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MaryLou CostaTechnology ReporterGetty ImagesQueensland has seen serious winter and spring floodingAs the skies unleashed six months of rain in February over North Queensland, Australia, many locals endured sleepless nights, unsure what level of flooding and damage they would wake up to.Perhaps none more so than Andrew Brown – a cybersecurity lecturer by day, with a side hustle as a self-made amateur weather forecaster.Few know that Mr Brown is the brains behind Wally’s Weather – a Facebook page with 107,000 followers and 24 million monthly views, focusing on weather across the tropical state of Queensland.During the record-breaking flooding, when 400 people…

ReutersThe Dalai Lama appeared in traditional robes and a flowing yellow wrap, smiling and walking with the aid of two monksThousands of Tibetan Buddhists streamed into India’s Himalayan town of Dharamshala on Sunday to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama.Ferocious monsoon rains did not dampen the spirits as the Tibetan spiritual leader appeared in traditional robes and a flowing yellow wrap, smiling and walking with the aid of two monks.The hilltop temples echoed with chants, while dance troupes performed with clanging cymbals and bagpipes. Indian ministers, long-time followers including Hollywood actor Richard Gere and thousands of devotees gathered…

DEAR ABBY: I recently received a voicemail from my brother that recorded a conversation he was having with his wife. It was clear he didn’t know he had accidentally dialed my phone during this conversation. It was an argument, which lasted two minutes before there was a pause in the conversation and he hung up.  I haven’t addressed it with him yet because I am shocked at my sister-in-law’s behavior during this conversation, and the way she treats my brother. I have known for a while that she blames others for situations she should share the blame in, but I…

Housing construction in Los Angeles plunged during the first quarter of 2025, according to a new report, a drop-off that could ultimately worsen the city’s affordability crisis. The city approved permits for 1,325 new homes during the first three months of 2025, down nearly 57% from the same period a year earlier.In the report released Tuesday, research firm Hilgard Analytics blamed the sharp decline on a variety of factors that have made it more difficult for developers to turn a profit, including high interest rates, tariffs and economic uncertainty, as well as a property-transfer tax known as Measure ULA. Hilgard…

Adrienne MurrayTechnology ReporterReporting fromLongyearbyen, NorwayGetty ImagesNorway’s Longyearbyen is the world’s northernmost townHigh above the Arctic Circle, the archipelago of Svalbard lies halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole.Frozen, mountainous, and remote, it’s home to hundreds of polar bears and a couple of sparse settlements.One of those is Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost town, and just outside the settlement, in a decommissioned coal mine, is The Arctic World Archive (AWA) – an underground vault for data.Customers pay to have their data stored on film and kept in the vault, for potentially hundreds of years. “This is a place to make sure…

Gary O’Donoghue in Kerr County and Ana Faguy in WashingtonBBC NewsBBC reports from the scene of floods in Kerr CountyThe warning signs were already flashing as hundreds of young people celebrated the Fourth of July public holiday at Camp Mystic, an all-girls’ Christian summer retreat, nestled on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.There had not been a drop of rain in the area recently until the inundation, when the river rose 26ft (8m) in less than an hour, according to state officials. By Saturday evening, at least 51 people were dead, including 15 children.The first hint of the…

A perfect storm of a slow-moving pocket of moist air, parched terrain and a hilly area prone to flash flooding unleashed absolute hell on Texas Hill Country — where more than 40 people have died, according to meteorologists. Everything was in “exactly the wrong place” on July 4, Alan Gerard, a recently retired storm specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told USA Today. The trouble all started with Tropical Storm Barry. The storm made landfall on the eastern coast of Mexico Monday morning, according to FOX 7 Austin meteorologist Adaleigh Rowe. The storm continued to move northward until…

The report and photo were sent by Patti: Stolen and missing: a brown 2008 Ford Ranger pickup with a camper shell and roof rack, C89334U. Screenshot Today we found insurance papers for a vehicle from South Seattle in the middle of a street in North Admiral. When contacting the owner, they realized their vehicle had been stolen, probably on July 4. The owners ask for help in locating the vehicle in case it is still in West Seattle. Call 911 if you find it. Source link

Tenants hunting for office space in the Los Angeles area are in the driver’s seat as vacancies plague many landlords trying to fill their buildings with people.The greater Los Angeles office rental market started the year with a turbulent first quarter and historically high vacancies as tenant demand was persistently soft in spite of more robust return-to-office policies coming from managers. A notable exception was Century City, which is experiencing tight occupancy and some of the highest rents in the West. Countywide, though, overall office vacancy reached a new high of 24.2%, real estate brokerage CBRE said. When “shadow” office…

Padraig BeltonTechnology ReporterGetty ImagesThe Apollo mission lunar rovers were lightweight vehiclesGoing back to the Moon after half a century, and then to Mars, literally means reinventing the wheel.After all, Mars is a long way to come back if you get a flat.”One thing you cannot have is a puncture,” says Florent Menegaux, chief executive of the French tyre-maker Michelin.The tough conditions on Mars have been underlined by the experience of the unmanned Curiosity rover.Just a year after landing in 2012, its six rigid aluminium tyres were visibly ripped through with punctures and tears.As for the Moon, the US Artemis missions…