Delaware’s coastal communities are quietly emerging as a surprising retirement destination, as more Baby Boomers rethink the old playbook of heading to Florida or Arizona and search instead for a more affordable place to enjoy their later years.

Since 2020, Sussex County has welcomed more than 40,000 new residents, pushing the population of the largely rural seaside county up by 17 percent — roughly five times faster than the national growth rate, Bloomberg reported.

That wave of newcomers has also reshaped Delaware’s age profile. Census Bureau figures show the state’s population of residents 65 and older has climbed 23 percent since 2020, the biggest increase recorded anywhere in the country.

A major reason behind the retirement migration boom is Delaware’s growing reputation as a financially attractive alternative for older Americans.

Florida long held the title of a budget-friendly haven for retirees, but soaring home values and steep property insurance premiums have made the Sunshine State far less affordable for many people on fixed incomes.

Delaware, meanwhile, remains slightly cheaper than the national average and significantly more affordable than nearby states including New York, New Jersey and Maryland, according to US Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates.

The state also has no sales tax, while property taxes can be dramatically lower than those in neighboring states.

That has helped attract retirees from the Northeast, with some homeowners able to replace annual property tax bills of around $18,000 in New Jersey with bills closer to $1,500 in southern Delaware, Bloomberg reported.

Jason Gerstenberger, an independent insurance broker specializing in retirement income and wealth transfer, said retirees need to look at more than just state taxes when deciding where to move.

‘Retirees have to look at the full picture when pivoting to a fixed income,’ he said, pointing to property insurance, natural disasters and leisure costs.

Delaware property insurance averages around $1,374 annually compared with roughly $7,100 to $8,500 in Florida, based on recent surveys, Gerstenberger said.

‘Florida’s insurance bill alone can be larger than the entire state income tax bill a typical retiree would have in Delaware,’ he said. ‘People crunch the numbers and Florida loses a bit of its luster.’

The newcomers are also significantly older and wealthier than longtime residents.

Sussex County’s median age reached 53.2 last year, nearly five years higher than it was in 2015 and almost 14 years above the national average.

Families moving to Sussex from other states earned more than $136,000 annually, according to the latest available Internal Revenue Service migration data, compared with less than $92,000 among existing residents.

The pandemic accelerated the trend, with some homeowners turning beach vacation properties into year-round residences.

Others are drawn by the area’s proximity to major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, allowing retirees to remain relatively close to family while enjoying a quieter lifestyle.

Towns including Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Milton have seen an influx of older residents, while developers have responded by building large numbers of new homes farther inland.

Much of the new construction is marketed specifically toward people aged 55 and over.

But southern Delaware is no longer uniformly cheap.

The average price of a home sold in Sussex County was around $471,000 during the three months through June 2026, according to Alexei Morgado, a Florida real estate agent and founder of Lexawise.

‘Southern Delaware, especially the part near the coast, can no longer be said to be affordable,’ he said.

The population boom is also putting pressure on the very amenities that attracted retirees in the first place.

Sussex’s roads, hospitals, schools and other services are struggling to keep pace with the rapid growth, while increasing development has fueled complaints from longtime residents and newcomers.

Traffic has become an increasingly visible problem, particularly along Route 1, as tourists heading to the beach compete with residents navigating their daily commutes.

However, despite the rapid acceleration of infrastructure, healthcare remains a major concern.

Sussex County was already classified as medically underserved before the recent population surge, and the number of residents aged 80 and over is projected to more than double by 2040.

Gerstenberger said the healthcare system is struggling to keep up with the influx.

‘There’s 130 primary care doctors for over 271,000 people,’ he said. ‘Most people moving in have no idea of how inundated the healthcare system is here due to the boom.’

He said the biggest concern is that new housing is being approved faster than doctors and other healthcare workers can be recruited.

‘New buildings are getting approved faster than doctors are getting recruited,’ he said, warning that the shortage could hit the growing Medicare population particularly hard.

