 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. Coming up on the program, Gregory Stockle reports on China's youngest-ever space crew, which was sent to the country's space station Thursday. Dan Friedel and Katie Weaver have a story on U.S. Treasury bonds and why their interest rates matter. John Russell reports on the discovery of an ancient energetic burst. Next, Brian Lin has a story about how some U.S. work visa holders may be able to renew their documents in the United States. Later, Jill Robbins presents the everyday grammar lesson on Halloween words. But first, here is Gregory Stockle. China launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station Thursday. The launch is part of the country's plan to put astronauts on the moon before 2030. The Shenzhou-17 spacecraft lifted off from the Chuchin Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China at 314 UTC. The China manned space agency said the average age of the three-member crew is the youngest since the launch of the space station. Their average age is 38, state media China Daily said. The three astronauts are Tang Hongbo, Tang Shenzhou, and Zhang Xinlin. They will replace a crew that has been on the station for six months. The new crew will perform experiments in space medicine, space technology, and other areas during their mission. And they will help to place and do possible repairs to equipment inside and outside the station, the agency said. China also has plans to place astronauts on the moon before the end of 2030 in competition with the United States in space exploration. This follows other competition for influence between the world's two largest economies in the technology, military, and diplomatic fields. Earlier on Wednesday, the Chinese space agency also announced plans to send a new telescope to look deep into the universe. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the telescope would permit for mapping of the sky, but no timeline was given for when it would be placed. In 2022, the Chinese government built its own space station after it was not permitted to join the US-led International Space Station. The Americans worried that the Chinese space program was under the control of its military, the People's Liberation Army. China's first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to put a person into space using its own resources. The American space program is believed to be far ahead of China at this time. But China has made some important steps. They include bringing back samples from the moon's surface for the first time in many years and landing a vehicle on the less explored far side of the moon. The US, meanwhile, aims to put astronauts back on the moon's surface by the end of 2025. It is aided by private American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. In addition to their moon or lunar programs, the two countries have also separately landed vehicles on Mars. And China plans to follow the US and landing a spacecraft on an asteroid. I'm Gregory Stockle. The US government needs money to operate. A lot of that money comes from taxes. However, much of the money the US government uses to pay its costs comes from borrowing in the form of US Treasury securities. Investors who believe the US government will be able to pay them back agree to loan the government money for a period of time. They receive interest payments regularly or in a way set by the Treasury. The difference between the loan amount and the investment return is called the yield. In past years, the interest rate on the US government 10-year note was low. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, the interest rate for a 10-year government debt security was less than 1%. If you loaned the US government $100, you would receive about $1 a year in interest until the note matured or was paid back. Now, however, the yield has jumped to about 5% for a 10-year note. A note is a debt security with a term of between 2 and 10 years. That means investors who agree to lend money to the US government for a period of 10 years will earn about a 5% return each year. That sounds good for investors, but not everyone is happy about it. The reason is that many other interest rates are tied to the US rate for the 10-year note. In a recent report, the Associated Press called the 10-year note the centerpiece of the global financial system. Many mortgage rates, the interest rates people pay for their home loans, are connected to the 10-year note. As a result, borrowing money becomes more costly. Over the life of a 30-year home mortgage agreement, a homeowner could pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more in interest than just two or three years ago. In addition, the high rates on the 10-year note make it harder for some new businesses to grow. A young business often does not make money, but if it wants to hire new people or create a new product, it will often take out a loan from a bank or agree to pay investors' interest. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the cost of these loans has mainly been very low, only a little higher than 0% interest. The low rates permitted many companies to borrow money at a low cost. Many of the world's economies that were struggling recovered because of the low rates. Global investors bought stocks because they did not see a large cost to borrow money. They did not see US Treasury securities as a good investment because their interest rates were so low. But now, interest rates are rising. As a result, some businesses are choosing not to expand. Some are even reducing their workforce in order to reduce operating costs. The cost of living increased quickly once many countries reopened after the pandemic. Cars, food, and energy prices all went higher. The war in Ukraine reduced the food and energy supply in Europe and Africa, so those costs increased for Europeans and Africans. Many people found that the usual amount of money did not buy the usual amount of goods. That is called inflation. In some countries, the price of food and energy doubled in a short time. Home prices increased because many people decided they needed more space if they were going to do their jobs from home. The fast inflation concerned government banks around the world. In countries such as the US and areas like Europe, central banks decided to raise the interest rates they control as a way to reduce or slow inflation. Central bankers believe that increasing interest rates can keep people and businesses from spending too much money. To a point, the plan has worked. In the US, some data shows inflation is slowing. Economists who study the US have been surprised that the economy stayed strong even as interest rates for treasury securities have increased. People are still spending money, and the employment rate is high. But some investors are thinking that a yield of about 5% is better than putting money into stocks that might lose value. As a result, stock prices have dropped since the summer. Because US treasury securities are not a high-risk investment, the US dollar has gotten stronger, compared to the euro, the British pound, and the Australian dollar. High interest rates also hurt some investors who decided to put their money in safe US treasury securities 5 or 10 years ago. If those investors purchased bonds paying a lower interest rate than today, they would lose money if they tried to sell those securities on the open market now. One large investment fund that purchases US debt securities with different terms has lost 3% of its value this year. If this situation continues, the fund is on track to lose value for the third year in a row. I'm Dan Friedel, and I'm Katie Weaver. Astronomers have detected radio waves coming from what looks like adjoining of galaxies from about 8 billion years ago. The discovery is the oldest known example of an event that is difficult to explain, a fast radio burst. In less than a millisecond, this burst released the amount of energy our sun releases in 30 years, scientists said. The Australian SKA Pathfinder, a radio telescope in the state of Western Australia, detected the burst, and the European Southern Observatory's very large telescope in Chile, one of the most powerful telescopes, found the location of the burst. A fast radio burst, or FRB, is a kind of radio frequency electromagnetic radiation. It lasts less than a millisecond, but outshines most other sources of radio waves in the universe. Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Ryan Shannon, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, was a co-leader of the study published recently in Science. He said radio waves in FRBs are similar to those used in microwave ovens, and he added that this FRB had the same amount of energy needed to microwave a bowl of popcorn twice the size of the sun. Until now, the oldest known such burst dated to 5 billion years ago, making this one 3 billion years older. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. For comparison, Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. In seeing objects and events from long ago, researchers look across large distances, making this burst also the farthest of any FRB ever detected. We now know that fast radio bursts have been around for more than half the age of the universe, said study co-leader Stuart Ryder of Macquarie University in Australia. Researchers first discovered fast radio bursts in 2007. The most likely source is a special kind of neutron star called a magnetar. These stars are some of the most extreme objects in the universe, which you would need to produce such extreme bursts, Shannon said. There are more energetic events in the universe associated with stellar explosions or a black hole shredding a star apart. But FRBs are unique in that they produce all their energy in radio waves, with nothing seen in other bands, optical light or x-rays, for example, and that the signals are so short, Shannon added. They also are more common, Shannon explained, with around 100,000 thought to happen somewhere in the universe daily. Far fewer have been detected, Shannon said, and only around 50, including this one, have been traced back to the galaxy where they began. The scientists said that studying these bursts can help to detect and measure the large amount of matter believed to populate the large distances of space between galaxies. I'm John Russell. The U.S. State Department is working on a test program that would permit some work visa holders to renew their documents in the United States. The pilot program would involve holders of H-1B visas. This kind of visa permits highly skilled foreigners to enter the U.S. for work purposes for at least three years. Currently, H-1B visa holders are required to travel to an American diplomatic office outside the U.S. to seek renewals. A State Department spokesperson told VOA, the pilot program aims to improve the uncertainty often experienced by U.S. companies that temporarily employ H-1B workers. The official communicated by email. The officials spoke to VOA on the condition that they not be identified. The official said that the State Department would judge whether the policy change would improve the availability and speed of visa approvals worldwide. Immigration lawyers have long urged the administration of President Joe Biden to bring back U.S. visa renewals that were ended in 2004. They say the current renewal process can make it difficult for U.S.