Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

In this programme, world's biggest

YouTuber, Mr Beast, facing lawsuit.

Hello, I'm Phil.

And I'm Georgie.

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, let's hear more about this story.

Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, runs the largest YouTube channel in the world.

And now he's producing a reality show with a $5 million prize, together with Amazon.

It's called Beast Games.

Serious allegations have emerged around the conditions for contestants and Mr Beast's company has been served with a lawsuit.

And that means a legal demand for compensation.

This lawsuit mentions allegations of exposing people to sexual harassment, being misleading about the chances of winning and restricting access to food and medication.

Yep, and I have a headline here that talks about this lawsuit and is from the Indian Express.

Mr Beast faces legal challenge.

Lawsuit alleges toxic environment on set.

And that headline again,

Mr Beast faces legal challenge.

Lawsuit alleges toxic environment on set.

And that's from the Indian Express.

And this headline is talking about the lawsuit over the conditions on Beast Games.

That's Mr Beast's reality show.

And Phil, we're looking at the word toxic.

Can you tell us more?

Yes, toxic literally means poisonous.

But we often use it more generally to refer to a situation or a relationship that could cause harm.

Yes, this story reports allegations that there was a culture of sexism and misogyny, that's hatred of women, on set.

An environment with this culture would often be described as toxic because it can cause harm, a bit like a poison.

Yes, we often use toxic to talk about harmful relationships, whether that's in a family, a romantic relationship or a workplace.

So, an office where people are stressed, they're being bullied or facing discrimination, could be described as a toxic environment or a toxic workplace.

We've had toxic, likely to cause harm over time.

So, as an example, he had such a toxic relationship with his parents that he had to leave home.

This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

Today we're talking about the lawsuit filed against Mr Beast by contestants in his Beast Games series.

So, this year Mr Beast's YouTube channel became the channel with the highest number of subscribers on the platform.

It currently has over 317 million followers.

Now, to put that in context, only three countries in the world have a higher number of inhabitants.

His fame has mainly come through

YouTube and social media platforms, but he's about to go mainstream on TV.

Our next headline is related to that.

Now, this one is from Stuff.

It's based in New Zealand and it says,

On the cusp of mainstream stardom,

Mr Beast is being sued.

So, that headline again,

On the cusp of mainstream stardom,

Mr Beast is being sued.

And that is from Stuff in New Zealand.

Now, this headline is about the lawsuit, but we're looking at the expression on the cusp.

Mr Beast is described as being on the cusp of mainstream stardom.

Mainstream stardom means being a star that most people know about, like if you're on TV or in films.

Now, being on the cusp means being on the edge of or about to change.

And cusp is an old-fashioned word that means dividing line, and we don't usually use it outside of this expression, on the cusp.

So, someone could be on the cusp of greatness if they're about to achieve something, or you could be on the cusp of an agreement if you're close to working something out.

Exactly. So, the writer of this headline thinks that Mr Beast is about to become the kind of big star that everyone knows.

He's on the cusp of mainstream fame.

So, we had on the cusp of, which means on the edge of.

For example, developments in AI mean we could be on the cusp of a bright future.

Or a really scary one.

This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English.

We're talking about allegations made against Mr Beast's production company.

Many of the articles about this lawsuit focus on Mr Beast's reputation, with some people referring to him as the nicest man on the internet.

Now, the author of our next headline, which is from an opinion piece, is not so sure.

So yes, we have this headline from Jezebel, which is an American website.

Shocker! Turns out Mr Beast is the worst.

OK, let's hear that again.

Shocker! Turns out Mr Beast is the worst.

And that's from Jezebel.

So, this headline is from an opinion piece by a writer who is not surprised that Mr Beast is facing accusations like this.

Now, it's got shocker in the headline.

Now, Phil, isn't that usually for something surprising?

Something that's a shock?

Well, yes, but here it's being used sarcastically or ironically, where we use a word to mean exactly the opposite of what it means.

Yes, and in speech we often use exaggerated intonation to show that we're being sarcastic.

So, for example, oh, it's raining again in London.

What a shocker!

Now, actually, that's not a shock because it rains a lot in London.

OK, and there's another use of the word shocker as well.

We can use it to talk about a bad experience that we've had.

So, for example, this weekend I had an absolute shocker.

My car broke down, I lost my keys and then the kids got ill.

It was terrible.

It was a shocker of a weekend.

Yep, Phil, that really does sound like a shocker.

We had shocker, which, if you're being sarcastic, means not surprising.

For example, shocker, she's late for the meeting again.

That's it for this episode of

Learning English from the News.

We'll be back next week with another news story.

And if you're interested in working environments, why not try our series Office English?

It's part of the podcast

Learning English for Work, which you can find on any podcast app.

Don't forget you can find us on social media.

Search for BBC Learning English.

Goodbye for now.

Bye.