4 . No visit to the beautiful city of Paris, France is complete without a visit to the Notre Dame de Paris. The cathedral, built from 1163 to 1345, is one of the world's best examples of ancient architecture. It lies in the center of Paris, along the Seine River. French writer Victor Hugo used it as the setting of his famous story The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Unfortunately, on April 15, 2019. the old cathedral was covered in a big flame.

The initial fire alert sounded at 6:20 pm local time. Church officials quickly evacuated the tourists inside. As it turned out, they made the right decision when the second alarm went off twenty-three minutes later at 6:43 pm, the flames were visible. Thousands of passers-by watched in horror as the fire began destroying Notre Dame's rooftop. It took hundreds of firefighters, who worked through the night, over 12 hours to put out the fire. By the time the fire was fully contained in the early hours of Tuesday, April 16. 2019, most of the cathedral's ceiling, as well as its wooden spire — which had proudly stood 93 meters above the root for centuries — had collapsed.

Fortunately, thanks to quick action by Paris firefighters, the cathedral's most sacred relic — the Crown of Thorns — was safely transported after the fire broke out. Church officials and firefighters formed a human chain to remove other priceless treasures, such as artworks and furnishings, and load them onto waiting police cars. The cathedral's famous 18th-century organ, which boasts more than 8.000 pipes, also survived the disaster.

The tire is believed to be caused by the cathedral's ongoing repair work. Meanwhile donations to help restore the structure are pouring in worldwide at an unprecedented rate, reaching almost$ 1 billion within just two days after the fire. French President Emmanuel Macron described the fire as a “terrible tragedy”, but added, “the worst had been avoided”. Macron has promised that the French people will “rebuild the cathedral together”. “Notre Dame is ours, it's our literature, and it's our imagery. We will rebuild it. This is probably part of the French destiny, and we will finish it in the next five years.” Macron said, “Paris without Notre Dame? Madness.” While Macron is optimistic that the cathedral will be ready to welcome visitors by the Paris 2024. Summer Olympics, experts believe it will take a lot longer to restore the old structure.

5 . I know what courage looks like. I saw it on a flight I took six years ago, and only now can I speak of it without tears filling eyes at the memory.

Our flight left the Orlando Airport one Friday morning. But immediately upon take-off, it was clear that something was wrong. The aircraft was bumping(颠簸) up and down. All the experienced travellers, including me, looked around with knowing smiles. If you fly much, you see these things and learn to act calmly about them. However, we did not remain calm for long.

Minutes after we were in the air, our plane began falling quickly. The pilot soon made a serious announcement. “We are having some difficulties,” he said. “Our indicators show that the control system has failed. We will be returning to the Orlando Airport. The flight attendants will prepare you for a bumpy landing. Also, if you look out of the windows, you will see that we are dumping fuel from the airplane. We want to have as little on board as possible in the event of a rough touchdown.” In other words, we were about to crash. Many travellers looked visibly frightened now. No one faces death without fear, I thought.

Then a couple of rows to my left, I heard a still calm voice, a woman’s voice, speaking in an absolutely normal conversational tone. I had to find the source of this voice. All around, people cried. Many screamed. Finally, I saw her. In this chaos, a mother was talking to her child. The woman, in her mid-30s, was staring full into the face of her daughter, who looked to be four years old. The child listened closely, sensing the importance of her mother’s words. The mother’s gaze held the child so fixed that she seemed untouched by the sounds of grief and fear around her.

Finally, I leaned over and by some miracle could hear this soft sure voice with the tone of comfort. Over and over again, the mother said, “I love you so much. Remember, no matter what happens, I love you always.” Fortunately, our landing gear held at last and our touchdown was not a tragedy.

However, the voice I heard that day never faded. That mom showed me what a real hero looks like.

6 . Many jewelry designers are each donating a piece of jewelry for an online raffle (网上抽奖) to aid relief efforts in Beirut following the explosion in its port on Aug. 4, 2020, which has caused at least 200 deaths, 7, 000 injuries, and severe damage to much of the city facilities in Lebanon’s capital city. They are all part of the online jewelry website called the Auverture, founded by Dutch jewelry designer, Bibi van der Velden. Some of the jewels being donated and their descriptions are as follows:

“I Have a Dream”

It is a ring by Gaelle Khouri in 18k yellow gold, bronze and white diamonds. It is an artistic representation of Lebanon’s endless crises through the last four decades, from the 1975 civil war to the latest tragic explosion on Aug. 4. Thanks to their strong desire for the beauty of life, Lebanon is today on its way to a revolution.

