 Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from The Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. On today's program, you will hear stories from Brian Lin and Dan Friedel. Then, Dan Novak presents this week's Health and Lifestyle Report. Finally, Andrew Smith and Jill Robbins bring us today's lesson of the day. But first, here is Brian Lin. Cameroon has begun the world's first major malaria vaccine program for children. The campaign launched Monday in the Central African Nation. Health officials called the effort a major step in the fight against the disease across Africa. The continent accounts for about 95% of the world's malaria deaths. The World Health Organization, WHO, estimates the disease, which is spread through mosquitoes, kills more than 600,000 people a year. Most of the deaths involve young children. The vaccine, called RTSS, was developed by British drug company GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK. It is meant to work with other preventive measures, such as the use of bed nets to fight the disease. Cameroon is the first country to offer vaccine injections through a routine program after successful tests or trials were carried out in Ghana and Kenya. Cameroon hopes to vaccinate about 250,000 children this year and next. The International Vaccine Alliance, called GAVI, has said 19 other countries aim to launch their own campaigns this year. About 6.6 million children in those countries are to receive malaria vaccinations in 2024 and 2025. For a long time we have been waiting for a day like this, said Mohamed Abdulaziz. He is with the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Abdulaziz spoke during a joint news briefing with the WHO, GAVI, and other organizations. Cameroon is using one of two recently approved malaria vaccines called Muskwerix. When the WHO approved the vaccine two years ago, officials admitted it was not perfect. But they noted its use could sharply reduce severe infections and hospitalizations. The GSK produced shot is only about 30% effective. It requires four shots or doses. Tests have shown the vaccine's protection begins to weaken after several months. GSK has said it can only produce about 15 million doses of Muskwerix a year. Some experts believe a second malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University and approved by the WHO in October may be a better solution. That vaccine called R21 is less costly and only requires three doses. Launching the second vaccine is expected to result in enough vaccine supply to meet the high demand and reach millions more children, said Kate O'Brien. She is the WHO's Director of Vaccinations. Having two vaccines for malaria will help to close the huge gap between demand and supply and could save tens of thousands of young lives, especially in Africa, said WHO Director General Tedros Adnam Gabrielsis. India's Serum Institute, which helped develop the R21 vaccine, has said it could produce up to 200 million doses of it a year. Gabrielsis has said that vaccine could be launched in May or June. Some experts have raised questions about the long-term effectiveness of the vaccines. They have questioned whether attention and financing should be drawn away from the wider fight against the disease using established prevention methods. But health experts at the news conference said the new vaccine launch included community efforts aimed at supporting the campaign. Officials advised individuals on vaccine safety and have urged them to continue to use existing protective methods alongside the vaccines. I'm Brian Lin. Enoch Twagirayasu was seeking safety when he and his family fled violence in Burundi more than 10 years ago. They found it in Uganda. The small East African nation has taken in thousands of refugees from neighboring countries. Twagirayasu and his family live in Nakivale refugee settlement near the Tanzanian border. There were two children in his family when they arrived in Uganda. Today there are eight children. Growing families like his and the arrival of new refugees have put pressure on the land that makes up the settlement. Twenty years ago the area was a thick forest. Today the trees are mostly gone. They have been cut down for cooking fuel. When Twagirayasu saw women digging up roots to burn a few years ago, he knew it was time to act. When the trees are finished, we will also be finished, Twagirayasu said, because if there are no trees to be used for cooking, even the people cannot survive. Twagirayasu and two other refugees began planting trees in 2016. That early group quickly grew. Twagirayasu now leads the Nakivale Green Environment Association. Its members carry out what Twagirayasu calls the urgent business of reforesting. Nakivale is the oldest refugee settlement in Africa. It has about 180,000 refugees. Some are from Burundi, while others are from Congo and Rwanda. New people come all the time. Once the refugees register with Uganda, they are granted a small piece of land on which they can live. They can build small homes and plant gardens. Nsamizi Training Institute for Social Development is a local organization. It is supporting the tree planting activities of Twagirayasu and others. The institute's yearly goal is to plant 300,000 trees. On a recent afternoon, a group of refugees planted baby pine trees on a hill above a school. One of the school's teachers said she hopes the tree planting project reduces the amount of water that runs off from rains. If it rains too much, the water floods the schoolyard and students are forced to stay inside. Twagirayasu said the group has planted at least 460,000 trees in Nakivale. The trees are pine, acacia, and bamboo. The refugees who plant the trees say being able to walk under the tree cover provides them peace. But they also worry officials may one day want to send them home. They believe Ugandan