The common space worth in Northern Eire rose by means of 9% all through 2024, in line with reputable knowledge.
The common worth within the ultimate quarter of 2023 was once simply over £168,000, emerging to simply over £183,000 by means of the general quarter of 2024.
The figures from the Northern Eire Statistics and Analysis Company (Nisra) duvet virtually all gross sales, together with money offers.
That’s the absolute best moderate worth since early 2008, simply after the bursting of a belongings worth bubble.
The common worth on the finish of 2024 ranged from £161,000 in Mid and East Antrim to £218,000 in Lisburn and Castlereagh.
The selection of properties bought greater moderately to simply over 23,000.
A British archaeologist believes his crew will have discovered a 2d tomb in Egypt belonging to King Thutmose II.
The prospective in finding comes simply days after Dr Piers Litherland introduced the invention of the primary tomb of a pharaoh since Tutankhamun’s used to be published over a century in the past.
Dr Litherland advised the Observer he suspects this 2d web site will grasp the pharaoh’s mummified frame.
Archaeologists consider the primary tomb used to be emptied six years after burial, because of a flood, and relocated to a 2d.
Dr Litherland thinks the second one tomb lies under a 23-metre (75 feet) man-made pile of limestone, ash, rubble and dirt plaster, that used to be designed by means of historical Egyptians to appear to be a part of a mountain within the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis close to town of Luxor.
The primary used to be situated in the back of a waterfall, and it’s idea to have flooded consequently.
When Egyptologists have been on the lookout for the preliminary tomb, they discovered a posthumous inscription that indicated the content material will have been moved to a 2d location close by, by means of Thutmose II’s spouse and half-sister Hatsheput.
The British-Egyptian crew are actually operating to discover the tomb by means of hand, after makes an attempt to tunnel into it have been deemed as being “too unhealthy”.
“We will have to be capable to take the entire thing down in about any other month,” Dr Litherland stated.
The staff discovered the primary tomb in a space related to the resting puts of royal girls, but if they were given into the burial chamber they discovered it embellished – the signal of a pharaoh.
“A part of the ceiling used to be nonetheless intact: a blue-painted ceiling with yellow stars on it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellow stars are simplest present in kings’ tombs,” stated Dr Litherland.
He advised the BBC’s Newshour programme previous this week that he felt beaten by means of the in finding.
“The emotion of having into this stuff is only one of unusual bewilderment as a result of while you come throughout one thing you might be now not anticipating to seek out, it is emotionally extraordinarily turbulent truly,” he stated.
Thutmose II is highest identified for being the husband of Queen Hatshepsut, considered one in all Egypt’s largest pharaohs and one of the most few feminine pharaohs who dominated in her personal proper.
Thutmose II used to be an ancestor of Tutankhamun, whose reign is thought to had been from about 1493 to 1479 BC. Tutankhamun’s tomb used to be discovered by means of British archaeologists in 1922.
Egg costs jumped greater than 15% in January from a 12 months in the past, with a carton of eggs costing American citizens kind of $4.95. Manufacturers blame it at the fowl flu that has compelled them to euthanize hundreds of thousands of chickens.
With aid no longer anticipated anytime quickly, some egg customers at the moment are searching for possible choices, together with going to the supply itself: Chickens.
Egg customers seek for possible choices
Around the nation, a number of hatcheries who spoke with CBS Information stated they are seeing considerably extra passion in purchasing chickens.
“Gross sales have long gone up dramatically for all of the other people I do know that promote chickens,” Ron Goldsmith stated.
Goldsmith stated gross sales of feed for chickens at his puppy retailer, Mike’s Feed Farm in Riverdale, New Jersey, have greater than doubled since October.
“Each week, we are promoting almost definitely 50% greater than we did the prior week,” he stated.
Renting hens has additionally taken off, with one corporate, Hire The Hen, telling CBS Information they lend out their chickens for 6 months at a time.
