When two US avocado inspectors were assaulted and detained at a police roadblock in the Mexican state of Michoacán last month, it sparked a costly international crisis.

The US paused all avocado imports from the state for more than a week, leaving Mexican growers out of tens of millions of dollars and temporarily sending the price of a carton of the fruit in the US soaring by 40 percent, according to analysis firm RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness.

Weeks later, after diplomats and agricultural officials from both countries negotiated new security guidelines around inspections, the massive cross-border trade has stabilized, with the US Department of Agriculture saying that export levels returned to normal at the beginning of July.

But the episode underscored the precarious nature of the industry and the immense volatility in a region that provides most of the world’s avocados, one of Mexico’s most dangerous states and a nexus of cartel power.

US and Mexican officials are now considering new changes to the strict processes that direct how the fruit can make its way to American kitchens to meet ever-increasing demand, with industry groups and advocates urging for more oversight.

‘Green gold’

Avocados, the creamy fruit with the industry nickname “green gold,” are big business. Of the amount exported from the nearly 2.7 million metric tons of the fruit grown last year in Mexico, 81 percent went to the US, at a value of $2.7 billion.

Nearly three-quarters of Mexican avocados come from Michoacán, a state along the country’s Pacific coast with a volcanic belt running through it that makes its soil ideal for farming. The state’s deepwater port has also been critical for the flourishing of drug cartels, which moved into Michoacán in the 1980s, fueling a homicide rate that is today more than twice the national average.

The expansion of the avocado market in the state around the same time has been “deeply intertwined” with the violent groups and corrupt public authorities, researchers at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said in a report this year.

Citing interviews with growers in the state, the researchers described how criminal groups illegally burn and log protected forests and bribe local officials to change permissions around the use of the land to allow for commercial activity. According to an academic article published by the Mexican government cited in the report, 80 percent of the avocado orchards in Michoacán were established illegally, “initially through unauthorized land use that was then turned into legal parcels thanks to corruption of public authorities.”

Cartels today also regularly extort producers in protection schemes, the report found. Local police forces in turn commonly rent themselves out as security for producers, and heavily armed militias known as “autodefensa” groups have formed to patrol farms.

“This is the core of the mafia-style relationships that exist in Michoacán around avocado production,” Romain Le Cour, one of the report authors and a senior expert at the initiative, said in an interview. “You need criminal actors in a way to stir up the business, you need business entrepreneurs to run the business, and you need corrupt authorities to make sure that what you’re doing becomes legalized or laundered.”

Mexican officials in the aftermath of the detention of the inspectors in June were quick to downplay the incident, claiming it was nonviolent and unrelated to organized crime and the inspectors’ work in the avocado industry.

The inspectors, who were Mexican citizens working for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, were stopped and taken from their car after attempting to cross a barricade on a highway set up by police officers who were protesting a pay issue, according to Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, the Michoacán governor.

A dangerous job

Since the US first allowed imports of avocados from Michoacán in 1997, APHIS employees in the country have inspected avocado orchards to ensure they are free of pests that could harm US avocado crops. About 100 inspectors from the agency operate within the state, according to Ramírez, visiting avocado groves and packing facilities to check the fruit before issuing a certification.

That close contact and pivotal responsibility leaves them “extremely exposed to corruption and violence,” said Le Cour, the GI-TOC expert.

In 2022, exports of Mexican avocados were similarly halted for several days after one of the US inspectors working in Michoacán received a threatening phone call.

In the wake of both incidents, Mexican leaders have pushed to change the bilateral agreement regulating the trade to allow for the Mexican government to take over the inspections, with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticizing the US decision to halt the export as “arrogance.”

In a news conference last month, Mexican Agriculture Minister Victor Villalobos said the Mexican government was “perfectly prepared” to do the work, which he said would be valuable to “avoid having to stop the export.”

Officials at the US State Department and USDA have considered the possible change, according to Ken Melban, the vice president for industry affairs and operations at the California Avocado Commission, which represents growers in the state.

In a statement, Melban called it “unimaginable the US government would consider abdicating inspection responsibilities to Mexico.”

“US farmers will not be protected under such a program, one intended and designed specifically to protect US farmers’ economic interests,” he said.

