Voicy Journal

Voicy News Brief with articles from The New York Times ニュース原稿 7/4-7/10

Voicy News Brief with articles from The New York Times ニュース原稿 7/4-7/10

Voicy初の公式英語ニュースチャンネル「Voicy News Brief with articles from New York Times」。チャンネルでは、バイリンガルパーソナリティがThe New York Timesの記事を英語で2つ読み、記事の中に出てくる単語を日本語で解説しています。


Voicy Journalでは、毎週金曜日にその週に読んだ記事を、まとめて紹介します!1週間の終わりに、その週の放送をもう1度聞いて復習するのも良いかもしれません。VoicyのPCページやアプリでは、再生速度も変えられるので、自分の理解度に応じて、調整してみましょう。

7/4(土)の放送

Dizzying Amounts of Money Pour Into the Biden and Trump Campaigns

著者:Shane Goldmacher
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump combined with the Democratic and Republican parties to raise well over a quarter-billion dollars in June, setting new high-water marks for both men in 2020 and obliterating June fundraising records from previous presidential cycles.

Biden and Trump each raised more last month than what Trump and Hillary Clinton combined to collect in June 2016 — a sign of the dizzying costs of a 2020 campaign that is already saturating the airwaves and screens in the most crucial battleground states.

For the second consecutive month, Biden’s haul ($141 million) was bigger than Trump’s ($131 million), a striking reversal after Biden had financially limped and skimped through much of 2019 and early 2020.

Biden had raised less than $9 million in a month as recently as January. But the former vice president’s upward trajectory has been dizzying ever since he became the presumptive Democratic nominee this spring: He raised just over $60 million with the Democratic National Committee in April, $80.8 million in May and then $141 million in June.

If Biden’s newfound gusher of money was the biggest storyline of the latest fundraising figures, the resilience of Trump’s donors despite a month of bad headlines and even worse polling indicated that both sides are likely to be awash in money all the way through the November election.

“What is happening for both parties is each side recognizes all the chips are in the middle of the table,” said Jeff Roe, a top Republican strategist who served as campaign manager for Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid. “This is not a small-ball election with little things being debated at the edges.”

Top Democratic donors, fundraisers and strategists said the biggest difference for Biden was that he is now running against only Trump, instead of his fellow Democrats, and is able to draw support from the full diverse spectrum of the party.

Trump still maintains an enviable war chest that stands at $295 million. The Biden campaign has declined to disclose a full accounting of its cash on hand, but past spending patterns suggest the former vice president has sharply cut into Trump’s lead even as he remains significantly behind the president.

obliterate 〔文字・情報・記憶・痕跡などを〕消し去る、拭い去る
limp 足を引きずる
skimp 節約する、倹約する
trajectory (弾丸・ロケットなどの)弾道、曲線、(惑星の)軌道
presumptive 仮定の、推定の  
resilience 回復力、立ち直る力
awash in ~にどっぷり漬かって、~であふれて
enviable うらやましい、うらやましがるような

Essence Names Interim Chief After Claim of ‘Abusive Work Culture’

著者:Katie Robertson
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

An anonymous essay published on Sunday criticized Essence, the groundbreaking Black media brand, citing an “abusive work culture” in which bullying and sexual harassment were common. Since then, Essence has installed Caroline A. Wanga, a former Target executive, as its interim leader and has also pledged to hire law firms to conduct a review of workplace issues.

The essay, titled “The Truth About Essence,” was published on the digital platform Medium under the byline Black Female Anonymous, which has identified itself as a group of former and current Essence employees. The essay is part of an online campaign that includes Twitter and Instagram accounts and a change.org petition.

A target of Black Female Anonymous is Richelieu Dennis, the owner of Essence Ventures, the parent company of the magazine and Essence Communications. Dennis, the founder of Sundial Brands, a Black beauty products company, bought Essence from Time Inc. in 2018.

The essay said Dennis “tried to force Essence employees and contractors to sign nondisclosure agreements” to protect him and his family from “liability or disparagement after a string of wrongful layoffs.” It also said that Dennis’ wife, Martha Dennis, the company’s head of human resources, should not serve in that role, calling the arrangement a “blatant conflict of interest.”

Later in the essay, the writers said the problems at Essence predated the arrival of Dennis. They faulted a previous Essence leader, Michelle Ebanks, blaming her for a “toxic culture.” Ebanks stepped down as the chief executive of Essence Communications in March, after nearly 20 years at the company, and is a member of the Essence board.

