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2/7(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：脊椎動物、遊歩道、放浪する

Dinosaur Prints in Utah Are Feared Damaged by Construction Equipment

roam　歩き回る、放浪する
paleontologist　古生物学者
fossilize　化石化する、固定化する、時代遅れにする
vertebrate　脊椎のある、脊椎動物
irreparable　修繕できない、取り返しのつかない
cease and disist letter（知的財産侵害行為などの）停止通告書
boardwalk　遊歩道

著者：Christine Hauser
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

In a stretch of remote scrubland north of Moab, Utah, visitors can walk a path across the same land dinosaurs roamed millions of years ago, and peer down at the footprints and other marks the prehistoric beasts left behind, still visible, though turned to stone.

In recent weeks, however, construction machinery has unsettled the area, known as the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite.

In the past week, several paleontologists and scientists have called on the Bureau of Land Management to halt work on a new metal and concrete walkway at the site, saying some fossilized footprints had already been damaged by the construction.

Utah Friends of Paleontology, a nonprofit advocacy group that has studied the site, published a statement Jan. 29 criticizing the bureau’s work, which the group said had not been carried out under the supervision of a paleontologist.

On Tuesday, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a global scientific nonprofit, sent a letter to the bureau’s state director for Utah, Greg Sheehan, saying it feared that “irreparable, and avoidable, damage” had been done.

The Center for Biological Diversity added its voice to the objections this week, laying out the legal basis for the shortcomings in a cease-and-desist letter to Sheehan.

A bureau spokesperson confirmed Friday that the agency had halted the work, and that Utah’s state paleontologist, Jim Kirkland, and a regional bureau paleontologist were at the site to make assessments.

The Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite is one of the most significant of its kind in the world, according to the Bureau of Land Management. In 2009, the tracks were first reported to the bureau. More than 200 individual tracks were eventually recorded, the bureau said last year, from at least 10 species of dinosaur believed to date back some 112 million years.

In 2015, a raised boardwalk was built at the site. The boardwalk quickly became popular with visitors, according to an October 2021 assessment for the new metal and concrete walkway. The wooden walkway, used by thousands of people every year, had warped, it said.

The extent of any damage to the fossils was not yet immediately clear.

“There is damage and there is no reason there should be any damage,” Kirkland said after visiting the site Sunday, according to a Deseret News report. “It is not completely destroyed as some people were suggesting, but I was pretty scared.”

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2/8(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：明白な、抑える、昇進させる

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott Leads Slopestyle’s New Guard

undisputed　異議のない、明白な
square　しっかりと
smother　抑える
smattering　わずか
heat　(競技･試合の) 1回
bump…up　(人を)昇進させる、押し上げる
bump…down　押し下げる、引っ込ませる

著者：John Branch
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

It was the final run of the competition, the final jump of the run. Out of the blue sky came Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, a 20-year-old from New Zealand and now the undisputed queen of slopestyle snowboarding.

She spun herself through the air with the second of back-to-back 1080s, knowing that a solid landing would win gold. She hit the ground hard but square. Her hands nearly dropped to the snow, then raised to the heavens in victory.

“The best run of my life,” Sadowski-Synnott said later, mostly proud to become the first athlete from New Zealand to win a gold medal at a Winter Games.

The other medalists instantly smothered her as the judges computed the winning score: a 92.8, just ahead of American Julia Marino, who earned silver, and Tess Coady of Australia, thrilled to have bronze.

Yet there was a missing character in the drama. When the announcer introduced the three medalists to the smattering of fans at Genting Snow Park, American Jamie Anderson wasn’t mentioned.

The two-time gold medalist, the only woman to have previously won the slopestyle event at the Olympics, finished ninth.

Each athlete had three chances to navigate a technical section of rails and a series of jumps, with the single best score declared the winner.

Sadowski-Synnott got off to a hot start with a first-run score of 84.51 that her rivals spent the next two heats chasing.

Marino did catch up, bumping herself up to first place, and then Coady did too, temporarily shuffling Sadowski-Synnott to third.

Marino stayed in first place all the way to the end — a result that would have qualified as a surprise. The 24-year-old shot into slopestyle five years ago by winning the X Games as a rookie and has been a solid top-tier presence on the circuit since. Earning a medal at these Olympics might have been a hope, but not an expectation.

When Sadowski-Synnott landed on the final jump, Marino knew she had been bumped down. She never showed a wink of disappointment.

“Any medal for me in the Olympics, I can’t be disappointed at all,” Marino said. “I just want to see my friends succeed and do well. To be a part of that means a lot to me.”

It was the first medal of any color won by an American at these Olympics.

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2/9(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：授業料、免除する、削る

Free Community College Is Off the Table, Jill Biden Says

Community College　コミュニティカレッジ 　
off the table　議題から外れる
whittle down　削る
Dead　効力を失う、(電池、テレビなどが)切れた
weigh in　(意見・議論などを持ち出して)、加勢する, 議論に加わる
waive　免除する
tuition　授業料

著者：Katie Rogers
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — During his first address to Congress last spring, President Joe Biden said that Jill Biden, the first lady, would lead an effort to fulfill his administration’s promise to provide two years of free community college to all eligible students.

