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10/10(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：ご褒美、ざらざらした、審議

The Purpose of Extra-Large Marshmallows? A U.K. Court Weighs In.

treat　もてなし、ご褒美
straightforward　簡単な、率直な
granular　粒状の、ざらざらした
palatable　口に合う、受け入れられる
deliberation　熟慮、審議

著者：Amanda Holpuch
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

A court in Britain looked at a bag of 27 marshmallows this summer and considered the future of the soft, sweet treats: Were these marshmallows destined to be eaten straight from the bag or turned into s’mores?

The question may seem straightforward, but a tax tribunal presented with the sweets evaluated them in granular detail to determine if a food product called Mega Marshmallows would be subject to the same standard retail sales tax as regular marshmallows, which are about 1 inch shorter and about a half-inch thinner.

The court, known as the First-Tier Tribunal, examined the Mega Marshmallow packaging, past and present, noting that one version included a cartoon chef next to the words “baking buddy”; inferred that people were more likely to roast the marshmallows over an open flame than eat them as a snack; and assessed whether marshmallows tasted better raw or roasted.

“Larger marshmallows are equally palatable whether eaten as a snack or after roasting,” the court determined in a nine-page ruling issued last month.

The court’s ruling is very detailed. Explaining a quote on the marshmallow’s packaging, the court wrote, “The reference to a great American tradition is to the tradition of roasting marshmallows over a campfire.”

The court’s intensive deliberations ultimately favored the maker of the marshmallows, Innovative Bites Ltd., which was allowed to sell Mega Marshmallows with a 0% value-added tax, or VAT, which is similar to sales tax.

The court said that unlike standard marshmallows, which are subject to a VAT of 20%, these slightly larger marshmallows were not a confectionary and should therefore be subject to a 0% VAT, like most food.

“The fact that it is sold and purchased as a product specifically for roasting, the marketing on the packaging of the product which confirms that purpose, the size of the product which makes it particularly suitable for roasting and the fact that it is positioned in supermarket aisles in the barbecue section during the summer months when most sales are made and otherwise in the world foods section, leads us to that conclusion,” the court said.

It has become routine for tax tribunals in Britain and other countries that use VAT to examine in detail foods, games and even television personalities to decide how they should be taxed.

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10/11(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：土星、ビビる、～の意識にある

A Minecraft Player Set Out to Build the Known Universe, Block by Block

Saturn　土星
freak out　[スラング] ひどく驚く、ビビる、感情的になる
unveil　(正体を)明かす、覆いを除く、披露する
on one’s radar　～の意識にある、～に注視している、 気にかけている
to scale　(一定の比率に)縮小あるいは拡大して

著者：April Rubin
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Christopher Slayton spent two months exploring black holes, identifying the colors of Saturn’s rings and looking at his home planet from outer space.

Slayton, 18, didn’t have to leave his desk to do so. He set out to build the entire observable universe, block by block, in Minecraft, a video game where users build and explore worlds.

By the end, he felt as if he had traveled to every corner of the universe.

“Everyone freaks out about the power and expansiveness of the universe, which I never really got that much,” he said. But after working for a month and 15 days to build it and an additional two weeks to create a YouTube video unveiling it, “I realized even more how beautiful it is.”

Slayton, known as ChrisDaCow on his Minecraft-focused YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok accounts, has been playing the game for almost a decade, he said. He started posting videos of his “builds,” which are landscapes he creates inside the game, on YouTube in 2019. This channel has become his priority since he graduated high school this spring.

College may be on his radar, but it’s not time yet, Slayton said. He will be starting a job as a lifeguard soon, while continuing to grow his YouTube content to reach more followers.

With almost 25,000 subscribers on YouTube, Slayton said the response to this video motivated him to keep pursuing ambitious ideas.

His intention is to make the videos more interesting than just narrations paired with videos of a gamer using the interface, he said. Slayton, who lives in San Diego, said he aims to tell stories through Minecraft.

For the video on the universe-building quest, he started off by skydiving to see the planet from a different perspective before working to create his version of the universe. “The only way to truly appreciate the beauty of our planet is by jumping out of an airplane,” he said in the video.

He consulted photos for every detail in the Minecraft universe and relearned math concepts to build his creation to scale.

“It’s really satisfying to be able to fly through some galaxies or look at a black hole,” he said.

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10/12(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：標準、重複可能な、即して

Museums Vote to Allow the Sale of Art to Care for Collections

window　(何かを始める、または終わらせるのに最適であるとされる) 期間
deaccessioning　博物館の収蔵物を、他の芸術作品の購入のために手放す(こと)
norm　(theを前につけて)(社会の)標準的な状態、一般(的)水準、標準
duplicative　重複可能な
in line with　即して、(〜と)一致する
underwrite　支払いを保証する

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

Members of the Association of Art Museum Directors have voted to allow American institutions to sell their art to finance the cost of caring for works in their collections.

