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。

3/6(土)の放送

Desperate Italy Blocks Exports of Vaccines Bound for Australia

著者：Benjamin Mueller and Matina Stevis-Gridneff
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Italy has blocked 250,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine from being flown to Australia, the government said Thursday, making good on the European Union’s recent threats to clamp down on vaccine exports amid a global tug of war over desperately needed shots.

The decision to stop the shipment by AstraZeneca was a sharp escalation in the competition for vaccines, one that has become ever more frantic as Europe confronts the early signs of a possible new wave of infections driven by new coronavirus variants.

The prospect of shipping hundreds of thousands of doses from Italy, where infections are on a steep ascent, to Australia, which is recording a handful of daily cases, evidently proved unpalatable to Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Draghi. Italy took action under new EU rules — passed after AstraZeneca cut projected deliveries — that allow any member country to stop exports of vaccines to nations outside the bloc.

Australia has reacted calmly, with officials saying the blocked delivery would not have a major effect.

Under the new EU rules, companies must seek permission to export doses produced within the bloc, and the bloc asks its members to weigh in.

After receiving a request last week from AstraZeneca about the 250,000 doses bound for Australia, Italy told the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, that it did not want to allow the exports. The commission did not object, and Italy’s foreign ministry said it notified AstraZeneca on Tuesday.

It was the first such move since the creation of the new EU controls, which are set to remain in place until the end of March, when supplies are expected to improve. Since the rules were imposed, member states have waved through 174 export shipments of vaccines by various producers, allowing them to go to Canada, Mexico and other countries.

The Italian foreign ministry Thursday explained the country’s decision to block the shipment, saying Australia was a “non-vulnerable” country, alluding to its success in tamping down cases, whereas European countries were desperate for doses. “It is not a hostile act against Australia,” Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook.

In a statement Friday morning, Australia’s health minister, Greg Hunt, said his country had enough doses to “take us through” until domestic production begins later this month.

bound for 〔列車・船・飛行機などが〕～行きの
make good on ～を遂行［履行］する
clamp down on ～を取り締まる、弾圧する
tug of war 綱引き、主導権争い
confront　〔問題・困難などに〕直面する、立ち向かう
unpalatable　〔考え・手段・事実などが〕受け入れ難い 【反】palatable
weigh in 　割って入る、介入する、立ち入る
impose 〔義務・負担・重圧・税金などを〕課す
vulnerable 弱い、脆弱な 《医》感染リスクの高い
allude それとなく言う、暗に示す
tamp down 抑える、弱める

3/7(日)の放送

SpaceX Launches, Lands and Explodes Prototype of Its Rocket to Mars

著者：Kenneth Chang
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Two spectacular flights, two spectacular crash landings. The third time was almost the charm.

On Wednesday, SpaceX launched another high-altitude flight of Starship, a huge next-generation spacecraft that Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of the private rocket company, dreams of sending to Mars. It returned to the ground and set down in one piece, but then lit up in another fiery blast minutes after the landing.

As the sun set over the test site in Boca Chica, Texas, close to Brownsville, the latest prototype, designated SN10, lifted off, its stainless steel exterior gaining a purple hue as it ascended toward an altitude of just over 6 miles, well below the orbital heights that SpaceX one day intends to achieve.

It was the second launch attempt of the day. Three hours earlier, liftoff was aborted with just a fraction of a second left in the countdown. The engines had already ignited but were then shut off when the computer on board the Starship detected too much thrust from one of the engines. The engineers decided that the problem was not significant, adjusted the software, refueled the rocket and tried again.

At about 6:15 p.m. Eastern time, the three engines ignited again, and this time they stayed on. The rocket rose into the Texas sky, and, by design, the engines shut down one by one as the rocket approached an altitude of 6 miles.

The Starship then tipped over to a horizontal position, in essence belly flopping through the atmosphere in a controlled fall back toward the ground. The rocket then fired its engines again to flip back into a vertical position and slowed down to a gentle landing.

As the smoke cleared, SN10 was still standing, but tilted. While earlier flights to this altitude had ended in fiery crashes, this time the rocket landed in one piece. But the landing legs appeared to fail, leaving the rocket standing but leaning at the landing pad.

