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12/19(月) ベルリンのホテルの巨大水槽が破裂

Berlin Hotel’s Huge Aquarium Bursts, With 1,500 Fish Inside

mangle　ずたずたにする、台無しにする
litter　散らかす
cylindrical　円筒形の、円柱形の
foul　不正な、嫌な
stabilize　固定させる、安定させる

著者：Erika Solomon
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

BERLIN — The entrance to the five-star hotel looked like a bomb site. Mangled Christmas decorations, twisted poles and window frames, even tiny shampoo bottles littered the street — and among them, the bodies of nearly 1,500 tropical fish from a 50-foot tank called the AquaDom.

Any sea creatures that survived the initial blast of the cylindrical AquaDom, billed as the largest tank of its kind in the world, had little hope of rescue. In frigid, 19-degree weather, they lay frozen on the street outside the Radisson Hotel, in Berlin’s central Alexanderplatz.

The tank burst at 5:45 a.m., rescue services said. Had it happened later in the day, the result could have been human tragedy, too. Two people were taken to the hospital, cut by shards of glass from the burst tank.

The AquaDom, in the center of the hotel atrium, had a diameter of 38 feet and was wrapped around a glass elevator, where visitors could view the sea life inside.

Even hours after the AquaDom burst, an entire block of the street outside the building remained soaked by 264,000 gallons of water that rushed out of the lobby.

Several shops nearby were damaged, with chairs upturned and windows shattered.

Police have said they have no suspicion of foul play. Local media said the cause was likely a technical fault.

In the early afternoon, a special rescue unit of Berlin firefighters rushed to the scene to scale the top of the tank and descend deep into the building’s basement.

“We have to pump out a mass of water. We have to check and completely stabilize the building here. Also — and this is our No. 1 priority right now — we have to save the living fish that are in the basement,” said James Klein, spokesperson for the Berlin Fire Department.

A few coral reef fish at the very base of the shattered AquaDom had also survived in a remaining pool of water.

Kamrad said the fish were now being removed, tank by tank, to the nearby Sea Life aquariums. Local veterinary practices, he said, were also preparing aquariums in case more fish housing was needed.

The hotel released a statement saying it was trying to determine what caused the aquarium to burst.

The tank had only recently been renovated and reopened to the public.

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12/20(火) 日本 軍事費倍増へ

Japan Moves to Double Military Spending, With a Wary Eye on China

wary 用心深い、慎重な
earmark … for (資金などを)(特定の用途に) とっておく、向ける
belligerent　交戦中の、好戦的な
the status quo　現状
pacifist　平和主義者
recede　後退する、減少する　

著者：Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

TOKYO — Japan on Friday announced a new national security strategy that will double the amount earmarked for the country’s military defense, breaking with decadeslong precedence on spending restraints as it seeks to strengthen its military capabilities to counter China’s rising power.

The new plan, approved by the Cabinet on Friday, reflects the geopolitical shifts that have swept the region since the previous version was released nearly a decade ago. In 2013, the document described China and Russia as strategic partners. Now it deems Beijing’s rise as the “greatest strategic challenge” to international order and toughens its assessment of a more belligerent Russia.

Speaking to reporters at a press briefing after the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan had reached a “turning point” it its history that necessitated the buildup.

“In Japan’s neighboring countries and regions, there is more obvious shift toward attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by might,” he said, noting that Japan would take a wide range of measures, from military to diplomatic, to respond to the change

The new strategy represents the latest step in Japan’s yearslong path toward building a more muscular military and reducing its dependence on U.S. forces. After decades of resistance to the idea, recent polls show that more than half of the country now supports at least some military buildup, amid China’s growing aggression toward Taiwan and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

That has allowed Kishida to push forward defense measures that would have been viewed as extreme even recently in officially pacifist Japan, including the acquisition of missiles that could be used to target bases in enemy territory in response to an attack.

“One year ago, I couldn’t imagine that the Japanese people would support this kind of security initiative,” said Tetsuo Kotani, a professor of international relations at Meikai University and a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs.

When Japan released its first national security strategy nine years ago, it identified North Korea and its nuclear program as the country’s greatest security concern. While the North’s flurry of missile tests this year and its expanding nuclear arsenal show that it has not receded as a threat, the security strategy now labels China the biggest challenge.

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12/21(水) 英国、電子機器や液体等の空港のセキュリティを緩和する動き

Laptop? Liquids? U.K. Moves to Eliminate Some Airport Security Obstacles.

laptop　ノートパソコン
obstacles　障害(物)、じゃま(もの)、妨害
ritual　慣習の、恒例の
frantic　大急ぎの、大あわての
solid　固体の、無地の 　
solid color　(色が)一様の、同じ色調の、単色の
substantially　大幅に、大いに
detection　検出、探知
aviation　航空学

著者：Emma Bubola
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

LONDON — They are the rituals of modern travel: the frantic drinking from water bottles in airport security lines, the shampoos tossed into the trash, the fights over whether Bolognese sauce is a solid or a liquid.

And, as far as the British government is concerned, those days should end by June 2024.

