Topic Reading-Vol.5231-8/20/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Spotify to add label for AI-generated artists and remove them from recommendations

Launched in 2008, Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming service platform that provides access to more than 100 million tracks, millions of podcasts, and thousands of audiobooks. More than 777 million users in 184 markets enjoy the service. In many songs and videos Spotify presents, AI is used to some extent, which seems to be a generally accepted, yet controversial, practice. Also, more AI-generated performers like Xania Monet are appearing, singing, and performing on music and video platforms. Although not all listeners mind if the music is sung by an AI-generated persona, some feel disappointed or deceived when they find out the performer’s identity. Recently, Spotify has introduced a feature that will show the AI identity in its artist profiles and playlists, though it won’t reveal how the music was created. Nowadays, a large number of short videos with unique characters and animals appear each day. Even though AI is a common feature for creating music and videos, the identity of the musicians and characters might help enhance their authenticity.

Read the article and think about how much the identity of artists matters to you.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgxzmgejd5o

Topic Reading-Vol.5230-8/19/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, ‘Brand-new everything’: How data centers transformed this small town’s economy

As the use of AI becomes the norm, more facilities are needed to store, process, share, and manage data and run applications. That’s why data centers are being built around the world. A data center facility houses networked computer servers, data storage devices, and network equipment. They consume a massive amount of energy to run their servers and to cool them from overheating. They are operated 24/7 remotely, so they need only a few people on site for maintenance. Therefore, data centers are built where space and electricity are economically available, but not much of a human workforce. Local residents fear their electricity bills will rise if a power-hungry data center is built. Also, they worry about heat exhaustion and noise pollution from the facility. Quinsy is a small farming town in the state of Washington with a population of around 8,500. Microsoft, Yahoo!, Dell and others have located large data centers since 2007, and there are around 30 of them now. What are the benefits and problems of data centers to the residents, community, and economy?

Read the article and learn about the impacts of data centers in a small town.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/11/business/data-centers-ai-economy

Topic Reading-Vol.5229-8/18/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

World's oceans hit record-high July temperatures

Oceans regulate the climate, absorb excess heat, and produce half of the planet’s oxygen. Ocean warming expands seawater and causes sea level rise, marine heatwaves that affect ocean biodiversity, and evaporates more heat and moisture into the air, which intensifies tropical storms. El Niño is an unusual warming of ocean surface waters in the tropical Pacific. Combined with global warming, it can cause temperature spikes and more extreme weather conditions, including heatwaves and drought. This year, the effects of El Niño are seen in many places. Western Europe experienced the hottest June-July period, about 2.8 degrees Celsius above average, and the US recorded the hottest-ever July. Record-high temperatures and heatwaves cause rapid evaporation, sucking moisture from soils, plants, and reservoirs, and severe droughts across Europe and the western US, triggering intense and widespread wildfires in Spain, France, and Canada. Global warming fuels El Niño, and El Niño intensifies extreme weather conditions. How hot and dry is this August going to be?

Read the article and learn why and how hot this summer is in the Northern Hemisphere.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvw8vmmgrwo

Topic Reading-Vol.5228-8/17/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

‘I’ve never been counted’: DR Congo’s first census in 42 years

A former colony of Belgium, the Democratic Republic of Congo became independent in 1960 as the Republic of Congo. The country was named Zaire between 1971 and 1997, but reverted to the former name. The UN estimates DR Congo’s population increased from around 50 million in 2000 to around 100 million in 2021, and now about 116 million, the second most populous in Africa after Nigeria. With a population of around 15 million, Kinshasa, the capital, is the largest city, and the second-largest has fewer than 3 million people. There are more than 250 ethnic groups without any dominant ethnic group, speaking their native languages, though French, the former colonial language, is most widely spoken. But these population and demographic figures are estimated without a census in the last four decades. Now, the government has just rolled out a nationwide census after identifying and geolocating inhabited places. By figuring out who and how many people live where, the government hopes to allocate its resources to build and run schools, hospitals, roads, water systems, and electricity projects. Citizens will then be registered and given ID cards, which make them feel officially recognized by their country.

Read and learn what a census could mean to DR Congo and its people.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/8/ive-never-been-counted-dr-congos-first-census-in-42-years

Topic Reading-Vol.5227-8/16/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

AI is booming on the West Coast. So why is unemployment so high there?

Washington, Oregon, and California make up the U.S. West Coast. They are known for their beautiful coastline, evergreen forests, and tech industries. Apple, Alphabet (Google), META, and NVIDIA are all headquartered in California’s Bay Area. Intel has its largest operation in Oregon. Microsoft and Amazon are the two largest employers in Washington. While they are heavily investing in AI and data centers, they aren’t hiring as many tech workers as they used to. Instead, many of these tech companies have been laying off thousands of employees in the name of efficiency, resource reallocation, and AI. AI-exposed jobs, such as data analysis, coding, and customer service, have been slashed the most. Job openings are rarely available for entry-level or experienced workers, even for advanced-degree holders. In the meantime, huge investments are being made into AI and data centers, and those who build, facilitate, and provide services for data centers are busy keeping up with demand. Who will benefit from AI the most, workers, management, investors, or vendors?

Read the article and learn how tech workers are affected by AI in the US.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/08/business/jobs-california-ai-unemployment

Topic Reading-Vol.5226-8/15/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Great Apes kiss and cuddle to keep the peace, says study

Our close relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are both known for their aggressiveness. They compete for food, partners, and position within their group, and fight outsiders to protect their group and territory. In the meantime, they often touch, embrace, and kiss each other to show affection and friendliness as humans do. Interestingly, they also seem to use social touch to manage tension, competition, and cooperation. A recent observation of chimps and bonobos in African sanctuaries found that before they were given scheduled food, they engaged in close contact with each other. Researchers assume that they touched and hugged each other to mitigate the tension of food competition. A peaceful act before a stressful event. Indeed, social touch was part of communication exchanged before languages were developed. Even today, we often shake hands, hug, or kiss each other socially before meetings and events.

Read the article and learn how physical contact helps social bonds.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y045vprg5o

Topic Reading-Vol.5225-8/14/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Half of vaccines are binned - 'fridge-free' versions could change that

A vaccine is a medical treatment that helps our body's immune system recognize and fight disease. Vaccines are effective against many serious, life-threatening viral and bacterial diseases, including measles, chickenpox, rotavirus, polio, rabies, influenza, and COVID-19. To ensure their efficacy and safety, most vaccines require strict temperature control called “cold chain” from the moment they are shipped until the time they are injected into a recipient’s arm. Keeping vaccines at a certain temperature is quite difficult, especially in poor, remote, or conflict areas.WHO estimates failures in this cold chain requirement are a major factor in half of all vaccines being wasted or disposed of globally. Recently, scientists in the UK trialled a fridge-free version of the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine successfully. They kept it as a dry powder at room temperature for a year, mixed it with water, and injected it into volunteers’ arms. The dry-powdered version of the vaccine gave equivalent immune responses to the refrigerated vaccine. Since many other vaccines can be stored in the same way, this new approach might substantially reduce vaccine waste, allowing more people to receive injections while reducing transportation and storage costs.

Read the article and learn about this breakthrough approach for vaccine storage.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce85qe8j0nzo