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4/4(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：修道女、修道会、奈落の

Ireland’s Last ‘Magdalene Laundry’ Will Be Preserved as a Memorial

Convent　修道会、修道院
Nun　修道女
Demolish　取り壊す、(計画・議論)をくつがえす
Abysmal　奈落の、底知れない、ひどく悪い
Reckoning　計算、決算、報い
Appalling　恐ろしい、驚愕の

著者：Ed O’Loughlin
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

DUBLIN — Ireland’s last surviving “Magdalene laundry,” where thousands of unmarried mothers and other unwanted women were forced to work without pay in abject conditions, often until they died, is to be preserved as a state-funded memorial to all victims of incarceration and abuse in church- and state-run institutions, the Irish government has announced.

The government’s move Tuesday overturned a previous decision by the Dublin City Council, owner of the former convent and laundry, which closed in 1996, to sell the site for redevelopment as a budget hotel.

Operated most recently by the Sisters of Charity and Refuge, an order of Roman Catholic nuns, the compound in Dublin was the last “Magdalene laundry” to close down and is the only one that has not been demolished.

The decision to preserve it as a public memorial and education center followed a lengthy campaign by organizations representing survivors of the laundries and other former institutions of incarceration, such as “industrial schools” for unwanted or unruly children, county workhouses and so-called mother-and-baby homes, where women pregnant out of wedlock were confined in often abysmal conditions until they gave birth. In the mother-and-baby homes, many women were separated from their children, who were secretly put up for adoption by doctors or the church.

Roderic O’Gorman, Ireland’s minister for children, equality, disability, integration and youth, said the establishment of what will be known as the National Center for Research and Remembrance would be an important step in addressing a traumatic legacy.

“Over the past three decades, Ireland has had a difficult reckoning with its history of institutional abuse,” O’Gorman said. “This center will provide a place of reflection and remembrance, while also ensuring that future generations can fully understand the appalling impact of those institutions.”

Katherine O’Donnell, co-director of Open Heart City, an activist group that campaigned to preserve the site in public ownership, said the government’s announcement was “an enormous step forward” for a campaign that has always been based on the voices of surviving women and children.

“This will be a place where we can reflect on all the other parts of what we call our dark heritage, the places where our country failed its citizens,” she said.

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4/5(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：少数派の、恣意的な、定員

California Law Requiring Board Diversity Is Struck Down

board of directors 取締役会、役員会
disparity (極端な)不釣り合い、不均衡
underrepresented 少数派の
quota 定員, 定数
arbitrary 恣意(しい)的な、独断的な
gender equity 男女が共に公正に扱われること

著者：Erin Griffith
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

A California law requiring diversity on corporate boards of directors has been struck down in a blow to the state’s efforts to address racial and gender disparities in the workplace.

In response to a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group, Judge Terry Green of Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday found that the law violated the state constitution.

The law, Assembly Bill 979, went into effect in 2020. It requires publicly traded companies based in California to have board members from underrepresented communities including people of several races and ethnic groups and people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Gov. Gavin Newsom, in signing the bill into law, proclaimed it a victory for racial justice and empowerment.

Judicial Watch’s lawsuit, filed a month after the law was signed, argued that it was unconstitutional because it mandated quotas.

Green did not specify the reasoning for his decision. In one hearing, he described the law as “a bit arbitrary” on which groups it aimed to help, according to Law360.

California has led the country in pushing companies to diversify their top ranks, starting with a 2018 law that required corporate boards have at least one woman. Companies that do not comply face fines.

Since the 2018 law was passed, the number of women on boards more than doubled, according to a report from California Partners Project, a nonprofit focused on gender equity that was founded in part by Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Last year, more than half of new board appointees were women, the group said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a rule by Nasdaq, set to go in effect this year, that will require companies listed on its exchange to disclose the ethnic and gender makeup of their boards and have at least two “diverse” members or explain why they do not. Other states, including Maryland and New York, have required companies to disclose board diversity statistics, but none have enacted mandatory quotas.

Judicial Watch filed a separate lawsuit over California’s gender diversity law, making the same argument against quotas. It has also pressured the SEC to abandon its approval of diversity rules.

It was not clear whether California would appeal Green’s ruling. The office of the secretary of state did not respond to a request for comment.

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4/6(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：輪郭、撤廃する、待ちに待った

State Dept. Will Allow Americans to Mark Their Gender as ‘X’ on Passports

Long-awaited　満を持して、待ちに待った
Rescind　無効にする、 廃止する、 撤廃する
Anatomy　解剖学、解剖術、(詳細な)分析、人体、解剖図
Contours　輪郭、 外形
birth certificate　出生証明書
Monumental　記念碑の、(記念碑のように)堂々とした、不滅の、(程度が)とても大きい、途方もない、ひどい
Hurdle　障害物、ハードル

著者：Aishvarya Kavi
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday announced several measures intended to make federal forms of identification, applications for federal programs and travel documents more inclusive for Americans who identify as transgender or nonbinary, or who otherwise do not conform to traditional gender roles.

