レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

A dozen people outside a Milan metro station on February 11 stared intently at their phones until 8 a.m., when an Instagram post provided a location. “Run, don’t walk: we’re in the Castello area,” said the post. “Pins are available while supplies last.”

It sent the group sprinting. Early each morning in Milan, eager collectors gathered to await word of the exact spot where they could score highly prized, limited-edition Olympic pins that—if they were fast enough—were free.

Ilaria Pasqua got up and out early every day from February 7 to snag the coveted pins from YesMilano, the city's promotional agency, and she planned to complete the collection of seven neighborhoods—including Isola and Porta Venezia—and five iconic landmarks, like the Duomo. She teamed up with three collectors she met on the first day, and they developed a system to be among the first in line.

I know it can sound like it's a bit extreme, and (like) it's a waste of time. But actually, I've met these people that I am doing this with, so it's nice,'' said Pasqua, an English teacher in Milan. It's a way to get to know the city that you live in or are visiting. It's also social. I'm really enjoying it, to be honest. And you take a little treasure with you home every day, so it's fun.'' Each day after receiving her pins, Pasqua says she stuffs them deep in her coat pocket–out of view from latecomers looking for a trade that she doesn't want to make.

Pin collecting is an essential part of the Olympic subculture, with people traveling far and wide to the Games just to add to what is often a very substantial array of enameled pins at home.

Elite collectors know the intrinsic value of each category, including retail, delegation, team, sponsor, media, and national Olympic committees. Japanese media pins are among the most coveted by die-hard collectors, for their rarity, while in Cortina, athletes were keen to get an Iran pin, and in Paris, Snoop Dogg's pins were the buzziest.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta's Instagram, testified during a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms.

The question of addiction is a key pillar of the case, where plaintiffs seek to hold social media companies responsible for harms to children who use their platforms. Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled.

At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials KGM, whose lawsuit could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies would play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials—essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury.

Mosseri, who's headed Instagram since 2018, said it's important to differentiate between clinical addiction and what he called problematic use. The plaintiff's lawyer, however, presented quotes directly from Mosseri in a podcast interview a few years ago, where he used the term addiction in relation to social media use, but he clarified that he was probably using the term too casually, as people tend to do.

Mosseri said he was not claiming to be a medical expert when questioned about his qualifications to comment on the legitimacy of social media addiction, but said someone very close to him has experienced serious clinical addiction, which is why he said he was being careful with my words.

He said he and his colleagues use the term problematic use to refer to someone spending more time on Instagram than they feel good about, and that definitely happens. It's not good for the company, over the long run, to make decisions that profit for us but are poor for people's well-being, Mosseri said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Scientists are testing an entirely new way to fight heart disease: a gene-editing treatment that might offer a one-time fix for high cholesterol. It's very early-stage research, tried in only a few dozen people so far. But gene-editing approaches being developed by two companies show hints that switching off certain genes could dramatically lower artery-clogging cholesterol, raising hopes of one day being able to prevent heart attacks without having to take pills.

People want a fix, not a bandage, said Dr. Luke Laffin, a preventive cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. After co-authoring a promising study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, he said he was flooded with queries about how to participate in the next clinical trial.

Everyone needs a certain amount of cholesterol. But too much, especially a bad kind called LDL cholesterol, builds plaque in the artery walls and is a main driver of heart attacks and strokes. Cardiovascular disease is the nation's—and world's—leading killer.

Millions take cholesterol-lowering medicines such as statins, the cornerstone of treatment. But many still struggle to lower their cholesterol enough, and sticking with the drugs for life is difficult, with some quitting because of side effects.

Years ago, Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a cardiologist now at the University of Pennsylvania, reported that some lucky people harbor a mutation that turns off a gene named ANGPTL3, lowering their levels of both LDL cholesterol and another bad fat, triglycerides. Separately, geneticists at UT Southwestern Medical Center found that still other people's extremely low LDL was due to loss of function of another gene named PCSK9.

