Engineers Seek to Save 150-year-old Lighthouse from Crumbling into Hudson River

The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP
The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP
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Engineers Seek to Save 150-year-old Lighthouse from Crumbling into Hudson River

The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP
The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats. AP

Federal engineers will begin the process of preserving a functioning 150-year-old lighthouse that sits precariously on a mudflat in the middle of the Hudson River in New York, officials announced this week.
US Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Army Corps of Engineers said that $50,000 has been allocated to study how to protect the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, which began operating in 1874 and was this year placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of the country’s 11 most endangered historic places.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he believes the development is the next step to securing all the money needed to save the structure, which is only years away from starting to crumble into the river due to ongoing erosion, according to preliminary studies by a historic preservation group.
“This is a landmark, it’s sort of like the Statue of Liberty in a certain sense, of the Hudson River,” Schumer told The Associated Press by phone after announcing the new funding at a riverfront park in Athens, New York, which has a view of the lighthouse. “When people see the lighthouse and learn its history, they learn the history of the country."
The Corps of Engineers will now meet with the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society, which owns the building and maintains it as a museum, and agree on a plan to fix the property, Schumer said.
He said the millions of dollars needed to ultimately rebuild the small island and preserve it are “virtually certain” because it has been listed as a top priority for preservation.
The lighthouse was built in the river 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Manhattan to keep boats from running aground on mud flats between Athens, on the west side of the Hudson River, and the city of Hudson, on the east side. The lighthouse is still in use, though now with an automated LED beacon.
It sits on roughly 200 wood pilings packed in mud beneath the water. Turbulence from passing commercial ships is washing away that mud and exposing the pilings to river water, accelerating decay.
The society has proposed expanding the foundation the lighthouse is built on so that events can be held there and more visitors can walk on the island at once. It has been raising money to build a ring of corrugated steel designed to shield the structure from river turbulence.



Dubai Chocolate Sparks Pistachio Shortage amid TikTok Craze

Shop owner Ali Fakhro prepares Dubai chocolate at his Abu Khaled Sweets oriental pastry shop in Berlin's Wedding district on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
Shop owner Ali Fakhro prepares Dubai chocolate at his Abu Khaled Sweets oriental pastry shop in Berlin's Wedding district on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
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Dubai Chocolate Sparks Pistachio Shortage amid TikTok Craze

Shop owner Ali Fakhro prepares Dubai chocolate at his Abu Khaled Sweets oriental pastry shop in Berlin's Wedding district on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
Shop owner Ali Fakhro prepares Dubai chocolate at his Abu Khaled Sweets oriental pastry shop in Berlin's Wedding district on November 14, 2024. (AFP)

The meteoric rise of Dubai chocolate has triggered a global pistachio supply crunch, exacerbating a worldwide shortage of the green nut and sending its prices soaring.

The bars, a marriage of pistachio cream, shredded pastry and milk chocolate, were a modest hit after their 2021 launch by boutique Emirati chocolatier FIX — until a TikTok video turned them into a global sensation.

The clip, posted in December 2023, has amassed more than 120 million views and fueled a worldwide craze for pistachio chocolate, spawning a host of knock-offs, reported the Financial Times.

Due to the craze, Pistachio kernel prices have surged from $7.65 a pound a year ago to around $10.30 a pound now, said Giles Hacking of nut trader CG Hacking. “The pistachio world is basically tapped out at the moment,” he said, according to the Financial Times.

The chocolate does not come cheap. Lindt’s Dubai offering retails at £10 for 145 grams in the UK, more than double its other bars. But consumers are so keen that some shops are reportedly limiting how many bars each customer can buy, while Lindt and British supermarket Wm Morrison have launched pistachio cream Easter eggs.

Pistachio stocks were already dwindling after a disappointing harvest last year in the US, the nut’s leading exporter. The US crop was also higher quality than usual, leaving fewer of the cheap, shell-free kernels that are generally sold as ingredients for chocolate and other food, said Hacking.

“There wasn’t much in supply, so when Dubai chocolate comes along, and [chocolatiers] are buying up all the kernels they get their hands on that leaves the rest of the world short,” Hacking said.

Iran, the world’s second-largest producer, exported 40 percent more pistachios to the UAE in the six months to March 2025 than it did over the full 12 months before that, according to Iran’s customs office.

The shortage marks a sharp reversal from 2023 when global pistachio supply exceeded demand and caused a price drop, said Behrooz Agah, a board member at Iran’s pistachio association.

Due to that glut, “a variety of byproducts became available such as pistachio butter, oil and paste, which could be used in a wide range of pistachio-based foods,” he said. “That was around the same time Dubai Chocolate was launched and gradually went viral worldwide.”

In California, some farmers have begun switching from almonds to pistachios in recent years due largely to low almond prices, but those trees won’t start producing until next season’s harvest in September.

In the meantime, chocolatiers say they can’t produce enough of the cream-filled bars.

“It feels like it came out of nowhere, and suddenly you see it in every corner shop,” said Charles Jandreau, general manager for Prestat Group, which owns luxury UK chocolate brands.

“No one’s ready for this,” he said, describing his struggles to procure kataifi, the shredded Middle Eastern pastry used in the cream.

Chocolate lovers had already been suffering from a cocoa supply crunch, which led prices to almost triple in 2024 as extreme weather and disease hit harvests. Producers have been selling smaller bars with new recipes that scrimp on the cocoa.