A few minutes later, after SpaceX began its recovery operations of the vehicle and had concluded its video feed, video cameras operated by the website NASA Spaceflight captured an explosion that sent the rocket on an unplanned second hop, disintegrating in flames.

A leak in a propellant tank may have caused the explosion.

Spectacular 劇的な
Third time is the charm 三度目の正直
Fiery 猛火の
Prototype 原型
Hue 色調
Orbital 軌道の
Ignited 発火された
Starship 恒星間宇宙船
Horizontal 横の
Vertical 縦の
Propellant 発射火薬

3/8(月)の放送

The Louvre Recovers Armor Pieces Stolen Nearly 40 Years Ago

著者：Jenny Gross
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

After sunset on May 31, 1983, and before dawn the next morning, a showcase at the Louvre was broken into and two pieces of 16th-century Italian armor were stolen in one of the most mysterious heists in the museum’s history.

Nearly 40 years later, the two items — a ceremonial helmet and a breastplate — were identified in the private collection of a family in Bordeaux, in western France. The police are investigating how the items ended up in the family’s estate and who was responsible for the theft.

“The Louvre is delighted that these two pieces of Renaissance armor have been found thanks to the work of investigators,” the museum said in a statement. It added that what happened on May 31, 1983, remained “an enigma,” with few details known to the general public.

The museum did not respond to requests for more information about the circumstances around the theft, the identity of the family who had the armor or what prompted the family to have their private art collection appraised.

In January, according to local news reports, the items turned up in Bordeaux. An auctioneer called on an expert in antiquities, who identified the items as the two that had been stolen from the Louvre in 1983, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported.

The two items, thought to have been made in Milan in the second half of the 16th century, will be put on display as soon as the museum reopens, the Louvre statement said. They were bequeathed to the Louvre, one of the most visited museums in the world, by the Rothschild family in 1922.

The Paris museum said in its statement that the 1983 theft had “deeply troubled all the staff at the time.”

Erin Thompson, an associate professor of art crime, said that it was not unusual for museum curators to keep quiet about thefts.

“Museum curators thought that if they admitted a theft, they would be exposing a security flaw or inspiring other people to take action,” Thompson said. “But researchers in the last couple of decades have been saying, ‘Look, guys, you’re not going to get anything back if people don’t know it’s missing.’ So museums are rather reluctantly publicizing thefts more, which has resulted in a lot more recovery of things.”

heist 強盗　(≒robbery, theft)
end up 結局～になる、最後は～に落ち着く
enigma 謎
appraise 鑑定する、見積もる
antiquity (2/8復習) 古代、（古代の）遺物
bequeath 遺言で財産を譲る、遺贈する　
flaw 欠陥

3/9(火)の放送

After Pandemic, Film Industry’s Hollywood Ending May Have to Wait

著者：Brooks Barnes
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

LOS ANGELES — What awaits Hollywood on the other side of the pandemic?

As vaccines have rolled out around the world, many film executives and theater operators have been predicting — hoping, praying — that a huge surge of ticket buying awaits. They hope the masses, desperate to get out of their homes (and tired of watching television), will begin to pour into cinemas as soon as they feel safe from the coronavirus and big movies begin to repopulate the marquees.

It could happen.

But early box office results indicate a messier recovery, with moviegoer tastes potentially shifting — particularly in China, now the No. 1 cinema market in the world — and behind-the-scenes spats between studios and theaters crimping film availability. Some traditional studios have started to prioritize streaming, to pushback from multiplex operators. “It’s going to take some time for things to settle out,” said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy.

Over the weekend, for instance, the Walt Disney Co. released “Raya and the Last Dragon,” a rapturously reviewed animated adventure that cost an estimated $150 million to make. Featuring the vocal talents of Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina, “Raya and the Last Dragon” played in 2,045 theaters in North America, including some in New York City, where state officials allowed chains like AMC to resume operations (at 25% capacity) for the first time in a year.

Would strong reviews and pent-up demand drive audiences to theaters?

