By Robert A. Vella
My brain is still numb from this week’s avalanche of news, so let’s get right to today’s stories.
From: Trump’s Surprising New Ally in Mexico? The Government
MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials are carrying out the Trump administration’s immigration agenda across broad stretches of the border, undercutting the Mexican government’s promises to defend migrants and support their search for a better life.
The Mexican authorities are blocking groups of migrants at border towns, refusing to allow them onto international bridges to apply for asylum in the United States, intercepting unaccompanied minors before they can reach American soil, and helping to manage lists of asylum seekers on behalf of the American authorities to limit the number of people crossing the border.
[…]
Officials inside the administration of Mexico’s new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have called his stance on migrants a strategic decision not to anger President Trump.
From: 8 killed in India-Pakistan fighting amid high tensions
SRINAGAR, India — Indian and Pakistani soldiers have again targeted each other’s posts and villages along their volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir, killing at least six civilians and two Pakistani troops, officials said Saturday.
But in a sign that tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals could soon ease, a Pakistani Cabinet minister said a key train service between Pakistan and neighboring India would resume on Monday.
Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan this past Tuesday, carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down a fighter jet Wednesday and detaining its pilot, who was returned to India on Friday in a peace gesture.
From: Former sales exec says opioid maker bribed doctors to prescribe drugs
BOSTON — The former head of sales for an opioid manufacturer took the stand in federal court here Friday to describe how he followed directions to recruit and bribe doctors for years to increase sales of the company’s highly addictive drug.
The testimony of Alec Burlakoff, the former vice president of sales for Insys Therapeutics, closed the fifth week of a trial of five former company executives. The group was charged with multiple conspiracies in October 2017, including racketeering, kickbacks and fraud, along with two other former executives who pleaded guilty and have become cooperating witnesses.
The first cooperating witness, former CEO Michael Babich, testified last month. Burlakoff is the second. Their testimony against their former colleagues is part of a mountain of evidence prosecutors are bringing to build a groundbreaking case to hold pharmaceutical executives accountable.
The Secular Jurist 
I will soon be posting my 4-part conclusion on EXACTLY that type of corruption surrounding our mega-pharma industry and how it feeds another grey market and worse, BLACK MARKET underground trade to patients who can’t afford meds or are quite willing to pay LESS for spin-offs or phony pharma. The illegal trade is a multi-billion dollar industry that most certainly trickles back to our mega-pharma corporations. I believe you’ve been following my series Robert… Black Underworld Inc.?
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Yes, I am.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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Glad they’re finally going after Big Pharma. About time.
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It sure is.
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Somehow the news of big pharma doesn’t surprise me at all.
It is hard to stand up to a big bully & that is what the US is. Mexico is being pragmatic. You don’t want covert or overt CIA actions against your government and or economic sanctions that would have the same end.
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Agreed, but Trump’s xenophobic actions go way beyond the immigration policies of previous U.S. presidents.
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