レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

There are around 5,000 potato varieties worldwide, but in Australia, many shoppers struggle to distinguish a Kipfler from a King Edward. But some potato suppliers want to widen our taste for spuds.

In Australia, potatoes are a big deal. The industry is worth 1.1 billion Australian dollars annually (approx. 690 million US dollars). But the choice for consumers is limited.

“At a supermarket, they'll only be offered a washed potato or an unwashed potato, or a red potato and a white potato, and then quite often you'll see a lot of misinformation,” says potato supplier Kerri Farrell.

For the past 35 years, “Spud Sisters” Farrell and Catherine Ramage have been selling potatoes. They say the majority of consumers don’t even know about the best potatoes available. Some lesser-known varieties are called King Edward, Midnight Pearl and Fontane.

“The kookier the potato, the better for us, but we're all about championing what doesn't necessarily look nice, but tastes nice,” says Ramage.

Every year, each Australian eats about 17 kilograms (37 pounds) of potatoes. But such high aesthetic standards required by supermarkets are a challenge, say farmers.

“To achieve that amazing white or red, whichever they’re doing, your wastage is very high,” explains potato farmer Terry Buckley. That means consumers pay more at the checkout and farmers are forced to get rid of some of their produce even though it's still perfectly edible.

“You could kind of double their shelf life if you haven't washed them and you keep them in the dark and you package them well,” adds Buckley.

The vast differences in shapes, size, taste and texture of the many varieties of potatoes grown in Australia are a big plus for chefs.

Chef Alejandro Saravia discovered that the most efficient way for him to get his favorite varieties was to deal directly with the farmers. “Our main focus is the taste and the freshness of our ingredients. Not how they look,” says Saravia, executive chef at Morena restaurant.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Susan de Meyer's horses have different effects on different children. Hyperactive kids learn to be a little quieter around them, while nonverbal children are moved to communicate and to bond with them.

De Meyer runs a program in the southern African country of Namibia that harnesses the power but also the gentleness of horses to help children with learning disabilities and conditions like ADHD and autism.

Each weekday morning, de Meyer's dusty paddock just outside the capital, Windhoek, is enlivened by a group of eight to 10 children from one of the special schools she helps. The children ride the horses, groom them, stroke them and often, de Meyer says, talk to them.

De Meyer grew up on a farm surrounded by horses, and they've always been part of her life. She said they have a quality that is invaluable: They don't judge the children, no matter how different they are.

The horse is the hero in this whole situation because these kids don't want to be around a lot of people, de Meyer said.

De Meyer's program, Enabling Through the Horse, is supported by the Namibian Equestrian Federation and won an award last year from the International Equestrian Federation because it underlines the wonderful characteristics of the horse in exuding sensitivity and intuition.

Horse therapy has been promoted by autism groups and those who work with children with learning disabilities as having a positive impact. And animal therapy in general has been found to be useful in many instances, like dogs that help military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and therapy cats that are taken to hospitals and nursing homes.

Some survivors of the devastating 2023 Hawaii wildfires found relief in horse therapy while grieving loved ones they had lost.

De Meyer works with children with a range of conditions or disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome, those who are nonverbal or touch sensitive, and some who were born with fetal alcohol syndrome and have developmental problems.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

For Sonia Pérez, stepping into Havana’s Doña Alicia restaurant felt like entering a movie. Even as Cuba struggles with power outages and technological scarcity, this eatery has leaped into the 21st century with digital menus, Alexa-enabled assistance, touchless bathrooms and even a food-delivering robot.

“I thought I was in a cartoon movie!” said the 64-year-old government employee, marveling at the contrast with the technological realities outside. “I wish there were more of these in Cuba... We are really very behind in technology.”

While commonplace globally, such automation is a complex feat in Cuba due to the island’s frequent power cuts and a lack of modern technology.

