【推荐1】A 70-year-old woman wins hearts with her energetic workouts on Douyin, He Qi reports in Shanghai.

Videos on the social networking platform Douyin—also know globally as TikTok—that show men and women with perfect physiques working out or giving fitness tips are commonplace. Trying to stand out from millions of such videos can often be difficult, but a relatively new account, which has only been active since last year, has managed to do so easily.

The fitness instructor behind this account is not a young woman with a slim, toned figure that would leave viewers green with envy. The star here is 70-year-old Chen Jifang, a Shanghai resident with 3 million likes on her Douyin videos. She was once even featured on a reality show on China Central Television.

According to her trainer, who helped to manage the Douyin account, Chen attracted more than 400,000 followers within just a few months. "The main group that I wanted to encourage was people ages 30 to 50," says Chen. "I think they will be motivated to work out in the gym after seeing that a granny like me can. The message I want to convey is that it is never too late to pursue good health."

While most people would be concerned about having an elderly family member perform such intensive workouts in the gym, Chen has the full support of her family. Her husband shows his support by doing most of the housework. Her daughter, on the other hand, helps to pick her gym attire(运动服装).

Chen may be a star in her own right, but she is also just one of many elderly citizens in China's major cities who are embracing exercise.

【推荐2】A study published in the journal Science reveals that since 1970, bird populations in the United States and Canada have declined by 29 percent, or almost 3 billion birds. The results show tremendous losses across diverse groups of birds and habitats — from iconic songsters such as meadowlarks to long-distance migrants such as swallows.

“These data are consistent with what we’re seeing elsewhere,” said co-author Peter Marra, former head of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. It’s urgent to address ongoing threats, both because the domino effects (多米诺效应) can lead to the decay of ecosystems that humans depend on for our own health and livelihoods and because people all over the world cherish birds in their own right. Can you imagine a world without birdsong?”

Evidence for the declines emerged from detection of migratory birds in the air from 143 NEXRAD weather radar stations across the continent in a period spanning over 10 years, as well as from nearly 50 years of data collected through multiple monitoring efforts on the ground. Citizen-science participants also contributed a lot, for the analysis included citizen-science data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey coordinated by the Canadian Wildlife Service—the main sources of long-term, large-scale population data for North American birds.

The study noted that the largest factor driving these declines is likely the widespread loss and degradation of habitat, especially due to agricultural intensification and urbanization. Other studies have documented death from predation (捕食) by domestic cats; collisions with glass, buildings, and other structures; and pervasive (普遍的) use of pesticides associated with widespread declines in insects, an essential food source for birds. Climate change is expected to compound these challenges by altering habitats and threatening plant communities that birds need to survive.

“It’s a wake-up call that we’ve lost more than a quarter of our birds in the U.S. and Canada,” said co-author Adam Smith from Environment and Climate Change Canada. But the crisis reaches far beyond our individual borders. Many of the birds that breed in Canadian backyards migrate through or spend the winter in the U.S. and places farther south — from Mexico and the Caribbean to Central and South America. What our birds need now is an historic, hemispheric effort that unites people and organizations with one common goal: bringing our birds back.”

【推荐3】One Sunday night, a high school student, Rory Campbell, heard noises next door to his home in Bonita Mews, off St Asaph Road, Brockley. When he went outside, he saw his neighbor climbing out of a front window of his second floor flat, which was on fire. He then saw the man covered in black soot(黑灰), shouting for help.

The 15-year-old boy called the fire service and tried to calm the neighbor, who is in his thirties, until firefighters arrived. Rory said, “He was shouting ‘Help me, help me! Get a ladder, get a ladder!’ He was a bit hysterical(歇斯底里的). I didn’t have time to think. I just tried to calm him by telling him the firefighters were on the way.”

Rory was told by the man that the fire had been caused by a candle falling over. Firefighters from New Cross, Peckham, Lewisham and Forest Hill rescued the man by ladder and got the fire under control within minutes of arriving. The man was taken to a south London hospital where he is still recovering from smoke inhalation(吸入).

25% of the flat was damaged by the fire.

Rory, studying music, added, “As the man walked past me, he said ‘Thanks’ and that meant a lot to me. I do feel good because I helped save his life.”

Another neighbor said, “I heard a lot of noise but thought it was coming from the railway opposite. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the man hanging there. The boy next door really did save his life by calling the firefighters.”

【推荐2】July 20, 1969 is a day that will forever go down in the history books as a day that changed the world forever. That was the day when American astronaut and explorer Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon.

The moon is located almost 240,000 miles from the Earth. Armstrong and his crew, which included fellow astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, began their journey into space on the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (登月 舱) on July 16, 1969. Armstrong was the commander of the mission (任务) and he was the one who piloted the aircraft to the surface of the moon. At almost 11 pm on July 20, 1969, Armstrong exited the craft and set foot on the moon, saying the now famous words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Aldrin later exited the Apollo 11 Lunar Module as he and Armstrong collected samples (样品) from the moon that they could bring back to the Earth with them and study. Also, they took photographs of the moon and its surroundings as well as their footprints on the moon. Michael Collins, the third member of the crew, remained in the command module during this time.

The mission began its return from the moon on July 24, 1969, four days after its historic landing. The Apollo 11 returned, landing just west of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The three-member crew was kept away from others for three weeks just to be sure they were not carrying any unknown diseases or illnesses. After all, it was the first time the moon had been explored, so nobody really knew what to expect. Following that, they were treated as heroes.