Not really: Ticket sales for “Raya and the Last Dragon” in the United States and Canada only totaled $8.6 million, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. Gross characterized that result as “soft,” even by pandemic standards. “Tom & Jerry: The Movie,” a poorly reviewed offering from Warner Bros. that cost roughly $80 million to make, arrived in theaters on Feb. 26 and collected $14 million over its first three days. Gross assessed the “Tom & Jerry” turnout as “very good” and “a positive sign for the business.”

Hollywood Ending　ハリウッド映画のような結末
the other side of ~　〜を抜けた向こう側
pour into　(大勢の人が)雪崩れ込む
☝️元々は「注ぎ込む」という意味
marquees　劇場・ホテルなどの入り口のひさし
☝️昔のアメリカ映画などで
messier　もっと厄介な、乱雑な
☝️My room is a total mess! / Our relationship is a mess. [語源: mess(一食分の食事→動物用の混ぜ合わせた食事
→乱雑な様子、散らかっているもの)]
spats　(主に米)ちょっとしたケンカ、いさかい
crimping　(米口語)じゃまする、妨害する
pushback　反対、抵抗
rapturously　熱狂的に [rapture(有頂天、狂気) + -ous(〜に満ちている) + -ly]
compile　(編集のために)資料などを集める [語源: com(一緒に)+pile(積む)]
turnout　産出高、生産高
☝️ストレスアクセントの位置に注意：
turn ‘out ~ (〜という結果になる) ↔︎ ‘turnout (産出高)

3/10(水)の放送

Vaccinated Americans, Let the Unmasked Gatherings Begin (but Start Small)

著者：Roni Caryn Rabin
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

Federal health officials on Monday told millions of Americans now vaccinated against the coronavirus that they could again embrace a few long-denied freedoms, like gathering in small groups at home without masks or social distancing, offering a hopeful glimpse at the next phase of the pandemic.

The recommendations, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arrived almost exactly a year after the virus began strangling the country and Americans were warned against gatherings for fear of spreading the new pathogen.

Now the agency has good news for long-separated families and individuals struggling with pandemic isolation: Vaccinated grandparents can once again visit adult children and grandchildren under certain circumstances, even if they remain unvaccinated. Vaccinated adults can begin to plan mask-free dinners with vaccinated friends.

As cases and deaths decline nationwide, some state officials are rushing to reopen businesses and schools; governors in Texas and Mississippi have lifted statewide mask mandates. Federal health officials have repeatedly warned against loosening restrictions too quickly, fearing that the moves may set the stage for a fourth surge of infections and deaths.

The new recommendations are intended to nudge Americans onto a more cautious path with clear boundaries for safe behavior, while acknowledging that most of the country remains vulnerable and many scientific questions remain unanswered.

“As more Americans are vaccinated, a growing body of evidence now tells us that there are some activities that fully vaccinated people can resume at low risk to themselves,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the CDC, said at a White House news conference Monday.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden will make his first prime-time television address, noting the anniversary of the pandemic’s onset and highlighting “the role that Americans will play” in getting the country “back to normal,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters Monday.

As of Monday, 60 million Americans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including about 31.5 million people who have been fully vaccinated by either Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine or the two-dose series made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, according to a database maintained by The New York Times. Providers are administering about 2.17 million doses per day on average.

embrace　喜んで応じる、受け入れる
gathering　人の集まり、集会
glimpse　垣間見る、兆候
strangle　抑える、抑圧する
pathogen　病原体
separated　分離した、離ればなれ
struggle　もがく、奮闘する
isolation　孤立、隔離
intend　〜するつもりである
vulnerable　弱い、傷つきやすい

3/11(木)の放送

Lawsuit Challenging School Segregation Targets Gifted Programs

著者：Eliza Shapiro
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

NEW YORK — A major new lawsuit filed Tuesday could force fundamental changes to how New York City’s public school students are admitted into selective schools, and marked the latest front in a growing political, activist and now legal movement to confront inequality in the nation’s largest school system.

