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5/25(月)の放送の英文記事と英単語：拍手を送る、〜の真っ最中に

Is It Time to Stop Clapping for Health Care Workers? An Organizer Thinks So

amid ～の真っ最中に、～の渦中に
applaud ～に拍手を送る
underpaid 不当に低賃金の
stab ～を（突き）刺す
deserve ～を受けるに値する

著者：Derrick Bryson Taylor
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

On Thursday nights, Britons bang pots and pans and let out hearty cheers of support for doctors and nurses who care for coronavirus patients and for other essential workers amid the pandemic.

But the organizer behind the weekly ritual says it’s time for it to end, pointing to concerns that the act of recognizing the workers had become politicized.

Annemarie Plas, who started #ClapForOurCarers, said in an interview with the BBC on Friday that next week’s national applause, the 10th, should be the last. It’s unclear if the nightly clapping in other cities, including New York, where it began in late March and continues to go strong in some neighborhoods, will come to an end as well.

“I think that would be beautiful to be the end of the series, to maybe then stop and move to an annual moment,” Plas said. “I feel like this had its moment and then we can, after that, continue to something else.”

Plas said that she believed the ritual was “slowly shifting” and that other opinions had “started to rise to the surface,” referring to some criticism the movement has received. An opinion article in The Independent questioned the point of applauding if health care workers were underpaid. And some National Health Service workers have said they felt “stabbed in the back” by people who ignore public health guidelines.

To date, the United Kingdom has reported more than 250,000 coronavirus infections and over 36,000 deaths. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans for reopening the country have been met with criticism and some confusion.

While Britons have shown their appreciation for health care workers, Plas said, it’s now time for people in power to “reward and give them the respect they deserve.”

“I think to maintain the positive impact that it’s had so far, it’s best to stop at its peak,” she told the BBC.

Plas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Black Coronavirus Patients Land in Hospitals More Often, Study Finds

acute 深刻な、重大な
disparity 格差、不均衡
exacerbate 〔悪い状況をさらに〕悪化させる、深刻にする
cardiology 心臓（病）学
granular 粒度の細かい
crude 雑な、大ざっぱな
bolster ～を支える
outsize 特大の、並外れて大きな

著者：Roni Caryn Rabin
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

As the coronavirus spread across the United States, sweeping through low-income, densely populated communities, black and Hispanic patients died at higher rates than white patients.

Crowded living conditions, poorer overall health and limited access to care have been blamed, among other factors. But a new study suggests that the disparity was particularly acute for black patients.

Among those seeking medical care for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, black patients were hospitalized at nearly three times the rate of white and Hispanic patients, according to an analysis of patient records from a large health care system in Northern California.

The disparity remained even after researchers took into account differences in age, sex, income and the prevalence of chronic health problems that exacerbate COVID-19, like hypertension and Type 2 diabetes.

The finding suggests that black patients may have had limited access to medical care or that they postponed seeking help until later in the course of their illness, when the disease was more advanced.

Black patients were also far less likely than white, Hispanic or Asian patients to have been tested for the virus before going to the emergency room for care.

Black patients “are coming to us later and sicker, and they’re accessing our care through the emergency department and acute care environment,” said Dr. Stephen Lockhart, the chief medical officer at Sutter Health in Sacramento and one of the authors of the new study.

The study, which was peer reviewed, was published in Health Affairs.

“How soon you access care, even supportive care, affects how you experience illness and how much pain and suffering you have,” said Kristen Azar, a research scientist and the study’s lead author.

She added, “While we don’t necessarily have treatments at this point, there are therapies being developed, and identifying people early on as these treatments become available will be important in order to prevent poor outcomes, like death and being put on ventilators.”

Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the granular study of patient records bolstered cruder public health reports of higher COVID-19 death rates among black Americans.

The data confirm that socioeconomic factors play an outsize role in influencing health status and vulnerability to infection, he added.

“Where and how we live contributes greatly to our health,” said Yancy, who has written about health disparities and the pandemic.

