• Mexico: Bioarchitects plot route to circular economy
• Heirloom corn in a rainbow of colors makes a comeback in Mexico, where white corn has long been king
• Maya civilization: Archaeologists find ancient city in jungle

• Mexico: City devastated by drug-war violence reaps peace-creating benefit of advanced meditation groups
• Mexico: Thousands of indigenous students to meditate together at traditional celebration
• Mexico: Consciousness-Based Education to benefit student population, promote peace in the nation

• One of the world's biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water
• Dams, taps running dry in northern Mexico amid historic water shortages
• Scientists find massive methane leak at Pemex Gulf of Mexico oil field - paper

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Mexico: Bioarchitects plot route to circular economy
31 October 2023 - Bioarchitects in Mexico are reviving traditional clay adobe building techniques used since the 16th and 17th centuries in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, to give birth to a new cutting-edge school of bioconstruction aimed at reducing the ecological footprint of the cement-hungry construction sector. Bio-buildings are built from natural materials, are long-lasting, energy-efficient, healthier, and often with better earthquake resistance. Built with local materials by locally trained workers, with their walls easily recycled at the end of a building's life, bio-buildings can be part of a circular economy, benefiting humanity and nature. (more)

Heirloom corn in a rainbow of colors makes a comeback in Mexico, where white corn has long been king
26 July 2023 - On the slopes of the Malinche volcano, Juan Vargas starts the dawn routine he's had since childhood, carefully checking stalks of colorful native corn. ...Vargas is among farmers in Mexico who've been holding on to heirloom strains for generations, against a flood of industrially produced white corn. They're finding a niche but increasing market among consumers seeking organic produce from small-scale growers and chefs worldwide who want to elevate or simply provide an authentic take on tortillas, tostadas, and other corn-based pillars of Mexican food. (more)

Maya civilization: Archaeologists find ancient city in jungle
21 June 2023 - Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered the remains of an ancient Maya city deep in the jungle of the Yucatan Peninsula. Experts found several pyramid-like structures measuring more than 15m (50ft) in height. Pottery unearthed at the site appears to indicate it was inhabited between 600 and 800 AD, a period known as Late Classic. Archaeologists have named the site Ocomtun (Mayan for stone column). (more)

Let it bee: The women on a mission to save Mexico City's bees
15 June 2023 - Adriana Veliz heads a group of mostly women who are working hive by hive to relocate bees that would be exterminated if they remained in Mexico's crowded capital city. The group, Abeja Negra SOS, was born in 2018 when Veliz -- a veterinarian working for the city government at the time -- noticed that when authorities received calls about beehives, the automatic response was to exterminate the bees. She and other colleagues began looking for an alternative. (more)

Mexico sends its famed search dogs to Turkey
9 February 2023 - Mexico is sending some of its famous search and rescue dogs to Turkey to help look for people buried under rubble following Monday's [6 February] earthquake. Mexico, which is prone to earthquakes, has highly specialized civilian and military teams which are often deployed to help when disasters strike. The dogs won the hearts of Mexicans during the country's 2017 quake, when they saved several lives. (more)

Mexico looks to giant solar park in the desert to assuage carbon concerns
5 February 2023 - The first power from a giant solar energy park in the desert of northern Mexico will enter the country's electricity grid in April, officials said on Thursday [2 February], as the nation aims to burnish its green credentials with the flagship project. (more)

1st phase of Mexican solar project to be operating in April
3 February 2023 - Mexico plans to power up the first phase of a huge solar energy project in April near a beach town popular with tourists making the short drive from the United States. Once completed, the full $1.6 billion project will have a generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts -- enough to power some 500,000 homes. It will be the largest solar project built by Mexico's state-owned electric company. (more)

Ancient Maya cities, 'super highways' revealed in latest survey
19 January 2023 - A new high-tech study has revealed nearly 1,000 ancient Maya settlements, including 417 previously unknown cites linked by what may be the world's first highway network and hidden for millennia by the dense jungles of northern Guatemala and southern Mexico. (more)

Pelicans rest up in Mexico City as clean water push bears fruit
16 December 2022 - On the northern flank of the bustling hubbub of Mexico City, white American pelicans paddle on the waters of a lake after traveling thousands of miles from the United States and Canada to escape the bite of a northern winter. Part of migratory flocks that come to Mexico every year to feed and rest, the pelicans began stopping at the lake at Bosque San Juan de Aragon after the city and scientists a decade ago began creating nearby wetlands to revive the local environment. (more)

