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。
11/21(土)の放送
CDC Pleads With Americans to Stay Home on Thanksgiving
著者：Roni Caryn Rabin
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Faced with a seemingly unstoppable surge in coronavirus infections, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday urged Americans to avoid travel for Thanksgiving and to celebrate only with members of their immediate households — a message sharply at odds with a White House eager to downplay the threat.
The plea, delivered at the first CDC news briefing in months, arrived as many Americans were packing their bags for one of the most heavily traveled weeks of the year. It is the first time that the agency has warned people away from traditional holiday celebrations.
“The safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving this year is at home with members of your household,” said Erin Sauber-Schatz, who leads the agency’s community intervention and critical population task force. She urged Americans to reassess plans for the coming week.
The CDC’s warning runs counter to messages from administration officials, who have denounced concerns that Thanksgiving celebrations will speed the virus’s spread.
Members of the White House coronavirus task force did not even mention Thanksgiving at a news conference Thursday, even as they warned of the hazards associated with indoor gatherings and urged “vigilance” in the face of rampant infections.
An estimated 55 million Americans had planned to travel for the holiday, according to AAA Travel. But rising coronavirus infections, new quarantine rules and increased unemployment have combined to deter travelers in the past few weeks, and that number will be at least 10% lower now, the largest year-over-year decrease since 2008.
United Airlines said recently that it expected Thanksgiving week to be its busiest period since the pandemic’s onset. But on Thursday, the airline reported that bookings had slowed and cancellations had risen. American Airlines has slashed flights between the United States and Europe as cases rise sharply on both sides of the Atlantic.
Emboldened CDC officials, rarely heard from in recent months, have been speaking more forcefully since President-elect Joe Biden won the election. On Thursday, agency researchers said they were alarmed by the “exponential” rise in coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths across the country.
More than 1 million new cases have been reported in the past week alone.
surge 急上昇、急増
at odds with ～と不和で (対立して)
intervention 介入、介在
reassess ～を見直す
vigilance 警戒、用心
rampant まん延した、広がった
year-over-year 前年比 (の)
slash (予算・値段・人員などを) 大幅に削減する
embolden 勇気づける、大胆にする
exponential 急激な、指数関数的な
11/22(日)の放送
Apple Halves Its App Store Fee for the Smaller Companies
著者：Jack Nicas
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Apple, facing growing antitrust scrutiny over what it charges other companies for access to its App Store, said Wednesday that it would cut in half the fee it took from the smallest app developers.
Developers that brought in $1 million or less from their apps in the previous year will pay a 15% commission on those app sales starting next year, down from 30%, the company said.
The move, which will have little impact on Apple’s bottom line, is an abrupt change from the company’s public intransigence over its fees. For 12 years, the App Store has helped fuel Apple’s remarkable growth, and the company has appeared reluctant to do anything to tamper with it. Even when its fee policy emerged as the focus of antitrust complaints, Apple aggressively defended it.
Now Apple appears to have found a way to earn good will from thousands of developers and give its executives ammunition for defending its commission to regulators and journalists, all without costing the company much.
The change will affect roughly 98% of the companies that pay Apple a commission, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. But those developers accounted for less than 5% of App Store revenues last year, Sensor Tower said. Apple said the new rate would affect the “vast majority” of its developers but declined to offer specific numbers.
Apple said in a statement that it had made the change because 2020 was a difficult year for many small companies.
“We’re launching this program to help small-business owners write the next chapter of creativity and prosperity on the App Store, and to build the kind of quality apps our customers love,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a news release. The smaller commission will help “developers fund their small businesses, take risks on new ideas, expand their teams, and continue to make apps that enrich people’s lives,” he said.
The fee cut probably won’t calm the waters between Apple and the larger app developers that have long protested the fee most loudly.
Epic Games, maker of the popular game Fortnite, sued Apple in August over its fee. A month later, 13 companies and groups, including Spotify and Match Group, formed the nonprofit Coalition for App Fairness to fight the “app tax.” And U.S. and European regulators are investigating Apple for anti-competitive behavior, partly because of its commission.
