【推荐2】I didn’t sleep well for several days, worrying about the wildfires in several parts of Chongqing. Chongqing had witnessed several forest wildfires this summer due to the worst heat wave and drought since 1961, when such statistics were first recorded.

Like most people from Chongqing, I felt I must do something to help stop the fires spreading. Although forest firefighting forces from three provinces arrived to help, the local government called for volunteers and disaster relief materials for different fire scenes around the city.

Thousands of people from all walks of life quickly responded to the call. Many delivered various materials needed for fire rescue work, such as bottled water, food, fire extinguishers, helmets, lights, chainsaws and medical supplies. Hundreds of people with related skills and experience signed up as volunteers.

Facing challenging weather and mountainous terrain, young men felled trees and helped put the fires out. Women organized supplies, while motorcyclists transported firefighters and materials on newly formed unpaved mountain paths that were used as fire barriers.

I cannot ride a motorcycle, and do not have any medical skills. I decided to do everything I could for the hard-working volunteers, which included taking them cold fruit tea. When I arrived at an assembly (集合) point at the foot of Jinyun Mountain at noon, hundreds of volunteers wearing yellow vests and helmets, with towels soaked in cold water on their necks, were waiting for orders.

I met one of my friends, who had been working day and night to cut down trees to make fire barriers. He was told to go home to take a rest the next morning, but he returned to the assembly point in the afternoon after having a brief lunch. “I cannot sit at home and watch the fire approaching our man-made barrier,” he said.

【推荐3】Tugce Seren Gul’s aunt and grandmother were killed in Antakya in Turkey’s southeast. Every night, she waits until 4： 17 a. m. in the morning, the exact time that the disaster hit, to try to go to sleep. “I keep thinking another disaster will strike at that time and just wait for it to pass,” said the 28-year-old Gul.

Experts fear children will be hardest hit. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said many of the more than 5. 4 million children who live across the area affected by the earthquake were at risk of developing anxiety, depression and other disorders.

“We know how important learning and routine are for children and their recovery,UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Afshan Khan said after a visit to Turkey. “They need to be able to resume their education, and they urgently need psychological support to help deal with the trauma they have experienced.

Psychologist and professor at MEF University, Ayse Bilge Selcuk, said, “As rising poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic have hurt the country, the stress is chronic, meaning that the tension continues over time.” “For this nation to get back on its feet, we need to find that strength within us and that starts with our psychologyshe added. Anxiety, helplessness and depression are likely to be common and young people could feel anger. ” Rebuilding efforts should include mental health,“ Selcuk said. She urged the government to provide money for training psychologists to be sent to the earthquake areas to stay there. “We shouldn’t withdraw our attention three months later, ”she said.

【推荐3】My first year living in Los Angeles, I was a birthday-party clown. I struggled a lot with my identity because, though I viewed myself as a filmmaker, everyone in my life viewed me as this ridiculous day job.

Once I was told, “Tomorrow you’re going to be Batman.” Now, keep in mind that at the time I had a giant mustache. I know a clown with a mustache is a huge red flag for parents. But I hadn’t wanted to alter my physical appearance for that job, because that would have been me subconsciously admitting I was more of a clown than an artist.

The next day, I went to the party in a huge public park, and I left my car parked far enough away so that the kids couldn’t see Batman pulling up in a PT Cruiser. Walking to the party, I started to regret my choice not to shave. “Gosh, this party is not going to go well.” Sure enough, once I got close enough for them to actually start making out the features of my face, the entire party broke out in laughter. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to turn around and run back to my Batmobile. But then the laughter kind of changed into cheering and applause. Feeling kind of warm and fuzzy inside, I wondered, “Is this what encouragement and support feel like? It’s so new.”

Then I decided to make an entrance for these kids. I was still about 20 yards away from the party when I started running. My cape was billowing in the wind, and mustache or not, in that moment, I was Batman. I ran into the party, and the kids were all high-fiving me. The dad was saying, “I told you, son. I told you Batman has a mustache.” Then he took me over to this huge birthday cake with a frosting Batman drawn on it, and the Batman has a mustache. I just stared at it in disbelief and learnt that instead of just admitting that the cake was messed up, the parents said, “Batman has a mustache. He just shaves it for his movies.”

