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。
7/11(土)の放送
Seoul Mayor Is Found Dead After Harassment Complaint Is Filed
著者：Choe Sang-Hun
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
SEOUL, South Korea — The mayor of Seoul, the country’s second-most powerful official and a potential presidential candidate, was found dead just days after a secretary in his office told the police that he had sexually harassed her since 2017, authorities said Friday.
A Seoul police officer confirmed early Friday that the body of the mayor, Park Won-soon, had been discovered on a hill in northern Seoul, several hours after his daughter had reported him missing. The police offered no immediate details.
Word of the mayor’s death and its possible links to sexual misconduct sent shock waves across the country, not only because Park was a political star but also because he had long been seen as a champion of women’s rights. His positions stood out in a country where men dominate society’s upper echelons, enforcing a strictly hierarchical code that analysts say makes women vulnerable to abuse and forces its victims to stay silent.
Park, 64, had canceled his official schedule and called in sick to City Hall on Thursday, the day after the secretary had filed her complaint. His daughter told police that he had left home after leaving a cryptic, “will-like message,” according to Yonhap, the national news agency, which cited an anonymous police source. That detail immediately fueled speculation that Park could have taken his own life.
The discovery of Park’s body came after nearly 600 police officers and emergency medical workers, aided by police dogs, searched the hills in northern Seoul, where his cellphone signal had last been detected.
Park, who was serving his third term as mayor of Seoul, a city of 10 million, had often been cited as a possible successor to President Moon Jae-in, whose single five-year term is set to expire in 2022. Park’s mayoral term had been scheduled to end in 2022.
Before becoming mayor, Park was a prominent human rights attorney who founded the country’s most influential civil rights group. As a lawyer, he won several major cases, including South Korea’s first sexual harassment case. He also campaigned for the rights of so-called comfort women, Korean sex slaves who were lured or forced to work in brothels for the Japanase army during World War II.
sexual misconduct 性的違法行為
echelon (権力などの階層の) 段階、階級
hierarchical 階級組織の、階層的な
vulnerable 弱い、攻撃されやすい
cryptic 暗号のような、不可解な、謎めいた
speculation〔不確かな情報に基づく〕推論、臆測
In ‘Buy American’ Speech, Biden Challenges Trump on the Economy
著者：Shane Goldmacher and Jim Tankersley
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Joe Biden laid out a populist economic vision to revive and reinvest in American manufacturing Thursday, calling for major new spending and stricter new rules to “Buy American” as part of an effort to more aggressively challenge President Donald Trump on two of his signature issues: the economy and nationalism.
In a speech in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Biden lacerated Trump for a bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic that has deepened the economic crisis and a misplaced focus on the stock market, while framing his own economic agenda around a new campaign tagline: “Build Back Better.”
Biden said his plans would leverage trade, tax and investment policy to spur domestic innovation, reduce the reliance on foreign manufacturing and create 5 million additional American manufacturing and innovation jobs.
“I do not buy for one second that the vitality of American manufacturing is a thing of the past,” Biden said, speaking at a metalworks factory in Dunmore, not far from his childhood home of Scranton.
“When the federal government spends taxpayers’ money, we should use it to buy American products and support American jobs,” he added.
Biden’s campaign is riding high in the polls, but his advisers, as well as Republican strategists, still see the economy as perhaps his area of greatest vulnerability against Trump.
House Republican leaders recently briefed their members on polling showing Trump’s enduring advantage on the economy, and a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed the economy as perhaps a lone bright spot for the president, even as he trailed by 14 percentage points overall.
On Thursday, the Trump campaign announced a new television ad attacking Biden’s record as “dangerous and foolish,” highlighting Biden’s vote for NAFTA in 1993 and his past support for trade relations with China and for the Trans-Pacific Partnership as vice president.
