Day: July 29, 2022

MEXICO CITY -- U.S. consumers will finally get the chance to try avocados from Jalisco after 25 years in which neighboring Michoacan has been the only Mexican state authorized to send the green fruit to the U.S. market. That just may help with prices, which have soared this year to over $2 per fruit amid a dip in production in Michoacan. Growers and packers in Jalisco, just northwest of Michoacan, expressed hope that their state can provide more consistent production levels and stability for prices for avocados, which have fluctuated widely amid seasonal supply shortages. Eleven trucks bearing 200 tons of avocados from Jalisco lined up Thursday in the mountain town of Zapotlan El Grande to set out for the United States. “When we were talking about very high prices a month ago, it was b...

Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who served nearly three years in a Russian prison before he was freed in a prison swap this spring, said he is "cautiously optimistic" that a similar deal can be worked out in the high-profile cases of two other Americans currently detained in Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this week that the U.S. has offered Russia a proposal to bring WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan home. The White House wouldn't confirm details of the proposal, but three sources familiar with the offer confirmed to ABC News that the U.S. had proposed exchanging convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in order to secure Griner and Whelan's release from Russia. In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, a day after news of the possible deal b...

ST-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRÉ, Quebec -- Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Thursday at Canada’s national shrine and came face-to-face with a long-standing demand from Indigenous peoples: to rescind the papal decrees underpinning the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” and repudiate the theories that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today. Right before Mass began, two Indigenous women unfurled a banner at the altar of the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré that read: “Rescind the Doctrine” in bright red and black letters. The protesters were escorted away and the Mass proceeded without incident, though the women later marched the banner out of the basilica and draped it on the railing. The brief protest underscored one of the issues faci...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina's government announced the appointment of an economic “super minister” Thursday, the third economy minister in less than a month as the country struggles with high inflation and a slumping currency. Sergio Massa, the head of Congress' lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, will lead a new ministry that combines the current Economy, Productive Development, and Agriculture ministries, President Alberto Fernández’s government said. The appointment comes only a few weeks since the left-leaning Silvina Batakis was tapped as economy minister after the more moderate Martín Guzmán abruptly quit, saying he wasn't getting political support in dealing with Argentina's economic woes. Batakis is staying on in the government and will lead the state-owned bank Banco...

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned he’s ready to use his nuclear weapons in potential military conflicts with the United States and South Korea, state media said Thursday, as he unleashed fiery rhetoric against rivals he says are pushing the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war. Kim’s speech to war veterans on the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War was apparently meant to boost internal unity in the impoverished country amid pandemic-related economic difficulties. While Kim has increasingly threatened his rivals with nuclear weapons, it’s unlikely that he would use them first against the superior militaries of the U.S. and its allies, observers say. “Our armed forces are completely prepared to respond to any crisis, and our country’s nuclear w...