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。
1/9(土)の放送
Japan Declares State of Emergency in Tokyo Area After Days of Hesitation
著者：Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
After days of record coronavirus counts and a rapidly rising death toll, Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures Thursday, the country’s first such declaration since April.
The announcement by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga came five days after governors from the affected prefectures had pleaded with the central government to act, and after his own coronavirus expert panel had recommended the emergency declaration, citing explosive growth in infections in the vast capital region.
Deaths from the virus in Japan have doubled in less than two months, passing 3,700, and Tokyo’s governor has warned that the medical system is under stress. Suga had hesitated to invoke the emergency measure, hoping to preserve economic activity, but eventually bowed to the pressure from the Tokyo-area officials, as polls show widespread dissatisfaction with his 4-month-old administration and its handling of the pandemic.
Suga’s foot-dragging illustrated the difficult choices many world leaders face nearly a year into a pandemic that is now entering a grueling new phase, with widespread vaccinations still months away. They are under pressure to bring down rising caseloads despite public fatigue over virus restrictions, while also breathing life back into their economies.
Health experts warned the emergency declaration, which will last one month, still might not be enough to turn the tide.
The declaration carries little legal heft and relies mostly on voluntary compliance. The government is asking restaurants in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures to close by 8 p.m., employers to encourage staff members to work from home, and residents to refrain from going out for all but the most essential tasks, also after 8 p.m. Schools, museums, cinemas, gyms and shops will remain open.
The governor of Osaka, the country’s third-largest prefecture, said Thursday that he planned to ask the central government to add it to the area covered by the emergency declaration.
In comments to reporters after the government’s expert panel recommended the move Tuesday, Shigeru Omi, head of the panel, said declaring a state of emergency would not guarantee a slackening in the rate of infection.
“It’s not possible to control in a couple of weeks or less than a month,” Omi said. “Stronger measures might be needed.”
“declare ～を宣言する
*declaration 宣言
plead with someone to (人) に～するよう懇願する
explosive 爆発的な
hesitate ためらう、躊躇する
*hesitation ためらい、躊躇
invoke (法令を) 発動させる
foot-dragging (故意の) 対応の遅さ
grueling 過酷な、非常に骨の折れる
compliance (要求・命令などに) 応じること、コンプライアンス
refrain from ～を控える、～を遠慮する、～をやめる
slacken 緩む、弱まる”
1/10(日)の放送
Twitter Permanently Suspends Trump, Capping Online Revolt
著者：Kate Conger and Mike Isaac
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
OAKLAND, Calif. — Twitter said on Friday that it had permanently suspended President Donald Trump from its service “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” effectively cutting him off from his favorite megaphone for reaching the public and capping a series of actions by mainstream sites to limit his online reach.
Twitter said in a blog post that Trump’s personal @realDonaldTrump account, which has more than 88 million followers, would be suspended immediately. The company said two tweets that Trump had posted on Friday — one calling his supporters “patriots” and another saying he would not go to the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 — violated its rules against glorifying violence.
The tweets “were highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” Twitter said, referring to the storming of the Capitol by a mob of Trump loyalists.
Within minutes, Trump’s account on Twitter was no longer accessible. His posts were replaced with a label: “Account suspended.”
Trump tried to evade the ban late Friday by using the @POTUS Twitter account, which belongs to sitting U.S. presidents, to lash out at the company. But his messages were almost immediately removed by Twitter. The company forbids users to try avoiding a suspension with secondary accounts.
The moves were a forceful repudiation by Twitter of Trump, who had used the platform to build his base and spread his messages. Trump regularly tweeted dozens of times a day. In his posts, he gave his live reactions to television news programs, boosted supporters and attacked his perceived enemies.
In a statement late Friday, Trump said Twitter was trying to silence him. He said he was negotiating with other sites and promised a “big announcement soon,” adding that he was looking at building “our own platform.”
“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,” Trump said. “They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely.”
A day earlier, Facebook had barred Trump for the rest of his term, and other digital platforms — including Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch and Reddit — also recently limited Trump on their services.
Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, called Twitter’s move “absolute insanity” and said the tech companies were overreaching. “We are living Orwell’s 1984,” he tweeted.