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5/26(火)の放送の英文記事と英単語：軽蔑する、逆らう、違反する

Boris Johnson Backs Top Aide Accused of Flouting Lockdown Rules

flout 〔人・規則・慣習などを〕軽蔑する、ばかにして無視する［従わない］
defy〔権力・法令・規則などに〕逆らう、従わない
dismiss 解雇する、免職する
breach 違反する
defuse 取り除く、鎮める
uproar over ～に対する騒動
staunchly 忠実に、断固として
deflect そらす
blustery 〔威嚇するように〕大声で［うるさく］話す
latch ~をしっかりつかむ、掛け金をかける
devise 考案［立案］する
rebuke 叱責、懲戒、非難

著者：Mark Landler and Stephen Castle
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson, defying a storm of criticism, said Sunday that he would not dismiss his most influential adviser, Dominic Cummings, for breaching Britain’s lockdown rules by driving across the country to visit relatives, even when he was falling ill with the coronavirus.

Johnson’s decision to stand by his adviser underlines his deep reliance on Cummings, who was the architect of his election victory last year and the driving force behind his ambitious post-Brexit agenda. But it is unlikely to defuse the uproar over Cummings’ actions, which critics say send a signal that Britain’s leaders can ignore the rules they impose on others.

The prime minister staunchly defended Cummings for driving in April to visit his parents in Durham, in the north of England. Cummings has said there was no other way to get care for his young child after he and his wife began showing symptoms of the virus.

“He followed the instincts of every father and every parent, and I do not mark him down for that,” Johnson said Sunday at a news briefing. “I believe that in every respect, he has acted responsibly, and legally, and with integrity.”

But Johnson deflected questions about whether he had known of Cummings’ travels and muddied the details of the lockdown rules. Rather than offering a coherent defense, the prime minister generally tried to change the subject — in this case, by confirming a previously announced plan to reopen schools on June 1.

The only clear result of Johnson’s blustery performance is that he has latched himself to Cummings, a brilliant but polarizing strategist who devised the “Vote Leave” campaign that led to Britain’s departure from the European Union and put Johnson on the road to Downing Street.

Johnson’s decision was a rebuke to several lawmakers in his Conservative Party who had declared that Cummings had to go. They said that for a powerful official to travel at a time when the government was urging people to stay at home — especially those with symptoms of the virus — would undermine efforts to send a strong message about social distancing.

The opposition Labour Party called for an inquiry into Cummings’ conduct and accused Johnson of double standards.

Hong Kong Police Fire Tear Gas as Protesters Resist China’s Grip

swarm 群がる、大群になる
mobilization 動員
bustling にぎわっている、活気のある、ごった返している
strangle 押さえつける、抑圧する
cow〔人を〕脅す、脅して服従させる
roil かき乱す、混乱させる
long overdue 延び延びになっている

著者：Vivian Wang, Austin Ramzy and Tiffany May
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

HONG KONG — Thousands of protesters swarmed some of Hong Kong’s busiest neighborhoods Sunday as police repeatedly fired tear gas, pepper spray and a water cannon during the city’s largest street mobilization in months.

The protest, the first since China announced plans to tighten its control over Hong Kong through security legislation, was planned as a march between the city’s bustling Causeway Bay and Wan Chai neighborhoods. But when police blocked the route, firing multiple rounds of tear gas, the protesters quickly splintered into smaller groups, setting off more than seven hours of scattershot confrontations. Police patrolled with a water cannon, escorted by an armored truck with two officers seated on top, pointing guns loaded with rubber bullets.

Police said they had arrested at least 180 people, mostly for unlawful assembly, and at least four officers were injured. The city’s hospital authority said that six people had been hospitalized, including one woman in critical condition.

The protest Sunday — the city’s first large-scale demonstration since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic — underscored the depth of many residents’ outrage and fear about Beijing’s national security push. The protesters flouted social distancing rules and police warnings against illegal assemblies to show their solidarity against the security laws, which many fear would strangle the civil liberties that distinguish the city from the mainland.

But the demonstration also made clear the challenges before the pro-democracy movement. Attendance was far lower than for the massive rallies last year. Police also showed that they planned to continue a new pattern of assertiveness, trying to stop mass gatherings before they occur.

The march Sunday was planned before Beijing announced its national security plans Thursday. It was originally intended to oppose a bill to criminalize disrespect of the Chinese national anthem. But after the security push was announced, the event took on added urgency for protesters eager to show they would not be cowed.

In Beijing, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said that the protests that roiled Hong Kong for much of last year had posed a grave threat to national security, demonstrating that such legislation was long overdue. The Hong Kong government previously tried to introduce security laws in 2003 but backpedaled after mass protests. The city’s government has since avoided reintroducing such legislation, and Beijing’s move signaled its impatience with its local proxies.