Opened seven years ago, the restaurant gradually embraced technology, starting with tablets at tables, followed by Alexa services and culminating in the arrival of Doña Alicia—a food-delivering robot named after the owner’s grandmother—who now assists human waiters in the dining room.

Guests are greeted with digital menus on screens at their tables, allowing them to browse and order traditional Cuban dishes such as savory pork steak, pasta and sweet desserts. The bar further enhances the experience, offering drinks such as mojitos or freshly made daiquiris. Human servers are on hand for those less tech-savvy.

The prices align with those of other private restaurants, making them unaffordable for the average Cuban and reflecting the island's inflation.

Despite the challenges of limited and often unreliable internet access in Cuba (mobile internet only became widespread in 2018, and outages are frequent due to the energy crisis), Doña Alicia appears to be navigating these obstacles.

Manager Yadiel Hernández believes the technological advancements help attract customers by creating a unique and appealing dining experience in Havana.

“We’ve noticed a change,” said Hernández. “Both children and adults find it interesting to have a robotic assistant bring food to the table...it's a novel experience.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The topic of a new course at Mansfield Senior High School is one that teenagers across the country are having trouble with: How to Get to Sleep.

One ninth grader in the class says his method is to scroll through TikTok until he nods off. Another teen says she often falls asleep while on a late-night group chat with friends. Not everyone takes part in class discussions; some students are slumped over their desks napping.

Sleep training is no longer just for newborns. Some schools are taking it upon themselves to teach teenagers how to get a good night's sleep.

It might sound odd to say that kids in high school have to learn the skills to sleep, says Mansfield health teacher Tony Davis, who has incorporated a newly released sleep curriculum into a state-required high school health class. But you'd be shocked how many just don't know how to sleep.

Adolescents burning the midnight oil is nothing new; teens are biologically programmed to stay up later as their circadian rhythms shift with puberty. But studies show teenagers are more sleep deprived than ever, and experts believe it could be playing a role in the youth mental health crisis and other problems plaguing schools, including behavioral and attendance issues.

Walk into any high school in America, and you will see kids asleep. Whether it's on a desk, outside on the ground or on a bench, or on a couch the school has allotted for naps—because they are exhausted, says Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education. Pope has surveyed high school students for more than a decade and leads parent sessions for schools around California on the importance of teen sleep. Sleep is directly connected with mental health. There is not going to be anyone who argues with that.

The district's high school is piloting the new curriculum, Sleep to Be a Better You, hoping to improve academic success and reduce chronic absences, when a student misses more than 10% of the school year.

During the six-part course, students are asked to keep daily sleep logs for six weeks and rate their mood and energy levels.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, speaking at the opening ceremony for the Osaka expo, expressed his hope that the event would help restore global unity in a world plagued by conflicts and trade wars.

“The world, having overcome the coronavirus pandemic, is now threatened by an array of divisions,” Ishiba said. “At a time like this, it is extremely meaningful that people from around the world gather here and discuss the theme of life and experience cutting-edge technology, diverse ideas and culture.”

Expo 2025 Osaka officially opened on April 12, with the theme of life, world and the future, and Japan hoped to bring unity and portray a future society.

Citing the expo’s iconic lattice-like wooden “Grand Ring,” which symbolizes unity and encircles the venue, Ishiba said, “I sincerely hope the world will unite again through interactions among countries and visitors in and outside of this ring.

The costly ring, the world's largest wooden architectural structure, is 20 meters (65 feet) high and has a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) circumference.

During the six-month event on the reclaimed island and industrial waste burial site of Yumeshima, which means dream island, in the Osaka Bay, the city is hosting some 180 countries, regions and organizations showcasing their futuristic exhibits inside about 80 pavilions of unique designs.

It is Osaka's second world expo after the 1970 event that scored a huge success and attracted 64 million visitors—a record until Shanghai in 2010.

Emperor Naruhito, in his address at the opening ceremony, recalled visiting the earlier expo as a fascinating experience for a then 10-year-old prince.

