Topic Reading-Vol.5121-5/2/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400,000 on Maduro raid

A US soldier who was involved in the planning and execution of the capture of Venezuelan President Maduro was recently arrested and charged with using classified information for his financial gain. He opened an account on Polymarket, an American cryptocurrency-based prediction market, in late December, bet $32,000 on the president’s removal, and earned more than $400,000 after the US military operation in January. A prediction market is a platform where individuals can bet on the outcomes of future events, such as sports matches, economic indicators, weather patterns, awards, political and legislative outcomes, and military conflicts. Users of the platform can buy and sell “yes” or “no” shares of events using a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. It is, like insider trading, absolutely illegal to use classified or unannounced information on prediction markets, but the return on betting in a prediction market could be much higher than the return on investment in the stock market. Anyone who has unreleased information could be a bidder in a prediction market in sports, business, or public service.

Read the article and learn how classified information was used in a prediction market.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/23/politics/us-special-forces-soldier-arrested-maduro-raid-trade

Topic Reading-Vol.5120-5/1/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,　

How one disappointing order uncovered a massive ‘ghost cake’ delivery scandal in China

The competition among food delivery services has become overly intense in China. Recently, authorities found that thousands of ghost online food vendors, without business licenses or actual storefronts, were taking orders from consumers and reselling them to the lowest-bidding bakeries. In one case, out of 100, let's say yuan, the customer paid for a birthday cake, the ghost vendor took 50, the intermediary platform grabbed 20, and the actual baker earned only 30, which is way too low to guarantee the food quality and safety, not to mention the customer’s satisfaction. Such ghost vendors were born due to intense price competition, known as involution in China, and are now selling various products, including electric vehicles and solar panels, at the sacrifice of suppliers' diminishing returns. Though anti-involution campaigns have been implemented by various authorities to curb such unhealthy, unsustainable business practices, eager suppliers are bidding to take any order just to keep their businesses running.

Read the article and learn about fierce online business competition in China.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/21/business/china-ghost-food-delivery-fine-intl-hnk

Topic Reading-Vol.5119-4/30/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Africa’s biggest airport is being built in Ethiopia for $12.5 billion

Addis Ababa is Ethiopia’s capital with a population of around four million, the 10^th largest in Africa. Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD) is the main hub of Ethiopian Airlines, the state-owned flag carrier and the largest airline in Africa, covering 150 destinations, but it has already reached capacity. So, the airline is now investing in building a new airport, Bishoftu International Airport (BIA), to boost the passenger capacity to 60 million by 2030 to become a leading airline to connect African skies, for both passengers and freight. The new airport is designed to serve mainly transit passengers to, from, and within African countries, and compete with the Middle Eastern hubs like Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, and African airports, such as Cairo, Nairobi, and Casablanca. To secure the land for the new airport, more than 15,000 people from 36 square kilometers of agricultural land have been displaced, who are said to be compensated and provided with 1,400 new homes in total. But how many of them will find jobs in their new land? Also, at an elevation of 1,900 meters above sea level, which requires extra power & thrust and reduced payload capacity for takeoff and landing compared with airports at sea level, how competitive will the new airport be?

Read the article and learn about Ethiopian Airlines' new bid for a new hub airport in Africa.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/africas-biggest-airport-is-being-built-in-ethiopia-for-usd12-5-billion-spc

Topic Reading-Vol.5118-4/29/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Sawe smashes two-hour mark to 'move goalposts for marathon running'

Many marathon world records have been set in Chicago, Berlin, and London due to their fast, flat routes. On April 26 at the London Marathon, Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe set a new men's marathon world record of 1:59:30, the first human to run a sub-two-hour marathon in official race conditions. Only 11 seconds later, another runner from Ethiopia, Kejelcha, reached the goal at 1:59:41 in his first full marathon race. Also set at the same event was the Women's Only Record of  2:15:41 by an Ethiopian runner, Assefa. It was quite amazing that three runners broke the world record at a single marathon event. Interestingly, all three runners were wearing recently released new adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 shoes, the lightest shoe in the brand’s Adizero range, weighing less than 100 grams. The runners, conditions, shoes, and competition all might have contributed to the three world records at the recent marathon event.

FYI, the first world record of an international marathon race was 2:58:50 at the 1896 Athens Olympic Games. It took 130 years to shave one hour off the time to run 42.195 km.

Read the article and learn about this historic marathon event.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/articles/crm1m7e0zwzo

Topic Reading-Vol.5117-4/28/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

AI chatbots could be making you stupider

While the tools we use help us accomplish tasks, they seem to change how we think, too. As we’ve become more reliant on search engines, we seem to remember details less. Now, what will happen to our brains when we rely more on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT on day-to-day, business, or academic tasks? The more we outsource cognitive tasks, the less cognitive effort we make, which might impair our mental skills, such as remembering and critical thinking. In essay-writing tasks on open-ended topics for college students, the brain activity of those who used ChatGPT was much less than that of those who didn’t use the LLM. Also, the LLM users seem to retain or remember less about their essays than those who wrote them by themselves. If you walk, you’ll feel the air around you. If you drive, you’ll see things on the way. If you fly, you’ll get there faster without effort or memory. Think, search, or ask. If we don’t use our brains, we might impair our cognitive abilities.

Read the article and learn what LLMs do to our brains.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260417-ai-chatbots-could-be-making-you-stupider

Topic Reading-Vol.5116-4/27/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why your recycled clothes could end up in this South American desert

Created in 1975 to boost economic and social development in northern Chile, the Iquique Free Trade Zone (ZOFRI) is a major duty-free commercial and industrial hub. It offers businesses 100% exemption from corporate tax, customs duties, and value-added tax (VAT) on first sales to boost regional development. Used clothes from all over the world are among the biggest imports in ZOFRI. Once landed, they are sorted and then sold locally or exported to other countries in Latin America, which creates considerable local businesses and employment. Unsold clothes are supposed to be sold to an authorised waste company, but not all are. Some are burnt illegally, and others are dumped in the surrounding Atacama Desert, the oldest and driest sand desert, whose surreal, Mars-like landscapes attract many tourists. It is estimated that nearly 40,000 tonnes of such unsold clothes are illegally dumped in the desert each year. But help is on the way. A new factory is being built to turn the clothes into fibers, and then into felt to be used for mattresses, furniture, and insulation. Also, the government is going to include textiles in the Extended Producer Responsibility Law, which makes the sellers responsible for the lifespan of their products. No one wants the Atacama Desert to become a dump site.  

Read the article and learn what happens to unsold clothes at the end.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62kg63k8v6o

Topic Reading-Vol.5115-4/26/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

A Chinese android just ran a half-marathon faster than any human ever

China is winning one AI race, the US another (Vol.5114). Last year, it took a humanoid robot more than two hours to run a half-marathon race held in Beijing. This year, the fastest robot ran 21 kilometers in only 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than last year’s winner by two hours and also the human record by six minutes. Developed by a Chinese smartphone maker, Lightning, a 169cm-tall running humanoid won the race with its autonomous navigation and burst power. Over 100 teams, nearly five times more than last year, took part in this year’s half-marathon. Having been positioned as one of the 10 key industries for upgrading and identified as a new frontier by the government, China’s humanoid robotics industry is booming and has been drawing talent, resources, and investment. Last August in Beijing, more than 500 humanoid robots from 280 teams competed in 26 events at the World Humanoid Robot Games, including boxing, football, cleaning, and sorting medicine. How astonishing is this year’s event going to be?

