Following the bombshell that was the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment report on the climate crisis, people have been reassured by the implication that giving up flying is more impactful than giving up meat. This could not be further from the truth, as Claire Hamlett explains.

The plight of an alpaca named Geronimo, condemned to death by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), has pierced the hearts of thousands of people around the country. Yet Geronimo is just the latest victim in the UK government’s misguided crusade against bovine tuberculosis.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has today released a landmark report identifying methane as a key greenhouse gas (GHG) to include in strategies tackling global warming ‘unequivocally’ caused by human activities, including livestock farming.

At the Tokyo Olympic Games yesterday, German athlete Annika Schleu set out on the equestrian stage of the modern pentathlon in tears astride a clearly distressed horse called Saint Boy. Heartbreaking scenes, but footage reviewed afterwards showed something far more shocking: event coach Kim Raisner appearing to strike Saint Boy with her fist in an attempt to control him and telling Schleu to whip him harder.

The EU has just lifted a ban on feeding animals byproducts of animal-based food production that has been in place for nearly 30 years following the BSE crisis of the 1990s that led to people dying from vCJD. Are we really going to ignore the lessons of the past?

The climate is breaking down before our eyes. This year has seen extreme weather events around the world, from the catastrophic floods in northern Europe and China to raging wildfires in Turkey, Greece, and the US, that have even shocked climate scientists. The disasters have produced many casualties, both human and non-human, with farmed animals among them.

While everyone was distracted by Covid-19, in a matter of days Russia has quietly passed amendments to laws that effectively legalise trophy hunting of endangered species for “research and education” or in “exceptional cases”.

The US city of Berkeley in California has sent one of the strongest signals yet that the disproportionate impact of animal agriculture on the environment is being recognised, by becoming the first US city to set a plan to one day only spend public money on plant-based foods.

A Guardian article out this week has highlighted the sad story of two right whales in the Gulf of St Lawrence seen entangled in fishing gear, bringing to light the controversy at the heart of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and its so-called ‘blue tick ecolabel’ that certifies fisheries responsible for killing endangered species.

Animals have been “systematically mistreated” over several months in a slaughterhouse linked to the German company Mecke. According to animal rights activists from SOKO Tierschutz who released hidden camera footage yesterday, workers were seen beating a cow “to the bone” until unconscious as part of a suspected animal testing operation.

Veganism is on the rise in China, but what are the unique challenges faced by the country’s fledgling vegan society? We spoke to the CVS team about plant-based trends and championing animal justice within a unique cultural and political setting.

What makes a person get up before dawn, travel to an unremarkable factory outside Scunthorpe in the north of England with other activists and storm a rooftop, ‘lock on’ outside the gates or affix oneself to the top of a bamboo tower or van as part of a three-day blockade? We spoke to three activists to find out.