That provision, tucked inside a massive social spending package that has struggled to win the support of all the senators who caucus with the Democrats, was the first lady’s signature legislative initiative. But on Monday, Jill Biden addressed a summit of community college leaders and confirmed what her husband has recently suggested: The plan has no future in a bill that Democrats are trying to whittle down in order to salvage.

“One year ago, I told this group that Joe, my husband Joe, was going to fight for community colleges,” she said at the Community College National Legislative Summit in Washington. “But Joe has also had to make compromises. Congress hasn’t passed the Build Back Better legislation — yet. And free community college is no longer a part of that package.”

The writing had been on the wall. Democrats had moved away from the provision, and Jill Biden has previously said that the current political climate meant that it might not be the “right time” for free community college to pass as part of a social spending bill. But her remarks Monday were her starkest acknowledgment yet that a measure she had championed is dead.

“We knew this wouldn’t be easy,” Biden said. “Still, like you, I was disappointed. Because, like you, these aren’t just bills or budgets to me, to you, right? We know what they mean for real people, for our students.”

It is unusual for first ladies to weigh in on the defeat of a West Wing policy issue, but Jill Biden, a community college English professor, was personally invested in the issue.

For months, Joe Biden has told Democrats that free community college would most likely have to be cut, including in one private meeting with progressive lawmakers last October. The bill would have originally committed $45.5 billion to waive two years of tuition at community colleges for five years.

The House-passed $2.2 trillion version of the plan contains additional aid for community colleges and grant programs, but not the tuition-free provision.

Democrats are still exploring expanding tuition assistance for low- and middle-income students.

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2/10(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：誠実性、援助、寄付者

Peter Thiel to Exit Meta’s Board to Support Trump-Aligned Candidates

board members　取締役
backing　後援、支持
donor　寄付者、献金者
protege　保護を受けている人
embroil　巻き込まれる、混乱させる
metaverse　メタバース
conscientiousness　誠実性

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

Peter Thiel, one of the longest-serving board members of Meta, the parent of Facebook, plans to step down, the company said Monday.

Thiel, 54, wants to focus on influencing November’s midterm elections, said a person with knowledge of Thiel’s thinking and who declined to be identified. Thiel sees the midterms as crucial to changing the direction of the country, this person said, and he is backing candidates who support the agenda of former President Donald Trump.

Over the past year, Thiel, who has a net worth estimated at $2.6 billion by Forbes, has become one of the Republican Party’s largest donors. Last year, he gave $10 million each to the campaigns of two proteges, Blake Masters, who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, and J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio.

Thiel has been on Meta’s board since 2005, when Facebook was a tiny startup and he was one of its first institutional investors. But scrutiny of Thiel’s position on the board has steadily increased as the company was embroiled in political controversies, including barring Trump from the platform, and as the venture capitalist has become more politically active.

The departure means Meta loses its board’s most prominent conservative voice. The 10-member board has undergone significant changes in recent years, as many of its members have left and been replaced, often with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and DoorDash founder Tony Xu are on the board. Meta didn’t address whether it intends to replace Thiel.

The company is undertaking a shift toward the so-called metaverse, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes is the next generation of the internet. Last week, Meta reported spending more than $10 billion on the effort in 2021, along with mixed financial results. That wiped more than $230 billion off the company’s market value.

“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he’s done for our company,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions.”

In a statement Monday, Thiel said: “It has been a privilege to work with one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. Mark Zuckerberg’s intelligence, energy and conscientiousness are tremendous. His talents will serve Meta well as he leads the company into a new era.”

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2/11(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：星座、発作、静止した

Solar Storm Destroys 40 New SpaceX Satellites in Orbit

Geomagnetic　地磁気の
Incinerate　燃え尽きる
Hyperactive　活動的な
Quiescent　静止した
Paroxysm　発作
Milquetoast　臆病な
Constellation 星座
Malfunction　故障

著者：Robin George Andrews
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Over the past three years, SpaceX has deployed thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of its business to beam high-speed internet service from space. But the company’s latest deployment of 49 new satellites after a Feb. 3 launch did not go as planned.

As a consequence of a geomagnetic storm triggered by a recent outburst of the sun, up to 40 of 49 newly launched Starlink satellites have been knocked out of commission. They are in the process of reentering Earth’s atmosphere, where they will be incinerated.

The incident highlights the hazards faced by numerous companies planning to put tens of thousands of small satellites in orbit to provide internet service from space. And it’s possible that more solar outbursts will knock some of these newly deployed orbital transmitters out of the sky. The sun has an 11-year-long cycle in which it oscillates between hyperactive and quiescent states. Presently, it is ramping up to its peak, which has been forecast to arrive around 2025.

