ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 23/12/11(月)-15(金)

ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 23/12/11(月) アルトマン氏オープンＡＩのＣＥＯに復帰
OPENAI TO REINSTATE ALTMAN AS CEO
Openai to reinstate Altman as CEO
2023年11月22日のニュース

U.S. tech firm OpenAI says it has agreed to reinstate Sam Altman as CEO less than a week after the board fired him. The company is behind the widely popular artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.
OpenAI made the announcement on social media on Tuesday. It refers to a new “initial board” of three directors who are working out the details.
Media reports speculate on a conflict between Altman’s drive to quickly expand AI services and a focus on safety by other board members. Altman was dismissed Friday, and by Sunday, OpenAI’s biggest shareholder Microsoft said it was ready to hire him.
Almost all of OpenAI’s about 770 employees signed a letter threatening to quit and demanding that the board reinstate Altman and resign themselves.

ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 23/12/12 (火) 配送効率向上へ商品の小型化広がる
GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES
Good things come in small packages
2023年11月21日のニュース

Delivery businesses across Japan are grappling with a severe driver shortage. They will have another problem to contend with next year when limits on driver overtime take effect. Companies that rely on delivery trucks to get their goods out are responding by focusing on efficiency. They’re making their products more compact so they can load more of them onto a truck.
Daily goods maker Unicharm says it used special technology to reduce the packaging size for its diapers for elderly people by 10 percent. Officials say this will likely slash the number of 10-ton trucks needed for deliveries each year by about 1,000.
Another daily goods firm, Kao, has taken a simpler approach. The company made the packaging for its cleaning wipes smaller by taking out some of the air.
Food and daily products maker CGC Japan trimmed the height of its cooking oil bottles by four centimeters without reducing volume.

ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 23/12/13(水)ィンランドロシア国境の検問所を閉鎖
FINLAND SHUTS BORDER POINTS WITH RUSSIA
Rinland shuts border points with Russia
2023年11月25日のニュース

Finland has closed most of its border points with Russia due to an influx of asylum seekers, blaming Moscow for intentionally sending them. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the migrants have been transferred to the border by Moscow.

(Petteri Orpo / Finnish Prime Minister)
“These measures were considered necessary to protect Finland and our national security. We want to send a clear message to Russia. This must stop.”

Finland on Friday shut all but one border crossing with Russia. The Nordic nation cited a surge in Middle Eastern and African migrants at the border since August.
Helsinki criticized Russia, saying it is attempting to bring confusion to Finland. Russia has denied any involvement. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regrets that the good relations between the two countries have been replaced by a “Russophobic position.”

ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 23/12/14(木)東芝上場廃止を決定
TOSHIBA SET TO DELIST FROM STOCK EXCHANGES
Toshiba set delist from stock exchanges
2023年11月22日のニュース

Japanese industrial giant Toshiba will be delisted from the stock exchanges in Tokyo and Nagoya next month, following the approval of shareholders. The aim is for the company to rebuild its finances and turn its business around.
Toshiba held an ad hoc shareholders meeting on Wednesday to address the issue. An investment fund, Japan Industrial Partners, bought more than 78 percent of Toshiba shares in a takeover in September. Shareholders have approved the purchase of the remaining portion to squeeze out overseas activists. Toshiba is now set to go private on December 20.
Toshiba has been mired with problems since accounting irregularities came to light in 2015. The company faces the challenge of restructuring its finances and pursuing growth. It has to do this while shouldering costs of around 2 trillion yen, or more than 13 billion dollars, related to the buyout.

ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 23/12/15(金)巨大エネルギーの“宇宙線” 発見
SCIENTISTS DETECT 2ND-MOST POWERFUL COSMIC RAY
Scientists detect 2nd-most powerful cosmic ray
2023年11月24日のニュース

Astronomers say they’ve discovered a cosmic ray so powerful that only one gram of the particle would contain enough energy to destroy the Earth in theory.
A group of researchers from Japan, the United States, and six other countries made the announcement at a news conference. The researchers said a detector picked up something super energetic in May of 2021.
It was so strong that at first it was thought to be a mistake. But it turned out to be the second-most powerful cosmic ray ever detected, with an estimated energy of 244 exa-electron volts. The team dubbed the particle “Amaterasu,” after the sun goddess in Japanese mythology.
Cosmic rays are high-energy subatomic particles that rain down on Earth from outer space. The source of the Amaterasu particle remains a mystery. The scientists say it could have been generated by the explosion of a massive star. But there’s nothing like that in the area of space the particle appears to have come from.