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7/18(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：麻痺させる、制裁、石油

Gas Prices, a Big Inflation Factor, Are Coming Down Sharply

paralyze　麻痺させる、無力にする
strategic　戦略の、必須の
sanction　制裁、承認
crude　天然のままの、原油、(えぐい)
petroleum　石油

著者：Clifford Krauss
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

HOUSTON — Gasoline prices, on an upward tear for months, have reversed course in recent weeks, giving consumers a welcome break.

Gasoline was a major reason that U.S. consumer prices were 9.1% higher in June than a year earlier, the biggest annual increase in four decades. But now gas prices have fallen 28 days in a row, the longest decline since the collapse in energy demand in early 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the economy. Energy analysts say American consumers are spending $140 million less on gasoline daily than they were a month ago.

The trend could easily reverse, especially if a hurricane knocks out a refinery on the Gulf Coast, since global oil supplies remain fairly tight. But for the moment, the nation’s inventories are slowly growing, in part because of continuing releases of oil by the government from its strategic oil reserves and reduced consumption.

The average national price per gallon of regular gasoline Wednesday was $4.63 a gallon, a drop of more than 2 cents from Tuesday, according to the AAA auto club. Prices have fallen 15 cents over the past week and 38 cents from four weeks ago, when the average price climbed to just more than $5 a gallon.

The fall in prices at the pump has followed a slump in global oil prices, which have been dropping over the past month amid growing signs that the world economy is slowing.

Fears that tightening Western sanctions on Russia would drastically reduce global oil inventories have proved overblown since Moscow succeeded in replacing European markets with sales to China, India and South America. In the meantime, expectations that the economy of China, the biggest importer of crude, would pick up have also been unfulfilled because of lockdowns in response to continuing surges of COVID-19.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a Boston company that tracks fuel prices, said the trend of lower gasoline prices could continue for a fifth week as long as oil prices — which have fallen below $100 a barrel — do not surge above $105.

“We’re not completely out of the woods yet,” De Haan said.

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7/19(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：元気のない、幽霊、日常語

The World Economy Is Imperiled by a Force Hiding in Plain Sight

imperil　危うくする、危険にさらす
assail　(恐怖などが)(人を) 襲う、責め立てる
torment　苦痛、苦悩
batter [動] 打ち壊す
anemic　元気のない
specter　幽霊、亡霊、(心に浮かぶ)恐ろしい幻影
the vernacular　日常語

著者：Peter S. Goodman
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

This past week brought home the magnitude of the overlapping crises assailing the global economy, intensifying fears of recession, job losses, hunger and a plunge on stock markets.

At the root of this torment is a force so elemental that it has almost ceased to warrant mention — the pandemic. That force is far from spent, confronting policymakers with grave uncertainty. Their policy tools are better suited for more typical downturns, not a rare combination of diminishing economic growth and soaring prices.

Major economies including the United States and France reported their latest data on inflation, revealing that prices on a vast range of goods rose faster in June than anytime in four decades.

Those grim numbers increased the likelihood that central banks would move even more aggressively to raise interest rates as a means of slowing price increases — a course expected to cost jobs, batter financial markets and threaten poor countries with debt crises.

On Friday, China reported that its economy, the world’s second-largest, expanded by a mere 0.4% from April through June compared with the same period last year. That performance — astonishingly anemic by the standards of recent decades — endangered prospects for scores of countries that trade heavily with China, including the United States. It reinforced the realization that the global economy has lost a vital engine.

The specter of slowing economic growth combined with rising prices has even revived a dreaded word that was a regular part of the vernacular in the 1970s, the last time the world suffered similar problems: stagflation.

Most of the challenges tearing at the global economy were set in motion by the world’s reaction to the spread of COVID-19 and its attendant economic shock, even as they have been worsened by the latest upheaval — Russia’s disastrous attack on Ukraine, which has diminished the supply of food, fertilizer and energy.

“The pandemic itself disrupted not only the production and transportation of goods, which was the original front of inflation, but also how and where we work, how and where we educate our children, global migration patterns,” said Julia Coronado, an economist at the University of Texas at Austin, speaking this past week during a discussion convened by the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Pretty much everything in our lives has been disrupted by the pandemic, and then we layer on to that a war in Ukraine.”

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7/20(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：煽る、猛烈に暑い、異常気象

Extreme Heat Continues Its March Across Western Europe

fan　煽る
scorching　猛烈に暑い 　　(be terribly hot、 boiling hot)
hydro-electrical plants　水力発電所
heat wave　熱波
torrid　焼けるように暑い 　　(熱帯夜: sultry night、sweltering night)
Meteorological Agency　気象庁
extreme weather　異常気象

著者：Kaly Soto
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

LONDON — The weather maps for Europe were blood red Sunday as heat that has been baking Spain and Italy and fanning fires in southwest France worked its way north toward Britain.