On Thursday, the British government said that new technology at its airports could let it substantially relax and speed up security checks, allowing liquid containers of up to 2 liters in hand luggage and doing away with a requirement to extract big electronics, such as laptops or tablets, from carry-on bags.

Some airports around the world have started introducing similar technology and scrapping the requirements, but experts said that Britain was ahead of the game in making a countrywide announcement.

It is not the first time that Britain has made such an announcement. In 2019, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans for all major British airports to introduce the screening equipment that would lead to the relaxing of the liquids rule by this month. The investment in new technology was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, airports will have until June 2024 to upgrade equipment and screening processes, the government said.

All airports in Britain will be required to adopt the latest technology in screening carry-on bags, said Laura Wilson, spokesperson for the Department for Transport, but the technology could vary between airports and be put in place at different times. Mark Harper, the transport secretary, said he would ensure the use of the security technology at all “major” British airports by the June deadline.

The new screening equipment, which uses a type of X-ray technology, essentially provides a 3D image of the contents of a passenger’s bag and makes use of what the government said were “highly advanced threat detection algorithms.” It was tested in some airports over the past four years, and the British government said it proved effective.

Jeffrey C. Price, a professor of aviation at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, said that the United States — where some exceptions to the liquids rule exist — was also integrating more advanced technology in airport checks, but that the process was slow because the technology was expensive.

“We are years away from announcing a change to the current liquids rule,” R. Carter Langston, spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration, said in an email.

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12/22(木) マスク氏「社長辞めるべき」

Musk Keeps Silent After Twitter Users Say He Should Quit as Boss

stay silent　黙っている、沈黙を守る
step down　身を引く、辞任する
abide by　に従う
breaking point　極限、限界点
the last straw　我慢の限界

著者：Eshe Nelson
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

Elon Musk has stayed silent on whether he will remain the head of Twitter.

The billionaire had asked his Twitter users Sunday whether he should step down as the leader of the social media site. More than 17 million votes were cast and delivered a clear verdict: 57.5% said he should quit, in a Twitter “poll” that closed after 12 hours on Monday.

Musk had said he would abide by the results of the vote. But hours after the vote closed, there was no acknowledgment from Musk on Twitter.

If he follows through, Musk will be handing over the reins of the company that he bought for $44 billion in late October. The turbulent weeks since then have been marked by mass layoffs at the company, falling advertising sales, executive resignations and the suspensions of various high-profile user accounts for infractions of newly invented policy.

On Sunday, Twitter announced a policy to prevent users from sharing links and user names from other social platforms, like Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon, and then apparently curtailed the same policy.

But for some users, including former supporters of Musk, the chaotic weekend was a breaking point.

Musk’s latest actions with Twitter were “the last straw,” Paul Graham, a founder of the startup accelerator Y Combinator, tweeted on Sunday. Graham had supported Musk’s takeover, but on Sunday he wrote, “I give up. You can find a link to my new Mastodon profile on my site.” His account was briefly suspended.

Last week, Twitter suspended about two dozen accounts that tracked the locations of private planes, including one that followed Musk’s private jet, justifying the decision with a new policy that banned accounts if they shared another person’s “live location.” The accounts of some journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other outlets, were also suspended last week, seemingly under the same policy, and then reinstated after Musk asked users if they should be allowed back on the platform. Fifty-nine percent responded yes, in a Twitter “poll” with 3.7 million votes.

After asking users whether he should stay on as chief executive of Twitter, Musk said in another tweet: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

There are signs that Musk’s ownership and focus on Twitter are interfering with his other business ventures. Since Musk acquired Twitter, the value of Tesla has sunk. The car company’s share price was $225 on Oct. 27, the day Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter. On Friday, Tesla shares closed at $150.

Last week, Musk disclosed that he had sold another $3.6 billion worth of Tesla stock. This year, Musk has now sold $23 billion worth of Tesla stock, much of it after he pledged in April to stop selling shares to finance his Twitter deal.

“Attention focused on Twitter instead of golden child Tesla has been another big issue for investors and likely is behind this poll result with many Musk loyalists wanting him to leave as CEO of Twitter,” analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris at Wedbush Securities wrote in a note published shortly before the Twitter vote closed.

Musk’s resignation from Twitter would be a “a major step forward,” they added, with the billionaire finally realizing that there has been “growing frustration around this Twitter nightmare that grows worse by the day.”

On Monday, Tesla shares ended the day largely unchanged, trading at just below $150.

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12/23(金) マスク氏、後継者が見つかればTwitterのCEOを辞任

Elon Musk Says He Will Resign as Twitter CEO When He Finds Successor

backlash　反動
capricious　気まぐれな
staunch　信頼できる
antic　悪ふざけ
proprietor 持ち主

著者：Ryan Mac and Kate Conger
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would resign as Twitter’s chief executive when he found “someone foolish enough to take the job,” two days after he had asked his 122 million Twitter followers whether he should step down as the leader of the social media site and a majority of respondents answered yes.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in late October, asked his followers the question on Sunday night after facing a backlash for unpopular new content moderation policies and the seemingly capricious barring and reinstatement of high-profile users. Even some once-staunch supporters criticized his actions, calling his antics on the platform “the last straw.”

