BBC News Review 特朗普和习近平在华盛顿峰会会晤

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From BBC Learning English,
this is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
In this programme, the leaders of the USA and China are meeting this week,
but what will they discuss?
Hello, I'm Pippa.
And I'm Becca.
In this programme, we look at one big news story
and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode,
as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
So, Becca, let's hear more about this story.
US President Donald Trump
and China's President Xi Jinping
will meet in a summit at the white House this week.
President Xi is visiting the US for the first time since 2023,
following on from President Trump's visit to China earlier this year.
A truce between the two countries on trade tariffs
is set to expire in November.
A truce is an interruption in an argument
or an agreement to stop arguing for a period of time.
Alongside trade, there are other potential disagreements
between the two leaders,
for example over AI and the war in Iran.
Let's have our first headline.
This headline is from CNBC, an American news organisation.
Trump, Xi seek trade stability and deals,
but AI, tariffs and Iran loom large.
What to watch.
That headline again from CNBC.
Trump, Xi seek trade stability and deals,
but AI, tariffs and Iran loom large.
What to watch.
This headline mentions some of the things that might be discussed
at the meeting between Trump and Xi.
We're looking at the expression loom large.
What can you tell us about it, Pippa?
Well, if something looms large, it's a very important, often worrying issue.
Yes. In this story, there are lots of disagreements between China and the US.
And these issues loom large in the discussions between the two countries.
They are important and potentially worrying
because reaching agreement might be difficult,
according to the headline.
We often see loom large used to talk about official
contexts such as meetings and negotiations.
For example, at the all staff meeting,
the company's poor financial performance loomed large.
And we can use loom large in more personal contexts, too.
For example, my friend's worried about her parents getting older.
Their poor health looms large for her.
We always use loom large to talk about potentially negative
or concerning issues.
We don't use it to talk about important but positive factors.
We've had loom large, be a very important, often worrying issue.
For example, the impact of social media on kids looms large for many parents.
This is Learning English
from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
Today we're talking about the meeting this week
between US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping.
As we've mentioned, President Xi's visit to the US comes
just weeks before a truce on trade between the two countries is due to end.
Before the truce was agreed,
the US and China had imposed very high tariffs on each other's products.
Tariffs are taxes on products entering the country.
The truce means these tariffs are currently lower.
Many experts say that the two countries will try to extend their truce
and make more agreements on trade.
Our next headline is about this.
This headline is from the New York Times, an American newspaper.
With Time on His Side,
Xi Seeks to Extend Truce With Trump.
That headline again, from the New York Times.
With Time on His Side, Xi Seeks to Extend Truce With Trump.
We're interested in this expression time on his side.
What does it mean to have time on your side, Pippa?
Well, this is an expression which is all about
how quickly you need to do something.
If time is on your side,
then you don't need to do a particular thing quickly.
In other words, you have lots of time in which to do it.
Right. So in this headline, it says time is on Xi Jinping's side
to extend the truce with Trump.
This means he has time to do it.
Remember, the truce doesn't end until November.
We can use the expression time is on someone's side
in everyday situations too, often to talk about decisions or deadlines.
For example, I want to go travelling next year,
but I don't need to book anything for a little while.
Time is on my side.
We can say time is on someone's side,
or we can say someone has time on their side.
We can also use it negatively.
If time isn't on someone's side,
then they don't have much time and they need to act quickly.
We've had time is on someone's side,
someone has lots of time in which to do a particular thing.
They don't have to act quickly.
For example, I found out early from a friend that his company would be hiring,
so time was on my side to work on my CV and apply.
This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English.
We're talking about this week's summit between US President Donald Trump
and China's President Xi Jinping, and what the two leaders may discuss.
Another topic which could be discussed between the US and China is AI.
As we talked about last week on Learning English from the News,
there have been lots of warnings about the potential dangers of AI
recently. US and Chinese companies are the leaders in developing AI technology.
Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that US
and Chinese officials have discussed creating an international warning system
for AI incidents that could affect national security.
Let's have a headline about this.
This is from Al Jazeera, an international news organisation.
What's the US-China AI 'hotline' that Trump plans to pitch to Xi Jinping?
And that headline, again from Al Jazeera.
What's the US-China AI 'hotline' that Trump plans to pitch to Xi Jinping?
This headline talks about the warning system for AI
that it says Trump plans to pitch to Xi Jinping.
Pitch means explain an idea and convince someone to do it.
But we're interested in the word hotline.
Yes, literally a hotline is a special direct phone connection, often used
in emergencies, but it can be used more metaphorically to refer
to any direct system to communicate a warning or emergency.
In this headline, we don't know whether the warning system being discussed
would be a literal phone line or something else.
Because hotlines are used for emergency or urgent communications,
we see the term used in relation to disasters.
They can also be used by charities to tackle particular serious issues.
For example, campaigners want to set up a hotline
to help victims of domestic violence.
Hotlines are less common than they used to be
as other technologies have developed,
but they can also be used in less urgent situations
as a direct way to get information.
For example, a company might have a customer service hotline
people can call for help with their products.
The term hotline just means that you can speak to someone directly
and relatively quickly.
We've had hotline,
a special direct phone connection often used in emergencies.
For example, the company was criticised
for replacing its complaints hotline with an online form.
That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.
We'll be back next week with another news story.
If you like our podcasts, sign up to our newsletter to get all the latest
from BBC Learning English every week.
There's a link in the notes below this episode.
Bye for now. Goodbye.
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