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5/27(水)の放送の英文記事と英単語：まったく、大幅な、妨げる

A Pandemic Bright Spot: In Many Places, Less Crime

utterly 全く、完全に、徹底的に、すっかり
steep 大幅な
perpetrator 犯人、加害者
infraction 違反
dip 下がる
hamper ～を妨げる、妨害する、邪魔する
homicide 殺人
burglary 住居［建物］侵入窃盗、押し込み強盗
devoid 欠いている、全くない
migrate 移行する

著者：Neil MacFarquhar and Serge F. Kovaleski
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

Chief David Todd of the Fargo, North Dakota, Police Department periodically abandons his desk to walk the beat downtown. In recent weeks, he found the streets utterly deserted.

“The quiet and sadness is something that we have never experienced before,” said Todd, a 32-year veteran of the police force.

The absence of people during the coronavirus pandemic has produced a rare payoff in Fargo and most U.S. cities — a steep drop in major crimes.

“The dynamics of street crimes, of street encounters, of human behavior are changing because people are staying home,” said Philip M. Stinson, a former police officer turned criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University.

Crime, say those who study it and those who fight it day to day, requires three things — a perpetrator, a victim and an opportunity.

With tens of millions of Americans off the streets, would-be victims and opportunities for crimes have vanished, causing a drop in the number of perpetrators committing infractions. The dip in crime is compounded by the fact that some police departments have been hampered by quarantines, or have made fewer arrests to limit interactions or to avoid filling the jails.

Arrests in Chicago, where the Cook County jail became one of the nation’s largest-known virus hot spots, were down more than 73% during roughly the initial month of the lockdown, said Deputy Chief Thomas Lemmer of the Chicago Police Department.

Crime did not entirely disappear, of course. Homicides in numerous cities remained flat or even rose. Burglaries of commercial properties and auto thefts have often multiplied, as criminals exploited shuttered stores and unattended cars.

In Las Vegas, where police said crime fell more than 22% during the initial two months of the lockdown, the Strip area, with its crowded nightclubs and bars, had traditionally had its problems with crime. Since it was largely devoid of tourists for weeks, crime migrated to some residential streets.

There were no clear patterns across all cities, according to Christopher Herrmann, a professor of law and police science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Murders this year were up 14% in Philadelphia and 85% in Nashville, Tennessee, but fell 2% in Baltimore and 11% in Atlanta. Nashville was a rare city with increased crime overall.

Air Force Removes Height Requirement to Attract More Women Pilots

waiver 免除
eliminate 除外する、取り除く
stature 身長
blanket 包括的な、全体的な、全面的な
accession 加入、加盟、登録

著者：Johnny Diaz
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

The Air Force has removed its minimum height requirement for prospective pilots in a move that it said would encourage a more diverse pool of applicants, particularly women.

Previously, the Air Force had required officer applicants who wished to fly to be between 5-foot-4 and 6-foot-5, with a sitting height of 34 to 40 inches.

Under the adjusted policy, which went into effect on May 13, applicants who are shorter than 5-foot-4 or taller than 6-foot-5 will no longer be required to submit a waiver.

Although most height waivers were approved, the restriction effectively eliminated about 44% of the U.S. female population between the ages of 20 and 29, the Air Force said.

“We’re really focused on identifying and eliminating barriers to serve in the Air Force,” Gwendolyn DeFilippi, an assistant deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services for the Air Force, said in a statement. “This is a huge win, especially for women and minorities of smaller stature who previously may have assumed they weren’t qualified to join our team.”

With the removal of the blanket height standard, the Air Force said it would use an anthropometric screening process to place applicants in planes they can safely fly.

The policy will allow the Air Force “to accommodate a larger and more diverse rated applicant pool within existing aircraft constraints,” said Lt. Col. Jessica Ruttenber, the Air Force mobility planner and programmer who led the effort to adjust the height standards.

Historically, she added, aircraft were engineered around the height of the average man.

The average height of an American woman over age 20 is 63.6 inches, or a little over 5-foot-3, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average height of a man over age 20 is 69 inches, or 5-foot-9.

