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9/5(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：略奪する、没収、提携

Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiquities From the Met

loot　略奪する、分捕る
antiquity　古代、大昔
hasten　早める、促進する
cofiscation　没収、押収
conjunction　提携、接続詞

著者：Tom Mashberg and Graham Bowley
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

NEW YORK — Investigators in New York City have seized 27 ancient artifacts valued at more than $13 million from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, asserting that the objects, acquired to showcase the glories of ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt, had all been looted.

Some of the items passed through the hands of people long suspected to have trafficked antiquities, such as Gianfranco Becchina, who ran a gallery in Switzerland for decades before being investigated for illegal dealings by the Italian government in 2001. But most of the items had entered the Met’s collection long before Becchina was publicly accused of illicit activity.

The items, seized under the terms of three separate search warrants executed during the past six months, will be returned to their countries of origin — 21 to Italy and six to Egypt — in ceremonies scheduled for next week. The events are part of a push by law enforcement officials to hasten the pace of repatriations that in the past often dragged on for a year or more, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.

The confiscations also highlight heightened law enforcement efforts against the illegal sale of ancient relics, whose thefts are increasingly being traced to looting gangs and dealers from South Asia to the Mediterranean. Authorities have warned that many more objects with illicit origins remain in the hands of private collectors and museums.

Eight of the items seized from the Met — by the Manhattan district attorney’s office working in conjunction with federal officials — were acquired directly from Becchina, the district attorney’s office said.

Becchina has been convicted of receiving stolen antiquities by Greece. In Italy, after a decadelong investigation, a hoard of 6,300 Greco-Roman artifacts was confiscated from him in 2011 when a judge determined the items had been looted dating to the early 1970s. But the criminal charges there were dismissed on statute-of-limitation grounds.

Although the Met acquired many of the Becchina items long before he was implicated in looting, one expert on antiquities trafficking said that, once Becchina came under suspicion, the Met should have reviewed the provenance of any items purchased from his Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion in Basel, Switzerland.

The value of the 21 Italian pieces, seized from the Met in July, was placed at $10 million, while the six Egyptian items, seized in February and May, were valued at $3.2 million.

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9/6(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：化石燃料、明白な、節制

Wary of Cold Days and Hot Tempers, Europe’s Leaders Vow Economic Relief

wean A [oneself] off B　人が [自分自身] をBから離れさせる、 Bを徐々にやめさせる
fossil fuel　化石燃料
stopgap　一時しのぎの、間に合わせの
palpable　明白な、明瞭な
sobriety　節制
defray　(経費など) を負担する、 支払う

著者：Erika Solomon
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

BERLIN — European governments moved this weekend to soften the blow of soaring costs and a deepening energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, and scrambled to prepare for the possibility of social unrest as the days grow colder.

With Europe trying to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels, and the first mass protests over energy costs appearing on the continent, governments are racing to adopt stopgap measures before fall and winter. Energy ministers of the European Union have planned an emergency meeting this week, and three countries announced relief measures Sunday.

The biggest package came from Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government pledged $65 billion in relief measures to cushion the blow of inflation and the energy crisis, which worsened after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western governments’ imposition of harsh sanctions on Moscow in response. Europe is now working to drastically reduce its purchases of Russian oil and gas.

Berlin announced its package two days after Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled Russian energy giant, announced an indefinite halt to the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that terminates in Germany and provides gas to much of Europe. Gazprom said the pipeline would remain closed until problems found during inspections were resolved, but offered no timeline.

European officials say the move is politically motivated. It came Friday, the same day that finance ministers for the Group of 7 countries agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in an effort to cut off some of the energy revenue Moscow continues to earn from Europe.

“Russia is no longer a reliable energy supplier — that is part of the new reality,” Scholz said in his speech announcing the package Sunday. “We are all feeling the consequences of the Russian war.”

Economic anxiety is palpable across Europe.

In Prague, a day after the government survived a no-confidence vote over accusations that it had failed to act on soaring prices, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets Saturday to voice outrage over energy costs.

In Stockholm, the Swedish government said it would offer $23 billion in liquidity to help energy companies with supply purchases until March.

And France has begun its biggest conservation effort since the 1970s oil crisis, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling for an era of energy “sobriety.” The government has spent more than $26 billion to defray the cost of rising household energy bills.

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9/7(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：石炭火力発電所、一戸建て、確立する

Hawaii Closes Its Last Coal-Fired Power Plant

Coal-Fired Power Plant　石炭火力発電所
shuttered　(ビジネスを)閉じる(closed down、closed its door)
entrench　確立する
single-family homes　一戸建て
renewables　(様々な種類の)再生可能エネルギー
residential　住宅の

著者：Elena Shao
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Hawaii shuttered its last remaining coal-fired power station Thursday, a major milestone in the state’s ambitious effort to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.