Trump had repeatedly told allies who raised the possibility that social media firms would bar him, “They’ll never ban me.”
Incitement 刺激
Cap 蓋をする
Patriot 愛国者
Inauguration 就任式
Glorify たたえる
Replicate 模写する
Mob 暴徒
Evade 避ける
Lash out 襲いかかる
Repudiation 拒絶
1/11(月)の放送
Kim Jong Un Vows to Boost North Korea’s Nuclear Capability as Leverage With Biden
著者：Choe Sang-Hun
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed to advance his country’s nuclear capabilities, declaring that it will build land- and submarine-launched solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as make its nuclear missiles smaller, lighter and more precise, the North’s state media reported on Saturday.
Kim’s declaration comes as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office, succeeding President Donald Trump. Kim and Trump met three times, but their meetings failed to produce a breakthrough in either ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program or lifting devastating sanctions the United Nations has imposed on the country for its weapons activities.
But despite his pledge to advance his country’s arsenal, Kim, speaking to the congress of his ruling Workers’ Party, said he did “not rule out diplomacy.” He said his effort to strengthen his country’s weapons capability was designed to gain leverage in dealing with Washington and its allies in order to “drive diplomacy in the right direction and guarantee its success” in achieving “peace” on the Korean Peninsula.
He said he would adjust his policy according to that of the incoming Biden administration, “responding to force with force, and to good will with good will.”
“Our external political activities must focus on controlling and subjugating the United States, our archenemy and the biggest stumbling block to the development of our revolution,” Kim said. “No matter who takes power in the United States, its true nature and its policy toward our country will never change.”
Kim’s comments, carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency early Saturday, marked his first official reaction to the election of Biden to replace Trump.
Kim and Trump started their relationship with a blistering exchange of personal insults and threats of “fire and fury.” Then they made a dramatic switch to diplomacy, meeting in Singapore in 2018 in the first-ever summit meeting between the two nations. Trump later said he “fell in love” with the North Korean dictator, who once called him a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”
leverage 影響力、支配力 (*10/13 復習)
solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile 固体燃料大陸間弾道ミサイル
declaration 発表、宣言 (*1/9復習)
arsenal 兵器の備え、軍備
incoming 次に来る、入ってくる
subjugate 服従させる [ラテン語sub- (下に) + 槍門]
archenemy 大敵 [ギリシャ語 arch –(1番の、リーダーの)]
stumbling block 障害物 *(動) stumble つまづく
blistering (攻撃・批判などが）痛烈な
deranged 気が狂った、錯乱した
dotard 老いぼれ
1/12(火)の放送
The 51st State? Washington Revisits an Uphill Cause With New Fervor
著者：Michael Wines
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
On the day after a mob rampaged through the halls of Congress, the mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel E. Bowser, heaped praise on the Metropolitan Police Department officers who had rushed to restore order after the Capitol’s police force was overwhelmed.
She also saw no small amount of irony in their role.
“I am heartened that our police and Guardspeople were able to get control,” she said at a morning briefing, and then added: “I’m upset that 706,000 residents of the District of Columbia did not have a single vote in that Congress yesterday despite the fact their officers were putting their lives on the line to defend democracy.”
The district’s lack of representation in Congress is an old refrain for Bowser and her predecessors. Leaders in the district have battled for decades to persuade Congress to make Washington, D.C., a state, fruitlessly pressing the argument long embossed on the city’s license plates: that denying it statehood amounts to “taxation without representation.”
But Wednesday’s riot, in which 56 city police officers were injured, has become Example No. 1 in a renewed and decidedly uphill effort to change the legislators’ minds. From the city’s growing role in policing protests and unrest to the mayor’s inability to summon the National Guard, statehood supporters argue, continuing Washington’s role as a sort of vassal to the federal bureaucracy is not simply unjust, but also outmoded.
Backers are counting on the Democratic Party’s control of Congress and the White House to reinvigorate a push for statehood legislation that Republicans have long bottled up.