Beebe Healthcare, the county’s main hospital, has responded by expanding its workforce and facilities. It has hired more than 50 doctors in four years, a 47 percent increase, and launched a family medicine residency program.

But the growing population has created another problem: finding enough workers to support the expanding healthcare system.

For every new doctor, the hospital needs roughly six additional support workers, according to Bloomberg, and many of those employees struggle to afford housing close to their jobs.

The influx has also transformed the local economy.

The number of business establishments in Sussex County jumped 49 percent between 2020 and 2025, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, while nearly 100 restaurants have opened.

But the rapid development could eventually threaten the qualities that made the area attractive to retirees.

Morgado said the beach access, relaxed lifestyle and relatively affordable cost of living are the region’s biggest draws, but those advantages could deteriorate if growth is not properly managed.

Sussex County’s population reached an estimated 277,140 in 2025, up from 237,378 in the 2020 Census, while the county issued 3,885 building permits in 2025, according to Morgado.

The county’s growth is now becoming a major political issue, with development and concerns over overcrowding taking center stage in local elections.

Then there are the concerns about property taxes.

Sussex County recently completed its first property tax reassessment since 1974, and Gerstenberger said some tax bills along the coast jumped between 200 and 500 percent.

There is another tax catch for newcomers: Since 2018, retirees have had to live in Delaware for 10 years before becoming eligible for the state’s Senior School Property Tax Credit.

Despite the concerns, the area’s fundamental appeal remains strong.

‘The main reasons why people go there in the first place aren’t going away just because more people move in,’ Gerstenberger said. ‘The beach is still the beach.’

Morgado expects the migration to continue, with development increasingly moving inland as coastal communities become more expensive and crowded.

‘Five to ten years from now the beach towns will be totally full so the growth will spill inland,’ he said.

‘The farm fields everybody sees while driving in and out of town will all be subdivisions.’

The challenge, he said, will be expanding the region while preserving the qualities that made it attractive in the first place.

Long days on the set of New Girl often stretched deep into the night — and for the cast, one of the toughest challenges sometimes came after filming wrapped: making it home safely.

Zooey Deschanel has opened up about the exhausting routine she and her co-stars faced, saying they were “forced to drive home” after work because “none of us had rides to work.”

“The hours were insane,” Deschanel said while speaking with fellow New Girl alum Jake Johnson on Wednesday’s episode of his podcast, We’re Here to Help. “I would drive home from work and be almost like falling asleep.”

At times, the late-night drives became so difficult that Deschanel turned to her mother for support.

“My mom would wake up in the middle of the night because I’d be like, ‘I’m so tired. I can’t drive home,’” she recalled. “And she would wake up to talk to me so I’d stay awake. Isn’t that really sweet?”

Johnson agreed. The actor said the schedule was “too much,” and a recent shoot with New Girl alum Damon Wayans Jr. apparently brought some of those memories back.

Johnson and Wayans recently spent a long day filming their upcoming comedy series inspired by The Cable Guy, and Johnson said he was reminded of what happens when a shoot stretches well past a normal workday.

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“You get so weird because you’re so overtired,” he said. “So all of a sudden, we’d be in takes again and I was doing stuff really just to make Damon laugh and he’s doing stuff to make me laugh. And I’m like, you only get here after hour 13 when you’re like, ‘I have to go home now.’”

Of course, the long days don’t seem to have left the New Girl cast with too many bad memories. The stars have continued to speak fondly about the sitcom, which ran for seven seasons, and there’s even been some recent talk of bringing it back.

Max Greenfield added fuel to those revival rumors in July when he said that creator Elizabeth Meriwether had written new scripts.

“I’m not gonna play the game,” Greenfield said on the Today show. “As far as I know, it’s happening.”

So, if the New Girl gang really does return, here’s hoping they get a little more sleep this time around.

Check out the full episode of We’re Here to Help with Zooey Deschanel above.

Germany’s political establishment is bracing for a major shock in the country’s east, where polls suggest working-class communities and younger voters could hand the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) a historic win in Sunday’s Saxony-Anhalt state election.