Read the article and learn how China is advancing in the race to develop humanoid robots.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/19/china/china-robot-half-marathon-intl-hnk

Topic Reading-Vol.5114-4/25/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

China is winning one AI race, the US another - but either might pull ahead

During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union competed in space technologies and nuclear armament. Now, the US and China are in a nose-to-nose AI race. Which has advantages over the other, and which is winning?

The US has the world’s leading AI brains, such as chatbots and large language models (LLMs), which learn, recognize, interpret human language and data, and then generate text outputs. It also dominates microchips that run AI and LLMs produced by Nvidia, a premier microchip provider, whose chips are manufactured mainly by a Taiwanese chip giant, TSMC. Speaking of generative AI, only two years after ChatGPT debuted, a highly competitive AI-powered chatbot, DeepSeek, was launched by a Chinese AI startup. Since Chinese IT developers often publish their code online (open source approach), they are quick to catch up and advance. Another advantage China has is the world’s largest manufacturing industry. It dominates the world’s EVs, drones, and robots markets, all of which are powered by AI. In particular, China excels in humanoid robots, which are expected to fill the labor shortages, particularly in care work, in the fast-aging country. As the AI race is shifting to agentic AI, which autonomously makes decisions and takes actions to achieve the goal, either country has the chance to lead in the ongoing high-tech race.

Read the article and learn about the AI race competed by the US and China.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c145enxln0go

Topic Reading-Vol.5113-4/24/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

It’s time for students to start committing to colleges. The age of AI is making it complicated

For most U.S. colleges and universities, first-year applicants are required to decide where to enroll and submit a deposit to secure their spot by May 1, a day called College Decision Day. This is often the first decision students make for their future. Then by the end of the sophomore year, college students should be finishing with their general education requirements and are expected to decide on their major for their future career courses or expertise. Business, Health, and Social Sciences are the most popular majors, while Engineering and Computer and Information Sciences bring higher income than others in general. However, as AI is redrawring the landscape of business and career opportunities, students, and their parents, too,  are now rethinking which college to study at or what major to take. Also, since college tuition and fees have risen significantly in the last few years, the return on a four-year college education is now under serious scrutiny. Does a bachelor’s degree ensure higher lifetime earnings and employment endurance compared with two-year degrees, vocational training, or military service? Do blue-collar jobs earn more than desk jobs?

Read the article and learn why College Decision Day is becoming more significant to students and their parents in the USA.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/18/business/ai-college-debt-parents

Topic Reading-Vol.5112-4/23/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Afghan villagers turn to gold-panning to sustain livelihoods

Gold is a precious metal, and has been valued for thousands of years as currency, jewelry, and investment because of its beauty, durability, and rarity. Also, gold is used in electronics, such as smartphones and computers, for its conductivity. Even though the price of gold fluctuates due to inflation, currency exchange rates, and geopolitics, it is considered a safe-haven asset because it has a limited supply and stock. In fact, over the last decade, the price of gold has fluctuated significantly, ranging from as low as $36 up to as high as $176 per gram. Most of the gold production comes from gold mines, and some from recycling jewelry and electronics. The simplest, though most laborious, way to extract gold is panning from a placer deposit using a pan, as American miners did during gold rushes in the mid-19th century in California. As job opportunities are scarce, wages are low, opium poppy farming is strictly banned under the Taliban rule, more Afghan men are now working on gold-panning along the Kunar riverbed in northeastern Afghanistan. It is a time-consuming, laborious work, but finding a gram of gold in a week seems attractive enough to bring workers from Kabul, the capital city.

Read the article and see the photos to learn about gold panning along the Kunar riverbed.

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2026/4/16/afghan-villagers-turn-to-gold-panning-to-sustain-livelihoods

Topic Reading-Vol.5111-4/22/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Fake damage and imaginary watches - how AI images are being used in insurance scams

Many digital photographers, including smartphone or digital camera users, often edit the photos they’ve captured by removing unwanted objects or enhancing images mainly for emotional satisfaction. Also, AI can now easily create unrealistic images based on the prompt the user inputs, like the ones the US President posted earlier this month with Jesus. However, when things are added, removed, or fundamentally altered in the image for benefit or fraud, it is regarded as photo manipulation. Recently, the number of falsified insurance claims using AI has been increasing, including AI-manipulated damage for car insurance, AI-created objects for property insurance, and AI-fabricated documents. The use of such fake proof or documents is fraud, so that such falsified claims are rejected, the insurance policy might be cancelled, or the claimer could be prosecuted. To cope with such AI fraud, the insurance industry is also using AI to detect AI-manipulated false claims. AI is now being used widely for both offense and defense.

Read the article and learn about AI-manipulated images used for insurance claims.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2rr9pg4jzo

Topic Reading-Vol.5110-4/21/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How bad smells affect your health 

Aroma, smell, or odour? In the kitchen, you smell when food is being cooked. At the table, you enjoy the aroma from the dish. In the garbage, you sense the odour of the leftover food. The sense of smell, or olfaction, detects airborne odorant molecules, allowing us to identify odors, influence emotions, and trigger memories. Indeed, smell doesn’t just detect threats, but it also affects our lives in many ways. The aroma of wine, tea, or coffee provides a pleasant feeling and expectations before and during tasting. However, when you don’t smell well because of a stuffy or runny nose, you don’t enjoy the aroma or taste of the food you eat as much. Also, while the smell of fresh air, plants, and nature often refreshes your mind, odor pollution caused by industrial processes, sewage, waste disposal, and animal farms often affects health and well-being. Along with other senses like sight, hearing, taste, and touch, smell plays a vital role in our safety, health, and well-being. By the way, it is more influential for dogs as they distinguish almost everything by their hyper-sensitive olfactory system.

Read the article and learn about the effects of smell on our lives.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260403-how-bad-odours-affect-your-health

Topic Reading-Vol.5109-4/20/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Fast food consumption is soaring in the cradle of haute cuisine. Quelle horreur!

French gastronomy is a culinary tradition that emphasizes seasonal, regional diversity, typically in a multi-course meal, from butter-based northern dishes to olive oil-forward southern cooking, with various kinds of bread, pastry, cheese, and wine. First opened in 1972 in a suburb of Paris, the fast-food giant McDonald’s has adapted to French tastes, as it does in other markets, and now operates over 1,500 locations across the country. Generation Z, born between 1996 and 2012, is the first true digital natives, who have grown up fully immersed in technology, social media, and the Internet. They are big fans of fast food and street food, and are feared to erode the fine French dining scene. It is estimated that the annual revenues of commercial chain restaurants in France have increased 30% from 2019 to 2023, and reached 24 billion dollars in 2024, showing an increase of one billion from the previous year. Sandwiches, burgers, and pizza are the most popular take-out foods, but the hottest one is Crousty, or Krousty. It is a viral French street food featuring crispy fried chicken tenders served over white rice with creamy sweet-and-sour sauce with additions like fried onions, chopped chives, and sesame seeds. It went viral on TikTok and Instagram and is praised for its affordable pricing, often less than 10 euros, generous volume, and convenience. Even in France, the traditional knife-and-fork dining culture seems to be shifting to a smartphone-and-fork/hand eating style. What is today’s main dish, Beef Bourguignon or TikTok?

