Topic Reading-Vol.5171-6/21/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Maasai women turn drought into income through fodder farming in Tanzania

Maasai people live in Kenya and northern Tanzania. They traditionally make their living by herding livestock, mainly cattle, goats, and sheep. When drought hit the region, they would lose their livestock. Traditionally, Maasai women are responsible not only for managing domestic duties and raising children but also for building homes and milking livestock. Recently, they came up with drought-resistant livestock fodder, which not only feeds their livestock but also generates money. It is part of the climate-adaptation initiatives that are coordinated by the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), a women-led membership organization that serves over 450,000 Maasai pastoralists, whose lives and wealth mostly rely on their animals. When climate change accelerates, people of all kinds and ages need to adapt their living to more severe extreme weather conditions.

Read the article and learn about Maasai women’s initiative to survive and thrive during droughts.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/6/11/maasai-women-turn-drought-into-income-through-fodder-farming-in-tanzania

Topic Reading-Vol.5170-6/20/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why have World Cup hydration breaks attracted criticism? It's the ads.

While basketball and American football are divided into four 10-to-15-minute quarters, a soccer/football match is split into two 45-minute halves, excluding the stoppage time added by the referee for injuries or substitutions. Now, since the 2026 World Cup games are being hosted in Canada, the USA, and Mexico, game conditions vary widely. FIFA, then, introduced mandatory 3-minute hydration breaks taken 22 minutes into each half for all of the 2026 World Cup matches, to ensure equal conditions for all teams amid dangerous heat. While the additional mandatory breaks hydrate and recharge the players, they disrupt the natural flow and momentum of matches. Fans aren’t necessarily happy with the two disruptions in the middle of the game and the extended game time. In the meantime, the hydrogen breaks bring economic benefits. Since each of the 104 matches has two 3-minute extra ad times, there will be a total of 832 30-sec commercial slots, which will generate substantial revenue for the broadcasters and then for FIFA. Will all soccer games be divided into four quarters?

Read the article and learn about the extra breaks FIFA added to the World Cup games.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2026/06/18/world-cup-hydration-breaks-ads-chart/90600595007/

Topic Reading-Vol.5169-6/19/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

El Niño is here and rapidly strengthening. Here’s what it means for your weather

El Niño conditions are now underway in the tropical Pacific, with sea surface temperatures having risen sharply in recent months, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). El Niño involves the transfer of a large amount of heat energy from the ocean to the atmosphere, which boosts global average surface temperatures, leading to extreme weather conditions, such as heat waves, flooding, and droughts, depending on the location. It occurs every two to seven years and lasts for about a year, but this one is predicted to be stronger than previous super El Niño events in 2015-16, 1997-98, and 1982-83. Since global average surface temperatures have increased to a record high due to human-caused warming from fossil fuel burning, 2027 will likely be even hotter than the previous record in 2024. Humans have learned to predict climate change, like global warming and El Niño. Are we ready for a hotter, drier, or wetter climate?

Read the article and learn about what the underlying current could do to the climate.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/11/weather/super-el-nino-declared-global-impacts-climate

Topic Reading-Vol.5168-6/18/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The Netherlands vs the sea: The race to hold back rising waters

About a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level, and major coastal cities  Rotterdam, the largest seaport in Europe, sits at -4 meters, and Amsterdam, the capital, at -2 meters. But unlike New Orleans (Vol.5166), the low-lying nation has long been protected by massive storm-surge barriers called the Delta Works for decades from the rising levels of the North Sea and overflowing rivers. Completed in 1997, the 1,000km long protective system consists of dams, dikes, levees, sluices, and pumps. However, as sea levels rise faster and storms become fiercer, the protective system is feared to become unsustainable. The country is already spending about 1% of its GDP annually on building new structures and maintenance and operation of the existing system. It took more than 1,800 lives in the 1853 North Sea Flood to initiate the Delta Works project. How will the Netherlands cope with the rising danger?

Read the article and learn about how human ingenuity has been protecting the Netherlands’ low-lying land.

https://edition.cnn.com/climate/netherlands-vs-the-sea-hold-back-rising-waters-c2e-spc

Topic Reading-Vol.5167-6/17/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Iran’s lakes are vanishing: Satellite images show a deepening water crisis

Iran has hundreds of dams to generate electricity and store water, yet its 92 million residents are facing severe water shortages. More than 30,000 of the country’s 69,000 villages have been abandoned so far due to water shortages. Years of drought, declining rainfall, and unsustainable water use have depleted reservoirs, rivers, and groundwater reserves. For example, Lake Urmia, the largest saltwater lake in the Middle East, has shrunk to less than 10% of its former size since the 1990s. About 90% of the water is used for agriculture, but much of the extracted water doesn’t reach crops because of inefficient irrigation systems. Iran has plenty of oil to export to buy weapons, but not enough water to sustain its farming, industry, and population. It has been at war with the US and Israel for its nuclear weaponization effort, and is putting most of its resources and efforts into firing missiles and flying drones. But which might deplete first, weapons or water?

