レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his government coalition partners presented a comprehensive reform package with the goal of getting the country’s sluggish economy back on track.

The 34 measures include cuts to income tax for low- and middle-income families, an overhaul of the creaking pension system, tougher rules for employees’ sick leave, and a reduction of the country’s stifling bureaucracy.

“These reforms all have one goal: We’re setting out into the future,” Merz said. “We’re strengthening ourselves so that we can live well in these new times.”

Merz is trying to cut his government coalition free from that negative reputation.

Germany's economy returned to modest growth last year after shrinking for two years in a row. The government expects underwhelming growth of 0.5% this year, a figure that has been pushed down by the fallout from the war in Iran.

The government coalition leaders said that the tax cuts, once fully implemented in 2028, would give an annual tax break of about 600 euros ($686.40) for a family with two working parents, two children, and a total taxable income of 60,000 euros ($68,640). The total tax relief provided by the reform amounts to approximately 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) per year.

The pension system reform would include gradually raising the retirement age, currently between 65 and 67 years, depending on the number of years worked, in line with life expectancy.

The tougher rules for sick leave would no longer allow employees to call in sick to work for up to three days without seeing a doctor, or call up the doctor and ask for a sick leave letter for one week without actually seeing the doctor. Instead, employers would be able to ask for a doctor's certificate from the first day a person is on sick leave.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Other great apes laugh in a similar way to humans, a new study has found. Just like us, they chuckle in a rhythmic pattern, suggesting they had a common ancestor around 15 million years ago that also laughed.

A team led by a researcher from the University of Warwick analyzed recordings of laughter from gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees, and humans. They were aged between six months and seven years old. The ape giggles were collected from tickling and playtime and were recorded for a study in the early 2000s.

Humans’ and great apes’ chuckles followed similar rhythms with regular timing between their laughs.

“We say that all the species have an isochronous rhythm, meaning that if you think of a metronome, the tick, tick, tick—the regularity is there. So, it's always the same interval going between laughter bursts,” explains Chiara de Gregorio, the study author and a researcher at the University of Warwick.

The scientists think that because a rhythmic pattern was observed across all the apes they studied, it's likely they had a common ancestor 15 million years ago that would have also laughed in a similar pattern.

Laughter has gotten faster and more complex over time, so human giggles have some aspects that set them apart. For one, our laughs sound different based on context—from a polite chuckle among colleagues to a full-bodied guffaw with close friends. Other apes do not show this variability.

“So, in a way we are very similar to other great apes because we've been laughing in a similar way for 15 million years. But at the same time we realize that our laughter holds more information than that is simple ‘I'm playing and having fun.’ And it's something that maybe we don't think about in everyday life: how we could communicate so many things without words,” says de Gregorio.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026, the largest international maritime exercise in the world, has been ongoing in Hawaii from June 24 to July 31, 2026. Hosted by the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, the exercise aims to improve interoperability and warfighting skills among participating nations while promoting a free Indo-Pacific region.

The exercise involves 30 nations, over 30 surface ships, five submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 206 aircraft, and 30,000 personnel who train and operate in and around the Hawaiian Islands during the exercise.

RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants that are critical to ensuring the security of sea lanes and stability across the region.

The U.S. Navy states that the Rim of the Pacific exercise remains the premier multinational maritime training event, bringing together allies and partners committed to strengthening security and stability across the region. This year's theme is Partners, Integrated and Prepared.

The opening ceremony and press conference marked the start of RIMPAC 2026, the 30th iteration of the international maritime exercise, which is highlighted by the 250th anniversary of the United States.

At Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Jeffrey T. Jablon, who serves as the Commander of Combined Task Forces and the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, stated, The purpose of RIMPAC is to strengthen relationships, improve interoperability, and enhance the readiness of participating forces to promote maritime security and regional stability in a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Since its inception in 1971, RIMPAC has grown into the world's largest international maritime exercise, Jablon said.

For 250 years, our nation has built enduring relationships with allies and partners based on trust, mutual respect, and shared interests, Jablon added.

RIMPAC 2026 builds on the success of previous exercises that unite allies to showcase the maritime forces' flexibility and capability.

The exercise includes a variety of training events, including amphibious operations, gunnery and missile exercises, anti-submarine warfare, air defense, military medicine, humanitarian assistance, counter-piracy, mine countermeasures, explosive ordnance disposal, diving, and salvage operations.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Australia plans to double potential fines for social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, that fail to prevent Australian children from holding accounts, as critics argue the world-first ban on under-16s was failing.

Communications Minister Anika Wells blamed the platforms’ resistance to the age restrictions for the need to toughen the laws that came into force on December 10.