An APHIS spokesperson declined to comment on the thinking around the policy.

US and Mexican officials have also recently resurfaced discussions around a policy to block the export of avocados from Mexico grown in orchards on illegally cleared lands, according to Brad Adams, the executive director of Climate Rights International, an advocacy group that used satellite imagery last year to document the widespread deforestation behind the market.

Instead, the agency pointed towards training and technical assistance that the US Forest Service has provided to Mexico “to support real-time deforestation monitoring of priority regions.”

“We’ve exposed something that is illegal and therefore indefensible,” Adams said. “They have an obligation that they recognize at a governmental level in Mexico, and the US can’t keep importing illegally harvested produce.”

A recent spate of alarming deaths has heightened fears for the Malayan tiger, wildlife authorities and conservationists say, with some calling the threat to Malaysia’s emblematic animal a “national emergency.”

Native to the jungles of peninsular Malaysia, the majestic feline subspecies is critically endangered, with fewer than 150 believed to be left in the wild due to habitat loss, illegal poaching and a decline in prey.

Found on Malaysia’s coat of arms and considered a national heritage symbol, its numbers have plummeted since the 1950s, when around 3,000 roamed the Southeast Asian country, officials say.

Against that already grim backdrop, photos and videos of a dead Malayan tiger went viral on social media in late June. The carcass, found bloated and floating in a stream in the rural northern state of Kelantan, was discovered by forest rangers.

There was no sign of injury from snares or gunshots, and state forestry officials are conducting a post-mortem examination.

The images provoked strong reactions from many in Malaysia, who noted the urgency of saving their national symbol from extinction.

Stronger conservation efforts are needed, he added, such as enhancing patrols in critical tiger habitats and leveraging advanced technology such as camera traps and drones for monitoring and surveillance.

“These magnificent creatures continue to teeter on the brink of extinction,” Chan said.

“Losing just one tiger brings the entire species closer to extinction, making every individual tiger’s life extremely critical to the survival of the species.”

“The Malayan tiger is on the brink of extinction with fewer than 150 remaining in the wild,” said Mark Rayan Darmaraj, country director of Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia, who noted that suspected poachers were arrested in a separate case in the nearby state of Pahang the following day, “in possession of the skull and bones of a tiger.”

“They suffer from habitat loss, prey depletion and retaliatory killings stemming from human-tiger conflicts,” he said.

“Additionally, the construction of roads through their habitats increases the risk of fatal vehicle collisions as seen in several recent incidents.”

On July 6, authorities in the western state of Perak were alerted to a dead tiger found in a storm drain off a major highway. Estimated to have been around 4 years old, the adult male had been hit by a car, officials said.

A month earlier, the body of another adult tiger was found by an expressway in Pahang state. Officials believe the tiger, believed to have been 5 years old, was run over by a vehicle while trying to cross the road from a nearby forest reserve.

It was the fourth Malayan tiger killed by a vehicle collision between November 2023 and May 2024, according to authorities.

Eight-year plan

The Malayan tiger was recognized as a subspecies in 2004. Like all tigers, they are excellent swimmers and powerful apex predators.

Smaller than Indonesia’s Sumatran tigers and the Bengal tigers found across South Asia, Malayan tigers can grow to about 2.5 meters (about 8 feet) long and weigh up to 130 kilograms (about 280 pounds), experts say, and need large swaths of forest to roam.

Their slightly darker, reddish-orange coats also distinguish them from other tiger species.

In an eight-year National Tiger Conservation Action Plan released in collaboration with non-profit groups in 2020, Malaysian officials outlined priorities such as conservation tools and a “National Physical Plan” to aid conservation efforts.

“By implementing a suite of concerted actions, backed by political commitment and public support, we as a nation and as part of the global conservation community can ensure that one of the most majestic and charismatic animals with which we share the planet will not vanish,” the report said.

Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian said he looks forward to improving ties with Europe, despite accusing the continent of backtracking on commitments to alleviate the impact of US sanctions.

“Despite these missteps, I look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with European countries to set our relations on the right path, based on principles of mutual respect and equal footing,” Pezeshkian wrote in the English-language Tehran Times newspaper.

