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。

このVoicy Journalでは、毎週月曜日に前の1週間分のスクリプトをまとめて紹介しています。放送はアプリやWebページからいつでもご視聴いただけます。Voicy News Brief Season3の記事は2/7(月)以降をご覧ください！

3/7(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：

U.S. Can’t Use Health Rule to Expel Migrant Families Facing Persecution, Court Says

Ecosystem　生態系
Clamor　名詞 どよめき・喧噪／動詞 叫ぶ・騒ぎ立てる
Tiered　層をなす
Nickelodeon　ニコロデオン (子供向け動画配給会社)
Building Block　建築用のブロック、基礎的要素

著者：Eileen Sullivan
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — A public health rule that has kept many migrants from entering the country without legal permission during the pandemic suffered a blow Friday, when a federal appeals court said it could no longer be used to expel families to countries where they would face persecution or torture.

The ruling, issued by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, partially affirmed an earlier decision in an ongoing lawsuit and applies only to migrant families traveling with minor children. Although it allowed the Biden administration to keep the rule in place, the three-judge panel questioned whether it was still necessary, noting that it “looks in certain respects like a relic from an era with no vaccines, scarce testing, few therapeutics and little certainty.”

Later Friday, a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas issued a rule that dealt another blow to the Biden administration — ordering the government to stop exempting migrant children who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian from the public health rule. The administration has seven days to file an appeal.

Immigration lawyers said the District of Columbia Circuit appeals court ruling meant that from now on, migrant families will need to be given the chance to express a fear of persecution or torture, which could be followed by an interview with an asylum officer or a court date with an immigration judge — steps broadly denied since the public health rule was put in place in March 2020.

The Biden administration can continue to use the rule, known as Title 42, for families who do not face persecution and for single adults, who have made up a majority of the migrants expelled under it. Critics have said that the rule, put in place by former President Donald Trump, was his most successful effort to restrict asylum.

Even so, many immigration groups, as well as some people inside the Biden administration, see Friday’s appeals court decision as the beginning of the end of the public health rule, as the court opinion could make it harder for the administration to justify that single adults who face persecution or torture should be expelled.

Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, a lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, called Friday’s development a “huge victory.”

He said the Texas ruling was “wrong and brutal, sending young children into grave harm by themselves.”

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3/8(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：騙しとる、払い戻す、詐欺師

Fraud Is Flourishing on Zelle. The Banks Say It’s Not Their Problem.

impersonate　…になりすます
reimburse　(費用などを)弁償する、払い戻す
fraudulent　[形] 詐欺の、詐欺で手に入れた
immediacy　即時性
fraudster / crook 詐欺師 (=scammer, trickster, swindler)
siphon　[動] 吸い上げる
defraud　だまし取る
fall prey to　…の犠牲になる

著者：Stacy Cowley and Lananh Nguyen
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Justin Faunce lost $500 to a scammer impersonating a Wells Fargo official in January and hoped that the bank would reimburse him. Faunce was a longtime Wells Fargo customer and had immediately reported the scam — involving Zelle, the popular money transfer app.

But Wells Fargo said the transaction wasn’t fraudulent because Faunce had authorized it — even though he had been tricked into transferring the money.

Faunce was shocked.

Consumers love payment apps like Zelle because they’re free, fast and convenient. Created in 2017 by America’s largest banks to enable instant digital money transfers, Zelle comes embedded in banking apps and is now by far the country’s most widely used money transfer service. Last year, people sent $490 billion through Zelle, compared with $230 billion through Venmo, its closest rival.

Zelle’s immediacy has also made it a favorite of fraudsters. Other types of bank transfers or transactions involving payment cards typically take at least a day to clear. But once crooks scare or trick victims into handing over money via Zelle, they can siphon away thousands of dollars in seconds. There’s no way for customers to retrieve the money.

Nearly 18 million Americans were defrauded through scams involving digital wallets and person-to-person payment apps in 2020, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, an industry consultant.

The banks are aware of the widespread fraud on Zelle. When Faunce called Wells Fargo to report the crime, the customer service representative told him “a lot of people are getting scammed on Zelle this way.”

Wells Fargo later sent him a note saying it did not consider his loss to be a fraudulent one.

It’s not clear who is legally liable for such losses. Banks say that returning money to defrauded customers is not their responsibility, since the federal law covering electronic transfers requires them to cover only “unauthorized” transactions, and the scam that Faunce fell prey to tricks people into making the transfers themselves.

The Zelle network is operated by Early Warning Services, a company created and owned by seven banks: Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. Early Warning, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, manages the system’s technical infrastructure. But the 1,425 banks and credit unions that use Zelle can customize the app and add their own security settings.

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3/9(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：喘息、二酸化窒素、厳重な

EPA to Tighten Tailpipe Rules for the Biggest Polluters on the Road

Polluter　汚染する人、汚染者、環境汚染源
nitrogen dioxide　二酸化窒素
Carcinogen　発癌物質
Asthma　ぜんそく
stringent　厳しい、厳重な、説得力のある
adverse　逆らう、反対の、不運な

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

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday proposed strict new limits on pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks — the first time in more than 20 years that tailpipe standards have been tightened for the biggest polluters on the road.

