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  • Influence Others from a 'Bully Pulpit' And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.

    Today we talk about a way to share ideas, thoughts, and opinions – a bully pulpit. This common two-word noun sounds aggressive. But is it? Let’s explore!

    We’ll start with the word “bully.”

    Usually when we use the word “bully,” we are talking about a person who is cruel or threatening to others.

    As a verb, if you bully someone you treat them in a cruel, insulting, or aggressive way. Bullies usually threaten those who are weaker or smaller than them.

    Now the word "pulpit." A pulpit is a raised platform used in preaching or conducting a worship service.

    So, together a bully pulpit sounds like a preacher who is bullying others. But that is not what it means.

    A bully pulpit is a public-facing position – especially a political office. It provides a way to share or spread your ideas widely. If you have a bully pulpit you have a position of influence or power.

    Experts say that bully pulpit comes from the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. When he was in office, he once said, “I suppose my critics will call that preaching, but I have got such a bully pulpit!”

    Roosevelt observed that his time in office at the White House was a platform for speaking out for what he believed in. He could influence others. He understood that his presidency was his bully pulpit.

    When then President Roosevelt used the term “bully,” he meant something excellent or first-rate. This is an older meaning of the word. And these days we often use it an as interjection, saying “Bully for you!” to cheer another’s success.

    Now, let’s hear this term used in a short conversation.

    A: Hey, what are doing this evening? What to grab a bite?

    B: I wish I could. But I have a board meeting for my swimming pool.

    A: I thought you quit that board?

    B: I did. But I have to attend one last meeting to hand off my notes to the new secretary.

    A: Why are you quitting? I never heard the full story.

    B: I’m quitting because of the board president. She uses her position as a bully pulpit. Instead of making the pool better, she lectures the rest of us on all kinds of issues.

    A: It’s a swimming pool? What issues come up?

    B: Oh, you name it! We have to hear her views on everything from recycling to dog parks to the evils of potato chips. Hey, if you have time would like to replace me on the board?

    A: Yeah … no thanks.

    While today, bully pulpit is most often used in the world of politics, we can also use it in other areas. The president of a company can use that position as a bully pulpit -- so can the principal of a school, leaders of media sites, interest groups and more.

    And that’s all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories. Until next time …

    I’m Anna Matteo.
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  • Keeper Wants You to Know Vatican’s Secrets The Roman Catholic Church has been trying for years to inform the public that its “secret” collection of documents is not secret.

    The Vatican has opened documents of World War II-period Pope Pius XII to researchers. It even changed the official name of the archive to remove the word “Secret.”

    Recently the chief of what is now called the Vatican Apostolic Archive, Archbishop Sergio Pagano, spoke to the Associated Press. Pagano told some of the secrets he had uncovered in the 45 years of working in the archive. The Vatican’s archive is one of the world’s most important stores of documents.

    In a new book-length interview called “Secretum,” Pagano explained some of the largely unknown details of the history of the Vatican and its relations with the outside world over the past 1200 years.

    The interviews took place as discussions over a year with Italian reporter Massimo Franco. Pagano explains everything from French leader Napoleon taking documents to the 1922 financial support for the election of a pope from Catholics in the U.S.

    “It’s the first time and it will also be the last because I’m about to leave,” said Pagano who is 75. He also spoke to the AP before his expected retirement later this year.

    Pope Leo XIII first opened the archive to researchers in 1881. Until then, it had only been used to serve the pope and preserve documentation of the head of the Catholic Church dating from the 8th century.

    The archive has 85 kilometers of space for books, much of it underground in a two-story, fireproof secure area. It also holds documents from Vatican embassies around the world and collections from powerful families and religious orders.

    The archive works much as any national or private archive would. Researchers request permission to visit and then request documents to study in reading rooms.

    Most recently, researchers have been going to the archive to read through the documents of Pope Pius XII. He was the pope who has been criticized for not speaking out against the Holocaust during WWII.