officials may seek to protect the new trees and remove the people from the land. But for now, Twagirayasu says, when we are walking in the places where we planted trees, we feel much happiness. I'm Dan Friedel. A large U.S. study found no evidence that taking ozempic or wegovi is tied to an increase in suicidal thoughts, researchers reported recently. Both ozempic for type 2 diabetes and the obesity treatment wegovi have the same active ingredient, semagletide. The analysis included electronic medical record data from more than 1.8 million patients. Researchers actually found a lower risk of new and recurring suicidal thoughts in those taking semagletide compared to those using other medications for weight loss or diabetes. Semagletide belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP1 agonists which were designed to treat type 2 diabetes. In addition to helping control blood sugar levels, the drugs produce a feeling of fullness. Concerns over reports of suicidal ideation connected with semagletide led to an investigation by the European Medicines Agency. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has listed suicidal ideation as a possible safety concern for GLP1 drugs. A Reuters examination last year found that the FDA had received 265 reports of suicidal thoughts or behavior in patients taking semagletide or similar medicines since 2010. 36 of those reports describe a death by suicide or suspected suicide. Such events do not prove a connection between a drug and a side effect, but they can signal to officials a need to study a specific risk. The study appeared online in the journal Nature. It was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The researchers examined data on 240,258 U.S. patients prescribed Ugovi or other medications for weight loss and nearly 1.6 million with type 2 diabetes prescribed Osempic or other treatments. Researchers compared nearly 53,000 Ugovi patients to the same number of closely matched users of other weight loss drugs. They found that during the first six months of use, first-time suicidal thoughts were reported by 0.11% of Ugovi users. That is compared to 0.43% of users of other drugs that do not belong to the same class as semagletide. After taking other risk factors into consideration, the risk of first-time suicidal thoughts was 73% lower with Ugovi, the researchers said. No patients in the Ugovi group reported a suicide attempt compared to 14 users of the other drugs, the report said. Among patients with a history of suicidal thoughts, the risk of recurring suicidal thoughts was 56% lower with Ugovi than other weight loss medicines. Similar patterns were seen for use of Osempic compared with other diabetes drugs. The findings were consistent no matter the patient's sex, age, or ethnicity for both semagletide types the researchers found. Such a study cannot prove that GLP-1 agonists do not increase the risk of suicidal ideation, but the findings may reduce concerns. The researchers were unable to assess the statistical significance of differences in actual suicide attempts. The researchers noted that suicide attempts are critically different from suicidal ideations. Pamela Davis is a professor at Kate Western Reserve School of Medicine in Ohio. She was one of the writers of the study. She said the growth in popularity of Osempic makes it very important to understand all its potential complications. Suggestions that the drug may cause suicidal thoughts are not supported by this very large and diverse population in the U.S. Davis added. I'm Dan Novak. Dan Novak joins me now to talk more about the Health and Lifestyle Report. Welcome, Dan. Hi, Ashley. Your report today was about a study on Osempic and Ugovi that looked into whether the drugs are linked to suicidal thoughts. First of all, what are those drugs? They have gotten a lot of attention lately. Yes, Osempic and Ugovi are weight loss medications that have shown to be very effective, and they're quickly growing in popularity. And they have the same active ingredient, correct? Yes, they both contain semaglotide. Osempic was actually originally made to treat diabetes, but semaglotide was found to cause fullness. In other words, it causes people to stop being hungry. And the drugs can cause really rapid weight loss. They have the potential to help a lot of people with obesity. So what can you tell us about this study? Why was it done? There were concerns that taking Ugovi and Osempic brought about suicidal thoughts, but those concerns are not supported by this study. It's important to note that the study does not prove that the drugs don't cause suicidal thoughts, but the study does show that there is not a strong correlation or connection between taking the drugs and suicidal thoughts. So even though there's no proof, it may help reduce those concerns. The study is especially important because of the growing popularity of the drugs. As one of the writers of the study said, it's important to know all the drugs' possible complications. Well, thanks for answering my questions today, Dan, and thanks for that report. You're welcome, Ashley. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Anna. