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There is nothing conventional about 17-year-old Michael Fuller’s relationship with music. As someone with high-functioning autism who sees the world through sound, creating melodies from the bustle of the high street or trains on the tracks feels more natural than any social interaction. This hardwired connection to sound has been with him for as long as he can remember.

By the age of 11, Michael could play Mozart by ear, having taught himself to play the piano through a mobile phone app. The app highlighted notes on a keyboard as classical music played. He describes his unusual musical talent as “downloading” music into his head. His mother, Nadine, remembers that as a child Michael would “suddenly pop up and say: ‘I’ve got a symphony’”. Michael took to the piano and found he could quickly perform complex pieces from memory.

“I liked what I was hearing, sought more music and began studying through Google and YouTube,” he remembers. “It was very organic. I would listen in great depth and the music would be implanted in my mind. I could then just play it on the piano – all without being taught.”

Growing up in a family that listened to reggae over classical music, Michael feels “very much aware” of how different his approach is to music – symbolised by the way he taught himself piano as a child. This, his mother says, came as a “surprise to the family and myself – I’d never listened to classical music in my life”.

It was not long after learning to play the piano that Michael started composing his own works. Describing this process as “making music with my mind”, Michael says composing classical symphonies “helps me to express myself through music – it makes me calm”. Michael wants to nurture his song writing to achieve his ambition of becoming a modern mainstream classical artist. He wants to control the creative process, unlike typical modern-day composers, who he says “write blobs on a page, hand it over to the musicians – then say bye-bye and stay in the background and get no recognition”. Instead, Michael is determined to take centre stage.

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COPENHAGEN — The Nordic countries regularly appear at the top of an annual list of the world’s happiest nations, but their reputation as “happiness superpowers” masks the difficulties of a significant part of the population, a new analysis shows.

Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland led the 2018 ranking of the World Happiness Report, and Sweden wasn’t far behind, placing ninth. But in the five Nordic countries, an average of 12.3 percent of the population is “struggling” or “suffering,” according to a report by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen.

[...]

The report, based on research conducted from 2012 to 2016, asked people to assess their satisfaction with life on a scale of zero to 10. Those who answered seven or higher were categorized as “thriving,” those who responded five or six were classified as “struggling,” and those who said four or lower were deemed to be “suffering.” Most respondents in the Nordic countries reported satisfaction of seven to nine.

The Nordic states have a sophisticated social net that means that young people face less pressure regarding education, health or jobs than do many of their peers elsewhere. The countries have some of the world’s highest taxes, but schools and hospitals are free, parental leave is generous, and unemployment benefits and care for the elderly help those no longer working. But with that security and help come expectations to do well, and pressure to be as happy as one’s peers.

[...]

The trends highlighted in the report appear to be backed up by various national studies conducted in the region. In Sweden, the number of people with depression increased 20 percent in 10 years, the national board on health and welfare said last year, a rise that was particularly pronounced among the young. In Denmark, people ages 16 to 24 are more lonely than are people in their grandparents’ generation, a national survey of 180,000 people conducted this year by the Danish Health Authority showed.

Mr. Birkjaer of the Happiness Research Institute noted that a performance culture and the growing use of social media contributed to depression, loneliness and stress.

“These problems are difficult to solve,” he said. “Let’s say social media are a major cause, then what do we do? Ban them? Something else would come in their place.” [...]

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Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated. The deadline follows months of national debate over compulsory vaccination. The new law came amid a surge in measles cases - but Italian officials say vaccination rates have improved since it was introduced. Children must receive a range of mandatory immunisations before attending school. They include vaccinations for chickenpox, polio, measles, mumps and rubella.

Children up to the age of six years will be excluded from nursery and kindergarten without proof of vaccination under the new rules. Those aged between six and 16 cannot be banned from attending school, but their parents face fines if they do not complete the mandatory course of immunisations.

Italian media report that regional authorities are handling the situation in a number of different ways. In Bologna, the local authority has set letters of suspension to the parents of some 300 children, and a total of 5,000 children do not have their vaccine documentation up to date. In other areas there have been no reported cases, while still others have been given a grace period of a few days beyond the deadline.

The new law was passed to raise Italy’s dropping vaccination rates from below 80% to the World Health Organisation’s 95% target.

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Rip Van Winkle is a classic American short story written by Washington Irving based on local history ________ with influences from European folklore. It tells the story of a man who lived near the Catskill Mountains in New York before the Revolutionary War and fell asleep for twenty years. Everything he knew ________ in the town was gone. ________, he learned that he had to navigate this new world as a free citizen of the United States.

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