“Beirut Earrings”

These earrings are one of the masterpieces of Selim Mouzannar in 18k rose gold, diamonds and sapphires (蓝宝石). It’s part of Selim Mouzannar’s Beirut collection that is very dear to him. “These earrings are a strong reminder that Beirut has been destroyed physically but it will never die.”

“Spider Ring”

As a most outstanding artwork of Daniela Villegas, “Spider Ring” is in 18k gold, sapphires and Saturn chalcedony (玉髓). “The spider is a figure of feminine energy and creativity in the animal kingdom. The spider symbolizes the spirit of creation. In several cultures, she’s the symbol of the mother. The power of this animal encourages us to count on our ability to view things from multiple angles and weave mental and intuitive (直觉的）flexibility into your daily thinking.”

Within the Auverture family there are several incredible jewelry designers from Beirut, and the surrounding Middle East countries. Therefore, it felt right to launch the Auverture Raffle to raise funds to help Lebanese friends.

7 . It can be easy to brush off certain events as small matters that don’t require attention— but when the safety of dozens of airplane passengers was on the tine, this NASA engineer decided to speak up.

Rumaasha Maasha was preparing to fly from Huntsville to Colorado back in January when he spotted a liquid leak from his window seat on the wing.

“Normally, if it’s a wet day, you’ll see vortices (旋涡) off the wing. About 1,000 feet off the ground, I started seeing something white and thought, ‘maybe we’re just hitting some humidity (湿气).’ Well, after a while it was still doing it, and that’s when I knew something was up. I looked closer and immediately realized that we were losing fuel.” Maasha also knew that as the plane increased in altitude, the situation would got worse.

“I gestured the flight attendant to come over and fortunately she was very attentive,” he said. “She called the crew and the key thing is that she did this as we were still climbing out. Within a minute or two, they reduced speed and leveled off. The fuel leak diminished immediately when they slowed down.”

Much to the anger of the passengers, the plane returned to the Huntsville airport, but upon finding out the reason for the return—and the hero behind it—some of the passengers made friends with Maasha.

Maasha’s experience with NASA wasn’t the only thing that came in handy that day, the engineer first fell in love with aviation (航空) as a teenager growing up near an airport in Monrovia, Liberia. “Looking back, I guess I had the perfect sets of circumstances to recognize the issue that day,” he said. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always tried to sit in a window seat near the wing, and as I grew up, I am determined to run after my dream during my university years. That’s not the first time I’ve noticed something. I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

8 . The phone rings. It is either for my wife Susan, who’s the only one receiving calls on the home line, or it’s the latest of 300 attempts to sell me something useless.

“Hello,” I say, an edge in my voice.

“Daddy, it’s me.” It’s Alyce, my 12-year-old daughter. “Mommy was in a car accident.”

My heart stops and then begins pounding.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Is Mommy?”

A deep sob.

“I don’t know…I don’t think so. Come quick.”

I rush a few blocks to what looks like a shoot for a disaster movie. Fire engines, police cars, and ambulances are randomly parked in the street. A city bus is on the wrong side of the road. In front of it are the torn remains of Susan’s car.

Alyce is covered in tiny pieces of glass but uninjured. Susan isn’t so lucky. But she is alive. She has broken many bones, and spends three months in hospital.

Two years later, Susan and I were at an event at our synagogue (犹太教堂) celebrating Martin Lather King Jr. Our temple’s musical director rushed to us. “There’s a woman here tonight from one of the church choirs who you have to meet!” He returned with an African American woman. She told us she lived in the apartment building by where the accident had happened. That morning, she rushed to the street, and saw Alyce crying. She approached her, asking, “Is that your mom in there?” Alyce nodded, and the woman said, “Let's pray together.” Innocent Alyce looked at this woman wearing a cross around her neck and said, “OK, but you should know I’m Jewish (犹太人).” The woman took Alyce’s hand, held it to her chest, and said, “In here we’re all the same.”