Read the article and learn about the changing dining culture in France.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/travel/fast-food-france-tasty-crousty

Topic Reading-Vol.5108-4/19/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Should’ve put a ring on it? Maybe! Marriage is linked to lower risk of cancer

In general, married people tend to live longer and healthier lives than those unmarried, divorced, or widowed. Indeed, they often encourage orderly lifestyles, eat healthier food, take regular health check-ups, and establish economic stability. Also, some studies suggest that husbands gain more benefits from marriage than wives because they are encouraged to live healthier, safer lives than they live alone. However, a recently published study in the USA finds cancer rates are 83% higher for women who have never married compared with 68% for men who have previously married or have been married. Indeed, endometrial or ovarian cancers are related to reproductive mechanisms, and women who have never given birth tend to have a higher risk of these cancers. We still do not have the answer, though, as to whether marriage makes people healthier or healthier people tend to get married.

Read the article and learn about the health benefits of heterosexual marriage.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/08/health/marriage-cancer-wellness

Topic Reading-Vol.5107-4/18/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The record-breaking trip of the USS Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier at the center of Trump’s military ambitions

Commissioned in 2017, the USS Gerald Ford is the lead ship of a new class of U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 12. Loaded with more than 4,500 crew members and over 75 aircraft, the 100,000-ton vessel is the world’s largest warship ever constructed. Departing the Norfolk naval base last June, the USS Ford sailed to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, North Sea, and then to the Caribbean. After helping capture then-Venezuelan President Maduro in January, she was diverted to the Mediterranean and then to the Red Sea to launch waves of aircraft to attack Iran. The carrier has already been deployed for over 11 months, the longest for an aircraft carrier, and has experienced considerable wear and tear. Also, keeping the morale of sailors and officers is another challenge for such a long deployment. Captain Sage, a female Labrador retriever therapy dog, has been on board the Ford since 2023, helping reduce stress and interrupting detrimental behaviors of the crew. Even though the ship is the most advanced and powerful in the world, such a long, uncertain deployment seems to be causing crew members and their families significant mental stress and burden.

Read the article and learn about the behind-the-scenes of the long-deployed mighty US aircraft carrier.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/12/politics/uss-gerald-ford-iran-venezuela-navy-trump

Topic Reading-Vol.5106-4/17/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Djibouti's president wins unprecedented sixth term with 97.8% of vote

Surrounded by Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Red Sea, the Republic of Djibouti is a small country in the Horn of Africa with a population of around one million. It became independent from French rule in 1977. Since 1999, the Islamic country has been ruled by the same president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, who was just reelected this month after the previous reelections in 2005, 2011, 2016, and 2021. The election saw over 80% turnout, with 98% voting for the incumbent president, who scrapped term limits in the 2010 constitutional reform. Last year, the parliament passed a bill lifting age limits for the presidency, allowing Guelleh to run for his sixth term at the age of 78. He isn’t the only leader who was democratically elected with an overwhelming majority. Russian President Vladimir Putin received 87% ovtes in the 2024 election, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won 80 percent of the vote in 2020, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad won 95% in his last election in 2021, and several other leaders in African and Central Asian countries won over 90% votes. Were their challengers so unpopular or removed?

Read the article and learn about another overwhelming victory of Djibouti’s 2nd president.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgj0wg423n6o

Topic Reading-Vol.5105-4/16/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

TV for dogs booms but are they watching?

Recently, videos for dogs have become popular among dog owners who worry about leaving their dogs home alone. Such videos show what humans assume is entertaining to dogs, such as puppies playing with other animals, humans, or toys. There are many such dog-friendly videos available, which are entirely created or partly assisted by AI. You may wonder if dogs are colorblind, but they see colors just differently from humans. They can distinguish between variations of blues and yellows quite well, but not so well between red and green like humans. Producers of dog-entertainment videos believe their color-enriched videos do entertain dogs when they are left unattended, but the question remains whether dogs actually like seeing non-interactive videos on a two-dimensional TV screen in the first place. However, some studies found that such videos indeed draw dogs’ attention and provide a meaningful experience to some extent. Since dogs and humans are emotionally more connected than ever before, we ought to learn more about how we can improve their well-being, especially when we leave them at home. Then what about smartphones?

Read the article and learn about dog-entertainment videos when they are home alone.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq59leg3gp5o

Topic Reading-Vol.5104-4/15/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

These two iconic polar species have been driven to endangered status by a warming planet

Established in 1964, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. More than 170,000 species have been assessed for the list to inform and catalyze action for biodiversity conservation and policy change. Its new assessment has moved two iconic Antarctic species, the emperor penguin and the Antarctic fur seal, to “Endangered” (EN) status, a very high risk of extinction. The emperor penguin has lost its population mainly due to early breakup and losses of sea ice caused by global warming. Since emperor penguins live and breed on sea ice connected to the coastline, their habitat has been lost as sea ice decreases. The population of the Antarctic fur seal has decreased by more than 50% in the last 25 years as krill availability declines, their main food source. As surface water temperatures increase near Antarctica, krill have moved farther offshore and into deeper waters, which has made it harder for land-based seals to capture them. Since both species have no alternative place or food to live on, their future depends on the environment, which is heavily affected by humans.

Read the article and learn about two Antarctic species whose future is endangered.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/09/climate/emperor-penguins-fur-seals-antarctic-endangered

Topic Reading-Vol.5103-4/14/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Automatic military draft registration takes effect in December. Here’s how it would work

The USA has a draft system for emergency conscription. All male U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and immigrants are required to register in most states, but starting in December this year, men ages 18 to 25 in all states will be automatically registered for the military draft pool. Once approved by Congress and signed by the President, the military draft is activated, and a lottery is conducted to determine the order in which men are called based on birthdays. In the past, nearly three million in World War I, 10 million in World War II, 1.5 million in the Korean War, and almost two million young men in the Vietnam War were conscripted. Driven by Russian aggression and a deteriorating security environment, several countries in Europe have recently reintroduced or expanded military conscription, including Germany, Denmark, and the Baltic countries. While unmanned vehicles and autonomous weapons are taking major roles in battlefields, the need for manpower still seems prevalent in the military. Will housework robots also be recruited and converted to serve in the military?

