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4/25(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：岩礁、傾ける、下部組織

26 Missing From Japanese Tour Boat After Distress Call off Hokkaido

northernmost　最北の、最北端の
dispatch　発送する、派遣する
vessel　容器、管、船
tilt　傾ける、攻撃する
infrastructure　下部組織、基盤
famed　名高い、有名な
reef　岩礁

著者：Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

TOKYO — All 26 people aboard a sightseeing boat were reported missing off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, on Saturday after the boat made a distress call to the Japan coast guard early in the afternoon saying it was sinking.

The coast guard dispatched rescue boats and aircraft after the crew of the tourist cruiser called to say that the vessel was tilting at 30 degrees near the Shiretoko Peninsula on Hokkaido’s eastern coast.

According to public broadcaster NHK, the first rescue call came around 1:15 p.m. from the Kazu 1, a sightseeing vessel that was on a planned three-hour round-trip tour to the tip of Cape Shiretoko. A regional unit of the coast guard in Hokkaido told NHK that the crew had reported the boat was taking on water. A final call came in to the company at 3 p.m.

Tetsuo Saito, Japan’s minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, told reporters late Saturday that the coast guard boats arrived at the scene around 4:30 p.m. and had not yet found any survivors.

Saito said 24 passengers, including two children, were on board, along with the captain and a deck officer. All were believed to be wearing life jackets, he said.

Early Sunday, NHK reported that four people from the boat had been found, but it gave no information about their condition.

According to NHK, the coast guard dispatched five patrol vessels and two aircraft in rough winds to the area of the famed Kashuni Falls, where the boat was when the first call came in and where reefs are hidden under the sea. The public broadcaster reported that there had been warnings of waves of up to 10 feet Saturday.

A man who answered the telephone late Saturday night at Shiretoko Pleasure Cruiser, the owner of the tourist boat, said he could not answer questions as he needed “to put a priority on talking to the families first.”

The website of Shiretoko Pleasure Cruiser advertises the three-hour Shiretoko Cape tour as a chance for sightseers to see the Kashuni Falls as well as brown bears, eagles, dolphins and whales. “It is a truly unexplored region that can only be reached by boat,” the tour description reads.

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4/26(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：幻滅、管理、再び元気付ける

Emmanuel Macron Is Reelected French President, Defeating Marine Le Pen

lurch 突然の傾き、揺れ
projection (数値の)見積もり、見通し、予測
margin (勝敗などの)差、得票差
discriminate against 差別待遇する
stewardship 管理、経営 (*steward 執事、世話役)
rekindling (感情など)を再びかき立てる、再び元気づける
disenchantment 幻滅 (*enchantment うっとりさせるもの、魅力)

著者：Roger Cohen
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron won a second term as president of France, triumphing Sunday over Marine Le Pen, his far-right challenger, after a campaign in which his promise of stability prevailed over the temptation of an extremist lurch.

Projections at the close of voting, which are generally reliable, showed Macron, a centrist, gaining 58.5% of the vote to Le Pen’s 41.5%. His victory was much narrower than in 2017, when the margin was 66.1% to 33.9% for Le Pen, but wider than appeared likely two weeks ago.

Speaking to a crowd massed on the Champ de Mars, a solemn Macron said his was a victory for “a more independent France and a stronger Europe.” At the same time he acknowledged “the anger that has been expressed” during a bitter campaign and that he had a duty to “respond effectively.”

Le Pen conceded defeat in her third attempt to become president but bitterly criticized the “brutal and violent methods” of Macron. She vowed to fight on to secure a large number of representatives in legislative elections in June, declaring that “French people have this evening shown their desire for a strong counter power to Emmanuel Macron.”

At a critical moment in Europe, with fighting raging in Ukraine after the Russian invasion, France rejected a candidate hostile to NATO, to the European Union, to the United States and to its fundamental values that hold that no French citizens should be discriminated against because they are Muslim.

The French do not generally love their presidents, and none had succeeded in being reelected since 2002. Macron’s unusual achievement in securing five more years in power reflects his effective stewardship over the COVID-19 crisis, his rekindling of the economy and his political agility in occupying the entire center of the political spectrum.

Le Pen, softening her image if not her anti-immigrant nationalist program, rode a wave of alienation and disenchantment to bring the extreme right closer to power than at any time since 1944.

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, declared that Macron’s win was “a vote of confidence in Europe.” Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, congratulated the French leader and called France “one of our closest and most important allies.”

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4/27(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：返済、遡って、その場しのぎ

Millions Move Closer to Student Loan Forgiveness With One-Time Government Waivers

student loan forgiveness　学生ローンの免除
retroactively　遡って、遡及して
repayment　返済、報酬、払い戻し
life sentence　一生続くこと
collectively　まとめると、合わせて
quick-fix　その場しのぎ
piecemeal　ひとつずつ、少しずつ、漸次に

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

In its latest attempt to fix widespread breakdowns in the federal student loan payment system, the Education Department said Tuesday that it would use one-time waivers and adjustments to retroactively credit millions of borrowers with additional payments toward loan forgiveness.

