Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr. 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 show, Mario and I present this week's education tips.

Brian Lynn reports about the effects of weather conditions on school attendance around the world.

And we close with the lesson of the day from our teachers Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith.

But first, let me tell you about a recent court ruling on an unusual legal case in America.

A court in the American state of Colorado has ruled against an animal rights group seeking the

release of five elephants from a zoo.

Lawyers for the group Non-Human Rights Project

were seeking to use a legal process designed for prisoners to dispute their imprisonment.

A favorable ruling would have permitted the lawyer to dispute their imprisonment.

A favorable ruling would have permitted the lawyers to dispute the animal's detention at the zoo.

The elephants, Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu, and Jambo

live at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

The non-human rights project's final goal was to get them moved to an elephant sanctuary.

But the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the legal process the group employed could not be used for the animals.

Because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim, the court said in the ruling.

A habeas corpus claim usually asks a court for the release of a prisoner who says they are being illegally detained.

The decision follows a similar finding by a court inmate. who says they are being illegally detained.

The decision follows a similar finding by a court in New York in 2022.

Non-human rights project also brought that case.

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