Major pork plant closed after hundreds of workers contract coronavirus, while speeding up of poultry production lines raises concerns over standards

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The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations.

Last week Smithfield shut down one of the largest pork plants in the country after hundreds of employees contracted the coronavirus. The plant in South Dakota – whose output represents 4–5% of US pork production – is reported to be the largest single-source coronavirus hotspot in the US, with more than 600 cases. In response, the company said it was “critical” for the meat industry to “continue to operate unabated”.

Now it has emerged that as a wave of plants announce closures, US meat plants are being granted permission to increase the speed of their production lines. This comes despite warnings that the waivers for higher speeds on slaughter and processing lines will compromise food safety.

Once a step away from extinction, their survival was a rare success story. But groundbreaking gorilla conservation is now in peril

• Ecotourism collapse threatens communities and wildlife

As he clambers down the forested ravine, soil slipping beneath his boots, Dr Fred Nizeyimana knows they are close. “I can smell them,” he says, just before the mountain gorillas come into view high in the canopy, plucking leaves and chomping on the vegetation. An adult female slides down a tree, a flash of black fur and elongated limb. More follow, with infants and juveniles in tow. A grunting silverback descends to join its family, the branches buckling beneath approximately 180kg (400lb) of iconic primate.

Vital lessons about our mutual dependence will help us emerge stronger from the pandemic

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If ever a crisis proved that our fates are bound together, it has been the last six weeks. The state has asked many businesses to stand idle to save lives, firms have turned to the state as their guarantor of survival and workers have risked their lives for us all. When we have faced our toughest test for decades as a nation, it has been essential to pull together.

Yet we are only at the beginning of the need to recognise the mutual dependence between public and private sectors and our collective solidarity.

It’s clear from a recent litany of disasters – from the coronavirus pandemic to America’s deadliest wildfire in a century – there are forces that cannot be domesticated

• Read an excerpt from the authors’ new book on the worst US wildfire in 100 years

About 12,000 years ago, human domestication of the natural world began in earnest with the intentional cultivation of wild plants and animals. Fast forward to today and our dominion over the planet appears complete, as 7.8 billion of us multiply across its surface and our reach extends from the deep-sea beds, which are being mined, to the heavens, where we are, according to Donald Trump, dispatching a space force.

Yet as has been made clear by a recent litany of disasters – from the coronavirus pandemic to America’s deadliest wildfire in a century – there are forces that cannot be domesticated. Indeed, our interference with the natural world is making them more liable to flare up into tragedy. We created the Anthropocene, and the Anthropocene is biting back.

If you’re gardening more than usual, try not to disturb the legless lizard, which can mate for up to 10 hours at a time in May

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Under a small, sun-baked mat, a curled metallic-gold slow worm lies basking in the heat, the dark stripe running down its body revealing its youth. Sensing attention, it begins to wriggle away, revealing a companion, which speeds rapidly into the grasses in the opposite direction.

After a winter of social distancing, slow worms – a type of legless lizard that grows up to half a metre long and is often mistaken for a snake – have been venturing out of hibernation to enjoy warming their cold-blooded bodies in the spring sun.

Marshwood Vale, Dorset: It began in March, when the buff-tailed queens emerged from hibernation, zigzagging from bloom to bloom

In the garden on a bright morning, with sunshine lancing the cherry blossom, my eye is drawn to the fat glitter of a queen bumblebee gathering nectar in the golden bowl of a tree peony flower. A black, almost velvety, body and rich orange-tipped rump indicate that this is a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius). Her wings shine as if newly waxed, while her tongue briskly probes a tassel of stamens. After a few seconds she’s off to check the next bloom – then airborne again, zooming over the wall.

Lockdown has replaced the background hum of distant traffic with the low, blundering drone of bumblebees. It began in March when buff-tailed queens emerged from hibernation, zigzagging across the lawn. Buff-tails are easily recognised by their size – the queens can be more than 2cm long – and their markings, two well-separated yellow bands and a brown-tinged tail-tip. Because they nest in holes in the ground, they are also called earth bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). The name is like an anchor, tethering a creature of sunlight, pollen and warmth to the chthonic darkness underground.

Only government action will preserve the clearer, bluer skies gifted to us by the coronavirus lockdown

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Many of us will have noticed differences in traffic noise and air pollution during the lockdown. Startling images have come from India where, for the first time in a generation, the Himalayas have been visible more than a hundred miles away. Something similar happened in the UK in 1921 when coal shortages during a miner’s strike led to newspaper reports of distant landmarks being visible as never before. In the UK we too have been able to look up at clearer blue skies, less impeded by air pollution and not crisscrossed by aircraft contrails. This helped Germany to break a solar power record.

In Beijing, air pollution controls for the 2014 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting also brought a return to blue skies. The term “APEC blue” emerged in Chinese social media and was nominated as Beijing’s top environmental phrase for the year. Later it took on a tinge of sadness, to mean something wonderful, but brief. One woman posted about love on social media, “He’s not that into you – it’s just an APEC blue!”