One long-awaited change will give Americans the option of indicating their gender with an “X” on passports starting April 11.

The plan was announced last summer, shortly after the State Department rescinded a rule requiring a certificate from a doctor stating that an applicant had transitioned or was in the process of transitioning in order to change their gender on their passport.

“We are firmly committed to promoting and protecting the freedom, dignity and equality of all persons, including transgender nonbinary, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming persons around the world,” said Douglass Benning, a principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s bureau of consular affairs.

The Transportation Security Administration will also offer the “X” option for gender for applicants to its Trusted Traveler programs, which expedite travelers at U.S. airports and across international borders, beginning April 11.

The Biden administration said the option of the “X” category would soon be expanded to applications for federal student aid, discrimination complaints with the Equal Opportunity Commission and the White House’s security system for workers and visitors.

The TSA also announced new initiatives aimed at making its security screening more inclusive, such as removing gender considerations from the process of validating a traveler’s identity and updating body-scanning procedures. The current technology differentiates anatomy, meaning an officer has to press a button to inform the machine of a traveler’s gender before a body scan. That can potentially prompt an alarm if the contours of a person’s body do not match the generic outline that the software expects.

Activists said that allowing Americans to identify by a gender other than the one on their birth certificate on other official documents was a monumental step, given that many people face hurdles in changing or obtaining other forms of identification, like a driver’s license, that accurately identify them.

More than 20 states provide a gender-neutral option of X on driver’s licenses, but dozens do not or have requirements, like certification from a doctor, to change gender.

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4/7(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：緩和する、暴騰する、殺到する

Musk Becomes Twitter’s Largest Shareholder

alleviate 緩和する、楽にする
Put your money where your mouth is 口先だけでなく、行動で示せ
soaring 暴騰する、高く上がる
penchant for 強い好み、傾向
elaborating 入念な、精巧な
inundate 殺到する
reinstate 元に戻す

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

When Elon Musk mulled taking Tesla private in 2018, he posted on Twitter to tell the world about it. When he got stuck in traffic in 2016, he tweeted the idea of an underground tunnel system to alleviate “soul destroying” congestion. And when he challenged President Vladimir Putin of Russia to one-on-one combat last month, he broadcast it on Twitter.

Now Musk is putting his money where he mouths off.

On Monday, a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s wealthiest person, had bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, the social media platform where he has over 80 million followers. The purchase appears to make Musk Twitter’s largest shareholder, ahead of the 8.8% stake owned by the mutual-fund company Vanguard and dwarfing the 2.3% stake of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former chief executive.

Musk’s Twitter investment, which he has been accumulating since at least last month, was worth about $2.89 billion based on the closing price of the company’s stock on Friday. But by the end of Monday, after news of his buy-in sent Twitter’s share price soaring more than 27%, it was worth about $3.7 billion. The shares are a fraction of Musk’s reported $270 billion-plus net worth.

Despite his penchant for sharing everything on Twitter — from business ideas, insults and memes to, this past weekend, his experience at a famed Berlin nightclub — Musk was uncharacteristically mum on the purchase of the company’s shares, at least initially.

“Oh hi lol” he tweeted Monday without elaborating after news of his investment had spread across Twitter. Musk, 50, did not respond to a request for comment. Twitter declined to comment.

Musk has bought into Twitter at a delicate time for the company. Dorsey stepped down as chief executive in November.

For Musk, the investment may also raise the volume of noise that he faces on Twitter. Already on Monday, Twitter users were inundating the billionaire with requests for an edit button on the social media service and asking him to reinstate certain banned accounts.

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4/8(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：提案、打ち明ける、巨大な

Elon Musk Joins Twitter’s Board, Pitching Ideas Big and Small

Pitch　提案
Confide 　打ち明ける
Dovetail　ピッタリハマる
Behemoth　巨大な
Ensuing　次の、続く
Discourse　論説

著者：Kate Conger, Mike Isaac and Lauren Hirsch
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, reached out to Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, a few weeks ago with a friendly heads-up. He was buying shares of the social media company, Musk confided, and wanted to discuss how to make Twitter better.

Musk had ideas for reshaping social networks that dovetailed with those of Agrawal and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, according to their public exchanges. All three have floated the notion of radically shifting the power in social networking to users and away from behemoth companies, by using an approach to technology that would give people control over what they see in their social media feeds.

In the ensuing weeks, Agrawal discussed having Musk become a more active participant in Twitter’s future, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who were not authorized to speak publicly. Agrawal also welcomed having Musk — who has more than 80 million Twitter followers and sometimes tweets a dozen or more times a day — join the company’s board, one of the people said.

