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Edith Larson, Lviv (2025)

09/12/2024

Thousands still without power after Storm Darragh

Community assistance centres are open for the thousands of households who are still without power after Storm Darragh.

Latest figures from NIE Networks show that about 95,000 homes were affected by power cuts over the course of the storm, with about 3,000 customers remaining without power.

NIE Networks say it may be a number of days before they can reconnect all those affected.

The energy provider said it had deployed 600 staff and was working to bring in additional personnel from across the UK.

NIE Networks operations manager Alex Houston said: "Most of the faults affecting high numbers of customers have been repaired which has allowed us to restore significant numbers of customers.

"However, there are still around 1,200 faults across the network some of which are affecting very small numbers of customers so we do anticipate that it will take some time before we can get all of these cleared."
Stephen Haughey was getting ready for bed on Saturday morning when he heard an "unmerciful bang" as a large tree fell 15m away from his family's home in Bayview Gardens in Londonderry.

"I looked out and there was the tree on two cars, within 10 seconds it was down," he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

One of the vehicles had been written off, he said.

"Soft top it looks like... it's totally ruined now," he added.

Mr Haughey said the other car suffered "superficial damage" and he is "quite pleased with that one".

Paul Wright and his son Luca were among those affected by power cuts on the Markethill Road area in Craigavon.

"We've been without electricity for about 24 hours.

"So we're doing a lot of talking to each other instead of playing with our tablets.

"We've been lucky to have family close by."

Assistance centres
NIE Networks will open community assistance centres across Northern Ireland from 12:00 - 14:00 and 17:00 - 19:00 on Monday to offer assistance to those still without power.

The centres will be at the following locations:

South Lake Leisure Centre in Craigavon
Seven Towers in Ballymena
Kilkeel Leisure Centre
Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre, Ballymoney
Omagh Leisure Centre
Donaghadee Community Centre
Dungannon Leisure Centre
The centres will offer warm drinks, charging and changing facilities and NIE Networks staff will be on hand to answer any queries.

The Red Cross will also be working with NIE to provide support in a number of locations across Northern Ireland.
An amber warning for wind - the second highest level of weather warning - was issued from 01:00 GMT until 15:00 on Saturday.

A yellow wind warning had them come in until 06:00 on Sunday.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said it responded to about 900 incidents, mainly debris on roads, fallen trees and flooding.

Essential travel only was advised on Saturday and there were several road traffic accidents.

A substantial number of road closures remain in place and road users are advised to plan their journeys in advance.
At one point on Saturday morning, there were no trains running in Northern Ireland but many lines have now resumed albeit with delays.

Bus services, flights and ferries were also affected.

Electricity generation was temporarily suspended at Ballylumford, one of Northern Ireland's main power stations, after the natural gas-fired power station reported structural damage to one of its smaller chimneys.

A number of festive events were cancelled and councils closed some facilities on Saturday and Sunday.

All six Irish Premiership games were cancelled, with late postponements having left fans in an "appalling situation", according to Communities Minister Gordon Lyons.
All the latest road closures and fallen trees can be found on the Traffic Watch NI website.

For the latest on weather you can check the Met Office website, or keep up to date with BBC weather.

To report faults or emergencies you should contact:

Northern Ireland Housing Executive: 03448 920 901
Openreach: 08000 23 20 23 or visit openreach.co.uk
Gas networks: 0800 002001
NI Water: 03457 44 00 88 or visit niwater.com
Flooding Incident Line: 0300 2000 100
NIE Networks: 03457 643 643 or visit nienetworks.co.uk

12/11/2024

Repair plan for walking trail damaged by storm

Work to restore pathways and crossings on a walking trail badly damaged by Storm Babet last autumn is being planned.

The storm washed away sections of the path and some stepping stone crossing points, along the 2.5 mile (4km) Rivelin Valley Trail, which links Sheffield to the Peak District National Park.

Sheffield City Council’s finance and performance policy committee is to be asked to approve spending £30,400 on feasibility plans for the repairs at a meeting next week.

A report to the committee stated damage to the public right of way had "significantly impacted access to and through the valley".
The report added: "There is expectation from the users, local community and stakeholders that the damage will be repaired and access restored."

The project is expected to be completed by October 2025.

Meanwhile, the same committee is to be asked to approve a £262,900 budget for a programme of works to support species survival in Shirebrook Valley.

