Ripped from the Headlines: August 2021: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for August 7–August 13, 2021

On August 9, demonstrators in London protested the scheduled euthanasia of an alpaca named Geronimo. The soft-fleeced, camel-like animal tested positive for highly infectious bovine tuberculosis and is set to be killed to avoid spreading the disease. Protesters disputed the test results, and over 100,000 people signed a petition demanding the alpaca be retested.

On August 10, the Senate passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill aimed at repairing roads and bridges, as well as funding broadband and climate initiatives. The Senate vote, which followed months of negotiation, was unusually bipartisan at 69 to 30. In an era when most bills pass along party lines, with Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other, the bipartisan agreement was considered a victory by most senators.

Scientists believe they've found a nursery of endangered baby hammerhead sharks off the coast of Miami. If confirmed, it would be the first nursery for this threatened species ever located in U.S. Atlantic waters. While researchers can easily track adult hammerheads, it's extremely rare to find newborn and juvenile sharks. The species' endangered status is due to their infrequent breeding and the high rate at which they're killed by humans, both accidentally and deliberately.

In her Olympic debut, equestrian Jessica Springsteen helped the U.S. show jumping team win a silver medal on August 7. Springsteen, the 29-year-old daughter of rock musicians Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, is ranked 14th in the world for show jumping. She has competed in the horseback sport since she was young and has been riding her 12-year-old horse, Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, for two years. Equestrian comes from the Latin equus, "horse."

In a major military escalation over the past week, the Taliban has seized control of nine cities in northern Afghanistan. Since international troops began to withdraw from the country in May, Taliban forces have steadily captured rural areas. It wasn't until the past several days that they intensified their offensive against Afghan forces in an effort to control urban centers as well. The escalation has raised fears that the Taliban will surround and capture the capital of Kabul.

A roving elephant herd that spent a year meandering around cities in southwest China appears finally to be headed home. The group of 14 Asian elephants raided farms and a retirement home for food, crossing busy streets and napping in wooded areas. They wandered as far as 300 miles before turning back in the direction of their nature reserve in Xishuangbanna. Authorities evacuated roads and monitored the herd using drones. No humans or elephants have been harmed.

A new scientific report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that some effects of Earth's warming climate are irreversible. The August 9 report found that even if emissions were entirely cut today, global temperature would still increase 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next 20 years. This permanent warming will result in deadly heat waves, droughts, and species die-offs.

More than 300,000 children in the United States didn’t enroll in kindergarten last year because of the pandemic. Enrollments were lowest in low-income areas. A country-wide evaluation found that 33 states lost 20 percent of their kindergartners, a statistic that worries education experts who see the year before first grade as an essential introduction to school. In German, Kindergarten means "garden of children."

Dozens of Minor League Baseball teams have enlisted the help of a branding company to design and market unusual mascots, resulting in record attendance and merchandise sales. Madison, Alabama's Rocket City Trash Pandas and Connecticut's Hartford Yard Goats, among many other quirky team mascots, have attracted attention from baseball fans who show up at games to see the costumed characters in person and purchase T-shirts and hats picturing the team representatives.

The Biden administration announced it will extend the current moratorium on federal student loan payments until January 31. The moratorium, which was set to expire on September 30, will last an additional six months because of economic uncertainty resulting from the pandemic. The extension is likely to be the final one, with loan payments restarting February 1.

Visitors are paying to enter radon-filled uranium mines in Montana because of their supposed health benefits. People with chronic pain, diabetes, arthritis, and other conditions believe exposure to the radioactive gas still present in inactive mines can treat their ailments, the way radiation is used to treat cancer. The EPA cautions that radon actually causes lung cancer. The mines consist of underground tunnels where uranium ore was one extracted.

As the 2020 Summer Olympics ended this week, preparations were already underway for February’s 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. China has planned extensive Covid precautions that will be far more elaborate than those taken by Japan this month. Safety measures will include plastic walls between reporters and athletes, guards in biohazard suits, and all-day thermometers recording participants' body temperatures. The Latin root of precaution means “a safeguarding.”

A premature baby, one of the smallest infants ever to survive, went home after 13 months in Singapore’s National University Hospital. The baby, named Kwek Yu Xuan, weighed 7.5 ounces when she was born 16 weeks before her due date — about the same weight as a grapefruit. A year later, Yu Xuan went home with her parents weighing a healthy 14 pounds. The Latin source of premature means "early ripe" and was first used to describe fruit.

A review of articles written 76 years ago by Charles H. Loeb, a Black World War II correspondent, showed that his reporting exposed U.S. lies about the effects of radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. While major media avoided the topic of radiation, Black newspapers published Loeb's firsthand accounts of the damage caused by the energy released in the explosions. Bombing victims endured devastating long-term illness and waves of death as a result of the radiation.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned on August 10 after 11 women formally accused him of harassment. Cuomo, who was serving his third gubernatorial term, originally resisted leaving office, but prominent Democrats pressured him to step down rather than face impeachment and a criminal investigation. When Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul is sworn in as his replacement in two weeks, she will be the first female governor of New York.

After reviewing over 400 studies, researchers have determined that giraffes are much more social than previously thought. Biologists have long seen giraffes as independent loners, especially when compared to animals like chimps or elephants. The review shows they actually form long-term emotional bonds, mourn their dead, and take turns babysitting each other's calves. Their social lives appear to be complex and convivial. The Latin root of social means "companion."

Play was interrupted during the second half of a Major League Soccer match in Cincinnati when a toddler suddenly ran onto the pitch, pursued by his mother. The two-year-old sped onto the field midway through the game between FC Cincinnati and Orlando City FC. The boy's mother, Morgan Tucker, scooped him up and returned him to his seat in the stands unharmed. Toddler comes from the Scottish toddle, "walk with short, unsteady steps."

A typhoon hit Japan on August 9, knocking over an iconic polka-dotted yellow pumpkin sculpture by artist Yayoi Kusama. Typhoon Lupit brought torrential rain and 70 mile-per-hour winds to the island of Naoshima, where the art installation was located. Violent waves dislodged the giant pumpkin from its perch at the end of a long dock and tossed it onto the beach. The sculpture is currently being restored. The Greek root of typhoon is typhon, or "whirlwind."

For the first time ever, average wages for restaurant and supermarket workers are higher than $15 per hour. It's a major shift in the U.S. labor market since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, when non-managerial restaurant workers earned an average of $13.86 per hour. Efforts to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 have met with resistance from many politicians, though about 60 percent of Americans support the idea.

Hoping to improve the emotional well-being of lab rats, Australian researchers tickled them every day for a month. They aimed to increase the rats' positive associations with their human handlers and to make them generally more content. The gentle tickling of specific body parts mimics the way rats naturally play-fight with each other. The scientists found that tickled rats were happier and more relaxed, often returning to the lab technicians for additional tickling.