 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 has a story on how China's weak economic recovery could hurt other Asian economies. Brian Lin reports on how environmental groups are demanding rules to protect endangered whales from crashes with ships. Katie Weaver has this week's health report on mRNA vaccine development in Africa. Later, Andrew Smith and Joe Robbins present the lesson of the day. But first, The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, said recently that China's weak economic recovery could hurt Asian economies. The IMF also said the risk of a longer property crisis in China could present additional risks. China's economic gains after the government eased COVID-19 restrictions lost strength earlier than expected, the lending group said. The IMF said the strength of the U.S. economy has offered less support to Asia than in the past. That is because U.S. economic growth has mainly taken place in the service industry, which does not increase demand for exports very much. Problems in China's heavily indebted property, or real estate sector, and the resulting economic slowdown will likely affect other countries in Asia in the near future. The IMF added countries that export raw materials to China will likely be affected. The IMF said a longer real estate crisis and limited policy action in China would deepen the economic slowdown in the area. The IMF released its World Economic Outlook during its yearly meetings held this year in Marrakesh, Morocco. The IMF cut next year's growth estimate for Asia to 4.2% from 4.4% projected in April. Many time China slows, it has a bearing on the global economy, notably Asia, said Krishna Srinivasan. He is director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department. Asia is seeing inflation slow sooner than other parts of the world. But central banks there should not quickly cut interest rates as core inflation remains, Srinivasan said. Core inflation measures the rate at which prices for many products rise. But it does not include prices for things like food or energy, which can change quickly. Central banks should stay the course, he said. He added the conflict in the Middle East could cause inflation to increase. The IMF said Japan's central bank made small changes to its financial policy. Those changes affected other countries. The international lender said this is because of the larger presence of Japanese investors in the international bond market. The IMF said such effects could become larger in the event of further action taken by Japan's central bank to control its economy. The Bank of Japan, or BOJ, has aimed to limit interest yield for its 10-year bonds to support its economy. Central banks around the world have put in place policy measures to combat rising prices of goods and materials. As this happened, the BOJ last year began to ease its yield limit. The moves were widely seen by markets as Japan's steps towards easing government policies of massive spending. I'm Gregory Stockle. An alliance of environmental groups is calling for new federal rules to protect an endangered whale from crashes with ships. The groups presented their demands in a document called a petition provided to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, on September 28th. The action aims to protect the North Atlantic right whale, which has long been considered endangered. The population of these extremely large sea animals has decreased sharply in recent years. Just 340 are believed to be alive today. Officials at NOAA have said ship collisions are among the most serious threats to the survival of the whale. One rule the environmental groups are calling for would seek to prevent ship strikes by making more ships slow down for whales. NOAA has yet to release a final updated speed rule, although it proposed new rules more than a year ago, the groups said. Ironmentalists have appealed for urgency in enacting the measure. They say it is important to approve new rules before the upcoming birthing season. At that time of year, the whales migrate hundreds of miles from waters off New England and Canada to areas off the coasts of Florida and Georgia. Even one ship strike would bring these whales closer to extinction. But speed limits can help prevent that, said Kristin Moncel. She is a legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that prepared the petition to NOAA. Federal officials can't sit back and do nothing while right whales are in danger, Moncel told the Associated Press. Katie Wagner is a spokesperson for NOAA. She said she expects the agency to announce its final action on the proposed rule sometime this year. That means the rule could be publicized during the middle of caffing season and may not be put into effect until even later. Wagner said NOAA knows about the petition but has a policy not to comment on legal matters. The agency is considering expanding slow zones off the U.S. east coast and also requiring more ships to obey those rules. NOAA denied a request from environmentalists last year to immediately put new rules in place. At the time the agency said in public documents that it was considering long-term substantive measures to reduce whale strikes by ships. Wagner said NOAA received more than 90,000 comments on the proposed rule and would use those to decide on its final action. I'm Brian Lin. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced last week that it will invest $40 million in African drug makers. The money will help produce new messenger RNA vaccines in Africa. The continent's people were the last to receive vaccinations against COVID-19 during the pandemic. The Foundation said that its investment marks an important step forward in improving vaccine equity. It said making vaccines and getting them approved for use could take at least three more years. Whether it's for local diseases in Africa, like Rift Valley Fever, or for global diseases like TB, tuberculosis, mRNA looks like a very promising approach. Bill Gates told the Associated Press. The Microsoft founder added, during a visit to the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, and so it allows us to bring in lots of African capabilities to work on these vaccines, and then this can be scaled up. The announcement came as the Foundation opened its yearly three-day Grand Challenges event. The gathering brought together scientists and public health researchers from around the world. The Institute Pasteur, along with the South Africa-based company BioVac, will be using an mRNA research and manufacturing process developed by Quantum Biosciences in Belgium. The Foundation is giving $5 million to each vaccine manufacturer. It will award another $10 million to other companies not yet identified. The remaining $20 million is going to Quantum to further advance the technology and lower costs. Pfizer and its partner Biontech, along with Moderna, used the mRNA technology to develop COVID-19 vaccines in record time. The medicine supplies genetic direction to human cells, leading to antibody production to fight COVID-19. Those COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were quickly pushed through approval processes and received emergency use permission during the pandemic. The new vaccines under development in Africa will take longer, anywhere from three to seven years. Dr. Amadou Sal is Chief Executive Officer at Institute Pasteur. He said the deal will help build vaccine self-reliance in Africa. The organization has been producing yellow fever shots since the 1930s. It now hopes mRNA technology can be used to produce vaccines for other diseases in Africa, including Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, and Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. What we want is next time there is a pandemic. We hope it won't happen soon. Africa would be able to make its own vaccine, to contribute to the development, and make sure that we protect the population, Sal said. What happened with COVID should never happen again in the sense that Africans should get vaccinated as a matter of equity. Jose Castillo is the leader of Quantum Biosciences. He said the mRNA technologies permit low and middle income countries to become autonomous in terms of research and development. With $8.3 billion to give away in 2023, the Gates Foundation is the world's largest private philanthropic donor. The organization has spent billions of dollars to vaccinate against polio, treat and prevent malaria and HIV, and more recently, to develop vaccines for diseases like cholera. I'm Katie Weaver. You just heard this week's Health and Lifestyle report. Katie Weaver joins me now to talk more about her story. Welcome, Katie. Thank you, Dan. I'm happy to be here. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced last week that it will invest $40 million in African drug makers. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Foundation? Certainly. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was established in 2000. As of last year, its holdings were worth about $67.3 billion. Over its lifetime, the organization has provided more than $70 billion in grants. Last year alone, it provided $7 billion in charitable support. And Bill Gates is the head of it? Both Bill and Melinda Gates share leadership as co-chairs of the Foundation. The couple divorced in 2021, but remained partners in the Foundation. At the time, they said, we continue to share a belief in that mission, and we'll continue our work together at the Foundation. Well thanks for answering my questions, Katie, and thanks for joining me. My pleasure, Dan. My name is Anna Matteo. And my name is Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. You're listening to The Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series Let's Learn English. This series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. We talked about Lesson 22 in our recent podcast. Today, we'll take a closer look at Lesson 23. Anna and her coworkers are going out for lunch together. They work in an area where there are not many restaurants, so people come with special trucks to the area at lunchtime. Yes, we call these food trucks. And it's a fun way to explore different foods from all over the world. Washington, D.C. is an international city, so you can find foods from many cultures there. Since Anna came from a small town, she is not familiar with the food trucks in this lesson. Washington, D.C. has great food from all over the world. Today, I'm having lunch with my boss. Ms. Weaver says we're going on a trip around the world. But she knows I only have an hour for lunch, silly woman. Hi, Anna. Hi, Jonathan. Hey, we are meeting Ms. Weaver for lunch at noon, aren't we? Yes. What time is it now? 11.50. 