The Pennsylvania speech is the first of several steps Biden is taking in the coming weeks to detail an expanded economic agenda, beyond what he proposed in the primaries. On Thursday, Biden specifically proposed a $300 billion increase in government spending on research and development of technologies like electric vehicles and 5G cellular networks as well as an additional $400 billion in federal procurement spending on products that are manufactured in the United States.
lacerate 引き裂く、傷つける
bungled (仕事・対応などが) 不手際な
spur ～を刺激する、～を促進させる
buy 受け入れる、信じる
enduring 長続きする、永続的な、我慢強い
federal procurement 連邦調達
7/12(日)の放送
Amazon Makes Employees Delete TikTok From Phones, Citing Security Risk
著者：Mike Isaac and Karen Weise
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon has asked its employees to delete the Chinese-owned video app TikTok from their cellphones, citing “security risks,” according to a company email sent Friday.
In the email, which was obtained by The New York Times, Amazon officials said employees must delete the app from any devices that “access Amazon email.” Employees had to remove the app by Friday to remain able to obtain mobile access to their Amazon email, the note said.
In a statement, TikTok said user security was “of the utmost importance” and that it was committed to user privacy. It added, “While Amazon did not communicate to us before sending their email, and we still do not understand their concerns, we welcome a dialogue.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon’s move adds to the difficulties facing TikTok, which has been popular with young audiences in the United States and is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance. Because of its Chinese ownership, TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny in Washington over whether it is secure.
Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said Monday the Trump administration was considering blocking some Chinese apps, which he has called a threat to national security. Last year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal panel that reviews foreign acquisitions of U.S. firms, opened a national security review of ByteDance’s acquisition of American company Musical.ly, which eventually became TikTok.
In response, ByteDance has said that it would separate TikTok from much of its Chinese operations and that users’ personal data would be stored in the United States and not in China. In May, ByteDance hired Kevin Mayer, a former Disney executive, to be chief executive of TikTok based in Los Angeles.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who has called for investigations into the national security ramifications of Chinese apps, said of Amazon’s move with TikTok on Friday that “the whole federal government should follow suit.”
Cite 引用、挙げる
Utmost 最大限の、最高度の
Dialogue 対話、話し合い
Scrutiny 精密な調査、じろじろ見ること
Ramification 分岐、因果関係
Facebook Said to Consider Banning Political Ads
著者：Mike Isaac
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is considering banning political advertising across its network before the November general election, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, after facing intense pressure for allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish across its site.
The decision has not been finalized, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were confidential, and the company could continue with its current political advertising policy. Discussions on potentially banning political ads have simmered since late last year, they said, and the idea gained traction in recent weeks as Facebook has faced more scrutiny over its content.
A Facebook spokesman declined to comment.
If a ban on political ads were to happen, it would be a reversal for Facebook and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. The social network has long allowed politicians and political parties to run ads across its network virtually unchecked, even if those ads contained falsehoods or other misinformation. Zuckerberg has repeatedly said he would not police politicians’ ads and stated that the company was not an arbiter of truth.
Zuckerberg has said that removing political ads from the network could harm down-ballot candidates who are less well-funded than nationally prominent politicians.
But that hands-off approach has led to an intense backlash against the social network. Lawmakers, civil rights groups and Facebook’s own employees have assailed it for letting hate speech and misinformation fester on its site. Last month, the Biden presidential campaign said it would begin urging its supporters to demand that Facebook strengthen its rules against misinformation. More recently, advertisers such as Unilever and Coca-Cola have paused their advertising on the platform in protest.
That was punctuated this week by the release of a two-year audit of Facebook’s policies. The audit, conducted by civil rights experts and lawyers who were hand-picked by the company, concluded that Facebook had not done enough to protect people on the platform from discriminatory posts and ads.
On Friday, some of the top Democratic outside groups that are major spenders on Facebook said they had not heard about any potential banning of political ads closer to the election nor had they had recent discussions with Facebook about any similar type of policy.
Misinformation 誤報
Anonymity 匿名
Simmer とろとろ煮える、爆発しそう
Backlash はね返り、反動
Punctuate 句読点をつける、中断する
Discriminatory 差別的な
7/13(月)の放送
U.S. Will Impose Tariffs on French Goods in Response to Tech Tax
著者：Jim Tankersley
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday said it would impose new tariffs on $1.3 billion worth of French goods, including cosmetics, soap and handbags, in retaliation for a French tax that largely hits American technology companies, escalating a trade dispute that threatens to further damage the global economy.
