音声プラットフォーム「Voicy」で毎朝6時30分に更新中の英語ニュースチャンネル「Voicy News Brief with articles from New York Times」。このチャンネルでは、The New York Timesの記事をバイリンガルのパーソナリティが英語で読み上げ、記事と英単語を日本語で解説しています。英語のニュースを毎朝聴いて、リスニング力の向上と英語学習にお役立てください。

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1/31(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：寒波、猛威、心不全

Powerful Winter Storm Brings Whipping Winds and Heavy Snow to the Northeast

aking 速い
-prone ～の傾向がある、～しがちな
warily 用心して、警戒して
tempest 大嵐、暴風雨、暴風雪
accumulation 蓄積、集積
cardiac arrest 心停止、心不全
barometric 気圧の
ferocity 猛威
cold snap 突然の寒さ［寒気・寒波］　

著者：Jesse McKinley
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Packing raking winds, blinding snows and piercing cold, a powerful, fast-moving winter storm roared up the East Coast on Saturday, bringing power outages, disrupted travel and general misery to millions of residents from the Carolinas to Maine.

The worst of the storm was felt across the Northeast, particularly in New England, where gusting winds blew snow sideways, while flood-prone coastal areas watched warily as a storm surge pounded beaches and sea walls.

Power outages were reported for more than 100,000 Massachusetts residents, and broader blackouts remained an ongoing concern as high winds threatened to snap snow-covered branches and cripple power lines into Saturday evening.

“It’s a classic blizzard,” said Glenn Field, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton, Massachusetts, which noted that some areas in the state had received 3-4 inches of snow per hour Saturday morning, according to radar estimates. Heavy snow continued through the afternoon, with wind gusts of more than 70 mph in some locations, creating whiteout conditions.

Indeed, the tempest’s intensity and drifting snow made even measuring the accumulation difficult, although the storm was shaping up to be the biggest of the season in some regions, and maybe one of the biggest in decades. Field said up to 30 inches of snow was possible in coastal areas, potentially smashing a 2003 record for Boston of more than 27 inches.

The wicked weather may have also claimed more than one life. In Nassau County, east of New York City, police were investigating the death of an elderly woman found dead inside her car at around 2:45 a.m., with at least one of the car’s windows open. And in Toms River, New Jersey, a man went into cardiac arrest and died while operating a snowblower, according to Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy.

The intense storm was characterized as a “bomb cyclone,” in which barometric pressure drops rapidly over 24 hours, producing high winds. As storms such as this one move over coastal waters, they pick up moisture, resulting in heavy snow.

The storm’s speed and ferocity, predicted for days, were being felt up and down the Interstate 95 corridor. There was significant snowfall in Southern cities such as Asheville, North Carolina, and bitter cold was predicted overnight in locales such as Charleston, South Carolina, part of a Southern cold snap.

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2/1(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：根性、適切な、軌道修正する

Rafael Nadal Wins the Australian Open, His 21st Grand Slam Title

fitting 適切な、ふさわしい
count …と思う、みなす
utterly まったく、すっかり
awash in ～ ～であふれて、どっぷりつかって
grit 根性、ガッツ
Spaniard スペイン人
pry something from～ ～から引き離す
correct course 軌道修正をする

著者：Christopher Clarey
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

MELBOURNE, Australia — For an aging champion who has earned his reputation as one of the greatest competitors in sports, it was a fitting way to stand alone with 21 Grand Slam men’s singles titles.

Down, two sets to none, in the Australian Open final, against the higher ranked and considerably younger Daniil Medvedev, Rafael Nadal did not simply count himself fortunate to have made it so far in a tournament he once considered himself unlikely to play.

Instead, he did what he has done since he burst onto the tennis scene nearly 20 years ago as a long-haired teenager in pirate pants.

He fought. He thought. He fought and thought some more, and his prize was his most unexpected major title and a victory, 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5, that was utterly suitable for archiving.

It was a match awash in long rallies, momentum shifts, dazzling winners on the run and break points saved and converted. It started Sunday evening in Melbourne and ended after 1 in the morning Monday. It was 5 hours, 24 minutes of true grit, and it broke Nadal’s tie with his greatest rivals, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, who are now tied for second on the men’s career list with 20 Grand Slam singles titles each.

“For me, it’s just amazing,” Nadal said. “Being honest, one month and a half ago, I did not know if I will be able to be back on the tour playing tennis again, and today I am here in front of all of you having this trophy with me. You really don’t know how much I fought to be here.”