Halves 半分にする
Antitrust 独占禁止
Scrutiny 精密な調査
Bottom line 最終利益
Abrupt 不意の、突然の
Intransigence 妥協しないこと
Reluctant いやいやながら
Tamper 勝手にいじる、改ざんする
Good will 好意、善意
Ammunition 弾丸
Prosperity 繁栄
Enrich 豊富にする
11/23(月)の放送
GM Accelerates Its Ambitions for Electric Vehicles
著者：Neal E. Boudette
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
General Motors is gearing up an all-out push to catch up to Tesla in electric vehicles.
The automaker said Thursday that it was accelerating plans to introduce electric cars and trucks over the next five years, and that it expected to spend $27 billion by 2025 on the effort, up from a previous budget of $20 billion.
“We think the industry is transforming, and to lead it, you’ve got to be better than other folks,” said Doug Parks, a GM executive vice president.
Although Tesla “has got a good jump” and a number of startups are focused on electric vehicles, he said, “we’re not going to cede leadership.”
CEO Mary Barra was scheduled to elaborate on GM’s accelerated strategy Thursday afternoon at an investor conference convened by Barclays Capital.
“Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution,” Barra said in a statement. “We are resolved as a management team to move even faster to expedite the transition to EVs.”
Parks said GM aimed to introduce 30 electric models around the world by 2025, about 10 more than it had previously disclosed. Twenty will be available in the United States. Among the first will be a Hummer electric sport utility vehicle that is supposed to arrive in showrooms late next year. A Cadillac SUV, called the Lyriq, is now due in the first quarter of 2022, nine months earlier than previously planned, Parks said.
Other models will include an electric pickup truck and SUV for its Chevrolet brand, as well as other models “at all price points,” Parks said.
He said the company expected its Ultium modular battery packs to provide a range up 450 miles before needing a recharge. Earlier this year, GM said the maximum range would be about 400 miles.
GM hopes to produce the battery packs for other automakers and has formed a partnership to supply Honda Motor. “Scale can give us an incredible competitive advantage,” Parks said.
GM is building a factory near Lordstown, Ohio, to make Ultium packs. Last week, the company said it aimed to hire some 3,000 electrical and software engineers to support its EV effort.
gear up 準備を整える
all-out 1 総力をあげての、全面的な
*make an all-out effort: 全力を尽くす
cede 譲る、引き渡す
elaborate on 詳しく話す
convene 招集する
*convene a meeting/conference/committee
resolve決意する、決心する
expedite 加速する
【ラテン語: ex: 外に、pedis: 足に付いた鎖]
Ultium modular battery pack アルティウムモジュラー式バッテリーパック
range 航続距離
[番外編]
EV = electric vehicle: 電気自動車
SUV = sport utility vehicle: スポーツ用多目的車
11/24(火)の放送
An Unlikely Thanksgiving Tradition Carries On
著者：Marie Fazio
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Four years ago, Wanda Dench didn’t know her grandson had changed his phone number when she invited him to her house for Thanksgiving dinner at 3 p.m. sharp.
First there was confusion from the apparent stranger on the receiving end of the text, then an exchange of selfies.
“You not my grandma,” texted Jamal Hinton, then a 17-year-old high school senior. “Can I still get a plate though?”
“Of course you can,” Dench, now 63, of Mesa, Arizona, responded. “That’s what grandma’s do … feed every one.”
Thus began a holiday tradition that has charmed the world. Hinton tweeted photos of their exchange, promptly drawing the internet’s attention; Dench received so many requests for plates that year that she had to change her number. A few weeks later, Hinton took Dench up on the offer, and the pair and their families celebrated that Thanksgiving together — and each one since.
Their holiday tradition has drawn attention every year. Dench even has an entry as “Thanksgiving Grandma” at KnowYourMeme, the online database of the internet’s favorite moments. When her husband, Lonnie, died of COVID-19 in April, it, too, made headlines.
This year’s holiday will be different for Thanksgiving Grandma, as it will for millions of other people.
Dench and Hinton held a small dinner on Friday, where they gave thanks and talked about their friendship and Lonnie Dench’s death, Wanda Dench said.
“I always remember Lonnie looking at the bright side of things,” Hinton said. “He would want us to celebrate his life instead of hating COVID and hating everything.”
As more than a quarter of a million people in the United States have died from the coronavirus, a collective grief has swept the country. In many households, the loss is personal and tangible: an empty seat at the dinner table.
