レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

With Utah’s first-in-the-nation ban on fluoride in public drinking water having taken effect May 7, dentists who treat children and low-income patients said they’re bracing for an influx of tooth decay among the state’s most vulnerable.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed the law against the recommendation of many dentists and national health organizations who warned removing fluoride would harm tooth development, especially in young patients without regular access to dental care. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. applauded Utah for being the first state to enact a ban and said he plans to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending fluoridation nationwide.

As of May 7, communities across the state were no longer able to decide whether to add a low dose of the cavity-preventing mineral to their water supply. Before the ban became law, a majority of Utah water systems did not add fluoride. The state in 2022 ranked 44th in the nation for the percentage of residents who received fluoridated water, with about two in five receiving it, according to CDC data.

The law impacts about 1.6 million Utah residents who live in Davis and Salt Lake counties, and Brigham City, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. In communities like Salt Lake City—the largest city removing fluoride from its water supply—dentists over the past weeks said many patients were unaware of the fast-approaching ban, and most did not realize the city had been adding fluoride to their drinking water for nearly two decades.

Fluoride fortifies teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the CDC. It’s especially important for children whose teeth are still developing. For some low-income families, public drinking water containing fluoride may be their only source of preventative dental care.

At Salt Lake Donated Dental Services, providers expect their monthslong waitlist for children’s procedures requiring sedation to grow and their need for volunteer dentists to skyrocket. The effects of the ban on children’s teeth will likely be visible within the next year, said Sasha Harvey, the clinic’s executive director.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

House Republicans want to set aside up to $5 billion a year for scholarships to help families send their children to private and religious schools, an unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education.

The proposal, part of a budget reconciliation bill released in May, would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda of establishing “universal school choice” by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school. Nearly all households would qualify except those making more than three times the local median income.

Supporters of private school vouchers say they want to give families assigned to low-performing schools more choices.

“Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the (American Dream) possible,” said Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who sponsored a similar proposal in the Senate.

The program would be funded by donors who could contribute money or stock. In turn, they would receive 100% of the contribution back in the form of a discount on their tax bills. It would allow stockholders to avoid paying taxes that would be levied if they donated or transferred the stock.

Critics decried the proposal, saying it would aid the wealthy at the expense of the public school systems that serve the overwhelming majority of students. They said it would set up a tax shelter allowing savvy investors to make money under the guise of a donation.

All of this comes as the Trump administration downsizes the Education Department and cuts resources to public schools, including $1 billion in mental health grants and funding for teacher training.

“This is a significant threat,” said Sasha Pudelski of AASA, the School Superintendents Association. She added that states that have voucher programs often end up assisting families that were already paying for private school. “It’s opening the door even wider to what has already plagued voucher programs around the country, which is rampant waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Public school advocates worry the programs hurt enrollment and per-pupil funding, ultimately leaving fewer resources for families that choose public schools.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum described as unfair the decision by the Trump administration to suspend imports of Mexican beef cattle for 15 days due to the detection of screwworm in shipments.

Sheinbaum, who has spent the past few months scrambling to offset tariff threats by U.S. President Donald Trump, said she hoped the suspension would not result in another economic blow for her country.

We do not agree with this measure, she said at her press conference. The Mexican government has been working on all fronts from the very first moment we were alerted to the screwworm.

The U.S. restricted Mexican cattle shipments in late November following the detection of the pest, but lifted the ban in February after protocols were put in place to evaluate the animals prior to entry into the country. But there has been an unacceptable northward advancement of the screwworm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement.

The last time this devastating pest invaded the U.S., it took our livestock industry 30 years to recover, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on the X social media platform. This can never happen again.

The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. The parasite enters the skin, causing serious and life-threatening damage and lesions.

Mexico's Health Ministry issued an epidemiological warning this month after the first human case of screwworm myiasis, or parasitic infestation, was confirmed on April 17 in a 77-year-old woman living in the southern state of Chiapas.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

As a Biden administration ban on so-called “junk fees” took effect in May, Ticketmaster said it would start displaying the full price of a ticket as soon as consumers begin shopping.

Ticketmaster, long a subject of complaints about hidden fees and other issues, was among those targeted by the new rule, which was announced in December by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The rule requires ticket sellers, hotels, vacation rental platforms and others to disclose processing fees, cleaning fees and other charges up front.

Ticketmaster said it agreed with the FTC’s action.

“Ticketmaster has long advocated for all-in pricing to become the nationwide standard so fans can easily compare prices across all ticketing sites,” Ticketmaster Chief Operating Officer Michael Wichser said in a statement.

Ticketmaster said it will also tell customers where they are in line when they log in to buy tickets to an event. It will also give real-time updates to customers whose wait times exceed 30 minutes, letting them know ticket price ranges, availability and whether new event dates have been added.