Notably absent from the tariff list, published by the U.S. Trade Representative, are French cheese, sparkling wine and cookware, which the administration had threatened to tax in December. Wine retailers and other U.S. importers of French goods had voiced opposition to those potential tariffs, saying they would hurt American companies and their workers.
The 25% tariffs will be delayed 180 days and take effect in January 2021, a hiatus meant to give both countries time to resolve their differences over a digital tax that will hit American tech companies.
France has adopted a 3% tax on the revenues some companies earn from providing goods and services to French users over the internet, even if they do not have large physical presences in France, a measure that will target Facebook, Google, Amazon and others whose businesses focus on digital advertising and e-commerce.
The Trump administration launched a trade investigation into the tax a year ago. The report found in December that the French tax “discriminates against U.S. companies, is inconsistent with prevailing principles of international tax policy and is unusually burdensome for affected U.S. companies.” The report recommended tariffs as high as 100% on certain French imports valued at $2.4 billion, including cheese, wine and handbags. The final recommendation was significantly less punitive, with tariffs at 25%, and wine and cheese were dropped from the list entirely.
U.S. and French officials called a temporary truce on the issue in January, with the French pledging to suspend collection of the tax and the Americans pledging to hold off on tariffs, while international negotiators sought a multilateral agreement on where and how to tax internet commerce that crosses borders.
But that détente has collapsed in recent months, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suspending international tax negotiations and warning of retaliation against any country that imposes new taxes on American technology companies.
in retaliation for …への報復として
*retaliate (7/1 復習 報復する)
hiatus 隙間、割れ目
punitive 罰の、極めて厳しい
*punitive tariffs 報復関税
*tariffs 関税は通常複数形
détente (仏) (国際関係の)緊張緩和
Defying U.S., China and Iran Near Trade and Military Partnership
著者：Farnaz Fassihi and Steven Lee Myers
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Iran and China have quietly drafted a sweeping economic and security partnership that would clear the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investments in energy and other sectors, undercutting the Trump administration’s efforts to isolate the Iranian government because of its nuclear and military ambitions.
The partnership, detailed in an 18-page proposed agreement obtained by The New York Times, would vastly expand Chinese presence in banking, telecommunications, ports, railways and dozens of other projects. In exchange, China would receive a regular — and, according to an Iranian official and an oil trader, heavily discounted — supply of Iranian oil over the next 25 years.
The document also describes deepening military cooperation, potentially giving China a foothold in a region that has been a strategic preoccupation of the United States for decades. It calls for joint training and exercises, joint research and weapons development and intelligence sharing — all to fight “the lopsided battle with terrorism, drug and human trafficking and cross-border crimes.”
The partnership — first proposed by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, during a visit to Iran in 2016 — was approved by President Hassan Rouhani’s Cabinet in June, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said last week.
If put into effect as detailed, the partnership would create new and potentially dangerous flashpoints in the deteriorating relationship between China and the U.S.
It represents a major blow to the Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward Iran since abandoning the nuclear deal reached in 2015 by President Barack Obama and the leaders of six other nations after two years of grueling negotiations.
Renewed U.S. sanctions, including the threat to cut off access to the international banking system for any company that does business in Iran, have succeeded in suffocating the Iranian economy by scaring away badly needed foreign trade and investment.
But Tehran’s desperation has pushed it into the arms of China, which has the technology and appetite for oil that Iran needs. Iran has been one of the world’s largest oil producers, but its exports, Tehran’s largest source of revenue, have plunged since the Trump administration began imposing sanctions in 2018; China gets about 75% of its oil from abroad and is the world’s largest importer, at more than 10 million barrels a day last year.
defy （6/13 復習）無視する、反抗する
preoccupation 没頭、夢中になっていること
*occupation (名) 職業/ 占拠
lopsided いびつな、不均衡な
flashpoint (7/6復習)発火点、火種
suffocate 息を詰まらせる、窒息させる
7/14(火)の放送
Kelly Preston, Actress in ‘Jerry Maguire,’ Dies at 57
著者：Austin Ramzy
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Kelly Preston, an actress known for her role as a hardhearted fiancée of the Tom Cruise character in the 1996 film “Jerry Maguire,” died Sunday at 57.
