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。
12/5(土)の放送
Warner Bros. Says All 2021 Films Will Be Streamed Right Away
著者：Brooks Barnes and Nicole Sperling
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
In a startling move that marked the biggest challenge yet to Hollywood’s traditional way of doing business, Warner Bros. announced Thursday that 17 movies — its entire 2021 slate — would each arrive simultaneously in theaters and on its sibling streaming service, the underperforming HBO Max.
Rather than having to wait roughly 90 days, the period that studios have long given theaters to play films exclusively, HBO Max subscribers will receive instant access to big-budget extravaganzas like a “Suicide Squad” sequel, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Dune” and “The Matrix 4.” Other movies speeding to living rooms next year include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights,” Clint Eastwood’s “Cry Macho,” the next “Conjuring” horror film, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and a “Sopranos” prequel called “The Many Saints of Newark.”
While the move amounted to 17 shots in the arm for HBO Max, which has struggled to attract subscribers since its introduction in May for $15 a month, it was also a strikingly grim comment on the future of movie theaters. Even with a widely deployed vaccine, which is expected in the coming months, WarnerMedia does not believe that moviegoing in the United States will recover until at least next fall, an assessment that stands in sharp contrast with what other major movie studios and multiplex chains have signaled.
“Like a lot of businesses, theaters are in a tough spot right now,” Jason Kilar, WarnerMedia’s chief executive, said by phone. “We are all in the middle of a pandemic, and we are all trying to figure our way through it. One of the things we can do to be helpful to them is to provide them with a steady stream of big-budget, well-told stories.” Kilar said the company had no plans to be flexible; even if the coronavirus threat receded dramatically in the summer, the new distribution model will stand for the year.
There is one wrinkle: Each movie will appear on HBO Max for only one month before leaving the service. At that point, films will cycle through the usual release “windows,” leaving theaters when interest has run out and heading to iTunes, DVD and points beyond, eventually cycling back to HBO Max.
startling 驚くべき、衝撃的な
simultaneously 同時に
underperforming 標準以下の、不採算の
extravaganza 派手なショー、華やかな祭典
sequel 続編、後編
prequel 前編、過去を描く続編
amount 合計 ～に達する
grim 厳しい、手厳しい、厳格な
deploy 配置・展開する
multiplex 複合（型）映画館
recede 退く、後退する
wrinkle 新趣向、知恵、うまい考え
12/6(日)の放送
House Passes Landmark Bill Decriminalizing Marijuana
著者：Catie Edmondson
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
The House on Friday passed sweeping legislation that would decriminalize marijuana and expunge nonviolent marijuana-related convictions, as Democrats sought to roll back and compensate for decades of drug policies that have disproportionately affected low-income communities of color.
The 228-164 vote to approve the measure was bipartisan, and it was the first time either chamber of Congress had ever endorsed the legalization of cannabis. The bill would remove the drug from the Controlled Substances Act and authorize a 5% tax on marijuana that would fund community and small-business grant programs to help those most affected by the criminalization of marijuana.
The legislation is, for now, almost certainly doomed in the Republican-led Senate, where that party’s leaders have derided it as a superficial distraction from the work of passing coronavirus relief, as lawmakers inched toward bipartisan compromise after spending months locked in an impasse.
But the bill’s passage in the House amounted to a watershed moment decades in the making for advocates of marijuana legislation, and it laid out an expansive federal framework for redressing the racial disparities in the criminal justice system exacerbated by the war on drugs.
“The effects of marijuana prohibition have been particularly felt by communities of color because it has meant that people from the communities couldn’t get jobs,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said.
Nadler, who spearheaded the legislation with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. and the vice president-elect, described the collateral consequences of a conviction for marijuana possession as creating “an often-permanent second-class status for millions of Americans.”
The idea behind the legislation is “you want to make whole these communities, and you want to compensate,” he said.
The law would require federal courts to release those serving sentences for nonviolent, marijuana-related offenses, and set up grant programs focused on providing job training, legal aid and substance use treatment, as well as grants for small businesses in the marijuana industry led by low-income and minority business owners. Physicians with the Department of Veterans Affairs would also be allowed for the first time to recommend medical marijuana to their patients.