11.50. We have to go. So where is this world food restaurant? We are not eating at a restaurant. Where are we eating? We are eating at food trucks. I remember my first experience with food trucks. I was impressed that I could get Mexican food in a park. In other parts of the world, you might hear the term street food. When people talk about buying food from a vendor, a seller, that is, who sets up a small table on the sidewalk or side of the street and cooks simple, delicious dishes for the people who are walking by. Back to our story. Ms. Weaver wants to treat Anna and Jonathan to lunch. That means she is paying for the food. So she gives them each some money and tells them to find something to buy from one of the trucks. And of course, Anna thinks it's an awesome idea. Food trucks? Awesome! What's a food truck? These are food trucks. Wow! Okay, Jonathan, you will buy the first dish. Here is $10. Surprise us! Okay. I'll be back in 15 minutes. What country do I want to visit? Anna, you pick the second country. Here is $10. I want chicken. The food truck over there has great chicken. Awesome! After you buy your food, meet me here. Do you enjoy eating at food trucks, Jill? I used to when we worked downtown every day, especially they had pho, the Vietnamese soup. It was so good. But now they don't come near the office. There are some near the museums, but they mostly sell ice cream and American food like hamburgers and fries. Besides, there's no place to sit near most of the food trucks. That reminds me of what one of my cousins said. He said that food trucks would be nicer if they had some tables and chairs and refills on drinks. But then they'd be restaurants. The other thing I don't like about food trucks is how noisy they are. They have to run a generator, a machine to make electricity, for cooking and keeping the food warm or cold. It's already loud, and then they sometimes play loud music, too. That's true, but you have to trade off the noise for the convenience of being able to buy your meal quickly and cheaply. I don't know. They may be handy, but I still prefer a quiet restaurant or one with tables outside so you can enjoy nice weather. Then there's the problem of the trucks running out of food. In our lesson, both Jonathan and Anna have to change their orders because the food trucks have sold the meals they want. Excuse me, I'll have the shrimp. Oh, you're out of shrimp? Okay, I'll have the beef then. I want the chicken dish. We're out of chicken. You're out of chicken? Yep. I'll try another food truck. Thanks. You're welcome. I noticed they said out of quickly, so it almost sounds like one word, out of. Jill, do you know any expressions with that pronunciation? Yeah, when we leave a place like when we're going home from our place of work, we might say, I'm out of here. Notice that Jill used the word handy to talk about something that is convenient. And another thing that's convenient is how you can buy your food from a food truck with cash, a credit card, and now maybe with your phone. Let's hear how Jonathan returns part of the money Ms. Weaver gave him. Okay, here's your change. The dish cost $7, so here is $1, $2, $3 back from your 10. I noticed two things there. He says here's your change, which means the money not needed for the cost of the food, and then he counts out the bills as he hands them to Ms. Weaver. I think all of our listeners understand how we talk about our dollar bills, our paper money, but maybe it would be good to review what US coins are. Sure, there are four coins in regular use nowadays. Those are the penny, which is one cent, the nickel, five cents, and the quarter, which is 25 cents. People sometimes run into a half dollar, which is 50 cents, or a dollar coin, which is a dollar or 100 cents. Jill, whose picture is on each coin? Well, I'm not sure. Let me try. A penny is Abraham Lincoln, of course. On the nickel, it's Thomas Jefferson. Who's on the quarter now? Aren't there different ones for each state these days? The backs of those coins are different now. There is one for each state. But the front is still our first president, George Washington. And here's a fun fact. In 2022, they made him face the opposite direction. He had always been facing to the left, but now he's facing to the right. I'm not sure about the political meaning of that, but here's another fun fact about US coins. One of my distant cousins was a model for the Walking Liberty Half Dollar. She was a neighbor of the artist. That's a cool family story. Speaking of who is on the coins, we left out a very important historic figure. Do you remember who was on the dollar coin? Since 2000, it's been Sakajouya, a Native American woman who guided Lewis and Clark across the West to the Pacific Ocean. I love those coins because they look like gold. At a family camp I used to go to, one of the men would always give the children a dollar coin to use for ice cream on the 4th of July. Speaking of ice cream, in our lesson, it's time for dessert, something sweet to eat. Listen carefully to how Ms. Weaver asks Anna what she wants to do with the remaining money. Well, we still have eight dollars. What do you want now? We can buy dessert. I'll buy dessert. In Washington, D.C., you can travel around the world with food trucks, and it does not cost a lot. Ms. Weaver said, what do you want instead of what do you want? Isn't that pretty informal? Yes, but remember, they are eating lunch on the street. It's a pretty informal situation. Hey, Andrew, can we do another chant with what we learned today? Sure. Yeah, let's do that. And listeners, you can practice some of the things we talked about today by repeating after us. Food trucks, food trucks, handy noisy food trucks. Get some lunch, get a snack, and then you will be right back. What do you want? I'll have fish. Sorry, we're out of that. What do you want? I'll have chicken. Sorry, we're out of that. What do you want? Okay, then I'll have shrimp. You got it. Food trucks, travel the world with food trucks, pay with cash or card. You can even pay by phone, and it doesn't cost a lot. Now we have an assignment for you. We'd like to know your answer to our questions. Does your town have a special street food? How do you like to eat it? You can send your answer in an email to us on learningenglishatvoanews.com or if you're watching this podcast on YouTube, put your answer in the comments. We'll read some of your answers in an upcoming podcast. That's all for the lesson of the day today. You can learn more on our website, learningenglish.voanews.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. 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.