The cause was breast cancer, her husband, the actor John Travolta, said in an Instagram post Monday.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer,” he wrote. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”
Preston, who was born Oct. 13, 1962, in Honolulu, appeared in the 1986 film “Space Camp.” But she had a breakthrough as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love interest in “Twins,” the 1988 comedy that also starred Danny DeVito.
She met Travolta in 1988, while they worked on the film “The Experts.” She had a brief cameo with Travolta in the 2000 sci-fi flop “Battlefield Earth,” and the couple worked together in the 2018 film “Gotti,” in which Travolta played the late Mafia boss John Gotti and Preston his wife, Victoria.
Preston said that to help prepare for the role, she met Victoria Gotti, and the two ended up forming a relationship.
“We sat there for hours, just talking and eating,” Preston said while meeting the news media during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Vanity Fair reported. “I spent the whole day with her family. I also had an email relationship with her, and she would tell me everything.”
Preston and Travolta were married in 1991. In addition to her husband, she is survived by their daughter, Ella Bleu; and a son, Benjamin. Their eldest son, Jett, 16, died in 2009 after having a seizure.
In “Jerry Maguire,” which featured Cruise as a fast-talking sports agent who gains a conscience, she played “a brief but memorable appearance as Jerry’s shark of a fiancée from his big-shot days,” New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote in 1996.
When Jerry dumps her character, Avery, she flattens him with a flurry of blows.
“I won’t let you hurt me, Jerry,” Avery says. “I’m too strong for you, loser.”
hardhearted 無情な、冷酷な
interest 興味を起こさせる人
[語源：inter(間に)+est(存在する)]
sci-fi SF (Science Fiction)
[☝️wi-fi (Wireless Fidelity)]
flop 失敗作（大ゴケ）
survived by~ 家族では〜が生き残っている
conscience 良心
[語源：con(みんな)+science(知っている)
→みんな間違っていると知っている→良心]
shark of a fiancée サメのようなフィアンセ
big-shot 大物
[禁酒法時代のギャングのスラングから]
critic 批評家
[語源：critic(見分ける、非難する)]
[親戚：criticize(批判する), critical(致命的な)]
dumps 振る、捨てる
flattens ノックアウトする(地面に平たく)
flurry 一陣の疾風
Court Clears Way for First Federal Execution in 17 Years to Proceed
著者：Hailey Fuchs
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
WASHINGTON — The first federal inmate in 17 years is set to be put to death Monday, barring a last-minute stay, after a federal appeals court ruled Sunday that the Justice Department could carry out the execution as planned.
Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, was sentenced to death decades ago for his part in the 1996 murder of a family of three. Family members of Lee’s victims had sued the Justice Department, arguing that they could not safely travel to witness the execution because of the coronavirus. A federal judge in Indiana, where the execution will take place, suspended the plan late Friday, but the decision Sunday by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put it back on track.
The family plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, which would have to act before 4 p.m. Monday to stop the execution.
The Trump administration announced in July 2019 its campaign to bring back the federal death penalty from what had been a de facto moratorium. But legal challenges to the federal government’s proposed execution protocol delayed the procedures. Less than a month ago, the Justice Department renewed that push, scheduling four executions this summer, all of which were of inmates convicted of murdering children. Three, including Lee, are scheduled to die this week.
Several family members of Lee’s victims — including those who had filed the lawsuit — have called for the Justice Department to commute his sentence to life in prison. But in the lawsuit filed last week, they argued that their preexisting conditions, including congestive heart failure and asthma, made traveling hundreds of miles to attend the execution especially risky.