Read the article and learn how serious Iran’s water shortages are.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/6/9/irans-lakes-are-vanishing-satellite-images-show-a-deepening-water-crisis-2

Topic Reading-Vol.5166-6/16/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Rising seas will swallow New Orleans. People need to start relocating now, scientists say

Some coastal regions in the world have already started relocating due to sea level rise and sinking land. Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation, is organizing the world’s first planned migration of the entire country to Australia. Jakarta, Indonesia, is relocating the nation’s administrative capital functions to another island. The USA is no exception. New Orleans, famous for its lively jazz, vibrant Creole culture, and historic French Quarter, sits in a low-lying basin, mostly below sea level. It is surrounded by extensive, highly vulnerable wetlands that are crucial for buffering storm surges, but they are rapidly disappearing due to human activity, land subsidence, and rising sea levels. About 75% of its remaining wetlands are predicted to be lost, and the inland could retreat by as far as 100 km. New Orleans has already lost about a quarter of its population since the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which submerged 80% of the city and killed nearly 1,400 people. As the city’s residents move out, tax revenues, public services, and home values decline, and as a result, empty or abandoned properties will increase. As protective wetlands disappear, land sinks further, and sea level rises, New Orleans is facing an existential challenge, as critical and urgent as that of the Pacific Islands.

Read the article and learn what is going on in the historic capital of Louisiana.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/25/climate/new-orleans-sea-level-rise-relocation

Topic Reading-Vol.5165-6/15/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Siesta then fiesta: Enjoy Europe like the locals

Seville, Athens, and Rome. One thing common about these European popular tourist destinations is scorching summer heat. This year, Europe’s heatwave season had already started in late May, marking an all-time May record in London and Budapest, knocking out tennis players at the French Open, and killing over 100 people in heat-related deaths in Spain. If you’re traveling to Europe this summer with an ordinary 9 am-6 pm outdoor itinerary, you’ll be baked just like other tourists. So, instead of going out during the heat hours, how about visiting outdoor tourist destinations early in the morning, staying indoors and taking a siesta in the afternoon, and going out again after sunset to enjoy nighttime tourism? Locals spend the summer days by this work-siesta-work and fiesta schedule to avoid the summer heat while working and enjoying just like in other seasons. In fact, people in Italy and Spain usually have dinner around 9 pm and enjoy after-dinner activities until after midnight. If your body clock is already confused by the jet lag, it may be easier to adjust it not to the local time but to the local customs.

Read the article and learn how to manage your summer travel to Europe.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260605-siesta-then-fiesta-enjoy-europe-like-the-locals

Topic Reading-Vol.5164-6/14/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

AI is changing this job so fast the interview process can’t keep up

Recently, in the US, AI was the most frequently cited reason for job cuts. In fact, various knowledge-based, white-collar jobs have been affected by AI, including administrative support, customer service, writing, translation, and financial and legal analysis. Also, even in the technology industry, many jobs have been replaced or affected by AI, such as junior coders, programmers, technical writers, data analysts, customer support, and web developers. In fact, the landscape of tech jobs is changing so rapidly that hiring companies haven’t even come up with appropriate job qualifications, requirements, or assessments yet. When most tech workers use AI for writing and modifying code, analyzing data, and troubleshooting, the roles of software engineers have shifted from coding skills to designing, judging, and decision-making. That’s why young job seekers with tech majors have difficulty finding their first jobs. What qualifications are required for tech jobs if coding skills don’t qualify, and how should candidates be assessed?

Read the article and learn how AI is affecting the job market in the tech industry.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/28/tech/ai-software-engineering-job-interview

Topic Reading-Vol.5163-6/13/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

From butterflies to breast milk, Uber's list of lost items reveals wild backseat discoveries

Uber operates ride-sharing services in approximately 15,000 cities in 70 countries with over 200 million monthly active users. It is the most widely used rideshare app in the US, dominating more than two-thirds of the nation’s rideshare market. The rideshare giant recently announced its 10th lost-and-found index, an annual list of strange items left behind by riders in the US. It revealed that more items were left in New York than any other city, and Sunday was the day when people left things behind the most. Even though phones are the most essential item for using a rideshare service, more than a million phones were left in the cars. Some of the items that led last year’s lost items trend were vapes and e-cigarettes, Labubu dolls, and Croc sandals (open-toe footwear). Unusual things on the list include a pair of partial teeth in a tissue, pelvis implants, 20 pounds of duck sausage, and a child’s prosthetic eye. While some of the items were tiny or compact, others were bulky or heavy. Make sure to check the seat before leaving the car you rode.

