Jinxi, China: A homeowner in Jinxi, a town southwest of Shanghai, has become the centre of attention after refusing to vacate his house for a motorway project. Workers built the highway around the property after he declined the government's compensation offer, transforming the house into a peculiar landmark.

Huang Ping, the owner of the two-storey house, was offered 1.6 million yuan (approximately Rs 1.9 crore) along with two properties, later increased to three. However, dissatisfied with the deal, he chose to stay. With the highway set to open in spring, Huang now lives at its centre, requiring passage through a large pipe to access the home.

Although Huang regrets the decision, calling it "a big bet" he lost, the house has become a local attraction. Residents and visitors frequently stop by to take pictures of the unusual setup.

To escape the noise and dust from construction, Huang and his grandson spend their days in the town centre, returning home only after work hours. There are concerns that the constant noise from the operational motorway will make peaceful living impossible.

 

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Washington: Former US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday evening that she regrets not expressing her concerns about then-President Joe Biden running for a second term when a majority of Americans felt he was too old for the job.

"I have and had a certain responsibility that I should have followed through on," Harris told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC in her first live television interview since the election.

Such a conversation, even if it happened privately and behind the scenes, would have been an extraordinary breach in a relationship between a president and vice president.

Harris' comments expand on a passage in her book, "107 Days," that looks back on her experience replacing Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after he dropped out of the race. Harris ultimately lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump.

In the book, Harris wrote that everyone in the White House would say “it's Joe and Jill's decision” about running for reelection, referring to the president and first lady. “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” she wrote.

“The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”

In her interview with Maddow, Harris said, "when I talk about the recklessness, as much as anything, I'm talking about myself.”

Harris said in the interview she was concerned that “it would come off as completely self-serving” if she had counseled Biden not to seek reelection. She had competed against him for their party's 2020 nomination, and she was well positioned to run again.

A representative for Biden declined comment.