“While most height waivers were approved under the old system, feedback indicated the entire waiver process served as a barrier, which negatively impacted female rated accessions,” said Lt. Col. Christianne Opresko, an aerospace physiologist and the branch chief of the Air Force’s Air Crew Task Force.

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5/28(木)の放送の英文記事と英単語：前例、補償する、資格のある

Hunger Program’s Slow Start Leaves Millions of Children Waiting

precedent 前例、先例
compensate〔損失分を人に〕補償［埋め合わせ］する
eligible 資格のある、〔法的に〕適格な
arbitrary〔個人の〕好み［判断］に任せた、任意の
fault ～を…で責める
tenacious〔人が困難に遭っても諦めずに〕粘り強い

著者：Jason DeParle
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — As child hunger soars to levels without modern precedent, an emergency program Congress created two months ago has reached only a small fraction of the 30 million children it was intended to help.

The program, Pandemic-EBT, aims to compensate for the declining reach of school meals by placing their value on electronic cards that families can use in grocery stores. But collecting lunch lists from thousands of school districts, transferring them to often-outdated state computers and issuing specialized cards has proved much harder than envisioned, leaving millions of needy families waiting to buy food.

Congress approved the effort in mid-March as part of the Families First act, its first major coronavirus relief package. By May 15, only about 15% of eligible children had received benefits, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Just 12 states had started sending money, and Michigan and Rhode Island alone had finished.

The pace is accelerating, with millions of families expected to receive payments in the coming weeks. But 16 states still lack federal approval to begin the payments, and Utah declined to participate, saying it did not have the administrative capacity to distribute the money.

As of May 15, states had issued payments for about 4.4 million children, out of the 30 million who potentially qualify, the Times analysis shows. If all states reached everyone eligible, an unlikely prospect, families could receive as much as $10 billion.

Aid in the United States generally follows a patchwork logic, but the arbitrary nature of the moment is especially pronounced: Families with three children in Jacksonville, North Carolina, have received $1,100, while families in Jacksonville, Florida, have received nothing. One corner of red-state America (Fredonia, Arizona) can get help, while 7 miles away, another (Kanab, Utah) cannot.

Many anti-hunger experts still think the program will make a big difference, and advocates generally have been reluctant to fault the states.

After classrooms closed in mid-March, most schools continued to serve meals in grab-and-go lines or along bus routes, even as cooks and drivers fell ill. But despite tenacious efforts, the meals have reached a small share of those who previously got them. National data is lacking, but weekly surveys of low-income families in Philadelphia (by Elizabeth Ananat of Barnard College and Anna Gassman-Pines of Duke University) found the share ranged from 11% to 36%.

White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park

banal〔考え・話題・言葉などが〕ありふれた、平凡な
brusque〈フランス語〉無愛想な、ぞんざいな
dust-up 騒ぎ、けんか、口論
avid 熱烈な、熱心な
leash〔動物を〕鎖［ひも］でつなぐ
confront 〔問題・困難などに〕直面する、立ち向かう
misassumption 誤解

著者：Sarah Maslin Nir
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

NEW YORK — The incident appears to have begun as one of those banal and brusque dust-ups between two New Yorkers. A black man, an avid birder, said he had asked a white woman to leash her dog in Central Park, as the rules require. She refused.

Then the encounter, which was recorded on video, took an ugly turn.

As the man, Christian Cooper, filmed on his phone, the woman called the police.

“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she says to him while dialing.

The video, posted to Twitter on Memorial Day, has been viewed more than 30 million times.

Within 24 hours, the woman, identified as Amy Cooper (no relation to Christian Cooper), had given up her dog, publicly apologized and been fired from her job.

The incident took place around 8:10 a.m. Monday in the Ramble, a section of Central Park where dogs are required to be on leashes.

The video captures Amy Cooper first asking Christian Cooper to stop filming her, then saying she will call the police and claim that she is being threatened by “an African American.”

“Please tell them whatever you like,” Christian Cooper said.

She proceeded to call.

“I’m in the Ramble, there is a man, African American, he has a bicycle helmet and he is recording me and threatening me and my dog,” she said to the 911 operator as she gripped her pet’s collar tightly.

She added: “I am being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately!”

On Tuesday night, Amy Cooper publicly apologized in a statement.