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website, learningenglish.voanews.com. Welcome to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. My name is Andrew Smith. And my name is Jill Robbins. Thanks for joining us. Today's lesson will help you learn more about the English you hear in our video series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Here's Anna introducing herself. My name is Anna Matteo. In today's podcast lesson, we're going to visit a beekeeper with Anna. She learns all about how to care for bees. And we learn about conditional statements in English. Those are statements with if and a modal, such as the words will or would. But Anna has a little problem. She is afraid of bees. As lesson 12 of level two begins, Anna is sitting with Cave at an outdoor cafe. Wow. Did you know that bees are dying? That is bad news. If all the bees died, there'd be no food. Bees are very important. Yes, they are. Speaking of bees, one of our little friends is here now. You know, Anna, if you ignore it, it will fly away. But if you swat it, it might sting you. I'll ignore it. I can ignore it. See? I'm ignoring it. Anna, are you afraid of bees? What makes you say that? Anna, you should call my friend Caroline. She's a beekeeper and a bee educator. If you talk to her, she'll probably help you get over your fear of bees. I'm not afraid of bees. Here's her card. Cave gives us our first examples of conditional statements here. You know, Anna, if you ignore it, it will fly away. But if you swat it, it might sting you. Notice that he uses the modal will. And this is what we call a type one or real conditional. That is when you talk about a real event and a result that will probably happen. The form is the word if plus a present tense verb followed by will plus an infinitive. So the real event is Anna ignoring the bee. And the result is the bee flying away. That's easy to understand. Andrew, I hope we don't worry our listeners with all the types of conditional statements in this podcast. No, don't worry. We're not going to do that. We're only going to talk about two kinds today. Type one and type two. That's good. If we go back to the beginning of the conversation, we also hear Cave saying, If all the bees died, there'd be no food. That's a type two conditional, isn't it, Andrew? Yes. Type two conditionals can have a possible event and a result that may or may not happen. Or they can talk about something that is not real or imaginary. For example, I could say, if I were president of the United States, I would live in the White House. So here is the pattern. The word if plus a past tense verb plus a modal such as would or could plus the infinitive form of the verb. So the bees have not died, thank goodness, but that part of the statement uses a past tense verb. Let's see if we can find some more examples and see how Anna does at the beekeeper's house. I think I'm at the wrong address. This does not look like a place where bees are kept. Oh, sorry to bother you. I'm looking for beekeeper Caroline. I'm here to take her learn to love bees class. You're in the right place. I'm Caroline. Oh, nice to meet you. Caroline, I thought this class used real bees and real hives. It does. If you look in my backyard, you will see my bees. I'm a home beekeeper. What? You live with bees? That is really amazing. And at the same time, really scary. It's not scary. If you come, I'll show you. Caroline, how many bees are in that hive? About 30,000 in each. Caroline uses the word scary. That means the same thing as frightening or causing fear. I think all of us have had to overcome fears at one time or another in our lives. I was also once afraid of bees and then I learned that if I ignored them, if I did not bother them, they would not bother me. And I overcame that fear. How about you, Jill? I was afraid to go deep underwater, but I learned how to do it the right way in my scuba class. In the next part of the lesson, listeners notice the way Anna and Caroline use conditional statements by listening for the word if. Anna is telling a story about why she is afraid of bees. That's amazing. But aren't you afraid they're going to come out and kill you? Not at all, Anna. Even my children help me. Tell me, why are you afraid of bees? I don't know. Well, when I was a little girl, my mom ran out of honey and I really wanted honey for my pancakes. So I climbed high into a tree and hit a beehive with a stick several times. Then I reached inside with my bare hands to pull the honey out. That's when I got stung a lot. Caroline, if you hit a beehive with a stick and reach inside, you might get stung. No, Anna, if you do those things, you will get stung. Yes, I did. And you know that it was your fault you got stung, don't you? Yes, I did. Bees know your feelings. And if you stay calm, the bees will be calm. If you're nervous, the bees will be nervous. And if bees are nervous, they may sting. So please, be calm. I will be calm. I am calm. Okay, I'm ready. I'm ready. Great, let's get our equipment on. Wait, wait, I'm not ready. I'm not calm. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. Give me one minute to be calm. Be calm. That's the first step, isn't it, in overcoming our fears? I noticed that Anna uses might in one of her statements. Caroline, if you hit a beehive with a stick and reach inside, you might get stung. Yes, but Caroline corrected her. She is certain that bees will sting if someone hits their home with a stick. No, Anna, if you do those things, you will get stung. I think we should review our conditionals and give our listeners some practice now. Good idea. I'll say a situation, then pause, and our listeners can try to complete the statement. I'm ready, and I'll say what type it is after I finish the statement. Okay, here's the first statement. If you go out in the rain without an umbrella... You will get wet. Type one. If you feed a cat... It will want to stay with you. Type one. If the sun didn't shine... The earth would be very cold. Type two. And here's one more. If your car has no gas... You won't be able to drive it. Type one. Good job, listeners. Next time, we'll see what happens when Anna meets the bees at Caroline's house. I think I can guess. If Anna stays calm, the bees will be calm, too. Now, listeners, have you overcome a feeling of fear that you had when you were younger? Write to us and tell us about it at LearningEnglish at voanews.com. And remember, you can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep Learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.