The new draft rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would require heavy-duty trucks to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide by 90% by 2031. Nitrogen dioxide is linked to lung cancer, heart disease and premature death.

The EPA also announced plans to slightly tighten truck emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is driving climate change. The new rules for nitrogen oxide pollution would apply to trucks beginning with the model year 2027, while the carbon dioxide rules would apply to trucks starting with the model year 2024.

The truck pollution rule is the latest in a series of new pollution policies under President Joe Biden, who is seeking to reduce the emissions that are dangerously warming the planet and rebuild environmental standards that had been weakened by President Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris announced the proposal, along with a suite of other federal clean transportation actions, including the expenditure of $5.5 billion to help states purchase low or zero-emission transit buses, and $17 million to replace diesel school buses with electric versions in underserved communities.

Public health experts welcomed the move. “Cleaning up trucks is a critical step to achieving the president’s vision not only of environmental justice but also the cancer moonshot,” said Paul Billings, a senior vice president at the American Lung Association. “Diesel gas is a known carcinogen.”

The new limits would prevent up to 2,100 premature deaths, 6,700 hospital admissions and emergency department visits, 18,000 cases of asthma in children, 78,000 lost days of work and 1.1 million lost days of school by the year 2045, according to EPA estimates.

Truckers and manufacturers say the rule is too stringent and costly, and that compliance could send higher prices rippling through the economy.

“This new standard simply may not be technologically feasible,” said Jed Mandel, president of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, an industry group. “We’re worried about the cost. There is a potential of adverse impacts on the economy and jobs. Nobody wants to see union jobs laid off. Regular lunch-pail, blue collar workers.”

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3/10(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：実施する、一時停止する、統括組織

FIFA Will Allow Foreign Players in Russia to Break Contracts

suspend 一時停止する、保留する
set aside 無視する、除外する
come back into force 再度効力を発する
measure 処置、手段
an umbrella organization 統括組織
break a contract 契約を破る
in place 実施する、導入する

著者：Tariq Panja
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

A week after declaring that Russian teams cannot play international soccer for an indefinite period because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, soccer’s governing body announced Monday that foreign players and coaches contracted by Russian teams can suspend their contracts and move elsewhere — at least temporarily.

The decision will affect about 100 top players currently signed to Russian clubs, who will be able to set aside their contracts starting Thursday and sign with new teams through the end of the European season. On June 30, however, their original contracts would come back into force, and those with years left would have to return to their Russian teams or negotiate their departures.

The measure stops short of what groups representing players and worldwide leagues had requested. In a joint letter, reviewed by The New York Times, FIFPro, the largest players union, and the World Leagues Forum, an umbrella organization for more than 40 competitions, had asked FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, that athletes be allowed to leave Russia permanently.

The request has created an awkward situation for FIFA. The organization had broken precedent when it moved to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine — including barring Russia’s national team from qualifying matches for this year’s World Cup — but allowing players and coaches to break their contracts, and move to new clubs outside soccer’s traditional winter and summer windows, was potentially far more problematic.

At least one club, Krasnodar, announced last week that it would allow its foreign players and coaching staff to suspend their contracts. But foreign players continued to suit up for Russian teams in the most recent round of league games over the weekend.

A related arrangement will be in place for all players at Ukrainian clubs after that country’s league season was suspended last month when martial law was declared. FIFA said Monday that “all employment contracts of foreign players and coaches with clubs affiliated to the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) will be deemed automatically suspended until the end of the season in Ukraine,” which is June 30.

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3/11(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：つぎはぎ、活動家、否定するような

Disney CEO Says Company Is ‘Opposed’ to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

Botch つぎはぎ
Activist 活動家
Outset 最初
Nonbinary 男性にも女性にも分類されない認識
Dismissive 否定するような

著者：Brooks Barnes
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

It was a bruised Bob Chapek who arrived at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday — and all because of a crisis of his own making.

Earlier in the week, Chapek, the company’s CEO, botched an internal email to Disney employees. He was seeking to explain Disney’s public silence on anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida that activists have labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. There had been growing internal pressure on Chapek to condemn the bill, especially since his predecessor, Robert A. Iger, had already done so on Twitter and Disney employs 80,000 people in Florida. Instead, Chapek’s nearly 1,000-word memo poured gasoline on the fire, and the hashtag #boycottDisney was soon trending on social media.

Chapek addressed the criticism Wednesday.

“While we’ve been strong supporters of the community for decades, I know that many are upset that we did not speak out against the bill,” said Chapek, who made his remarks off camera during the virtual meeting. “We were opposed to the bill from the outset, and we chose not to take a public position because we felt we could be more effective working behind the scenes directly with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”

Since that effort failed, Chapek said, with the Florida Legislature passing the bill Tuesday, he had called Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday “to express our disappointment and concern that if legislation becomes law, it could be used to unfairly target gay lesbian, nonbinary and transgender kids and families.”

