音声プラットフォーム「Voicy」で毎朝6時30分に更新中の英語ニュースチャンネル「Voicy News Brief with articles from New York Times」。このチャンネルでは、The New York Timesの記事をバイリンガルのパーソナリティが英語で読み上げ、記事と英単語を日本語で解説しています。英語のニュースを毎朝聴いて、リスニング力の向上と英語学習にお役立てください。

このVoicy Journalでは、毎週月曜日に前の1週間分のスクリプトをまとめて紹介しています。放送はアプリやWebページからいつでもご視聴いただけます。Voicy News Brief Season3の記事は2/7(月)以降をご覧ください！

11/14(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：くじ引き、受取人、勝算

$2 Billion Powerball Ticket Sold in Los Angeles County, Lottery Officials Said

jackpot　(賭け事などの累積した)賞金、大当たり　
lottery　くじ引き、宝くじ
recipient　受取人、受賞者
frenzy　狂乱、熱狂
odds　勝算、見込み、確率

著者：Remy Tumin, Amanda Holpuch and Johnny Diaz
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

After an overnight delay held up the drawing of the largest jackpot in U.S. history Monday, lottery officials in California said Tuesday that a winning, $2 billion ticket was sold in Los Angeles County.

The California Lottery said the “only winning” Powerball ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, a gas station just north of Pasadena. Lottery officials said the ticket holder is now the first lottery billionaire in the state. No one has come forward to claim the prize yet.

Powerball officials announced the winning numbers Tuesday morning: 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with another 10 as the Powerball. The video announcing the winning numbers did not address the delay. The winning ticket matched all six numbers.

More than 11.2 million tickets won cash prizes in the drawing, totaling $98.1 million. In all, 22 tickets across the country matched all five white balls to win a $1 million prize. One ticket in Florida won $2 million by matching all five white balls and the Power Play option. There were also 225 tickets that won a $50,000 prize and another 42 tickets won a $100,000 prize.

Joseph Chahayed, the owner of the gas station, which has been in business for 20 years, was the recipient of $1 million for selling the winning ticket. At a news conference Tuesday, he said he planned to divide it among his family, including 11 grandchildren. “I encourage you to buy a ticket from this station,” he said. “We guarantee one day you’re going to be a winner, too.”

An additional $156 million, raised from ticket sale profits, will go to California public schools.

The Powerball jackpot grew steadily for months after 40 straight drawings without a winner and set off a frenzy of ticket-buying across the country by routine lottery players and even some skeptics, hopeful that the odds of winning, 1 in 292.2 million, would tilt in their favor.

The winner or winners will receive the largest payout in U.S. lottery history, eclipsing the $1.586 billion payout in 2016 split among three Powerball winners in California, Florida and Tennessee, which set a world record, officials said. Once a winner or winners come forward, the California Lottery’s Security and Law Enforcement Division will verify the rightful owner of the winning ticket.

音声はこちら

11/15(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：勇気づける、退却して、大いに役立つ

An Emboldened Biden Now Faces a Tough Choice About His Own Future

embolden　勇気づける、大胆にする
in retreat　退却して、後退して
give (someone) credit　(人を)正しく評価する、(功績を)認める、褒める
go a long way　大いに役立つ、大変効果がある、大きな役割を果たす
bench　控え選手、交代要員
of one’s making　自らの行動が招いたこと

著者：Peter Baker
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — These are heady days for President Joe Biden. The midterm elections offered long-sought validation. Democrats held onto the Senate, and even if they lose the House it will be by a narrow margin. The Republicans are in retreat and, by the way, so are the Russians and, just a bit at least, so is inflation.

The president’s fellow Democrats are flocking to cameras to give him credit. “This victory belongs to Joe Biden,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

But even as the history-defying midterms went a long way toward solving some of the president’s immediate political problems, they did not miraculously make him any younger. A week from Sunday, Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, will turn 80, a milestone the White House has no plans to celebrate with fireworks or splashy parties. And so Biden confronts a choice that still leaves many in his party quietly uncomfortable: Should he run for a second term?

Top advisers are already meeting to map out what a 2024 campaign would look like. The president said last week that he “intends” to run but would talk with his family over the holidays and announce a decision early next year. He will only be more motivated assuming former President Donald Trump jumps into the race Tuesday night as expected.

Biden likes to remind anyone who will listen that he is the only one who has beaten Trump, and he remains confident that he is the Democrat who is best equipped to do it again. Polls show that as unpopular as Biden remains, he still has more support than Trump does and the Republican setbacks last week have undercut the former president in his own party.