The AfD, which received a high-profile endorsement from Elon Musk during last year’s national election, has long faced scrutiny over its pro-Russia positions. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has also accused the party of operating as a “right-wing extremist endeavor.” Now, the AfD is within reach of something no party outside Germany’s traditional political power centers — the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) — has achieved since World War II: an outright majority in a state parliament, known as a Landtag.

“The reason Saxony-Anhalt matters,” Daniel Schatz, a foreign policy analyst, author and political science doctorate from Berlin’s Humboldt University, told News Media, “is that the AfD is no longer just knocking on the door of power. It may be close to kicking it open.”

Smaller parties have previously played leading roles in coalition governments at the state level, but since the Federal Republic of Germany was re-established in 1949, no party beyond the SPD, CDU or CSU has governed a German state alone with a single-party majority.

Janek Treiber, a political science researcher at Dresden University of Technology, told News Media that if the AfD does win outright in Saxony-Anhalt, their policy influence would be limited due to the German federal system, but warned “you must not underestimate the political symbol this would give. That a single party, and a right-wing party, could rule a German state… The symbol that these parties, that have been ruling Germany since 1949 or the East since 1990, they now lose control. They now lose power. I think this is a much more important symbol than just saying, OK, (the) AfD will change this or that in its local school system or university system.”

Schatz described the AfD “a nationalist, anti-immigration party on the far right that has become a powerful vehicle for voter anger at Germany’s political establishment — especially in the former East Germany. It campaigns for much tighter immigration, a stronger emphasis on German national identity, rejection of much of the green agenda and a softer line toward Russia.”

An outright win for the AfD, even in Germany’s 6th smallest state, would break through the political establishment’s so-called “Brandmauer,” or “firewall.” Simply put, other parties refuse to work with the AfD, which is currently the second-largest party in the Bundestag, officially the opposition party, after winning 20.8% of the vote in the February 2025 federal election.

In an interview on German broadcaster ZDF, the AfD’s national co-chair, Alice Weidel, advocated for closing Germany’s borders and exiting Europe’s Schengen treaty, saying, “Illegal migration, unchecked open borders, anyone can get in. Our internal security is suffering. People are honestly fed up with this situation.”

Weidel added, “All Syrian refugees must have their protected status revoked because the reason for their flight no longer exists. These people must return to their homeland. If they don’t leave voluntarily, then they must be deported by force.” Adding that many of the 1.3 million Syrians in Germany are being naturalized, “we must stop naturalizing these people who should actually be leaving our country. We have Islamization.”

In May 2025, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” group, citing “anti-migrant positions and an ancestry-based definition of German identity.” This past February, according to Deutsche Welle, that classification was put on hold by a German court after “Judges found that while there was evidence of potentially unconstitutional statements and policies within the AfD… it said that there was not sufficient evidence to characterize the party as a whole as extremist.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently told state broadcaster ARD, “I cannot imagine international investors attending a ground-breaking ceremony with an AfD Minister-President to set up new plants and establish new businesses in Saxony-Anhalt… However, that is a decision for ​the voters in Saxony-Anhalt to make. The state will suffer ⁠considerable damage if things turn out as we now fear they ​might.”

This has done little to damage the popularity of the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund. In a state of just over 2 million people, he has a TikTok following of over 700,000.

A Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) report said Siegmund’s “polished appearance and professional tone lend respectability, and radical demands blend with footage of a community-oriented politician responding to audience questions… The AfD’s physical presence in the streets and omnipresence in the media helps to push the common populist ‘us versus them’ narrative: The AfD is here for you, the other parties are not.”

According to the independent, non-partisan German website Wahlrecht.de, which tracks federal and state election polling, ahead of Sunday’s vote in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD holds a 41%-23% lead over the CDU, followed by three leftist parties. A party or a coalition needs at least half of the seats to control parliament and name a state Minister-President, essentially a governor. So how can a party with only 43% win an election outright? That comes down to Germany’s unique election system.