“I vividly remember how excited I was coming across the latest technology, playing with a wireless phone and looking at the moon rock,” brought back by the U.S. Apollo 12 lunar mission, said the emperor, now 65.

Naruhito said he hoped the second Osaka expo would be as successful and expressed hope that children will learn more about people, regions and the world and think about future society by interacting with next-generation technologies and efforts for a sustainable future.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Instagram is beginning to test the use of artificial intelligence to determine if kids are lying about their ages on the app, parent company Meta Platforms said.

Meta has been using AI to determine people's ages for some time, the company said, but the photo and video-sharing app will now “proactively” look for teen accounts it suspects belong to teenagers even if they entered an inaccurate birthdate when they signed up.

If it is determined that a user is misrepresenting their age, the account will automatically become a teen account, which has more restrictions than an adult account. Teen accounts are private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. “Sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes, and a “sleep mode” will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.

Meta says it trains its AI to look for signals, such as the type of content the account interacts with, profile information and when the account was created, to determine the owner's age.

The heightened measures arrive as social media companies face increased scrutiny over how their platforms affect the mental health and well-being of younger users. A growing number of states are also trying to pass age verification laws, although they have faced court challenges.

Meta and other social media companies support putting the onus on app stores to verify ages amid criticism that they don’t do enough to make their products safe for children—or verify that no kids under 13 use them.

Instagram will also send notifications to parents “with information about how they can have conversations with their teens on the importance of providing the correct age online,” the company said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Nintendo has announced a June 5 launch date and a $449.99 price tag for its latest gaming console, the Switch 2, which will introduce interactive chat and screen share functions to connect gamers. The company revealed a more vibrant display on the Switch 2, a larger screen and several games that will launch with the console.

A select group of gamers got their hands on the latest Nintendo Switch console at an event in New York. Central to its updated system is a new “C” button on its Joy-Con controller, which will launch a new “GameChat” feature that requires a subscription to Nintendo's Switch Online service.

It allows players to “communicate with friends and family while playing a game,” and lets them share their game screen with others. A built-in microphone will also allow chatting with other gamers.

Perhaps the most contemporary function yet for the Switch 2 is the ability to use the Joy-Con controllers like a computer mouse. The developer displayed multiple ways to use the new function, such as angling a club in a golf game.

“Be able to see your friends, hear your friends play with them all on the same screen. Being able to use the Joy-Cons as a computer mouse, which is pretty cool. Shoot a basketball, cast spells in Hogwarts Legacy, all sorts of fun new things with that computer mouse, says Ryan Kryska, a reporter for The Associated Press.

The new console will be backward compatible—able to play physical and digital Switch games—but users will need to purchase a microSD express memory card for the Switch 2. The presentation revealed that normal microSD cards will not be compatible with the system. However, data from the original Switch can be transferred to the new console.

The Switch 2's launch price is significantly higher than the original Switch’s $299 price tag.

The Trump administration’s tariffs have hit the video game console industry at a fragile moment, analysts say. The tariffs impact game hardware because console devices are manufactured and shipped from China and that region at large.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

There's a steam engine revival in South Africa. Although steam belongs to a bygone era when trains powered the Industrial Revolution, there's now a significant steam rail tourism sector thriving in the country.

The Ceres Steam Train to Elgin is one of five steam heritage train rides available in South Africa. A novel experience for some, it's nostalgic for others.

Trundling along at a sedate 45 kilometers per hour, there is lots of time to chat, celebrate an event, or watch the world go by. A highlight is climbing Sir Lowry’s Pass, after which the train is in the Overberg district.

At the peak of steam in 1959, there were 3,300 steam locomotives in use in South Africa.

Peter Rogers has run steam train tours in South Africa since the 1980s. He says there are two main reasons steam trains were used significantly longer in South Africa than in other countries.

“Most traction was steam and that was due to the fact that we had abundant coal in the country, as well as the sanctions period when we couldn’t get diesel fuel, and for that reason, steam kept on until about 1980s when railways eventually decided to get rid of steam. The last steam operated on the Kimberley-De Aar line in about 1992,” he explains.