The station, the AES Hawaii Power Plant near Kalaeloa, in southwest Oahu, provided more than 11% of the state’s electricity in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“It really is about reducing greenhouse gases,” Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And this coal facility is one of the largest emitters. Taking it offline means that we’ll stop the 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases that were emitted annually.”

Throughout the United States, coal plants are powering down, squeezed out by cheaper natural gas, cleaner renewable energy and tougher emissions regulations. There are fewer than 270 coal-burning power plants remaining in the country; more than 600 have been retired over the past two decades.

Hawaii has been working toward an energy sector powered completely by renewable energy by 2045, a goal that was entrenched in state law in 2015. The Legislature also passed ambitious environmental measures in 2020 that banned the use of coal for energy production beginning in 2023. In recent years, the state has turned to solar power, embracing rooftop solar panels on nearly one-third of the state’s single-family homes.

Yet the transition toward renewables has been complicated by the challenges of a pandemic and a global energy crisis.

Before this year, electricity prices in Hawaii were already triple the U.S. average, according to the Energy Information Administration, in part because the state has been heavily dependent on burning oil, much of it imported from Russia, for power generation, because it is less expensive to ship than natural gas.

In the first months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, residential electricity rates surged nearly 62% from the year before, according to data from Hawaiian Electric Co., the state’s largest electricity supplier.

Now, the closure of the state’s last coal plant will result in a 7% increase on customers’ electricity bills beginning in October, or about $15 for a typical customer using 500 kilowatt-hours per month, according to a news release from Hawaiian Electric.

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9/8(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：栄養失調の、範囲、荒らす

‘Famine Is at the Door’ in Somalia, U.N. Warns

famine　飢饉
impede　妨げる、じゃまする
ravage　荒らす、破壊する
decimate　大打撃を与える
malnourished　栄養失調の
purview　範囲、権限

著者：Abdi Latif Dahir
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations on Monday declared that “famine is at the door” in Somalia, as nearly half the country’s population faced severe hunger and food deliveries were impeded by conflict, mass displacement and the ever-growing threat from the militant group al-Shabab.

The declaration comes as the Horn of Africa nation is being ravaged by the worst drought in four decades and as the prices of grain, fuel and fertilizer have skyrocketed because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Across Somalia, four consecutive poor rainy seasons have decimated crops and livestock, leaving hundreds of thousands of Somalis malnourished and hundreds of children dead.

Martin Griffiths, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said Monday that famine would occur in two districts in the southern Bay region between October and December.

But Griffiths stopped short of officially declaring a famine — even as some aid workers said the situation was deteriorating rapidly and that the threshold for famine had already been passed in parts of the country.

“I have been shocked to my core these past few days by the level of pain and suffering we see so many Somalis enduring,” Griffiths said during a news conference in the capital, Mogadishu. “Famine is at the door, and today we are receiving a final warning.”

Declaring famine is unusual but can be designated if 20% of households in an area face an extreme lack of food, if 30% of children there suffer from acute malnutrition and if 2 adults or 4 children out of every 10,000 are dying every day. Although humanitarian organizations can warn of famine, the decision to declare a famine eventually falls within the purview of a country’s government and the U.N. agencies.

Famine was last declared in Somalia in 2011, when about 260,000 people died.

Griffiths arrived in Somalia this month and met President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to discuss the situation. But several aid workers said the Somali government, which came to power only in May, was hesitant to declare a famine because it was politically inconvenient.

“We have passed the famine threshold, but politics has played a huge part on whether to declare a famine or not,” said an aid worker who has closely followed the discussions and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

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9/9(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：旗艦、悲惨な、段階的

Apple Unveils New iPhone and Smartwatch With a Focus on Fitness

marquee　ひさし
incremental　段階的
unveil　ベールを取る
dire　悲惨な
flagship　旗艦

著者：Tripp Mickle and Brian X. Chen
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Over the past decade, September has been the month when Apple revealed its latest iPhone. But as the marquee device has grown older and its improvements have gotten more incremental, the tech giant has shifted its focus to younger products: the Apple Watch and AirPods.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled a fitness-focused version of its wearable computer, the Apple Watch Ultra. Aimed at triathletes, distance runners, scuba divers and backcountry enthusiasts, the rugged $800 model features a larger screen and improved durability.

New features for Apple’s wireless earbuds, the AirPods Pro, include the ability to change the volume with the swipe of a finger.

While the iPhone still accounts for more than half of Apple’s sales, the smartwatches and AirPods have helped the company deepen customer loyalty.

“The more products you have from Apple, the more impossible it becomes to leave Apple for another player,” said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of device research at IDC, a market research firm. “Your entire life becomes part of a single ecosystem.”

In addition to the fitness-focused watch, Apple released an update for its traditional watch, the Series 8, with a sensor to track body temperature and a feature called “crash detection,” which can identify when an Apple Watch wearer is in a car crash and notify family and emergency services.