“There are a large number of concerns that move into making the dedication to stay chickens,” stated writer Kathy Shea Mormino. “In case you commute so much or have a task that helps to keep you clear of house, many of the day, chickens don’t seem to be a just right puppy for you.”
Referred to as the “hen chick,” Mormino has been elevating chickens in her Connecticut yard for two decades. She stocks her enjoy on social media and needs other people to do their analysis prior to committing to elevating chickens.
She stated no longer all municipalities might mean you can stay chickens, explaining there may well be restrictions at the location of the coop, selection of birds and extra.
“The most productive factor to do is to touch the code enforcement officer for your the town to request details about any barriers that can exist with appreciate to the legalities for your, in your belongings,” Mormino stated.
Pointers for saving on hovering prices
Professionals say the prices of elevating chickens can temporarily upload up. A yard rooster in her top can lay as much as 5 eggs a week, however customers want to imagine the preliminary value of the coop, chicks and feed, which might value 1000’s of greenbacks. In the meantime for those who purchased a dozen eggs a week on the grocery retailer, it could be about $300 in keeping with 12 months.
“I all the time say that they are no longer simply PEZ dispensers and they are no longer giving us eggs,” Mormino stated. “So what number of eggs they lay every week goes to rely on how wholesome they’re, how younger they’re, what the seasonal influences are.”
However there are some tricks to save on eggs as costs proceed to jump. Professionals at Just right House responsibilities counsel substituting a fourth cup of Greek yogurt instead of an egg whilst baking. Liquid left over from a can of chickpeas will also be added to recipes, or whipped into an aioli-like unfold instead of mayonnaise.
Chicken flu affect
The H5N1 pressure of the fowl flu has been spreading since 2022. In keeping with the Facilities for Illness Regulate and Prevention, it is impacted greater than 162 million birds around the nation.
Mormino stated fowl flu is a large fear for flocks at house.
“Chicken flu is sent essentially by way of migratory waterfowl so they are droppings and different secretions are inflamed by way of the virus,” Mormino defined. “All you must do is stroll via duck poop at a pond Within the native park and now you are sporting fowl flu in your sneakers, anyplace you are going.”
She added the fear is right for flora and fauna as smartly.
“So all it takes is a mouse to stroll via inflamed droppings from waterfowl that could be a provider and convey it into your yard. … However there are specific biosecurity measures that you’ll be able to take and will have to be taking as a yard hen space with the superiority of fowl flu.”
Previous this week, the U.S. Division of Agriculture stated it was once seeking to rehire a few of its workers who had been fired as a part of main cuts made by way of the Trump management according to suggestions from Elon Musk’s Division of Potency, or DOGE. The USDA workers had been mavens running to struggle the fowl flu.
“Even supposing a number of positions supporting [highly pathogenic avian influenza] had been notified in their terminations over the weekend, we’re running to unexpectedly rectify the placement and rescind the ones letters,” the USDA stated in a commentary to CBS Information.
Nancy Chen is a CBS Information correspondent, reporting throughout all pronounces and platforms. Previous to becoming a member of CBS Information, Chen was once a weekday anchor and reporter at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. She joined WJLA-TV from WHDH-TV in Boston, the place she spent 5 years as a weekend anchor and weekday reporter.
White-bellied Heron eggs had been accrued from the wild, artificially incubated, and hatched on the White-bellied Heron Conservation Heart, the Royal Society for Coverage of Nature in Bhutan. Credit score: Dr. Yoshihiko Takaki, Director from the Omiya Park Small Zoo, Japan, and Mr. Yukihiro Takahashi, Curator from the Ueno Zoological Gardens, Japan.
The White-bellied Heron (WBH), the sector’s second-largest heron, is a symbolic chook for the folk of Bhutan and in addition a normal “umbrella species” that calls for a habitat with a limiteless, preserved setting. Lately, the WBH’s habitat has been significantly disturbed by way of human actions, and its inhabitants has lowered considerably.
As of 2024, it’s estimated that there are fewer than 45 WBHs on the earth, even though the respectable rely stands at 60. The WBH is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, with roughly 25 folks sighted in Bhutan. Conservation efforts for the species are restricted and fragmented around the area.
