Ripped from the Headlines: December 2020: Current Events Vocab for December 12–18, 2020

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged Joe Biden's victory in the Presidential election. After the electoral college voted, delivering 306 votes to Biden, McConnell made a statement congratulating him on his win.

The trailer for the upcoming Billie Eilish documentary was released this week, giving fans a preview of the much-anticipated film. The clip shows scenes of her childhood, as well as more recent footage of her pre-pandemic live performances. The film is scheduled to premiere on February 26 on Apple TV+. Documentary comes from the Latin "documentum," meaning "lesson" or "proof:" something written that contains factual information.

John Le Carré, the novelist whose work brought prestige to the espionage genre, died at 89. He began his career working for British intelligence, but after his third novel became a success he quit to write full time. He wrote 27 novels and a number of stories, screenplays, and nonfiction books, many of which became bestsellers and were made into movies. Born as David Cornwell, he used the pen name Le Carré because intelligence officers were not allowed to publish under their real names.

26-year-old basketball superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a $228.2 million, 5 year contract extension with the Milwaukee Bucks. The deal is the largest in NBA history. Antetokounmpo won both Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year last season, and led the Bucks to the best record in the league for two years in a row, though they were unable to win the championship either time.

The Cleveland Indians announced that the team will be changing its name, though what it will be replaced by and when were not revealed. The team, along with others using Native American names and images, have come under increasing pressure from indigenous groups and others to eliminate these stereotypes from sports. Ideas for new names have already flooded in, including the Spiders, the Crows, the Blue Sox, and the Buckeyes.

The FDA is expected to approve the Moderna vaccine for Covid-19, making it the second one to get the green light for distribution and use. Medical first responders and other essential workers have already been getting their first injections of the Pfizer vaccine. Both the Pfizer and Moderna formulas require two injections about three weeks apart.

The house and Senate appeared to move closer to agreement on the huge omnibus spending bill meant to fund the government for the fiscal year that began on October 1. Some tricky issues have been worked out, and while more compromises are needed sources close to the negotiations said that they looked promising. Omnibus means "for all" in Latin, and the word "bus," as in "school bus," comes from the same word: buses were originally called omnibuses.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a signed a multi-year podcast production deal with Spotify. The news follows the couple's recent announcement of a production partnership with Netflix. The amounts of money involved in both deals were not made public.

MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given away nearly $6 billion this year, over $4 billion of it in just the last four months. Much of the cash has gone to food banks and similar programs, as well as historically Black colleges, women's and LGBTQ rights groups, and organizations fighting climate change. "Philanthropy" means "love of humanity" in Greek.

Congressional leaders say they're nearing agreement on a $900 billion pandemic relief bill that would provide money for individuals, unemployment benefits, vaccine distribution, and more. Details have not been revealed, but one Senator said the individual payments will likely be around $600 per person. Relief comes from the Latin verb "relevare," meaning "to lighten" or "to ease" via the French "relever," meaning "to lift back up."

President Trump announced the resignation of Attorney General William Barr via Twitter, and Barr confirmed it shortly afterward. Sources inside the White House said that the President was unhappy with Barr's unwillingness to pursue charges of voter fraud in the recent election. "Resign" comes from the Latin verb "resignare," meaning "to hand over" or "to give up."

HBO Max has agreed to pull "Chappelle's Show" from the streaming service by the end of the year. Comedian Dave Chappelle previously got Netflix to do the same; he explained that because of the deal he signed years ago to get the show made, he doesn't receive any royalty payments from its broadcast. Royalty in this sense originated in the fact that mining and other rights to natural resources were given by kings in exchange for a percentage of the profits.

Scientists confirmed that the Japanese Hayabusa2 probe returned to Earth carrying a good-sized sample of the asteroid Ryugu. Until they were able to open it safely in a sterile laboratory, nobody knew whether the mission had been successful. The black grains, like little pebbles, will help researchers understand the exact composition of the asteroid, shedding light on how the solar system formed. The asteroid is believed to be made of carbon and minerals that are at least 4.6 billion years old.

Charley Pride, the first Black country music superstar, died at 86 of Covid-19. His father was a sharecropper, and he tried to make it as a baseball player before turning to music. Between 1966 and 1987, 52 of his songs made it to the top ten on the music charts and 30 reached number one, making him one of the most successful country artists of all time.

Ludwig Van Beethoven's 250th birthday was on December 16. Orchestras around the world had planned huge celebrations, such as playing all nine of his symphonies, but those performances had to be cancelled because of the pandemic.

Just as vaccinations began, the Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. rose above 300,000, with the number of daily deaths climbing over 3,000. An estimated 1.6 million people around the world have died so far, meaning that 20 percent of all the global fatalities have been in the United States. Toll is derived from Old English, coming from the Greek "telos," meaning "tax."

SolarWinds, a cyber security and network management company, was hacked by Russian intelligence services. Because hundreds of other companies, including federal agencies like the Homeland Security, Treasury, and Commerce departments, use SolarWinds products, the hackers were then able to exploit vulnerabilities in those networks to steal data and compromise security. Nobody has yet determined the full extent of the attacks, but experts say they they were extensive and serious.