Read the article and learn what items were left in Uber cars.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czr25k7g7d7o

Topic Reading-Vol.5162-6/12/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,　

In the lowest place on Earth, a sea is rapidly dying — and no one can agree how to save it

Located on the border between Jordan and Israel, the Dead Sea is an inland salt lake sitting at about 430 meters below sea level, the lowest exposed point on Earth's surface. As the salinity of the lake is about 34%, roughly 10 times saltier than usual ocean water, your body floats easily in the water. However, as climate change has made droughts fiercer and rainfall rarer, the water level has dropped. Also, over the past decades, excess amount of water has been extracted from the Jordan River for increasing population, crops, and livestock, which has significantly reduced the water flow and shrunk the Dead Sea. As a result, the sea level has been dropping by about one meter annually, and as a result, the surface area has shrunk by approximately one-third. Also, the salt water has become too salty to dissolve salt anymore, causing the undissolved salt to form solid crystals and natural salt sculptures. It is an environmental disaster in slow motion, which requires immediate attention and action. Unfortunately, the surrounding countries, Israel and Jordan, are too busy dealing with regional conflicts and extracting minerals from the brine to deal with the clear and present environmental danger. How can we stop the Dead Sea from becoming a dead zone?

Read the article and learn how the world's saltiest water lake has been changing.

https://edition.cnn.com/climate/dead-sea-shrinking-sinkholes

Topic Reading-Vol.5161-6/11/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

People are flooding AI chatbots with health questions. Microsoft is teaming up with Mayo Clinic to help

AI chatbots like ChatGPT are generative pretrained transformers whose interface is designed for conversational interactions. Instead of just retrieving relevant information from cyberspace like search engines, it creates new content, such as writing essays or code, answering questions, and providing suggestions. Such AI is pretrained on massive datasets, including books, articles, and websites, to learn facts and reasoning patterns. If you ask a health question to an AI, it’ll answer your question and provide suggestions based on the health data you rendered. But how accurate and dependable is such health information from chatbots? Recently, Microsoft and Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit American academic medical center, announced that they will work together to build an AI tool trained specifically on medical data to help patients and medical service providers. They hope the medically pretrained AI will potentially power AI tools for clinicians and hospitals and improve AI healthcare assistance for patients via AI chatbots. Since it’ll take years to build and check such an AI tool, until then, use AI with caution when you ask health or medical questions.

Read the article and learn how AI might help improve our health and medical care.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/02/tech/ai-for-healthcare-microsoft-mayo-clinic

Topic Reading-Vol.5160-6/10/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

AI ‘voice cloning’ scams are on the rise. Here’s how to protect yourself

Voice cloning scams are AI-driven frauds where criminals use short audio samples to create an accurate replica of a person’s voice to trick the receiver into transferring money to an untraceable account or handing out cash. Scammers steal voice samples from SNS, YouTube, or voicemail greetings and feed them into AI software to replicate their speech. They use voice skinning to manipulate their voice or text-to-speech tools to make them sound like the person they are mimicking in real time. Also, fraudsters might make the call appear as if it is coming from a known number. Because such calls have become too hard to determine their authenticity, it is advised to look for signs of fraud, such as a sense of urgency or deadline, confidentiality, and the amount of money. Will AI technologies or our smartphones detect AI-generated scams and protect us from fraudsters?

Read the article and learn how technologically advanced scammers are.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/29/tech/ai-voice-cloning-scams-protect-yourself

Topic Reading-Vol.5159-6/9/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

'Mornings and nights no longer exist' at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

Banda District in Uttar Pradesh, India, sits near the Tropic of Cancer, where the Sun appears directly overhead during the summer solstice. In late May, the hottest month of the region, temperatures of 47-49C continued for nearly 10 days there. Around two million live in the broader Banda, many of whom work outdoors, such as farming, construction, and transport. People start working before sunrise, take a break indoors between noon and around 4 pm, and then resume their work until 7 pm, working for the same hours while enduring the heat. Indeed, they have little or no option but to live with the heat. And the situation has become more intolerable in the last few years as the tree cover has fallen for farming and mining, and sand mining and groundwater depletion have weakened the cooling mechanism in the surrounding landscape. In fact, Banda is part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which is regarded as one of the world’s emerging hotspots for dangerous humid heat. It is becoming hotter for longer, and the landscape is losing more trees and water, unendurable conditions for residents, especially for children and elderly people who are vulnerable to extreme heat. Not air conditioning, but trees, shade, and water are more sustainable means for mitigating the heat in Banda.

