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