The project will concentrate on waterways in Shirebrook Valley, Beighton Marsh, Woodhouse Washlands, Wickfield Plantation, Richmond Park and Silkstone Ravine in Birley Spa.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service the government’s DEFRA Species Survival Fund has awarded a grant of £1,112,200 for work in the area.

07/11/2024

Farmers fear for future as 'crunch point' hits

Jersey farmers have said they are worried about the future of the industry ahead of an annual conference later.

The conference, arranged by the arms-length organisation Farm Jersey, is set to discuss the challenges facing the sector.

Phil Le Maistre, from Master Farms, said he was concerned about increasing costs and the lack of people working in agriculture.

He said he was saddened by the state of the industry as the number of farmers in the island declined.
He said: "Nowadays, there's less than 12 dairy farms, there's a similar amount of potato growers.

"We've got amazing soil, we've got an amazing climate to grow produce, to rear livestock, but less and less people are doing it."

Mr Le Maistre said a government plan to increase the minimum wage in 2025 was a "real concern" for the business.

He said Jersey farms would never be able to grow food cheaper than other jurisdictions so they needed more government support.

"We cut back last year on certain vegetables just because of the cost of growing them and we will have to keep doing that if we don't get more support," he said.
Vegetable farmer Christine Hellio said she was concerned about food security for the island.

"The average age of a farmer worldwide is 64," she said.

"Years ago it used be 20s and 30s, the amount of farmers is reducing vastly... we should really be looking at that, where is our food going to come from?"

Small-scale farmer Oliver Griggs said he believed there was "big change" coming for farming in Jersey.

"We've been going down one path for the last 30 years, and that's the path of scale... I think we're at a point in time where these systems have reached a bit of a crunch point, we're no longer able to afford all this cheap food that we were promised," he said.

He said he and other young farmers were already "doing something different" by using a style of regenerative farming that looks after the land and puts the customer at the centre.
John Garton, who organised the conference, said regenerative farming would be a key focus for this year's event.

He said financial support from the government had increased in the last few years and farming now depended on more regenerative techniques.

"It's not just sustainable, I always think sustainable is sort of keeping things as they are whereas regenerative is improving what we have," he said.

14/10/2024

Explorer Shackleton’s lost ship as never seen before

After more than 100 years hidden in the icy waters of Antarctica, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance has been revealed in extraordinary 3D detail.

For the first time we can see the vessel, which sank in 1915 and lies 3,000m down at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, as if the murky water has been drained away.

The digital scan, which is made from 25,000 high resolution images, was captured when the ship was found in 2022.

It’s been released as part of a new documentary called Endurance, which will be shown at cinemas.

The team has scoured the scan for tiny details, each of which tell a story linking the past to the present.

In the picture below you can see the plates that the crew used for daily meals, left scattered across the deck.
The flare gun was fired by Frank Hurley, the expedition's photographer, as the ship that had been the crew’s home was lost to the ice.

“Hurley gets this flare gun, and he fires the flare gun into the air with a massive detonator as a tribute to the ship,” explains Dr John Shears who led the expedition that found Endurance.

"And then in the diary, he talks about putting it down on the deck. And there we are. We come back over 100 years later, and there's that flare gun, incredible.”
Sir Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer who led the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

But the mission was doomed from the outset.

Endurance became stuck in pack ice within weeks of setting off from South Georgia.

The ship, with the crew on board, drifted for months before the order was eventually given to abandon ship. Endurance finally sank on 21 November 1915.

Shackleton and his men were forced to travel for hundreds of miles over ice, land and sea to reach safety - miraculously all 27 of the crew survived.

Their extraordinary story was recorded in their diaries, as well as in Frank Hurley's photographs, which have had colour added for the Endurance documentary.
Shackleton’s descendants say Endurance will never be raised - and its location in one of the most remote parts of the globe means visiting the wreck again would be extremely challenging.

But Nico Vincent from Deep Ocean Search, who developed the technology for the scans, along with Voyis Imaging and McGill University, said the digital replica offers a new way to study the ship.

“It's absolutely fabulous. The wreck is almost intact like she sank yesterday,” said Mr Vincent, who was also a co-leader for the expedition.

He said the scan could be used by scientists to study the sea life that has colonised the wreck, to analyse the geology of the sea floor, and to discover new artefacts.

“So this is really a great opportunity that we can offer for the future.”

The scan belongs to the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust who also funded and organised the expedition to find Shackleton’s ship.

The Endurance documentary is premiering at the London Film Festival on 12 October and will be released in cinemas in the UK on 14 October.

