Topic Reading-Vol.5122-5/3/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,　

Japan reveals new name for 40C-and-hotter days after blistering summer

Japan's summer is extremely humid, often 75%–90% humidity, due to warm, moist air masses from the Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia, as well as a post-rainy season effect. Also, summer in cities is so intense because of concrete and air conditioning, which keeps temperatures high even during the night, the urban heat island effect. And it is becoming even hotter due to global warming. Last year, Japan experienced a record-breaking hot summer. Daytime temperatures exceeded 35 °C for 52 days in Kyoto and 25 days in Tokyo. The Japan Meteorological Agency, JMA, uses hot day terminologies, Extremely Hot Day for days of 35°C or above, Midsummer Day for 30°C or above, and Summer Day for 25°C or above. Now, to prepare for an even hotter summer, JMA added a new term, Cruelly Hot (Kokusho-bi), for days of 40°C or above. Though the new term won’t ease Japan’s already hot summer, it at least warns people how brutal the day is going to be. Japan’s weather news often advises people to turn on the air conditioning and stay indoors on Extremely Hot Days (35°C+). What will they say on Kokusho-bi?

Read the article and learn how Japan describes an unbearably hot summer day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crr185nx0n9o

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

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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

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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