It's a natural experiment in what would happen if we actually changed the gene, said the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Steven Nissen, who, with Laffin, oversaw an ANGPTL3 study funded by Swiss-based CRISPR Therapeutics.

Today, there are injected medicines that block proteins produced by the PCSK9 and ANGPTL3 genes in the liver, thus helping the body clear away cholesterol. The new research uses CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene-editing tool, to try switching off one of those genes in people at high risk of uncontrolled cholesterol.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The computers inside modern trains are already doing much of the driving. At train maker Alstom’s factory in Derby, engineers are testing how far that technology could eventually go. From braking to controlling doors to making passenger announcements, every part of a train now runs through a central computer. And inside a lab known as ‘Train Zero,’ those systems are being tested in depth before the trains are ever put on track.

Class 701 Aventra is a brand-new, fresh-off-the-production-line British-built train being put through its paces on a dedicated test track at Alstom’s Derby site. Before it enters passenger service on the South Western Railway network, engineers are checking that every part of it performs as expected. While the train runs outside, much of the testing is happening indoors.

Train Zero is a laboratory that recreates an entire train in digital form, using racks of hardware and software to simulate how systems behave on board. The facility is used to test multiple versions of the Aventra platform, including units now operating or in development for the Elizabeth Line, London Overground, East Anglia, West Midlands, and c2c.

Train Zero allows engineers to test an entire train without needing one physically present. Each setup is a combination of real hardware, such as buttons, relays, and displays, as well as virtual systems that simulate how a full train would behave in motion.

Jabeen Yousaf, a test and validation engineer at Alstom, says, “It feels satisfying to know that the system that we are testing here is robust, and we can, we're testing it thoroughly and finding as many defects or problems beforehand before it rolls out on the trains, and we know that how we've tested here that we have been able to fix as many issues as possible before it rolls on the train on the actual fleet.”

Alongside the testing work in Train Zero, trains are being physically assembled inside the main production building.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

In Singapore, the question being asked is not if there will be flying taxis, but when.

They're not taking off just yet, but flying taxis are taking center stage at Singapore's Air Show. The event is considered Asia's largest aerospace and defense exhibition. The week-long event attracts thousands of visitors.

Phil Swinsburg is the director of Asia Pacific Operations Business Development for Wisk Aero. He's keen to demonstrate the comforts on hand for passengers, at what the company describes as the world's first autonomous four-passenger air taxi. “A roller bag goes in the ‘frunk,’ which is our front trunk, and then personal items can be fitted here for each person that is sitting,” he explains. Swinsburg is convinced flying taxis are a reality about to happen, and Asia is where it will happen first.

“So, Wisk was created to enable safe, everyday flying for everyone. What that means for us is to be able to reduce the friction of everyday travel around urban areas, and we believe that the urban air mobility, or advanced air mobility, is how we can achieve that,” he says.

While the Wisk’s air taxi has the same standard features as other vehicles, like baggage trunks, phone chargers, and cup holders, Swinsburg says, So, this aircraft is fully electric and fully autonomous. That’s the real difference for Wisk.”

Wisk Aero, a subsidiary of the U.S. airplane manufacturer Boeing, is still in the process of having its air taxi cleared for flight. Like many of the top air mobility companies at the Singapore Air Show, though, industry enthusiasts say they’re inching closer.

“We are now on the cusp of this. There’s really five to six players in the world, and this is becoming a reality,” says Stuart Simpson, CEO of Vertical Aerospace. “And that isn’t just the technology’s progressed, and businesses have evolved, but regulation is evolving at pace. Infrastructure is evolving at pace. Everything is ready for this to be a transformative moment in aviation.”

Simpson also stresses the importance of air taxis to the region, claiming it's the obvious way for the cities here to grow.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

In France, civil servants will ditch Zoom and Teams for a homegrown video conference system. Soldiers in Austria are using open-source office software to write reports after the military dropped Microsoft Office. Bureaucrats in a German state have also turned to free software for their administrative work.

