Unit 2. Man and movies. The Seventh Seal. 1957

The Seventh Seal. 1957. 

Ingmar Bergman. 

ENGLISH DUBBED 

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Nuclear war and malicious use of AI threaten end of humanity by 2100, says Lancet assessment

Nuclear war and malicious use of AI threaten end of humanity by 2100, says Lancet assessment

The Guardian

Kat Lay

Sun 11 Oct 2026 00.01 BST

Newly established commission identifies 17 catastrophic threats to human health but says ‘realistic route to act’ on each exists

Humans could become extinct by the year 2100 due to malicious use of AI or nuclear conflict, according to a new global risk assessment.

They top a list of 17 major threats to human health over the next 75 years, which also includes cuts to aid spending by wealthy countries, the climate crisis and childhood malnutrition.

The experts behind The Lancet Commission on 21st Century Global Threats to Health said all the threats interact, meaning they must be addressed together – but stressed that there was “a realistic route to act” on each.

“Decisions made by leaders today will shape the health and wellbeing of the next generation,” said Prof Christopher Murray, commission co-chair and the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington.

To create its list, the commission modelled how many years in good health might be lost due to sickness, disability or early deaths due to each threat, based on current trajectories – a measure known as disability-adjusted life years (Dalys).

“Malicious use of AI, including bioweapons, and nuclear conflict with nuclear famine carry risks of extinction in the next 75 years,” the report said, adding that while their likelihood remained low, they had the potential to end humanity in the case of nuclear conflict by injecting enough particles into the upper atmosphere to block sunlight and cause famine, or via AI-created biological weapons. An accompanying Lancet editorial, published alongside the report, warned: “The scale of harm, should they be realised, would inflict an apocalypse on humanity.”

Other risks that could cause more than 1bn cumulative Dalys, and therefore deemed “major catastrophic threats”, included air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, childhood malnutrition and climate breakdown, as well as conventional conflict, declining overseas aid, high alcohol use, high blood pressure, income inequality, low educational attainment, naturally occurring pandemics, obesity, poor mental health, smoking and unhealthy ageing.

To be included on the list, threats not only had to potentially cause a high number of lost healthy years, but also to have potential solutions.

Ibrahim Abubakar, commission member and professor of infectious disease epidemiology at UCL, said: “We are not starting from a point of view of ‘oh look, we want to scare you – we’ve got X many threats facing humanity’. We’re starting from the premise that if you are a policymaker today, whether at the global multilateral level or at the national level, these are the potential threats that you could face, and this is the magnitude by which, if you act, you can actually make a difference.”

Action to limit global heating to about 1.8C (3.2F) rather than letting it reach 4.4C could prevent 1.89bn years of healthy life being lost, according to the report, which modelled best and worst case scenarios for each threat.

In higher income regions, non-communicable diseases such as obesity and poor mental health were the dominant threats, while in lower income regions health loss was driven by issues such as low educational attainment.

Many major donor nations, including the US and UK, have announced large cuts to aid spending over the past year. The potential collapse of, or steep reduction in, international health aid could cause up to 1.5bn Dalys before 2100, the commission found, nearly 70% of which would be in sub-Saharan Africa. The region also bears the brunt of child malnutrition.

The commission was made up of 35 experts, and its findings will be shared on Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany. Their assessment will be updated annually to re-evaluate the 17 threats identified, incorporating new data and any emerging hazards.

The authors urged leaders to address the risks before they escalated into crises, including via investment in technological innovations and by strengthening health systems.

“We started this process three years ago, thinking that there were three big threats: conflict, climate, and pandemics,” said Murray. “There’s a much larger number of threats that we need to worry about, and governments really need to dedicate some money and staff to the task of anticipation, prevention and preparation for this more diverse set of threats.”

Task 1. Read the headline to consider the topic of the article. Consider the key word.

Task 2. Read the article, write out words and phrases in bold. Look up the meaning. Explain the meaning in English and give Russian equivalents.

Task 3. Read the article again and consider logical division.

Task 4. Give a summary of the article.

Task 5. Think of the author’s idea in presenting this article. Render the article.

Andy Burnham does not rule out Brexit reversal being in next Labour manifesto

Andy Burnham does not rule out Brexit reversal being in next Labour manifesto

PM says immediate focus is on rebuilding bridges with EU as he prepares for first meeting with Ursula von der Leyen

Pippa Crerar Political editor

Tue 22 Sep 2026 09.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/

Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but said his immediate priority was continuing to rebuild bridges with European allies.

