レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

Kenza Bennani, a Moroccan fashion designer, has made it her mission to modernize the traditional caftan. The garment recently made it onto the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A variety of modern caftans are displayed in the New Tangier boutique, each with its own unique color, fabric, and cut, inspired by Moroccan heritage but designed for everyday wear, not only for special occasions. "We design modern Moroccan clothes with a focus on different origins, as we are a crossroad of different civilizations historically. And so we try to reinterpret these different cuts and different heritages in a way that...

In a sparse shack on the rural roadside in Kiambu, at the edge of metropolitan Nairobi, Safari Martins uses unconventional techniques to cut hair. On the shack’s wooden walls hang a shovel, an iron, agricultural shears, and a wrench. “I just use unconventional tools,” Martins says, smiling, moments before sliding a razor-sharp shovel edge across his client Ian Njenga’s head, lopping off a swath of hair in the first of a series of moves that yields a surprisingly clean haircut. Unconventional tools are a hallmark for Martins, who is one of Kenya’s most recognizable barbers with around 1 million fo...

It turns out, love may benefit from a little less labor. Couples who spend money on time-saving services—like getting takeout, hiring a house cleaner, or calling a dog walker—report greater relationship satisfaction, especially during stressful periods, says Ashley Whillans, a behavioral scientist and professor at Harvard Business School. Whillans studies the "tradeoffs people make between time and money." "When you spend money to save time—hiring an accountant, a babysitter, a cleaner—you feel more control over your life," she said. "That sense of autonomy boosts well-being." Not everyone can afford to outsource bigger household chores. But Whillans says eve...

Many consumers feel pride in avoiding the glazed pastries in the supermarket and instead opting for “all-natural” granola that comes packed with extra protein. The same goes for low-fat yogurts “made with real fruit,” organic plant-based milks, and bottled “superfood” smoothies. However, buyers should be aware that healthy grocery buzzwords like those often cover up an unhealthy amount of sugar. Added sugars are difficult to quickly spot because many companies use clever marketing to distract consumers, said Nicole Avena, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School and Princeton University who has studied added sugars. Avena said while some h...

When the MetroCard replaced the New York City subway token in 1994, the swipeable plastic card infused much-needed modernity into one of the world's oldest and largest transit systems. Now, more than three decades later, the gold-hued fare card and its notoriously finicky magnetic strip are following the token into retirement. The last day to buy or refill a MetroCard was December 31, 2025, as the transit system fully transitions to OMNY, a contactless payment system that allows riders to tap their credit card, phone, or other smart device to pay fares, much like they do for other everyday purchases. Transit officials say...

The Trump administration said on December 23 that it will begin garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers who are in default this year. The department said it will send notices to approximately 1,000 borrowers the week of January 7, with more notices to come at an increasing scale each month. Millions of borrowers are considered in default, meaning they are 270 days past due on their payments. The department must give borrowers 30 days' notice before their wages can be garnished. The department said it will begin collection activities "only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay...

Climate change, worsened by human behavior, made 2025 one of the three hottest years on record, scientists said. It was also the first time that the three-year temperature average broke through the threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. Experts say that keeping the Earth below that limit could save lives and prevent catastrophic environmental destruction around the globe. The analysis from World Weather Attribution (WWA) researchers, released in Europe, came after a year when people around the world were slammed by the dangerous extremes brought on by...

In December, record floodwaters began slowly receding in Washington state after triggering evacuations, inundating communities, and prompting dramatic rescues from rooftops and vehicles. But authorities warned that waters would still be high for days and that danger from potential levee failures remained. “This is not just a one- or two-day crisis,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said at a news briefing. “These water levels have been historic, and they’re going to remain very high for an extended period of time.” President Donald Trump has signed the state’s request for an emergency declaration, Ferguson said. An unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot (30 c...

Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors—too complicated, capital-intensive, and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do. Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google, and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry. Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some o...

When a measles outbreak hit West Texas last year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease. Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period in the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study. The preliminary study, which has not been published or finished a formal peer review, offers a...

Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged deceptive practices. The FTC said that Instacart has been falsely advertising free deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly disclosing service fees, which add as much as 15% to an order and must be paid for customers to receive their groceries, the FTC said. Instacart has also failed to clearly disclose that customers who enroll in a free trial for its Instacart+ program will be charged membership fees at the end of the trial. The FTC said hundreds of th...

