Topic Reading-Vol.4702-3/9/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

A half-century insurgency in the Middle East may be ending. Here’s why

The Kurds are an ethnic group of people who primarily live in the mountainous regions of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish languages and are one of the world's largest ethnic groups without a universally recognized independent state. The estimated population of Kurds is around 40 million, as many as half of whom live in Turkey. Formed in 1978, the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. It initially sought an independent Kurdish state, but after the 1990s, it has been seeking autonomy and political rights within Turkey. It engaged in armed conflicts with the Turkish government and military and is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the USA, the EU, and some other countries. Now, the PKK’s leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, has called on its members to disarm and dissolve the group. Why now? Last December, Syria was finally liberated, which is going to affect the regional power balance. Also, the Turkish president seems to be seeking another re-election in 2028 by amending the constitution, which requires support from other political parties, including the pro-Kurdish party. Will there be any agreeable compromise between the Kurdish and Turkish people?

Read the article and learn about Kurdish people and their movements in the Middle East.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/28/middleeast/turkey-pkk-insurgency-middle-east-explainer-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4701-3/8/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How often should you poo?

Is pooing a few times a day too often, or a few times a week too few? It varies by individual, but in general, neither is too frequent nor too infrequent. However, normal bowel movement doesn’t guarantee health. Researchers found those who poo normal stools, like sausage or banana, seven times a week had more good bacteria in their guts while those who poo fewer times had more toxins in their blood. That’s because the longer digested food stays in your intestines, the more it ferments and rots, causing toxicity. Another health indicator is the gut transit time, which is how long it takes for food to travel through your digestive system. It varied by individual, ranging from a half day to a few days. Now, you can tell the stool frequency and gut transit time are relevant. That’s why you want to exercise regularly and consume fruits, vegetables, and fiber to poo more frequently to be healthier, certainly not ultraprocessed foods (Vol.4700). Last but not least, you also want to check the color and shape of your poo because it also shows the health of your gut system.

Read the article and learn what your poo cycle and poo mean to your health.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250225-what-your-poo-can-reveal-about-your-health

Topic Reading-Vol.4700-3/7/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Ultraprocessed foods make up to 70% of the US food supply. How to reduce your intake

Do you know what UPFs are or have any idea how much ultra-processed foods (UPFs) you eat daily? In general, foods that are processed highly and contain ingredients that aren’t normally found in the kitchen, such as certain individual nutrients, flavor enhancers, colors, additives, and stabilizers are considered UPFs. They tend to contain some ingredients excessively, such as sugar, salt, fat, and carbohydrates. They are tasty and convenient but are also calorie-dense. A study found that those who eat UPFs mainly for their diet take 500 more calories daily than those who don’t. Although fat, sugar, sodium, and starchy carbohydrates aren’t usually found together in nature, ultra-processed foods often contain these magic ingredients together to entice your taste buds. So, if you regularly eat ultra-processed foods, such as breakfast cereals, margarine, chips, packaged cakes and biscuits, sweet chocolate, and prepared foods, you get more calories, fat, sugar, and salt than you recognize. Since such highly processed foods are linked to illnesses, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression, cognitive decline, and stroke, you may want to be aware of which foods are highly processed and how to avoid them.

Read the article and learn what Ultra-processed Foods are and do to your health.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/26/health/ultraprocessed-hyperpalatable-foods-wellness/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4699-3/6/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Myanmar villagers reveal 'desperate' illegal kidney sales

An organ transplant is a surgical procedure that replaces a damaged organ with a healthy organ from a donor. Organs that have been successfully transplanted include the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, thymus and uterus. Organ donors may be living, brain dead, or dead via circulatory death. Although the demand for organ transplants has been increasing, the supply meets only about 10% of the needs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). So where there is unfilled demand, smuggling would emerge. The kidneys are a pair of fist-sized organs located near the middle of the back on either side of the spine, which perform many vital functions, including filtering blood, regulating blood pressure, and producing hormones. Although most people who live with just one of their kidneys can live normal lives, there are health risks such as developing high blood pressure, protein in the urine, chronic kidney diseases, and damage to other organs. Buying or selling human organs is illegal in both Myanmar and India, and documents are needed to perform an organ transplant. However, agents find potential donors who are desperate to make money by any means, forge documents, and arrange for a doctor and hospital to perform a transplant. The problem is that the donors are often not advised of risks to their health and legal liabilities. The scientific fiction “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro is an extreme version of such organ transplantations and donors.

