[Breitbart] The U.S. government stopped imports of Mexican avocado after cartels threatened an American inspector working in that country.
The suspension came just before Super Bowl Sunday, one of the days in the U.S. with the largest consumption of avocado. Mexico’s Agriculture Secretariat confirmed the suspension of these imports through a prepared statement on Saturday evening.
In the statement, Mexican agriculture officials revealed that one of the entities under the U.S. Department of Agriculture took that measure after one of their inspectors working in Uruapan, Michoacán received threats to his work-issued cell phone. In order to protect crops from pests, the USDA has a long history of sending inspectors to other countries that export produce to the United States.
The import suspension comes at a time when the largest association of avocado farmers in Mexico spent money on an ad campaign that would feature their produce during Superbowl Sunday. It remains unclear how much the import sanction will affect the price and supply of avocado in the U.S.
Avocado is mostly produced in Michoacan and Jalisco, two of the most violent states in Mexico. The region is currently being fought over between Cartel Jalisco New Generation and an alliance of smaller cartels — called United Cartels — which have the support of the Sinaloa Cartel. Avocado farmers in Michoacan have long complained about having to pay protection fees to criminal organizations and that the government does little to improve security in the region.
#4
Chipotle avocado toast is a major seller to the millennials.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/14/2022 19:57 Comments ||
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#5
One threat?
Heard this in the car yesterday listening to National People's Radio. Thought it was the Babylon Bee at first. They specifically said a single text message. They also went on at length about how this would not affect Super Bowl avocado consumption, which makes sense if you think about it for a nanosecond since all avocados eaten during the Super Bowl were shipped and purchased already.
My first thought was false flag op since everything is nowadays. 2nd thought was this is the best excuse since "the dog ate my homework".
Can't come in to work today, boss. Got another death threat text.
Another one? This happened *last* Friday.
Yeah, coincidence, eh? Same number too. Anyway, I'm off hiding. See ya Monday!
[IsraelTimes] US officials in the United Arab Emirates meet with Afghans after a protest in Abu Dhabi this week and discuss their "potential" transfer to the United States, according to an embassy statement.
The UAE was one of several Arab Gulf countries that assisted with the evacuation of Afghans fleeing the Taliban ...Arabic for students... after the group seized power in August last year following a US military withdrawal.
Videos circulating on social media this week showed Afghan men protesting in the Emirates Humanitarian City in the capital Abu Dhabi, where many who were evacuated to the UAE now live.
The US embassy says that it is aware of the "peaceful demonstration" to express "concerns about future resettlement and processing for onward travel."
US officials met some of the Afghans and discussed their "processing for potential entry in the United States," according to a statement sent to AFP.
"We continue to conduct the screening and vetting of vulnerable Afghans prior to their arrival in the United States, consistent with the dual goals of protecting national security and providing protection for vulnerable Afghans," it adds.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan sparked a chaotic exit for the Americans and their allies after 20 years in the country, and an exodus of Afghans fearing a return to the brutal regime of 1996 to 2001 when the group was first in power.
[AlAhram] The small Mediterranean island of Cyprus has an outsized problem with irregular migration, says the interior minister of the EU member state located closest to the Middle East.
The top country of origin for pending asylum applications in 2021 remained Syria, but next came Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Somalia, according to the ministry.
"For us, this is a state of emergency," Nicos Nouris told AFP, adding that 4.6 percent of the country's population now are asylum seekers or beneficiaries of protection, the highest ratio in the EU.
The Greek Cypriot minister accused The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
Continued on Page 49
#1
Boy they're playing the Democrat playbook to perfection - simply overwhelm the Christian two-thirds of the island with illegal islamics and other eternally dependent types, and that will be their demise. Except in the US the Democrats are more cagey about their intentions.
Posted by: Anne of a Thousand Spasms4283 ||
02/14/2022 1:35 Comments ||
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#2
Anne of a Thousand Spasms4283;
As much as I would like to... no, love to declare our uber superiority of tactics and strategy... the headlesschickenlandia doesn't really have the ability to hold a coherent policy on... well anything at the moment.
What southern Cyprus is doing at the moment is akin to a homeowner complaining about the apartment in the next lot dumping it's sewage onto his single family housing's yard when in reality, there is a giant ongoing geyser of the stuff painting the heavens behind the apartment and all the neighbourhood is getting drowned in it.
Shafaq News/ Iraq's National Security Advisor, Qasem al-Araji, said that Baghdad and London are working dry up the financial, human, and media resources of terrorism.
Al-Araji's remarks came as he received the UK ambassador to Iraq, Mark Bryson-Richardson, in his bureau downtown the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, earlier today, Sunday.
Al-Araji discussed with his guest the latest updates on the political and security situation in the regional and international arenas, particularly the row between Russia and Ukraine, the training of Iraqi armed forces, and the conditions of al-Hol camp in northeast Syria.
"Iraq upholds dialogue as a means to address the issues in the region. It is willing to continue the cooperation with the international community to deter terrorism, whose threat is still substantial," he told the UK diplomat, citing Baghdad and London's efforts to "dry out terrorism's human, financial, and media resources."
For his part, Bryson-Richardson reiterated his country's commitment to supporting Iraq in the battle against the ISIS terror group and providing assistance and training to the Iraqi armed forces.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/14/2022 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
Shafaq News / Mazloum Abdi, who heads the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, warned that ISIS fighters are still very much present in the wake of a deadly attack by the militants on a Syrian prison last month. That attack killed 121 fighters from the Syrian Kurdish-led force, he added.
"We are surrounded by the Islamic State," Abdi said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Thursday night. "We have said this many times. If we don't strive to fight ISIS now, they will spread again."
A tenuous calm has prevailed in the region since ISIS' spectacular Jan. 20 attack on Gweiran Prison, or al-Sinaa — a Kurdish-run facility in Syria's northeast where over 3,000 ISIS militants and young boys, mainly sons of ISIS fighters, were held.
The attack on the prison led to 10 days of fighting between U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and ISIS militants that left nearly 500 dead on both sides until the SDF brought the situation under control eventually.
Abdi said immediate security measures were taken to contain ISIS sleeper cells after the assault: faulty detention centers prone to similar attacks have been emptied, security sweeps are ongoing and curfews limit night-time movements.
But, the threat remains, he warned.
The SDF assisted in the U.S. operation that killed ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi in the northwestern Idlib region last week by facilitating passage and logistics for the U.S., but did not participate with fighters on the ground.
"We provided safety and security for personnel who went in, that's all I can say," he said.
While ISIS morale may have taken a hit with al-Qurayshi's death, Abdi said he did not believe it would lead to the group's decline.
He said he shared blame for the prison attack — the biggest and bloodiest since ISIS lost the last sliver of territory it held in Syria in 2019, marking the end of its self-declared "caliphate" over large parts of Syria and Iraq.
His fighters last year twice got intelligence that ISIS sleeper cells were planning to attack the prison, located in Hassakeh province, to free their comrades inside. One attack was even thwarted.
"There was intelligence before that they wanted to attack, and we took procedures, but then we failed," he said.
But he also blamed the international community, which he says should assume responsibility for the thousands of foreign ISIS fighters held in prisons and camps overseen by the Syrian Kurdish-led forces.
Abdo said searches are now underway in 27 detention facilities housing ISIS detainees to identify security weaknesses. Three prisons have been emptied, their inmates scattered to different facilities.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Arabic for 