19/09/2024

World-first operation to treat rhino’s broken leg

A rhinoceros with a broken leg is back on its feet after a world-first operation.
Amara, a southern white rhino at Knowsley safari park, was given keyhole surgery and had to wear a cast for four weeks.
Surgeons took what they knew about operating on horses and applied it to Amara because there was so little information about rhinos which had been injured in this way.
A team of 10 vets was involved in the operation, which they described as "unlike anything we've experienced previously".
Senior Lecturer in Equine Surgery at the University of Liverpool, Dr David Stack, explained: "Amara's operation is unlike anything we've experienced previously.
"We knew we could position the camera inside her joint, but due to the unprecedented nature of the procedure, we didn't know how much room we would have to operate, or how much of the affected area we would be able to see."
Amara wore a full limb cast to support her leg post-operation and stayed in her enclosure to minimise movement.
Knowsley Safari's animal keepers provided a comfortable space by keeping her with mum Meru, covered the floor of her stall in rubber mats and straw, and provided plenty of mud.
Dr Stack said: "We were unsure if the cast would be strong enough and how Amara would cope with such a restriction on her limb.
"We hoped that she would accept it and that she would be able to move around, get down and, importantly, back up again but this was unchartered water."
Eventually, Amara was on her feet again and able to enjoy life outdoors once more, graduating from a small paddock and to the open space of the park's Safari Drive.
The surgical team injected Amara's affected joint with platelet-rich plasma, a solution derived from Amara's own blood, to help with Amara's ongoing healing.
Dr Stack concludes: "Treating Amara has been a truly ground-breaking veterinary journey incorporating many firsts which we will now document should another animal team encounter similar scenarios in the future, though we very much hope the notes are never needed."
Amara's birth in October 2022 was showcased on Channel 4's Secret Life of the Safari Park.

23/08/2024

Rhinos arrive at safari park as another leaves

Two new rhinos have arrived at a safari park as another member of the herd prepares to leave.
Granville, a five-year-old male, moved to Woburn Safari Park, Bedfordshire, on 20 August and three-year-old female Azeeza arrived later that day from Safari Zoo Cumbria.
But the keepers are preparing to say goodbye to Bonnie, Granville's aunt and a "much loved" member of the herd, who is moving to West Midlands Safari Park.
Keeper Zack Turner said: "It's always sad to see any of our animals go, especially Bonnie. She's a great rhino to work with and has so much personality."

"Although it's sad to see her go, the chance to hopefully have a breeding group of rhino, with the introduction of Granville, is something that excites us all," he added.
To ensure a smooth transition for Bonnie, the safari park keepers have spent training time with her, making sure she feels comfortable and at ease for her journey.
The process has involved using the crate as a tunnel between the house and the sand yard, which has helped her become familiar and comfortable with it in the weeks leading up to the move.
Southern white rhinos are classified as "near threatened" due to poaching and habitat loss in the wild.

06/08/2024

Is carbon capture an efficient way to tackle CO2?

It could be a scene from science fiction. Towering over dark, mossy lava fields are stacks of noisy machines the size of shipping containers, domes, and zig-zagging silver pipes.

Found 30km (19 miles) southwest of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, this is the world’s largest direct air capture (DAC) facility.
Called Mammoth, it has been developed by Swiss firm Climeworks.
It has been running for two months, sucking global-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air, then storing it deep underground where it turns to stone.
Twelve collector containers are now installed, but in the coming months 72 of them will circle the large processing hall.
“That will enable us to capture 36,000 tons of CO2 every year,” Climeworks’ chief commercial officer, Douglas Chan, tells the BBC.
The idea is to reverse emissions that have already been pumped into the atmosphere.
Each collector unit has a dozen powerful fans, which, every 40 seconds, can suck up enough air to fill an Olympic swimming pool.
“The technology relies on sucking in lots and lots of air, slowing it down so that the filter can capture it, and then venting the air back out the end,” says Mr Chan.

CO2 only makes up a tiny proportion of the atmosphere (0.04%), so capturing it requires a lot of electricity.
For Mammoth that electricity comes from a neighbouring geothermal power plant, so, while operating, the plant is emissions free.
Once full, the collection chambers are flushed out with hot steam, which is piped into the processing hall.
Inside the hall, Mr Chan points out two enormous balloons overhead, which together hold a single tonne of CO2.
That captured CO2 is then mixed with fresh water, in an adjacent tower.
“It’s almost like a shower,” explains Dr Martin Voigt, from Icelandic firm Carbfix, which has developed a process to turn CO2 into stone.
“From the top, water trickles down. The CO2 is coming up, and we dissolve the CO2.”
Hidden inside two white, igloo-like domes nearby are injection wells, where the CO2-laden water is pumped more than 700m underground.

