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11/8(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：入荷待ち、パロディ、染み

To Build the Metaverse, Meta First Wants to Build Stores

back-order　 (在庫切れのための) 取り寄せ注文、入荷待ち
unveil　 公表する、発表する
unheralded　 予告なしの、知られていない
garner　 (努力して～を) 獲得する
smudge　 汚れ、染み
nonabrasive　 摩耗防止の、表面を傷つけない
early adopter　 アーリーアダプター、新しい物が好きな人
elaborate　 (～を) 詳しく述べる
spoof　 いたずら、悪ふざけ、パロディ

著者：Mike Isaac
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

SAN FRANCISCO — One of Mark Zuckerberg’s first steps toward building the metaverse may be physical instead of virtual.

Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times. The stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses, they said.

These devices are gateways to the metaverse, a futuristic digital world where people move from virtual to augmented versions of reality almost seamlessly. Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, last week renamed his company Meta and laid out a vision for pursuing the metaverse as the next social platform. The stores would help show people that virtual reality and augmented reality can be fun and exciting, exactly the way Zuckerberg sees it.

The aim of the stores is to make the world “more open and connected,” according to the company documents viewed by The Times. They are also intended to spark emotions like “curiosity, closeness,” as well as a sense of feeling “welcomed” while experimenting with headsets in a “judgment free journey,” according to the documents.

Discussions about physical stores predated Facebook’s rebranding by many months, with serious work on the initiative having started last year, the people said. And the project, which is still in development, may not proceed, they said. But if Meta moves forward with stores, it would be a first for a tech giant that has existed largely digitally, with more than 3.5 billion people using its apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

A Meta spokesperson said the company could not confirm plans for stores but said its latest virtual reality headset was “in high demand” and that its hardware was available at partner retailers.

Zuckerberg has talked up the metaverse as his company grapples with regulatory and societal challenges. Frances Haugen, a former employee turned whistleblower, amassed thousands of pages of internal documents and recently shared them with lawmakers and the news media. She has said that Facebook was not doing enough to protect society from the harms it causes. Her disclosures have drawn scrutiny from legislators and regulators, though it is unclear how strong her case is.

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11/9(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：天然痘、予防接種をする、法令上の

Administration ‘Prepared to Defend’ Vaccine Rules for Big Employers

mandate (動) ~を公式に命令する指示する (名) 命令、指令
comply (規則に)従う、遵守する
inoculate against (病気の) 予防接種をする
smallpox 天然痘
file a petition 請願する、陳情書を提出する
grave 重大な
statutory 法令上の
blip 突然の小さな衝撃
fall short (予想・標準）を満たしていない

著者：Sabrina Imbler
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

The Biden administration is “prepared to defend” sweeping new coronavirus vaccine rules for large companies amid new legal challenges, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said Sunday.

The administration last week set Jan. 4 as the deadline for companies with 100 or more employees to mandate COVID vaccinations or implement weekly testing of workers. The mandate would allow for medical or religious exemptions, and companies that fail to comply may be fined.

“The president and the administration wouldn’t have put these requirements in place if they didn’t think that they were appropriate and necessary,” Murthy said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Murthy pointed to the nation’s history as precedent: George Washington required troops to be inoculated against smallpox in 1777.

The sweeping move already has raised legal challenges, with opponents arguing that the requirement is unconstitutional. One coalition of businesses, religious groups, advocacy organizations and several states filed a petition Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Louisiana, arguing that the administration overstepped its authority.

On Saturday, a panel of the court temporarily blocked the new mandate, writing “the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate.”

The stay does not have immediate impact, as the first major deadline in the rule is Dec. 5, when companies with at least 100 employees must require unvaccinated employees to wear masks indoors. But the move provides momentum for the mandate’s opponents.

The legal challenge questions whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the authority to issue the rule or whether such a mandate must be passed by Congress.

It was unclear whether the stay will be a procedural blip for the Biden administration or the first step in the unwinding of the mandate. A separate lawsuit against the mandate was filed Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis by 11 Republican-led states.

So far, legal challenges to vaccine mandates have fallen short.

On Sunday, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said he was “quite confident” the mandate would be upheld in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“If OSHA can tell people to wear a hard hat on the job, to be careful around chemicals, it can put in place these simple measures to keep our workers safe,” Klain said.

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11/10(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：人工臓器、衰弱、破壊する

She Died With Long COVID. Should Her Organs Have Been Donated?

ravage　破壊する
screenwriter　脚本家
donate　提供する
organ　臓器
ventilator　人工呼吸器
transplant　移植する
debilitating　衰弱、消耗させる

著者：Roni Caryn Rabin
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

COVID-19 ravaged Heidi Ferrer’s body and soul for more than a year, and in May the “Dawson’s Creek” screenwriter killed herself in Los Angeles. She had lost all hope.

“I’m so sorry,” she said in a goodbye video to her husband and son. “I would never do this if I was well. Please understand. Please forgive me.”