The vote, announced Sept. 30, rolls back a long-held policy that prohibited museums from using the funds from sold works to pay their bills. The rule had been relaxed during the pandemic, allowing institutions a two-year window in which they could put those funds toward maintaining their collections while they dealt with financial upheaval and plunging attendance.

Since then, museum leaders have been engaged in a sometimes heated debate over whether it is time to make permanent the loosening of that policy, and now a majority of voting members of the association decided in favor of doing so — with some limitations. Of 199 eligible members, 109 voted for the policy, while 21 voted against it. The remaining institutions did not submit votes.

Some arts leaders and critics have objected to selling items from a museum collection, known as deaccessioning, saying that art owned by institutions is held for the public benefit and should mostly be retained. The norm has been that while some items could be sold, they were supposed to be artworks that were duplicative or no longer in line with the museum’s mission. The funds gained from any sale were to be assigned to the acquisition of other art, not to underwriting staff salaries or other operating costs.

But during the pandemic, museums faced extreme deficits, and some turned to deaccessioning to help pay the bills.

The new policy approved by the museum directors association defines where the funds from deaccessioning can be funneled. In a new rule, it says, the money can be put only toward “direct care of works of art,” meaning, the costs associated with “the storage or preservation of works of art.” Examples of those costs include restoration treatments and storage materials, such as frames and acid-free paper.

According to the new rule, the funds cannot be put toward staff salaries or “costs incurred for the sole purpose of temporary exhibition display.”

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10/13(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：侵攻、意見の相違、共産党大会

British Intelligence Official Focuses on China Threat

aggression　（他国への）攻撃、侵攻
dissent　不同意，意見の相違
weigh up　比較評価する、天秤にかける
Communist Party congress　共産党大会
sliding-doors moment　転換期

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

A top British intelligence official will warn in a speech Tuesday that while Russia’s aggression has created an urgent threat, China’s expanding use of technology to control dissent and its growing ability to attack satellite systems, control digital currencies and track individuals pose far deeper challenges for the West.

In an interview Monday before his address, the official, Jeremy Fleming, who heads GCHQ — the British electronic intelligence-gathering and cyber agency made famous for its role in breaking the Enigma codes in World War II — also said he was skeptical about how far China would go to support Russia’s aggression.

“I don’t think that this is a ‘relationship without limits,’ ” he said, using the term that President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China employed when they met at the Beijing Olympics early this year, just before the invasion of Ukraine. In light of Russia’s dismal battlefield performance and its brutality, he said, China “needs to be weighing up the advantages and disadvantage of continuing to align themselves strongly with Russia.”

Fleming’s agency plays an increasingly central role in tracking Russian communications and preparing for the day when China’s advances in quantum computing may defeat the kinds of encryption used to protect both government and corporate communications.

Fleming spoke just before the opening of a Communist Party congress starting in Beijing on Sunday at which Xi Jinping is expected to be named to a third five-year term as the country’s top leader.

Fleming said this could be “the sliding-doors moment in history,” in which the United States and its allies may soon discover that they are too far behind in a series of critical technologies to maintain a military or technological edge over Beijing.

Last week, the Biden administration announced sweeping new limits on the sale of semiconductor technology to China, hoping to cripple Beijing’s access to critical technologies that are needed for supercomputers, advanced weapons and artificial intelligence applications.

It was a sign of how fast the world’s two largest economies had become engaged in a clash over technological advantage, with the United States trying to establish a stranglehold on advanced computing and semiconductor technology that China views as essential to its own ambitions.

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10/14(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：人道的な、亡命、身元調査

Biden Administration to Offer Thousands of Venezuelan Migrants Legal Path Into U.S.

Humanitarian　人道的な
Parole　執行猶予
Crystallize　具体化する
Asylum　亡命
Vet　身元調査

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

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it would accept up to 24,000 Venezuelans via a humanitarian parole plan, although the scope of the program was far narrower than a similar one for Ukrainians.

The parole plan would grant Venezuelans a narrow legal pathway to the United States, and the administration hopes they will apply for it remotely and fly to the United States rather than making the dangerous trek to the southwest border.

The Department of Homeland Security also said it would expand its use of a public health rule to start expelling to Mexico Venezuelans who illegally cross the U.S. border.

The reliance on a Trump-era pandemic rule crystallized the Biden administration’s balancing act in helping refugees and tightening border restrictions in the face of Republican attacks on President Joe Biden’s immigration policy and record numbers of illegal border crossings. And there is no guarantee that just 27 days before the midterm elections, it will have the desired effect.

Until now, the majority of Venezuelans who crossed into the United States have not been expelled under the public health authority, known as Title 42. Instead, they were screened and released into the country temporarily to face removal proceedings in immigration court, where they have the option to apply for asylum.