“This is a fresh basalt here,” says Dr Voight, showing me a lump of black rock taken from a recent volcanic eruption, and riddled with tiny holes. “You can see there's a lot of porosity.”
Iceland has an abundance of volcanic basalt, and this bedrock acts like a storage reservoir. When the carbon meets other elements found in the basalt, a reaction kicks off and it solidifies, locking it away as carbonate minerals.
“Here you can see a lot of these pores are now filled with whitish specks,” says Dr Voight, handling a sample of drilled out rock.
“Some of these are carbonate minerals. They contain the mineralised CO2.”
The process is quick, claims Dr Voight enthusiastically. “We're not talking about millions of years.”
“Around 95% of the CO2 was mineralised within two years in the pilot project. This is incredibly fast. On geological timescales at least.”

25/07/2024

Nuclear fusion prototype will be 'UK's Nasa moment'

A nuclear fusion energy plant being built in Nottinghamshire has been described as the "UK's Nasa moment" as it races to become the first of its type in the world.
The experimental work, based at the decommissioned West Burton A power station near Retford, is aimed at creating a new energy source.
The project, called Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), was showcased at a launch event on Tuesday in Gainsborough, just over the border in Lincolnshire.
Nuclear fusion recreates the same process that powers the sun and if plans are approved, backers said the project was expected to be constructed by 2040.

The STEP project is being led by UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UK IFS), which is owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
West Burton A was chosen as the location for the facility in October 2022 by the government.
Prof David Gann, chair of UK IFS, said: “We’re on the cusp of creating an energy source for the world which will be transformative.
"We’re turning science into reality right here in Nottinghamshire.
“It’s a magnificent opportunity for any region to take on.
"We’ll see all sorts of new sectors opening up in robotics, AI [artificial intelligence], engineering, manufacturing and materials, and new companies growing.”

Fusion is the process of combining atomic particles together, releasing huge amounts of energy, and is much cleaner than the nuclear fission currently used by some other power stations, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
If the project is successful, it is estimated that hundreds of jobs will be created during the design phase, thousands during construction and hundreds more for the long-term operation.

05/07/2024

Next few weeks 'critical' for terns after bird flu

National Trust rangers watching over Britain’s largest mainland colony of Arctic terns say the next few weeks are "critical", after 1000 chicks died from bird flu in 2023.
Long Nanny, on the Northumberland coast, is also home to a small colony of Little terns, one of the rarest seabirds in the UK, who were similarly impacted by the bird flu outbreak.
This year the number of adult breeding birds is lower, with the amount of nests with eggs down by 20%.
Area ranger James Porteus says rangers are "on tenterhooks to see if the chicks survive".

"The good news is that the number of returning adults, while down, is higher than we feared, with over 2,000 breeding adults recorded," he said.
"We are just hoping the chicks are able to survive the annual pressures of predation and extreme weather due to climate change," he added.

The team has also confirmed the first known breeding attempt between an American Black tern and Arctic tern.
However, although three eggs were successfully laid, it now seems that they are unlikely to hatch.
Professor Chris Redfern, from Newcastle University, said: “Black terns from Europe visit the Northumberland coast occasionally each year, but it is very unusual for such a bird to pair up with a very different species of tern.
"We suspect that the species difference between Arctic and Black terns is too wide to allow healthy, living chicks to develop, but it will be interesting to see if they try again next year,” he added.
Visitors to Long Nanny are asked to keep dogs on a short lead at all times, and to stay a safe distance from the colony to avoid disturbing the birds.

20/06/2024

Campaign to protect former golf course from housing

A campaign has been launched to protect a former golf course from possible development.
Residents and the town council in Bradford on Avon want the "ecologically rich" land to be rewilded and turned into a nature reserve.
Chris Alexander, who has made a short film for the campaign, said: "I feel that the biodiversity and the wildlife that has moved into here, outweighs the need for potential housing."
The land has been included as a reserve site in Wiltshire Council's draft local plan but a spokesperson said it would only be considered for development if targets cannot be met elsewhere.