When Dench and Hinton first met, the country was going through a similarly turbulent time during an election year with heated racial tension, Hinton said. He thinks their texts offered a holiday reprieve from a harsh reality.
“It was something to show everybody, ‘Hey, we’re all still human, we’re all still together and we can all be friends,’” he said. He said he hoped the same message carries weight today.
<Pickup Vocabs 1>
Unlikely 思いがけない
☝️un(〜ではない)+likely(よくある)
Tradition 慣例
[語源: trans(越えて)+dare(与える)]
☝️extradition(本国送還、外国からの逃亡犯の引き渡し)
sharp きっかり
🕛時間の後にくっつけて使います
apparent どうやら〜らしい
selfie 自撮り
☝️2003年頃オーストラリアで生まれた言葉、という説
plate 料理
☝️お皿=一皿の料理
That’s what grandma’s do おばあちゃんというのはそういう(ことをする)もの
☝️当然でしょ、当たり前じゃない、という表現
charmed 魅了した
☝️名詞charm(呪文、魅力)
形容詞charming(魅力的な)
promptly 速やかに
☝️スピードが速いというよりも、反応速度が速い、すぐに
<Pickup Vocabs 2>
draw attention 注目を集める
☝️draw(引く)→draw(線を引く)、drawer(引き出し)
Meme ミーム、SNSなどで広く拡散されるキャプション付きネタ画像や動画
looking at the bright side いい面を見る
☝️look on the bright side
collective 集合的な、共同の
☝️集団で共有される感情について語る時によく使われる
households (一緒に住んでいる)家族、世帯
☝️family(家族という心のつながり)↔︎household(家単位)
tangible 触れて感知できる、実体的な
[対義語: intangible(触れられない、形のない)]
turbulent 感情がかき乱された
reprieve 危険、困難からの一時的な救済
☝️死刑の執行猶予
carries weight 重きをなす
☝️is considered important(大事だと思われる)と同義
11/25(水)の放送
NBA Players Meet With Pope Francis on Social Justice Efforts
著者：Jonathan Abrams
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
A delegation of five NBA players and officials from the players association met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday to discuss their efforts toward addressing social justice and economic inequality.
The visit came after the Vatican extended an invitation to the players’ union, saying the pope wanted to learn more about their activities. Michele Roberts, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, joined Kyle Korver, Sterling Brown, Anthony Tolliver, Marco Belinelli and Jonathan Isaac, players who are all active in the union, at the meeting.
“I thought it was a fraud email that I got,” Korver, who plays on the Milwaukee Bucks, said. “I called Michele right away. I was like, ‘Is this for real?’ She said, ‘Yes, it is and would you like to come in like two days?’ This came together really quick.”
After the 30-minute meeting, the players and officials still appeared stunned as they talked about it on video calls with reporters. “I’m still not even sure if this really happened,” Roberts said. The players took turns addressing the pope and offered him a book documenting many of their community and social initiatives in the last few months as well as jerseys and a Black Lives Matter T-shirt.
“He said sport is such an opportunity to unify, and he compared it to a team, where you have a common goal and you’re working together, but you all use your own personalities,” Korver said.
For the players, the meeting provided an opportunity to expand global awareness of the efforts to promote social justice after the deaths of several Black Americans at the hands of the police, including George Floyd in Minnesota, and the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
Brown and Korver were members of the Milwaukee Bucks team that initiated a work stoppage throughout sports in August. Confined inside the NBA’s so-called bubble environment in Orlando, Florida, the Bucks players refused to take part in a scheduled playoff game after the shooting of Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Their protest quickly spread to other teams and other sports, forcing the postponement of games in the WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.
delegation 代表団
efforts （問題に対する）取り組み
social justice 社会正義
extend an invitation 招待する
fraud 詐欺
stunned 呆然とする
unify 統一する
confined 閉じ込められた
so-called いわゆる
11/26(木)の放送
AstraZeneca’s Coronavirus Vaccine, Easy and Cheap to Produce, Appears Effective
著者：Rebecca Robbins and Benjamin Mueller
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced on Monday that their inexpensive, easy-to-produce coronavirus vaccine appears effective, the latest in a string of encouraging results this month from leading vaccine developers.
An early analysis of data from late-stage clinical trials found that AstraZeneca’s vaccine was either 62% or 90% effective, depending on the manner in which the doses were given.
