(The Guardian) «The San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana and San Diego is the busiest land border crossing in the world, with an average of 135,000 people passing through each day. The port is a vital connection between two growing cities that are separated by politics but inextricably linked by history, culture and economics.

People cross for a variety of reasons – work, family, travel or even medical treatment. For daily commuters the international border is just another traffic jam, albeit one that has grown in recent decades as the US has tightened security.

A side effect of increased inspection on the US side means wait times have extended dramatically over the years, and can be as long as five hours during peak periods. This means more potential customers, which has in turn seen more people working the line. This is apparent in the mix of vendors, who come from across Mexico, South America and beyond.»

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(The Guardian, San Francisco) – It was a verdict heard around the world. In a stunning blow to one of the world’s largest seed and chemical companies, jurors in San Francisco have told Monsanto it must pay $289m in damages to a man dying of cancer which he claims was caused by exposure to its herbicides.

Monsanto, which became a unit of Bayer AG in June, has spent decades convincing consumers, farmers, politicians and regulators to ignore mounting evidence linking its glyphosate-based herbicides to cancer and other health problems. The company has employed a range of tactics – some drawn from the same playbook used by the tobacco industry in defending the safety of cigarettes – to suppress and manipulate scientific literature, harass journalists and scientists who did not parrot the company’s propaganda, and arm-twist and collude with regulators.

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(The Guardian – Mexico City)  The UN human rights committee has rebuked Mexico for failing to protect its journalists in a ruling on the case of a prominent reporter who was kidnapped and threatened with rape by police acting at the behest of a powerful politician and one of his business backers.

The ruling was the committee’s first against Mexico, which has become one of the most murderous countries in the world for media workers.

The resolution found journalist Lydia Cacho was arbitrarily detained, subjected to torture and gender violence and had her right to free expression violated.

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(NBC Sports – Mexico) – The Bulls will take part in the 2018 NBA Mexico City Games by playing a regular season game against the Orlando Magic in December, the team announced Tuesday.

The Magic will play the Bulls on Dec. 13 and the Utah Jazz two days later as part of the NBA’s continuing expansion of the game in Mexico. Since 1992 the NBA has played 26 games in Mexico, the most held in any country outside the United States and Canada.

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(Mexico, Rolling Stone) – In 2014, attendance had fallen sharply at Trópico, a Mexican music festival held in the resort city of Acapulco. The festival was only in its second year, and after 43 students disappeared in the nearby city of Iguala a few months prior, a large number of festivalgoers had the same thought: stay home.

But at one point during the three-day festival, organizer Pepe Bezaury recalled an atypical moment. The Rapture’s Luke Jenner, LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney and Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, among others, took to the stage before going silent. David Byrne then asked attendees to count to 43 in honor of the students, who the attorney general’s office says were turned over to cartel members by local police.

“From something really awful, something beautiful happened — that the 3,000 people that were there, we had a positive thought that we have to come together and work and move forward and try to end this impunity,” Bezaury tells Rolling Stone.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Monday the country has put forward a proposal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement’s contentious rules of origin, and in turn was studying the U.S. position.

The United States has demanded tougher rules of origin, particularly on what percentage of a car needs to be built in the NAFTA region to avoid tariffs than outlined in the current trade deal.

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(Mexico/USA NPR) – The busiest section of the U.S.-Mexico border is the Rio Grande Valley. It’s not unusual for Border Patrol agents to catch more than 500 immigrants a day trying to cross into the U.S. along this 55-mile stretch. In spite of increased border security and rising costs to cross, migrants are still determined to make the journey.

NPR recently spent time on both sides of the border, where immigration is part of everyday life.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Some 150 Central American migrants, including 62 children, were found inside the back of trailer when the vehicle was stopped at a highway checkpoint, the Mexican government said on Saturday.

Federal police and Mexican immigration officials discovered the migrants while searching trucks on a highway in the southeastern state of Tabasco, according to joint statements from the federal police and immigration authorities.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty in their homelands try to pass through Mexico to the United States every year, often transported by human traffickers who subject them to dangerous conditions.

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bbc.com

One out of three Mexican children below the age of 9 have teeth problems.

The BBC followed Adan, a dentist working for a charity that provides dental services to kids living in poor areas of Mexico City, and Ana Laura, who struggles to keep her daughter’s mouth healthy.

Video produced by Natalia Guerrero and Alvaro A. Ricciardelli

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aljazeera.com

Mexico City – Ismael Ramos Mendez had always wanted to be a police officer.

Now 45 years old, he has found himself patrolling a Mexico City metro station, on foot, with his only way home, a police car that won’t start because the battery is dead.

It is not much to show for 20 years of experience, two decorations for exhibiting bravery under fire, and a masters in police administration.

But Mendez said he knows very well why he is here rather than as a police chief or first inspector. He said it’s because doesn’t pay «the quota» – money officers on the street have to hand to their superiors in some of Mexico’s myriad police forces.

«When you refuse to pay the quotas, you end up like this,» he told Al Jazeera.

«You end up here. Walking, without a car, completely alone. Isolated.»

Many Mexicans don’t trust the police, seeing them as, at best inefficient and at worst, corrupt and in the same as league as organised crime. But many low-level police officers, like Mendez, are not only being forced to pay «the quota» to their superiors, but are also struggling with substandard equipment. Some do not have working patrol vehicles and many lack training. Despite years of talk of police reform, little has changed, even as the country’s violence rises to unprecedented levels.

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