“German voters cast two ballots,” Schatz says, “One for a local candidate — like voting for your congressman – and one for a party. That second vote, the party vote, is the one that counts. It decides how many seats each party gets in parliament.” But there is a caveat: “Any party that falls below 5% gets nothing — zero seats — and those votes are effectively thrown out. Right now, several smaller parties are hovering right at that line. If they miss it, 42% or 43% of the vote can translate into more than half the seats. So Saxony-Anhalt could wake up to an AfD majority government even though a clear majority of voters chose someone else. That would be a first in postwar Germany.”

The CSIS report said voters are drawn to the AfD “because, or despite of, its extremist ideology. 60.5% of AfD voters hold a right-wing extremist worldview… At the same time, more than two in five AfD voters think that the party does not sufficiently distance itself from right-wing extremist positions.” The report also found that AfD’s “strongest recent gains have been among voters 18–25 years old, where the party tripled its results compared to the 2021 national election.”

Treiber said economics is pushing younger voters to the AfD, due to rising expenses and unemployment. He also said that younger voters are “kind of polarized because the other part of the youth in Germany is voting for the left party (Die Linke).”

Saxony-Anhalt may just be the beginning for the anti-establishment parties. Voters in neighboring Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where former Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up and began her political career, go to the polls in two weeks. Polling data from Wahlrecht.de shows the AfD leading the ruling SPD 35%-32% there. 

Conversely, in Berlin, where voters in the capital also go to the polls in two weeks, the average of recent polling has the far-left Die Linke in a dead heat with the CDU at 20%, followed by the AfD at 18%, with the Greens and the SPD each around 15%. While the majority of the AfD’s support does come from the former East Germany, the party is represented in 14 of Germany’s 16 state legislatures and holds 15 of Germany’s 96 seats in the European Parliament.

An inexpensive pantry staple found in many grocery stores could offer relief for people struggling with bloating and sudden trips to the bathroom, according to a new study.

Scientists examined how ferulic acid may affect irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), two gut-related conditions often linked to disrupted intestinal movement and uncomfortable digestive symptoms.

Normally, the intestines move food and waste through the digestive tract using rhythmic, wave-like muscle contractions known as peristalsis. Those contractions are triggered in part by calcium signals that tell the gut muscles when to squeeze.

When that process falls out of balance, digestion can become difficult. If the gut moves too slowly or the muscles fail to contract strongly enough, constipation, cramping and abdominal discomfort can follow.

But when the intestines become overactive and contract too often, the result can be diarrhea, gas, bloating and an urgent need for frequent bowel movements.

However, researchers found that ferulic acid, an antioxidant found in whole grains and rice bran, may help regulate how the intestines move – particularly overactive intestines – because it interferes with how calcium enters intestinal muscle cells.

With less calcium entering the smooth muscle, contractions weaken, potentially helping to calm an overactive intestine and alleviating symptoms in people with diarrhea-predominant IBD or IBS. 

The study, published in the Journal of Pharmacological Sciences, explained how researchers at Toho University tested their theory using smooth muscle samples from guinea pigs’ small intestines. 

They exposed the muscle to chemicals in the body that normally cause the intestine to contract, such as acetylcholine, serotonin, histamine, and prostaglandins.

Once they added in ferulic acid, they noted it reduced the strength of contractions produced by these signals.

The effect was concentration-dependent: more ferulic acid produced a stronger inhibitory effect, which weakened the stomach movement. 

It was also reversible – once the ferulic acid was removed, normal contractions returned.

READ MORE: Anak Krakatau Volcano Eruption Cancels Flights at Jakarta and Other Indonesian Airports

Additional experiments revealed why this occurs: ferulic acid specifically reduces calcium signals in the gut. 

This could expand options for treatment or relieving symptoms in people with diarrhea-predominant IBS.

But the findings are not one-size-fits-all. 

For people with constipation-predominant IBS, further slowing intestinal movement could make constipation and related symptoms worse. 