Her husband, Nick Guthe, a writer and director, wanted to donate her body to science. But the hospital said it was not his decision to make because Ferrer, 50, had signed up to be an organ donor. So specialists recovered several organs from the body before disconnecting her from a ventilator.

Guthe worried that following his wife’s lengthy illness, her organs may not have been safe to donate to other patients. “I thought that they would kill the people they gave these organs to,” he said.

The case highlights an urgent debate among medical professionals about whether the organs of people who survived COVID, and even of those who died with the illness, are really safe and healthy enough to be transplanted.

Potential donors are routinely screened now for coronavirus infections before their organs are removed. Generally, the organs are considered safe for transplantation if the test is negative, even if the donor has recovered from COVID. But there is no universally accepted set of recommendations regarding when organs can be safely recovered from virus-positive bodies and transplanted to patients in need.

Complicating the question is the fact that people with long COVID, whose debilitating symptoms may persist for months, mostly do not test positive for the infection. Some researchers fear the virus may be present nonetheless, hiding in so-called reservoirs within the body — including some of the very organs given to transplant patients.

The risk is that surgeons may “give the patient COVID, along with the organ,” said Dr. Zijian Chen, medical director of the Center for Post-COVID Care at the Mount Sinai Health System. “It’s a tough ethical question. If the patient assumes the risk, should we do it?”

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11/11(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：含み益、租税回避、税制優遇措置

Behind Musk’s Twitter Poll Is a Tax Bill Coming Due

poll (名)投票、(動)世論調査をする
unrealized gain 含み益
tax avoidance 租税回避
abide by に従う
vest （権利・財産などを）付与する
preferential tax treatment 税制優遇措置
roil かき乱す、混乱させる

著者：Stephen Gandel
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Elon Musk may have already been compelled to sell a sizable portion of his Tesla shares even if he had not issued an unusual Twitter pledge over the weekend. Musk on Saturday polled Twitter users on whether he should sell 10% of his stake in his company. The poll appeared to be a response to a Democratic proposal to tax the unrealized gains of billionaires.

“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” he tweeted.

Musk said he was raising the question because he does not take a cash salary as Tesla’s CEO and therefore would not have any way to pay a large tax bill without selling some of his Tesla shares, which make up the vast majority of his wealth.

Musk wrote in a follow-up tweet that he would “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.” Tesla’s shares fell nearly 5% Monday.

He closed the poll Sunday, after nearly 3.5 million votes had been cast, with 58% voting for him to sell. Musk has not confirmed what he will do, but after closing the poll, he tweeted, “I was prepared to accept either outcome.”

Either way, Musk may soon have needed to sell a big chunk of his shares. He holds nearly 23 million stock options that were awarded in 2012. Those options have since vested and will expire in August 2022.

But Brian Foley, an executive compensation consultant, says that because of the size of Musk’s grant and the way it was structured, much of his 2012 options are not likely to qualify for the preferential tax treatment. That means Musk would owe income taxes when he exercised the grant, which at current prices would be worth just under $30 billion. Musk’s tax bill could top $10 billion, depending on what percentage of the options did not qualify for the preferential treatment.

“They are a ticking tax time bomb,” Foley said of Musk’s stock options.

The potential sale could roil Tesla’s stock when many analysts say it is already overvalued.

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11/12(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：司法省、起因する、民事罰

U.S. sues Uber, saying it discriminated against people with disabilities.

Justice Department 司法省
Stem 起因する
Stow しまい込む
Attorney general 司法長官
Waive 放棄する
Civil penalty 民事罰

著者：Kate Conger
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

The Justice Department sued Uber on Wednesday, accusing the company of discriminating against passengers with disabilities by charging them fees when they needed more time to enter the ride-hailing vehicles.

The suit stems from a fee policy Uber instituted in 2016 to compensate drivers who waited more than two minutes for a passenger to arrive. The company previously didn’t pay drivers for their time until a ride began, frustrating those who were sometimes forced to wait long periods for passengers.

But the Justice Department said Uber did not adjust the fees for people with disabilities, violating the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal law that prohibits discrimination by private transportation companies. A passenger might need time to break down a wheelchair or walker and stow it in the car, or a blind passenger might need extra time to walk to the car, the Justice Department said. Yet even when Uber knew someone needed additional time because of a disability, the company charged a wait fee after two minutes, the suit said.

“Uber and other companies that provide transportation services must ensure equal access for all people, including those with disabilities,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said.

Uber said Wednesday that it had been in discussions with the Justice Department about its wait time policies, which were intended only for riders who kept drivers waiting and not for passengers who required extra time to get into the car. The company said it had refunded riders with disabilities who alerted the company that they had been charged. Last week, it also updated its policy to automatically waive wait time charges for passengers who said they were disabled.

Matt Kallman, a spokesperson for Uber, said in a statement that the lawsuit was “surprising and disappointing.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asks for a court order to stop Uber from discriminating against people with disabilities. It also asks the court to require Uber to change its wait time policy for people with disabilities, train its employees and drivers on the Americans With Disabilities Act, pay damages to customers affected by the wait time policy and pay a civil penalty.

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