In 2021, the Royal Society for Coverage of Nature (RSPN) in Bhutan made up our minds to start out efforts to artificially breed WBH out of doors their pure habitat (ex situ conservation), and the White-bellied Heron Conservation Heart (WBHCC) was once built and started operation in 2022. The WBHCC, situated within the mountainous spaces of south-central Bhutan, a six-hour force from Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, is supported by way of the Royal Executive of Bhutan, global donors, businesses, and world philanthropists.
The middle maintains 3 WBHs in a big aviary on its grounds. Two of those birds had been accrued as chicks from wild nests, and the opposite was once rescued as a wounded chook. The middle plans to assemble no longer handiest chicks but in addition eggs from wild nests to artificially hatch them in an incubator. This was once as a result of monkeys had been seen consuming WBH eggs throughout incubation in monkey-populated spaces.
With fewer than 60 White-bellied Herons left globally, a collaborative effort between Professor Satoshi Shimano’s crew from Japan and the White-bellied Heron Conservation Heart, the Royal Society for Coverage of Nature in Bhutan has effectively hand-reared two chicks. Those chicks had been added to the captive inhabitants, expanding the overall to 5 birds anticipated to be the founders of the captive breeding inhabitants. Credit score: Professor Satoshi Shimano from Hosei College, Japan
Since WBH pairs construct their nests on steep cliffs and prime bushes, gathering chicks and eggs is very bad. A unmarried nest generally produces round 4 eggs. Simplest 3–4 WBH pairs had been showed in Bhutan, however this was once a quite huge quantity in comparison to different nations. Those efforts have been unsuccessful because of a restricted selection of well-trained body of workers and insufficiently evolved hand-rearing tactics.
In 2023, the middle accrued and hatched 3 eggs, however all 3 chicks needed to be euthanized because of genetic abnormalities because of inbreeding because of low inhabitants numbers. Then again, the RSPN deliberate to determine 16 founder populations (8 breeding pairs) by way of 2028 and liberate a minimum of 50 herons within the wild by way of 2050 as a part of the inhabitants recovery methods.
Again in 2018, Professor Satoshi Shimano from Hosei College, Japan, a devoted conservation biologist, met a Bhutanese graduate pupil, Mr. Pema Khandu, who was once operating to preserve the WBH. Having witnessed the extinction of the Eastern unique lines of the Oriental Stork and the Eastern Crested Ibis, Dr. Shimano readily volunteered to lend a hand, pronouncing “I can do the rest in my capability to lend a hand. We will have to no longer let Bhutan make the similar errors we made in Japan.” The tale of conservation efforts that adopted is little short of a fairytale.
Professor Shimano contacted researchers he knew to talk about maintaining the WBH. In 2023, Eastern veterinarians Dr. Takashi Nagamine and Dr. Yumiko Nakaya, from the Okinawa Flora and fauna Federation and the WBH Conservation Group, visited the WBHCC. They concluded that the chick deaths had been most probably because of hand-rearing tactics moderately than genetic abnormalities.
White-bellied Heron chicks had been effectively hand-reared in captivity on the White-bellied Heron Conservation Heart, the Royal Society for Coverage of Nature, Bhutan, with steerage from Eastern captive breeding consultants of avian species. To create a semi-natural setting the place the chicks may just coexist with different chicks, a replicate and a duster had been located close to them. Credit score: Ms. Samten Lekey, Veterinary Officer from the White-bellied Heron Conservation Heart, the Royal Society for Coverage of Nature, Bhutan, and Professor Satoshi Shimano from Hosei College, Japan
A improve crew was once shaped, composed of professionals from the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork and a number of other member associations affiliated with JAZA (Eastern Affiliation of Zoos and Aquariums). Those professionals have been concerned within the captive breeding of Oriental Storks, Okinawa Rails, and Eastern Crested Ibises. The crew visited the WBHCC two times in March and April 2024, throughout the breeding season, taking the Eastern expertise in another country. In addition they supplied steady day by day on-line improve to Bhutan all the way through the breeding season. Apparatus and provides had been donated to the WBHCC.