Regenerative agriculture in Mexico boosts yields while restoring nature
29 August 2022 - Chiapas is Mexico's second-most biodiverse state and provides 30 percent of the country's freshwater, but has lost 55 percent of its forests for farmland and livestock pasture. Now, an unlikely alliance of conservationists, farmers, and cattle ranchers is working to incorporate 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of land into sustainable management schemes, focusing on soil health and aiming to restore and reforest 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres). (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Mexico: City devastated by drug-war violence reaps peace-creating benefit of advanced meditation groups
25 December 2013 - A recent New York Times article featured Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, and 'a perennial symbol of drug war devastation'. The article highlights a recent trend of dramatically reduced crime and violence in the city, with many former residents who fled in fear returning, shops and restaurants reopening, and people once again venturing out freely on the streets. 'There is still disagreement over what, exactly, has led to the drastic drop in violence,' the article reports. Yesterday on Christmas Eve, Transcendental Meditation teachers commented that these positive trends reflect rising coherence and peace in collective consciousness--created by large groups practising Transcendental Meditation and its advanced programmes in Central and South America, including Mexico. (more)

Mexico: Thousands of indigenous students to meditate together at traditional celebration
18 December 2012 - This Friday, 21 December, many young students from rural schools in Mexico will take part in a celebration of indigenous people in the southern part of the country. The students--along with many of their parents, teachers, and community leaders--are coming together to practise Transcendental Meditation and its advanced programmes in a large group, expected to number in the thousands. They have learned these meditation techniques as part of Consciousness-Based Education, which is being used in schools throughout Latin America and around the globe. The students are aiming to create through their group meditation a powerful, uplifting influence of coherence, harmony, and peace for Mexico, all of Latin America, and the world. (more)

Mexico: Consciousness-Based Education to benefit student population, promote peace in the nation
2 July 2011 - Consciousness-Based Education programmes are being applied in secondary schools and universities in Mexico, to improve student achievement while contributing to the creation of invincible peace, harmony, and progress for the nation. (more)

Mexico: Maharishi Vastu schools under construction
8 December 2010 - Construction began a few weeks ago on two 2-storey school buildings in Monterrey, Mexico, which have been designed according to Vastu principles of Maharishi Vedic Architecture. The buildings will be halls for 900 students to practise the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme in large groups every day, to create a continuing influence of coherence, harmony, and peace in their region and for the whole nation. (more)

Mexico: Young school students innocently create invincibility for the nation
12 July 2010 - A school in Mexico is making a large nation invincible through students' group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM Sidhi Programme. In a new film about the programme, the school's Academic Director says that students have become more orderly and more attentive in class; teachers feel more free from stress, more willing to listen to the children; and crime is decreasing in the town where the school is located, compared to other nearby areas. (more)

Mexico: 2,380 Yogic Flyers to be a 'lighthouse of coherence for the continent of Latin America'
2 July 2010 - National coherence is now becoming well established in Mexico. One thousand Yogic Flyers will soon regularly practise the Transcendental Meditation and Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme, including Yogic Flying, in ideal Vastu (Vedic architecture) facilities, and the number of Yogic Flyers will soon increase to 2,380. (more)

Leading universities in Mexico adopting Consciousness-Based Education
28 June 2010 - Two leading universities in Mexico have agreed to implement the Transcendental Meditation Programme on a large scale. (more)

Mexico: Five hundred students learn Yogic Flying, transform their school
29 May 2010 - A secondary school in Mexico--and the surrounding community--are being transformed by the daily Yogic Flying practice of 500 students, who recently learnt the technique as part of the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme. Teachers in the project have noticed a distinct decrease in stress levels within the school, and growth of joy and confidence among students, teachers, and parents. (more)

Monterrey school leading the way for Mexico to achieve national invincibility
23 November 2009 - With rising numbers of student Yogic Flyers at a school in Monterrey, Mexico will soon reach the threshold number of 1,008 Yogic Flyers required to achieve national invincibility. (more)