Around Europe, governments and institutions are seeking to reduce their use of digital services from U.S. Big Tech companies and turning to domestic or free alternatives. The push for “digital sovereignty” is gaining attention as the Trump administration strikes an increasingly belligerent posture toward the continent, highlighted by recent tensions over Greenland that intensified fears that Silicon Valley giants could be compelled to cut off access.

Concerns about data privacy and worries that Europe is not doing enough to keep up with the United States and Chinese tech leadership are also fueling the drive.

The French government referenced some of these concerns when it announced that 2.5 million civil servants would stop using video conference tools from U.S. providers—including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and GoTo Meeting—by 2027 and switch to Visio, a homegrown service.

The objective is “to put an end to the use of non-European solutions, to guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool,” the announcement said. “We cannot risk having our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, and our strategic innovations exposed to non-European actors,” David Amiel, a civil service minister, said in a press release.

Microsoft said it continues to “partner closely with the government in France and respect the importance of security, privacy, and digital trust for public institutions.”

The company said it is “focused on providing customers with greater choice, stronger data protection, and resilient cloud services—ensuring data stays in Europe, under European law, with robust security and privacy protections.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing digital sovereignty for years. But there’s now a lot more “political momentum behind this idea now that we need to de-risk from U.S. tech,” Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at the Eurasia Group.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Cigarette smoking is part of daily life in New Delhi. Smokers standing outside tobacco vendors are a common sight.

The Finance Ministry has begun imposing a higher rate of tax starting February 1, ranging from 2,050 rupees ($22) to 8,500 rupees ($92) per thousand cigarettes, depending on their size. The new tax is applied in addition to the existing 40% Goods and Services Tax.

Rajeev Malhotra, a cigarette and betel leaf seller in the heart of the capital city, says while the increase in cigarette prices is likely to impact sales, “people who want to consume nicotine will always find a way to.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is also the second largest consumer and producer of tobacco products, which are available at very low prices in the country.

India is home to nearly 267 million adults who are users of smoking and smokeless tobacco, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India, 2016-17. Smoking is also one of the major causes of death and disease in India and accounts for nearly 1.35 million deaths every year, according to the WHO. Globally, tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats.

According to the WHO, tobacco use is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, including various cancers, chronic lung diseases, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.

In India, the total economic costs attributable to tobacco use from all diseases for persons aged 35 years and above in 2017-18 were estimated at around 177,341 crore rupees (about $27.5 billion), including both direct medical costs and indirect costs due to lost productivity and premature deaths. This burden represents roughly 1% of India’s GDP for that period.

Dr. K.S. Uplabdh Gopal, Associate Fellow (Health Initiative) at the Observer Research Foundation and a medical doctor, says that “tobacco is driving a large, predictable, and preventable burden of disease” in India.

“Official data shows that it is concentrated in rural India. It rises sharply with age. And in some states, it is at a level that is hard to describe as anything other than a public health emergency,” he says.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Tourists hoping to get close to the Trevi Fountain had to pay 2 euros ($2.35) starting February 2 as the city of Rome inaugurated a new fee structure to help raise money and control crowds at one of the world's most celebrated waterworks.

The first tourists to pass through the new ticket check seemed unfazed by the tariff, noting it was a small price to pay for quality access to a fountain made famous by Federico Fellini's movie La Dolce Vita.

Before, there were problems accessing the fountain. There were a lot of people. Now, it's very easy, said Ilhan Musbah, a tourist from Morocco. You can take photos, you feel good, you're comfortable, and on top of that, 2 euros is not much.

The tourist fee was rolled out in conjunction with a new 5-euro (nearly $6) tourist ticket fee for some city museums. In both cases, Rome residents are exempt from the fees, and the extra revenue will actually expand the number of city-run museums that are free for registered Roman residents.

