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。
9/19(土)の放送
Moderna and Pfizer Reveal Secret Blueprints for Coronavirus Vaccine Trials
Two drug companies that are leading the race to develop coronavirus vaccines bowed to public pressure Thursday, abandoning their traditional secrecy and releasing comprehensive road maps of how they are evaluating their vaccines.
The companies, Moderna and Pfizer, revealed details about how participants are being selected and monitored, the conditions under which the trials could be stopped early if there were problems, and the evidence researchers will use to determine whether people who got the vaccines were protected from COVID-19.
Moderna’s study will involve 30,000 participants, and Pfizer’s 44,000.
Companies typically share these documents after their studies are complete. The disclosures while the trials are still underway, a rare move, are aimed at addressing growing suspicion among Americans that President Donald Trump’s drive to produce a vaccine before the election on Nov. 3 could result in a product that was unsafe.
The plan released by Moderna on Thursday morning included a likely timetable that could reach into next year for determining whether its vaccine works. It does not jibe with the president’s optimistic predictions of a vaccine widely available to the public in October.
Pfizer’s plan does not appear to estimate when its results could be available. Its chief executive has said repeatedly that the company hopes to have an answer as early as October. Moderna has said only that it could have a result before the end of the year.
Moderna’s 135-page plan, or protocol, indicated that the company’s first analysis of early trial data might not be conducted until late December, though company officials now say they expect the initial analysis in November. In any case, there may not be enough information then to determine whether the vaccine works, and the final analysis might not take place until months later, heading into the spring of next year.
Researchers in particular have been urging vaccine makers to share the detailed blueprints of their studies so that outside experts can evaluate them. At least one expert, after reading the plans, has already raised questions about the way the trials were designed.
blueprint 設計図、詳細な計画
bow to ～に降参［屈服］する
abandon 〔財産・権利などを〕放棄する
comprehensive 包括的な、総合的な
evaluate 評価する
participant 参加者
disclosure 〔秘密の〕公表、公開
underway 進行中の
jibe with ～と一致する
indicate 示す、述べる、表明する
9/20(日)の放送
Trump Administration to Ban TikTok and WeChat From U.S. App Stores
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Friday it would bar Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of midnight Sunday, a significant escalation in America’s tech fight with China that takes aim at two popular services used by more than 100 million people in the United States.
In a series of moves designed to render WeChat essentially useless within the United States, the government will also ban American companies from processing transactions for WeChat or hosting its internet traffic as of midnight Sunday.
Similar restrictions will go into effect for TikTok on Nov. 12 unless the company can assuage the administration’s concerns that the popular social media app poses a threat to U.S. national security. TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is currently in talks to do a deal with American software-maker Oracle. The Commerce Department said the prohibitions could be lifted if TikTok resolves the administration’s national security concerns by the November deadline.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.
The actions follow an Aug. 6 executive order by President Donald Trump, in which he argued that TikTok and WeChat collect data from American users that could be accessed by the Chinese government. The administration has threatened fines of up to $1 million and up to 20 years in prison for violations of the order.
TikTok spokesperson Josh Gartner said the company was disappointed in the Commerce Department’s decision.
“We will continue to challenge the unjust executive order, which was enacted without due process and threatens to deprive the American people and small businesses across the U.S. of a significant platform for both a voice and livelihoods,” he said.
Tencent Holdings, which owns WeChat, said it was reviewing the new rules and had submitted a proposal to address the government’s national security concerns about the app. It said it would “continue to discuss with the government and other stakeholders in the U.S. ways to achieve a long-term solution.”
Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Escalation 段階的拡大、エスカレーション
Render する、与える、差し出す
Essentially 本質的に、本質上
Assuage 緩和する、やわらげる
In talks 交渉中、協議中
Spokesperson 代弁者、広報担当
Unjust 不公平な、不当な、不正な
Enact 制定する、 規定する
Deprive 奪う、拒む
Livelihood 暮らし、生計
9/21(月)の放送
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87
WASHINGTON — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday of “complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” the Supreme Court announced.
“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”
The development will give President Donald Trump the opportunity to name her replacement, and Senate Republicans have promised to try to fill the vacancy even in the waning days of his first term. The confirmation battle, in the midst of a pandemic and a presidential election, is sure to be titanic.
Trump has appointed two members of the Supreme Court, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, moving the court slightly to the right. The replacement of Ginsburg, the leader of the court’s four-member liberal wing, could transform the court into a profoundly conservative institution, one in which Republican appointees would outnumber Democratic ones six to three.
In 2016, Senate Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, saying that holding hearings in the last year of a president’s term would deprive voters of a role in the process.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, led the effort to block Garland’s nomination. But he has said he will press to fill any vacancy that might arise in the last year of Trump’s first term.
McConnell and his allies say the two situations are different. Where one party controls the Senate and the other the presidency, as in 2016, they say, vacancies should not be filled in a presidential election year. Where the same party controls both the Senate and presidency, they argue, confirmations may proceed.
Democrats say this is hairsplitting hypocrisy that damages the legitimacy of the court. But they may have little practical power to stop a third Trump nominee after changes in Senate rules on filibusters on nominations. All it takes now is a majority vote to confirm judicial nominees.