The essay also had criticism for two other Essence leaders, the chief operating officer, Joy Collins Profet, and the chief content officer, MoAna Luu.

In the Medium essay and on social media, Black Female Anonymous has called for the resignations of Profet and Luu; demanded that Ebanks leave the board; and demanded that Dennis have nothing to do with running Essence. The group has given Wanga, the interim leader, until the “close of business” on Friday to comply.

In a statement on Thursday, Latraviette Smith-Wilson, an Essence spokeswoman, described the essay’s “accusations and demands” as “unsupported and outdated.”

The statement also addressed Ebanks, saying she “has had no role in day-to-day operations since her departure,” and said that Collins Profet “had already accepted a new role with another company before the anonymous blog was posted.”

Luu, the head of content, “will step back from day-to-day operations during the course of the review,” the statement said.

Dennis has also stepped away from the daily leadership role he had assumed since the departure of Ebanks, the company said in a separate statement. The spokeswoman added that Wanga would oversee the “independent review” of the Essence workplace.

anonymous 匿名 
byline (筆者名を記す) 署名欄
nondisclosure agreement 機密(秘密)保持契約
disparagement 非難、軽視
blatant  あからさまな、露骨な
call for 声を上げて~を求める、~を要求する

7/5(日)の放送

Tesla Shines During the Pandemic as Other Automakers Struggle

著者:Neal E. Boudette
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

After a steep drop in sales at the beginning of 2019, Tesla was scrambling to raise cash, slashing costs and closing dealerships. It slowed spending on new models, and even analysts who had once been very bullish about the company’s prospects soured on it.

It did not help that Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, was regularly sparring on Twitter with critics and securities regulators alike.

But despite the coronavirus pandemic, its sales are holding up fairly well, with growth in China and other overseas markets offsetting a slowdown in the United States.

After it reported a profit and sizable cash balance in the first quarter, analysts have grown increasingly confident that Tesla will come out of the pandemic stronger than automakers that have vastly larger sales and production.

“If you go back a year and a half, the question was, can these guys make it with the kind of capital expenditures they need to do?” said Joseph Osha, an analyst at JMP Securities. “That’s no longer a question.”

On Thursday, Tesla said it had delivered 90,650 cars in the second quarter, down just 5% from a year earlier. It sold 88,496 cars in the first quarter of 2020.

The decline was considerably smaller than many analysts expected and much better than the numbers reported by established automakers. General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler said this week that their U.S. sales had fallen 30% or more in the second quarter.

The modest drop in deliveries is surprising because local officials forced Tesla to shut down its main car factory, in Fremont, California, in March. Two months later, the company restarted production earlier than it was authorized to do so.

Tesla appears to have made up for the shutdown in Fremont by ramping up deliveries in China, where it recently began producing Model 3 sedans at a factory in Shanghai.

Tesla’s stock price, which has soared in recent months, hit a new closing high of $1,208.66 on Thursday, up 8%.

At its current price, Tesla has a market value of nearly $210 billion. That’s more than the value of Toyota Motor Corp., which was previously the world’s most valuable automaker, and 3 1/2 times the combined value of GM and Ford.

Raise cash 資金を工面する
Bullish 雄牛のような、がんこな、愚かな、強気の
Sizable 相当の大きさの
Vastly 非常に、大いに
Ramp up 強める、強化する

Hedge Fund’s Run at Tribune Publishing Ends With a New Board Seat

著者:Marc Tracy
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

Alden Global Capital seemed in position this week to take control of Tribune Publishing, a move that would have enabled the New York hedge fund to merge the parent company of the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun with MediaNews Group, an Alden-owned newspaper chain, to create a new media giant.

Instead, after negotiations this week, Alden settled, for now, on something less ambitious: a Tribune Publishing board seat for one of its founders, Randall D. Smith, a onetime Bear Stearns partner who runs Alden with Heath Freeman.

As part of the deal that gives the investment firm more say in the company, Alden and Tribune Publishing extended a so-called standstill agreement, struck last year, that could prevent Alden from pursuing ownership of the Tribune chain for up to another year.

Alden’s designs on Tribune Publishing, a publicly traded company that owns nearly a dozen prominent metro dailies across the country, became clear in November, when it revealed that it had taken a 32% stake in the chain. That news led to an outcry from Tribune Publishing reporters, many of whom have denounced the hedge fund’s habit of slashing newsroom costs at its MediaNews Group papers.