Bradford on Avon Town Council has launched a petition asking Wiltshire Council to remove the former golf course from its draft local plan for housing.
The golf course, running alongside the River Avon, closed in 2007.
It has previously been the subject of housing applications, one of which was rejected in 2008 over concerns the development would involve the "disturbance of large quantities of toxic waste".
"It was a tip at one time, so there is evidence that there are quite a few toxic chemicals underground," said resident, Kate Nottage.
"The run off into the Avon is a risk, the loss of biodiversity is a huge risk."
Despite the concerns, it has been earmarked by Wiltshire Council as a reserve site for up to 120 homes, which could be built up to 2038.

Mr Alexander, of White Space Films, was commissioned to produce a 14-minute film showing the wildlife benefits of protecting the site, near Greenland View, from development.
Cabinet member for development management and strategic planning, Nick Botterill, said: “This is large and complex undertaking.
"We want to be sure that we get it right, so everyone’s views have been considered prior to the plan being submitted to the planning inspector for examination."
The cabinet will consider the results of a consultation about the site's future in October.

04/06/2024

China's far-side Moon mission begins journey back

China says its lunar probe has successfully taken off from the far side of the moon to begin its journey back to Earth carrying the first samples ever collected from the region.
State media says the collecting module of the Chang'e-6 craft lifted off about 07:38 on Tuesday (23:38 GMT Monday) to begin the journey back.
On Sunday, the robot landed in a giant crater close to the moon's south pole in a world-first feat celebrated by the international science community.
China is the only country to have landed on the far side of the moon, having also done so before in 2019.
The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) described the mission's landing and lift-off as an ''unprecedented feat in human lunar exploration''.
The far or "dark" side of the moon - which faces away from Earth - is technically challenging to reach due to its distance, and its difficult terrain of giant, deep craters and few flat surfaces.
Space officials have had to use a satellite to direct and maintain communications with the Chang'e-6 craft.
China aims to be the first country to bring back rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon, which scientists say could be very different from rock formations on the near side.
State media published videos from China's space agency showing the Chang'e 6 craft sticking out a little arm and waving the Chinese flag after it collected the precious samples.
It is China's sixth mission to the moon, named after the moon goddess Chang'e in Chinese mythology.
Successful mission so far
The CNSA announced the sampling's conclusion on Tuesday saying the craft had "withstood the test of high temperature on the far side of the moon" and was now beginning its return.
Its ascender module successfully "lifted off from the lunar surface" on Tuesday with samples in a metal vacuum container.
After taking off, the module then entered a "pre-set orbit around the moon". The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule set to return to Earth, landing in the desserts of Inner Mongolia around 25 June.
Chang'e-6 had spent two days gathering rocks and soil - using a mechanical arm and drill to collect about 2kg (4.4lb) of material.
It has been based in the South Pole-Aitken basin - a gigantic crater on the moon's far side which is one of the largest known in the solar system.
Directing the craft there had been fraught with risks because it is very difficult to communicate with spacecraft once they reach the far side of the Moon.
China's space authorities described the operation as involving "many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty".

17/05/2024

Jersey Zoo announces death of gorilla

A gorilla, which has been at Jersey Zoo for almost 40 years, has died.

The 45-year old female western lowland gorilla named Kishka joined the zoo in 1984, aged six.

Staff said she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2020 and keepers and vets have been managing her condition.

Ben Matthews, curator of mammals at Jersey Zoo, said she had been known for her gentle temperament and her death was "incredibly sad for everyone".

Gorilla house closed
The zoo said the difficult decision was made to put Kishka to sleep after a decline in her condition.

The zoo's gorilla team said they were working to ensure the rest of the troop, including silverback Badongo, females Bahasha and Hlala Kahilli, and four-year-old Amari, were managed sensitively.

Staff said the gorilla house will remain closed for several days to allow the troop time to adjust.

'Gentle temperament'
Ben Matthews, curator of mammals at Jersey Zoo said it was "incredibly sad for everyone".

He added: "Over the years, Kishka was a stalwart of Jersey Zoo’s gorilla troop, taking life in her stride and at her own pace.

"She was known for her gentle temperament; acting as a stoic, matriarchal figure for many young gorillas, as well as helping to induct generations of young zookeepers into careers with great apes.”

Mr Matthews said staff "have handled the process carefully and considerately and will continue to monitor the troop closely over the next few weeks.”

Edith Larson

09/12/2024

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07/11/2024

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19/09/2024

23/08/2024

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