    Pope Francis ordered the documents of his office opened earlier than planned, in 2020, so researchers could have a full picture of the papacy.

    In the book, Pagano criticizes incomplete research into the process of confirming the sainthood of Pius XII. Researchers are now examining newly available documents.

    Aside from old stories, “Secretum” also shares new ones. They include an important financial relationship between Catholics in the U.S. and the Vatican that continues today and dates back to 1922.

    Pagano said that after Pope Benedict XV died, a financial official found that the Vatican had no money. The book shares secret messages in which the Vatican asked its ambassador in Washington D.C. to send “what you have in the safe” so that the vote for a new pope could take place.

    The messages say the Vatican embassy sent $210,400.09 collected from the American Catholics. That permitted the vote to elect Pope Pius XI.

    Pagano suggests that Francis’ 2019 decision to remove the word “Secret” from the archive’s name and rename it the Vatican Apostolic Archive was possibly a choice to gain donations. The U.S.-based group Treasures of History is aiming to support the newly renamed archive.

    At the end of the interview, Pagano showed visitors one of the archive’s prized possessions. It is the 1530 letter from British nobles urging Pope Clement VII to permit King Henry VIII to end his marriage, so he could marry Anne Boleyn.

    Clement refused. Henry got married anyway. He broke ties with the Catholic Church in Rome and established the Church of England.

    “You can say that here we are at the birth of the Anglican Church,” Pagano said.

    Pagano explained how the document survived. He said when Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, took documents from the Vatican archives in 1810, the chief archivist at the time hid the letter.

    “The French never found it,” Pagano said, showing that he believed an archivist’s main job is to preserve the archive.

    I’m Gena Bennett. And I'm Gregory Stachel.
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  • Private Spacecraft Makes First US Moon Landing in More than 50 Years A private spacecraft has successfully touched down on the moon, marking the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years.

    The American space agency NASA confirmed the Odysseus moon lander, built by Texas company Intuitive Machines, had landed on the moon’s surface Thursday.

    Flight controllers said earlier that difficulties with the lander’s navigation equipment had forced them to activate an experimental landing system at the last minute. Officials from Intuitive Machines also reported communication problems but said a signal was received from the lander after a delay.

    “What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” said Intuitive Machines project director Tim Crain. He was speaking to flight controllers at the company’s operations center in Houston, Texas.

    The company’s chief, Steve Altemus, added, “I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface, and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon.” In a message published Thursday night on X, Intuitive Machines said flight controllers had “confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data."

    The spacecraft targeted a landing spot about 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole. The area is mostly flat, but also includes large rocks, hills and craters. Officials from Intuitive Machines were not immediately able to provide details about whether Odysseus had reached its target landing area.

    Another U.S. company, Astrobotic Technology, attempted a lunar landing last month. But that privately built lander, called Peregrine, developed a fuel leak shortly after launch and did not make it to the moon.

    Officials from Astrobotic were quick to send congratulations to the Odysseus mission team. “An incredible achievement. We can’t wait to join you on the lunar surface in the near future,” the company wrote on X.

    NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also reacted on Twitter, writing that Intuitive Machines had “aced the landing of a lifetime.”

    The last time the United States landed on the moon was in 1972, with NASA’s Apollo 17 mission. So far, five nations have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon: the United States, China, the Soviet Union, Japan and India. Japan’s landing came just last month.

    In addition to being the first U.S. lunar landing since 1972, the Odysseus mission marked the first time a privately built spacecraft has touched down on the moon.

    Odysseus is carrying scientific instruments and technology demonstrations for NASA and several private organizations. Experiments are to include observations of space weather activity and radio waves. The spacecraft is designed to operate for seven days on solar energy before the sun sets over the landing area.

    NASA has said data from the lunar lander’s mission will be used to help prepare for the agency’s future Artemis space program. That program aims to return astronauts to the moon. NASA recently announced that its planned mission to land humans on the moon, called Artemis III, was set for September 2026.