Ginsburg, who was 87, had repeatedly vowed to stay on the court as long as her health held and she stayed mentally sharp. “I have often said I would remain a member of the court as long as I can do the job full steam,” she said in July, announcing a recurrence of cancer. “I remain fully able to do that.”
complications 合併症
metastatic pancreas cancer 転移性のすい臓がん
stature 偉業
resolute 断固とした
wane 衰える(9/8復習)
titanic 巨大な
appointee 任命された者
outnumber 数で上回る
hearings 公聴会
press (動)圧力をかける
hairsplitting hypocrisy 小さなことにこだわる偽善
legitimacy 正当性、妥当性
filibuster(s) (議事)妨害
full steam 全力で
recurrence 再発
9/22(火)の放送
Former World Leaders Urge Ratification of Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty
Fifty-six former prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers and defense ministers from 20 NATO countries, plus Japan and South Korea, released an open letter Sunday imploring their current leaders to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the pact negotiated in 2017 that is now just six ratifications shy of the 50 needed to take effect.
The letter, released on the eve of the United Nations’ 75th anniversary commemoration at the annual General Assembly, asserted that the risks of nuclear-weapons use have escalated in recent years “whether by accident, miscalculation or design.”
Pointing to the coronavirus pandemic — which U.N. officials have called the greatest challenge in the organization’s history — the letter writers said, “We must not sleepwalk into a crisis of even greater proportions than the one we have experienced this year.”
The signers included former prime ministers of Canada, Japan, Italy and Poland; former presidents of Albania, Poland and Slovenia; more than two dozen former foreign ministers; and more than a dozen former defense ministers. Two of the signers are former secretaries-general of NATO: Javier Solana of Spain and Willy Claes of Belgium. Ban Ki-moon, the former secretary-general of the United Nations and a former foreign minister of South Korea, also signed.
Their letter amounts to one of the highest-profile endorsements of the treaty since it was completed more than three years ago and was opened to member states of the United Nations for signing and ratification.
“All responsible leaders must act now to ensure that the horrors of 1945 are never repeated,” the letter urged, referring to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States, the only wartime use of nuclear weapons. “Sooner or later, our luck will run out — unless we act. The nuclear weapon ban treaty provides the foundation for a more secure world, free from this ultimate menace.”
The letter was released against the backdrop of heightened nuclear threats.
North Korea has hinted at resumed testing of its atomic arsenal. An international pact designed to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons may be unraveling. And the last and most important nuclear arms-limitation pact between Russia and the United States is set to expire in February 2021, with its prospects for extension still unclear.
Ratification 批准
imploring 懇願する
[語源：im(〜に向かって)+plore(叫ぶ)]
[親戚：explore(外で叫びながら狩りをする→冒険する)]
pact 条約
shy of 足りない
☝️short of (足りない)
commemoration 記念式典
[語源：com(一緒に)+memor(思い出す)]
asserted 断言した
escalated 段階的に拡大した (9/20 Kengoさん)
[語源：エスカレーター(1950年代頃)]
sleepwalk 夢遊状態で歩く
proportions 規模、割合
[語源：pro(〜に従って)+portion(部分)]
high profile 明確な態度
[対義語：low profile(目立たない態度)
endorsements 是認 (6/15)
menace 脅威 (7/28)
backdrop 背景
[語源：舞台のback(後ろ)にdrop(落とす)背景を描いた布]
arsenal 兵器工場
attaining 獲得する
[語源：触る、たどり着く]
unraveling 解きほどく
☝️unravel the mystery of ~
expire 期限が切れる、失効する
[語源：ex(出る)+spirit(魂)]
9/23(水)の放送
Players Alliance Gets $10 Million From MLB and Union to Build Diversity
Major League Baseball and the players union have pledged $10 million to the Players Alliance, a nonprofit formed this summer by more than 100 current and former Black players in the wake of George Floyd’s death, aiming to help build Black participation in the sport, from front offices to the diamond.
The donation, which was officially announced Monday morning, will be dispersed annually over five years, financing initiatives including a player-led mentorship program, a program meant to recruit Black students to internships in the sport and another meant to donate baseball equipment to Black groups in need throughout the country.
Curtis Granderson, 39, president of the Players Alliance and a former outfielder whose 16-year career included stints with the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and New York Mets, called the money “amazing,” in part because the nonprofit was formalized only 12 weeks ago.
“MLB and the union have rolled out programs historically, and some have been great and some have obviously needed to have a little bit of assistance to them,” he said in a telephone interview this weekend. “We, as the players — the market you have been targeting — some of us have gone through these programs or have started very similar programs, so we can be a great resource to take the programs that are already good and make them better, or introduce some new ones.”
The idea for the Players Alliance came this summer when Cameron Maybin, a 33-year-old Chicago Cubs outfielder, saw a video of NFL players saying, “Black lives matter,” and listing victims of police brutality, including Floyd. (The majority of players in the NFL are Black.)
