The Sunshine State’s citrus farmers are holding on after a 95 percent industry decline in the past 30 years.
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| “Caring comes from being able to put yourself in the position of the other person.” |
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Good morning, happy Monday! Here are today’s top stories: |
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The Sunshine State’s citrus farmers are holding on after a 95 percent industry decline in the past 30 years. Florida reporter Jacob Burg explores how a tiny insect decimated the state’s citrus farms, and what orchardists are doing about it.
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Israel has retaliated after Iran launched its first missiles at Israel since the fragile ceasefire took effect in April, despite President Donald Trump urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to.
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The United States won’t unfreeze Iran’s assets until a long-term peace deal to end the conflict in the Middle East is reached, Trump said.
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The nation’s largest pharmaceutical company and biggest hospitals are headed for a showdown over federally mandated drug discounts. Today is the deadline set by Eli Lilly for the hospitals to provide claims data, not including personal information, to demonstrate that they are not double-dipping on federal discounts and rebates. Lilly will end the discounts for hospitals that do not give the data. Many large hospitals have so far refused to comply, saying the policy poses an administrative burden.
- 🍵 Health: Fascia is the living, interconnected web behind the body’s movement and healing. Learn how to enhance its function.
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Guy Davies, an inspector of the Florida Division of Plant Industry, shows an orange with signs of citrus greening, in Fort Pierce, Fla., on May 13, 2013. The Asian citrus psyllid carries the bacterium causing the huanglongbing infection—known as citrus greening—from tree to tree. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) |
TERRA CEIA, Fla.—Lifelong citrus farmer Sidney Tillett cut a path through a grove that has endured in his family for four generations, stopping his SUV between two rows of trees. On one side was a long plot of lush green saplings, covered with protective mesh bags tied to stakes in the ground.
Directly on the other side, a row of petite orange trees with withering leaves were all battling a bacterial infection, caused by an invasive insect that has decimated the state’s orange industry in just two decades. “It’s a story of survival,” Tillett told The Epoch Times, remembering his father’s 25-foot-tall citrus trees that could sometimes produce 1,000 pounds of fruit in a single season. Now, what trees survive are lucky if their canopies get half that size, or produce any fruit that can be sold at market. What was once 600 acres of citrus trees in the 1970s has now dwindled to five.
The orange—Florida’s inextricable insignia that emblazons license plates, T-shirts, and bumper stickers from affluent coastal towns to rural farming communities—was once the state’s largest cash crop and positioned the Sunshine State as the country’s majority citrus producer.
Florida harvested a record 244 million boxes of oranges during the 1997–1998 season. This year, the Department of Agriculture estimates that Florida will produce only 12.2 million boxes, a stunning 95 percent drop in a little less than 30 years.
Occasional freezes, catastrophic hurricanes, and an on-and-off, decades-long battle with the citrus canker disease proved to be frustrating setbacks for many orange growers, but the destruction of Florida’s citrus industry kicked into high gear in 2005.
That was the year an invasive insect from China—which made its way to the United States through Mexico—introduced a disease that would ultimately decimate Florida’s citrus industry.
The Asian citrus psyllid feeds on citrus tree leaves, causing the plant to contract a bacterial infection known as huanglongbing, commonly called citrus greening. (More)
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The U.S. government will attempt to redirect Iranian assets under its control to Gulf states to cover damages sustained during the three-month war.
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A Chinese national residing in Georgia pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds for an international money laundering network.
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The Chinese regime announced another patrol near Taiwan in a show of displeasure over Japan and the Philippines’ plans to launch maritime border delimitation talks.
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On June 4, the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, internet users across China reported intensified online censorship, including tighter controls by social media platforms and messaging groups on content related—directly or indirectly—to the date.
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- OPINION: What Forgiveness Is Not—by Mollie Engelhart (Read)
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Joey Siu, Amnesty International Hong Kong overseas spokesperson, speaks during the Tiananmen Square massacre candlelight vigil held at the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington on June 4, 2026. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times) |
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(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock) |
The word “fascia” comes from the Latin word fascia, meaning “band,” “bandage,” or “ribbon.”
For decades, fascia was dismissed as little more than the body’s packing material or a thin layer of connective tissue that wraps around nearly everything in your body. Today, researchers are discovering that fascia is far more important: a living, interconnected network that influences movement, posture, flexibility, pain, and recovery.
Fascia acts as a mechano-metabolic system—a biological system in which mechanical forces and metabolic processes continuously influence one another—that transmits mechanical force and contributes to coordination.
Fascia exists throughout the body in different forms, each serving a specific role. Superficial fascia is located just beneath the skin and is made up mainly of collagen and elastin. It helps cushion the body and protect underlying structures.
There is also fascia that surrounds and supports muscles and bones, and nerves and blood vessels (deep fascia), as well as organs (visceral fascia). Another type of fascia also lines the inner walls of body cavities (parietal fascia). Beyond supporting body structure, fascia also has several major functions: Serves as a Body-Wide Communication Network: Fascia is packed with sensory receptors and mechanoreceptors, making it highly sensory in nature. When we move or change posture, these receptors respond to pressure and stretch by sending sensory signals that help the brain regulate movement, balance, and coordination. No other tissue system in the body provides more of this type of sensory input to the central nervous system.
Helps the Body Perceive Pain: Fascia contains specialized pain-detecting nerve endings, including nociceptors, which respond to mechanical stress, chemical irritation, and inflammation—key triggers for pain signaling. (More) |
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Thanks for reading 🙏 Have a wonderful day! |
—Cathy He, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li. |
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