This recent solar paroxysm was relatively moderate by the sun’s standards. “I have every confidence that we’re going to see an extreme event in the next cycle, because that typically is what happens during a solar maximum,” said Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at the University of Southampton in England. If a milquetoast outburst can knock out 40 Starlink satellites hanging out at low orbital altitudes, a more potent solar scream has the potential to inflict greater harm on the mega-constellations of SpaceX and other companies.

SpaceX announced the looming destruction of as many as 40 of its satellites in a company blog post on Tuesday night. The company said that after the launch, the satellites were released to their intended orbit, about 130 miles above Earth.

This altitude was chosen partly to prevent potential collisions in the future with other satellites. If the satellites malfunction after being deployed at that altitude, and are unable to raise their orbits to more secure heights, “the atmosphere kind of reclaims the failed technology very rapidly,” Lewis said. “And that’s a very good safety measure.”

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2/12(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：不遜な、脆弱性、避難所

Justice Department Seizes $3.6 Billion in Bitcoin and Arrests Married Couple

Justice Department　司法省
Seizure　捕らえること、差し押さえ、押収、没収、発作、脳卒中
Spate　大水、ほとばしり、多数、続発
Vulnerabilities　脆弱性、受攻性
Haven　避難所、安息所、港、停泊所
Anonymity　無名であること、匿名者
Irreverent　不敬な、不遜な
Alias　別名は

著者：Katie Benner
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Tuesday that it had seized over $3.6 billion worth of stolen bitcoins and arrested a married couple accused of laundering the cryptocurrency that hackers had stolen six years ago.

The couple, Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and Heather Morgan, 31, were accused in a criminal complaint of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoins that had been stolen in 2016 from Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges.

The value of the currency at the time of its seizure last week makes it the department’s largest financial seizure ever, officials said.

A Justice Department official declined to comment on whether Lichtenstein and Morgan had been involved in the hacking itself.

The breach in 2016 was among a spate of hackings into currency exchanges that have allowed for the theft of large amounts of digital currency. Even when the stolen funds were recovered, the thefts underscored the security vulnerabilities that exist in the relatively new world of cryptocurrency. In some cases, the incidents drastically affected cryptocurrency values.

After the hacking of Bitfinex, one of the largest exchanges in the history of the cryptocurrency market, the value of Bitcoin initially plunged about 20%.

The arrests on Tuesday “show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general, said in a statement. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions.”

Lichtenstein and Morgan appeared in Manhattan federal court in New York Tuesday afternoon.

Lichtenstein, who goes by the nickname Dutch, has both American and Russian citizenship and has described himself as a tech entrepreneur, according to the complaint. Morgan describes herself on her LinkedIn page as “a serial entrepreneur” and “irreverent comedic rapper.”

The stolen bitcoins, worth about $71 million when Bitfinex was hacked in 2016, are now worth more than $4.5 billion, according to the Justice Department.

With more Americans buying and selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, regulators have brought some large exchanges in the United States under official oversight.

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2/13(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：変異株、緩和、万能の

‘We Are Not There Yet’: As States Drop Mask Rules, the CDC Stands Firm

behind-the-scenes effort　舞台裏の努力
blue-state governors　民主党知事
variant　異なる物・変形・変異株
mitigation　緩和
CDC　（米国の）疾病対策センター
one-size-fits-all　フリーサイズの・それ一つでどんな場合にも適用する(ような)・万能の

著者：Sheryl Gay Stolberg
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The White House has been meeting with outside health experts to plan a pandemic exit strategy and a transition to a “new normal,” but the behind-the-scenes effort is crashing into a very public reality: A string of blue-state governors have gotten ahead of President Biden by suddenly abandoning their mask mandates.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said pointedly on Wednesday that while COVID-19 caseloads are dropping overall and her agency is working on new guidance for the states, it is too soon for all Americans to take off their masks in indoor public places.

The gubernatorial frenzy to drop mask mandates comes as the White House COVID response coordinator, Jeffrey Zients, and the government’s top doctors are soliciting advice from a wide array of public health experts, including some former Biden advisers who have very publicly urged the president to shift course. Zients referenced the sessions briefly on Wednesday, saying the White House is also reaching out to governors and local public health officials to talk about “steps we should be taking to keep the country moving forward.”

The talks, according to numerous participants, are aimed at drafting a fresh playbook for the delicate next phase of the pandemic, when the coronavirus threat is likely to recede but the possibility of a new variant and another deadly surge remains very real. They are addressing a range of issues beyond masking and mitigation, from how to get new antivirals to people who test positive for the virus to whether to upgrade ventilation systems in schools.

The CDC’s masking decisions are especially fraught: It is difficult, experts say, to issue a one-size-fits-all prescription for a country as sprawling and varied as the United States.

“It’s a challenging situation, because of course people are really anxious to get back to some sense of normalcy,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist. “It’s highly variable across the country — how much transmission there is, what vaccination uptake has been — but the CDC produces guidance for the entire country, so it makes sense for them to be cautious.”

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