Read the article and learn about the recent update of the US’s conscription service.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/09/politics/us-military-draft-registration-2026

Topic Reading-Vol.5102-4/13/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Businesses scramble to get noticed by AI search

Search behavior is rapidly changing. Instead of searching for information on search engines like Google, people are asking questions to AI like ChatGPT to get answers and recommendations. As smartphones have become the primary device for accessing the Internet, AI chatbots are more time-saving and convenient. While search engines are looking for keywords, AI engines are using large language models (LLMs) to understand, process, and generate human-like text by analyzing massive datasets. Accordingly, in addition to keywords that are caught by search engine optimization (SEO), businesses are now trying to improve answer engine optimization (AEO) to be ranked higher on such AI tools. For example, instead of eye-catching keywords or images to catch human eyes, summaries, lists of information, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are shown on the top page to grab AI’s attention. This is critical for businesses that depend on web traffic because, unlike search engine visitors who may still be searching and comparing information, AI visitors have already been guided by AI, thus more prospective. Businesses must adapt to changes in devices and technologies to survive. 

Read the article and learn about the behavioral change from searching to asking.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70n2rjgxeyo

Topic Reading-Vol.5101-4/12/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How India plans to count 1.4 billion people

A census is an official count of a population conducted periodically by the government to record demographic, economic, and social data. It is essential to plan social infrastructure, allocate budget, and ensure political representation. This month, India, the world’s most populous country, started its 16^th census to enumerate more than 1.4 billion people. In the first six months, government officials and school teachers will visit each household to collect details of their living and economic conditions, such as homeownership, essential amenities like drinking water and sanitation, home appliances, and vehicles. In the second phase scheduled next year, they will gather data on demographics, income, education, migration, and fertility. Also, for the first time in nearly 100 years, caste will be counted to ensure representation in politics, allocation in government jobs, and admissions to schools from lower castes. A total of 33 questions will be asked by humans in nearly 640,000 villages and 10,000 towns across the country over a year-long period. How will the next census be conducted a decade later?

Read the article and learn about India’s massive census project.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/07/india/india-census-population-explainer-intl-hnk

Topic Reading-Vol.5100-4/11/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

You can hire house help in 15 minutes in India. But is the system fair?

Domestic workers perform a variety of household services, such as cleaning and household maintenance, cooking, laundry, and caring for children and elderly dependents. In India, domestic work is traditionally low-paid, insecure, and unregulated. Now, online, on-demand home services are becoming popular in large cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, where there are a lot of house owners who are often too busy doing other things (or just lazy) to perform household chores. These services are just like on-demand ride-hailing services like Uber, whose apps provide information about available workers with ratings, the time of arrival, and the price. Once the service is booked, the selected worker goes to the place at the expected time, performs the services, and leaves. If they arrive late or receive a poor review, penalties are deducted from their quoted payments. Such services certainly create gig-work opportunities and clearer pay schemes for individual workers, but they tend to put too much pressure on them. Should the performance quality be maintained by rewards or penalties? In any case, India’s online house-help platform is another on-demand service that engages users and service providers through smartphones.

Read the article and learn about this rising on-demand household service in India.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98megy6r1mo

Topic Reading-Vol.5099-4/10/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How filming your chores could train the android butlers of the future

AI is not limited to chatbots, in classrooms, or at workplaces. Physical AI enables autonomous machines to perceive, understand, and perform complex actions in the real, physical world, such as industrial automation, autonomous driving, drones, human caring, and household chores. Before generative AI like ChatGPT was introduced, it had been trained on billions of words, texts, and documents from the Internet to learn text patterns to generate human-like responses to user prompts, and it is still being trained. So, how will general-purpose robots be trained to work safely and effectively in various, interactive, dynamic environments, such as factories, warehouses, shops, hospitals, and homes? To learn how to perceive, judge, and make movements, a vast amount of visual data in various environments and tasks is now being collected by first-person view cameras from all over the world. Chatbots are being trained by texts and documents on the Internet. Map apps are collecting visual and physical data from the streets, and autonomous vehicles perceive real-time situations ahead and around the vehicle to drive. Now, physical AI is being trained by visual data to perceive, judge, and react to perform tasks in a real-world environment. There are a lot of things and activities going on behind the AI.

Read the article and learn about what it takes to develop humanoid robots.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/04/tech/humanoid-robot-training-jobs-intl-hnk-dst

Topic Reading-Vol.5098-4/9/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,
‘Everyone now kind of sounds the same’: How AI is changing college classes
Having grown up with smartphones and social media as staples, today’s teenagers are digital natives who have no or little hesitation to ask AI chatbots questions. (Vol.5097-4/8/2026) But as they are learning with and being tutored by AI, their expressions, perspectives, and reasonings are becoming more homogenous. Since large language models (LLMs) are trained to predict the next most statistically likely word based on the previous input and context, they tend to provide similar responses to the same inquiries, which is called “WEIRED” viewpoints - Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic, in the English context. This seems to have hampered, or even flattened, the diversity and creativity of classroom discussions and arguments in higher education as students use AI chatbots without hesitation. Then, when AI agents become available and pursue goals and complete tasks autonomously, will students become even more reliant on AI and engage less with fellow students in discussions? It seems quite challenging for faculty members to manage rapidly advancing technologies and a drastically changing learning environment in classrooms.
Read the article and learn how AI is affecting the learning environment.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/04/health/ai-impact-college-student-thinking-wellness

Topic Reading-Vol.5097-4/8/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Gen Z is outsourcing hard conversations to AI. Why it matters

People called Millennials are in their 30s, often called digital adopters, who have adopted digital technologies as they grew up. Those in the next generation, Generation Z, are now in their teens and 20s and are called digital natives, who grew up with smartphones and social media as staples. They started using the silent, instant interactions and emojis on social media in their teens or even earlier. Also, many Gen Zs spent their school days during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their social engagement and interactive development were disrupted. Then ChatGPT became their friend in late 2022. They immediately became used to interacting with AI chatbots as if they were their tutors, advisors, friends, or even mentors, and now depend on them heavily. For example, as AI learns your behaviors, preferences, and style, it will come up with a personalized love letter according to the situations and your intentions you input. Experts are concerned that young people are so attached to AI that they might miss the chance to learn to develop, mediate, and reconcile personal relationships in their adolescence. Most people are now comfortably using AI tools to create meeting minutes, summaries, charts, research papers, and coding programs, and interact with chatbots more frequently and closely than their families or friends. And some people are emotionally dependent on AI. (Vol.4996: Woman marries ChatGPT character)

It seems that the world is now under a big transition of information, interaction, and emotion.

Read the article and learn what role AI is playing in social relationships.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/07/health/gen-z-ai-conversations-wellness

Topic Reading-Vol.5096-4/7/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

What you need to know before taking weight-loss drugs

Reducing weight cannot be achieved only by eating less, but it requires to establish healthier lifestyle, including diet, exercise, and behaviors. In case you’re chronically obese, you could use weight loss medications to ease, but not to solve, such health challenges. Some of these medications help you feel less hungry and fuller by mimicking hormones that suppress appetite, slow stomach emptying, and increase feelings of fullness, while others work by changing how you absorb fat or burn calories. As new weight-loss pills appear, more people are starting to take such medicine. However, once they stop taking such medication after a while, their weight tends to rebound quickly if they haven’t changed lifestyle behaviors. Also, those who are taking weight-loss medication might be more vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies because they eat less food and take less nutrition. After all, how you live your daily life is essential to managing your weight, and weight-loss drugs are there only to help you achieve your weight goal.