Read the article and learn about one of the world’s hottest urban environments.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmp0krp98ro

Topic Reading-Vol.5158-6/8/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Brain freeze? Ice cream headaches can reveal a surprising amount about your health

When you sip, lick, or bite a cold substance, such as an ice cube, shaved ice, or ice cream, you might feel an acute ache in your forehead. This cold-stimulus headache occurs when the roof of the mouth or back of the throat is cooled so rapidly that it shrinks the blood vessels, and then the shrunk vessels are forced to swell back up again to restore blood flow. This rapid change in the blood flow activates pain receptors and sends signals to the brain, but the brain misinterprets them as coming from the forehead rather than the mouth. That’s why your forehead hurts but not your tongue. It is easily avoidable if you take a little more time to eat or drink cold food or drinks. But some people still experience a more severe headache than others. Researchers think this blood vessel shrinkage seems to run in families. Do your parents have ice cream headaches, too? Also, those who have migraine tend to experience this kind of headache when they eat cold stuff. So, if you feel pain in your brain or forehead when you eat ice cream even if you’ve eaten it slowly, you may want to try the same treatment as for migraine. An ice cream headache can be mostly prevented or eased if you take a little more time to enjoy the cold treat.

Read the article and learn why you may experience a headache when you eat ice cream.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260529-what-causes-brain-freeze

Topic Reading-Vol.5157-6/7/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The arteries of modern civilization: The US and allies take action to protect seabed cables

Where do you think the vast amount of data is being transmitted every day and every second? Most of the world’s intercontinental data, including payments, trade, and data flows, travels through 570 existing and 80 planned undersea internet cables, the arteries of modern civilization. However, just like underwater gas pipelines, they are so vulnerable to attacks because they have no defense mechanisms or forces. In fact, several incidents of damage to internet cables and gas pipelines have been reported in the Baltic Sea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Just like the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz has created global oil shortages, disruptions to underwater pipelines and cables could cause regional and global nightmares. Recently, Australia, the UK, and the US (AUKUS) have reached a trilateral defense pact to improve reconnaissance and strike capabilities. Since data centers are being built around the world and are connected to each other, protecting the data arteries plays a vital role in ensuring smooth data transmissions and internet connections.

Read the article and learn the roles underwater cables play in modern life.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/31/world/aukus-seabed-cables-defense-intl

Topic Reading-Vol.5156-6/6/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why America’s rich keep getting richer

In the “K-shaped economy”, the upper arm of the letter “K” represents the wealthy while the lower arm shows lower-to-middle-income families. In the last three years in the US, the top 1% earners increased their cumulative real net worth by 30%, the next 19% earners gained 20%, and the next 20%, classified as the upper middle group, enjoyed about an 18% increase (Vol 5152), while the middle 40% and bottom 20% had less than a 15% gain. What made the gap wider between those who gained wealth more and less is housing, stocks, and inflation. Even though the S&P 500, the benchmark market index, has gained 86% over the last three years, about three-quarters of America’s stocks are owned by the top 20% earners. As for housing, over half of mortgages belong to the top 20%, whose property values have seen steep increases in the last few years. In the meantime, recent inflation in food, energy, and gas prices, in particular, hit the middle 40% and bottom 20% of income groups harder because they spend a higher proportion of their income on those daily necessities. Once dreamed of by middle-income households were cars and houses, which are now getting out of their reach. How will AI affect the wealth gap for Americans?

Read the article and learn about the widening gap between the rich and others.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/29/business/why-americas-rich-keep-getting-richer

Topic Reading-Vol.5155-6/5/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Protect yourself from contagious viruses (and we don’t mean Ebola), with these expert tips

The FIFA World Cup kicks off next week in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and millions of fans will scream germs into the air of very crowded stadiums. Also, summer vacationers are traveling around and interacting with others in many ways. In the meantime, the hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship in April infected 13 on board and killed three. Also, the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa has infected hundreds and killed more than 200, and is still active. Contagious diseases can be easily transmitted from one person (or animal) to another through various routes, including airborne/respiratory droplets, physical contact, or fecally or orally contaminated surfaces. One of the most worrisome contagious viruses is measles, whose particles can stay in the air for up to two hours. It is much more contagious than the flu or COVID-19, as a single infected individual could pass the virus to between 12 and 18 people. The problem is that even though it can be contained by a simple vaccine, vaccination rates for measles are falling in many countries, including the World Cup host countries. How can you better protect yourself from viruses besides vaccination?

