Ripped from the Headlines: December 2019: This Week In Words: December 14–20, 2019

Since the British election, Scottish leaders have been advocating for a referendum about leaving the United Kingdom and remaining part of the European Union. Prime Minister Boris Johnson opposes a referendum, but Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says that one must be held. Scotland voted against Brexit by 62%. It's an open question whether the Scottish Parliament has the authority to hold such a vote without the consent of the British Parliament.

Former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death for treason. Musharraf lives in exile in Dubai, and thus will likely never return home to see the sentence carried out. In 2007, he imposed a state of emergency and fired most of the country's judges in an attempt to suppress opposition to his rule. Balk is a Germanic word with origins in shipping, carpentry, and ploughing. It has to do with an obstacle or a boundary: something that makes you hesitate or stop.

North Korea appears to be testing a new missile, possibly one capable of hitting the continental U.S. While the communist dictatorship has long had short-range capabilities, the possibility of an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) in the hands of a nuclear-armed enemy has many observers extremely concerned.

President Trump was impeached, making him the third President in the country's history to be charged, in accordance with the Constitution, with high crimes and misdemeanors. Prior to the vote, he sent an erratic, rambling six-page letter to Speaker Pelosi that had observers on both sides of the aisle questioning his fitness for office. Whether he or one of his advisers wrote the letter is unknown.

France entered its second week of strikes by transportation workers, teachers, judges, doctors, and more. Many schools and stores are closed as workers protest President Emanuel Macron's attempts to reform the country's pension and welfare systems. France has the most foreign tourists of any country in the world, and observers worry that the strikes, especially falling during the holiday season, could harm tourism as people look for other destinations

A group of so-called "never Trump" Republicans have formed a super PAC with the goal of defeating the President in the 2020 election. The Lincoln Project is raising money from conservatives who believe that the President is unfit for office. They plan to begin buying ads on TV and the internet in the new year.

Boris Johnson's victory in Britain marks a continuation of a global trend toward electing right-wing populists. Observers say that having so much media controlled by a few wealthy individuals makes this result more likely, since the electorate does not receive all the information they need to make an informed choice at the polls. In Greek, ploutokratía means "government by the wealthy."

The day before impeaching the President, the House of Representatives passed a $1.4 trillion spending bill. The bill approves money for priorities on both sides of the aisle, and has drawn criticism for both its size and for some of the items contained within it. Profligatus means "overthrown," "ruined," or "depraved" in Latin. Profligate today refers to excessive spending.

Arizona has created a task force to combat disinformation, possibly the first such official body in the country. The group includes judges, teachers, and public officials, and is holding meetings prior to issuing a report in the fall of 2020 that will address ways to combat propaganda and fake news: public education, technology, legal and social media strategies. Purport refers to the supposed meaning of a document, but without vouching for any certainty of truth behind it.

Australia is in the grip of a devastating heat wave, which has caused widespread fires. The national average temperature of 105.6˚ broke all records this week, and it may be broken again soon as the trend shows no sign of cooling. The all-time record high of 123˚, set in 1960, hasn't been broken yet, but it could fall soon. The fires are causing severe damage to many sensitive wildlife habitats, and naturalists are worried that some fragile species will be pushed to the verge of extinction.