“We can all agree we would like the scheme to work better than it is currently, but that is on Big Tech taking the Mickey,” Wells told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., using an Australian slang term for deceiving, teasing, or mocking.

The government announced it would introduce draft legislation into Parliament that would double the maximum fine to 99 million Australian dollars ($68 million) for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent Australian children from holding accounts.

The amendments would also increase the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog, to demand information and documents to ensure platforms were complying with Australian law, a government statement said.

The new powers would also include information from third parties, such as age assurance technology providers, to test claims made by the platforms about how those under 16 continued to circumvent the ban, the statement said.

Senior opposition lawmaker Jane Hume said her party would consider voting for the reforms, saying the “social media ban wasn’t working” because of deficient laws. “The legislation was clearly undercooked in the first place. The eSafety Commissioner wasn’t given the powers to be able to pursue these Big Tech companies,” Hume said.

Parliament passed the initial legislation with overwhelming support in 2024. The targeted platforms were given more than 12 months to plan and implement the ban.

Many countries that have implemented or are planning similar restrictions have been closely watching the progress of Australia’s ban.

The government initially reported that more than 5 million children had accounts removed, deactivated, or restricted after the ban became law. But eSafety reported in March that seven in 10 children who held accounts on restricted platforms on December 10 remained on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Apple announced an increase in prices for Macs and iPads, citing a memory chip shortage brought on by the artificial intelligence boom. The Cupertino, California-based company called the spike in demand an “unprecedented challenge” for the consumer electronics industry.

“The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” the company said in a written statement.

The new entry-level MacBook Neo will now cost $699, up from $599. The 512-gigabyte MacBook Air now costs $1,299, up from $1,099. The one-terabyte MacBook Pro is $1,999, up from $1,699.

The 128-gigabyte iPad Air is now $749, up from $599, while the 256-gigabyte iPad Pro Wi-Fi is now $1,199, up from $999.

Analysts expect iPhone prices to rise later this year.

International Data Corporation (IDC) analyst Nabila Popal said the latest price hikes were higher than she had expected, which suggests the iPhone price hikes may also be higher than expected, perhaps as much as $200 for the iPhone Pro and Pro Max models.

“I think the days of $50 price increases are over,” she said.

Apple said that while it has shielded customers from the component price surges so far, “we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today's increases for iPad and Mac. We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

California voters will consider a controversial proposal in November to temporarily raise taxes on billionaires after the labor union backing the measure announced it would forge ahead despite pressure from critics to withdraw it.

The proposal, backed by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West, would impose a one-time 5% tax on individuals whose net worth exceeds $1 billion and who were living in the state as of January 1, 2026. The goal is to generate $100 billion in revenue, mainly to fund the state's Medicaid system after federal cuts.

I am all in on this, union President Dave Regan said on a Zoom call, adding that opponents of the proposal are totally out of touch.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and many traditional allies of the union oppose the measure. They argue it is a temporary fix for an ongoing problem and that it would push the ultrawealthy to leave the state, taking the money they would contribute in income taxes with them. Newsom, who is considering a presidential run as he prepares to leave office in January, has generally opposed tax increases during his time as governor.

A coalition of healthcare, education, and housing groups—including the California Medical Association and California School Boards Association—banded together to fight the tax.

The dangerous wealth tax directly threatens vital funding for education and schools, healthcare and clinics, public safety, and infrastructure projects by making California's revenue even more volatile, the coalition said in a statement.

Driving away the state's sustainable tax base for a one-time grab is bad policy and an even worse deal for 40 million Californians who will be left holding the bag, he said in a statement.

Under the proposal, the state would spend the money generated from the tax over multiple years. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that the proposal would generate tens of billions of dollars in the first few years, but that income tax revenues would subsequently decline by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

When Ewa Lutka-Krawczyk was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer, her first thought was for Gaja, a shelter dog she had taken in three years ago. She asked her doctor to assure her she would live a few more years so the deeply attached Gaja “wouldn't be left behind.”

But the prognosis was grim, and in June, the 70-year-old was admitted to the palliative ward of a Warsaw hospital. Left at home with Lutka-Krawczyk's husband, Gaja was barely eating.

“She is waiting for me,” Lutka-Krawczyk said from her bed, where she rested with a draining tube attached to her abdomen.

Under proposed new legislation in Poland, patients like Lutka-Krawczyk soon would have the right to be visited in hospices and palliative care wards by their pets. Visits are already allowed in many clinics, but there is no universal right under the law.

Dr. Tomasz Dzierżanowski, director of the Palliative Medicine Clinic at the Medical University of Warsaw, where Lutka-Krawczyk is being treated, has led the proposal, which was introduced to parliament by a member of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist party.

