This Week in Words: June 16 - 22, 2018

Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles 2 set a record for the opening weekend box office for an animated film by taking in 180 million dollars. The sequel bested another Pixar sequel, Finding Dory, to take the crown. The word juggernaut comes from Hindi jaggannath which literally means "lord of the world" and is a title for the god Krishna.

The boisterous celebration of Mexico's victory over Germany in soccer's World was literally an earth-shaking event. It was detected on the seismic sensors usually reserved to measure earthquake activity in Mexico City. Leave it to fanatical soccer fans to shake a whole city enough to register on the Richter Scale!

Brooks Koepka became only the third golfer to achieve back-to-back U.S. Open wins since World War II, and only the fourth to earn two U.S. Open wins before the age of 30. Koepka emerged victorious after the rest of the field had a very hard time with the course at Shinnecock Hills. The severe wind was a factor in the early rounds, and the sheer length of some holes frustrated many of the world's top golfers.

According to an agreement reached this week with Greece, Macedonia will change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia.

The Supreme Court decided not to decide the issue of political parties carving up maps into voting districts, a policy known as gerrymandering. By ruling that one of the parties in the case did not have proper standing to sue, the court punted on the issue and decided to address it on another day, in another case.

The war of words which began last week at the G7 summit between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau has escalated into a small-scale trade war, with some Canadians trying to establish a boycott of American goods. Now there is talk of a tariff war between the two nations, much like the one the U.S. is currently involved in with China. The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on Canadian lumber, steel and aluminum and there may be more to come.

The week's major news story was what to do about the 2000 immigrant children who have been separated from their families as the entire family attempted to enter this country. The issue turns on whether to prosecute the border crossing as a civil violation or a criminal act. The Trump administration's stance on illegal immigration views it as a criminal act. On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order declaring that families seeking asylum should not be separated.

The Trump administration announced this week that it will spearhead the formation of a "Space Force", a new branch of the Armed Forces modeled on the Air Force. It is unclear at this time exactly what the Space Force is going to do, or how it fits in with the already existing space program at NASA. This action by the president is subject to congressional approval, and presumably the plans will become clearer before a proposal is put before Congress.

The Trump Administration is now allowing small businesses to band together for the purpose of providing lower-cost health insurance to their workers. The move weakens the Affordable Care Act, put in place during the Obama administration.

This week marks the celebration of Juneteenth, a day set aside to honor the emancipation of African American slaves in the United States. Juneteenth dates back to June 19, 1865, two years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It is said that this date is when the news of freedom finally reached the last former-slaves to learn the news in Galveston, Texas. Juneteenth is often celebrated by parades and remembrances of notable African Americans from the slavery era.