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Leg abnormalities had been identified to happen continuously in Crested Ibises and Oriental Storks throughout enlargement. An identical leg abnormalities had been seen within the WBH that died in 2023 and in the ones hatched in 2024. Rei Matsumoto, a veterinarian and senior researcher on the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork, urged that the bedding subject material be modified to twigs of a thickness that the chicks may just simply take hold of. In consequence, some of the two chicks confirmed growth in its legs and started to develop properly.
Matsumoto says, “There were previous circumstances the place efforts to stop the extinction of each the Crested Ibis and the Oriental Stork have failed. In an effort to save you a repeat of this, I’m hoping that by way of offering the data that Japan has, we will be able to building up the selection of those birds, even though just a little.”
Mr. Toshio Shiraishi, of the Yokohama Town Preservation and Analysis Heart, oversaw the hatching of eggs. He has revel in breeding infrequent heron species, such because the Eastern Evening Heron.
Even in Japan, it took greater than 20 years to determine the bogus breeding methodology for Crested Ibises and Oriental Storks. Professor Shimano says, “Japan, which is aware of the ache of getting misplaced the endemic Eastern lineage and the next efforts that adopted, will have to be the only to use its personal methodology in another country. Everybody at the crew is dedicated to supporting the WBH for the following two decades.” They’re hopeful that, inside of 5 to ten years, when the captive inhabitants rises to round 30 folks, they’ll liberate a couple of into the wild.
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Quotation:
Uncommon rearing: Eastern collaboration to save lots of near-extinct White-bellied herons in Bhutan takes wings (2025, February 20)
retrieved 22 February 2025
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Alexandria’s sea coast has passed through important adjustments, with the western and japanese shores backing out dramatically between 1935 and 2022. Credit score: Essam Heggy and Sara Fouad
A brand new USC find out about finds a dramatic surge in construction collapses within the historical Egyptian port town of Alexandria, without delay related to emerging sea ranges and seawater intrusion.
As soon as a unprecedented incidence, construction collapses in Alexandria—probably the most global’s oldest towns, steadily known as the “bride of the Mediterranean” for its good looks—have speeded up from roughly one in keeping with yr to an alarming 40 in keeping with yr during the last decade, the researchers discovered.
“The actual charge of this loss extends a long way past bricks and mortar. We’re witnessing the slow disappearance of historical coastal towns, with Alexandria sounding the alarm. What as soon as gave the impression of far-off weather dangers are actually a gift fact,” stated Essam Heggy, a water scientist on the USC Viterbi Faculty of Engineering and the find out about’s corresponding writer.
“For hundreds of years, Alexandria’s constructions stood as marvels of resilient engineering, enduring earthquakes, typhoon surges, tsunamis and extra. However now, emerging seas and intensifying storms—fueled by means of weather exchange—are undoing in a long time what took millennia of human ingenuity to create,” stated Sara Fouad, a panorama architect on the Technical College of Munich (TUM) and the find out about’s first writer.
Coastal erosion: Sinking towns and emerging seas
Even small sea degree will increase—only some centimeters—could have devastating results, Heggy stated, threatening even towns as traditionally resilient as Alexandria, which has withstood centuries of earthquakes, invasions and fires, or even a contemporary city like Los Angeles, the place flash floods and mudslides are actually complicating restoration from the hot wildfires.
Revealed in Earth’s Long run, the find out about coincides with troubling findings from NASA and NOAA appearing that portions of California—together with the San Francisco Bay Space, Central Valley and coastal Southern California—are sinking. Those minor elevation adjustments can considerably heighten flood dangers and saltwater intrusion, scientists warn.
“Our find out about demanding situations the typical false impression that we’re going to best want to concern when sea ranges upward push by means of a meter,” Heggy stated. “On the other hand, what we are appearing here’s that coastlines globally, particularly Mediterranean coastlines very similar to California’s, are already converting and inflicting construction collapses at an exceptional price.”