Pezeshkian went on to state that there were numerous areas of cooperation to explore once “European powers come to terms with this reality and set aside self-arrogated moral supremacy coupled with manufactured crises that have plagued our relations for so long.”

In 2018, under then-President Donald Trump, the US pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a move the EU, UK, France and Germany later said they “deeply regret” – and reimposed sanctions.

European countries made 11 commitments to Iran to “try to salvage the agreement and mitigate the impact of the United States’ unlawful and unilateral sanctions on our economy,” Pezeshikian said.

“European countries have reneged on all these commitments, yet unreasonably expect Iran to unilaterally fulfill all its obligations under the JCPOA,” he added.

He said the commitments included “ensuring effective banking transactions, effective protection of companies from U.S. sanctions, and the promotion of investments in Iran.”

Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old trained heart surgeon and lawmaker, won Iran’s presidential election last Saturday, defeating his hardline rival Saeed Jalili, Iran’s former nuclear negotiator, in a pivotal vote amid heightened tensions both domestically and internationally.

The reformist has favored dialogue with Iran’s foes, particularly over its nuclear program, and sees that as a means to address the country’s domestic issues.

“I wish to emphasize that Iran’s defense doctrine does not include nuclear weapons and urge the United States to learn from past miscalculations and adjust its policy accordingly,” Pezeshkian wrote.

“Decision-makers in Washington need to recognize that a policy that consists of pitting regional countries against each other has not succeeded and will not succeed in the future,” he added.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has the final say on all matters of state. Pezeshkian will ultimately defer to Khamenei, who has condemned those seeking improved relations with the West, on matters of foreign policy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has defended Joe Biden after being called “President Putin” by him, calling it “a mistake.”

The US president accidentally referred to Zelensky as “President Putin” when introducing Zelensky at a NATO event on Thursday, before correcting the name moments later.

While the US president – who faces mounting pressure over whether he is fit enough to serve another term in office – played down the gaffe at a high-stakes news conference later that day, the incident was scrutinized internationally.

Russian state media seized on Biden’s performance to further criticize the NATO alliance, saying it turned the event into “a farce.”

However, when asked by press at Ireland’s Shannon Airport Saturday what his reaction was to the error, Zelensky shrugged and said, “It was a mistake.”

“I think United States gave a lot of support for Ukrainians. We can forget some mistakes, I think so,” he continued.

The US is providing Ukraine with much-needed military support in its war against Russia.

The Biden Administration announced a new $2.3 billion military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday, and said an additional $2.2 billion will be purchased for Ukraine from US arms manufacturers under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which provides Kyiv with longer-term support.

Weeks earlier, the United States and Ukraine signed a bilateral security pact, which commits the US for 10 years to continued training of Ukraine’s armed forces, as well as more weapons support and intelligence sharing. Zelensky at the time described the security pact as “a bridge to Ukraine’s membership in NATO.”

In May, Biden also accepted a request from Ukraine for a change in policy, giving Ukraine permission to strike inside Russian territory, close to the Kharkiv border, with American munitions.

UK police have arrested a 34-year-old man as part of a search to identify those responsible for leaving two suitcases of human remains at a famous bridge in western England earlier this week.

The man was arrested in Bristol and taken into custody during the early hours of Saturday as part of a joint operation between London and local police, London Metropolitan Police said in a statement. He will be transferred to London for questioning later on Saturday, according to the statement.

A 36-year-old man who was arrested in London early Friday over the grisly find at the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol has been released without charge, the Metropolitan Police previously said.

At this stage police are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with the incident, the statement added.

Saturday’s arrest was hailed as a “significant development” in the police’s investigation by deputy assistant commissioner Andy Valentine.

Investigations have been underway since the suitcases with human remains were found on the famous bridge in Bristol, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the capital, on Wednesday.

Officers believe they know the identity of the two male victims, but “formal identification is yet to take place,” they said. Police are trying to locate and inform their next of kin.

Police then found human remains in a west London apartment which they believe are connected to body parts found in Bristol

Valentine said members of the public with concerns are encouraged to speak to officers who are being stationed in the Clifton and Shepherd’s Bush areas over the coming days “to reassure those affected by this tragic incident.”