The credits will help borrowers seeking to have their loans eliminated under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and through the use of income-driven repayment plans. The public service program eliminates the debts of government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying loan payments, and those who enroll in income-driven plans are entitled to have their remaining debt wiped out after 20 to 25 years.

The changes will immediately eliminate the debts of at least 40,000 borrowers through the public service program and will give 3.6 million borrowers pursuing income-driven repayment at least three years of additional credits, the department said.

“Student loans were never meant to be a life sentence, but it’s certainly felt that way for borrowers locked out of debt relief they’re eligible for,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers.”

The fixes are aimed at addressing several long-standing problems that stuck borrowers with ballooning loan balances or failed to correctly give them credit for the payments they made.

The changes will apply to the vast majority of the 45 million borrowers with federal loans, who collectively owe $1.6 trillion.

Three trade associations representing loan servicers, in a joint statement, called the waivers “another quick-fix, Band-Aid approach to complex programmatic issues,” and said they had not been given guidance on how the changes would be carried out.

The department will begin working immediately on the changes, but borrowers may not see them reflected on their accounts until the end of the year, said James Kvaal, the undersecretary of education.

The waivers are the latest in a series of piecemeal fixes the Biden administration has enacted while coming under pressure from progressive Democrats and consumer advocates to make sweeping changes to the government’s long-troubled student loan system.

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4/28(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：刺激する、商品、運送業者

Prospect of Lockdowns in Beijing Fuels More Concerns About Supply-Chain Disruptions

supply chain　サプライチェーン、供給連鎖
fueling　刺激する
freight forwarder　運送業者、運送取扱人
port　港
vessel　船
berth　停泊する
commodities　商品

著者：Ana Swanson
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

The prospect of further lockdowns in China prompted a fresh wave of economic anxiety Monday as investors and companies whose supply chains run through China contemplated the effect of 70 new virus cases that the Beijing government said it had detected over the weekend.

The city government ordered one of its districts to test all 3.5 million of its residents for coronavirus in the coming days, a move that may be a prelude to a larger lockdown in China’s capital city. Shanghai, a major port and business center, has been locked down for roughly a month, part of China’s “zero COVID” strategy. Other Chinese cities both large and small have announced their own restrictions on the movement of residents in a bid to keep the virus from spreading.

The lockdowns present yet another challenge for global supply chains that have been stressed by pandemic shutdowns and the war in Ukraine, leading to greater competition for goods and higher prices that are fueling inflation worldwide.

While Chinese authorities have sought to keep factories and especially ports operating by keeping workers on the premises in so-called closed loop systems, the lockdowns have interrupted shipments and lengthened delivery times for many of the global companies that depend on Chinese factories.

Phil Levy, chief economist at Flexport, a freight forwarder, said in an email that although Beijing is an important city, “it is not at the heart of factory production or supply chain operations.” He said lockdowns there would have a more limited impact than previous restrictions in Shanghai and Guangdong, where ports continued to mostly operate.

But the effects would depend on where outbreaks occurred — for example, whether they shut down a port — and how long lockdowns persisted, Levy said.

According to data from Project44, a logistics platform, the number of vessels that were berthing at the Shanghai port last week had dropped by about half since the lockdown began, while the number of vessels seeking to call at the nearby port of Ningbo jumped as shipping companies tried to get around restrictions.

Fears of broader lockdowns weighed on global stocks Monday, while oil and other commodities also fell in anticipation of lower demand.

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4/29(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：暴落、混合物、かたまり

Stocks Drop 2.8%, Led Lower by Tech, as April’s Slump Continues

Slump　暴落
Erode　むしばむ
Composite　混合物
Chunk　かたまり
Valuation　価値

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

Stocks slid Tuesday, adding to a losing streak that has April shaping up to be Wall Street’s worst month in two years.

The S&P 500 fell 2.8%, bringing its losses for the month to 7.8%. The index is on track for its worst monthly decline since March 2020.

The steady drop — with only six days of gains in April — has come as investors have confronted a long list of fears: that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates more quickly than economists had anticipated; that rising prices and wages could erode corporate profits; and that renewed lockdowns in China could become another drag on the global economy.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund projected global growth would slow this year to 3.6%, from 6.1% in 2021. That was before a new COVID outbreak in Beijing raised concerns about more restrictions in China.

“China slows down the rest of the world if it shuts down,” said Victoria Greene, chief investment officer at G Squared Private Wealth, an advisory firm.

On Tuesday, technology stocks led the retreat on Wall Street, ahead of earnings reports from Alphabet, Microsoft and — later in the week — Meta, Amazon and Apple. Shares of all five big-tech companies were lower. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted toward tech, fell about 4%.