Within the historical coastal districts of Alexandria, constructions are sinking as emerging groundwater seeps up from under. Credit score: Essam Heggy and Sara Fouad
Monitoring coastal erosion in Alexandria, Egypt
The researchers used a three-pronged solution to assess the affect of coastline adjustments on Alexandria’s constructions.
First, they created an in depth virtual map the usage of geographic knowledge device generation to spot the places of collapsed constructions throughout six districts of town’s historical city space, considered one of its maximum densely populated areas.
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The map catalogs key information about each and every construction, together with its location, dimension, development fabrics, age, basis intensity and choice of flooring.
The information, accrued from website online visits, govt studies, information archives and statements from personal development corporations, spans 2001 to 2021 and contains each totally and in part collapsed constructions.
Subsequent, they blended satellite tv for pc imagery with historic maps from 1887, 1959 and 2001 to trace coastline motion and achieve a deeper working out of the way portions of Alexandria’s 50-mile sea coast have moved tens of meters inland during the last twenty years.
By means of calculating the speed of coastline retreat during the last century, the researchers studied how the shrinking sea coast is elevating groundwater ranges, bringing them into touch with the rules of coastal constructions.
In the end, the workforce analyzed chemical “fingerprints” referred to as isotopes in soil samples to inspect the consequences of seawater intrusion. They measured particular isotopes, like B7, in each and every pattern to evaluate the soil’s mechanical homes. Upper B7 ranges point out more potent, extra solid soil, whilst decrease ranges recommend erosion.
“Our isotope research published that constructions are collapsing from the ground up, as seawater intrusion erodes foundations and weakens the soil. It is not the constructions themselves, however the flooring beneath them that is being affected,” stated Ibrahim H. Saleh, a soil radiation scientist at Alexandria College and probably the most find out about’s co-authors.
Growing waterways is helping town care for weather extremes and connects other folks to well-maintained city areas, linking the internal town to the coast. The method for long run coastal resilience in Alexandria contains keeping up, improving or restoring a inexperienced belt alongside the sea coast. Credit score: Essam Heggy and Sara Elsayed
Growing waterways is helping town care for weather extremes and connects other folks to well-maintained city areas, linking the internal town to the coast. The method for long run coastal resilience in Alexandria contains keeping up, improving or restoring a inexperienced belt alongside the sea coast.
“Our find out about demonstrates that coastal constructions are liable to collapsing even with out without delay encroaching at the seawater as broadly believed,” Heggy added.
A nature-based answer to give protection to coastal towns
To battle coastal erosion and seawater intrusion, the researchers suggest a nature-based answer: developing sand dunes and crops limitations alongside the sea coast to dam encroaching seawater and therefore fighting seawater intrusion from pushing up groundwater ranges to construction foundations.
This sustainable, cost-effective means can also be implemented in lots of coastal densely urbanized areas globally, stated Steffen Nijhuis, a landscape-based urbanist from Delft College of Era within the Netherlands and find out about co-author.
“Conserving the various architectural attributes of Mediterranean historical towns is a formidable reminder of the way panorama transformation has performed a an important function in developing climate-resilient societies,” stated Udo Weilacher, panorama architect at TUM and find out about co-author.
“Historical towns like Alexandria, which constitute the cradle of cultural change, innovation and historical past, are an important for protecting our shared human heritage,” Heggy stated.
“As weather exchange hurries up sea degree upward push and coastal erosion, protective them is not only about saving constructions; it is about protecting who we’re.”
Additional information:
Sara S. Fouad et al, Hovering Construction Collapses in Southern Mediterranean Coasts: Hydroclimatic Drivers & Adaptive Panorama Mitigations, Earth’s Long run (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2024EF004883
Quotation:
Analysis on vanishing coastlines in Egypt gives options for shielding coastal towns, together with the ones in California (2025, February 21)
retrieved 22 February 2025
from https://phys.org/information/2025-02-coastlines-egypt-solutions-coastal-cities.html
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