“Having a Democratic president who supports statehood will help us move the bill substantially,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s sole representative in Congress. Like delegates from other areas without statehood, such as Puerto Rico, she can introduce legislation and consider it in House committees, but cannot vote on final passage of bills on the House floor.
Still, she added, “I’m not saying we’re going to move it across the finish line.”
<Pickup Vocabs 1>
Uphill 困難な
☝️坂道の「上り」 Fervor 熱情
☝️fever(熱)と似ている rampaged 暴れ回った
☝️EXILEグループのRAMPAGE(暴れ者)
heaped praise on 称賛した
☝️heap(積み重ね、山)
no small amount of 少なからず
heartened 勇気づけられた [語源: heart(心を)+en(入れる)]
refrain リフレイン 🎶「リフレインが叫んでる」(1988) ※ 1/9にrefrain fromを紹介
predecessors 前任者たち [語源: pre(前に)+decess(いなくなる)+or(人)] [親戚: the deceased(故人)]
fruitlessly 実りなく [親戚: bear fruit(実る), fruition(達成)]
embossed 浮き彫りにされる
☝️エンボス加工
<Pickup Vocabs 2>
statehood 州であること
☝️[-hood]で「〜である状態」ex) childhood, motherhood
vassal 家臣
outmoded 時代遅れ
☝️mode(モード)はフランス語から流行 [親戚: outdated(古い)]
counting on 頼りにする
☝️I’m counting on you. 頼りにしていますよ。
reinvigorate 再活性化する [語源: re(再び)+in(〜を注入する)+vigor(精力)]
bottled up 抑え込む
☝️ボトル(瓶)に詰める
delegates 代議員 [語源: de(送り出す)+legate(契約を交わす) →契約、法をなすために送り出す人]
legislation 立法案 [語源: legis(法律の)+lation(提案)] [親戚: legal(法律の)]
1/13(水)の放送
Parler Accuses Amazon of Breaking Antitrust Law in Suspending Hosting Services
著者：Karen Weise
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
Hours after it went offline on Monday, the social media startup Parler filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing Amazon of violating antitrust law and asking for a temporary restraining order to prevent the tech giant from blocking access to cloud computing services.
Amazon told Parler over the weekend that it would shut off service because “a steady increase in violent content” on the site showed that the company did not have a reliable process to prevent it from violating Amazon’s terms of service. Amazon said it would ensure Parler’s data was preserved so that it could migrate to a new hosting provider.
Before Parler went dark, technologists also raced to scrape publicly available data from the app, as part of a broader effort to identify those who helped organize and participated in the riot at the Capitol last week.
Millions of people have turned to Parler since the November election and after Twitter and Facebook barred President Donald Trump after the Capitol riot. Apple and Google both kicked Parler out of their app stores last week, though users who already had downloaded the app could still use it. But the app relied on Amazon’s cloud computing technology to work.
On Monday afternoon, Judge Barbara J. Rothstein said Parler had not served Amazon with its complaint, as court rules require, and ordered it to do so by 5 p.m. Pacific time. The deadline passed with no updates on the court docket indicating that Parler had served Amazon in time. Amazon told the court it intended to oppose the suit.
In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Parler accuses Amazon of terminating, not just suspending, its account — and said it should have received 30 days’ notice. It also argued that Amazon violated antitrust law by conspiring with Twitter, a major Amazon customer, to boot Parler just as it was gaining broader appeal.
Parler did not provide direct evidence showing Amazon and Twitter coordinated the response. Instead, it pointed to a December news release announcing a multiyear strategic partnership between Amazon and Twitter, and it made references to Twitter’s own challenges policing its content.
accuses 提訴する
antitrust law 独占禁止法
violate 違反する
restraining order 差止め命令
reliable 信頼できる
prevent 防ぐ、阻む
preserve 保存する、保護する
kick out 追い出す、つまみ出す
conspire 共謀する
broader より広い
1/14(木)の放送
Report Gives Glimpse into Horrors of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes
著者：Megan Specia
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
A government-commissioned report released Tuesday found a shocking number of deaths and widespread abuses at religious institutions in Ireland for unwed mothers and their children.