Sweeping 抜本的
Decriminalize 非犯罪化
Expunge 抹消する
Nonviolent 非暴力的な
Conviction 判決
Disproportionately 不釣り合いに
Bipartisan 二党提携の
Endorse 支持する
Doomed 絶望的
Derided 嘲笑する
Superficial 表面的な
Impasse 行き詰まり
Watershed 分岐点
Advocate 主唱者
Disparities 格差
Exacerbated 悪化させる
Spearheaded 先頭に立つ
Collateral 二次的な
12/7(月)の放送
Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves
著者：Cade Metz
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
When the Chula Vista police receive a 911 call, they can dispatch a flying drone with the press of button.
On a recent afternoon, from a launchpad on the roof of the Chula Vista Police Department, they sent a drone across the city to a crowded parking lot where a young man was asleep in the front seat of a stolen car with drug paraphernalia on his lap.
When the man left the car, carrying a gun and a bag of heroin, a nearby police car had trouble following as he sprinted across the street and ducked behind a wall. But as he threw the gun into a dumpster and hid the bag of heroin, the drone, hovering above him, caught everything on camera. When he slipped through the back door of a strip mall, exited through the front door and ran down the sidewalk, it caught that, too.
Watching the live video feed, an officer back at headquarters relayed the details to police on the scene, who soon caught the man and took him into custody. Later, they retrieved the gun and the heroin. And after another press of the button, the drone returned, on its own, to the roof.
Each day, Chula Vista police respond to as many as 15 emergency calls with a drone, launching more than 4,100 flights since the program began two years ago. Chula Vista, a Southern California city with a population of 270,000, is the first in the country to adopt such a program, called Drone as First Responder.
Such newfound automation, however, raises civil liberties concerns, especially as drones gain the power to track vehicles and people automatically. As the police use more drones, they could collect and store more video of life in the city, which could remove any expectation of privacy once you leave the home.
“Communities should ask hard questions about these programs. As the power and scope of this technology expands, so does the need for privacy protection,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Project on Speech, Privacy and Technology. “Drones can be used to investigate known crimes. But they are also sensors that can generate offenses.”
a 911 call アメリカの緊急通報用電話番号への連絡
with the press of (a) button ボタン一つで
launchpad 発射台
paraphernalia 装備、道具一式
sprint (動) 全力で走る （名）短距離競争
duck (動) (体を)ちょっとかがめる、身をかわす
dumpster 大型ごみ容器
hover 空中に停止する、ホバリングする
take someone into custody （人）を拘束する、取り押さえる
retrieve 回収する [re:再び、trover:見つける]
newfound 新発見の
civil liberty 市民的自由
sensor 感知器、センサー
offence 犯罪
12/8(火)の放送
Jupiter and Saturn Head for Closest Visible Alignment in 800 Years
著者：Michael Levenson
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
For months, Saturn and Jupiter have appeared to be courting, as the giant celestial bodies have gradually drawn nearer in the night sky.
Over the next two weeks, as their orbits align more closely, the planets will pull closer until they appear to be just a tenth of a degree apart — about the thickness of a dime held at arm’s length, according to NASA.
The encounter, known as a great conjunction, happens about every 20 years. But this one — arriving Dec. 21, the winter solstice — is special, astronomers said.
It will be the closest alignment of Saturn and Jupiter, the largest planets in our solar system, since 1623. But that conjunction, just 14 years after Galileo built his first telescope, was 13 degrees away from the sun, making it almost impossible to view from Earth, said Amy C. Oliver, a spokeswoman for the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.
This one will be the closest visible encounter between the two giants since the Middle Ages, in 1226, Oliver said. The next time the planets will be this close is 2080, she said, making the event a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle for most adults.
Across the United States, the best view of the two planets coming into near-alignment will be just after sunset, in the southwestern portion of the sky.
“It’s a very elegant astronomical event to watch in the night sky,” said Renu Malhotra, a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona. “It’s a very romantic event to see these planets approaching each other.”
Although best appreciated with binoculars or a telescope, the encounter should be visible to the naked eye.
Konstantin Batygin, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, said he had been watching Jupiter and Saturn draw closer to one another on nightly walks with his dog.