The prime minister, who will hold his first meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Tuesday, did not rule out including reversing Brexit in Labour’s next manifesto – but suggested the country should focus on securing closer trading ties first.

Ministers have expressed fears privately that the EU reset has lost significant momentum since Burnham became prime minister, and a summit on the issue is likely to be delayed again unless the bloc agrees to discuss legislation that could lock British business out of parts of EU industry.

Burnham has said he will stick to Keir Starmer’s red lines this side of an election, but he is under pressure from Labour MPs who opposed Brexit to change tack, in part because of the potential boost to growth, even though his own seat of Makerfield voted to leave.

Asked by reporters on his flight to New York on Monday for the UN general assembly whether he could rule out a reversal of Brexit being in the next Labour manifesto, he said: “Our focus at the moment is on a UK/EU summit which we hope will take place later this year.

“My immediate priority is to build on the good work that Keir did in rebuilding bridges. Because those bridges were broken in the early part of this decade. And Keir did a good job in re-establishing that relationship.

“What we have got to do now is go to the next level in terms of reaching practical agreement that will further boost the British economy. And those issues are the substance of the summit alongside EU requests around youth mobility.”

The prime minister admitted he had concerns about the bloc’s “made in Europe” legislation, which is designed to curb China’s increasing presence but could also affect British industry and supply chains.

He said he would share those concerns “in a constructive spirit” with von der Leyen. “The other issues you discuss, they are for another day,” he said of rejoining the bloc.

Burnham said the UK had considerable support among EU member states for its position on the “made in Europe” legislation, which threatens to scupper ongoing negotiations about the reset.

“Europe’s argument is not with us. We both suffer the same effects as other countries, particularly steel,” he said.

“We are making the argument we are not your enemies here ... we are not the problem. ‘Made in Europe’ is dealing with a different problem.”

He also said delicate UK/Ireland supply chains could end up being “collateral damage” of any disagreement with the EU.

“Let’s work towards a trusted partner approach that doesn’t cause a problem where there wasn’t a problem and where we have common cause,” he said.

In his speech to the UN on Tuesday night, Burnham will reflect on the 10 years since Brexit and say the UK needs to be more clear-eyed about the risks to its democratic system.

“I’m reflecting on that last decade,” he told reporters on his plane. “What we’ve experienced is when that turbulence comes, when outside actors seek to manipulate, to distort facts, influence the British democratic process.

“Going into the next decade we need to be clear-eyed about that and become stronger and more on the front foot about challenging that.

“Perhaps Britain can say we have experienced some of the turbulence before others in terms of the politics of recent times. We need to be clearer where outside forces, our enemies, are trying to manipulate that opinion and feeling to serve their interests, not ours.”

 

Task 1. Read the headline to consider the topic of the article.

Task 2. Read the article, write out words and phrases in bold.

Look up the meaning. Explain the meaning in English and give Russian equivalents.

Task 3. Read the article again and consider logical division.

Task 4. Give a summary of the article.

Task 5. Render the article.

Trump renames places and poses as superhero in bizarre social media blitz

 

Trump renames places and poses as superhero in bizarre social media blitz

 

Trump passed the long weekend posting a torrent of memes and musings on his Truth Social platform

The long weekend may have proved too long for Donald Trump, who passed the time by musing about annexing other countries, unilaterally renaming places he’s not allowed to rename and turning himself into a superhero.

Amid the torrent of memes and posts by the president on his Truth Social platform over the Labor Day holiday weekend was a bizarre AI-generated video depicting Trump as the Green Lantern DC superhero, wielding a glowing green power ring to erect his border wall, illuminate an “American manufacturing” scene, and command a fleet of warplanes and warships behind him.

Trump’s controversial forays into AI-generated images have seen him depict himself as a Christ-like figure, the pope, Atlas from Greek mythology, as Superman, and many others.

Over the weekend he also shared a map with a US flag emblazoned over most of North America and several countries in Central America, as well as Greenland, Iceland and many islands in the Caribbean. Iceland has summoned its US ambassador over the post. Trump also separately claimed the moon.

The president has spent much of his second term taunting Canada repeatedly with the suggestion of making it a 51st US state with “economic force”, and aggressively pushing for the annexation of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, which has sparked a major geopolitical row. He has also threatened military action in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia, threatened to seize the Panama Canal, and casually mused about taking over other countries including Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

Also in the flurry of Labor Day posts was a map of the US state of New Mexico with the word “Mexico” crossed out and replaced with “America”. A few hours later, he posted what seems to be an AI video of him sticking an “America” label over the word “Mexico” on a “Welcome to New Mexico” road sign.

