レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast RareJob

Day-trippers to the fabled canal city of Venice who failed to pay 5 euros ($5.43) to enter the lagoon city’s historic center during a time-limited pilot program launched in April faced fines starting at 10 times the entrance fee.

Venice has launched the long-discussed day-tripper fee after the city escaped being placed on the U.N. agency’s list of endangered heritage sites, due largely to the impact of overtourism.

Officials have avoided calling it a tax, opting for softer words like access fee, and have downplayed the possibility of waits to enter the city, emphasizing there will be no turnstiles or physical barriers.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of overtourism, but officials say pre-pandemic estimates ranging from 25 million to 30 million visitors a year—including day-trippers—are not reliable and that the pilot project also aims to come up with more exact figures to help better manage the phenomenon.

Visitors arriving at the main train and bus stations are first met by stewards who remind tourists of the new requirement and help anyone who hasn’t yet downloaded the QR code. Payment points are set up for anyone without a smartphone.

Officials have emphasized that the program aims to reduce crowds on peak days, encourage longer visits and improve the quality of life for residents. The fee is not required for anyone staying in Venice, including the mainland districts of Marghera and Mestre.

Activists sounded a warning last summer when the number of tourist beds officially overtook the number of residents, which has dwindled to under 50,000 in a trend dating back decades.

They said the imbalance drains the city of services, clogging its tight alleyways and water buses with suitcase-toting tourists and pushing residents to the mainland with its conveniences.

Tommaso Cacciari, a local resident who organized a protest on the same day of the beginning of the access fee, maintains that the tax will not improve the depopulation trend and only a serious social housing policy can keep Venice a genuine city rather than an amusement park.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

New York City residents may soon see warning labels next to sugary foods and drinks in chain restaurants and coffee shops, under a law set to go into effect later this year.

The rule requires food businesses with 15 storefronts or more to post a warning icon—a black and white spoon loaded with sugar—next to menu items containing at least 50 grams of added sugar.

Businesses will also have to post the following written label to accompany the logo: "Warning: indicates that the added sugar content of this item is higher than the total daily recommended limit of added sugar for a 2,000 calorie diet (50g). Eating too many added sugars can contribute to type 2 diabetes and weight gain."

The city's health department posted its proposed rule language and set a public hearing for late May. City officials and Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, approved the law last year. The rule is scheduled to go into effect June 19 for prepackaged food items and Dec. 1 for other items.

Asked about the policy in a 1010 WINS radio interview, Adams said, "We have an obligation and responsibility as a city, not only to react to the healthcare crisis but to be proactive to prevent some of the healthcare issues. Sugar is one of the leading causes of health-related items and issues and diseases."

"I say over and over again in my personal journey of health, "Food is medicine," said Adams, a self-styled healthy eater who has claimed to be vegan but admitted he sometimes eats fish. 

The incoming rule isn't a New York City mayor's first foray into public health policy. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got artificial trans fat banned from chain restaurants and required chains to post calorie counts on menus. He also banned smoking indoors at restaurants and bars. Bill de Blasio, the mayor before Adams, pushed a rule to notify customers of high sodium in foods.

Critics of such regulations have long argued that officials are turning the city into a "nanny state."

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

This spring, NBC News, The New York Times, and National Public Radio (NPR) have each dealt with turmoil for essentially the same reason: journalists taking the critical gaze they deploy to cover the world and turning it inward at their own employers.

Journalism as a profession attracts people who are anti-authoritarian, and who see themselves as truth-tellers. Many believe the way to make an organization better is by criticizing it, said Tom Rosenstiel, co-author of “The Elements of Journalism” and a professor at the University of Maryland.

NPR editor Uri Berliner didn’t receive much internal support for his complaints, but that actually reinforced his point. He said NPR had become too one-sided in promoting a liberal point of view, and that he went public with an essay in another news outlet when his concerns went unanswered by his superiors. NPR management says he is wrong. But Berliner quickly became a hero among conservatives who held the same belief.

There are several reasons why many journalists are more apt now to go public with complaints they may once have kept sharing with colleagues down at the corner bar. Among them is the likelihood that their outlet is owned by a faraway hedge fund instead of a local family, said Joel Kaplan, associate dean for graduate studies at Syracuse University’s Newhouse communications school and a former Chicago Tribune reporter.

A generational change also has emboldened many young journalists. In his own classroom, Kaplan sees more young journalists questioning traditional notions of objectivity that keep them from expressing opinions. Many believe they have the right to state their beliefs and support causes, he said.

“Now you have journalists that are advocates,” Rosenstiel said. “That reflects something of a culture war that is happening inside of journalism.”