That year, I struggled a lot with my identity; was I a filmmaker, or was I a clown? But that day, at least, there was no doubt in my mind what I was. I may not have been the hero that they ordered, and I certainly was not the hero they expected. But that day, I was the hero that they needed.

【推荐1】Massimo Bottura, a three-Michelin-Starred chef, has extended his culinary(烹饪的) empire globally. However, he says that the peak of all of his achievements is Milan’s Refettorio Ambrosiano and the following 12 global branches.

At Refettorio Ambrosiano, dinner guests are greeted by name. They dine on fine china at tables created by the country’s most sought-after furniture designers. The waiters are polite, and the chefs have been trained under the finest restaurateurs in the world. The set menu changes every day, depending on what comes in with the morning’s delivery.

This morning’s delivery contains dry arugula(芝麻菜), chicken close to its sell-by date and too-ugly-to-be-sold oranges. By dinner, however, the supermarket castoffs have been transformed into a three-course meal. The 100 or so diners — refugees, the homeless, and the unemployed — enjoy the meal with obvious pleasure, laughing with the volunteer waiters, praising the volunteer chefs, and forgetting, at least for an hour, the challenges of a life lived on the streets.

The brightest gems in Bottura’s culinary empire are not restaurants at all. He thinks of them as spaces that shine a light on the dignity of their guests while focusing attention on the food-waste problem by turning foods that were otherwise going to be headed toward rubbish bins into Michelin Guide-worthy meals.

Botura first thought of Refettorio Ambrosiano as a pop-up concept for the 2015 World Expo in Milan. The organizers had invited him to cook for the grand opening. Bottura proposed something different. He wanted to invite the world’s best chefs to cook with him for the city’s homeless,using leftovers. That idea soon got supported and turned into something more permanent.

Today, the Refettorio is “a movement,” Bottura says. “It is a model for fighting food waste and isolation on the front lines. And it starts by looking at an old carrot or a piece of hard bread and catching sight of gold.”

【推荐3】The story of 11-year-old piano talent Jude Kofie warmed hearts on Twitter after a complete stranger gifted the boy a $15,000 grand piano.

“He’s beyond special. He’s Mozart level. It’s coming from somewhere beyond,” piano tuner(调音师) Bill Magnusson said of young Kofie’s musical talent. Magnusson, using the money he received from his father, gifted a $15, 000 grand piano to Kofie after he saw the piano talent on local news.

Kofie cheered in excitement as the grand piano was wheeled into his Colorado home for the first time in a video that was shared on CBS News show “Sunday Morning”.

CBS “Sunday Morning” later summed up Kofie’s story in a tweet that went viral with over 10,000 likes. “Eleven-year-old Jude Kofie, of Aurora, Colorado, demonstrated a remarkable talent no one anticipated when he discovered an old keyboard and, without any lessons, began playing.”

Twitter users reacted to the emotional story, with one reporter calling Jude Kofie and his family “amazing people”. Magnusson was moved to help Kofie after he saw the boy playing the piano in a local news story. However, Magnusson was concerned that Kofie was not able to afford the piano lessons from professional teachers that he needed to grow as a piano player. “What resources are left over to help this special little soul?” Magnusson asked.

Magnusson also promised Kofie’s family that he would tune the piano once a month for the rest of his life. “We’re family now.” he said.

Jude Kofie’s father, Isaiah Kofie, was shocked at Magnusson’s generosity. “All for free.” he said. “Who does that?” Jude’s father asked, becoming visibly emotional. Isaiah Kofie told the news station that there was no way he could afford a grand piano and that he would never have imagined he would have one in his living room.

When asked how to explain his once-in-a-generation talent for playing the piano, Jude Kofie said that it was “a miracle”, “That’s what I prefer,” he added.