Not anticipating the court’s decision, two family members of the victims missed scheduled flights from Washington state Sunday morning, when the stay was still in effect, said the family’s lawyer, Baker Kurrus. He said it was too difficult for Earlene Branch Peterson, 81, whose daughter and granddaughter were killed by Lee, to drive hundreds of miles to the execution from her home in Arkansas.
“They’re stomping on the rights of victims of crimes,” Kurrus said.
inmate 収容者
stay 延期、猶予
de facto 事実上の(ラテン語)
[ラテン語の表現：et cetra=etc.(等), vice versa(逆も然り)]
moratorium 猶予期間(7/9理沙さんの復習)
protocol 儀礼、手順、プロトコル
commute 減刑する
[語源：com(強調)+mute(変化する)]
[☝️commute(通勤・通学)は
commutation ticket(一枚にまとめて変化した券=定期券)から]
congestive 充血性の
[親戚：congestion(渋滞、過密)
asthma ぜん息
anticipating 予期する
[語源：ante(前に)+cipate(取る)]
[親戚：participate(部分的に取る→参加する)]
Arkansas アーケンソー州
7/15(水)の放送
Redskins to Drop Name, Yielding to Pressure From Sponsors and Activists
著者：Ken Belson and Kevin Draper
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
First, the city of Washington took down a tribute to George Preston Marshall, the founder of its NFL team, that was in front of the team’s old home, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. Then the team removed references to Marshall, who named his team the “Redskins,” from inside its stadium and at its training facility.
On Monday, under pressure from corporate sponsors, the team announced it would drop its logo and “Redskins” from its name, an all but forced turnaround by team owner Daniel Snyder, who for decades said he would never change the name that had long been considered a racial slur.
“Today, we are announcing we will be retiring the Redskins name and logo upon completion of this review,” the team said.
Monday’s decision came just 10 days after the franchise said it would review the 87-year-old team name under significant pressure from major corporate partners, including FedEx, which had threatened to end its naming rights sponsorship of the team’s stadium.
The team did not announce a new name Monday as it continues to evaluate possibilities. Snyder said the new name, when chosen, would “take into account not only the proud tradition and history of the franchise but also input from our alumni, the organization, sponsors, the National Football League and the local community it is proud to represent on and off the field.”
His about-face comes after hundreds of universities and schools have in recent years abandoned team names and mascots with Native American imagery.
“This day of the retirement of the r-word slur and stereotypical logo belongs to all those Native families,” said Suzan Shown Harjo, a Native American activist.
That Washington, among the NFL’s most valuable franchises, was compelled to change its name likely adds pressure on the remaining professional teams with Native American mascots and logos to reevaluate their names and monikers.
The Washington team’s most immediate task is changing its official branding, but it is unclear how the team will address fans who continue to wear headdresses, war paint and other stereotypical imagery to games, and if it will replace its fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” which contains references to “braves on the warpath” and is played after touchdowns at home games.
yield 屈服する、降伏する
slur 非難する、中傷する
about-face 急に考えを変える
compelled to 〜せざるを得ない
moniker あだ名
Los Angeles and San Diego Schools to Go Online-Only in The Fall
著者：Shawn Hubler and Dana Goldstein
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s two largest public school districts said Monday that instruction would be online-only in the fall, in the latest sign that school administrators are increasingly unwilling to risk crowding students back into classrooms until the coronavirus is fully under control.
The school districts in Los Angeles and San Diego, which together enroll some 825,000 students, are the largest in the country to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August.
The decision came as Gov. Gavin Newsom announced some of the most sweeping rollbacks yet of California’s plans to reopen. Indoor operations for restaurants, bars, wineries, movie theaters and zoos were shut down statewide Monday, and churches, gyms, hair salons, malls and other businesses were shuttered for four-fifths of the population.
“There’s a public health imperative to keep schools from becoming a petri dish,” said Austin Beutner, the Los Angeles school district’s superintendent.
At the White House, Trump denounced the decision in Los Angeles, arguing that schools should resume because children wanted to attend.