Realizing that little had been said within baseball on the same topics, Maybin reached out to one of his closest friends, Dee Strange-Gordon of the Seattle Mariners, and talked about getting the few Black players in baseball to take part in a video of their own, which they did in June with the help of former pitcher Edwin Jackson.
The donation from MLB and the union was timely: Granderson said the Players Alliance had no money in its bank account before the pledge.
alliance 同盟・連合
diversity 多様性
pledge 誓約
in the wake of 〜を受けて
aim 〜を狙う、〜に向ける
disperse 分散する
initiative 構想、戦略
mentorship 指導
roll out 公開する、公表する
victim 被害者、犠牲者
brutality 残虐行為
take part in〜 〜に参加する
9/24(木)の放送
Rescue Effort Is Underway After Hundreds of Whales Beach Themselves Off Tasmania
DARWIN, Australia — They may have taken a wrong turn, chased their prey into shallow waters or blindly followed a dying matriarch who intended to beach herself. But the pilot whales, about 270 of them, somehow ended up stranded on a remote beach in Tasmania.
A third of them are likely to have already died. Now, scientists are racing to save the others.
“It is quite confronting,” Kris Carlyon, a marine biologist with the Tasmanian government, said at a news conference Tuesday. “This is such a tricky event, a complex event, that any whale we save we consider a real win. We’re focusing on having as many survivors as we can.”
Already by Tuesday, a day after the pod was first seen, the team of scientists, government workers and police officers had saved at least 25 whales by dragging them off sandbars and away from the shore, guiding them back out to sea.
Mass strandings off Tasmania, an Australian state, are not uncommon, but the recent beaching is among the worst in the state’s history and the first involving more than 50 pilot whales since 2009.
Carlyon, who has spent more than a decade studying such strandings, is leading a team of more than 60 rescue workers around Ocean Beach, a stretch of rugged coastline 3 miles from Strahan, a former port town on the western coast of Tasmania.
Once beached, whales find it difficult to make their way back to the safety of the open ocean. The creatures can quickly become exhausted and stressed, and eventually drown.
To rescue the whales, the team places a sling under each animal and drags it by boat to the opening of the harbor, which is very narrow. The whales can measure up to 25 feet long and can weigh more than three tons. Complicating the effort are the freezing water temperatures in the harbor.
underway 進行中で
beach (船・クジラなど)を浜辺に引き上げる
chase 追いかける
prey えじき、獲物
matriarch 家母長
strand 魚などを岸に打ち上げる、船を座礁させる、
取り残す、立ち往生させる
pod (クジラ・イルカなどの)群れ
drag 引きずる
rugged でこぼこのある、起伏の多い、険しい
exhausted 疲れ切った、使い尽くされた
drown 溺死する、困難に陥る
complicate 事を複雑にする
9/25(金)の放送
California Plans to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in 15 Years
California plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars statewide by 2035, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, in a dramatic step aimed at accelerating the state’s efforts to combat global warming amid a deadly and record-breaking wildfire season.
In an executive order, Newsom directed California’s regulators to develop a plan that would require automakers to sell steadily more zero-emissions passenger vehicles in the state, such as battery-powered or hydrogen-powered cars and pickup trucks, until they made up 100% of new auto sales just 15 years from today.
The plan would also set a goal for all heavy-duty trucks on the road in California to be zero emissions by 2045 where possible.
“This is the next big global industry,” Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday, referring to clean-energy technologies such as electric vehicles. “And California wants to dominate it.”
California has long cast itself as a global leader on climate-change policy, having already passed a law to get 100% of its electricity from wind, solar and other sources that don’t produce carbon dioxide by 2045. But in recent weeks, as the state has been scorched by record wildfires partly driven by rising temperatures, Newsom has found himself pressured to act even faster.
Ramping up sales of emissions-free vehicles in California will be an enormous challenge over a relatively short period of time, experts said. Last year, only about 8% of the nearly 2 million passenger vehicles sold statewide were battery-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. Transportation remains California’s largest source of planet-warming emissions, accounting for roughly 40% of the state’s greenhouse gases from human activity.
“We have a strategy to be as bold as the problem is big, to recognize that we have agency,” Newsom said. “We’re not just victims of fate.”
In addition to setting new standards for automakers in the state, California will also likely need to increase financial incentives for people to afford electric vehicles and significantly expand its charging infrastructure, said Don Anair, deputy director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.
“It’s feasible, but it’s going to take California pulling all the levers at its disposal,” Anair said.
The order would affect only new-vehicle sales, the governor’s office said. It would not prevent Californians from owning cars with internal combustion engines past 2035 or selling them on the used-vehicle market.
regulator （☝️８／６の復習）規制者／規制当局
zero-emissions ゼロエミッション／排出しない
hydrogen-powered 水素エネルギーを使う
pickup truck ピックアップトラック
heavy-duty 丈夫な／（車を示している場合）大型の
ramp up （☝️７／５の復習）強化する／加速する
agency 自由意志／（ある結果をもたらす）力
incentive 刺激／奨励金
infrastructure 社会基盤／基本的施設
feasible （☝️７／３の復習）実行可能な／実現できる
at (one’s) disposal 好きに使っていい（もの）／〜が持っている