Americans are disconnected from each other at historic levels, buffeted by what a former surgeon general calls an “epidemic of loneliness.” “Loneliness is one of the most pressing challenges that’s facing our country, the United States, but also the world,” said Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General, and founder of the Together Project. Recent polling shows that membership rates in religious faiths are at their lowest in nearly a century. And Americans have fewer close friends than they used to, according to the Survey Center on American Life. They trust each other less. A Community Health Deputy and peer specialist...

A bipartisan group in Congress is urging the Education Department to add nursing to a list of college programs that are considered "professional," adding to public outcry after nurses were omitted from a new agency definition. The Trump administration's list of professional programs includes medicine, law, and theology, but leaves out nursing and some other fields that industry groups had asked to be included. The "professional" label would allow students to borrow larger amounts of federal loans to pursue graduate degrees in those fields. Under new rules proposed by the Trump administration, students in graduate programs deemed professional could borrow...

Spain's government has fined Airbnb 64 million euros ($75 million) for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals, officials said. The move is the latest government action in Spain against short-term rental companies such as Airbnb and Booking.com as the country grapples with a housing affordability problem, particularly in city centers. The consumer rights ministry said the rentals didn’t include license numbers—a requirement in many regions in Spain—or listed license numbers that didn’t match what authorities had. Others had incorrect information about hosts, it said. Airbnb said that it plans to challenge the fine in court. The company said it was work...

Geneva is a hotspot for luxury shopping. From precision watches to caviar, it's a paradise for those hunting for expensive Christmas gifts. At the Blancpain store, watchmakers craft precision timepieces for customers who expect the very best. At the world's oldest registered watch brand, a single misplaced screw can mean the difference between a masterpiece and mediocrity. This is one of the results: the Blancpain Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar 2025. A limited edition of just 50 pieces, retailing for 80,000 Swiss francs. It marries the Gregorian calendar with ancient Chinese lunar cycles, featuring a green Grand Feu enamel dial and the representative of...

Holiday shoppers in Nashville said they felt the pressure of higher prices in 2025 as they looked to buy gifts for their friends and family for the festive period. At an outlet mall, residents looked for deals ahead of Christmas but also tried to spend wisely with an eye on the following year. "When you've got a lot of people to buy presents for, you know, you kind of got to divvy up that budget," said shopper Bennett Roach. "Everybody gets a little slice of the pie, but the pie, you know, is getting smaller and smaller every year." The vast...

Cyclist Barnaby Wickham has collected more than 700 lost hubcaps, mostly on bike rides around Baltimore. They have inspired a quest to turn litter into art, including Christmas wreaths, a giant fish, and a large head of Snoopy. It is a hobby that developed nearly two years ago from his love of cycling and the joy of making something out of the junk he has collected. "I think it's sort of the excitement of the hunt, for one thing," Wickham said. "I love to cycle. I love Baltimore. I love to go out in Baltimore, and there's just enough hubcaps and...

A growing exotic pet trade has conservationists calling for stronger regulations to protect the reptiles, birds, and other animals in the wild that are increasingly showing up for sale on internet marketplaces and becoming popular on social media. The two-week 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) ran from November 24 to December 5, 2025, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Several proposals related to the pet trade were considered during the conference. Participants have proposed tighter regulations or complete bans on the trade of several species, including iguanas from the Galapagos...

Microsoft announced its biggest-ever Asia investment, amounting to $17.5 billion, in India over the next few years to advance the country’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. CEO Satya Nadella revealed this in an X post after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Nadella said that Microsoft was committing the investments to help India build the “infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities” needed for its AI future. The announcement underscored the growing global competition among major technology companies to expand in India, which has become one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets. In October, Google said it will inv...

Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will bring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Luke Skywalker to the AI company's Sora video generation tool, in a licensing deal that the two companies announced on December 11. At the same time, Disney went after Google, demanding the tech company stop exploiting its copyrighted characters to train its AI systems. The OpenAI agreement makes the Walt Disney Co. the first major content licensing partner for Sora, which uses generative artificial intelligence to create short videos. Under the three-year licensing deal, fans will be able to use Sora to generate and share...

Creepy, zany, and demonstrably fake content is often called "slop." The word's proliferation online, in part thanks to the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence, landed it on Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year. "It's such an illustrative word," said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. "It's part of a transformative technology, AI, and it's something that people have found fascinating, annoying, and a little bit ridiculous." "Slop" was first used in the 1700s to mean soft mud, but it evolved more generally to mean something of little value. The definition...