Read the article and learn how illegal kidney transplants are arranged. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgy8p3pe71o

Topic Reading-Vol.4698-3/5/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

These cities have big rat problems, and there’s one thing to blame

While we don’t know how many, most of us live with more rats than we imagine. They find shelter in various urban spaces like sewers, abandoned buildings, cracks in walls, under sidewalks, and within dense vegetation and eat discarded food scraps from humans, accessing them through trash cans, dumpsters, and food spills on the ground, which are often abundant in urban environments. Though rats live only for a few years, they are very fertile. Females can become pregnant when they are only a few months old and can produce six to 12 offspring up to a dozen times a year. If they live in a warm environment where food is plenty like in cities, the number of rats could increase easily. According to the data collected from 13 US cities, Toronto, Tokyo, and Amsterdam, the number of sightings and trappings has increased over the last 12 years or so. As warmer climates and environments could help rats grow and reproduce for a longer time, we may be bothered by more rats in the future, which is a problem as they gnaw and damage wires and cables and transmit diseases like leptospirosis, hantavirus, and plague to humans. Another impact of global warming and urbanization.

Read the article and learn about rats that are dwelling in cities. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/31/climate/rats-cities-temperature-increase/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4697-3/4/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Is it time to change how we buy travel souvenirs?

What are souvenirs? Some of the most popular souvenirs are magnets or mug cups with a logo or image of the place. Also, shawls made of local fabric and artworks handcrafted by Indigenous peoples are in high demand. But where are they actually produced and by who? It was found that as much as 75% of souvenirs marketed as "Indigenous" in Australia were counterfeit and over 70% of Thailand’s elephant pants were made overseas. Also, most fabrics sold as pashmina, cashmere wool of a special kind, in a Kashmir market in India are not genuine. As many people travel to distant places, most souvenirs are now just locally sold affordable and portable commodities that were mass-produced somewhere else. While traveling, extraordinary experiences, including food, scenery, atmosphere, people, activities, and even difficulties are often more memorable than materials, most travelers still buy souvenirs to remember the trip or share the event with someone. In the end, the money that travelers spend helps the local economy in some way or other. 

Read the article and learn about what popular souvenirs are like these days.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250217-is-it-time-to-change-how-we-buy-travel-souvenirs

Topic Reading-Vol.4696-3/3/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

What do countries call themselves? The stories behind their original names

A little over 8.2 billion people live in 200 or so states in the world. English and Chinese are the only languages that are spoken by more than one billion people while as many as 7,000 other languages are spoken across the world. However, most countries are called by English names, such as Japan, China, and India even though they are locally called Nihon or Nippon, Zhongguo, and Bharat respectively in their languages. In Africa, many names of the 54 countries are rooted in colonial history or European or Arabian traders. But locally, South Africa is called Mzans and Egypt calls itself Masr in Arabic. In Europe, Germany is called Deutschland, Spain is Espana, and Finland is Suomi in their languages. In 2021, Turkey changed its identification to Turkiye to better represent its culture, civilization, and values of the nation, and also to avoid being confused with the bird turkey. Will there be a rename movement to reflect historical and cultural identities?

Read the article and learn what some countries are called locally.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/21/what-do-countries-call-themselves-the-stories-behind-their-original-names

Topic Reading-Vol.4695-3/2/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How much protein do you really need to get strong?

Protein has many functions in the body. For example, eating enough protein helps maintain muscle mass and grow muscle when you exercise. Also, protein helps the body build and repair tissues, which is especially important after an injury. In addition, it supports the immune system, helps maintain bone health, and boosts metabolism. Interestingly, it helps with weight control as well since the body burns more calories digesting protein than carbohydrates. Then how much protein should we take each day? It is recommended that an adult should take about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So if you weigh 70 kg, you should take 56 grams of protein a day. But if you are very active or exercise a lot, you’ll need 1 gram of protein per kg each day. Also, older people need to take more protein as they tend to lose more muscle mass than when they were younger. To take sufficient protein, you don’t have to eat a lot of red meat or eggs every day as there are many different kinds of protein-rich foods like soybeans, lentils, nuts, and yogurt. You can also take protein supplements to help increase protein intake, but only to supplement your diet. The best way to achieve a healthy diet is to plan meals with protein-rich food and try to eat protein at every meal.

Read the article and learn how to take protein for your health.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250212-how-much-protein-do-you-really-need-to-get-strong

Topic Reading-Vol.4694-3/1/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

World's glaciers melting faster than ever recorded

A glacier is a mass of ice that is constantly moving downhill. The estimated volume of glaciers, not including the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland is around 170,000 km3. Glaciers’ ice is the largest freshwater reservoir, accounting for nearly 70% of the world’s freshwater. Hundreds of millions of people are relying on seasonal meltwater from glaciers to some extent. However, glaciers melt faster as the climate warms. Global sea levels have risen about 20 centimeters on average since 1900, and the rate of increase has been accelerating in recent decades, nearly 30% of which is estimated to have been contributed by melting glaciers. If all the 200,000 or so glaciers melted, we would lose the precious freshwater reservoirs while facing accelerated sea level rise. Also, if that happened, ice sheets in polar regions would have melted. Combined, the global sea level would rise by approximately 70 meters. Recent studies found that glaciers outside the polar regions have lost 270 billion tonnes of ice a year between 2000 and 2023, enough mass to supply three liters of fresh water to everyone on Earth every day. And they are melting faster and faster. 

Read the article and learn what melting glaciers mean to us and the planet.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4ly8vde85o