Nadal, a Spaniard seeded sixth here, has proved many times that he does not beat himself. He just won’t. You need to pry a match and trophy from his hands, point by point, game by game, set by set. Second-seeded Medvedev, despite all his power and skills, could not manage it, losing his way midway through the third set and never quite figuring out how to correct course.

Nadal has now won all four of the major tournaments at least twice.

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2/2(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：相殺する、発電所、傷つきやすい

Biden Administration to Reinstate Mercury Pollution Rules Weakened Under Trump

reinstate 復帰させる、(~を)元に戻す
power plant 発電所
EPA (米国の)環境保護局
emission (光や熱などの)放射、(煙突や車のエンジンなどからの)排気、排出
outweighed 〜よりまさる、より重い
offset 相殺する、埋め合わせる
vulnerable 傷つきやすい、弱みのある

著者：Coral Davenport
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration Monday reinstated a way of measuring the benefits of reducing air pollution, the first step in a plan that could tighten limits on the amount of mercury that can be discharged from coal-burning power plants.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that poses a particular danger to the brain development of children and fetuses.

The mercury announcement is among several recent actions taken or planned by the Biden administration that are aimed at reducing pollution.

In many cases, the Biden administration is restoring environmental regulations that had been weakened by President Donald Trump before it lays the groundwork for even stronger rules to come.

The EPA has limited mercury emissions from coal plants since 2012. But during the Trump administration, the agency concluded that the rule’s cost to industry outweighed its benefits and therefore it was no longer “appropriate and necessary.” That finding allowed the Trump administration to stop enforcing the mercury limit, even though it remained on the books.

The Biden administration is now proposing to return to an Obama-era method of calculating the impact of regulation in a way that considers collateral benefits, such as reducing fine particulate matter and smog, when estimating the gains expected from lower mercury emissions.

Using that method would enable the EPA to conclude that the costs of the rule to industry is offset by public health benefits such as prevention of disease and premature deaths. That would provide the legal justification to enforce the existing mercury regulations. The EPA will open the proposal for a 60-day comment period and is expected to finalize the policy later this year. The agency will also take public comments on whether it should tighten the existing mercury regulation even further.

“Sound science makes it clear that we need to limit mercury and toxins in the air to protect children and vulnerable communities from dangerous pollution,” said Michael Regan, the EPA administrator.

Environmental advocates praised the renewed enforcement of the mercury rule, which was the first federal standard to require power plants to install expensive “scrubber” technology to reduce emissions of the neurotoxin.

While some in the coal industry oppose the return to enforcing the mercury rule, many electric utilities that operate coal-burning power plants are expected to support it, as they had already invested years ago in the “scrubbers” to tamp down emissions.

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2/3(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：誤報、欺瞞的、取り締まる

Spotify Responds to Complaints About COVID Misinformation

misinformation 誤報
consequence 結果、成り行き
vaccine skeptics ワクチン懐疑派
crack down 取り締まる
cite 引用する、引き合いに出す
deceptive 騙そうとするような、欺瞞的

著者：Ben Sisario
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

The CEO of Spotify responded Sunday to growing complaints from musicians and listeners over the role of Joe Rogan, the streaming service’s star podcaster, in spreading what has been widely criticized as misinformation about the coronavirus. Last week, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell — two musical icons whose cultural influence is far greater than their streaming numbers — removed their music from Spotify to protest the platform’s support of Rogan.

“We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users,” CEO Daniel Ek, who is also one of Spotify’s founders, wrote in a public letter. “In that role, it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”

Ek made no specific mention of Rogan, who has drawn complaints for his interviews with vaccine skeptics. This month, a group of more than 200 professors and public health officials called on Spotify to crack down on COVID-19 misinformation on its platform, and pointed to a recent episode of Rogan’s podcast featuring Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious-disease expert, that included “several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines,” according to the experts’ letter.

Last week, Young and Mitchell cited those complaints when removing their music from Spotify, sparking debate throughout the music industry about what role artists can have in deciding where their music is heard.

Ek said that Spotify would add a “content advisory” notice to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about the coronavirus, directing listeners to a “COVID-19 hub” with facts and information. That hub includes links to health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as podcasts from news sources like the BBC, CNN and ABC News.

Ek also wrote that for the first time, the service is publishing its platform rules, which address dangerous, deceptive, sensitive and illegal content.