Read that article and learn how weight-loss drugs work for your weight and health.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260401-why-weight-loss-drugs-arent-a-quick-fix

Topic Reading-Vol.5095-4/6/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

What do Trump's latest comments on leaving Nato mean for the alliance?

The aftermath of World War II saw much of Europe devastated, while the Soviet Union-backed communists were threatening elected governments across Europe. To safeguard the freedom, democracy, and security of Western allies through collective defense, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was proposed by the US and established in 1949 with 12 member states from Europe and North America. NATO is a defensive alliance that ensures the security of all member countries, stating that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all members in Article 5 of the treaty. Of the current 32 members, the US’s military assets, intelligence, and budget surpass the total of the other member countries. For example, the US’s military budget makes up over 60% of NATO’s total defense spending, which seems to frustrate the deal-conscious incumbent US president. Another thing that irritates him is that while the US and most NATO countries have been supporting Ukraine in its defense war against Russia, even though Ukraine is not a NATO member state, Europeans have not been supporting the US and Israel’s war against Iran. Recently, he said NATO is a paper tiger, and he was reconsidering the US membership in NATO. This not only makes its allies reevaluate their security alliance with the USA but also stimulates other regional powers to redraw their respective regional maps. What will come next?

Read the article and learn about the US’s influence on the 77-year-old defense treaty.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79je4vldq5o

Topic Reading-Vol.5094-4/5/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The happiest day of an Indian bride’s life can lead to years of debt

Nowadays in India, even educated graduates have difficulty finding jobs, and middle-class families are struggling to make ends meet and often fall into a debt trap. (Vol.5093) Another financial burden the parents of a daughter have to bear is the wedding. While marrying off a daughter carries both joy and relief for her parents, they are expected to offer a substantial dowry, prepare and manage the lavish wedding ceremony, and pay the expenses, which, altogether, could cost years of their income. Even though dowry is prohibited in India, it still persists widely because it is still expected by the groom’s family, with whom the bride is going to live once married. It could include not just money but also furniture, a car, or even a house if the couple lives by themselves. Also, because weddings serve as a bond in the families, the community, and social relationships, hundreds of guests are invited and served at the extravagant wedding events that last a few days or even a week. All of these preparations are made and expenses paid by the bride’s family, and many of them have no choice but to borrow money at a high interest rate for years. Education raises expectations, inflation increases the costs of living, and a wedding could add years of debt. Even years of hard work might not be enough to live a comfortable life for many in India.

Read the article and learn about another financial burden that a girl’s family has to bear.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/31/india/india-weddings-cost-intl-hnk-dst

Topic Reading-Vol.5093-4/4/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Educated and employed but still struggling: India's middle class under strain

Education and the middle class sound like key drivers of economic growth, but not quite so nowadays in India. Over eight million college students graduate each year, only a few million shy of China, and nearly 30% of them are unemployed. Even among the graduates of 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), India’s world-famous premier IT and engineering institutions, almost 40% are unemployed, while uneducated people can find jobs much more easily, even though the pay is much lower than the national average. Thus, the number of middle-class workers and families isn’t increasing so much any longer. Also, inflation has been outpacing income growth, including rent, food, healthcare, and education. In order to fill the gap between earnings and spending, nearly half of all Indian families are taking personal loans. But borrowing money creates debts and an extra burden, the interest, which is higher than the inflation and often the income growth. Unless income growth outpaces inflation and interest rates, borrowers fall into a debt trap, taking new loans to pay off old ones. It seems that AI and inflation are eroding the illusion of creating a middle-class economy with education.

Read the article and learn about what hampers India’s economic growth.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg5g3pjy06o

Topic Reading-Vol.5092-4/3/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Frosting, sprinkles and layers of fun: Giant cake picnic hits Sydney

Initiated by a Google employee who works deep in the world of AI, Cake Picnic is a social gathering where people bring and exhibit their homemade cakes and enjoy seeing and eating others’ cakes, like a potluck party. It is now organized by the branches of CAKE PICNIC in many cities beyond San Francisco, including Los Angeles, Mexico City, Melbourne, and Sydney, and many other places in the coming year. At the Melbourne event in March, 1,600 cakes were exhibited and eaten. Once entered, the participant needs to bring one whole uncut cake of a minimum 20cm in width and 7.5cm in height, a label for the cake, including the cake’s name, list of ingredients, and any major allergens it contains, if any, and a cake server. On the site, cakes of all kinds, colors, shapes, and tastes are laid out, pictures are taken, recipes are shared, and compliments are exchanged before they are sliced to be eaten. The events are inclusive, and the participants are diverse, but they all want to share the sweet experience. Indeed, cakes are designed to be sliced and shared.

Read the article and learn about the sweet picnic where all participants enjoy the taste of.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1w40dy58vwo

Topic Reading-Vol.5091-4/2/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Arctic sea ice just dropped to an alarming new low

Sea ice has a significant influence on the global climate. Its bright surface reflects as much as 80% of sunlight back into space, keeping polar regions cold. When it melts, it exposes the dark ocean surface, which absorbs sunlight, leading to higher ocean temperatures and accelerating further melting. The Arctic sea ice reaches its peak in March each year, covering around 14 to 15 million square kilometers. This March, the Arctic sea ice peaked at 14.29 million square kilometers, marking the lowest maximum extent in the 48-year satellite record. This year’s peak was approximately 1.36 million square kilometers below the 1981-2010 average, about twice the size of Texas. Ongoing buildup of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels has been warming the oceans, heating the air, melting the ice, and causing extreme weather events. Even if climate pollution is stopped, the Arctic will have no ice during the summer season within a decade or two. Where will polar bears live?

Read the article and learn about the impacts of global warming on the Arctic sea ice.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/26/climate/arctic-sea-ice-record-low

Topic Reading-Vol.5090-4/1/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

UN votes to recognise slavery as gravest crime against humanity

The African coastal slave trade was established by Europeans in the 15th century, and trade to the Americas began in the 16th century, lasting until the 19th century. The vast majority of the slaves were captured in Central and West Africa, transported, and sold to European traders, who then shipped them to the Americas as part of the triangular trade. It is estimated that around 12 to 15 million Africans were captured, traded, and forced to work as slaves. On March 25, a resolution to designate the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and the enslavement system as the gravest crime against humanity was adopted at the UN General Assembly with an overwhelming majority of 123 member states. Three members, Argentina, Israel, and the United States, voted against the resolution, and 52, including many European countries, abstained. The resolution, which was spearheaded by Ghana and strongly supported by the African Union, is meant to safeguard against forgetting the inhumane practice. African countries also call for financial repartition, including educational, endowment, and skills training funds. The US said it does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred, and refused to use modern resources for reparations.