The Apple Watch’s new abilities overshadowed more modest updates to the iPhone lineup. Apple released introductory and higher-priced versions of the iPhone 14 with 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays. Both models add the abilities of a satellite phone, allowing users to connect with emergency services in rural and other remote environments so they can get help if they are lost while hiking or find themselves in some other dire situation.

The lower-priced iPhone 14, which costs $800, features last year’s processor but has improved front and rear cameras with larger sensors to capture clearer photos in low light.

Apple saved its biggest design changes for the iPhone 14 Pro, which costs $999, the same as last year’s flagship phone. Unlike the lower-priced iPhone 14, the Pro model features a new processor, the A16, which supports an improved camera with a larger sensor for better photos.

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9/10(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：主要な、販売を検討、報道範囲

Vice, Exploring a Sale, Weighs a Content Deal With a Saudi-Backed Firm

exploring a deal　取引を模索
coverage　報道範囲
pivotal　重要な
lofty　とても高い
weighing a sale　販売を検討
prominent　主要な

著者：Benjamin Mullin, Lauren Hirsch and Ben Hubbard
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

After Saudis killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Vice Media joined many other American companies in publicly distancing themselves from the Saudi Arabian government, whose agents carried out the killing.

Now, Vice is in talks to expand its business in the kingdom.

The youth-focused digital media company is exploring a deal with MBC, a media giant partly owned by the Saudi government, to start a new content partnership in the region, according to two people with knowledge of the talks who would speak only on the condition of anonymity.

The deal, which may include the creation of a media brand focused on lifestyle coverage and training local media workers, could be worth at least $50 million over multiple years, one of the people said. Shane Smith, a co-founder of Vice, has been involved in some of the discussions.

Vice is talking with MBC at a pivotal time for the company, which has struggled to live up to its lofty $5.7 billion valuation and has been weighing a sale of its business. Any significant deal with MBC could increase the price it is able to command from a suitor. But the talks could still fall through, and any prospective acquirer could try to distance the company from entities affiliated with the Saudi government.

The potential deal could also cause internal blowback at Vice.

A Vice spokesperson said in a statement that the company was focused on young audiences underserved by existing media organizations, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia, where a majority of the population is under 35.

Vice has continued covering human rights issues in Saudi Arabia as it has negotiated the deal.

A person familiar with MBC said the company had regular conversations with potential partners to expand its digital footprint and reach wider audiences around the world. MBC already has commercial deals with prominent American media firms, including MGM Studios, with which it has produced films.

Multiple companies have expressed interest in buying Vice, including Greek broadcaster Antenna, which last year sold a 30% ownership stake in one of its subsidiaries to MBC. Group Black, a media company focused on Black ownership, is also considering an offer. A deal could value Vice at upward of $1.5 billion, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said. That figure remains a moving target.

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9/11(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：脱線、豪雨、猛烈に暑い

California Sets Electricity Records During ‘Unprecedented’ Heat Wave

derailment　脱線
ferocious　猛烈な
suffocating　息の詰まるような
scorching　猛烈に暑い
downpour　豪雨
cumulative　度重なる

著者：Shawn Hubler, Kellen Browning and Jill Cowan
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

SACRAMENTO — Wildfires raged at both ends of California. Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, warned of “unprecedented” heat. BART trains in the San Francisco Bay Area reduced their speed because of fears that heat-warped tracks might lead to derailments.

As California endured its sixth day under a ferocious heat dome, temperature records were shattered and power grid officials begged homeowners to turn down their air-conditioning as the state broke its own record for electricity use. In Sacramento, which was expected to reach a suffocating 115 degrees, soccer practices were canceled and leaf blowers fell silent as gardeners stopped working at noon.

After a scorching Labor Day weekend that fueled deadly wildfires and freakish desert downpours, temperatures soared even higher on Tuesday, confronting the nation’s most populous state with the specter of heat-related blackouts for the first time in two years. About 42 million Americans were under excessive heat warnings, including those in parts of Nevada and Arizona, with red-flag fire conditions covering the Pacific Northwest, Montana and Idaho.

In California, temperatures of up to 118 degrees were forecast for the Central Valley. Temperatures in Sacramento broke records, hitting at least 114 degrees. North of Wine Country, the city of Ukiah shattered its record for any day, reaching at least 117 degrees.

Power grid officials pleaded for conservation, warning that the state might lack enough electricity to keep the lights on everywhere. By midafternoon, the state broke a 16-year record for energy use.

In a recorded message Tuesday, Newsom warned that “the risk for outages is real” and that the heat wave was “on track to be the hottest and longest on record.”

Daniel L. Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that the heat that had settled over much of the West had been “extraordinary in almost every dimension except humidity.”

The cumulative impact, Swain said, has not only superheated air masses during the day but has also made nights warmer, worsening drought, turning trees and brush into tinder, and intensifying fire risks.

More than a dozen large fires roared Tuesday throughout the state, with 45 new blazes erupting statewide on Sunday alone, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

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