Michelle Obama’s autobiography, Becoming is on track to become the most successful memoir (回忆录) in modern publishing history, selling more than 10m copies to date, as life after the White House continues to prove commercial gold for brand Obama.

Thomas Rabe, chief executive of the German media group Bertelsmann, said the title was the book giant’s biggest success of the last year. “We believe that these memoirs could well become the most successful memoir ever,” he said.

Penguin Random House won a bidding war for the rights to Barack and Michelle Obama’s autobiographies in 2017, paying more than $ 65 million, a record for US presidential memoirs.

Becoming has been a global sales juggernaut since being launched in 31 languages in mid-November. The audio-book (有声读物), read by the former first lady, has become the fastest-ever seller put out by Penguin Random House.

Obama has been promoting her memoir with a hugely popular global tour. Her tour has also taken in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Paris and Amsterdam as well as the US and Canada.

Tickets for her first live appearance in the UK, at the Royal Festival Hall in December, sold out in minutes. Overall UK sales of Obama’s book currently stand at more than 600,000, ranking it 11th on the list of the best selling memoir and biographies since sales records began in 1998, according to Nielsen BookScan.

While Becoming is proving a modern bestseller, it has some way to go to match the lifetime performance of The Diary of Anne Frank, which was first published in English in 1952 and is estimated to have sold more than 35m copies in 65 languages.

Life beyond the US presidency has proved profitable for the Obamas. Last year the former president and first lady struck a deal with Netflix to produce TV series and films for the streaming service.

Major causes of record fires sweeping across the Amazon rainforest this month include the dry season and human activities, according to research institutions and media reports.

The rainforest is typically wet and humid, and the frequency of fire activity usually rise each year since July — the onset of the dry season, and peaks in September and decreases in October as the rainy season approaches.

However, data from the Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) showed that the number of forest fires in Brazil soared by 82 percent from January to August this year from a year ago, and over half of those fires occurred in the Amazon rainforest. A total of 71,497 forest fires were registered in the country in the first eight months of 2019 , up from 39,194 in the same period in 2018, the Inpe said.

Human activities have led to the recent increase of fires, some experts have noted. The view was echoed by many, though they were divided over who actually conducted the activities. On Friday evening, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pledged “zero tolerance” of environmental crimes, adding that the Armed Forces troops and resources will be mobilized from Saturday to help put out the fires.

Earlier this week, Bolsonaro blamed non-governmental organizations for increasing wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in the country’s north. His claim was refuted (反驳) by environmentalists, who argued that the surge of fires was a result of increasing deforestation and burning fueled by the governments anti-environmental policy. Alberto Setzer, an Inpe researcher, told local news site G1 that all the fires are results of human activities some accidental while others intentional.

Scientists and environmental groups are worried that the fires will aggravate climate change crisis and threaten biodiversity. The emergency has now transcended (越过) Brazil’s borders , reaching Peruvian, Paraguayan and Bolivian regions.

I didn’t cry when I learned I was the parent of a mentally disabled child.

“Go ahead and cry,” the doctor advised kindly. But I couldn’t cry then nor during the months that followed.

We enrolled her in our neighborhood school’s kindergarten at age seven. I worried that she was the “different” child among twenty five-year-olds. However, positive things began to happen to Kristi in her school, and to her schoolmates, too. When boasting of their own accomplishments, Kristi’s classmates always took pains to praise her as well, “Kristi got all her spelling words right today.”

During Kristi’s second year in school, the big public event of the term was a competition based on a culmination of the year’s music and physical education activities.

On the day of the program, Kristi pretended to be sick, but my conscience got reluctant Kristi onto the school bus. Also, I forced myself to go to the program. Then I knew why Kristi had been worried. Her class was divided into relay teams. With her limp and slow, clumsy reactions, she would surely hold up her team.

But as Kristi’s turn to participate neared, change took place in her team. The tallest boy in the line stepped behind Kristi and placed his hands on her waist. Two other boys stood a little ahead of her. The moment the player in front of Kristi stepped from the sack, those two boys grabbed the sack and held it open while the tall boy lifted Kristi and dropped her neatly into it. A girl in front of Kristi took her hand and supported her briefly until Kristi gained her balance. Then off she hopped, smiling and proud.

Amid the cheers of teachers, schoolmates and parents, I thanked Heaven for the warm, understanding people in life who make it possible for my disabled daughter to be like her fellow human beings.

Then I finally cried.

A Finnish cartoon — Matti, a socially awkward stickman has become a hit in China — even inspiring a new word in Mandarin (汉语).     11    .

Privacy is something of a luxury in China, a land with a population of 1. 4 billion.     12    . Pushing is a basic skill in cities. If you fail to push with others to get on a crowded subway, you'll be met with impatient stares.

The concept of “private property” or “private space” used to be seriously criticized and the situation didn’t change today.     13    . They can have a nap in an office pantry (食品贮藏 室),on a park bench, even in a museum or concert hall foyer and it seems they are as comfortable as in their own living room.

    14    . Matti, a socially awkward Finnish cartoon character in the Finnish Nightmares comic series, is not only welcomed by Chinese, but also has created a new word in Mandarin: Jing fen, referring to people who dislike socializing and take their personal space “extremely seriously”.

Matti’s fear of crowds and small talk and his tendency to be easily embarrassed has struck a chord with many Chinese readers.     15    . “Finland is a paradise for people with social anxiety disorder,” wrote Wechat user in a post, showing his preference to Finland. “I can see myself in Matti. We’re all afraid of loneliness, but we long for our personal space and privacy to be respected,” wrote an anonymous user. It is a real sentiment for many people in China.