At the close of this week’s negotiations, Alden agreed not to continue its pursuit until after the Tribune Publishing’s next annual shareholder meeting, which is scheduled to take place no later than June 15, 2021, according to a public filing Thursday.

The standstill agreement would no longer apply if some other entity acquired as much as 30% of Tribune Publishing or made an offer to buy the company, according to a public filing. If that were to happen, Alden would be free to pursue a deal for Tribune Publishing.

“Tribune Publishing will continue to focus on our long-term strategy to drive digital growth and invest in high-quality content while reducing legacy costs,” Philip G. Franklin, the chairman of Tribune’s board and not an Alden member, said in a statement.

Few newspapers have been immune to cost cuts since readers started getting their news from digital devices rather than printed pages. In that time, Alden has been aggressive in laying off newsroom employees in an effort to wring profits out of MediaNews Group, which operates roughly 200 publications.

Board Seat 取締役枠
Merge 併合する、溶け合わせる、合併する
Standstill 停止、休止、行き詰まり
Publicly traded 上場している
Outcry (大衆の)抗議

7/6(月)の放送

At Mount Rushmore and the White House, Trump Updates ‘American Carnage’ Message for 2020

著者:Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump spent the Fourth of July weekend sowing national divide, ignoring his failings on the coronavirus and vowing to fight what he branded the “new far-left fascism.”

In a speech at the White House on Saturday evening and an address in front of Mount Rushmore on Friday night, Trump promoted a version of the “American carnage” vision for the country that he laid out during his inaugural address — updated to include an ominous depiction of the recent protests over racial justice.

He signaled even more clearly that he would exploit race and cultural flash points to stoke fear among his base of white supporters in an effort to win reelection. As he has done in the past, he resorted to exaggerated, apocalyptic language in broadly tarring the nationwide protests against entrenched racism and police brutality, saying that “angry mobs” sought to “unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities” and that those seeking to deface monuments want to “end America.”

Although Trump avoided references on Friday to the symbols of the Confederacy that have been a target of many protests, referring instead to monuments of America’s “founders,” he has in the past defended statues honoring Confederate soldiers as “beautiful.” And he has resisted renaming military bases named after Confederate generals, even as military leaders signaled their support for such a move.

Trump followed up with his remarks on Saturday from the South Lawn of the White House, which sounded more like a campaign rally, and repeated the themes from the previous evening.

“We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms,” Trump said, claiming that protesters were “not interested in justice or healing.”

Trump cast himself as the heir to “American heroes” who defeated Nazis, fascists, communists and terrorists, all but drawing a direct line from such enemies to his domestic critics.

“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said.

carnage 殺りく
inaugural address 就任演説
ominous 不吉な
*a bad omen 不吉な予兆
flash point (事件などの)発火点
apocalyptic 終末的な
*apocalypse (名)黙示(秘密の暴露)
*the Apocalypse 新約聖書のヨハネの黙示録
entrenched 確立された
deface 汚す、外観を損なわせる(落書きなど)
Confederacy 連合(ここでは、南北戦争の時の南軍)
indoctrinate 教え込む、教化する
*doctrine (名)教義、(主にアメリカなど国の)国家政策の主義
trample   踏みつぶす、踏みにじる

When Police Are Hackers: Hundreds Charged as Encrypted Network Is Broken

著者:Adam Nossiter
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company


PARIS — The police in Europe said Thursday they had arrested hundreds of people on suspicion of drug trafficking and other crimes after successfully hacking into an encrypted phone network being used by organized criminals around the world.

The authorities said that by hacking into the network, the police were able to monitor criminal activity and communication as it was happening, allowing them to stop drug deals and even to prevent murder.

Officials said in a statement that “millions” of messages were read in “real time, over the shoulder of the unsuspecting senders,” leading to arrests in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.

“It was as though we were sitting at the table where the criminals were chatting among themselves, really,” said Jannine van den Berg, chief constable of the central police unit in the Netherlands, at a news conference in The Hague. “What makes this investigation unique is that at a large scale we managed to read all of these criminal messages live,” she said.

The phone network that was used, known as EncroChat, provided specially altered phones — no camera, microphone, or GPS — for about $1,100. The phones allowed users to immediately erase compromising messages. The network also provided subscriptions with global coverage for about $1,600 over six months, even offering round-the-clock tech support.

