レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

Families’ interest in their kids’ education is falling in many high-income countries as school systems struggle with plunging test scores, according to newly released results from a standardized test taken by 15-year-olds around the world. Over 760,000 teenagers in dozens of countries took the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) last year. Results released show average scores in...

At a museum in eastern France, two men disguised with wigs used a sledgehammer and a hammer to smash a display case and make off with a 2,500-year-old gold necklace. The heist took under four minutes. In a smash-and-grab robbery at another French museum, three masked robbers stole 27 pieces of jewelry valued at more than 4.5 million euros ($5.2 million), busting through two doors to break in. Thos...

Anthropic said it has blocked efforts by bad actors to use its artificial intelligence models for malicious activity such as cyberattacks, surveillance, and research that could have led to biological weapons. As AI models grow more powerful, elaborate cyberattacks no longer require sophisticated skills, and even lone individuals can create threats that would not have been possible even a year ago,...

Americans' satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the country has hit a low point, driven by a growing political divide and concerns that schools are not preparing children for college and future jobs. Just 32% of American adults say they are "completely" or "somewhat" satisfied with the U.S. school system, according to an August poll published by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundatio...

The Trump administration officially launched the Foundry School, a new nationwide training initiative aimed at preparing entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians, and industrial leaders to help revive American manufacturing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance headlined the launch event at the Trump Institute of Peace in Washington. The State Department said the program is de...

It had been an interesting mix at the giant electronics show in Germany. There was a pocket-sized robot to cheer you up, a watch that can count your calories, and a phone designed specifically to keep children safe. They’re all part of a joint conference led by consumer electronics company Sharp. Sharp was one of the first brands to kick off the massive electronics show last September 3, and the c...

A television game show in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos has an unforgiving rule: Speak English and you lose. For a U.S.-born millennial in the audience and a student of her parents' mother tongue, the high-stakes setting is a perfect classroom. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Canadian speaks to a teacher about 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away in Zimbabwe, learning a language her parents feared sh...

A federal judge ordered Google to retool the system powering its monopoly in digital advertising, sparing the company from a wrenching breakup sought by the U.S. government. The initial two-page decision by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia marks the second time in a year that Google has received a reprieve from a Justice Department (DOJ) proposal to dismantle its internet empire. Me...

Officials struggled for years to curb high-speed crashes along a residential corridor cutting through Albuquerque, New Mexico, but simply punishing the lead-footed drivers didn’t seem to work. What ultimately did was rewarding the law-abiding ones with fewer red lights. The solution, which the city credits for a dramatic drop in crashes and injuries along one busy stretch of road, is a relatively...

Cooling from air conditioning saves lives—more than 5,000 a year in the United States alone—but it also heats up the planet and taxes our electrical grid, scientists say. As the world warms, heat waves strike nearly every continent, and United Nations officials estimate that about half a million people die a year from heat; air conditioning is needed and being used more than ever. A study in Natur...

Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda entered a deal to jointly develop computer parts and software for vehicles set to enter the market in fiscal 2029, both sides said. Under the deal, Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, and Tokyo-based Honda will share standardized parts in “core ECUs,” or electronic control units, as well as software. Nissan and Honda started talks in 2024 to work togeth...

U.S. ostrich farmers say they’re finding new customers who suffer from a red meat allergy contracted from ticks. Ostrich meat has a similar taste and color to beef and is safe to eat for sufferers of the allergy called Alpha-gal syndrome. There are only a few farms in the United States that are raising large herds of ostrich. They say they’re getting messages daily from Alpha-gal sufferers who cra...

The owner of a Michigan furniture manufacturer said the White House’s new tariffs on Canadian imports hurt his business. President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports hamper the “ability for us to put food on the table for our family but also impacts the ability for us to give back to our community,” Michael Howard II, owner of Warren-based Howard Family Designs, said. Howard...

The contradiction of the trim Parisian and the butter croissant now has a storefront. Le Butter Shop, billed as Paris’ first boutique devoted entirely to butter, opened in July, a short walk from the Eiffel Tower—with 30 varieties from small family producers in Brittany, the Loire Valley, and northern France. France eats around 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of butter per person a year, says the agricult...

Artificial intelligence chatbots have become the bane of teachers everywhere, but to prepare for the new school year, a group of educators in Charleston, South Carolina, packed into a high school auditorium and talked about inviting AI into the classroom. The teachers and principals watched as an instructor prompted an AI tool to "create a map of the world." The result drew gasps of disbelief and...

When the temperature heats up, so do emergency rooms, according to a massive study of Chicago hospital and urgent care records, which found increased kidney complaints, skin problems, varicose veins, and even mental health issues. Northwestern University medical school researchers pored through records of 916,404 visits to hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centers in Chicago from 2011 to 20...

A Chinese humanoid robot set a new 100-meter sprint record of 8.86 seconds in Beijing, beating its robot competitors—and the fastest recorded human time. The race was part of China’s World Humanoid Robot Games, an Olympic-style competition now in its second year in Beijing. The event is also a showcase for China’s rapid advances in robotics amid an intensifying technology rivalry with the U.S. The...

Australia's recorded music industry will bar tracks wholly generated by artificial intelligence from official charts as burgeoning generative technologies threaten artists' livelihoods, a representative said. The crackdown comes as a variation of Madonna's pop hit "Like a Prayer" created by an Australian producer using AI-generated vocals and drums has spent 16 weeks in the Australian top 20, stok...

Giles Sims, 34, was sick of getting passed over for jobs because he didn't have a college degree. But with a wife and a widowed mother to help support, he needed a quick solution. So, the laid-off web developer turned to one of a growing number of three-year degree programs. "I can't afford to be out of the workforce for four years. That just seems like forever, and the three-year made it seem les...

Doctors Without Borders or MSF said that a massive scale-up was needed to contain the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record. The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has spread so rapidly and so widely that it’s outpacing health authorities’ ability to respond, Trish Newport, an MSF emergency coordinator, said. “We should be able to circumscribe the outbreak to go and do preventative activities al...

As mass production transforms the fashion industry, one young Kenyan designer is turning back to a traditional craft. In Nairobi, Hillary Mukabwa, founder and lead designer of Mukabwa Studio, is using hand looms not only to make clothes and fabrics, but to preserve a piece of Kenya’s cultural heritage. For Mukabwa, choosing a traditional production method is a deliberate attempt to reconnect with...

Ask a teen what they want to be when they grow up, and there's a fair chance being an influencer is on their list. Digital media and the people who star in it have been cultural mainstays for teens' entire lives, so creating social media, video, or podcast content seems a natural, albeit nontraditional, career path. And now they can earn a college degree in that very field. Arizona State Universit...

Millions more people may be able to get smaller, lightweight Amazon packages delivered by drones by the end of the year under a plan the company announced to expand airborne shipping to suburban areas in nearly 500 US cities. Customers could receive the drone deliveries in as fast as 30 minutes, Amazon said in a news release. The drones can carry packages up to 5 pounds. The plan will intensify th...

Paul Grinvalds has completed 114 marathons in all 50 states, but he still wilts when he races in temperatures beyond 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius). It's the same for most runners, as the body can't cool down during exertion, and heat makes that even harder. “One thing about marathoners is typically we're kind of stubborn,” said Grinvalds, 68, from West Des Moines, Iowa, who finds ev...

Companies that secretly vary prices based on how much they think individual customers will pay could face federal charges under a proposed policy released by the Federal Trade Commission. "When consumers see a listed price, they expect it to be (the) same price that everyone else sees, not the retailer's estimate of how much they are willing to pay based on their personal data," FTC Chairman Andre...