Read the article and learn what contagious diseases are and what you can do to protect yourself.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/29/health/contagious-virus-anxiety-wellness

Topic Reading-Vol.5154-6/4/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Is 'out of control' US tipping culture spreading overseas?

In the US, tipping is a standard practice for services such as restaurants, taxis and rideshares, doormen and bellboys, and delivery services. Among these, servers at restaurants depend most of their income on tips from their customers because their minimum hourly wage is set significantly lower than the federal minimum wage. The expected restaurant tip in the US was 10% to 15% of the bill in the mid to late 20th century, but it has risen to 18% or higher today, partly due to pre-programmed electronic payment machines that often suggest 18%, 20%, 22%, and 25%. In large cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, a 20% tip is mostly expected. Tipping/gratuity is a unique practice in the USA, and it is not expected in most other countries. However, when American travelers dine in restaurants abroad, they often leave tips for their servers. This has made serving staff expect tips from other customers, too, which makes locals annoyed. Another influencer of tipping practice is rideshare services, like Uber, which also show tipping options in other countries where they operate. If you travel abroad, you may want to ask AI if you should leave tips, where, to whom, and how much in advance.

Read the article and learn about how tipping is practiced in the USA and other countries.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6p0wrkpj8o

Topic Reading-Vol.5153-6/3/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Tourists can be refused tap water, Italy's top court rules

Yes, you can drink tap water in Italy, though it may taste differently from other places because it is often hard water with a high mineral content. However, you cannot expect free tap water at a restaurant there. Instead, you are expected to order bottled mineral water, choosing between sparkling or still. And a recent ruling by the Italian Supreme Court allowed hospitality venues in Italy to refuse requests for tap water and serve only sealed, bottled water at the table. The ruling was made in response to a claim by a woman who was refused to serve tap water at the restaurant of a five-star hotel in a ski resort. She was offered an eight-dollar bottle of mineral water when she asked for tap water. She argued that water is a natural resource and a universal human right. In Italy, however, laws and regulations do not mandate restaurants to provide free tap water to guests, and therefore, it is up to individual venues to serve tap water to their guests. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, a timeless proverb says, but the woman was visiting from Rome.

Read the article and learn how to order water in Italy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g4yd8q0j7o

Topic Reading-Vol.5152-6/2/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

We’re living in the ‘premium economy’ economy

Premium economy is an airline cabin class situated between economy and business class, offering upgraded comfort with wider seats, extra legroom, enhanced dining options, and priority airport services, at 30% to 60% higher prices than economy class tickets. Recently, airlines have been adding more premium economy seats for passengers who are willing to pay more for better, but not thrice or more for business class. This move reflects the increasing number of upper-middle-class consumers in the US economy, whose annual household income ranges from $133,000 to $400,000. They cannot afford to buy a house whose values soared after the pandemic and inflation, but they earn higher wages that they can use for more comfortable travel experiences and higher-quality groceries. Full-service carriers and retailers like United Airlines and Walmart are generating more profits from these valued customers, while budget airlines and discount retailers are struggling to run their businesses, including the recently bankrupted Spirit Airlines. McDonald’s or Starbucks may be an economical option for these upper-middle-class consumers, but they are premium food and drink options for many Americans who are struggling to make ends meet due to soaring commodity, gas, and energy prices.

Read the article and learn what premium economy is like in the USA.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/26/business/economy-retail-airlines

Topic Reading-Vol.5151-6/1/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why did T. rex have tiny arms? A new study may finally have the answer

The Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) was one of the largest and most fearsome terrestrial carnivores that lived between 68 and 66 million years ago. An adult T. rex grew up to 12 meters in length, stood about 3.6 meters tall, and weighed six to nine tons. The unique, iconic feature of the carnivore was its massive, heavily reinforced skull, which was used as its primary weapon. As herbivorous dinosaurs grew larger to deter predators, predatory dinosaurs faced immense evolutionary pressure to grow larger and stronger to hunt them. So, T. rex and some other carnivores invested their most energy resources in growing a larger head, stronger skull, and sharper teeth. The trade-off was their forearms, which did not play any vital role in their survival. As a result, those non-essential parts of their body shrank over time. Researchers believe that was why the T. rex had disproportionately short forearms. Evolution seems to have grown T. rex’s skull stronger and larger while shrinking its forearms, and made the land carnivore like a giant land shark.

Read the article and learn how the T. rex evolved for survival.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/25/science/t-rex-tiny-arms-function