“It’s the rare astronomical event where you can appreciate the motion of the planets around the sun without being some kind of astronomer,” Batygin said. “You can still go outside close to Christmas and say, ‘Wow, those two planets sure are close to one another.’”
<Pickup Vocabs 1>
courting 求愛している
☝️court(宮廷)にまつわるご機嫌取りから
celestial 天体の
☝️天国のような、こよなく美しい
gradually 徐々に
[語源: gradus(段を登る)]
[親戚: graduate(卒業する), grade(学年、成績)]
align 一直線にする
☝️put things into a line(線)
dime 10セントコイン
☝️penny(1), nickel(5), dime(10), quarter(25)
arm’s length 腕一本分の長さ
encounter 出会い
[語源: encounter(敵に鉢合わせる)]
conjunction 惑星の合(ごう)
[語源: con(一緒の)+junction(接続部)]
☝️高速道路のジャンクション
the winter solstice 冬至
[語源: sol(sun=太陽)+stice(still=止まっている)]
☝️summer solstice(夏至)
☝️春分、秋分はequinox
<Pickup Vocabs 2>
telescope 望遠鏡
[語源: tele(遠く)+scope(見るもの)]
[親戚: telephone(電話), microscope(顕微鏡)]
Middle Ages 中世
☝️Medieval Periodとも言う
☝️西ローマ帝国滅亡からルネッサンスまで
once-in-a-lifetime 一生に一度の
portion 部分、割合
☝️回復するのはpotion(液体の薬、毒など）
appreciated 鑑賞する、楽しむ
binoculars 双眼鏡
[語源: bino(2つの)+ocular(目)]
naked eye 裸眼
nightly 毎晩の
☝️毎朝の場合はdaily
☝️weekly, monthly, yearly….
12/9(水)の放送
Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing Off Its Self-Driving Car Project
著者：Cade Metz and Kate Conger
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Uber, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-driving car project that executives once believed was a key to becoming profitable, is handing the autonomous vehicle effort over to a Silicon Valley startup, the companies said Monday.
Uber will also invest $400 million in the startup, called Aurora, so it is essentially paying the company to take over the autonomous car operation, which had become a financial and legal headache. Uber is likely to license whatever technology Aurora manages to create.
The deal amounts to a fire-sale end to a high-profile but star-crossed effort to replace Uber’s human drivers with machines that could drive on their own. It is also indicative of the challenges facing other autonomous vehicle projects, which have received billions in investments from Silicon Valley and automakers but have not produced the fleets of robotic vehicles some thought would be on the streets by now.
Aurora’s chief executive, Chris Urmson, said Aurora’s first product will not be a robot taxi that could help with Uber’s ride-hailing business. Instead, it will likely be a self-driving truck, which Urmson believes has a better chance of success in the near term because long-haul truck driving on highways is more predictable and does not involve passengers.
In a statement, the Uber chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said he was looking forward to bringing Aurora technology to market “in the years ahead.” Uber declined to comment further on the agreement.
Among self-driving car projects, Uber’s effort, which led to the death of a pedestrian in Arizona; a lawsuit from Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by the same parent company as Google; and a guilty plea from a former Uber executive accused of stealing intellectual property, was particularly fraught.
It began with an ambitious — but in hindsight fanciful — proposition: Uber’s biggest expense was its drivers. If it could replace the drivers with machines, it could eventually reduce expenses and become profitable, ending years and billions of losses.
self-driving 自動運転
profitable 収益性のある
autonomous 自律性の
essentially 基本的には
fire-sale 格安の
star-crossed 悲運の、薄幸の
near term 近い将来
predictable 予想が付きやすい
pedestrian 歩行者
accused 告発された
fraught 問題がいっぱいの
12/10(木)の放送
Pfizer’s Vaccine Debuts in Britain as the World’s First Fully Tested Vaccine
著者：Benjamin Mueller
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
Britain’s National Health Service delivered its first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, opening a mass vaccination campaign with little precedent in modern medicine and making Britons the first people in the world to receive a clinically authorized, fully tested vaccine.