Read the article and learn what recognition and reparation of slavery mean to African countries.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg06q36052o

Topic Reading-Vol.5089-3/31/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Transgender women athletes banned from Olympics by new IOC policy on female eligibility

Men and women aren’t the same when it comes to athletic performance. For endurance sports like running and swimming, men usually outperform biological women by 10% or more, 20% in throwing and jumping events, and 100% in punching sports like boxing. In order to protect fairness, safety, and integrity in the female category, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided that the women’s category of Olympic sports will be limited to biological females from the LA Olympics in 2028. The eligibility will be determined by a once-in-a-lifetime gender test, which would prevent transgender women and those with differences in sexual development (DSD) who have gone through male puberty from competing. The IOC believes that the gene test using saliva, a cheek swab, or a blood sample is the most accurate and least intrusive method available today. Critics argue that such gender testing not only violates privacy and human rights but also is flawed and inconclusive. At least, the IOC’s decision has come before a potential executive order by the president of the next Olympic host country.

Read the article and learn about the latest announcement by the world’s Olympic body.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/26/sport/olympics-transgender-women-athletes-banned

Topic Reading-Vol.5088-3/30/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

2026 ‘Dirty Dozen’ produce: Nearly 100% tested positive for pesticides, including ‘forever chemicals’

Pesticides are chemicals or biological substances used to prevent, destroy, or repel pests, such as insects, weeds, fungi, rodents, bacteria, and viruses, to protect crops and increase yields. Unlike organic or hydroponic farming, conventional soil farming usually uses pesticides to some degree. Exposure to pesticides has long been linked to health problems, including birth defects, heart disease, and cancer. Even if you aren’t exposed to pesticides, they often remain on or in the food you consume as residue. And some of the chemicals aren’t broken down in the environment even after decades or centuries, called forever chemicals. Leafy greens, strawberries, and grapes have more pesticide residues, while pineapples, sweet corn, and avocadoes are much less contaminated. But pesticide residues remain in most vegetables and fruits. So, whether they are skinned, prewashed, or frozen, you want to wash or rinse them thoroughly before cooking or eating.

Read the article and learn about pesticide residue on and in the farm products.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/24/health/2026-dirty-dozen-pesticide-produce-wellness

Topic Reading-Vol.5087-3/29/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Artemis II: Inside the Moon mission to fly humans further than ever

Artemis II is a NASA spacecraft mission to return humans to the Moon, the first crewed deep-space and lunar mission since 1972. The 10-day mission will carry four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. The 98-meter-tall Space Launch System is powered by two rocket boosters and four engines. Combined with the Orion spacecraft that goes to the moon, it weighs approximately 2,600 metric tons when it is loaded with fuel. Once reached space, the astronauts will spend 10 days in the 5-meter-wide by 3-meter-high capsule, where they will work, exercise, eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate. When it reaches the far side of the Moon, the side cannot be seen from Earth, and the crew will have their prime three hours to observe the Moon, which will help NASA plan for a future landing. After the 10-day, two-million-kilometer journey, the cone-shaped, 9-square-meter crew capsule will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere at 40,000 km/h, faster than any previous human mission, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. A gigantic rocket to launch and a long journey to reach and return, Artemis II is a highly demanding but rewarding mission.

Read the article and see the images of the first manned mission to the Moon in the last half-century.

https://www.bbc.com/news/resources/idt-86aafe5a-17e2-479c-9e12-3a7a41e10e9e

Topic Reading-Vol.5086-3/28/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Which countries have strategic oil reserves – and how much?

The Strait of Hormuz is a 167 km long, 40-to-100 km wide waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, allowing around 20% of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf to the world, particularly to Europe and Asia. The crucial waterway for the world’s energy supply has been effectively closed by Iran for weeks, which has been under attack by the USA and Israel. The world is now sourcing oil and gas from other exporters, including Russia, reducing supply like South Asian countries, or releasing its reserves like Japan. Global strategic petroleum reserves (GSPR) refer to crude oil inventories held by 30 governments of the International Energy Agency (IEA) members, including the USA, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, France, Germany, and the UK, along with major importers like China and India. It held over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks and 600 million barrels of industry stocks held by private organizations, equivalent to a few months’ consumption. Which countries have such oil reserves, and how much?

Read the article and learn how the world has prepared for oil shortages like now.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/23/which-countries-have-strategic-oil-reserves-and-how-much

Topic Reading-Vol.5085-3/27/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Parents think they know how kids use AI. They don't

Every decade or so, we’ve had technological breakthroughs, such as PCs and keyboards from the mid-1980s, cellphones after the late 1990s, Google searches in the early 2000s, and smartphones around 2010. Teenagers are usually early and aggressive adopters of new technologies and practices, and use new gadgets more fluently and aggressively than their parents, who have no choice but to accept or neglect how their children engage with their new tools. Now, AI, a silent and invisible yet influential tool, has become the closest companion of today’s children and teenagers. According to newly conducted studies, most US teenagers use AI chatbots for practical purposes, such as searching for information, getting help with schoolwork, entertaining themselves, summarizing an article or video, or creating or editing images or videos. In the meantime, about 16% of the respondents said they use it for casual conversation, and 12% said they use it for advice or emotional support. While they seem quite comfortable using AI for various purposes, their parents are more sceptical about their reliance on their artificial companions. Since it’s no news that children become more familiar with new technologies, parents should try to talk more with their children about the use of AI.

Read the article and learn about how children are actually using AI.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260317-how-kids-are-actually-using-ai

Topic Reading-Vol.5084-3/26/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Counting calories doesn't work. Try eating smarter instead

Some people in the world are struggling to get as much energy as they can from the little food they eat, while overweight people, especially in the US and the UK, are trying to aim the opposite, to get the least from as much food as they eat. Why some people are overweight is not just because they eat too much food, but also because they consume it at the wrong time, at the wrong speed, and in the wrong way. Our body metabolizes the food we eat; the process of our organism to create energy, facilitate growth, and produce waste. But how fast or efficiently this process works varies widely by the food, timing, speed, and duration of eating. For example, taking the same calories at breakfast burns the energy more than at dinner. Also, if you eat more slowly, the food is digested better, and your gut feels fuller for longer. And it’s not just about calories but also about the nutrition you get from the food you eat. Of course, what you eat matters the most, too. Naturally grown food is more nutritious than artificially processed food, like whole grain vs granola and chicken breast vs protein bars. All in all, eating smartly seems to help you benefit the most from the food you eat.

Read the article and learn what smart eating means to your health.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260320-counting-calories-doesnt-work-try-eating-smarter-instead

Topic Reading-Vol.5083-3/25/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

India's young are more educated than ever. So why are so many jobless?

Though young people in India are more educated than ever before, over 20% of them cannot find jobs. In the last three decades, the number of colleges and universities has risen from 1,600 to 70,000, producing five million graduates annually. This has narrowed the gender gaps and caste barriers to some extent, but has not helped the increasing number of graduates secure aspiring, stable, salaried jobs. Unlike other East and Southeast Asian countries that have been growing with export-led manufacturing industries to employ a large number of not-so-educated workers, India’s leading industries are skill-intensive services like IT and communication, which aren’t producing as many job opportunities as labor-intensive industries. As a result, hundreds or thousands of applicants compete for limited job opportunities in government services, and many graduates have given up their aspirations and taken on family farms or businesses. When they reach their 30s, will they become financially or professionally independent from their families to create their own families?

