Great egrets in the Everglades lose interest in sex because of mercury poisoning from the fish they eat. 

The US Fish and Wildlife Service removes endangered species protection from the gray wolf.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy lists “ending the COVID-19 pandemic” as one of President Trump’s accomplishments. More than half a million cases were reported in the last week, and more than 228,000 Americans have died.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt posts a video on Twitter extolling President Trump in apparent violation of the Hatch Act, which forbids electioneering by federal employees.

The Interior Department’s new deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, Jeremy Carl, calls Black Lives Matter a “poisonous organization” whose protests “are based fundamentally on lies and slander about white people, about police, and about America.”

The number of North Atlantic right whales dips to 366 from a previous estimate of 412. 

President Trump strips protections from all 16.7 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, one of the world’s largest remaining intact temperate rainforests. The likely beneficiary? China.

The EPA renews the registration of Dicamba, a carcinogenic pesticide prone to drifting and killing neighboring crops. 

Litigious coal baron Bob Murray dies at age 80 of black lung disease. 

Climate denier Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, cementing a 6-3 right-wing majority. 

Washington State workers in special protective gear eradicate the first nest of Asian giant “murder hornets” found in the state. 

NASA confirms the presence of water on the Moon.

The European Union rules that veggie burgers are still burgers. 

A live 100-pound World War II–era bomb washed up on the beach temporarily closes Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

A Maryland man is sentenced to four years to life in prison for paying $1.5 million in bribes to Russians in order to win a lucrative contract transporting uranium to the US. “I’ve led an otherwise good life,” he tells the court.