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that Musk, 50, would be appointed to its 11-person board in a term that expires in 2024. That followed the revelation Monday that Musk had accumulated a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him its biggest shareholder. Musk has agreed not to own more than 14.9% of Twitter’s stock or take over the company, which is based in San Francisco, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our board,” Agrawal tweeted on Tuesday.

The addition of one of Twitter’s most powerful users to its board has implications for a social network where world leaders, lawmakers, celebrities and more than 217 million users conduct their daily public discourse. Unlike some Twitter board members, Musk did not sign an agreement that forbade him from influencing the company’s policies. That could allow him to work with Agrawal on a futuristic vision for “decentralized” social networking.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Musk said he hoped to “make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months.”

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4/9(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：

U.S. Says It Secretly Removed Malware Worldwide, Preempting Russian Cyberattacks

preempt 　先に行動を起こして阻止する
cyberattacks 　サイバー攻撃
malicious 　悪意のある
surveillance 　監視
botnet 　乗っ取った多数のゾンビコンピュータで構成されるネットワーク
hesitance 　ためらい、躊躇
extend 　広げる、及ぶ

著者：Kate Conger and David E. Sanger
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The United States said Wednesday that it had secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world in recent weeks, a step to preempt Russian cyberattacks and send a message to President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

The move, made public by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, comes as U.S. officials warn that Russia could try to strike American critical infrastructure — including financial firms, pipelines and the electric grid — in response to the crushing sanctions that the United States has imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

The malware enabled the Russians to create “botnets” — networks of private computers that are infected with malicious software and controlled by the GRU, the intelligence arm of the Russian military. But it is unclear what the malware was intended to do, since it could be used for everything from surveillance to destructive attacks.

A U.S. official said Wednesday that the United States did not want to wait to find out. Armed with secret court orders in the United States and the help of governments around the world, the Justice Department and the FBI disconnected the networks from the GRU’s own controllers.

“Fortunately, we were able to disrupt this botnet before it could be used,” Garland said.

The court orders allowed the FBI to go into domestic corporate networks and remove the malware, sometimes without the company’s knowledge.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he would not put the U.S. military in direct conflict with the Russian military, a situation he has said could lead to World War III. But his hesitance does not appear to extend to cyberspace.

Even as the United States works to prevent Russian attacks, some U.S. officials fear Putin may be biding his time in launching a major cyberoperation that could strike a blow at the American economy. Until now, U.S. officials say, the primary Russian cyberactions have been directed at Ukraine.

The Biden administration has instructed critical infrastructure companies in the United States to prepare to fend off Russian cyberattacks.

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4/10(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：抵当権、債権差し押さえ、生じる

Student Loans Are Set to Be Paused Again, Pushing Payments to September

accrue　＜利子などが＞生じる、 ＜利子が＞つく / (…に)(…から生じる)(to)(from) / 【法律, 法学】(権利として)生じる 、発生する
garnishment　(債務を満足させるための)財産差し押さえの通知(書) / 債権差し押さえ
mortgage　抵当権、担保、 貸付金、(抵当権付き)住宅ローン
be torn between A and B　AとBの間で板挟みになっている

著者：Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Stacy Cowley
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

President Joe Biden will allow millions of federal student loan borrowers to freeze their payments until Aug. 31, according to an administration official briefed on the matter, the latest extension of a pandemic relief measure that began more than two years ago.

The delay would be the sixth since the pauses began early in the pandemic, and it would come less than a month before payments were scheduled to restart and affect tens of millions of borrowers, including 35 million who have not been making payments that would otherwise have been due. Those debts have not been accruing interest, and 7 million borrowers in default have received a break from paycheck garnishments and other collection efforts.

The extension is expected to be announced this week, according to the administration official, who was not authorized to speak about the plans before the announcement.

The delay means the pause will become an issue again before the midterm elections and remain a rallying cry for student debt activists who have called for Biden to cancel at least some debt outright. Americans owe $1.6 trillion on federal student loans — more than they owe on car loans, credit cards or any consumer debt other than mortgages.

Wisdom Cole, the NAACP’s national director of youth and college, said student loan debt was a “racial and economic justice issue that stains the soul of America.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, both of Massachusetts, have repeatedly pressed for the president to wipe out up to $50,000 per borrower through an executive action.

But Biden has resisted that approach, saying he would prefer for any debt cancellation to happen legislatively. Congressional supporters say they don’t have the votes; a plan to cancel $10,000 in debt for many borrowers passed the House in 2020 as part of its pandemic relief package, then died in the Senate.

Debt-cancellation advocates are torn between optimism and frustration. “If they’re not going to do it, that gives false hope to borrowers,” said Natalia Abrams, the founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.

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