Read the article and learn how India’s young people are struggling to find jobs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17841zez8wo

Topic Reading-Vol.5082-3/24/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Cuba is going dark under US pressure. How the crisis unfolded and why its troubles are far from over

Initiated in the 1960s following the communist revolution and nationalization of US assets, the US maintains its long-standing economic embargo on Cuba to pressure the Cuban government to transition toward democracy and improve its human rights record. After losing its main oil supplier, Venezuela, due to the US’s capture of its president by force, Cuba has also lost other oil suppliers, including Mexico, because of US pressure. Now, the 10 million Caribbean islanders suffer from severe fuel shortages, constant blackouts, and limited access to water. Accordingly, garbage collections, hospital operations, and transportation services, all essential to people’s lives, are affected. In Havana, the capital city with a population of over two million, patients are waiting for surgeries in hospitals, garbage is piling up in the streets, and people are spending nights in their dark homes. Once the attack on Iran ends, will the US administration move on to displace the Cuban government as it did to Venezuela? Whichever the case may be, those who suffer the most are ordinary citizens.

Read the article and learn about the recent situation in Cuba due to the US blockade.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/18/americas/cuba-us-pressure-blackout-latam-intl

Topic Reading-Vol.5081-3/23/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Can Ukraine's war-torn wheatfields be cleansed?

Known as a “breadbasket,” Ukraine is a top exporter of sunflower oil, maize, and wheat. But as its farmland has turned into battlefields, much of the soil has been contaminated by toxic elements from shells, missiles, drones, bombs, tanks, and vehicles, each of which leaves different residues and remains on the farmland. Researchers are particularly concerned about the toxicity of heavy metals, such as cadmium, cobalt, copper, zinc, and nickel, which could increase the chance of getting cancers, birth defects, miscarriage, or stillbirth. They’ve also found that the land where tanks had burned or drones had crashed more contaminated than the soil that had been hit by bombs or projectiles. It would take significant labor, time, and money to decontaminate the surface soil of the fertile farmland.

Read the article and learn about how Ukraine’s farmland has been affected by the war.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly2e3jzeyko

Topic Reading-Vol.5080-3/22/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The war created an oil problem. It’s not the only price you’ll pay

Nearly 90% of all the oil and gas flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, a 167km-long strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, goes to Asia. As the traffic through the Strait has been shut down by Iran, Asian countries are struggling to cope with the shortage of those fuels. Sri Lanka has declared every Wednesday a holiday for public institutions to conserve fuel. In Myanmar, private vehicles are allowed only to operate on alternate days depending on their licence plate numbers. Even in the USA, the world’s largest petroleum-extracting country, the prices of oil and gasoline soared recently, putting financial pressure on commuters and drivers. Other countries are also affected by price hikes in various items, including food, AI chips, aluminum, natural gas, plastics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, due to rising material and transportation costs. When a flow of oil and natural gas is disrupted, the whole world is affected in some way or another.

Read the article and learn about how the US and Israel’s war on Iran is affecting the lives and economy of the world.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/17/business/price-increases-oil-food-aluminum-iran-war

Topic Reading-Vol.5079-3/21/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

This is why you only breathe out of one nostril at a time

Your nostrils are the entrance to your respiratory system. They warm, condition, and filter the air you breathe. They also house your olfactory organs, which give you the sense of smell. That’s why when your nose gets stuffy or blocked, you don’t smell or taste well. Without noticing, your nostrils naturally switch between a dominant nostril for airflow while the other rests, called the nasal cycle. Regulated by the autonomic nervous system, this work-and-rest cycle prevents drying, cracking, and maintains mucus health. The cycle usually shifts every two to five hours without our recognizing it. Which of your nostrils is at work now?

Read the article and learn about the mechanism of our nostrils and the nasal cycle.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/08/health/nostril-breathing-wellness-conversation

Topic Reading-Vol.5078-3/20/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How Iranians are evading internet blocks to contact family abroad

Iranians, especially those who live in Tehran, have been under heavy bombardment by Israel and the USA since February 28. Also, they have been under an internet blackout by their own authorities since January 8. Without phone or internet connections, how have they been conveying their situations to those who live abroad? One analogue yet practical way to talk to others abroad is to use a Turkish phone and an Iranian phone near their border, where signals from both countries reach, and hold them together while talking. Another, more digital way is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which secures your internet connection by creating an encrypted tunnel for your interactions. Connecting to the Internet via VPN, your data, location, and online identity are all hidden from the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or sensorship. Because of the desperate demands to hear the voices or messages from their loved ones, the prices of such arrangements have skyrocketed recently. However, there is no other way for Iranians to establish communication with the outside world. And when they talk, they say they are doing OK, no matter how heavy the bombardment around them might be. Who created a situation like this?

Read the article and learn how Iranians are connecting with others abroad.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgl58y5943o

Topic Reading-Vol.5077-3/19/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How much of the Gulf’s water comes from desalination plants?

The total population of the six Gulf states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is a little over 60 million, showing an increase of about 20% in the last decade. However, the area has no permanent rivers and receives very little rainfall. How does the arid region supply sufficient water to its growing population, businesses, and farming? Since the GULF countries border the Persian Gulf, they are making water by desalinating seawater. They produce more than 300 liters of water per resident each day from seawater at over 400 desalination plants along their coasts. Desalination of seawater is the process of removing salts, minerals, and impurities from seawater to produce water drinkable or suitable for irrigation and industrial use by membrane filtration or thermal distillation. Once processed, the water is then distributed through pipelines or in containers. In the Gulf region, plants and pipelines seem essential to produce and distribute essential liquids.

Read the article and learn how dependent the Gulf region is on seawater.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/12/how-much-of-the-gulfs-water-comes-from-desalination-plants

Topic Reading-Vol.5076-3/18/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

AI is exhausting workers so much, researchers have dubbed the condition ‘AI brain fry’

What if a dozen browser tabs open all at once, waiting for your judgment or directions? As more efficient and sophisticated AI tools are introduced in workplaces, more workers and managers are experiencing cognitive overload, called AI brain fry. It is mental exhaustion from using or supervising AI tools beyond one’s cognitive capacity. While asking an AI chatbot questions or having an AI tool do simple tasks like creating charts greatly saves time and workload for most workers, supervising what AI tools produce requires managers and specialists to conduct fact-checking and judgment, and fast. This is not a simple task like driving a car on a highway, but more like riding a monster motorcycle on a race track, where a simple mistake could easily lead to a fatal crash. To avoid such cognitive overload by new tools, users of powerful AI tools need to learn how to make better use of them within their cognitive capacity. Longer work hours certainly won’t help you work with AI, but attention span will.