On Wednesday, when Spotify began removing Young’s music, the company said that it has “removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic.” Rogan’s episode with Malone remains available on Spotify.

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2/4(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：打撃、沈む、低下する

Meta Spent $10 Billion on the Metaverse in 2021, Dragging Down Profit

Drag down 引きずり下ろす
All in オールイン、全てを掛ける
Buffet 打撃
Plunge 沈む
Subside 低下する

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

Mark Zuckerberg said his company was going all in on the metaverse last year. On Wednesday, he showed the costs of making that transition.

Meta, the company that Zuckerberg founded as Facebook, said that its Reality Labs division, which makes virtual reality goggles, smart glasses and other yet-to-be-released products, lost more than $10 billion in 2021 as it built the business. Those products are key to Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse, a next generation of the internet where people would share virtual worlds and experiences across different software and hardware platforms.

It was the first time that Meta revealed the results of its hardware division. In the past, the company had not broken out those numbers because products like virtual reality headsets were a small part of its overall business, which is dependent on social networking and digital advertising. Investing $10 billion in the metaverse is more than five times the amount of money Facebook paid to purchase the Oculus VR business in 2014 and 10 times what it paid to buy Instagram in 2012.

The spending dragged down Meta’s quarterly profits, which fell 8% to $10.3 billion in the three months ended in December from a year earlier, even as revenue rose 20% to $33.7 billion over the same period. Wall Street analysts had predicted profit of $10.9 billion on revenue of $33.4 billion.

At the same time, Meta said its social networking businesses — such as Facebook and Instagram — were being buffeted by another shift made by a rival tech giant. Meta said it expected its financial performance to be hurt by Apple’s changes to its mobile operating system, in which the iPhone maker made it more difficult last year for apps to track iPhone users’ digital habits. The move has given social networking companies less data to use for serving people targeted ads.

The higher spending on the metaverse and the effect of Apple’s changes have combined to create a difficult transition period for Facebook as it transforms into Meta. On Wednesday, Meta’s shares plunged about 22% in after-hours trading.

Meta’s spending is unlikely to subside anytime soon, especially as it is in a full-throttled race against other technology giants to claim ground in the theoretical metaverse.

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2/5(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：代弁者、機密性、分解する

Rotterdam May Dismantle Part of Bridge for Jeff Bezos’ Superyacht

Dismantle 分解する、取り壊す、…（を）取り除く
Surperyacht スーパーヨット
Walked back 宣言を撤回する、（行動や星などを）元に戻す
Briefly 簡単に、手短に、暫く、一時的に
Temporarily 仮に、一時に、間に合わせに
Spokesperson 代弁者、代表者
Confidentiality 機密性、秘密性、信任の厚いこと

著者：Jenny Gross
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

The Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday walked back plans to dismantle part of the historic Koningshaven Bridge so that a superyacht built for Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, could pass through the city’s river, saying that a decision had not yet been made.

This week, city officials had told the news media that Rotterdam had agreed to briefly dismantle the middle section of the 95-year-old bridge for the yacht’s passage this summer.

But Thursday evening, officials said in another statement that the city had not yet approved the plan, although it had received a request from the shipbuilder to temporarily lift the middle part of the bridge.

The city’s statement said the full cost of the dismantling, if approved, would be covered by the shipbuilder. The bridge, known locally as “De Hef,” would be restored immediately afterward.

A city spokesperson had said that she did not have an estimate of how much the deconstruction would cost. The city statement said that officials would assess the environmental and economic effects of the plans.

A representative for Amazon did not respond to requests for comment about the cost or the yacht’s destination. A spokesperson for Oceanco, the Dutch custom yacht company that is building the boat, said in an email that she could not comment on projects under construction or clients because of confidentiality reasons.

Boat International, which publishes articles about the superyacht industry, reported that the 417-foot sailboat is set to become the largest sailing yacht in the world when it is finished later this year.

The superyacht that Bezos commissioned is likely to cost more than $500 million to build, Bloomberg reported. Bezos is the world’s second-richest person, after Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk.

The bridge, which has a boat clearance of 130 feet, is not currently in use.

Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, said he was fine with the bridge being dismantled — since the city would not be paying for it — because of the jobs the process would create. “As a city, this is a great way to take some of his money,” Tak said.

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「Voicy News Brief with articles from New York Times」は毎朝6時30分にVoicyで更新中！いつでも無料で聴けるVoicyの英語チャンネルを活用して、英語力向上にお役立てください。