Iconic hip-hop producer and Alicia Keys’s husband, Swizz Beatz, isn’t afraid to tell his guy friends he loves them.

Canada’s smallest province remains one of its most affordable, despite a shortage of inventory exacerbated by the pandemic.

While researchers across Canada are among the scientists working on coronavirus vaccines, the country doesn’t have the means to quickly produce any successful result.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) came back at Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) with the Twitter equivalent of “I can’t hear you!”...

Despite their clashes in past, the two Trump allies find themselves in alignment now.

GOP senators denied Obama a seat on the high court. They'll deliver for Trump.

The speaker isn’t yet negotiating with Republicans or the White House on the next aid bill.

Using data from the COVID Tracking Project, we’re following how each state is responding to COVID-19.

“I stood up for the truth and performed at the highest levels,” Sessions said.

The Office of the Special Counsel is recommending that Bright be temporarily reinstated.

Republicans are raising Brett Kavanaugh to criticize Democrats over what they say is hypocrisy over a sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden.

HEART attack are serious medical emergencies which could be fatal. When it comes to reducing your risk of developing the condition, avoiding this type of food is strongly advised.

We all want a conclusion to the COVID-19 saga. Will we get an end to the story of climate?

For this Colorado retirement community, living near a fracking site has been a nightmare. Now they can’t even leave.

Two new reports argue that renewable energy and battery storage can make so-called peaker plants obsolete.

Cross-laminated timber draws praise -- and skeptics.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Friday evening that producer Steve Tisch and the Jonas Brothers each donated $500,000 — $1 million total — to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles and to the Angelino Card program. Garcetti called Tisch “a friend who moved here to Los Angeles…to make a life for himself, found great success […]

Actor Nick Cordero’s wife, Amanda Kloots, has once again posted on her husband’s condition as he battles the COVID-19 virus. Cordero has had horrible complications since being hospitalized more than a month ago. His struggle has been memorialized by Kloots on Instagram, and she has again updated his health status. Kloots shared in an Instagram […]

A Sydney man appears in a Gold Coast court on an upgraded charge after Brazilian national Ivan Susin dies in hospital as a result of a head injury he suffered in a Surfers Paradise scuffle.

On a property hidden in bushland are old cars, tractors, motorbikes, trucks and sulkies from a bygone era that once belonged to an Australian politician and obsessive collector.

An alleged cocaine drug ring spanning two states is uncovered by New South Wales and South Australian police, leading to the arrests of five people.

Deploying Defence aircraft to bring hundreds of performers to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney presents an opportunity for Australia to gain ground in the battle for influence in the Pacific.

New documents raise questions over UNSW's investigation of its star cancer researcher, Levon Khachigian.

A Sydney jury is unable to reach a unanimous or majority verdict in the case of a Kulwinder Singh, who pleaded not guilty to setting his wife Parwinder Kaur on fire in 2013. She later died in hospital.

Two Sydney brothers are acquitted of causing their bedridden mother's death by failing to get her medical help, after a judge agrees it had been her choice to sleep in a urine-soaked bed, surrounded by squalor.

A group of cyber sleuths from Adelaide takes out the national missing persons "hackathon", finding nearly 100 new pieces of information for police to investigate.

After 17 races, it became clear this $180,000 thoroughbred wasn't going to cut it on the track this is how Absolutely Win ended up at a Queensland slaughterhouse.

Space advocates spruik the human benefits but critics say it costs far too much. Ever since the moon landing, space has been seen as a "giant leap" for humankind, but is it in the wrong direction?

The Australian racing industry is in turmoil after revelations of former racehorses being slaughtered at abattoirs, with leading trainer Chris Waller so shocked he "couldn't watch" the vision.

Chris Waller continues his big race domination, taking out The Everest at Randwick with Yes Yes Yes, on a day marked by protests and calls for change after an investigation revealed widespread slaughter and abuse of former racehorses in Australian abattoirs.

An 81-year-old man is charged over the alleged sexual and indecent assault of two minors in northern NSW and police say there could be more victims who were drawn in over CB radio at the time.

This organic farming program is turning residential backyards into market gardens to tackle food security, food mileage and social isolation.

Figures released by the Department of Finance last week show the budget is now back in deficit by $4.8 billion. Now some economists doubt the government will be able to reach the projected surplus, including former Treasury advisor Warren Hogan.

Burns Pet Food at Riverstone pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty relating to dozens of cattle and an injured sheep only a month before the ABC's 7.30 report into the slaughter of horses.

Royal Life Saving Society Australia is warning parents to limit distractions and be vigilant with water safety, as new data shows one-year-olds are at the greatest risk of drowning compared to any other age group.

There are growing calls for a royal commission into the racing industry after the ABC revealed emails proving Racing NSW was told more than a year ago about the unauthorised sale of thoroughbreds for slaughter at a livestock auction.

Pilots are still hungry for the thrill of flying a Grumman Tracker more than 30 years after they last launched it off the back of an aircraft carrier.