The Cooper family knows how to work heavy machinery. The kids could run a hay baler by their early teens, and two of the three ran monster-sized drills at the coal mines along with their dad. But learning to maneuver the shiny red drill they use to tap into underground heat feels different. It's a critical part of the new family business, High Altitude Geothermal, which installs geothermal heat pumps that use the Earth’s constant temperature to heat and cool buildings. At stake is not just their livelihood but a century-long family legacy of producing energy in Moffat County. Li...

Some tattoos simply have to go for one reason or another. But industry professionals say the process of taking them off is longer, much more costly, and much more painful than getting them put on. Tracy Herrmann has eight tattoos and is in the process of getting four phrases, including “one step at a time,” removed from her feet and arms. The 54-year-old from the Detroit suburb of Plymouth, Michigan, started inking up about six years ago and says she doesn't regret getting tattoos. “As I'm getting older, I just want my natural-looking skin back,” Herrmann said, following her fourth tattoo r...

A rescue team that covers Vermont’s tallest mountain has seen a rise in calls from inexperienced skiers who end up getting lost and in dangerous locations after being influenced by videos on social media. After seeing footage online of skiers chasing fresh powder tracks in the backcountry, people are increasingly skiing out of bounds, finding themselves lost in the woods and in need of rescue. On November 29, Stowe Mountain Rescue responded to a 911 call from a skier and snowboarder lost in the woods on Mount Mansfield. The two 19-year-olds had decided to drive up from New York to ski in...

South Korea will require advertisers to label their ads made with artificial intelligence technologies in early 2026 as it seeks to curb a surge of deceptive promotions featuring fabricated experts or deep-faked celebrities endorsing food or pharmaceutical products on social media. Following a policy meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok in December, officials said they will ramp up screening and removal of problematic AI-generated ads and impose punitive fines, citing growing risks to consumers—especially older people who struggle to tell whether content is AI-made. Lee Dong-hoon, director of economic and financial policy at the Office for Government Policy Coordination, sa...

Shohei Ohtani is catching up with more legends. The baseball superstar ends 2025 by winning The Associated Press (AP) Male Athlete of the Year for the fourth time, tying him with Lance Armstrong, LeBron James, and Tiger Woods for most among male honorees. "Receiving this award multiple times is something truly special," Ohtani said in Japanese in an exclusive interview with the AP. Ohtani received 29 of 47 votes in balloting among sports journalists from the AP and its members after his two-way dominance culminated in a repeat World Series title for his Los Angeles Dodgers, delivering perhaps the greatest single-game individual performance...

Italian food is known and loved around the world for its fresh ingredients and palate-pleasing tastes. The U.N.'s cultural agency gave foodies another reason to celebrate their pizza, pasta, and tiramisu by listing Italian cooking as part of the world’s “intangible” cultural heritage. UNESCO added the rituals surrounding Italian food preparation and consumption to its list of the world’s traditional practices and expressions. It's a designation celebrated alongside the more well-known UNESCO list of World Heritage sites, on which Italy is well represented with locations like Rome's Colosseum and the ancient city of Pompeii. The citation didn’t m...

The authors of a study that examined climate change's potential effect on the global economy said that data errors led them to slightly overstate an expected drop in income over the next 25 years. The researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, writing in the journal Nature in 2024, had forecast a 19% drop in global income by 2050. Their revised analysis puts the figure at 17%. The authors also said in their original work that there was a 99% chance that, by midcentury, it would cost more to fix damage from climate change than it would cost to build resilience. Their new analysis...

The Prada Group has closed the purchase of Milan fashion rival Versace in a $1.375 billion cash deal that puts the fashion house known for its sexy silhouettes under the same roof as Prada’s “ugly chic” aesthetic and Miu Miu’s youth-driven appeal. The highly anticipated deal is expected to relaunch Versace’s fortunes after middling post-pandemic performance as part of the U.S. luxury group Capri Holdings. Prada said in a one-line statement that the acquisition had been completed after receiving all regulatory clearances. Capri Holdings, which owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, said the money would be used to pay dow...

Digitally projected art masterpieces are bringing priceless artworks into the home—and the money raised is being used to support museums and galleries. If you've always dreamed of hanging a painting by Leonardo or Michelangelo in your home, purchasing a certified digital copy could be just what you need. The Italian non-profit Save the Artistic Heritage, with its technical partner Cinello, is providing collectors the possibility of owning a projection of original Italian masterpieces, sized and framed to match the museum experience. “The idea behind this was to, we don't just want to sell a piece of technology, we want to a...

Air travelers in the U.S. without a REAL ID will be charged a $45 fee beginning in February, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on December 1. The updated ID has been required since May, but passengers without it have so far been allowed to clear security with additional screening and a warning. The Department of Homeland Security says 94% of passengers are already compliant and that the new fee is intended to encourage travelers to obtain the ID. REAL ID is a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that meets enhanced requirements mandated in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist...