EncroChat, since shut down, “promised anonymity and complete secrecy to its users,” said Carole Etienne, a French prosecutor. The phones, she added, were “widely used throughout the world” by criminal organizations.

“What seems to be possible only in thrillers and police shows, we actually have seen happen,” said Andy Kraag, head of the central investigations division in the Netherlands, which led the operation in collaboration with French authorities.

“These messages that we captured give us a very detailed view of daily life in the criminal world,” Kraag said at the news conference. “We understand better who these people are and how they work.”

The authorities had been monitoring the network for over two months before it was shut down, said Tina Hollevoet, a Europol spokeswoman.

encrypted 暗号化された
constable 巡査
The Hague  (オランダ)ハーグ
compromising 疑いを招くような、(名誉などを)傷つけるような
*compromise (動) 妥協する
anonymity   匿名性
*anonymous (形) 匿名の (*7/4 復習)
(an- 無い + onoma 名前)

7/7(火)の放送

U.K. Announces $2 Billion Bailout to Help Keep the Arts Afloat

著者:Alex Marshall
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

LONDON — Britain’s arts sector, largely shuttered since March because of the pandemic and warning of an imminent collapse, is being given a lifeline through what Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as a “world-leading” rescue package for cultural and heritage institutions.

The organizations will be handed 1.57 billion pounds, about $2 billion, the culture ministry said Sunday evening.

The money will go to a variety of recipients, including Britain’s “local basement” music venues and museums, Johnson added, although he did not provide details. Museums in England were allowed to reopen Saturday, but it is unclear when theaters and music venues will be permitted to.

The figure is on par with rescue packages for the arts in Europe’s largest nations.

On Friday, Germany’s parliament approved a fund of 1 billion euros (about $1.13 billion) to get its culture sector back up and running, building on already generous support from its regional legislatures. Many state-funded theaters in Germany receive 70%-80% of their income from the state, compared with about 20%-30% in Britain.

France’s culture ministry said in a news release last week that it had committed 5 billion euros toward the arts, although much of that included unemployment benefits and job retention initiatives that did not figure in the British or German bailout totals.

Smaller countries have also pledged money for the sector. The Netherlands has committed about 600 million euros to help protect its cultural life, a spokesman for its culture minister said in an email. That includes rent holidays for museums and measures to help self-employed artists, he said.

The British package was met with surprise by the country’s theater industry, which had been running a coordinated, celebrity-led campaign for weeks in a bid for support as theaters announced major layoffs. On Friday, the National Theater in London told 400 employees that they would lose their jobs in August.

The package is a recognition that many performing venues cannot operate profitably with social distancing measures in place, said Philip Bernays, chief executive of the Theater Royal, Newcastle, another venue that had announced layoffs.

On Monday, Oliver Dowden, the country’s culture secretary, told the BBC that allowing theaters to reopen without social distancing was “some way off.”

Bailout 救済支援、パラシュートでの脱出
  bail out(保釈金を払って保釈を受けさせる)
Keep Afloat 破産をふせぐ
imminent 差し迫った、切迫した
venues 会場
on par with 同等
  ゴルフのパー
legislatures 議会
retention 保持
  [語源:re(再び)+tain(持つ)→維持する]
  [親戚:obtain(前で持つ→手に入れる)]
initiatives 政策
  [語源:initia(はじまり)+tive(〜に富んだ)→主導する]
  [親戚:initial(はじめの文字→イニシャル)
figure in 計算に加える
  figure(姿形、図、数字)
  figure out(形づくる→理解する、解く)
rent holidays 家賃免除期間

Trump Defends Confederate Flag in Latest Race-Based Appeal to White Voters

著者:Maggie Haberman
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

President Donald Trump mounted an explicit defense of the Confederate flag Monday, suggesting that NASCAR had made a mistake in banning it from its auto racing events, while falsely accusing a top Black driver, Bubba Wallace, of perpetrating a hoax involving a noose found in his garage.

Trump’s reference to the Confederate flag, and its role in a sport whose mostly white fans Trump remains popular with, was the latest remark by the president focused on culture wars as he tries to rally his culturally conservative base behind his struggling reelection effort.

The president has increasingly used racist language and references in his appeals to supporters as he portrays himself as a protector of the history of the American South. He has called the phrase “Black Lives Matter” a “symbol of hate,” and he has repeatedly tried to depict pockets of violence during protests against entrenched racism as representative of the protest movement as a whole.

“Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!” Trump posted on Twitter on Monday.

While NASCAR and other organizations have moved to retire symbols of the Confederacy, and lawmakers in Mississippi voted to bring down the state flag featuring the Confederate emblem, Trump has defended symbols from the nation’s past that represent slavery and oppression. He has opposed the renaming of military bases named after Confederate officers, even as military leaders have expressed support for the idea.

The noose incident last month at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama came after Wallace, the only Black driver in NASCAR’s top circuit, called for the Confederate flag to be banned from the sport, and NASCAR agreed to banish it from its races and properties. At the start of the race week, a member of Wallace’s racing team found the noose hanging in his garage stall and reported it to NASCAR.

The organization’s president then informed Wallace himself, and FBI officials later found that the knot had been tied into the rope as early as October, well before anyone would have known that Wallace would be assigned that stall for the race.

explicit 露骨な
  [対義語:implicit(暗黙の)
perpetrating 犯す
  perpetrator(加害者)
hoax かつぐこと、悪ふざけ
  [親戚:Hocus Pocus(呪文「ちちんぷいぷい」)
noose 首吊り縄
reference 言及
  参照、参考などの意味も
  [語源:re(後ろに)+fer(運ぶ)→元をたどる]
entrenched 確立された
  trench(塹壕)

7/8(水)の放送

A New Generation of Fast Coronavirus Tests Is Coming

著者:Katherine J. Wu
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

Researchers around the world are working on the next generation of coronavirus tests that give answers in less than an hour, without onerous equipment or highly trained personnel.

The latest so-called point-of-care tests, which could be done in a doctor’s office or even at home, would be a welcome upgrade from today’s status quo: uncomfortable swabs that snake up the nose and can take several days to produce results.

The handful of point-of-care devices now on the market are frequently inaccurate. The up-and-coming tests could yield more reliable results, researchers say, potentially leading to on-the-spot testing nationwide. But most of the new contenders are still in early stages, and won’t be available in clinics for months.

Some of the tests in development swap brain-tickling swabs for plastic tubes that collect spit. Others dunk patient samples into chemical cocktails that light up when they detect coronavirus genes. Another type of test identifies coronavirus proteins in minutes, using a cheap device that’s easy to produce in bulk and deploy in low-resource settings.

“To combat this virus, we need to test widely and frequently, and get the results back quickly,” said Dr. Zev Williams at Columbia University, who is developing a coronavirus spit test that can run in about 30 minutes. “That requires a genuine paradigm shift in the way we go about testing for it.”

Most diagnostic tests on the market now hunt for bits of genetic material specific to the coronavirus. (This distinguishes diagnostic tests from antibody tests, which sample the blood and show if a person has been exposed to the virus in the past.)

The gold-standard method involves funneling a long, absorbent swab a few inches into the nose until it hits the nasopharynx, the part of the airway where the nasal passage meets the throat and a common target of the coronavirus.

The virus’ genes must be extracted from the sample with a specific suite of chemicals. The material is then processed through a laboratory technique called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, in which a machine cycles through several temperature changes to amplify genetic material. This step is key to these tests’ success: Copying genetic material over and over means that even tiny amounts of the virus can be spotted.

But the process can bog down at multiple points.

onerous 面倒な、厄介な
so called いわゆる
swabs 綿棒
up and coming 新進気鋭の
on the spot すぐその場で、直ちに
spit 唾液
combat 対抗する
nasal 鼻の、鼻にかかった

Lobbyists, Law Firms and Trade Groups Took Small-Business Loans

著者:Jeanna Smialek, Jim Tankersley and Luke Broadwater
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration, under pressure to reveal which companies received loans from a $660 billion program intended to keep small businesses afloat, on Monday released data showing that restaurants, medical offices and car dealerships ranked high among the top loan recipients.

The detailed information from the Paycheck Protection Program was confined to companies that received loans of more than $150,000. The administration said 86.5% of the loans were for less than that amount, so the snapshot captured only one sliver of businesses that tapped funds. So far, banks have made about 4.9 million loans through the program, with an average size of $107,000.

Nearly 5,000 businesses received individual loans between $5 million and $10 million, according to the data. The administration included ranges for the amounts, not specific figures.

And the figures did not include details on the roughly $30 billion in loans that were returned as companies realized that they were not eligible for the program, worried that they couldn’t meet program requirements or reacted to a public outcry about big firms getting funds.