Trump’s suggestion that New Mexico should be renamed to “New America” comes as tense trade negotiations ⁠with Mexico ramp up. It also comes hot on the heels of Trump signing an order directing the federal government to change Lake Ontario’s name to “Lake America” amid his escalating trade war with Canada after negotiations last month failed to produce a deal.

He has also joked about renaming either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, along with the strait of Hormuz, which has been central to his disastrous war against Iran, to “Trump strait”. He declined to elaborate on that latter idea when asked by a reporter in the Oval Office last week.

In the case of New Mexico, whose name predates the founding of the United States and is explicitly enshrined in its constitution, Trump has no legal authority to rename it – or indeed any US state. Any change to its name would have to come from the state itself and would require a formal constitutional amendment.

While his “Lake America” order directs federal agencies to adopt the name-change on US maps, documents and databases, Trump has no authority to rename Canada’s portion of the lake, nor to compel Canada, international legal bodies, international mapmakers or the rest of the world to adopt a new name.

 

Task 1. Read the headline to consider the topic of the article.

Task 2. Read the article, write out words and phrases in bold. Look up the meaning.

Task 3. Read the article again and consider logical division.

Task 4. Give a summary of the article.

Task 5. Render the article.

BBC to cut almost one in 10 staff to make £500m savings

BBC to cut almost one in 10 staff to make £500m savings

Paul GlynnandIan Youngs,Culture reporters

The BBC has announced it will cut between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs - or almost one in 10 - in an attempt to tackle "significant financial pressures".

The broadcaster needs to make £500m savings over the next two years, and interim director general Rhodri Talfan Davies did not rule out axing entire channels or services.

"We need to look at everything, and at a scale of £500m inevitably there are going to be some big and some difficult choices, but we do need to step through this carefully," he told BBC Radio 4's Media Show.

He said the corporation would give more details later this year about how its services would be affected.

"For audiences, the job in hand now over the next three or four months is to work through how we make those changes without damaging the services that we know are critical to the BBC across radio and television and online," he said.

He also acknowledged that the job cuts would be "really difficult news" for staff.

Philippa Childs, head of broadcasting union Bectu, warned that "cuts of this magnitude" would be "devastating for the workforce and to the BBC as a whole".

The BBC currently has about 21,500 full time equivalent employees.

In an email to staff on Wednesday, Talfan Davies said: "As you know, the BBC is facing significant financial pressures, which we need to respond to with pace.

"Put simply, the gap between our costs and our income is growing. This is being driven by a number of factors: production inflation remains very high; our licence fee and commercial income is under pressure; and the global economy remains turbulent."

He also imposed tighter controls on spending on recruitment, travel, management consultancies, and attendance at conferences, awards and events.

'Difficult decisions'

The BBC is currently negotiating with the government about its future, and that of the licence fee, ahead of the renewal of its royal charter at the end of 2027.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the BBC, "like every institution", has to make "difficult decisions".

"That is something that I know the leadership of the BBC take very seriously, including exploring commercial options and other revenue raisers that can help to sustain the BBC's finances," she told Radio 4's World at One programme shortly before the announcement.

The news of the cuts comes in advance of the arrival of a new BBC director general, former Google executive Matt Brittin, who will officially succeed the recently departed Tim Davie on 18 May.

'Death by a thousand cuts'

Childs said BBC staff were "already under significant pressure after previous redundancy rounds", and further cuts "will inevitably damage its ability to deliver on its public mission".

She continued: "At a time of fake news and an industry that is becoming more concentrated in the hands of a few multinational corporations, the UK needs a confident, ambitious and sustainably-funded BBC more than ever.

"The government must ensure that Charter Renewal puts the BBC's funding on a more secure, long-term pathway and prevent our national broadcaster facing death by a thousand cuts."

Laura Davison, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said the plans for "more brutal job cuts are wrong, damaging and will cause uncertainty and distress for workers at the BBC".

She said: "These cuts severely undermine the BBC's ability to fulfil its purposes: providing quality journalism and programming that informs, educates, and entertains.

"Plans for further cuts follow years of real-terms budget reductions and relentless cost-saving measures which have impacted core parts of the corporation. This can't go on. The BBC cannot provide quality journalism without the talented and experienced workers who make it possible."

WHY AMERICAN WOMEN ARE DELAYING MOTHERHOOD

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