Chile's Atacama Desert is one of the darkest spots on Earth, a crown jewel for astronomers who flock to study the origins of the universe in this inhospitable desert along the Pacific coast. A rare confluence of factors makes the Atacama an ideal home for some of the world's biggest ground-based astronomical projects—dry climate, high altitude, and crucially, isolation from the light pollution of civilization. “It's a perfect cocktail for astronomy,” said Daniela González, executive director of the Skies of Chile Foundation, a nonprofit that defends the quality of the country's night skies. But that may not be the cas...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has set off a “code red” alert to employees to improve its flagship product, ChatGPT, and delay other product developments, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reported that Altman sent an internal memo to staff saying more work was needed to enhance the artificial intelligence chatbot's speed, reliability, and personalization features. Several weeks ago marked three years since OpenAI first released ChatGPT, sparking global fascination and a commercial boom in generative AI technology and giving the San Francisco-based startup an early lead. But the company faces increased competition with rivals, including Google, which last Nove...

For many children, the experience of getting their first pair of glasses is an inevitable milestone, the first in a lifetime of visits to the eye doctor. But what if those lenses could actually help preserve the child's vision and reduce the chances of more serious eye problems in adulthood? That's the promise of a new type of lens approved by the Food and Drug Administration in September. While the technology has previously been available in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world, it's now rolling out in the U.S. What is myopia, and why is it increasing...

Chain stores have Black Friday. Online marketplaces have Cyber Monday. For local businesses, it's Small Business Saturday. In the last 20 years, more segments of the retail industry have vied for their own piece of the holiday shopping season. The travel trade firmly joined the trend with another post-Thanksgiving sales push: Travel Tuesday. On the same day as the nonprofit world's Giving Tuesday, December 2, airlines, hotels, cruise ship companies, travel booking platforms, and tour operators got in on the annual spirit to spend by promoting one-day deals. Consumer advocates say there are legitimate savings to be had, but also chances to...

On a quiet street in one of Tokyo’s trendiest neighborhoods, a floral terrier mascot stands beneath a pastel signpost that reads “London,” forming part of the entrance to a Cath Kidston store. Cath Kidston is a British brand that has disappeared from the U.K. high streets but is now enjoying a revival in Japan. The British retailer known for its vintage-inspired floral prints entered administration during the pandemic and closed all 60 U.K. stores. But the brand is thriving in Japan for a second time thanks to the country’s deep affection for British nostalgia and aesthetics. The brand re...

Perhaps some of the most digitized countries on Earth, Scandinavian and Nordic nations are now going old-school—introducing nationwide bans on mobile devices, including smartphones, in schools. In Denmark, the country’s government hopes to introduce a ban on smartphones in public schools starting August next year. Trongårdsskolen in Kongens Lyngby, 12 kilometers north of Copenhagen, is a mobile-free school. Two years ago, teachers at the Danish high school, which educates around 700 children aged between 9 and 16, put forward a motion to parents and school officials. Teacher Bent Povlsen, 64, says things were getting out of hand—from constant interruptions in classes to “zom...

The pollution from food is sneaky. Because the apple sitting on your kitchen counter isn't really causing any harm. But chances are good that you didn't pick it from a tree in your backyard. It required land and water to grow, machines to harvest and process, packaging to ship, trucks to transport, and often refrigerators to store. Much of that process releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That's why the global food system makes up roughly a third of worldwide human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EDGAR FOOD pollution database. Meanwhile, roughly a third of the U.S...

Writers in U.S. prisons now have a new path to getting their work seen through a website managed by PEN America that includes information on publishers, agents, journalists, and other potential contacts. In November, PEN's Prison and Justice Writing Program announced the launch of the Incarcerated Writers Bureau, an initiative developed with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and designed to “make the literary community more inclusive of writers behind bars.” “For too long, powerful storytellers in prison have been left out of publishing and writing opportunities due to the challenges of connecting with the wider world,” Clarisse Rosaz Sh...

The world's biggest music labels have struck AI licensing deals with a little-known startup named Klay Vision, the companies said, the latest in a series of deals that underline how the technology is shaking up the music industry's business model. Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment, and their publishing arms, all signed separate agreements with Klay, according to an announcement posted on Warner's website. It comes a day after Warner inked two other deals involving artificial intelligence, with startups Udio and Stability AI. There were few details released about the agreements or about Klay, which is...