Restaurants, medical offices and car dealerships were the top recipients of large loans from the program. More than 40,000 full- or limited-service restaurants received loans worth as much as $32 billion, according to the ranges provided by the government.

Sprinkled among the beneficiaries were businesses that are likely to attract scrutiny, including a fancy sushi restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Washington; Kanye West’s company, Yeezy; and President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer.

Washington lobbying shops, high-priced law firms and special-interest groups also received big loans, according to the administration, the latest indication of how of the government’s centerpiece effort to shore up mom-and-pop shops set off a race by organizations far afield from Main Street to secure federal money. The disclosure could further fuel outrage toward the program, which has been complicated by revelations that large, publicly traded companies were taking big loans and concerns that it might leave borrowers saddled with debt.

“My 1,000-foot takeaway is that the government was handing out free money and the line went around the corner,” said Aaron Klein, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “This is not your mom-and-pop shop on Main Street.”

lobbyists ロビイスト
recipients 受領者、受給者
confined 限られた、限定された
outcry 激しい抗議、非難の声
scrutiny  精密な調査
saddled  責任を負う

7/9(木)の放送

Trump Administration Signals Formal Withdrawal From WHO

著者:Katie Rogers and Apoorva Mandavilli
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, a move that would cut off one of the largest sources of funding from the premier global health organization in the middle of a pandemic.

“The United States’ notice of withdrawal, effective July 6, 2021, has been submitted to the U.N. secretary-general, who is the depository for the WHO,” a senior administration official said Tuesday.

The departure would take effect sometime next year, should the United States meet established conditions of giving a one-year notice and fulfilling its current financial obligations, Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary-general, António Guterres, said Tuesday.

The notification completes a threat that President Donald Trump began making months ago, as the death toll from the coronavirus in the United States mounted and Trump sought to blame the Chinese government for not doing enough to stop the spread of the disease. Trump has accused Beijing of hiding the true scope of infections from the WHO, targeting the agency in the process.

“The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government,” Trump said in May when he first said the United States would withdraw from the organization.

There is little evidence to support Trump’s belief that the Chinese misinformed the organization, although scientists and health experts have recently criticized the WHO for being slow to update its guidance and keep step with science as understanding of the virus rapidly evolves.

Experts acknowledged that the WHO had made some missteps during the pandemic but said it had largely done well given the constraints under which it operates. The agency is coordinating clinical trials of treatments, as well as efforts to manufacture and equitably distribute the vaccine.

“I think it’s an extraordinarily bad decision that will both harm global public health and harm the health of the American people,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “It’s unclear to me how the American people benefit by not being at the table and not being able to shape those policies.”

depository 保管者、保管場所
the death toll 死者数
accuse A of B BのことでAを非難する
malfeasance 悪事、不正行為
coordinate (うまく機能するように) 組織する

Britain Says It Will Resume Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

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

LONDON — One day after sanctioning 20 Saudis for human rights violations, Britain on Tuesday sent a very different signal to the government in Riyadh, ending a moratorium on arms sales to Saudi Arabia over its involvement in the bloody conflict in Yemen.

A court ruling last year forced the British government to suspend sales of arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia because of the risk they would be used in violation of international humanitarian law.

But after a review, Liz Truss, Britain’s international trade secretary, said Tuesday that procedures had been revised to comply with the court’s concerns and that the suspension of licenses for the export of arms to Saudi Arabia was at an end.

Her decision prompted anger from opposition politicians and campaigners, protests that were sharpened by the timing of the announcement. On Monday, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, imposed sanctions on 47 people, including 20 Saudis accused in the assassination of dissident Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whose death caused outrage around the world.

While the murder of Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Yemen are very different issues, critics said that imposing sanctions while also ending a moratorium on arms sales sent contradictory signals over the balance between human rights and realpolitik in Britain’s evolving foreign policy.

Saudi Arabia is a big market for British arms manufacturers. Between April 2015 and March 2018, Britain’s government licensed the sale of at least 4.7 billion pounds (around $5.89 billion) of military equipment to the Saudis, and a further 860 million pounds to its coalition partners.

Emily Thornberry, who speaks for the opposition Labour Party on international trade, described the resumption of arms licenses to Saudi Arabia as “morally indefensible.”

Under British law, the government should not grant an export license if there is a clear risk that weapons or equipment might be used in a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Truss acknowledged that there had been some “credible incidents of concern” related to Saudi forces’ conduct but said that there was no systematic pattern.