“Schools should be opened,” Trump said. “You’re losing a lot of lives by keeping things closed.” It was not clear what he meant because public health experts say the virus spreads quickly in poorly ventilated, closed areas, the condition of many U.S. schools.
All across the nation, school officials are trying to balance safety against learning losses. Initial research showed that during the first round of school closures, American children were set back, on average, by seven months in their reading and math learning, with children from low-income families and students of color experiencing even bigger losses.
Still, district leaders in Los Angeles and San Diego said, California was not in a position to reopen schools.
“Those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available,” the statement said. “California has neither.”
California’s death toll from the coronavirus rose to more than 7,000 over the weekend, with 7.4% of test results coming back positive over the past two weeks, even as testing has ramped up to more than 100,000 tests a day.
Beutner said the decision would be revisited when local infection rates have been sufficiently lowered and public health authorities have put into place adequate testing and contact tracing systems.
enroll 登録する、入学させる
abandon 諦める、断念する
rollback 後退、元の状態に戻す
imperative 必要不可欠な
petri dish シャーレ
revisit 再考する
adequate 適切な、十分な
7/16(木)の放送
Face Masks to Be Compulsory for Shoppers in England
著者：Benjamin Mueller
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
LONDON — People in England will be required to wear masks inside shops and supermarkets, the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain announced Tuesday, ending months of equivocation over mandating face coverings to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Many scientists found the dithering over face coverings in England mystifying — and uneasily reminiscent of delays in imposing a lockdown in March. The hesitation cost thousands of lives and has left Britain with one of the highest death rates in the world from the coronavirus.
More than 50,000 people in Britain have died from the virus, and Johnson’s government has faced intense criticism for its sometimes laissez-faire approach to public health measures, an attitude that was evident in its reluctance to make face coverings compulsory.
The reversal is set to take effect a week from Friday. In mandating face masks, England followed the path of other European countries, like Germany and Italy, and of Scotland, which is part of Britain but sets its own health policy.
Many scientists had pleaded for months with Johnson’s government to heed the growing evidence that masks could help stop the spread of the virus. Unlike in the United States, where feelings about masks often fall along political lines, England’s hesitation stemmed in part from a scientific debate among advisers about the usefulness of masks.
As recently as late April, the government’s powerful Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies retroactively edited the minutes of a previous meeting to emphasize that “it would be unreasonable to claim a large benefit from wearing a mask.”
The advisers’ misgivings, apparently a response to a lack of evidence from randomized controlled trials, reflected what critics have called a rigid approach to the science that has slowed England’s response to the virus since March.
Masks have been mandatory on public transportation in England since mid-June, and the government had previously encouraged the wearing of masks in enclosed spaces.
The government has indicated that the police, rather than shop owners, will enforce the new rules, with those who refuse facing a fine of up to 100 pounds, or $125.
equivocation 曖昧な言葉
mandate 命令・要求する
dither 躊躇する、(心配・寒さなどで)ぶるぶる震える
plead 懇願する
Trump Administration Asserts Control Over Coronavirus Data
著者：Sheryl Gay Stolberg
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.
The new instructions were posted in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the CDC — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.
Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on CDC data to make crucial decisions.
“Historically, CDC has been the place where public health data has been sent, and this raises questions about not just access for researchers but access for reporters, access for the public to try to better understand what is happening with the outbreak,” said Jen Kates, the director of global health and HIV policy with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
“How will the data be protected?” she asked. “Will there be transparency, will there be access, and what is the role of the CDC in understanding the data?”
Michael R. Caputo, a Health and Human Services spokesman, called the CDC’s system inadequate and said the two systems would be linked. The CDC would continue to make data public, he said.
The shift grew out of a tense conference call several weeks ago between hospital executives and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. After Birx said hospitals were not adequately reporting their data, she convened a working group of government and hospital officials who devised the new plan.
assert 主張する
withhold from the public 世間に公表しない
transparency (状況・過程などの) 透明性
convene 招集する
7/17(金)の放送
Twitter Accounts for Biden, Gates, Musk and Others Are Hacked
著者：Sheera Frenkel, Nathaniel Popper and Kate Conger
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
SAN FRANCISCO — One by one, the Twitter accounts of some of the most prominent people in American business and politics started displaying the same message Wednesday afternoon: Send Bitcoin to the link below and you will double your money. The names included Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Kanye West and Bill Gates, and countless more.