At 6:31 a.m. Tuesday, Margaret Keenan, 90, a former jewelry shop assistant, rolled up the sleeve of her “Merry Christmas” T-shirt to receive the first shot, and her image quickly became an emblem of the remarkable race to produce a vaccine and the global effort to end a pandemic that has killed 1.5 million people worldwide.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” said Keenan, who lives in Coventry, in central England. “It means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year.”
For the people receiving vaccinations in Britain, among them doctors and nurses who have fortified the country’s ailing National Health Service this year, the shots were an early glimpse at post-pandemic life.
The first 800,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Britain were transported in recent days from a manufacturing plant in Belgium to government warehouses in Britain and then to hospitals.
Fifty hospitals will be administering the shots until the government can refine a plan for delivering them at nursing homes and doctor’s offices. The vaccine must be transported at South Pole-like temperatures before it can be stored for five days in a normal refrigerator, Pfizer has said. First to receive the vaccine will be doctors and nurses, certain people aged 80 and over, and nursing home workers.
Some doctors and nurses have received invitations in recent days to sign up for appointments, with the first shots intended for those at the highest risk of severe illness. The government has indicated that people aged 80 and over who already have visits with doctors scheduled for this week, or who are being discharged from certain hospitals, will also be among the first to receive shots.
Nursing home residents, who were supposed to be the government’s top priority, will be vaccinated in the coming weeks, once health officials start distributing doses beyond hospitals.
with little precedent 前例のない
an emblem of ～の象徴
feel privileged 光栄に思う、恵まれている
fortified ～を要塞化する、強化する
ailing 病気の、不調の
glimpse 垣間見ること、兆候
administering 〈薬などを〉与える、投与する
refine a plan 計画を練る
intended for ～向きである、～を対象としている
being discharged 退院する
12/11(金)の放送
U.S. and States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed Competition
著者：Cecilia Kang and Mike Isaac
(c) 2020 The New York Times Company
WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states accused Facebook on Wednesday of buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, and they called for the deals to be unwound, escalating regulators’ battle against the biggest tech companies in a way that could remake the social media industry.
Federal and state regulators of both parties, who have investigated the company for more than 18 months, said in separate lawsuits that Facebook’s purchases, especially Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion two years later, eliminated competition that could have one day challenged the company’s dominance.
Since those deals, Instagram and WhatsApp have skyrocketed in popularity, giving Facebook control over three of the world’s most popular social media and messaging apps. The applications have helped catapult Facebook from a company started in a college dorm room 16 years ago to an internet powerhouse valued at more than $800 billion.
The prosecutors said Facebook should break off Instagram and WhatsApp and that new restrictions should apply to the company on future deals, some of the most severe penalties regulators can demand.
“For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users,” said Attorney General Letitia James of New York, a Democrat who led the multistate investigation into the company in parallel with the federal agency, which is overseen by a Republican.
The lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, underscore the growing bipartisan and international tsunami against Big Tech. Lawmakers and regulators have zeroed in on the grip that Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple maintain on commerce, electronics, social networking, search and online advertising, remaking the nation’s economy. President Donald Trump has argued repeatedly that the tech giants have too much power and influence, and allies of President-elect Joe Biden make similar complaints. The federal case against Facebook is widely expected to continue under Biden’s administration.
Facebook said it would vigorously defend itself.
“The most important fact in this case, which the commission does not mention in its 53-page complaint, is that it cleared these acquisitions years ago,” Jennifer Newstead, Facebook’s general counsel, said in a statement. “The government now wants a do-over, sending a chilling warning to American business that no sale is ever final.”
the Federal Trade Commission 連邦取引委員会
squash 潰す／鎮圧する
unwind （１０／２２の復習） 解く／ゆるめる
escalate（９／２０＆９／２２の復習） 段階的に拡大する／エスカレートする
skyrocket 急上昇する／暴騰する
application アプリケーション
⚠️ 略し方に注意！ app = ◎ appli = ✖︎
catapult 飛躍させる／跳ね上がる
powerhouse （９／１４の復習）強力な組織／大手企業
prosecutor 検察官／検事
snuff out かき消す／（ロウソクなどを）消す
at the expense of 〜を犠牲にして／〜の費用で
zero in on 〜に焦点を合わせる／〜に向かって集まる
do-over やり直し／リトライ