“The incidents which have been assessed to be possible violations of International Humanitarian Law occurred at different times, in different circumstances and for different reasons,” she wrote. “The conclusion is that these are isolated incidents.”

moratorium モラトリアム、一時停止・一時延期
ruling 判決
suspend 一時停止する、つるす
 →suspension 一時的停止 、つるす道具
comply with (要求・命令・規則) に従う、応じる
dissident 反体制の人、反対者

7/10(金)の放送

Harvard and MIT Sue to Stop Trump Visa Rules for Foreign Students

著者:Anemona Hartocollis and Miriam Jordan
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration in federal court Wednesday, seeking to block a directive that would strip foreign college students of their visas if the courses they take this fall are entirely online.

University leaders and immigrant advocates called the new policy cruel and reckless, with several education groups saying they planned to join the legal battle. The Massachusetts attorney general vowed to support Harvard and MIT’s efforts to block the rules, which were announced Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Massachusetts is home to thousands of international students who should not fear deportation or be forced to put their health and safety at risk in order to advance their education,” Maura Healey, the attorney general, said. “This decision from ICE is cruel, it’s illegal, and we will sue to stop it.”

The universities argued that the policy was politically motivated and would throw higher education into chaos. It was widely seen as an effort by the White House to pressure colleges and universities into reopening and abandoning the cautious approaches that many have adopted to reduce coronavirus transmission.

Harvard is planning to teach its classes entirely online over the next year, and many other universities are planning a hybrid model, with some in-person instruction but mostly remote classes. MIT will have a small selection of in-person classes but said most will be online.

The two universities said the new directive would prevent many of their 9,000 combined international students — and hundreds of thousands of students at other universities across the country — from staying in the United States. Their suit, filed in federal court in Boston, seeks a temporary restraining order preventing the government from enforcing the policy because it violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

ICE said it would not comment on pending litigation.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, defended the agency’s order Tuesday on CNN, saying the agency was providing more flexibility for international students than in the past, when in order to qualify for a visa, they could take no more than one of their courses online. Now they can take more, as long as at least some of their instruction is in person.

directive     指令
advocates    支持者/主張者
deportation   国外追放/強制送還
ICE  アメリカ合衆国移民・関税執行局(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementの略)
suit       訴訟
restraining order 抑制命令/接近禁止命令

Disney World Draws Excitement and Incredulity as Reopening Nears

著者:Brooks Barnes
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company

Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, will reopen Saturday, and Disney has been posting marketing videos online to highlight the safety procedures it has designed to protect visitors and employees.

“I feel safe because Disney has gone above and beyond what they needed to do,” an employee named Sam says in one of them while standing near Fantasyland.

Some of the 1,000-plus responses to that particular video were supportive. Others were incredulous, with people using words like “irresponsible” and “disappointing.”

The pandemic has devastated Disney’s businesses, and reopening its signature tourist attraction — with restricted capacity and government approval — is a major part of the company’s comeback attempt. But in doing so Disney is stepping into a politicized debate surrounding the virus and efforts to keep people safe, where even the wearing of masks has become a point of bitter contention.

Complicating matters, Disney is allowing people to return to a modified Disney World while other parts of its empire remain closed. “Mulan” was supposed to arrive in movie theaters July 24, but Disney postponed the release to Aug. 21 because of surging coronavirus cases nationwide and the likely unavailability of theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, recently slowed down the reopening of theme parks in California, including Disneyland, which had been scheduled to come back July 17.

The Florida Department of Health reported 9,989 new COVID-19 infections Wednesday, with 1,251 in the central part of the state, which includes Orlando. The statewide number is among the highest in the country, leading some to question whether Disney is being responsible in reopening Disney World.

“The world is changing around us, but we strongly believe that we can open safely and responsibly,” Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park chairman, said in an interview. “For those that might have questions or concerns, when they see how we are operating and the aggressive protocols that we have put in place, they will understand.”

Competing attractions resumed operations weeks ago. Universal reopened its three Orlando theme parks June 5, while SeaWorld Orlando brought back its rides and marine exhibits June 11. Legoland in Winter Haven and Busch Gardens in Tampa have also been selling tickets again. Legoland does not require masks.

incredulity      不信/懐疑
go above and beyond 必要なこと以上をする/期待を超える
a point of contention  争点
aggressive protocols  積極的に実践されている手順

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