In London, it was warm, in the high 80s, but temperatures Monday and Tuesday were forecast to hit 100 or higher and to shatter records in a place where air conditioning is rare and buildings are constructed to retain heat.

In France, the extreme temperatures that have fed wildfires in the south are expected to sweep into the north, especially along the Atlantic coast, which was bracing for uncharacteristically scorching weather.

In Italy, where temperatures were expected to be in the 90s on Sunday, the heat was bad enough, but the country is also experiencing its worst drought in years. The government has allocated 36.5 million euros, about $36.8 million, for water-starved farmers in northern regions. Two hydro-electrical plants had to be shut in the area because there was not enough water to cool them.

And in Spain, a heat wave entered its eighth day, with 30 wildfires burning across the country. Relief is hard to find, even after the sun goes down — Saturday night was Madrid’s fifth consecutive “torrid night,” a term used when temperatures do not fall below 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record stood at three nights. Rubén del Campo, the State Meteorological Agency’s spokesman, said that of the 27 torrid nights recorded in the past century, 15 were since 2012.

Like everywhere else on Earth, Europe is seeing more extreme weather events more frequently, partly as a result of climate change.

Sunday, the attention in France was focused on the wildfires, in the southwestern Gironde region near Bordeaux, where over 1,200 firefighters were still struggling to contain two separate blazes.

The fires have destroyed over 25,000 acres of vegetation and have forced more than 14,000 people to evacuate since Tuesday, local authorities said.

Four firefighters so far have been slightly injured, they said, and damage to buildings and homes has been minimal. Still, authorities warned that the situation was unstable, with higher temperatures and shifting winds expected Monday.

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7/21(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：曖昧な、あれやこれや、虚報を伝える

COVID Rises Across U.S. Amid Muted Warnings and Murky Data

murky　曖昧な、見通せない
holding back　控える、ためらう
to do this, that and the other　あれやこれや
shrug　肩をすくめる、無関係な態度
cry wolf　虚報を伝える、人騒がせな嘘をつく
strained　緊迫した

著者：Julie Bosman, Thomas Fuller and Edgar Sandoval
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

CHICAGO — COVID-19 is surging around the United States again in what experts consider the most transmissible variant of the pandemic yet.

But something is different this time: The public health authorities are holding back.

In Chicago, where the county’s COVID warning level was raised to “high” last week, the city’s top doctor said there was no reason for residents to let the virus control their lives. The state health director in Louisiana likened a new rise in COVID cases there to a downpour — “a surge within a surge” — but characterized the situation as concerning but not alarming.

And the public health officer in King County, Washington, Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, said on Thursday that officials were discussing reissuing a mask mandate but would prefer that the public mask up voluntarily. “We’re not going to be able to have infinite series of mandates forcing people to do this, that and the other,” he said.

The latest surge, driven by a spike of BA.5 subvariant cases in this country since May, has sent infections rising in at least 40 states, particularly in the Great Plains, West and South. Hospitalizations have climbed by 20% in the last two weeks, leaving more than 40,000 people in American hospitals with the coronavirus on an average day.

More than two years after the pandemic began, though, public health officials are sounding only quiet warnings amid a picture that they hope has been changed by vaccines, treatments and rising immunity. Deaths are rising, but only modestly so far in this new wave. And state and local public health officials say they also must now factor in a reality that is obvious along the streets from Seattle to New York City: Most Americans are meeting a new COVID wave with a collective shrug, shunning masks, joining crowds indoors and moving on from the endless barrage of virus warnings of months past.

“I feel strongly that you can’t just kind of cry wolf all the time,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago health department, who said she will wait to see whether hospitals become strained before considering another citywide mask mandate. “I want to save the requirements around masks or updating vaccine requirements for when there’s a significant change.”

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7/22(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：無効にする、法典に編む、義務付ける

House Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill Amid Concern About Court Reversal

House　下院
Nullify　無効にする
Codify　法典に編む
Contraceptive　避妊の
Mandate　義務付ける

著者：Stephanie Lai
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would recognize same-sex marriages at the federal level, as 47 Republicans joined Democrats in support of a measure responding to growing concern that a conservative Supreme Court could nullify marriage equality.

The Respect for Marriage Act would codify the federal protections for same-sex couples that were put in place in 2015, when the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges established same-sex marriage as a right under the 14th Amendment. The legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defined a marriage as the union between a man and a woman, a law that was struck down by Obergefell but has remained on the books.

The legislation, which passed in a 267-157 vote, faces an uncertain future in the evenly divided Senate, where most Republicans have opposed gay rights measures. But Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader, declined Tuesday to state a position on the measure.