“When Chris began offering treats to my dog and confronted me in an area where there was no one else nearby and said, ‘You’re not going to like what I’m going to do next,’ I assumed we were being threatened when all he had intended to do was record our encounter on his phone,” Cooper said. “He had every right to request that I leash my dog in an area where it was required.

“I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred.”

Amy Cooper had been a head of insurance portfolio management at Franklin Templeton. On Tuesday afternoon, Franklin Templeton announced that she had been fired.

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5/29(金)の放送の英文記事と英単語：鎮圧する、混乱、騒動

China Approves Plan to Rein In Hong Kong, Defying Worldwide Outcry

quash〔反乱・暴動などを〕鎮圧する
unrest〔政治・社会的な〕混乱、騒動
legislature 議会、立法機関
unanimously 満場［全会］一致で
subversion〔政府などの支配体制の〕転覆、破壊
secession 脱退、離脱、分離
semiautonomous 半自治の
hash out〈話〉〔合意を得るために〕詳細に議論する
crackdown〔違法行為に対する〕取り締まり、法律の厳格な施行、弾圧
infringe〔権利・法律などを〕侵す、侵害する
premier 総理大臣、首相

著者：Keith Bradsher
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

BEIJING — China officially has the broad power to quash unrest in Hong Kong, as the country’s legislature Thursday nearly unanimously approved a plan to suppress subversion, secession, terrorism and seemingly any acts that might threaten national security in the semiautonomous city.

As Beijing hashes out the specifics of the national security legislation in the coming weeks, the final rules will help determine the fate of Hong Kong, including how much of the city’s autonomy will be preserved or how much Beijing will tighten its grip.

Early signals from Chinese authorities point to a crackdown once the law takes effect, which is expected by September.

Activist groups could be banned. Courts could impose long jail sentences for national security violations. China’s feared security agencies could operate openly in the city.

Even Hong Kong’s chief executive this week appeared to hint that certain civil liberties might not be an enduring feature of Hong Kong life.

“We are a very free society, so for the time being, people have the freedom to say whatever they want to say,” said the chief executive, Carrie Lam, noting, “Rights and freedoms are not absolute.”

The prospect of a national security law has prompted an immediate pushback in Hong Kong, where protesters are once again taking to the streets. The international community, too, has warned against infringing on the city’s civil liberties.

The Trump administration signaled Wednesday that it was likely to end some or all of the U.S. government’s special trade and economic relations with Hong Kong because of China’s move. The State Department no longer considers Hong Kong to have significant autonomy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, a condition for maintaining the trade status.

China’s premier, Li Keqiang, tried to strike an optimistic note about the national security law, saying Thursday that it would provide for the “steady implementation of the ‘one country, two systems’” political framework that has enshrined Hong Kong’s relative autonomy since the territory was reclaimed by China in 1997. The rules, the premier said at the conclusion of the annual session of the legislature, the National People’s Congress, would protect “Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”

SpaceX Launch of NASA Astronauts Is Postponed Over Weather

spectator 観客、見物人
liftoff 打ち上げ、発射
orbit〔惑星や衛星の〕軌道

著者：Kenneth Chang
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — With gray clouds above that did not move away fast enough, a rocket launch that was to be the first to take American astronauts to orbit from U.S. soil in nearly a decade stayed on the ground, disappointing spectators including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Despite discouragement from top NASA officials, crowds had gathered along Florida’s Space Coast, and the rocket was on the launch pad, ready to head toward orbit — and a transformed era of human spaceflight.

The launch of two NASA astronauts on a rocket built by SpaceX, a company started by billionaire Elon Musk, would be first launching of people by a private company and not a national space agency like NASA.

Although there was no trouble with the rocket, capsule and crew, light but persistent rain fell around the space center throughout the day. Later in the afternoon, the rain stopped and skies began to clear.

About 15 minutes before the scheduled liftoff time of 4:33 p.m. Eastern time, a weather officer, likely a member of the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, informed the SpaceX launch director that the weather conditions would not clear up in time. If the Falcon 9 were to launch just 10 minutes later, the officer said, the mission might have been able to proceed.

But the liftoff time could not be moved. For the spacecraft to be able to meet up with the International Space Station passing overhead, liftoff must occur at a precise moment. Calling off launches in Florida because of unfavorable winds and clouds, even with just minutes left on the countdown clock, is not uncommon.

The next opportunities to launch are Saturday at 3:22 p.m. Eastern time and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.

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