The report, the culmination of a six-year investigation, detailed some 9,000 deaths of children at 14 of the country’s so-called mother and baby homes and four county homes over several decades, a mortality rate far higher than the rest of the population. The institutions, where unmarried women and girls were sent to give birth in secrecy and were pressured to give their children up for adoption, were also responsible for unethical vaccine trials and traumatic emotional abuse, the report found.
Ireland’s leader, or Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, at a news conference said the report outlined a “a dark, difficult and shameful chapter” of the country’s past, acknowledging significant failures by the state, society and church.
Survivors of the homes say urgent action by the state is needed, and many say the Roman Catholic Church, which ran the homes, needs to be held more fully accountable.
The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors said it was disappointed in the “fundamentally incomplete” nature of the final report.
The church had been silent on the issue in the past, but late Tuesday, Eamon Martin, the archbishop of Armagh and the head of the Irish Catholic Church, issued an apology. The church, he said, was clearly part of a culture in which people “were frequently stigmatized, judged and rejected.”
Martin and the country’s minister for children, Roderic O’Gorman, spoke with survivors earlier in the afternoon by video to discuss the contents of the report, which is more than 3,000 pages. Martin said he would issue an official state apology in front of Parliament on Wednesday, and O’Gorman pledged that the government was committed to working with survivors.
Mother and baby homes were run by religious orders, starting in the 1920s, and funded by the Irish government. The last of the facilities was closed in 1998.
The commission focused on 18 institutions between 1922 to 1998 and was set up after reports emerged that the remains of nearly 800 babies and children were interred in an unmarked mass grave at a home run by nuns in the town of Tuam in County Galway.
glimpse into 垣間見る
in secrecy 秘密裏に、人目を忍んで
Taoiseach アイルランドの首相
accountable 説明責任がある
archbishop “大司教”
stigmatize 汚名を着せる、非難する
pledge 誓約する、誓う （せいやくする）
emerge 現われる，明らかになる
inter 埋める、埋葬する
1/15(金)の放送
House, With Some GOP Support, Impeaches Trump for ‘Incitement of Insurrection
著者：Nicholas Fandos
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company
The House on Wednesday impeached President Donald Trump for inciting a violent insurrection against the United States government, as 10 members of the president’s party joined Democrats to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors for an unprecedented second time.
Reconvening under the threat of continued violence and the protection of thousands of National Guard troops, the House was determined to hold Trump to account just one week before he was to leave office. At issue was his role in encouraging a mob that attacked the Capitol one week ago while Congress met to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
The House adopted a single article of impeachment, voting 232-197 to charge Trump with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” and requesting his immediate removal from office and disqualification from ever holding one again.
Ten Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach: Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the party’s No. 3 leader in the House; Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington; John Katko of New York: Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; Fred Upton of Michigan; Dan Newhouse of Washington: Peter Meijer of Michigan; Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio; David Valadao of California and Tom Rice of South Carolina.
The defections were a remarkable break from the head of the party by Republicans, who voted unanimously against impeaching Trump just over a year ago.
The vote set the stage for the second Senate trial of Trump in a year, though senators were not expected to convene to sit in judgment before Jan. 20, when Biden will take the oath of office. The last proceeding, over Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to smear Biden, was a partisan affair.
Trump showed no contrition for his actions. But in the run-up to the vote Wednesday, he issued a statement urging his supporters to remain peaceful as federal authorities warned of a nationwide wave of violence surrounding Biden’s inauguration.
“There must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind,” the president said in a statement that was read by Republicans from the House floor. “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on all Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.”
The House’s vote was historic. Only two other presidents have been impeached; none has been impeached twice, by such a large bipartisan margin, or so close to leaving office.
GOP アメリカの共和党（Grand Old Partyの略）
impeach 弾劾する／告発する
incitement 扇動／誘因
insurrection 暴動／反乱
reconvene 再会／再召集
hold ____ to account 〜の責任を問う／〜を難詰する
defection 放棄／変節
break from 離脱／距離を置く
set the stage for 〜の準備を整える／〜のお膳立てをする
proceeding 訴訟手続き／法的手続き
smear 中傷する／汚す
partisan 党派的／偏向した
affair 事件／出来事
contrition 悔恨／悔悟