House Democratic leaders opted to move forward with the bill after a Supreme Court opinion last month overturning abortion rights suggested that the justices might revisit cases that affirmed same-sex marriage and contraceptive rights.

In the Senate, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, did not commit to bringing up the measure but said he was “going to look at everything that we can do to deal with these issues” after the Dobbs decision.

The legislation would mandate that the federal government recognize a marriage if it was valid in the state where it was performed, which would address the patchwork of differing state laws. That would protect same-sex marriages in the roughly 30 states that prohibit them, should the court overturn Obergefell.

The bill also would provide additional legal protections to same-sex couples, such as giving the attorney general the authority to pursue enforcement actions and ensuring that all states recognize public acts, records and judicial proceedings for out-of-state marriages.

The White House issued a statement Tuesday in support of the bill, a version of which is co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

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7/23(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：好戦的、派閥、追放

Henrik Stenson Stripped of Ryder Cup Captaincy as LIV Golf Rift Widens

Rift　亀裂
Contentious　好戦的
Affiliation　提携・加入
Lured　誘惑
Camps　派閥
Titans　巨人
Ouster　追放

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

Saudi Arabia’s contentious effort to buy its way into professional golf created a new flash point in the sport Wednesday with the announcement that Europe’s team for next year’s Ryder Cup was dropping its captain, Henrik Stenson of Sweden, just before his expected move to the new Saudi-financed LIV Golf series.

Stenson, whose affiliation with LIV Golf was announced Wednesday afternoon, became the latest player lured by the riches being offered by the series, which has upended the once polite world of professional golf since hosting its first event earlier this summer.

By guaranteeing players more money than they could earn in the biggest tours and tournaments that make up the traditional golf calendar, the LIV series has created an ugly fissure in the golf world. The fight has split golf into two camps: a group of traditionalists that includes some of the sport’s titans, including champions like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and a growing band of rebels, a group that includes Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and, now, Stenson, who won his only major championship at the 2016 British Open.

The Ryder Cup, a wildly popular event that pits a team of U.S. players against a European squad, is set to be played at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome in September 2023. European officials said Stenson’s ouster would take place “with immediate effect,” and that they would name a new captain soon.

In a statement announcing he had joined LIV, Stenson said he had made arrangements with the series that would allow him to continue as Ryder Cup captain and disagreed with his removal.

The LIV Golf series has started fires across the golfing spectrum, with the main tours in the United States and Europe barring any players who compete in LIV events. That dispute has sparked a legal fight in the United States, where the Justice Department earlier this month announced that it was investigating the PGA Tour for anticompetitive behavior in its dealings with the upstart competition.

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7/24(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：アフリカの角、妨げる、重大な

Russia Agrees to Let Ukraine Ship Grain, Easing World Food Shortage

Horn of Africa　アフリカの角
Broker　調整する・実現する
Repercussion　(よくない) 影響、反響 I
mpede　妨げる
Grave　深刻な、重大な
Barley　大麦

著者：Matina Stevis-Gridneff
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

BRUSSELS — After three months of talks, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement Friday to free more than 20 million tons of grain stuck in Ukraine’s blockaded Black Sea ports, a deal with global implications for bringing down high food prices and alleviating shortages and a mounting hunger crisis.

Senior United Nations officials said that the first shipments out of Odesa and neighboring ports were only weeks away and could quickly bring 5 million tons of Ukrainian food to the world market each month, freeing up storage space for Ukraine’s fresh harvests. The difference might be felt most powerfully in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, which relies heavily on Ukrainian and Russian grain.

The breakthrough, brokered with the help of the United Nations and Turkey, is the most significant compromise between the warring nations since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but it moves them no closer to peace.

It remains to be seen whether the deal works as planned. With each side deeply suspicious of the other, there will be plenty of chances for the agreement to break down.

With fighting still raging in eastern and southern Ukraine, the White House on Friday announced $270 million in weaponry and other aid to Ukraine, bringing the total since the war began to about $7 billion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine and the West’s sanctions against Russia have had worldwide economic repercussions, impeding trade, contributing to inflation, threatening recession and upending markets, particularly for energy.

But Russia’s blockade of Odesa and other ports has produced some of the gravest global consequences, undermining a global food distribution network that was already strained by poor harvests, drought, pandemic-related disruptions and climate change.

Ukraine is a leading exporter of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower, but its shipments plummeted after the war began.

Prices for food staples on world markets soared — wheat cost about 50% more in May than it did in February. Prices have since fallen back to prewar levels, but those levels were high, and stockpiles are low because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The deal struck in Istanbul lays out a logistically complex operation to export Ukrainian grain through Turkey, and also offers U.N. assurances to help Russia export its own grain and fertilizer.

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