Ticketmaster, which is owned by Beverly Hills, California-based concert promoter Live Nation, is the world’s largest ticket seller, processing 500 million tickets each year in more than 30 countries. Around 70% of tickets for major concert venues in the U.S. are sold through Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster said the changes would bring North America in line with the rest of the world, where full ticket prices are typically displayed as soon as customers start shopping.

SeatGeek, a platform for buying and selling original and resale tickets, said it also updated its features to make “all-in pricing the default” setting.

“Fans deserve pricing that’s clear from the start,” said SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger. “We’re proud to roll this out across our platform and encouraged to see the industry move in this direction.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Liam and Olivia dominate. Still. The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the U.S. in 2024.

The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. In time for Mother's Day, the agency released the most popular names from applications for Social Security cards.

Liam has reigned for eight years in a row for boys, while Olivia has topped the girls' list for six. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, Emma took the second slot for girls, and Noah for boys. The girls' name Luna slipped out of the Top 10 and was replaced by Sofia, which enters at number 10 for the first time.

After Liam, the most common names for boys are, in order: Noah, Oliver, Theodore, James, Henry, Mateo, Elijah, Lucas and William. After Olivia, the most common names for girls are Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Mia, Sophia, Isabella, Evelyn, Ava and Sofia.

Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of Nameberry, a baby naming website, said the latest data showcases how American parents are increasingly choosing names that have cross-cultural appeal. Kihm's first name shows up in two variations on the annual list.

A trend we're tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices, Kihm said, including names that work no matter where you are in the world.

More families in the U.S. come from mixed cultural backgrounds, and I hear parents commonly request that they want their child to travel and have a relatively easy-to-understand name.

The Social Security Administration's latest data show that 3.61 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2024. That's a slight increase from 2023’s 3.59 million babies, representing an overall increase in the American birthrate.

Social media stars and popular television shows are having some impact on the rising popularity of certain names, Social Security says.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Alcatraz Landing is where tourists take a boat to visit Alcatraz Island, which was once a notorious federal prison that housed infamous criminals like Al Capone.

Today, it is a national park and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the San Francisco Bay.

“As I’m here today, looking around it seems like this is a great tourist attraction and it's making a lot of money for San Francisco in the Bay Area and I'd hate to see that go away if... if there was a different option that might have been better than reopening this prison instead of closing it as a national park,” said Nick Pernell, who decided to go visit Alcatraz before it could be closed off to tourists.

However, President Donald Trump wants to, again, turn it into a federal prison to house the nation's most violent criminals.

Alcatraz Prison closed in 1963 because it was falling apart, and it was too expensive to transfer prisoners there and to bring in supplies by boat.

President Trump has offered few details about the plan, which is likely to be costly and face local opposition.

“I think it's a waste of money, way too expensive, hopefully it's just all talk and not serious. Infrastructure, it'd be too hard to get potable water, infrastructure, sewer there, employees there to build it. It just wouldn't be effective of use of the taxpayer's money,” Randy Doolittle, who was visiting San Francisco from Portland, Oregon, said. “I like tough on criminals, but I don't like wasting money on stupid ideas. Which is, I think, it would be a stupid idea to build out in the desert and be a little cheaper than building an island that people wanna use as tourist items.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Ethics Bowl may look superficially similar to debate—with two teams discussing a controversial or difficult topic—but they are actually very different.

“So, Ethics Bowl more broadly describes an activity for students of varying ages to come together and approach these really challenging topics, ethical dilemmas,” says Leo Kirby, director of the National High School Ethics Bowl program, housed at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill.

“And the goal is to help them learn how to talk about those challenging topics deliberately, collaboratively, reach consensus.”

In Ethics Bowl, teams are not assigned a specific position on an issue that they have to defend, regardless of their beliefs. Instead, team members are given a set of cases to discuss and make their own decisions about what they believe to be the true or best position. Teams can, and often do, come to similar conclusions. It is OK for them to agree. Scoring is based on how deeply they explore the issues, including other viewpoints.

One of this year’s cases: “If it were possible to erase painful or distressing memories, would it be ethical to do so?”

The high school program at UNC started in 2012.

“We’re trying to steer away from the type of crushing victory over your opponent that something like debate might encourage,” says Kirby, who discovered ethics bowl as a UNC undergraduate. “We absolutely do not reward putting down the other team.”

Dr. Jenny Lyman watched her older daughter compete in debate and thinks ethics bowl is a kinder, gentler pursuit.

“It’s not about beating somebody … I think the judges care about how you present, how you respond, how you react to their questions, and I think all of that matters, which I like,” she says in between rounds at the UNC student union recently. “You know, politeness and civility and open discussion instead of just me convincing you I’m right and you’re wrong. And I think we need a little bit more of that in the world these days.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Shares of Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, are hitting three-year highs after it received a $3.6 billion proposed takeover offer from DoorDash. Deliveroo announced the bid after markets closed in Europe. The company also said that it was suspending a $133.5 million share buyback it had announced last March.

