only wear a mask when the country eradicates corruption – a pledge made the day after Mexico surpassed the United Kingdom in total Covid-19 deaths.

Speaking to reporters on Friday morning, Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: “You know when I’m going to put on a mask? When there is no corruption. Then I’ll put on a mask and I’ll stop talking.”

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Mexico: women’s groups dismayed after judges dodge abortion decision

  • Supreme court votes against proposal on technical grounds
  • Plan could have opened path towards decriminalization

Mexican women’s groups have expressed deep disappointment after the supreme court dodged a ruling on a proposal which could have opened a legal path towards decriminalizing abortion.

In a 4-1 decision, the court voted on Wednesday against the proposal for technical reasons – without addressing arguments that restrictions on abortion violated women’s rights and contravened international treaties to which Mexico is a signatory.

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Mexico’s activists brace for landmark supreme court abortion ruling

The ruling could set a precedent; in states that have restrictive regulations, injunctions could be granted to allow the procedure

Activists on both sides of Mexico’s abortion debate are bracing for a potentially historic supreme court hearing on Wednesday, which could lead to decriminalisation across the country.

The case before the five judges of the high court’s first bench involves an injunction granted in the eastern state of Veracruz, which ordered the local legislature to remove articles from its criminal code pertaining to abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

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Top Mexican drug kingpin El Mencho reportedly builds own private hospital

Secretive leader of Jalisco New Generation cartel, who seeks treatment for kidney disease, currently seen as ‘public enemy No 1’

One of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords, El Mencho, is reported to have built his own private hospital in the western state of Jalisco.

Related: 'The only two powerful cartels left': rivals clash in Mexico's murder capital

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Tsunami of fake news hurts Latin America’s effort to fight coronavirus

More than 160,000 people have died but from Mexico to Brazil, social networks are awash with quack cures and conspiracies

For months Gustavo Andrade has been battling to convince his parishioners to take Covid-19 seriously.

Related: Desperate Bolivians seek out toxic bleach falsely touted as Covid-19 cure

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Mexico’s neglect of Covid-19 testing mystifies experts as cases surge

The country performs just three tests per 100,000 people, with explanations ranging from cost-cutting to a push for herd immunity

Before travelling to Washington to meet Donald Trump earlier this month, the Mexican president took a coronavirus test.

Until then, Andrés Manuel López Obrador had never been tested, arguing that there was no need for it – even though several cabinet members had become infected with Covid-19.

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Newly excavated tools suggest humans lived in North America at least 30,000 years ago

Artefacts from central Mexico cave are strong evidence humans lived on continent 15,000 years earlier than previously thought

Tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said on Wednesday.

The artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite cave over a 20,000-year period, they reported in two studies published in the journal Nature.

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Femicides rise in Mexico as president cuts budgets of women’s shelters

New figures reflect surge in violence against women during pandemic while government implements austerity measures

Violence against women has surged in Mexico since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but the country’s president has downplayed the problem and slashed the budgets of agencies charged with addressing women’s issues.

Figures released this week show that crimes such as femicides climbed 7.7% in the first half of 2020, when compared with the same period last year, and shelters have reported a sharp rise in the number of women attempting to flee domestic violence.

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Inexorable spread of coronavirus snuffs out Mexico’s ‘municipalities of hope’

More than 300 towns free of Covid-19 were allowed to reopen in May to mitigate the pandemic’s economic cost. With cases surging, most have been forced to close

As the coronavirus pandemic advances across Mexico, leaving thousands dead in its wake, Tepango de Rodríguez has – so far – remained untouched.

The town of about 4,000 people sits high in the mountains of the Sierra Norte in Puebla state, and was quick to apply strict preventive measures, closing its food market and installing health checkpoints.

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Trump claims US would be ‘inundated’ with Covid-19 were it not for border wall

President made remark hours after his Mexican counterpart thanked him for not bringing subject up in public

Donald Trump has claimed that the US would be “inundated” with coronavirus, were it not for new sections of the border wall – mere hours after his Mexican counterpart thanked him for avoiding the thorny subject during a summit meeting this week.

Related: Amlo unscathed after Trump meeting but snags cameo role in US election

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Jo Tuckman, longtime Guardian reporter in Mexico, dies aged 53

Tuckman, a ‘sensitive and tenacious reporter’ who loved Mexico, had been undergoing cancer treatment

Jo Tuckman, who for many years reported for the Guardian in Mexico, has died aged 53.

Jo had been undergoing treatment for cancer since falling ill last year, and died at her home in Mexico City on Thursday afternoon, surrounded by close friends.

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DNA analysis identifies second Mexican student among 43 disappeared in 2014

  • Christian Rodríguez named after testing at Austrian university
  • 43 Ayotzinapa teachers college students abducted by police

Nearly six years after 43 Mexican students were kidnapped and forcibly disappeared, a new forensic science study has identified the remains of a second member of the missing group.

Omar Gómez Trejo, head of the special unit of the attorney general’s office charged with reinvestigating the case, said on Tuesday that remains found in November were subjected to DNA analysis this year at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

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Justin Trudeau snubs Nafta meeting with Trump in Washington

  • Mexico’s president to meet Trump on Wednesday
  • Canada PM had spoken of concern about US tariffs on metals

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has declined an invitation to visit the White House this week to celebrate a new North American free trade deal, amid worsening coronavirus figures in the US and lingering tensions with Donald Trump.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obradoris due to meet Trump in Washington on Wednesday, and had urged Trudeau to attend the meeting.

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Mariachi Mecca: Mexico’s national heritage under threat from Covid-19

The mariachi musicians of Mexico City are struggling to eke out a living during the pandemic. Photojournalist Rubén Salgado has been documenting the community

The Mariachi musician is one of Mexico’s most best-known symbols and Plaza Garibaldi their home in Mexico City’s historic downtown, known as the Mariachi Mecca. Normally the plaza will have hundreds of tourists and locals present to see them perform. With the new government restrictions in place due to Covid-19, there are hundreds of jobless musicians vying for the work that may allow them to feed themselves and their families that day. Dozens of men wait on the main avenue stepping in front of traffic looking for clients.

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Poverty, not just populists, to blame for Covid-19’s impact on Latin America

Mexico and Brazil have been hit hard by the pandemic, but so too have countries that were quicker to respond

Coronavirus arrived in Latin America later than in Europe, but it has taken firm hold. A quarter of global confirmed cases are in the region, and researchers have warned the death toll is likely to triple by October to nearly 400,000.

The two countries with the deadliest outbreaks share populist leaders, Brazil’s rightwing Jair Bolsonaro and Mexico’s leftwing Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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‘It’s a tsunami’: pandemic leaves vulnerable Latin America reeling

Years of social progress could be reversed by the virus, amid accusations that politicians have been fatally inept

As coronavirus galloped through Latin America in late April, the mayor of Manaus was in despair. “The outlook is dismal,” Arthur Virgílio admitted as gravediggers in the Amazon’s largest city piled coffins into muddy trenches, Brazil’s death toll hit 5,500, and its president, Jair Bolsonaro, responded with a shrug. “It’s obvious this won’t end well.”

Two months later, Virgílio’s nightmare has come true. Brazil’s death toll has risen to more than 60,000 – the second highest in the world after the United States – with some now predicting it could overtake the US, where 130,000 have died, by the end of July.

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