Diana Baptista

Claudia Sheinbaum has made history as the first woman to be elected president of Mexico, but activists fear her win could be largely symbolic after a campaign short on promises to tackle high rates of domestic violence and unequal abortion access.

"Being a woman does not necessarily embody progressiveness in the women's rights' agenda," said Friné Salguero, director at the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute, a feminist civil society group based in Mexico City.

It has never been hotter in Mexico - and the women and men who want to run the country have never tried harder to come up with solutions to the climate crisis. Nor ever fallen quite so short, according to analysis of their election policies. 

A dozen cities across the country have broken temperature records in the past month, reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and killing 43 people so far.

Natalia Lane's work is hybrid - like most jobs these days. So the 34-year-old graduate creates exciting online content for half her day then gives over the rest to in-person services.

Lane, though, is a sex worker, so her job comes without any of the basic rights, benefits or protections that jobs in Mexico routinely offer. Something she is desperate to change.

Sitting next to dozens of worn, multicoloured tents on a street in downtown Mexico City, two Venezuelan siblings wait for the clock to strike 10am to take out their phones and apply for an asylum appointment in the United States.

Like others in the migrant camp, they are obliged to use the CBP One app to schedule an appointment to present an asylum claim with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Sine Hope's big passion in life is Latin and ballroom dancing, but her days of samba and rumba are over - two years ago a vicious assault by her then-boyfriend left the vivacious South African in a wheelchair.

The former construction industry consultant, who was her family's main breadwinner, has not worked since and needs a full-time carer.

Seeking a better life in the United States, migrant Nohe Vargas has spent the past two months dodging police as he weaves a slow way north by bus and motorbike from his home in Nicaragua.

Taking refuge at a migrant camp in Mexico City, the 32-year-old cook is now in a hurry to breach the U.S.-Mexico border.

From hail the size of golf balls to deadly heat, concert-goers in 2023 were forced to deal with extreme weather events that put them in harm's way during the world's warmest year on record, with temperatures predicted to climb even higher in 2024. 

Crowd safety experts and outdoor event organisers are exploring ways to protect performers and fans from the growing threat of extreme weather, after global warming neared an internationally agreed limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius last year.

As Europe, the United States and China set the pace in the global race to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Latin America will be next to take action, said the senator leading Mexico's push to govern the technology's use.

Sen. Alejandra Lagunes heads Mexico's National Artificial Intelligence Alliance, set up by Congress last April to help the country reap economic benefits from AI's development while also limiting its potential harms - from election disinformation to digital sexual harassment.

When 12-year-old Daniel transitioned gender in middle school, his Mexican teachers had no clue what to call him, how he should dress or what on earth to tell his classmates.

So they kept it all secret - prompting his mother to join a group that is backing a new text book for teachers on the dos and don'ts of trans life to ensure children like Daniel get the sort of help he never had.

Two years since the Mexican state of Veracruz legalised abortion, reproductive rights activist Metzeri Ávila still travels for hours into remote areas to deliver free abortion pills to women excluded by the public healthcare system.

Some women cannot afford to travel to a public hospital or do not know they are allowed to terminate their pregnancies, but others are being turned away by medical staff opposed to the procedure, Ávila said.