After the accident, she said, she had continued to pray for our family.

We hugged warmly and had our picture taken together. As we were saying goodbye, realizing we had never been formally introduced, she asked me for my name. I told her it was Douglas, and she paused, and then said, “Wait, your name is Susan? And your name is Douglas?” The woman put her hand over her heart. “Oh my goodness,” she said. “My name is Susan Douglas.”

9 . An Australian couple has been rescued from a crocodile-ridden part of Australia's remote north after lighting a fire and writing the word "help" in mud to attract the attention of search crews.

Colen Nulgit, 20, and his girlfriend Shantelle Johnson, 18, went fishing on Sunday in Keep River National Park near Western Australia. There are saltwater crocodiles in all waterways around the park.

Nulgit said their day of fishing tuned into a freezing, sleepless overnight stay when their truck got stuck in mud. "Our hearts sank," Nulgit said, Nulgit said they had seen crocodile tracks in the area earlier and, as the waters rose and sun set, because afraid of being swept away by a large tide—or being attacked by crocodiles. "These crocodiles are not afraid of humans. They're not afraid of anything." he said. "Food's food for them. Anything is food."

In their home town of Kununurra, Johnson's mother called the police when they failed to return that night. Nulgit said they huddled(蜷缩) under a blanket away from the river, but couldn't get any sleep. They wrote "help" in large letters in the dry mud with a stick at about 4 a. m. Monday, hoping to attract attention from a passing plane. However Nulgit admitted he was worried about being stranded for a long time, adding: "Hardly anyone goes out that way."

On Monday, Kununurra police organized a search party using a plane from a local company to find the pair, the Western Australia Police Force said in a statement. Nulgit and Johnson lit a fire as soon as they heard the plane to help draw attention.

"If they had not lit the fire and advised family members details of when they were leaving and an expected return time, the couple may not have been located," the police statement added.

Nulgit said the adventure wouldn't stop the pair from heading out again—although next time they'll make better preparations beforehand. "I'm just grateful for everyone who helped and came out to look for us," he said. "We're pretty lucky surviving and getting out of that."

10 . Russia’s security chief has blamed an act of terror for the Russian A321 airliner crash in Egypt last month which killed 224 people . Whatever happened , the tragedy raises sad memories of horrific airplane crashes that have cost thousands of lives in recent decades .

Some of the worst such incidents—like four crashes in frightening succession into New York’s World Trade Center , the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania on September 11 , 2001 ; the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie , Scotland ; and a 1977 crash involving the apparent hijacking of a Malaysian Airlines jet that left 100 dead—involved terrorist activity . But there are many others that did not , with mechanical problems , pilot error or other reasons blamed for loss of life . Below are some examples of the latter : crashes that left at least 200 people dead in each incident .

March 27 , 1977 : A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747 beginning its takeoff crashed into Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 then still on the runway at the Los Rodeos Airport at Tenerife in the Canary Islands . A total of 574 people , aboard both planes , died .

July 11 , 1991 : The landing gear of a Nigeria Airways DC-8 catches fire shortly after takeoff Jeddah , Saudi Arabia . It doesn’t make it back to the airport , crashing nose-down less than 10,000 feet short of the runway and killing all 261 people aboard .

April 26 , 1994 : The pilot of a China Airlines’ Flight 140 alerts the control tower at Japan’s Nagoya Airport of his intention not to land and try another approach . But something goes wrong and , a short time later , the Airbus A300 crashes leading to 264 deaths—though a few passengers do survive .

September 2 , 1998 : A Swissair jetliner that had departed New York’s Kennedy airport on its way to Geneva , Switzerland , goes down off the coast of Nova Scotia , Canada ; none of the 229 people aboard Flight 111 make it . Investigators believe that the MD-11 lost all electrical power immediately before the crash .

June 1 , 2009 : Air France Flight 447 is on the way from Rio de Janiero to Paris when it and its 228 passengers and crew go missing somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean . It’s not until five days later that the first bodies are found about 600 miles off the northern coast of Brazil . Two years later , French authorities blame the crash on equipment breakdown .