“The governor heard our concerns and agreed to meet with me and LGBTQ+ members of our senior team in Florida to discuss the ways to address them,” Chapek said.

DeSantis has voiced support for the legislation, which is titled the Parental Rights in Education bill. It would ban classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade; lessons on those topics in other grades would be prohibited unless they are “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate,” a vague threshold. And parents would be allowed to sue over violations.

A spokesperson for DeSantis responded to Chapek’s remarks in a dismissive manner: “This is the first time we have heard from Disney regarding HB 1557. The governor did take the call from Mr. Chapek. The governor’s position has not changed. No in-person meeting has been scheduled yet.”

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3/12(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：監禁する、執行猶予、賠償

Jussie Smollett Is Sentenced to Jail for False Report of a Hate Crime

Incarcerated　監禁する、 投獄する
Homophobic　同性愛恐怖症
Excoriated　激しく非難する
Searing　焼けるような
Felony Ⅾisorderly Conduct　治安紊乱行為による重罪
Probation　執行猶予、保護観察
Restitution　返却、返還、賠償

著者：Julia Jacobs and Robert Chiarito
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

A judge in Chicago sentenced Jussie Smollett to five months in jail on Thursday, ordering that the actor be incarcerated for falsely reporting to the police that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in 2019.

At the end of a hearing that lasted about five hours, Judge James B. Linn excoriated Smollett from the bench, saying that he had concluded that the actor had premeditated the hoax and that despite his and his family’s admirable past work in social justice, he had an arrogant, selfish side and had planned the stunt because he “craved the attention.”

In the searing speech, the judge said that Smollett’s name had become synonymous with lying, that he had sought to throw a “national pity party” for himself and that Smollett’s conduct had undermined other victims of hate crimes at a sensitive time, as America was trying to climb out of its painful history of racism.

Given the chance to address the court before the sentencing, Smollett declined. But after Linn read his sentence, the actor defiantly stood up and declared, “I did not do this, and I am not suicidal,” adding that “if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself.” As he was taken into custody to begin his jail sentence, Smollett raised his right fist. His lawyers immediately said they planned to appeal.

During the hearing, the defense and prosecution presented sharply different views of Smollett’s offense. Prosecutors framed it as a calculated plan to deceive law enforcement and the public at a time when hate crimes were on the rise. Smollett’s lawyers portrayed it as a minor low-level felony that had been subjected to an outsize amount of prosecutorial attention.

Daniel K. Webb, the special prosecutor who handled the case, argued in court that Smollett had made matters worse for himself by declaring his innocence in front of the jury.

At trial, Smollett had been found guilty of felony disorderly conduct, which carries a sentence of up to three years in prison. The judge decided on a shorter sentence, to be served in a local jail, and also gave Smollett a term of more than two years of probation and a fine of $25,000. He was also ordered to pay more than $120,000 in restitution for the cost of Chicago’s police investigation of his case.

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3/13(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：停電、欠陥、襲撃

A Bird Is Blamed as 10,000 Lose Power in New Orleans

electrical substation 変電所・変圧所
power failure 停電
derision 嘲り・嘲笑い
inoperable 実行不可能な
kink （機械・計画・制度などの）欠陥・不備
incursion （突然の）侵入・襲撃

著者：Neil Vigdor
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

In a city that knows all too well about the fragility of the power grid, it wasn’t a hurricane or a heat wave that knocked out power to thousands of customers in New Orleans on Wednesday morning.

The power company said it believed that a bird of an unknown type had damaged an electrical substation serving parts of downtown and the Uptown neighborhood, affecting nearly 10,000 utility customers, according to Entergy New Orleans.

The power failure began around 9 a.m. and became fodder for widespread derision on social media. It was not clear what happened to the bird.

The power failure happened as many people were heading to work, only to find traffic signals inoperable and darkened offices with no phone or internet service. The Louisiana Department of Revenue said that its office in New Orleans was closed because of the lack of electricity.

Mike McDaniel, a reporter for WWL-TV in New Orleans, tweeted that the morning blackout had created a kink in his routine.

“Welp… looks like I’m not shaving before the noon newscast today,” McDaniel wrote.

Just after noon local time, Entergy New Orleans said on Twitter that it had restored power to about 9,000 customers in the central business district, and that only about 300 remained without electricity. Entergy said it has about 209,000 total electric customers in New Orleans.

“We will continue to update impacted customers with estimated times of restoration as damage assessments continue,” Entergy said.

It was not the first time that a bird was blamed for disrupting power in the city. About 7,000 Entergy customers lost electricity last summer because of what the utility said was a similar incursion. The occurrence is not unique to New Orleans: squirrels, monkeys and even iguanas have caused power failures in other parts of the country and the world.

Estimating that 20% of power failures in New Orleans were caused by animals, Entergy said last year that it was testing lasers to keep birds away from its electrical transmission equipment.

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