Affecting up to one in 10 Americans, IBS has no cure but can be managed with dietary modifications, behavioral therapy and medications such as laxatives, fiber supplements, probiotics and low doses of certain antidepressants. 

Ferulic acid is best known for its skincare benefits, helping slow visible skin aging, brighten skin, reduce redness, and boost other antioxidants. 

Top food sources of ferulic acid that people can add to their diets for natural relief include cereal bran and whole grains such as oats and barley. Plain popcorn is also one of the richest snack sources of the compound. 

Other fruits and vegetables containing ferulic acid include eggplant, carrots, broccoli, spinach, oranges, grapefruit, and apples.

A supplement is also available as a standalone pill for general wellness, while topical serums are available specifically for skincare. 

One noted study limitation was the levels of ferulic acid used in the guinea pigs’ intestines were higher than blood concentrations typically reached through a normal diet.

Researchers suggested ferulic acid levels in the intestine could be higher because the compound from food comes into direct contact with the gut. 

Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano erupted before dawn Sunday, forcing authorities to cancel all flights at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and causing disruptions at several domestic airports as volcanic ash moved over parts of western Indonesia.

The Indonesian Geological Agency said the volcanic island, which sits in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, had been showing increased activity since Friday. It erupted for about 30 seconds at 3:53 a.m. Sunday, with closed-circuit camera footage capturing bursts of glowing lava from the crater.

Officials reported no casualties, and no evacuation order was issued. The closest settlement lies more than 10 miles from the volcano, though authorities urged residents and visitors to keep a minimum distance of 2 miles from the active crater.

Ash from the eruption drifted across sections of Jakarta and Lampung province on the southern tip of Sumatra, according to Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.

AirNav Indonesia shut down airspace around Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta and Halim Perdanakusuma airports, along with four other airports, including Radin Inten II Airport in Lampung, citing the danger posed by volcanic ash.

Thousands of passengers affected

By mid-afternoon, the closure had affected 516 flight movements, with 202 in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport alone that affected about 22,800 passengers, on Sunday. The airport was ordered closed until at least 5:30 p.m.

Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it was closely monitoring the eruption’s impact on air travel and coordinating with airlines, airport operators, air navigation services and the meteorology agency.

“Safety remains our top priority in every operational decision,” Lukman F. Laisa, Ministry of Transportation director general of civil aviation, said in a statement.

He warned flight schedules could face cascading disruptions affecting aircraft rotations, fleet availability and terminal capacity as airlines work to restore operations.

The eruption also disrupted services at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport and at Medan.

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Volcano remains active

Indonesia’s volcanology agency and the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre identified two ash clouds using satellite imagery. One plume rose to 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) and drifted northeast over Jakarta, Banten, West Java and nearby waters.

A second cloud reached 50,000 feet (15,200 meters) and spread over parts of Banten, Lampung and Bengkulu provinces, the southern Sunda Strait and sections of the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra.

Lana Saria, head of Indonesia’s Geological Agency, said activity at Anak Krakatau has intensified since July, with Sunday’s eruption the strongest during the current period of unrest.

The repeated eruptions indicate a continued supply of magma and volcanic gases beneath the volcano, she said, though officials cannot predict whether a larger eruption will occur.

“We continue to evaluate the volcano’s development based on all monitoring data, not solely on the number of eruptions or the height of the ash column,” Saria said in a video briefing.

She said the main hazards include volcanic ash, high concentrations of gas and the ejection of hot rocks and other material around the crater area.

Anak Krakatau, which means “child of Krakatau,” is the offspring of the famous Krakatau, whose monumental 1883 eruption triggered a period of global cooling.

The eruption caused a tsunami in 2018 that killed at least 430 people in Sumatra and Java.

Researchers believe volcanic activity triggered an underwater landslide and caused a large chunk of Anak Krakatau’s southwest slope to collapse and displace a large volume of water.

Scientists said Anak Krakatau island was only about a quarter of its original size after that eruption.