Latin America: Students raising Mexico to invincibility
23 December 2008 - In Mexico there will soon be 1,000 students practising Yogic Flying (an aspect of the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme)--the number required to create invincible peace, prosperity, and good fortune for the nation. These students are among 61,000 from 158 schools in 19 Latin American countries currently practising Transcendental Meditation, and 14,000 practising Yogic Flying--creating a powerful influence of coherence and harmony for the entire continent and the world. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

One of the world's biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water
25 February 2024 - Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 22 million people and one of the world's biggest cities, is facing a severe water crisis as a tangle of problems -- including geography, chaotic urban development, and leaky infrastructure -- are compounded by the impacts of climate change. Years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods, and high temperatures have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with increased demand. (more)

Dams, taps running dry in northern Mexico amid historic water shortages
20 June 2022 - More than half of Mexico is currently facing moderate to severe drought conditions, according to the federal water commission CONAGUA, amid extreme heat that scientists blame on climate change. ... With the hottest months ahead, the crisis is expected to continue. The hope is that summer brings some consistent rainfall to this arid climate. (more)

Scientists find massive methane leak at Pemex Gulf of Mexico oil field - paper
9 June 2022 - Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos released thousands of tons of methane gas into the atmosphere from an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico last December, research published on Thursday [9 June] by the European Space Agency (ESA) showed. Invisible and odorless, but much more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide, methane is considered a major driver of global warming. (more)

As journalists die, Mexico defends its press protection plan
15 February 2022 - Even as Mexicans lament the killings of five reporters, photographers, and videographers in just six weeks, they wonder: How is this happening, despite a 10-year-old program that is meant to protect journalists? (more)

Tourists bask on a battlefield as drug gangs fight over Mexican resort town
5 December 2021 - Tulum, jewel of the Mayan Riviera, risks emulating Acapulco, another once glamorous resort now overwhelmed by violence. ... The violence is not restricted to Tulum. Last month, guests at a resort 100km up the coast near Cancun rushed for cover after masked gunmen stormed a hotel beach by boat and opened fire, killing two suspected rivals. (more)

Mexico murder rate rises in first three months of 2019
22 April 2019 - The first three months of 2019 have seen a 9.6% increase in murders in Mexico, official figures suggest. The figures from the National System for Public Security are particularly worrying as 2018 had the highest murder rate since Mexico began keeping records of homicides. (more)

Powerful Hurricane Willa bears down on Mexico's Pacific coast
22 October 2018 - Hurricane Willa, an extremely dangerous a Category 4 storm, weakened slightly as it veered toward popular tourist resorts on Mexico's Pacific coast on Monday (22 October), prompting government warnings for people to leave high-risk areas and take cover. Mexican authorities urged residents to evacuate their homes for temporary shelters, closed ports, canceled classes, and suspended beachside and marine activities. (more)

In town with little water, Coca-Cola is everywhere. So is diabetes.
14 July 2018 - San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico: Maria del Carmen Abadia lives in one of Mexico's rainiest regions, but she has running water only once every two days. When it does trickle from her tap, the water is so heavily chlorinated, she said, it's undrinkable. Potable water is increasingly scarce in San Cristobal de las Casas, a picturesque mountain town in the southeastern state of Chiapas where some neighborhoods have running water just a few times a week, and many households are forced to buy extra water from tanker trucks. .... Climate change, scientists say, has also played a role in the failure of artesian wells that sustained San Cristobal for generations. 'It doesn't rain like it used to,' said Jesus Carmona, a biochemist at the local Ecosur scientific research center, which is affiliated with the Mexican government. 'Almost every day, day and night, it used to rain.' (more)

Monarch butterfly numbers off for 2nd year in Mexico
5 March 2018 - The number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexican forests declined for a second consecutive year, a government official said Monday (5 March). The monarch butterflies' migration is measured by the area they cover in pine and fir forests west of Mexico City. Millions of the butterflies make the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) migration from the United States and Canada each year. (more)

Mexico murders hit record high, dealing blow to President
23 December 2017 - Mexico has this year registered its highest murder total since modern records began, according to official data, dealing a fresh blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto's pledge to get gang violence under control with presidential elections due in 2018. A total of 23,101 murder investigations were opened in the first 11 months of this year, surpassing the 22,409 registered in the whole of 2011, figures published on Friday night by the interior ministry showed. The figures go back to 1997. (more)