Some traditionalists, like former Washington Post editor Marty Baron, have despaired over some of these changes. Battles with young staff members over how they express their opinions over social media left him despondent, a factor in his eventual retirement.

“Never have I felt more distant from my fellow journalists,” he wrote about a staff meeting on the topic in his 2023 book “Collision of Power.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Relentlessly rising auto insurance rates are squeezing car owners and stoking inflation.

Auto insurance rates rose 2.6% in March and are up 22% from a year ago. Premium costs have been marching steadily higher since 2022, even as inflation at the consumer level steadily cooled from its 9.1% peak in the middle of that year. Consumers have had some relief as the rate of cost increases for food and energy, two key components of most budgets, has eased greatly.

But auto insurance and car ownership costs have become a sticking point for consumers and the Federal Reserve in its battle to rein inflation back to its goal of 2%.

Typically, individuals would see a noticeable increase in their premiums because of speeding tickets and other moving violations. Adding new drivers or a general increase in claims in the area were other reasons.

But the persistent rise in rates over the last two years has been far more sweeping. New vehicle prices started spiking during the pandemic, mainly because of a worldwide shortage of computer chips amid production cuts and supply chain bottlenecks. Dealers spent much of 2021 with few or no cars in stock.

Car price increases eased heading into 2024, with the average at $47,338 in January, down from a peak of $48,516 in late 2022, according to Edmunds.com.

The higher value for cars, along with more advanced technology and intricate parts, has raised the overall cost of repairs. Overall maintenance and repair costs jumped 8.2% in March from a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s eased a bit over the last year. The rate of increase was as high as 14.2% in early 2023.

Higher overall auto prices and auto repair costs prompted insurers to start raising premiums as overall car values jumped. Price increases for insurance rates, like many other increases from food to clothing, have been sticky and are less likely to drop at the same rate as broader inflation, if at all.

That has been beneficial for insurers who have seen profits surge. Wall Street is expecting bigger leaps in 2024.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A $12 billion passenger bullet train linking Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area was dubbed the first true high-speed rail line in the nation, with a private company called Brightline West building it, and predicting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028.

Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, cited Biden administration support for the project that he said will bring thousands of union jobs, boost local economies, and cut traffic and air pollution.

Company officials say the goal is to have trains exceeding speeds of 186 mph (300 kph)—comparable to Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains—operating in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida, aims to link U.S. cities that are too near each other for air travel to make sense and too far for people to drive. Las Vegas has no Amtrak service. The idea of a bullet train to Los Angeles dates back decades under various names including DesertXpress.

Brightline West acquired the project in 2019, and company and public officials say it has all required right-of-way and environmental approvals, along with labor agreements. Brightline received Biden administration backing including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and recent approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company won federal authorization in 2020 to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.

Brightline West says electric-powered trains will cut the four-hour trip across the Mojave Desert to a little more than two hours. It projects 11 million one-way passengers per year, with fares that Wes Eden, Brightline founder, said will be comparable to airline ticket costs. The trains will offer restrooms, Wi-Fi, food and beverage sales, and the option to check luggage.

Officials hope the train line will relieve congestion on I-15, where drivers often sit in miles of crawling traffic while returning home to Southern California from a Las Vegas weekend.

An average of more than 44,000 automobiles per day crossed the California-Nevada state line on I-15 in 2023, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Ceramic stilettos and a matching handbag are two of the many artworks on show at Ceramic Art London, the largest high-end ceramics show in the UK. 116 artists were selected to exhibit from 20 countries around the world, and from as far as Guatemala, Japan, and South Korea.

2024 marks the 20th anniversary since the first Ceramic Arts London. And it is a place for potters to display and sell their works. Over 6,000 people attended across the three-day run, with ceramic works on sale from as little as £20, all the way up to £20,000.

Artists are selected to exhibit at Ceramic Art London. And this year, there were over 700 applications. It is an important show to get your name on the international scene, so Ana Silva came all the way from Guatemala to have her work seen in London.

Her cute pieces are inspired by the landscapes of her home country and also by sheep. She says: "My work, it's inspired in Guatemalan landscapes and I have different elements—the animals, the sheep, especially this one with the little feet. And also I am representing the plants and the mountains with these green pieces." 

Worm-like tentacles and gaping mouths form part of the collection by South Korean potter Shinhye You.

They are parasitic-like creatures from a magical realist fictional world she has imagined and written about. Shinhye You says, "So basically because these stones were inside the dead people's body, so they are like parasites. So they will kind of mimic these aspects of parasites because they will consume the body of the dead. So I think that's why you've got this mouthy aspect."

At the show were 1.5 tons of free clay for any beginners feeling inspired by what they see to have a go themselves.

Ceramic Art London ran from April 19-21 at London's Olympia exhibition hall.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.