Deliveroo said that its board has informed DoorDash that if a firm offer is made at the financial terms provided, it will recommend the bid to its shareholders. Deliveroo added that its board has decided to engage in talks with DoorDash about the possible offer and has given the company access to due diligence. Deliveroo said DoorDash was expected to decide by May 23 whether it planned to make a firm buyout offer or not.

The proposed deal comes a few months after technology investment company Prosus agreed to buy food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com for 4.1 billion euros ($4.29 billion). Acquiring Just Eat Takeaway.com will boost Prosus's food delivery portfolio in Europe, a move that DoorDash is also looking to make.

DoorDash currently runs its business in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013, operates in ten markets worldwide, including the U.K., Italy and France. The company reported its first annual profit last year.

In January 2024, Delivery Hero sold its minority stake in Deliveroo after holding it for less than three years. The two companies worked together earlier this year, with Delivery Hero buying some of Deliveroo's Hong Kong assets after the company decided to exit that market.

Ronald Josey of Citi Investment Research can see a few reasons why DoorDash is interested in Deliveroo. While we continue to believe that DoorDash is more focused on organic expansion, Deliveroo meets several of DoorDash's merger and acquisition criteria, including expanding geographies and total addressable market, whereby it would take DoorDash time to do organically while delivering long-term free cash flow, he wrote.

Shares of Deliveroo jumped more than 17% on the London Stock Exchange.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Rebel groups in Colombia are using apps like Facebook and TikTok to recruit children and young adults, and social media companies must do more to moderate content, the United Nations says.

The U.N.’s top human rights official in Colombia, Scott Campbell, in an interview with The Associated Press, said more investment is needed in both automated tools and human moderators to take down videos posted by gangs and rebel groups that are targeting youth from marginalized communities.

Colombian rebel groups such as the FARC-EMC are increasingly posting videos that glamorize life in their ranks and urge youth to enlist.

Campbell, who previously served as a human rights and technology specialist at the U.N.’s Geneva office, said he recently met with representatives from Meta, which owns Facebook, to discuss how rebel groups and gangs can be stopped from using the company’s platforms to recruit young people.

He said the company pledged to work on the problem, and added that he is also seeking a meeting with TikTok representatives.

The recruitment of children has become a major problem in rural areas of Colombia that are disputed by the military, drug gangs and rebel groups.

According to Colombia’s Human Rights Ombudsman, 409 children under 18 were recruited into rebel groups in the South American nation last year, twice as many as in 2023.

Anyi Zapata, a human rights specialist with ACIN, an Indigenous association in Cauca, said rebel groups there have long targeted vulnerable children, offering them money to do small favors and gifts like cellphones.

Now they are posting videos on social media that show members with motorcycles, SUVs and adventurous lifestyles. One TikTok account recently featured a video of a man on a motorcycle wearing camouflage, with the caption: “Join me and you will know friendship without hypocrisy.”

The images often show logos of rebel groups.

Campbell said that even when accounts are taken down, they can be replaced by others.

“It’s difficult to get the balance right between freedom of expression and legitimate speech, while pulling down content that is clearly illegal and can cause harm,” Campbell said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A climber airlifted with altitude sickness from near the peak of Japan's Mount Fuji returned to the slope and was rescued for a second time just four days later, authorities said.

Officials urged people to be aware of the harsh conditions at the country's tallest peak during its off-season.

The climber was identified only as a 27-year-old Chinese student living in Japan. He made an emergency call on April 22 and was airlifted after developing symptoms of altitude sickness, police said, adding that his climbing irons were also damaged.

On April 26, he returned to the mountain's Fujinomiya trail about 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) above sea level to look for his cell phone and other belongings left behind, Shizuoka prefectural police said. Another climber found him there, unable to move after he apparently developed altitude sickness for a second time, police said.

The mountain's hiking trails are officially open only from July to early September, but there is no penalty for hiking off-season. There is also no charge or penalty when a climber needs to be rescued, but the Chinese student's case prompted an uproar on social media and generated calls for him to be charged, at least for his second rescue.

The Shizuoka police urged all climbers to use caution, noting that the mountain has low temperatures and is covered in snow even in spring.

The 3,776-meter-high (12,388-foot-high) mountain was designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2013. A symbol of Japan, the mountain called Fujisan used to be a place of pilgrimage and is increasingly popular among hikers today.

To control overcrowding and risks from rushed overnight climbing through rocky slopes to see the sunrise, local authorities last year introduced an entry fee and a cap on the number of entrants on the most popular trail and will introduce similar rules on other main trails this year.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.