While the overall efficacy of the vaccine remains unclear, the encouraging preliminary results indicate that it has the potential to become a powerful new weapon in the war on the pandemic, which has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide since January and is still spreading rapidly.
AstraZeneca said it expected to begin distributing the vaccine this year and that it would be able to make up to 3 billion doses next year. At two doses per person, that would be enough to inoculate nearly 1 in 5 people worldwide.
Unlike some other leading vaccine candidates, the AstraZeneca offering can be quickly produced in vast quantities, will cost only a few dollars per dose and is easy to store for long periods. That could substantially expand the number of countries and people that have access to the vaccine.
AstraZeneca’s announcement came on the heels of Pfizer and Moderna releasing trial results that showed their vaccines to both be about 95% effective. Those vaccines, however, can only be kept outside of ultracold freezers for a few weeks, making their distribution and storage more challenging.
The price of AstraZeneca’s shot, at $3 to $4, is a fraction of the cost of some other vaccines. AstraZeneca has pledged to make it available at cost around the world until at least July 2021 and in poorer countries in perpetuity.
The varying effectiveness of AstraZeneca’s vaccine reflected differences in how doses were administered in the late-stage trials. In the dosing plan that was 90% effective, study participants were given a half-dose of the vaccine and then, a month later, a full dose. The vaccine was less effective when people were given a standard full dose upfront, followed a month later by another full dose. On average, the vaccine was 70% effective.
a string of 一連の
encouraging 励みとなる
dose 投与量、(薬の)1回分
up to 最大〜まで
inoculate (人など)に予防接種する
substantially 十分に、相当に
freezer 急速冷凍庫、冷凍室
a fraction of A Aの一部(にすぎない)
at cost 原価で、仕入れ値段で
in perpetuity 永久に
11/27(金)の放送
Illegal Tampering by Diesel Pickup Owners Is Worsening Pollution, EPA Says
著者：Coral Davenport
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
WASHINGTON — The owners and operators of more than a half-million diesel pickup trucks have been illegally disabling their vehicles’ emissions control technology over the past decade, allowing excess emissions equivalent to 9 million extra trucks on the road, a new federal report has concluded.
The practice, described in a report by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Civil Enforcement, has echoes of the Volkswagen scandal of 2015, when the automaker was found to have illegally installed devices in millions of diesel passenger cars worldwide — including about a half-million in the United States — designed to trick emissions control monitors.
But in this case no single corporation is behind the subterfuge; it is the truck owners themselves who are installing illegal devices, which are typically manufactured by small companies. That makes it much more difficult to measure the full scale of the problem, which is believed to affect many more vehicles than the 500,000 or so estimated in the report.
In terms of the pollution impact in the United States, “This is far more alarming and widespread than the Volkswagen scandal,” said Drew Kodjak, executive director of the International Council on Clean Transportation. “Because these are trucks, the amount of pollution is far, far higher.”
The EPA focused just on devices installed in heavy pickup trucks, such as the Chevrolet Silverado and the Dodge Ram 2500, about 15% of which appear to have defeat devices installed. But such devices — commercially available and marketed as a way to improve vehicle performance — almost certainly have been installed in millions of other vehicles.
The report was completed last week, although the EPA has not publicized it or issued a news release. Word got out after Evan Belser, the deputy director of the office’s Air Enforcement Division, emailed a copy of the report to the heads of three state air pollution control organizations.
“The aftermarket defeat device problem is huge,” said Phillip Brooks, a former EPA emissions investigator who worked on the diesel tuner investigation and the Volkswagen case. “A lot of people just don’t understand what the problem is — your average person buys a vehicle and says, it’s my vehicle, I can do what I want with it. They may not even be aware that these devices are illegal.”
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) 環境保護庁
has echoes of 〜の名残がある／〜に似ている
passenger car 乗用車
subterfuge 詐欺／ごまかし
pickup truck （９／２５の復習） ピックアップトラック
defeat devices ディフィートデバイス／無効化機能
word got out 噂が広まる／情報が流れる
aftermarket 販売後市場／部品（付属品）市場
diesel tuner ディーゼルチューナー／ディーゼル調整機
☝️自動車の「チップチューニング」の一種
(legal) case 訴訟／事件