Unspoken is the reality that Democrats have an unproven bench behind Biden. Many party operatives are deeply worried that Vice President Kamala Harris could not win. While there are many other would-be contenders, none of them has impressed the president enough for him to feel comfortable turning the party over to them.

Some Democrats argue that this is a situation of Biden’s own making, having failed to successfully groom a potential successor, consciously or not making himself the indispensable man. But either way, it leaves many Democrats circling back to the conclusion that Biden remains the party’s best choice.

音声はこちら

11/16(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：先進国、許可、道を開く

U.S. and China Restart Climate Talks

breakthrough　大きな進歩
avert　(災難、危険など) を防ぐ
industrialized countries 先進国 　(= developed countries)
green light　許可、青信号
pivotal　中枢 ちゅうすう、重要な　(pivot　中心、要点、ピボット)
pave the way　道を開く

著者：Jim Tankersley and Lisa Friedman
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

BALI, Indonesia — President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping of China agreed Monday to restart talks between their countries as part of international climate negotiations, a breakthrough in the effort to avert catastrophic global warming.

Talks between China and the United States over climate had been frozen for months, amid rising tensions between the two countries over trade, Taiwan and a host of security issues. China suspended all cooperation with the United States, including around climate change, in August as retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.

But the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies — and the two biggest sources of fossil fuel emissions that are warming the planet — met for more than three hours Monday afternoon before the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, and emerged to say their representatives would return to the negotiating table.

The announcement reverberated nearly 6,000 miles away in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where delegates and activists at the United Nations climate conference, known as COP27, were hoping for news that could spur more aggressive climate action from countries around the world.

After the meeting, the White House released a statement saying the two leaders “agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts” on climate change and other issues.

John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, and his counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, have had no formal negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, where delegates representing nearly 200 countries are struggling with the question of whether industrialized countries should compensate developing nations for loss and damage from climate disasters.

On Monday, neither Kerry nor Xie would answer questions about what getting a green light from their bosses would mean for the rest of their time at the climate conference.

The renewed talks come at a pivotal moment in the fight to limit global warming. Negotiators at the talks in Egypt are struggling to find common ground between rich and poor nations.

“Countries like to hide between the U.S. and China and say, ‘The two biggest polluters aren’t working together, aren’t doing much, so why should we?’” said Bernice Lee, a climate policy expert at Chatham House, a policy institute in Britain. When they come together around ambition, she said, it removes that argument.

Previous deals between the United States and China helped pave the way for the 2015 Paris Agreement.

音声はこちら

11/17(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：一時解雇する、展開する、不安定な

Amazon Is Said to Plan to Lay Off Thousands of Employees

lay off　一時解雇する
roll out　展開する
retrenchment　経費節減、人員削減
precarious　不安定な
bullwhip　牛追いむち

著者：Karen Weise
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

SEATTLE — Amazon plans to lay off approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as soon as this week, people with knowledge of the matter said, in what would be the largest job cuts in the company’s history.

The cuts will focus on Amazon’s devices organization, including the voice-assistant Alexa, as well as at its retail division and in human resources, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The number of layoffs remains fluid and is likely to roll out team by team rather than all at once as each business finishes plans, one person said. But if it stays around 10,000, it would represent roughly 3% of Amazon’s corporate employees and less than 1% of its global workforce of more than 1.5 million, which is primarily composed of hourly workers.

Amazon’s planned retrenchment during the critical holiday shopping season — when the company typically has valued stability — shows how quickly the souring global economy has put pressure on it to trim businesses that have been overstaffed or underdelivering for years.

Amazon would also become the latest technology company to lay off workers, which only recently it had been fighting to retain. The e-commerce giant more than doubled the cap on cash compensation for its tech workers this year, citing “a particularly competitive labor market.”

Changing business models and the precarious economy have set off layoffs across the tech industry. Elon Musk halved Twitter’s head count this month after buying the company, and last week Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced it was laying off 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce. Lyft, Stripe, Snap and other tech firms have also laid off workers in recent months.

Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, declined to comment.

The pandemic produced Amazon’s most profitable era on record, as consumers flocked to online shopping and companies to its cloud computing services. Amazon doubled its workforce in two years.

But earlier this year, Amazon’s growth slowed to the lowest rate in two decades, as the bullwhip of the pandemic snapped. The company faced high costs from decisions to overinvest and rapidly expand, while changes in shopping habits and high inflation dented sales.

