Learning English from the News

US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will meet in a summit at the White House this week for the first time since 2023, following on from a President Trump’s visit to China earlier this year in which a truce was agreed.
Before the truce was agreed, both the US and China had imposed high tarrifs on products coming in from the other country. The truce will end in November and many experts say that the two countries will try to extend their truce and make more agreements on trade.
Alongside trade tariffs, there are other potential disagreements between the two leaders. For example over AI and the war in Iran. There are talks about a warning system for AI that Trump plans to share with Xi.
Get a worksheet for this episode to practise the vocabulary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2026/260923
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest programmes https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u178220599

Head of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, published an essay explaining how he feared that humans could lose control of AI systems. Following recent hacking incidents Amodei said that it is possible that AI systems could attempt to take over the entire internet.
Meanwhile, AI experts have raised fears that AI systems could decide in future to kill all humans. These experts have said that the risks include: cyberattacks, biological warfare and disruption to economies.
These statements have been criticised. Some have said that the fears are exaggerated while others have suggested that AI companies are overstating the potential impact of AI, so that their companies maintain a high value. Others have suggested that they want regulators to block their competitors.
Get a worksheet for this episode to practise the vocabulary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2026/260916
Learn more English about the topic of technology here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/topics/technology
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest programmes https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u178220599

A transplanted pig kidney has worked inside a patient for a record nine months. Learn about this news story in simpler English with Becca and Phil.
Get a worksheet for this episode to practise the vocabulary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2026/260909
Learn more English about the topic of health here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/topics/health
Sign up to our weekly newsletter here for more ways to improve your English: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/topics/health

More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead after last week’s flash floods on the border of Nepal and Tibet, according to Nepal’s disaster agency.
Almost 4,000 people are still missing. Rescuers are trying to reach hundreds of workers who have been trapped in a large network of tunnels at hydropower sites.
Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Monday that 279 people had been rescued from the sites.
A key cause of the deadly floods is thought to be a glacier collapse in the Himalayas. A glacier is a large area of dense ice.
Learn more about this story with Georgie and Phil. For more language-learning tips, head to bbclearningenglish.com.
For subtitles and a worksheet for this episode head to https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2026/260902
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest programmes https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u178220599

AI has been hacking other companies during tests, causing fears over safety. There’s been a series of hacks by AI software in recent months. A hack is when secure technology is broken into in order to steal data or cause disruption.
The AI hacks have occurred during testing of security systems which have gone wrong. For example, in July, the company OpenAI said its AI models hacked a company called Hugging Face. OpenAI said it lost control of the models during a security test.
Many people are concerned about the recent hacks because AI has been able to get out of control and do things its creators didn’t want it to do.
But technology companies that develop AI say that they care about security. For example, after its AI models hacked a company during security tests, OpenAI has said it’s slowing down training some of its AI software to improve security.
Learn more about this story with Becca and Phil. For more language learning tips head to bbclearningenglish.com. For subtitles and a worksheet for this episode head to https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2026/260826
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest programmes https://www.bbc.co.uk/send/u178220599