With the help of Global Ties U.S. and the San Antonio Council for International Visitors, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is funding the Police Professionalization Exchange Program for Mexico — a program that will train 3,800 police officials from Mexico in U.S. law enforcement policies and police tactics. [...] Police officials from Mexico are undergoing training to learn the best U.S. law enforcement practices to take back home.

Today marks one month since the assassination of journalist Javier Valdéz Cárdenas, which shook the international press community and further exemplified the pervasive violation of press freedom in Mexico. Winner of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2011 International Press Freedom Award, Valdéz was murdered on May 15 in broad daylight near the Ríodoce office, the local weekly publication he founded in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

International broadcasting federations have vowed to step up their work to spread information about disaster risk reduction to their audiences, thereby giving a critical boost to efforts by governments.The pledge came at the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which wrapped up last week in Cancun, Mexico, and was made by representatives of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 

The 4th “transatlantic dialogue” took place at the University of Luxembourg on Campus Belval in Esch-sur-Alzette. The theme was “creating human bonds through cultural diplomacy”. 320 attendees and 100 cultural actors from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Japan, South Africa and Saudi Arabia discussed and performed around the notion on how cultural diplomacy has a vital role to play in international relations.In 55 discussions and workshops, participants studied inter-sectionalism and common bonds; and how to bridge differences by understanding cultural identities. 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed drastically slashing U.S. foreign aid spending in Mexico and Central America, which are struggling with drug violence, graft and poverty.  2018 Mexican aid of $87.66 million, down more than 45 percent from the 2016 outlay. The budget proposes scrapping most U.S. money for the Mexican military, along with counterterrorism funds and some governance programs. In Guatemala, U.S. aid would drop almost 40 percent from 2016, to $80.66 million, while in Honduras and El Salvador it would fall nearly a third.

President Trump on Monday expanded the Mexico City Policy that bans funding for abortions outside U.S. borders to include a broader range of international aid programs.The policy applies to approximately $8.8 billion in funds appropriated to the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Defense. Under previous administrations, the ban was applied on a more limited basis to $60 million in foreign aid programming.

So, when Trump defends NAFTA in order to save American jobs at Smithfield, he’s also protecting Chinese corporate interests. By the way, the Smithfield sale also netted fabulous bonuses for the CEOs on both sides. Increasingly, that too has been the story of free trade. In the textbooks, trade is supposed to be an opportunity for the less well off to get a bigger piece of a growing global economy. In reality, however, free trade has been a driver of economic inequality.