This Week in Words: July 27–August 2, 2019

Capital One Bank revealed that it experienced a data breach which exposed the personal and financial information of 100 million customers. For some of the at-risk customers, the exposure includes their Social Security Number, which puts them in jeopardy of full-fledged identity theft. The suspected hacker who is believed to be behind the breach is a former employee of Amazon Web Services, which hosted the database. To disseminate is to distribute or broadcast information.

North Korea conducted two missile tests this week following two launches the previous week. Last month Kim Jong Un met with President Trump and they agreed to restart talks between their two nations about the possibility of dismantling of North Korea’s missile program, but there has been little progress since. An impasse occurs when two parties are deadlocked or have reached a stalemate and nothing productive can occur.

Over 350 million trees were planted in Ethiopia in a twelve-hour period. This shatters the previous record of fewer than 100,000 trees which were planted in India. The massive effort is part of a national effort to combat the African nation’s deforestation problem. The amount of Ethiopia’s forested land fell from 35% at the beginning of the 20th century to 4% in the early 2000s.

Fionn Ferreira, an 18-year-old from West Cork, Ireland won the $50,000 grand prize in the Google Science Fair. Ferreira’s invention uses liquids with magnet properties to capture micro particles of plastic. This makes for an excellent and very efficient filtration system, attracting particles that are too small for conventional systems to catch.

President Trump’s new immigration policy, which is designed to discourage families from South America from making the journey to the U.S., proposes that immigrants seek asylum in Guatemala rather than pass through that country on their way to the States. This proposal faces opposition in the Guatemalan Senate. Perilous means hazardous and risky.

A heat wave in Japan, the second one to hit that country in two years, has killed eleven people and hospitalized over 5,000. Many of those receiving medical treatment are the elderly, who are especially susceptible to the perils of hot weather. This use of prompt means to trigger, provoke, or induce.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time since 2008 this week. The Fed reacts to economic indicators and tries to prevent slowdowns or recessions with rate cuts. What is interesting about the Federal Reserve’s behavior is that a lot of the traditional measures of economic prosperity, like the fact that unemployment is low, point in a good direction. Still, there is a nervousness that there is bad news coming, so the Fed is trying to soften the blow of any economic downturn.

A space telescope has detected three planets a mere 73 light years from Earth. The telescope can detect the slight dimming of a star when a planet passes by it in orbit, slightly obscuring the star. In recent years, a number of new planets and planet-like objects have been discovered outside our solar system. In this case, temperate means means mild and not subject to extreme temperatures.

Twenty hopefuls for the Democratic nomination for President in 2020 held a second round of debates this week. Candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were criticized by the others for not being practical enough in their proposals. When candidates do this, they are making a viability argument- a given candidate’s plan may sound great, but their opponents raise the issue of whether the plan can be realistically implemented in a way that makes economic sense.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will leave his post in the Trump Administration soon. Trump and Coats are notorious for their disagreements on major international issues, such as whether or not Russia is a threat to American national security. Critics have already warned that Coats’ likely replacement, John Ratcliffe, would unnecessarily politicize the position. To be steadfast is to be committed, staunch and unwavering.