When steam stopped being used in 1992, there were 700 steam locomotives on the tracks. Today, there are about 20 steam locomotives in use, and one of them powers the Ceres Train to Elgin.

Keeping steam train travel alive in the 21st century has several challenges, not least having to manufacture spare parts from scratch. Yet there is an enduring love for steam travel, says Ceres Train Director, Rick Botha.

“There are more steam locomotives running in the country now than there were ten years ago. So it’s definitely grown and there’s been a revival in steam. And you can see people are interested in it. Wherever steam is running, steam is running full. People love it. People wave, people hoot. There’s just a joy around steam that you don’t find anywhere else.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

There is a stink rising over the United Kingdom's second-largest city.

Garbage has piled up for a month in Birmingham during a dispute between the city and its trash collectors. It is a sore sight for the eyes and offensive to the nose. Mountains of garbage are said to be visible from space, and people have complained of seeing rats as big as cats in the refuse.

“You can see the juice flowing out of the bags onto the road. It stinks,” Naeem Yousef said. “It’s bringing down the areas. People are saying, ‘Look at these areas, how dirty these people are.'”

Members of Unite, the union representing garbage truck workers, walked off the job on March 11 over the elimination of a job position and painful pay cuts. The council said it had made a reasonable offer, that cuts would only affect a small number of jobs, and the jobs being eliminated were unnecessary.

The Labour-run Birmingham City Council is effectively bankrupt because of a settlement over historic pay discrimination. As a result, it’s had to make significant budget cuts of 300 million pounds ($383 million) over two years and is only providing services required by law, including waste collection.

As heaps of black bags littered sidewalks, with their contents spilling out of holes chewed by critters, the city council declared a major incident to bring in additional cleanup crews and vehicles.

Photos on news sites and social media show furniture, mattresses and car bumpers illegally dumped alongside bulging trash bags. In one neighborhood, garbage sacks were set ablaze.

“Our priority is tackling the misery and disruption for residents,” Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister, said. “It is essential to protect public health by tackling the backlog of waste.”

Kevin Hollinrake, a Conservative Member of Parliament, said the situation was “a national embarrassment” and could become a public health emergency.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Nations are trying to reach an agreement to charge commercial vessels a fee for their emissions in what would effectively be the world’s first global carbon tax.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which regulates international shipping, set a target for the sector to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by about 2050, and committed to ensuring that fuels with zero or near-zero emissions are used more widely.

The committee, comprised of IMO member states, is working to approve proposed new global regulations to put a price on maritime greenhouse gas emissions and to set a marine fuel standard to phase in cleaner fuels.

The measures are more than climate aspirations—they will become mandatory for ships operating globally, said IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez, who thinks the industry must do more to cut carbon pollution. The committee will “set the course for a net-zero future for the maritime sector,” he told The Associated Press.

The future of clean shipping hangs in the balance, said Emma Fenton, senior director for climate diplomacy at a U.K.-based climate change nonprofit, Opportunity Green. Fenton said a high price, simple flat-rate levy on shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to decarbonize the industry equitably.

“If an agreement is reached, it would represent a huge moment of solidarity in the fight to tackle climate change,” Fenton said. “For the first time, we will have, hopefully, an effective global framework tackling this international issue. Most emissions are tackled domestically.”

Emissions from shipping have increased over the last decade—to about 3% of the global total according to the United Nations—as vessels have gotten much bigger, delivering more cargo per trip and using immense amounts of fuel oil.

Some fear that anything short of a universal levy would jeopardize climate goals and allow wealthier ship owners to buy compliance while continuing to pollute. Ambassador Albon Ishoda, Marshall Islands’ special envoy for maritime decarbonization, said IMO's climate targets are “meaningless” without the levy. Revenue from a levy could be used to help developing countries transition to greener shipping, so they aren't left behind with dirty fuels and old ships.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.