Read the article and learn about how AI could bring cognitive overload to workers.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/13/business/ai-brain-fry-nightcap

Topic Reading-Vol.5075-3/17/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Former leader Ardern has left New Zealand. She’s not the only one

Compared with New Zealand, Australia is 28 times larger in land size and five times larger in population. Australia’s average economic output per person, GDP per capita, is over USD 65,000, and New Zealand's is around USD 48,000. Last year, both countries had about a 3%+ inflation. Sydney and Melbourne are the two largest cities in Australia, with a population of over five million respectively, while roughly one-third of New Zealanders, or 1.7 million, live in the largest city, Auckland. Thanks to the free movement agreements, citizens of either country can move and live in the other freely. Which of these two closely located Oceanian countries offers economic advantages over the other? Recently, migration between Australia and New Zealand has experienced a significant surge, with record numbers of New Zealanders moving to Australia for higher wages, better opportunities, and lower costs of living. Last year, over 120,000 New Zealanders emigrated, fueled by rising living costs and a weakening job market, and 60% of them settled in Australia, including the former prime minister and her family. Economic advantages seem to overwhelm national identity or values to many young people and families, causing so-called brain-drain to New Zealand.

Read the article and learn about the emigration crisis in New Zealand.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/06/world/new-zealand-australia-emigration-midlife-intl-hnk-dst

Topic Reading-Vol.5074-3/16/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Where do the 35 million foreigners living in the GCC come from?

Around 60 million people live in the six Gulf monarchies: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. These Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries share the same religious, cultural, and social values, including Islamic identity, Arabic language, and Bedouin-merchant lifestyle, as well as modest behavior and hospitality. These countries are all scarce in water resources, but extremely rich in oil and natural gas resources, which generate the vast majority of their government revenues and contribute a significant portion of their GDPs. Also common among the GCC countries is their heavy dependence on foreign workers, or expatriates. Even though nationals are the majority of the population in Saudi Arabia and Oman, non-nationals outnumber the nationals in the other four countries, most significantly in Qatar and the UAE, where over 80% of their populations are non-nationals. Then where do those expatriates come from?

Read the article and learn how dependent the GCC countries are on foreign workers.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/9/where-do-the-35-million-foreigners-living-in-the-gcc-come-from

Topic Reading-Vol.5073-3/15/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

These filmmakers know exactly how to get you hooked on bizarre one-minute dramas

A study found that the time an average person spends on a screen is now only 47 seconds, significantly shorter than in the pre-smartphone era. (Vol.5072) However, when it comes to a “micro-drama”, there is only a second or two to get viewers’ attention and stop them scrolling further on their smartphones.  Originating in China, a micro-drama is a highly serialized, short-form video series designed for mobile viewing, featuring dozens of 1–2 minute episodes with fast-paced, melodramatic plots, often shot in a vertical format. Viewers can watch the first five to ten episodes free, and then need to pay to watch the remaining episodes. Therefore, it’s not the title or trailer that grabs viewers’ attention but the impact of the beginning scene. In production studios in Korea, screenwriters, producers, and editors all use AI to save time and cost to produce numerous episodes and titles of micro-dramas. It seems that the time to grab and keep attention is getting shorter as people scroll the screen faster.

Read the article and learn about how micro-dramas are produced.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg5q6wq11no

Topic Reading-Vol.5072-3/14/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

You’ll likely move on in 47 seconds. Can I hold your attention a little longer?

It seems that most of us live in a life where we switch our attentions from one thing to another much faster than ever before. On the smartphone, many people keep swiping through the next videos or images in less than a minute. Also, people quickly turn their eyes to the screen whenever they have a few seconds to spare. A study found that the time an average person spends on a screen is now only 47 seconds, significantly shorter than in the pre-smartphone era. When there is always more content that grabs your interest at the blink of your eye, you may find it difficult to pay attention to off-screen activities and interactions that don’t gratify you with such instant pleasure. Then, how should you switch focus and concentrate on the work or task that requires good attention?

Read the article and learn about the mechanism of attention and how to improve it.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/27/health/attention-span-improvement-wellness-vis

Topic Reading-Vol.5071-3/13/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Five countries that are actively welcoming travellers in 2026
Tourism contributes economy, creates jobs, and improves infrastructure, if planned and managed sustainably. But if the number of tourists exceeds the sustainable capacity, it is labeled as overtourism, which often ends up creating bans, caps, and raising fees for tourists to curb the number, like in France and Italy. Still, there are countries that are welcoming more international visitors, in Africa, South America, and Europe.
Namibia, a South African country that borders the Atlantic Ocean and also South America, offers conservation-minded wildlife-spotting tourism. Brazil, the South American giant with the Amazon River, is encouraging visitors to travel around different regions, seasons, and types of experiences. Vietnam, an elongated coastal nation stretching over 1,600 km from north to south with a diverse climate and varied landscapes, has eased visa requirements and is about to complete upgrading Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport. Lithuania, a small Baltic country, is projecting to increase not just the number of travellers but the length of their stay so that they can experience local culture and food better. Canada, the world’s second-largest country after Russia, offers diverse tourism attractions stretching over 7,000 km east to west across six time zones. So, it’s better not to limit your travel destinations to already-popular world heritage sites, but rather expand your scope to other attractive places where local nature, culture, gastronomy, and environment are waiting for your visit.
Read the article and learn about places that are welcoming more visitors.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260306-five-countries-that-are-actively-welcoming-travellers-in-2026

Topic Reading-Vol.5070-3/12/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

We feel it in our bones': Can a machine ever love you?

Loving someone is not just having a romantic feeling but involves a deep, conscious commitment characterized by care, respect, and unconditional support for another person's well-being, growth, and happiness. As the relationship develops, it often evolves beyond initial infatuation into a stable partnership built on trust, shared values, and mutual sacrifice, according to an AI overview. Nowadays, some people are emotionally so engaged with AI that they feel love for their AI companion or avatar. In an extreme case, a Japanese woman had a marriage ceremony with a ChatGPT character (Vol.4995). However, unlike human companions, chatbots are designed to engage users and agree with their perspectives and emotions. While they become comparable to humans in understanding emotions, chatbots are often submissively responding without feeling anything. But as people use AI more from an earlier age, another kind of “love” might be developed. In fact, many people love their pets just like their family members, even if they don’t speak the same language.

Read the article and think about what human love is about.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260209-can-a-machine-ever-love-you

Topic Reading-Vol.5069-3/11/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The business of not ageing: Why people are spending $1,300 on longevity treatments

There are quite a few evidence-backed lifestyle habits to live longer, healthier lives, such as eating a nutrient-rich, balanced diet, engaging in regular physical activity, getting enough sleep, refraining from smoking or drinking alcohol, managing stress, and maintaining social connections, none of which costs any money but one’s mindset, attitude, and determination. In the meantime, there is an increasing number of businesses that offer longevity treatments, such as mindfulness sessions, mental longevity, diagnostics, neurostimulation, sleep optimization, and stress-resilience therapies, none of which seem to be supported by clinical trial data or evidence. These diagnoses and customized treatments cost thousands of dollars, but there are quite a few people who don’t mind spending money to delay aging and live longer. Indeed, longevity treatment might be a healthier way to spend money than on luxurious ornaments or dresses. However, if you live alone longer than your loved ones or friends, you’ll miss them a lot. Will there be loneliness treatments that you can buy?

Read the article and learn about the treatments for a longer life.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20260211-the-business-of-not-ageing