    I’m Bryan Lynn.
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  • S. Korean Hospitals Turn Away Patients as Doctors Protest South Korea's biggest hospitals canceled medical procedures and turned away patients seeking emergency care on Wednesday. The moves came after thousands of trainee doctors walked off the job to protest a government plan to increase the number of people admitted to medical school.

    One hospital, the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, had a sign saying its emergency division was only taking heart attack cases. The emergency departments at four other major hospitals were also on "red alert." That means they did not have room for more patients.

    "It is so frustrating that the resident doctors' strike is happening now," the brother of a cancer patient told the newspaper JoongAng Ilbo. He added that he and his brother had spent 10 hours looking for a hospital bed.

    The health ministry says 7,813 doctors have walked out of their jobs since protests began this week. The doctors object to a plan by the government to increase the number of medical students. The plan aims to bring more health workers to rural areas and meet the demands of one of the world's most quickly aging societies.

    The government wants to increase the number of medical students from 3,000 to 5,000 by the 2025 school year. It aims to add up to 10,000 more by 2035.

    The protesters, however, say South Korea has enough doctors. They say the government needs to improve the pay and working conditions of doctors before increasing the number of medical students.

    South Korea's population of 52 million had 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people in 2022. Those numbers are far below the average of 3.7 doctors per 1,000 people for developed countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

    Public opinion studies in South Korea show many Koreans support the government plan. Last week, a Gallup Korea study said about 76 percent of South Koreans back the government's plan to increase the number of medical students.

    One group taking part in the protest called the plan a political measure ahead of a general election in April.

    "We couldn't just sit back and watch medical policies built only for the sake of winning the general election," the Korea Interns and Residents Association said in a statement.

    Local media said between one-third and half of scheduled surgeries at five major hospitals have been canceled due to the walkout.

    The protests have continued despite a government order for the doctors to return to work.

    Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters, "The basic calling of medical professionals is to protect the health and lives of the people, and any group action that threatens that cannot be justified.”

    Safety Minister Lee Sang-min later threatened the protest leaders with possible arrest.

    "The police and the prosecutors' office will consult and take measures against any group or individuals who are leading collective action, including arrest and investigation," he said.

    I'm Ashley Thompson.
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  • OpenAI Announces New Video Generator The maker of ChatGPT recently announced its next move into generative artificial intelligence.

    San Francisco-based OpenAI’s new text-to-video generator, called Sora, is a tool that instantly makes short videos based on written commands, called prompts.

    Sora is not the first of its kind. Google, Meta and Runway ML are among the other companies to have developed similar technology.

    But the high quality of videos displayed by OpenAI — some after CEO Sam Altman asked social media users to send in ideas for written prompts — surprised observers. At the same time, the video results led to fears about the possible ethical and societal effects.

    A photographer from New Hampshire posted one suggestion, or prompt, on X. The prompt gave details about a kind of food to be cooked, gnocchi, as well as the setting – an old Italian country kitchen.

    The prompt said:

    “A instructional cooking session for homemade gnocchi hosted by a grandmother social media influencer set in a rustic Tuscan country kitchen with cinematic lighting.”

    Altman answered a short time later with a realistic video that showed what the prompt described.

    The tool is not yet publicly available. OpenAI has given limited information about how it was built. The company also has not stated what imagery and video sources were used to train Sora.

    The New York Times and some writers have taken legal actions against OpenAI for its use of copyrighted works of writing to train ChatGPT. And OpenAI pays a fee to The Associated Press, the source of this report, to license its text news archive.

    OpenAI said in a blog post that it is communicating with artists, policymakers and others before releasing the new tool to the public.

    The company added that it is working with “red teamers” – people who try to find problems and give helpful suggestions – to develop Sora.

    “We are working with red teamers — ... experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias — who will be adversarially testing the model,” the company said.

    “We’re also building tools to help detect misleading content such as a detection classifier that can tell when a video was generated by Sora.”

    I’m John Russell.
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