Even if the suit, brought by civil rights attorneys and student plaintiffs in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, does not upend the city’s admissions system, it will likely prompt scrutiny of New York’s school system, considered among the most racially and socioeconomically segregated in the country.

The suit argues that the city’s school system has replicated and worsened racial inequality by sorting children into different academic tracks as early as kindergarten, and has therefore denied many of its roughly 1 million students of their right to a sound, basic education. Defendants include Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the incoming schools chancellor, Meisha Porter.

If the plaintiffs are successful, the city could be compelled to restructure or even eliminate current admissions policies for hundreds of selective schools, including gifted and talented programs and academically selective middle and high schools.

The suit could also accelerate pressure on Porter to articulate a school integration plan. The outgoing chancellor, Richard Carranza, resigned from his post over disagreements with the mayor over how aggressively to pursue desegregation.

“This is the first case in the nation to seek a constitutional right to an anti-racist education,” said Mark Rosenbaum, one of the lawyers suing the city and state.

Rosenbaum, director of Public Counsel Opportunity Under Law, a Los Angeles-based pro bono law firm, is joined on the case by prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, along with the law firm Sidley Austin and IntegrateNYC, a youth-led integration group.

Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, defended the city’s record on school desegregation.

“This administration has taken bold, unprecedented steps to advance equity in our admissions policies.” she said in a statement. “Our persistent work to drive equity for New York City families is ongoing, and we will review the suit.”

segregation 分離、隔離、人種差別
inequality 不平等、不公平
civil rights 市民的権利、公民権　
plaintiff 原告　
racial 人種の、民族の
defendant 被告
integration 統合、人種的差別の廃止
desegregation 人種差別廃止
anti-racist 人種差別反対主義者
pro bono 社会貢献するボランティア活動

3/12(金)の放送

China and Russia Agree to Explore the Moon Together

著者：Steven Lee Myers
(c) 2021 The New York Times Company

China and Russia have agreed to jointly build a research station on or around the moon, setting the stage for a new space race.

The United States and the Soviet Union, followed by its successor state, Russia, have long dominated space exploration, putting the first astronauts in space and on the moon and later collaborating on the International Space Station that has been in orbit for two decades.

The joint announcement by China and Russia on Tuesday has the potential to scramble the geopolitics of space exploration, once again setting up competing programs and goals for the scientific and, potentially, commercial exploitation of the moon. This time, though, the main players will be the United States and China, with Russia as a supporting player.

In recent years, China has made huge advances in space exploration, putting its own astronauts in orbit and sending probes to the moon and to Mars. It has effectively drafted Russia as a partner in missions that it has already planned, outpacing a Russian program that has stalled in recent years.

In December, China’s Chang’e-5 mission brought back samples from the moon’s surface, which have gone on display with great fanfare in Beijing. That made China only the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to accomplish the feat. In the coming months, it is expected to send a lander and rover to the Martian surface, hard on the heels of NASA’s Perseverance, which arrived there last month.

A memorandum of understanding signed in a video conference Tuesday by Zhang Kejian, head of the Chinese space program, and his Russian counterpart, Dmitri O. Rogozin, referred to the Chang’e-7 mission, a Chinese probe expected to be launched to the moon’s southern pole in 2024. China’s lunar probes are named after a moon goddess of classical Chinese mythology.

China was never invited to the ISS, as U.S. law prohibits NASA from cooperating with Beijing. That meant China “had no choice but to set and pursue its own goals,” said Joan S. Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.

The United States has its own plans to revisit the moon by 2024 through an international program called Artemis.

set the stage　　状態を整える／用意する
space race　　宇宙開発競争／宇宙開発レース
successor　　後継の／後任
state　　国／国家
dominate　　優位を占める／首位になる
in orbit　　軌道上／軌道に乗って　3／7のorbitalと同じorbit
scramble　　混乱させる／乱す
geopolitics　　地政学
exploitation　　搾取／巻き上げ
Chang’e-5 　　嫦娥（じょうが）5号
hard on the heels of 　〜のすぐ後に（来る）／息つく暇も無く
memorandum　　覚書／備忘録
southern pole 　南極
☝️地球のことを話している時は the South Poleと言います