It's all part of the Eternal City's efforts to manage tourist flows in a particularly congested part of town, improve the experience, and offset the maintenance costs of preserving all of Rome's cultural heritage. Officials estimate it could net the city 6.5 million euros ($7.6 million) extra a year.

The city decided to impose the Trevi Fountain fee after seeing positive results already from a year-long experiment to stagger and limit the number of visitors who can reach the front edge of the basin by imposing lines and pathways for entrance and exit.

The fee follows a similar ticketing system at Rome’s Pantheon monument and the more complicated tourist day-tripper tax that the lagoon city of Venice imposed last year in a bid to ease overtourism and make the city more livable for residents.

PepsiCo is cutting prices on Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, and Tostitos chips this year to win back customers exasperated by years of price hikes.

“For some consumers, low- and middle-income consumers, the biggest friction they have today in our category... is affordability,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said during a conference call with investors. “So, we have been testing multiple ways to give them affordability.”

PepsiCo has leaned on price increases as the cost of packaging, ingredients, and transportation rose. In the fourth quarter, PepsiCo hiked prices by 4.5% globally. Prices for PepsiCo beverages rose 7% in North America, while prices for the company’s snacks ticked up 1%.

That has pumped up revenue, including in the most recent quarter. PepsiCo said its net revenue rose 5.6% to $29.3 billion in the October-December period. That was higher than the $28.9 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

But the price hikes have also weakened demand, and consumers have begun swapping out brands they are familiar with for cheaper versions or cutting back altogether.

Volumes for PepsiCo snacks like Doritos and Cheetos fell 1% in the most recent quarter. North American beverage volumes dropped 4%. Globally, PepsiCo said beverage volumes rose 1% while food volumes fell 2%.

Laguarta said PepsiCo began testing price cuts in some markets in the second half of last year and found that they helped boost sales.

“Volume return is pretty good, and that’s what the category needs,” Laguarta said.

PepsiCo said in December that it planned to cut prices and trim nearly 20% of its product offerings as part of a deal with activist investor Elliott Investment Management. Elliott, which took a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo in September, has been prodding the company’s board to make changes, saying PepsiCo was being hurt by slowing growth and lower profits in its North American food and beverage business.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

By age 2, most kids know how to play pretend. They turn their bedrooms into faraway castles and hold make-believe tea parties. The ability to make something out of nothing may seem uniquely human—a bedrock of creativity that's led to new kinds of art, music, and more.

Now, for the first time, an experiment hints that an ape in captivity can have an imagination. What's really exciting about this work is that it suggests that the roots of this capacity for imagination are not unique to our species, said study co-author Christopher Krupenye with Johns Hopkins University.

Kanzi is a bonobo who was raised in a lab and became a whiz at communicating with humans using graphic symbols. He combined different symbols to make them mean new things and learned how to create simple stone tools.

Scientists wondered whether Kanzi had the capacity to play pretend—that is, act like something is real while knowing it's not. They'd heard reports of female chimpanzees in the wild holding sticks as though they were babies and chimps in captivity dragging imaginary blocks on the ground after playing with real ones.

But imagination is abstract, so it's hard to know what's going on in the apes' heads. They could just be imitating researchers or mistaking imaginary objects for the real thing.

Researchers adapted the playbook for studying young children to stage a juice party for Kanzi. They poured imaginary juice from a pitcher into two cups, then pretended to empty just one. They asked Kanzi which cup he wanted, and he pointed to the cup still containing pretend juice 68% of the time.

To make sure Kanzi wasn't confusing real with fake, they also ran a test with actual juice. Kanzi chose the real juice over the pretend almost 80% of the time, which suggests that he really can tell the difference between real juice and imaginary juice, said Amalia Bastos, a study co-author from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

But not all scientists are convinced that Kanzi is playing pretend like humans do. There's a difference between envisioning juice being poured into a cup and maintaining the pretense that it's real, said Duke University comparative psychologist Michael Tomasello.