Ok, so, it’s been more than half a year since I’ve last read NHK Easy News articles…
However, thanks to @evandcs さん、I clicked the article and was very surprised to realize that I can still understand it.
I’ve checked another two articles – and was able to read them too!
So, starting from today, I’m resuming my purrticipation in this challenge!
Update: Forgot that I should read four articles purr day, so read another one 
sometimes it is good to know some expressions right? 
in this article
ロシアでは、アメリカや[ヨーロッパ]の国が自分の国の上の空をロシアの飛行機が飛ぶことを[禁止]したため
the part 国の上の空
I was like “what? the sky of above the country?”
luckily yomichan shows it means absent-mindedness, but still a mouthful word, I think it means “distraction”?
I think the example sentence you provided is literally the sky above the country. It talks about the no fly order for russion airlines in european aeorospace ^^.
However, there were some purely psychological issues that made it hard for me, thus this 9 day delay.
Still, today I managed to read two articles related to the great Earthquake 11 years ago, article about mandatory checks for people boarding airplanes, and 3 articles related to current international situation.
Read today’s 4 articles 
Read today’s 4 articles. The only phrase I’m not sure I understood correctly was this one:
髪の色や毛がまっすぐではないことを証明する書類を出す規則は、続ける学校があります。
from this article. I’d roughly translate that as
There are schools that continue the rule, according to which one must provide the document proving that their hair color or hair bushiness is not straight.
But that makes little sense to me – I must be missing something…
i also struggled with this, but looking into it a little bit more yes, students had (and still have) to provide a document proving the colour of their hair and its straightness (so that they wouldn’t have to dye it/straighten it to conform).
so (clumsily) “regarding the rule where [students] must show documents proving the colour of their hair and that they have hair which is not straight, there are schools which continue it” or smth like that 
Read today’s 4 articles.
Read today’s 4 articles. None gave me problems, but I was surprised that 震度 and マグニチュード are not the same thing
マグニチュード is Richter Scale.
震度 is some other scale which is explained here:
Btw, the article didn’t specify was the yesterday’s earthquake 震度6弱 or 震度6強…
Still, even a 震度6弱 earthquake is quite a serious earthquake; it’s very sad that it happened…
Update: Just noticed in the picture, it was mostly 震度6強…
In 2014, I made an active decision to stop reading the news for the sake of my wellbeing, as it was an activity that made me worry about stuff that mostly would never have any effect on me, or that I could have no effect on. Along with dropping out of my PhD and buying a Roomba, it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
In 2022, I am reversing that decision for the sake of my Japanese, as NHK Easy is a fantastic resource and from the couple of articles I’ve read seems very well-suited to my level. I have to look up a lot of vocabulary, but the grammar is mostly within my grasp. For the bits I don’t understand, is it customary to ask questions here or to take them to the Short Grammar Questions thread?
Afaik, it’s quite normal to ask questions here, at least, that’s what I always do.
And yes, I can very much relate to you not wanting to read the news, but, as you’ve pointed out, NHK Easy News are special in that regard. Even when report some very scary and sad and worrying things, they still manage to present it in the way that it’s possible to read without triggering a panic attack!
read this article on a new psychological horror game that’s coming out in a couple of days. weird article in that i felt like i learned very little about the game and what it’s gonna be like beyond the basics, but was interesting to read anyway. odd to see both 心理的 and サイコロジカル in the same article
https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20220317-195814/
髪の色や毛がまっすぐではないことを証明する書類を出す規則は、続ける学校があります。
I’d probably translate this as:
There are some schools which are continuing the rule where you must provide proof/evidence that your hair isn’t naturally straight or black.
Now you’re probably wondering where I got black hair from given that it just says 髪の色 - the ‘default’ assumption about hair here in Japan is that it is assumed to be black/straight even though there are loads of Japanese people that have neither of these combinations which as you’d expect sometimes results in forced dyeing/straightening, etc for the sake of fitting in and adhering to the standard.
I think the language barrier makes for a good emotional barrier from what’s happening. Hopefully, at some point I’ll notice that barrier is no longer there, and it’ll be a sign that I can tackle serious literature etc. in Japanese.
I forgot to mention previously, but I will commit to reading one article every morning, with anything else being a bonus. I got distracted yesterday so only finished the article about the earthquake just now. There was one part of it that really tripped me up:
いつ運転できるようになるかわからないと言っています。
Specifically, I couldn’t figure out what verb かわからない was until I put it into ichi.moe, which split it up into the particle か and 分かる. I haven’t seen か as a mid-sentence particle before, but I assume it nominalises the part before into “the question of when it will become drivable”?
That’s how I interpreted it too.
Yeah, rather than nominalises, it… questionises it. Turns the verb phrase into an embedded question. English has a similar construction - “I don’t know whether the weather will be clement” = “I don’t know: will the weather be clement?”
So yeah, in this case it’s “He said he didn’t know when he would be able to drive.” Uh, or whatever meaning is extracted from the context.
Well, uh, an awful lot of life happened between then and now but today I have read NEWS WEB EASY|「となりのトトロ」がイギリスで初めて劇になる, about something that could actually be relevant to me if I go to London later this year.
Not so sure why I stopped reading these.
Today I read about a sunken pleasure cruise in Hokkaido:
Never really seen the appeal to cruises, personally. Would much rather be on land than sea.
Today I read about eight japanese diplomats who have left Russia and its Embassy:
It’s interesting to see this news from the perspective of Japanese media.
Today I read about a theatre adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro:
This is pretty awesome, and if it sells well (which I don’t doubt it will) it may pave the way for other theatre adaptations of Studio Ghibli films. Honestly, either My Neighbour Totoro or Spirited Away were probably the best choices to start off with in my opinion, very famous films.
Personally, I’d love to see The Tale of The Princess Kaguya as a theatre adaptation.
Are there any Studio Ghibli films anybody else would be interested in seeing as an adaptation?