Venezuelans who apply for the humanitarian parole program must have someone in the United States who can show that they are able to financially support the migrant for up to two years. During the application process, the government will assess the sponsor’s finances and vet the applicants, who will also have to have certain vaccinations and comply with other public health requirements.

In addition, any Venezuelan who enters Mexico or Panama illegally or has permanent resident status, dual nationality or refugee status with another country is ineligible for the parole program. Venezuelans who have already been released in the United States to face removal proceedings and apply for asylum are not eligible to apply for the program either.

Venezuelans who are granted the humanitarian parole will be allowed to work legally in the United States and have more stability than those who face removal proceedings.

“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement Wednesday.

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10/15(土)の放送の英文記事と英単語：中核、偽りの、殺害予告

‘We Told the Truth’: Sandy Hook Families Win $1 Billion From Alex Jones

crippling　大きな損害を与える
singled out　抜き出した
death threats　殺害予告
centerpiece　中核
unrepentant　後悔することのない
bogus　偽の

著者：Elizabeth Williamson
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WATERBURY, Conn. — The families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims Wednesday won nearly $1 billion in damages from Infowars fabulist Alex Jones, a devastating blow against his empire and a message from the jury that his lies and those of his followers have crippling consequences.

Jones, who for years said the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a government hoax, now faces financial ruin. But it is unclear how much money the families will ultimately collect.

The largest award went to Robbie Parker, who received $120 million. For years on his Infowars show and website, Jones singled out Parker, whose daughter Emilie died at Sandy Hook, as an actor whose televised tribute to Emilie a day after her death was “disgusting.” Parker, who has endured online abuse, harassment and death threats since, formed the centerpiece of the Connecticut case.

In all likelihood Jones does not have the money to pay Wednesday’s award. In August a forensic economist estimated that Jones’ empire was worth a maximum of $270 million, but that same month Jones put his parent company, Free Speech Systems, into bankruptcy. Jones claimed that a debt of $54 million — owed to a company he controls — had made him insolvent.

But Jones’ annual revenues have topped $50 million in recent years. He has also used the Connecticut trial as well as a trial this past summer in Texas — in which he was ordered to pay two Sandy Hook parents about $50 million — to solicit donations to his legal fund and boost his product sales.

Jones, unrepentant, livestreamed the jury’s verdict Wednesday on his Infowars show. “They covered up what really happened,” he said.

Wednesday’s award was divided among the 15 plaintiffs, which included parents, siblings, children and spouses of eight victims, and an FBI agent who was implicated in the bogus theories, which falsely claimed that the families were actors in a government plot to enact gun control and that the massacre never happened.

Over two weeks of testimony, the families showed how Jones ignored years of pleas and demands that he stop airing Sandy Hook falsehoods..

A third and final damages trial — in a defamation case brought by Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner was killed at Sandy Hook — is tentatively scheduled for late this year.

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10/16(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：行き詰まり、シーア派の人、聖職者

Iraqi Parliament Elects New President as Rockets Target Green Zone

Deadlock　行き詰まり
Nominee　指名された人
Cabinet　内閣
Parliament　国会
Shiite　シーア派の人
Cleric　聖職者

著者：Jane Arraf
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

The Iraqi parliament elected Abdul Latif Rashid, 78, a Kurdish British-educated engineer and former minister, as president Thursday, the first step in breaking a crippling deadlock that has left the country without a new government for the past year.

The election of a new president paved the way for the nominee for prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, to form a government. Al-Sudani, a former human rights and labor minister, now has 30 days to present his Cabinet choices to parliament — a process usually carried out in back-room negotiations between parties before the Cabinet is presented for approval.

Members began voting less than an hour after Katyusha rockets targeted the heavily guarded Green Zone, where parliament is based, and other areas of Baghdad, including near the train station. No one had taken responsibility for the attacks by nighttime in Iraq.

Parliament members elected Rashid in a secret ballot over the current president, Barham Salih, also a Kurd, who was felled by inter-Kurdish politics. In the Iraqi political system, the president is always a member of the Kurdish minority.

The voting went to a second round of balloting with a final count of 162 votes for Rashid and 99 votes for Salih, according to the parliament media office. Rashid is an independent Kurdish politician who was previously a water minister.

The Coordination Framework, a political bloc made up of mostly Iran-backed Shiite parties, is considered the biggest alliance in parliament and has the right to nominate a prime minister. On Thursday it presented the candidacy of al-Sudani, who served as human rights minister and then labor minister in two successive Iraqi governments.

Al-Sudani, a three-term member of parliament who was a city mayor and then a provincial governor before joining the federal government, has pledged if elected to improve public services, crack down on corruption and carry out other government reforms — aims similar to those of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr threw Iraqi politics into further turmoil this year when he withdrew his members of parliament — then the single biggest block in the chamber.

Analysts said al-Sudani’s long experience in government and his backing by key political players could prove a stabilizing influence on Iraq’s turbulent political scene.

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