A Virginia mountaintop was scarred by coal mining; it now holds a 200,000-square-foot high school

A flat plateau once damaged by mountaintop removal coal mining has been given a new purpose as the site of a consolidated high school designed to become an educational centre for central Appalachia. The newly built, 200,000-square-foot Southern Gap High School was officially opened during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Buchanan County, Virginia, according to a report by the Virginia Mountaineer. The £60 million facility replaces four older local schools, bringing students from across the county together on one central campus built on a reclaimed ridge. Designed by VMDO Architects, the campus sits on land once used for heavy industrial activity. The project aims to respond to changes in the rural population and aging school buildings by bringing resources together in one modern facility.Transforming an extracted landscapeBuchanan County has long depended on coal mining, with mountaintop removal changing the area's landscape over several decades. According to project documents from VM..

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This California town with 27 apartments and a local post office is still looking for a buyer. The price has come down to $5.9 million

This entire town in California is on sale again. Campo, an entire town in California, just an hour away from San Diego, has been on sale for years. Now the price has hit its lowest as it did not get any luck. The town has its own local post office, a border patrol facility, a church, a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) post, 27 apartments and a hardware store. This isn't the first time Campo has hit the market. The town was listed in 2019 and again in 2024, when it was priced at $6.5 million before being taken off the market. Now it's again on the market with a price of $5,995,000.The current owner, John Ray, has owned the town for 22 years. According to 10News, Ray said he hasn't had the time to develop the property, and so far, it hasn't sold. The listing agent, Nick Hernandez, said the sale covers a specific portion of the area. “It's bringing in about forty thousand a month in current rents,” Nick said.The parcels for sale are not considered historical land, a..

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Mike Johnson abruptly cancels final weeks of House votes amid panic over midterm elections

The House of Representatives abruptly canceled the final two weeks of votes for September, effectively giving the House four days of work before the midterm elections and not being in session during August.
The move comes 60 days before the midterm elections polling shows Democrats poised to win control of the House of Representatives.
But it also comes as Republicans still face major questions about President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpopular war in Iran, the rising cost of living and the president’s plans for overhauling the nation’s capital.
The House passed a continuing resolution earlier this week to keep the government open until December, sending the bill the Senate passed before the recess to the president’s desk. That averted a government shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to face an unruly caucus. Earlier this week, a rule to begin debate on multiple pieces of legislation looked poised to fail after five Republicans defected to vote “no.”
The Republicans i..

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Horrific mugshot shows injuries of Florida man who is accused of attacking cop in the hospital

A man accused of fighting a police officer in a Florida hospital appears to be covered in blood and bruises in his chilling mugshot.
​Ronald Jeffery Johnson, 51, was arrested Saturday after attacking a Fort Lauderdale Police officer at the Broward Health Medical Center, authorities said.
An arrest report obtained by The Independent revealed that an active warrant was already out for Johnson in Georgia, after he failed to appear on “terroristic threats.”
​In his Florida mugshot, Johnson’s blood-covered face looks heavily bruised, with one mark turning purple underneath his eye. The cheek on that side of his face looks heavily swollen. Blood has dried around his nose and mouth, with even one of his ears was soaked red. ​Some of the blood has splattered down onto his heavily tattooed chest.
A gloved hand also appears to be propping Johnson up.
open image in galleryThe mugshot of a man who allegedly attacked a cop in a Florida healthcare facility has been released (Broward County Sheriff&..

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Just 4 of 28 lifts at Queen Mary Hospital block set for service once repairs done

AdvertisementHong Kong healthcare and hospitalsHong KongSocietyJust 4 of 28 lifts at Queen Mary Hospital block set for service once repairs doneArchitectural Services Department says remaining lifts had suffered frequent operational instability and requires urgent follow‑up
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenDanny MokPublished: 11:34pm, 3 Sep 2026Only four of the 28 lifts at Queen Mary Hospital’s new clinical block will operate normally following minor repairs, while work must be carried out on the rest until the end of the year, according to Hong Kong’s architectural authorities.
The Architectural Services Department said on Thursday only four lifts serving non‑clinical facilities at the HK$13.5 billion (US$1.72 billion) block were in acceptable condition and would undergo minor repairs later.
The remaining lifts had suffered frequent operational instability and required urgent follow‑up, it added.
The department expected work to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.
The block, part of ..

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Hong Kong Nepalese man searches for cousin missing in flood: ‘I cannot sleep’

AdvertisementHong KongHong KongSocietyHong Kong Nepalese man searches for cousin missing in flood: ‘I cannot sleep’Y.B. Gurung said he last spoke with his cousin shortly before massive glacial collapse and was asking Chinese embassy for help
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenKristen CheungandEric JiangPublished: 11:23pm, 3 Sep 2026Updated: 12:21am, 4 Sep 2026A Hong Kong Nepalese man is searching for his cousin who is missing after the catastrophic flood struck the Himalayan border between Nepal and Tibet.
Y.B. Gurung, a 64-year-old retiree, told the South China Morning Post that he last spoke with his tour guide cousin Raju Gurung, 40, at 8am on August 26, shortly before a massive glacial collapse triggered the flash flood that washed away villages and left at least 1,225 people dead.
“I cannot sleep every night. I am praying every day that he was rescued,” Gurung said on Thursday.
At the time of the disaster, his cousin was leading a 42-member team on a pilgrimage into Tibet.
The family has tried..

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Dad who won a cabbage in 1977 scoops £4m Bath mansion, £250k cash and luxury perks through Omaze

From a cabbage to a £4 million mansion! (Photo: SWNS) A father who once won nothing more than a cabbage in a 1977 meat draw has now landed a dramatically bigger prize – a £4 million Georgian mansion in Bath, Somerset, along with £250,000 in cash.According to SWNS, Wayne Wood, 64, from Loughborough, Leicestershire, and his wife Catherine, 53, won the historic property through an Omaze prize draw. The couple, who have been married for 18 years and have two teenage children, will also receive the property mortgage-free, with stamp duty and legal fees covered, as well as £140,000 worth of furnishings.From a cabbage to a £4 million mansionWayne Wood’s cabbage win got a major upgrade. (Photo: SWNS)Wayne said his previous prize was a cabbage, which he won nearly five decades ago after entering a meat draw with friends.“A £4 million mansion is quite the upgrade from a cabbage!” he said.“I remember I was with my brass band friends on a trip somewhere up north in the 70s and we all entered a mea..

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Six months of Trump’s Iran war: America won battles, but where is the victory?

When America's commander-in-chief President Donald Trump announced US strikes on Iran under the ambitious Operation Epic Fury in the early hours of February 28, there was little ambiguity about what Washington wanted from the campaign.This was not supposed to become another open-ended Middle Eastern war. The objective was to unleash overwhelming American military power, destroy Iran’s most dangerous capabilities, force Tehran to accept Washington’s terms and leave behind an Iran weakened enough that it could no longer pose the same strategic threat.Trump also appeared confident that the campaign would be relatively short. After his intervention in Venezuela earlier in 2026, he suggested that the war could last four or five weeks. Within days, he was already claiming that the military campaign was running ahead of schedule.“We're already substantially ahead of our time projections,” Trump said on March 2, just days after the campaign began, while adding that whatever time the ..

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