But it was all a scam, the result of one of the most brazen online attacks in memory.
A first wave of attacks went after cryptocurrency-related companies and personalities at midday on the East Coast, but over the course of a few hours the prominence of the victims increased. Many of the tweets were quickly removed, but in some cases similar tweets were sent again from the same accounts.
Twitter appeared to be essentially powerless to stop them. The company eventually disabled broad swathes of its service as it worked to stop the attack. “You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident,” the company said.
The attack was a major show of force by attackers who seized a key means of communication for a Who’s Who list of Americans. The hackers did not use their access to take aim at any important institutions or infrastructure like the stock market — instead deciding to just ask for Bitcoin.
But the attack was frightening because the hackers could have easily caused much more havoc. There was quickly speculation on what would happened had the attackers instead tried to move the financial markets or sow political chaos. The attack exposed the vulnerability of a company, Twitter, that has become the nation’s de facto real-time news source.
The messages were a version of a long-running scam in which hackers pose as public figures on Twitter, and promise to match or even triple any funds that are sent to their Bitcoin wallets. In the past, hackers have created fake accounts to try to convince users that the funds will be going to public figures like Musk or Gates. The attacks Wednesday were the first time the real accounts of public figures were used in the scam.
Accounts belonging to Musk, the Tesla chief executive, and Gates, the Microsoft mogul, were among the first prominent Twitter accounts to be compromised. Within the hour, West’s account was hit along with many more.
brazen 堂々とした／厚かましい
cryptocurrency 暗号通貨／仮想通貨
swathes (大がまで刈った)ひと刈り分の牧草／広範囲
a Who’s Who 有力者たち／名士録
mogul 大立者／権力者／大御所
compromised 危険にさらされた／犠牲になった
Monsoon Rains Pummel South Asia, Displacing Millions
著者：Sameer Yasir
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Across southern Asia, more than 4 million people have been hit hard by monsoon floods that have destroyed homes and structures, drowned entire villages and forced people to crouch on rooftops hoping for rescue.
The monsoon season — usually June to September — brings a torrent of heavy rain, a deluge that is crucial to South Asia’s agrarian economy.
But in recent years, the monsoon season has increasingly brought cyclones and devastating floods, causing the internal displacement of millions of people in low-lying areas, particularly in Bangladesh.
Last year, at least 600 people were killed and more than 25 million affected by flooding because of the torrential monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal, according to the United Nations. And in 2017, more than 1,000 people died in floods across South Asia.
Rainfall has been heaviest this year in northeast India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal, according to the Southeast Asia Flash Flood Forecast System, which is affiliated with the United Nations.
Enamur Rahman, the Bangladeshi minister for disaster management, said the inundations were the worst in decades and that hundreds of thousands of families had been marooned, forcing the authorities to open more than 1,000 emergency shelters.
“We are fighting the catastrophe with every possible resource available,” Rahman said. “It seems rains and floods will be prolonged this year.”
India has also suffered immensely. Floods have swept across the states of Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and other areas in the eastern part of the country. Authorities have said that at least 85 people have died, with more than 3 million affected by the deluge.
In the northeastern state of Assam, Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage site that is a home to the one-horned Indian rhinoceros, a species listed as vulnerable by the WWF, has been completely inundated. Officials said that more than 50 animals had died in the flooding, though some wildlife had been rescued.
With more than a dozen rivers and tributaries swelling above the danger mark, rescue operations have been carried out in at least 22 districts across Assam.
In Nepal, 67 people have died and 40 others are missing, according to the National Emergency Operation Center.
Pummel 襲う／ボコボコにする
torrent 土砂降り／豪雨
deluge 大洪水／大雨
agrarian 農業の／農地の
inundations 浸水
marooned 置き去りにされる
tributaries 支流