The survey attracted 17.5 million votes. Musk had said he would abide by the result, and more than 57% agreed that he should step down.

But hours after the poll closed Monday morning, Musk stayed silent. When he finally spoke up late Monday, he did not directly address the survey result. Instead, he replied to Twitter users who cast doubt on the outcome and said Twitter would change its poll feature so that only people who paid for its subscription service would be allowed to vote.

Then late Tuesday, Musk tweeted that he planned to resign after finding a successor as CEO. “After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” he said.

Musk has based content moderation decisions at Twitter on past “polls.” But he has also made promises and predictions at his companies that he has failed to keep.

It is unclear how meaningful stepping down as chief executive would be. The billionaire owns Twitter, which he took private, and will remain its proprietor. On Sunday, he tweeted that he had no successor and suggested that there were no qualified candidates to lead Twitter.

“No one who wants the job can actually keep Twitter alive,” he posted.

As soon as Musk took ownership of Twitter on Oct. 27, he fired its top executives. Other senior leaders have since been fired or resigned, leaving the executive suite vacant.

Twitter, which had about 7,500 employees when Musk took over, has lost roughly 70% through layoffs, firings and resignations.

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12/24(土) マスターズ、LIVゴルフ選手を出場許可

Masters Tournament Will Let LIV Golf Players Compete in 2023

interim　暫くの
virtues　美徳
preeminent　卓越
emergence　出現
glory　名声
marquee　看板

著者：Alan Blinder
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

Augusta National Golf Club will allow members of the breakaway LIV Golf league to compete in the Masters Tournament, the first men’s golf major of 2023.

The decision by the private club, which organizes the invitational tournament and has exclusive authority over who walks its course each April, is an interim victory for LIV, the upstart operation bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to much of the golf establishment’s fury.

“Regrettably, recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it,” Fred S. Ridley, Augusta National’s chair, said in a Tuesday statement. “Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honor the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April.”

But the approach announced by the club Tuesday — continuing to rely on qualifying categories that often hinge on performances in PGA Tour competitions or other majors, or on certain thresholds in the Official World Golf Ranking — threatens to limit access for LIV players as more years pass, which could ultimately make it more difficult for LIV to attract new golfers.

LIV declined to comment Tuesday.

The organizers of the British Open, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open have not said how or whether they will adjust their 2023 entry standards in the wake of LIV Golf’s emergence this year. Augusta National, though, has now offered what could be a template for LIV’s short-term relationships with the major tournaments.

Whether LIV golfers can play the majors may be crucial to the upstart’s prospects in the years ahead. Beyond golfing glory, major championship winners earn heightened public profiles, and they are more likely to attract lucrative sponsorship arrangements. If LIV’s players face extraordinary constraints on their chances simply to reach a major tournament field, much less to win the competition, the league may have trouble recruiting new players.

Augusta National’s decision Tuesday, fleeting as it might ultimately prove, is still a milestone for LIV, which has not signed a television contract or attracted marquee sponsors. Those symptoms of trouble have only deepened concerns about the long-term viability of the new tour, which many critics regard largely as a means for Saudi Arabia to sanitize its reputation as a human rights abuser.

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12/25(日) タリバンが女性の大学教育を禁止

Taliban Bar Women From College Classes, in a Stark Reversal of Rights

bar from 　＜…を＞[…から]除外する
brink　瀬戸際
renage on　～を破る
stamp out　撲滅する
condemn　非難する

著者：Christina Goldbaum and Najim Rahim
(c) 2022 The New York Times Company

The Afghan government on Tuesday barred women from attending private and public universities, officials said, in the latest severe blow to women’s rights under a Taliban administration that has all but reinstituted the hard-line rule the group maintained during its first stretch in power during the 1990s.

The move is the most recent sign that the Taliban’s leadership has cast aside any intent to moderate, and it is the realization of fears that 20 years of Western human rights and governance initiatives would be undone after the Taliban took power last year. The new government in recent weeks has reinstated Shariah law, carried out public floggings across the country and conducted one public execution.

All that is likely to threaten the influx of badly needed international aid that has kept Afghanistan from the brink of famine as it grapples with a devastating economic collapse.

The news on Tuesday, delivered in a letter from the higher education ministry and confirmed by the ministry’s spokesperson to The New York Times, was crushing to Afghan women who had been raised in an era of relative opportunity, but who have seen those rights slowly erased since the Western-backed government collapsed late in the summer of 2021.

In March, the new government reneged on promises to allow girls to attend public high schools, with officials saying they needed more time to create a plan for them to reopen in accordance with Islamic law. Many high-school-aged girls had held out hope that their schools would reopen because universities had continued to allow women to attend classes.

But the decision on Tuesday stamped out any vestige of that hope.

“The university was the only window of hope for me, but today we are stuck in such a black hole,” said Sakina Sama, 22, a second-year university student studying journalism in Balkh province, in northern Afghanistan.

Western officials condemned the government’s action Tuesday.

“This unacceptable stance will have significant consequences for the Taliban,” Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson, said at a news conference in Washington. Price would not give details on what penalties the United States or its allies might impose.

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