The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that the strain of bird flu currently circulating among dairy cattle appears to be only transmissible via mammary glands, or udders, rather than respiratory droplets, a finding that gives officials greater optimism about managing the risks facing dairy workers.

Two employees of the U.S. Agriculture Department were assaulted and temporarily held by assailants in the Mexican state of Michoacan, prompting the U.S. government to suspend inspections of avocado and mango shipments, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico said Tuesday.

Ambassador Ken Salazar said in a statement that the assault occurred while the employees were inspecting avocados in Michoacan. He said they were no longer being held.

U.S. officials had confirmed the pause in inspections Monday citing security concerns.

Tensions are rising in a border dispute between the United States and Mexico. But this conflict is not about migration; it’s about water.

Under an 80-year-old treaty, the United States and Mexico share waters from the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, respectively. But in the grip of severe drought and searing temperatures, Mexico has fallen far behind in deliveries, putting the country’s ability to meet its obligations in serious doubt.

Some politicians say they cannot give what they do not have.

A multi-vehicle crash in Florida involving a bus believed to be carrying “migrant workers” killed eight people and left 45 others injured on Tuesday, police said.

The Florida Highway Patrol said a school bus carrying 53 people was involved in the fatal wreck on State Road 40 in Marion County around 6:30 a.m. 

The bus was carrying migrant workers who were on route to a watermelon farm, police said, with Marion County Public Schools officials confirming that no students were involved in the crash. 

It was a few months ago when Gov. Ron DeSantis first announced his support for preventing “cultivated” lab-grown meat from being made or sold in Florida. “You need meat, OK. And we’re going to have meat in Florida,” the Republican governor said, adding, “We’re not going to have fake meat. Like, that doesn’t work.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill banning lab-grown meat in his state Wednesday, in what he described as an effort to “save our beef.”

“Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis said in a press release Wednesday. “Our administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef.”

Florida banned lab-grown meat this week in a decision that was derided by many commentators as a silly encroachment on the free market, but the Sunshine State’s policy is actually protecting an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people from destruction.

While not yet a widely available commercial product, lab-grown meat, which is grown from existing animal cells, is widely seen as the future of food production. Advocates of the product say it is no different from farm-grown meat and is necessary to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

A new report on the first human bird flu case tied to the outbreak in cows in the United States suggests that the Texas man may be the first detected case of the H5N1 virus transmitting from a mammal to a person.

Nearly 900 people in 23 countries have been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus since it started spreading from Southeast Asia in late 2003. But previous human cases were all linked to transmission from infected birds, typically domestic poultry.

Dave Duttlinger's first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen.

About 445 acres of his fields near Wheatfield, Indiana, are covered in solar panels and related machinery – land that in April 2019 Duttlinger leased to Dunns Bridge Solar LLC, for one of the largest solar developments in the Midwest.