Also lower were shares of Tesla, which fell more than 12%. The company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, may have to sell a big chunk of his stock in the carmaker to fund his takeover of Twitter. Tesla’s shares can weigh on the broader S&P 500 when they fall because of the company’s huge valuation.

Among the worst performers in the S&P 500 was General Electric, which fell 10.3% after it said its outlook for the year was “trending toward the low end” of its previous forecast for profits.

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4/30(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：外科的、慢性的な、包括的

Patients Taking Experimental Obesity Drug Lost More Than 50 Pounds, Maker Claims

obesity　肥満
trial　臨床試験・治験
surgical　外科的
comprehensive　包括的
chronic　慢性的な
barrier　障壁

著者：Gina Kolata
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

An experimental drug has enabled people with obesity or who are overweight to lose about 22.5% of their body weight, about 52 pounds on average, in a large trial, the drug’s maker announced Thursday.

The company, Eli Lilly, has not yet submitted the data for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal or presented it in a public setting. But the claims nonetheless amazed medical experts.

“Wow (and a double Wow!)” Dr. Sekar Kathiresan, CEO of Verve Therapeutics, a company focusing on heart disease drugs, wrote in a tweet. Kathiresan has no ties to Eli Lilly or to the drug.

On average, participants in the study weighed 231 pounds at the outset and had a body mass index, or BMI — a commonly used measure of obesity — of 38. (Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 and higher.)

At the end of the study, those taking the higher doses of the Eli Lilly drug, called tirzepatide, weighed about 180 pounds and had a BMI just below 30, on average. The results far exceed those usually seen in trials of weight loss medications and are usually seen only in surgical patients.

Some trial participants lost enough weight to fall into the normal range, said Dr. Louis J. Aronne, director of the comprehensive weight control program at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, who worked with Eli Lilly as the study’s principal investigator.

Because obesity is a chronic medical condition, patients would need to take tirzepatide for a lifetime, as they do for blood pressure or cholesterol drugs, for example.

Dr. Robert F. Kushner, an obesity expert at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and a paid consultant to Novo Nordisk, said the new drug along with a similar but less effective one by Novo Nordisk, can close a so-called treatment gap.

But prices may be a barrier. Insurers often will not pay for weight loss drugs. The Novo Nordisk drug, whose brand name is Wegovy, has a list price of $1,349.02 per month.

Experts worry that tirzepatide, if approved, might carry a price in the same range.

An Eli Lilly spokesperson said the company did not have a public timeline for seeking approval of the drug with the Food and Drug Administration.

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5/1(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：迂回する、関税、影響

Solar Industry ‘Frozen’ as Biden Administration Investigates China

Tumult　(心理的な) 騒ぎ・騒動
Circumvent　迂回する
Tariff　(特定の国の製品にかかる) 関税
Fallout　(ネガティブな意味での) 影響
Ramification　(ネガティブな意味での) 結果・効果
Steep　(角度的に) 急な

著者：David Gelles
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Around the country, solar companies are delaying projects, scrambling for supplies, shutting down construction sites and warning that tens of billions of dollars — and tens of thousands of jobs — are at risk.

The tumult is the result of a decision by the Commerce Department to investigate whether Chinese companies are circumventing U.S. tariffs by moving components for solar panels through four Southeast Asian countries.

Although officials have not yet found any evidence of trade violations, the threat of retroactive tariffs has effectively stopped imports of crystalline silicon panels and components from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. These four countries provide 82% of the most popular type of solar modules used in the United States.

In a matter of weeks, 318 solar projects in the United States have been canceled or delayed, and hundreds of companies are considering layoffs, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Energy experts warn that the fallout is only beginning. A monthslong halt on imports from the four countries could have lasting ramifications for the multibillion-dollar solar industry and for the Biden administration’s ambitious goals to ramp up renewable energy development to combat climate change.

The Commerce Department initiated its investigation March 25 after Auxin Solar, a small solar panel manufacturer based in California, filed a petition requesting an inquiry into whether China was circumventing rules intended to prevent state-subsidized solar parts from flooding the U.S. market. Tariffs on Chinese solar panels have been in place since 2012.

To avoid trade problems, U.S. solar installers have bought many of their panels from the four Southeast Asian countries. But according to Auxin, many of those panels are manufactured by overseas subsidiaries of Chinese companies and use cells, wafers and other parts that originated in China.

Until now, the Commerce Department had signaled that because the parts coming from China were substantially transformed by the companies in Southeast Asia, those components were not subject to the tariffs.

But if the Commerce Department finds the panels coming from Southeast Asia included Chinese-made parts that should have been subject to tariffs, panels sold in the United States after the start of the investigation could carry steep duties. And the threat of those additional costs has caused shipments of solar panels to grind to a halt.

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