音声はこちら

11/18(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：なだめる、解く、競う

NASA Blazes a Path Back to the Moon With Artemis Rocket Launch

evoke 呼び起こす
bygone 過ぎ去った
loiter ぶらぶらする
unravel 解く
vie 競う
mollify なだめる

著者：Kenneth Chang
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA’s majestic new rocket soared into space for the first time in the early hours of Wednesday, lighting up the night sky and accelerating on a journey that will take an astronaut-less capsule around the moon and back.

This flight, evoking the bygone Apollo era, is a crucial test for NASA’s Artemis program that aims to put astronauts, after five decades of loitering in low-Earth orbit, back on the moon.

“We are all part of something incredibly special,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director, said to her team at the Kennedy Space Center after the launch. “The first launch of Artemis. The first step in returning our country to the moon and on to Mars.”

For NASA, the mission ushers in a new era of lunar exploration, one that seeks to unravel scientific mysteries in the shadows of craters in the polar regions, test technologies for dreamed-of journeys to Mars and spur private enterprise to chase new entrepreneurial frontiers farther out in the solar system.

As China and other countries are vying to explore space, Wednesday’s launch also highlights a growing philosophical tension about how America should pursue its space aspirations. NASA has spent more than $40 billion to date to get Artemis off the ground.

In the geopolitical background for policymakers is a growing competition with China, the only country that now has robotic spacecraft on the lunar surface.

While it may not have mollified the critics, the 322-foot-tall rocket, known as the Space Launch System, or SLS, was an imposing sight on the launchpad.

At 1:47 a.m., the four engines on the rocket’s core stage ignited, along with two skinnier side boosters. As the countdown hit zero, clamps holding the rocket down let go, and the vehicle slipped Earth’s bonds.

At liftoff, flames from the engines were incredibly bright, like giant welding torches.

Less than two hours after launch, the upper stage fired one last time to send Orion on a path toward the moon. On Monday, Orion will pass within about 60 miles of the moon’s surface. After going around the moon for a couple of weeks, Orion will head back to Earth, splashing down on Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean.

The next Artemis mission, which is to take four astronauts on a journey around the moon but not to the surface, will launch no earlier than 2024.

音声はこちら

11/20(日)の放送の英文記事と英単語：労働者寄りの、支持を得る、参入する

University of California Academic Employees Strike for Higher Pay

picket line　ストライキなどの際、妨害者の通行を阻止するためにつくった横隊、
pro-labor　労働者寄りの
backbone　支え柱
gain traction　支持を得る
make inroads　（企業が市場に）参入する

著者：Shawn Hubler
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Loading…2/2Loading…1/2Loading…2/2Loading…1/2Loading…2/2

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tens of thousands of academic workers across the University of California system walked out Monday in one of the nation’s largest strikes in recent years, as teaching assistants, researchers and other university employees called for significant pay increases in the face of rising housing costs.

The walkout, the latest in a wave of union activity in a booming labor market, covers nearly 48,000 unionized campus employees at the prestigious public university system. Classes were disrupted, research slowed and office hours canceled as thousands of workers picketed at campuses from San Diego to Berkeley. Some faculty canceled lectures in sympathy with the strikers or shifted instruction to Zoom to avoid crossing picket lines in the largely pro-labor state.

The university system has said its 10 campuses, where nearly 300,000 students are enrolled, would remain open and that instruction and operations would continue. But the students and employees involved, who are represented by the United Automobile Workers, make up a core workforce in classrooms and labs throughout the university system, where most campuses are only a few weeks away from final examinations. The unions involved have not set an end date.

“We’re the ones who perform the majority of the teaching, and we’re the ones who perform the majority of the research,” said Rafael Jaime, a doctoral candidate at UCLA, who is president of UAW Local 2865, which represents about 19,000 teaching assistants, tutors and other classroom workers.

“We’re the backbone of the university,” he said, “and I have a hard time seeing how operations are going to be maintained with us on the picket line.”

Graduate students at universities across the country have long been integral to higher education, advising students, teaching classes, grading exams and papers, and staffing major research projects and labs. In recent years, however, concerted efforts to increase pay and improve often insecure working conditions have gained traction, especially as wages have risen in other sectors during a hot, post-pandemic labor market.

Encouraged by polls showing popular support for organized labor reaching its highest point since the mid-1960s, unions this year have used their bargaining power to make inroads at high-profile companies such as Amazon and Starbucks. According to the UAW, the strike at the University of California is the largest university-based labor action in U.S. history.

音声はこちら

「Voicy News Brief with articles from New York Times」は毎朝6時30分にVoicyで更新中！いつでも無料で聴けるVoicyの英語チャンネルを活用して、英語力向上にお役立てください。