Like many in the region, the third-generation farmer is burying his dead stock. He says he is at ‘breaking point’
Warning: this story contains images of dead animals
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When the water began to rise on Kevin Schlenert’s farm in Glenthorne near Taree, eventually submerging every inch of it, he took shelter on a raised mattress in his bedroom. But as he waited for help, fearing the worst, some of his cattle had the same idea.
“I had a heifer come into the bedroom,” Schlenert says.
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05/25/2025 - 10:00
05/24/2025 - 19:07
Ten years after the reintroduction of western quolls and brushtail possums into the Ikara-Flinders Ranges national park, rangers say populations of the once-locally extinct mammals are flourishing. In a joint effort between Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species and the South Australian government, the animals live in 'safer havens' in the park where predator numbers have been reduced
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05/24/2025 - 18:24
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NSW floods map: record-breaking rain in charts and maps
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Hogan also backed Littleproud, saying he should “absolutely” should remain leader.
Asked about whether someone like Michael McCormack returning as leader would be a good idea, he said:
I think this is a hypothetical that is not on the cards.
… David Littleproud [has] very strong support in the national party room. And I would say even more support after the process he followed, how transparent he was.
What about his demand to end shadow cabinet solidarity – that didn’t go to the party room did it?
No, because it wasn’t a non-negotiable. So David brought that up in one of his conversations with Sussan. She said that would be unacceptable. David said fine, that’s not a non-negotiable.
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05/24/2025 - 07:03
Differing interpretations of public access rights are at heart of Brockwell case pitting campaign group against festival fans
Public parks have been a cherished part of British life since the 19th century; for the Victorians they represented a “commitment to cultivate public good within the public realm”.
But differing interpretations of this vision for municipal green space are at the heart of a debate over a very 21st-century issue: music festivals.
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05/24/2025 - 07:00
Nettles, hedge garlic, sticky weed: Britain in May is a lush salad bar that I can’t resist, and it’s doing wonders for my skin
I had a daughter during one of the bone-cold early months of this year, which means that my full-time job is now to produce a yield. Between the hours of dawn and midnight, with a few lactic minutes in between, I am a feeding machine for a new person.
And it is this, perhaps, that has led to my somewhat strange new eating habits. Pregnancy may traditionally be the time associated with cravings and aversions – the old cliches of sardines and jam, coal and creosote, bread and crackers. But here, in my postnatal feeding frenzy, I’m eating nettles by the handful. I am chomping on sticky weed. I have been biting the heads off dandelions (bitter – like really serious dark chocolate) and sucking the nectar from inside honeysuckle. This recent chlorophyll gala has, of course, coincided with England’s greatest month: May. Some of us love the look of May, some of us enjoy the smells. But for me, this year, the greatest heady, verdant, leaf-rich pleasure of my life is to eat May by the bushel.
Nell Frizzell is a journalist and author
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05/24/2025 - 05:00
Reefs off the Keys have lost 90% of healthy coral cover in 40 years, but replanting effort aims to make reef more resilient
A taskforce of experts looking into the mass bleaching and decline of Florida’s delicate coral reefs is planting more than 1,000 nursery-grown juveniles from the reef-building elkhorn species in a new effort to reverse the tide of destruction.
Record ocean heat in 2023 hastened the death spiral for reefs in the Florida Keys, which have lost 90% of their healthy coral cover over the last 40 years, largely because of the climate emergency, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
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05/24/2025 - 01:00
New rules for zoos and aquariums include guidance on elephant enclosures and ban on touching fish
Zoos will be obliged to boost conservation efforts and improve animal welfare under the first revision of mandatory standards for the sector in more than a decade.
Under the update to the Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain, last set out in 2012, elephants will need to be kept in larger enclosures and birds of prey must be kept in large aviaries rather than being tethered.
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05/24/2025 - 01:00
Backbencher says ‘it’s time to resolve the issues of access to the English countryside once and for all’
Labour backbenchers are pressing the government to revive a right to roam policy in England after a supreme court ruling enshrined the right to wild camp on Dartmoor.
The court ruled this week that camping on the national park was legal after a multimillionaire hedge fund manager tried to remove the right to camp on his Devon estate, and by extension from the rest of the park.
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05/23/2025 - 16:11
Two-month-old black bear, who was starving in a California forest, is youngest cub the San Diego center has cared for
Human bears, some would say, are taking care of a two-month-old cub that spent days without his mother, starving in a California forest.
The small black bear cub was rescued by campers in Los Padres national forest after being found alone and starving. The infant bear is now recovering at San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center, and is believed to be the youngest cub the organization has ever cared for.
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05/23/2025 - 15:26
President aims to construct new nuclear reactors as he implements his own energy policies and undoes Joe Biden’s
Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Friday intended to spur a “nuclear energy renaissance” through the construction of new reactors he said would satisfy the electricity demands of data centers for artificial intelligence and other emerging industries.
The orders represented the president’s latest foray into the policy underlying America’s electricity supply. Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office over and moved to undo a ban implemented by Joe Biden on new natural gas export terminals and expand oil and gas drilling in Alaska.
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