-based foreign employees to get appointments at U.S. diplomatic offices abroad. And the travel linked to those appointments can be very costly. The spokesperson said the State Department is hoping to begin accepting renewal documents by the end of this year. The program is to begin with officials inviting a small number of visa holders to take part. But the spokesperson said the program must first go through a rulemaking process which will start at the White House. Once those rules are decided, the State Department will seek public comments and consider any necessary changes. The proposal will then go back to the White House for final review. I'm Brian Lynn. 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. An interesting holiday in the United States is coming up soon. Halloween happens on the last day of October. If you have lived in the U.S., you have probably noticed many changes in the month or so before Halloween. Let's hear about some of them and explore the vocabulary and expressions you might hear this time of year. First, you should know about trick-or-treating. Children dress up in special clothes or costumes to look like frightening creatures. They might dress up as little vampires, ghosts, and witches or superheroes. Then their parents walk with them to the homes of neighbors, where the children knock at the door and call out, trick-or-treat. Some believe the custom goes back to an old Celtic celebration in which people went from door to door asking for firewood. The Celts believed that the spirits of the dead would return to their homes on October 31st, the day of the autumn feast. The Celts would build large fires to frighten away evil spirits on that night. In modern-day Halloween, the children ask for candy. That's the treat part. The trick part is what happens if you do not give them something. Before Halloween, communities might create a haunted house in an old house or open field. Visitors can walk through the place and be frightened and surprised by unusual noises and people dressed up like ghosts or spirits. Fear plays a big part in Halloween celebrations. The words we use to talk about fear include scary, an adjective to show something causes fear, and afraid, an adjective that describes the person who feels fear. We might say, I'm scared of ghosts, to say we are afraid of ghosts. Another word we use to describe things that cause fear is spooky. Evil people trying to look like ghosts might say boo to frighten others. Let's put some of these expressions together to see how they work. Greg has a really scary costume this year. He said boo to me, and I jumped. Katie's house looks really spooky with all those skeletons and spider webs that she put out in her yard. I'm not afraid of ghosts, but seeing people dressed up as witches scares me. You will see that stores begin offering many kinds of candies in small packages. We call these individually wrapped treats. They are meant for handing out to children as part of trick-or-treating. Some candy makers call these small packages fun-sized treats. People put some strange things on and around their homes for Halloween. People hang toy spiders, skeletons, and other scary decorations on trees and bushes. You will see pumpkins everywhere. People often empty the pumpkins and make scary faces on them. Then they place a candle inside so the pumpkin face shines in the night. We call these jack-o'-lanterns. The custom of carving scary faces into vegetables is believed to come to us from the Irish. They had an old story about a wandering soul named Stingy Jack. They carved faces in turnips to frighten him away. When they came to America, they found the pumpkin was widely available. So they carved faces into pumpkins and made what we call the jack-o'-lantern today. Now, children carry plastic buckets made to look like a carved pumpkin. They fill them with candy as they trick-or-treat around their neighborhood. We close with a usual conversation around Halloween in the U.S. See how many traditions and customs you can spot. Are you going to any Halloween parties this year? No, I have to take my kids trick-or-treating. I'm too tired to dress up and go out to a party. Are you going? Yes, I'm going to be a vampire this year. My block has a great party with a haunted house every year. Oh, I wish I could go. Hey, will you help me carve these pumpkins? I want to put them out front. Sure, I love carving jack-o'-lanterns. Can I have some of that candy while I'm working? Of course. Help yourself to those fun-sized Hershey bars. I only have a hundred of them. Does your culture have any celebrations where you dress up or give out treats? Write to us in the comments to tell us about them. And that's Everyday Grammar for Halloween. Boo! I'm Jill Robbins. Hi, Jill. Thanks again for joining me on the show. Today's lesson was about grammar and Halloween. I think one of the most fun days of the year. Do you have any Halloween plans? I'm going to a potluck, a group dinner in my building. It's all older people, so there won't be any kids trick-or-treating, unfortunately. What about you, Dan? In my neighborhood in Washington, D.C., a lot of people put spooky and fun decorations outside their homes. And the streets also close down to traffic for the trick-or-treaters. So every year I look forward to walking around and seeing the decorations, as well as the kids' costumes. I'll also be handing out candy, and I always run out really quickly. What's your favorite Halloween candy, Jill? It's got to be the white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I like the new multi-flavored candy corn, too. Yeah, for me, I like anything with chocolate. So Hershey Kisses, or Snickers, or Peanut M&Ms, for example. I'm definitely going to be eating way too much candy come Tuesday. Well, thanks for coming on the show, Joe. Happy Halloween! You too, Dan. Watch out for those ghosts and witches. Boo! 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.