Dzierżanowski said the presence of a beloved pet can ease the physical and spiritual pain of terminally ill patients at a time when society is experiencing “an epidemic of loneliness.”

“We make sure that no patient dies alone,” Dzierżanowski said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“When someone is suffering, it is important that someone is there for them. Ideally, that should be another human being,” he said. “Sometimes, however, there is no one.

Dzierżanowski said he often sees older patients isolated because they have outlived their friends, as well as young patients feeling alone in palliative care clinics because in today's world of screens and virtual friends, they have not built the kind of friendships that earlier generations often had.

Dzierżanowski said the catalyst for his mission was a seriously ill cancer patient named Waldemar who was not afraid for himself but for his two cats. Dzierżanowski arranged for the cats to be brought into the ward.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

America has been rushing into an artificial intelligence future without much of a plan to stop what could be catastrophic job losses. Critics warn of doomsday scenarios out of a sci-fi thriller, while backers say AI will generate so much new wealth that no one should worry too much about millions of layoffs.

A new bipartisan nonprofit hopes to ensure that America can realize the economic gains promised by AI without its workers suffering.

RAISE US is starting with more than $500 million to deploy on new forms of education and training, putting a focus on partnering with states and major employers rather than the federal government.

Founded by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, the group aims to pilot programs and incentives to help American workers pivot to new careers in an economy that will increasingly be automated by artificial intelligence.

We're talking about a certain level of unemployment that could destabilize our country and our democracy, Raimondo said in an interview. If you want to lead the world in AI, you have to take action to make sure our democracy doesn't crumble.

The nonprofit is initially partnering with officials in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, along with several of America's largest companies and charitable organizations. The group intends to develop policies that connect schools more closely to employers, so that layoffs can be replaced by the potential for new jobs with higher incomes. They are also exploring changes to corporate taxes and other incentives with the goal of keeping people working.

Good things tend to happen when you convert have-nots into haves, Holcomb said.

Among the companies serving as anchor partners with RAISE US are Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, and Bank of America. Other employers involved in the project include UPS, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, chipmaker AMD, Cisco, and IBM.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Stockholm has opened its first public sauna with the aim of making the traditional experience more accessible. The new facility is part of a broader city strategy to improve public access to Stockholm's waterfronts.

Hornstullsbastun (Hornstull’s sauna) can accommodate up to 16 people at a time and includes outdoor showers, sauna baskets, and a designated swimming area along the waterfront.

Popular waterfront saunas often have waiting lists numbering in the thousands, while reservations at newly opened venues can be fully booked within minutes. The new public sauna can be booked online up to one month in advance and is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. A 90-minute session costs 150 Swedish kronor.

It was officially opened by the city's vice mayor, Lars Strömgren. “Stockholm has a long tradition of being a harbor city. And because of that, we haven't really opened up the quays to swimming and to the public. Now, we want to do that more, and we also want to make sure that it's possible for everybody to get access to sauna,” he says.

Among those who booked the first available sessions was Wendy Liu, a British traveler who said she learned about the opening at a sauna convention. “It's great to have water and a sauna together. I mean, if a sauna without water is not a real experience, these two need to go together. And this is such a beautiful place. And today we got beautiful weather, so it's a perfect combination,” she says.

The sauna stands on the site of the former Liljeholmsbadet, a floating public bathhouse dating to the 1930s. The bathhouse was removed last year after falling into disrepair.

Pia Karlsson, a project manager with Stockholm's transport office, says the city will monitor public interest in the facility and evaluate whether additional public saunas should be opened in the future.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

An extreme heat warning has been issued across parts of the U.K., with water safety experts urging people to take care when cooling off in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) warned that while temperatures on land are soaring, open water can still be cold enough to trigger cold water shock.

Regional Water Safety Lead Chris Cousens said the risk increases when there is a large gap between air and water temperatures, and urged people to think carefully before they enter open water.

He advised people who get into difficulty to float to live by remaining calm and floating on their backs until the effects of cold-water shock pass.

Across Europe, several countries are also sweltering.

About a third of France was under a heat red alert on June 21, and temperatures are expected to reach 40°C (104°F) in some areas, in a country where air conditioning isn't widespread. The forecast for June 22 was even hotter.

Spain kicked off the summer with large parts of the country on alert due to temperatures expected to hover around 40°C (104°F)—even in the interior of the Basque Country, a northern region that typically experiences cooler temperatures.

In Italy, authorities expanded heat warnings—referred to locally as “red flags”—to eight cities in northern and central parts of the country. Temperatures there are mostly in the upper 30s °C (high 90s to low 100s °F).

More than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes over the last four years, and most of the fatalities were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said. More above-average temperatures are expected this summer, which can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.