Ripped from the Headlines: April 2022: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 23–April 29, 2022

The White House announced on April 25 that President Biden will nominate veteran diplomat Bridget Brink to be the new ambassador to Ukraine. The U.S. has had no official representative in the country for three years, and filling the position is seen as particularly important during Russia's invasion. Ambassador derives from the Celtic ambiactos, meaning "messenger or servant."

Researchers say they've found evidence that prehistoric humans created a rudimentary form of animation using light from their campfires. A study of 50 small stone tablets carved with rough illustrations of animals revealed signs of heat damage. The scientists believe that ancient artists put the stones at the edge of a hearth, so the dancing flames would provide the illusion of movement to the etched images. They said recreating the scenario made the pictures appear "dynamic and alive."

A border terrier named Freda spent 12 days trapped underground before finding her way to safety. The dog and her owner were walking in a park near Birmingham, England, when Freda crawled into a badger hole and didn't reemerge. The stocky, black-and-white mammals, close relatives of otters and ferrets, typically build a series of maze-like tunnels with several entrances. The ancient sport of badger-baiting by dogs led to the verb, meaning "attack persistently."

On April 24, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed emergency declarations as 20 active wildfires tore across the state. The official statements addressed the fact that more than half of the state's counties were affected by the fires. Two of the blazes had combined to form the largest wildfire, which prompted mandatory evacuations in two counties. The emergency announcement was accompanied by a request for federal aid and a proposed ban on the sale of fireworks in the state.

In Rwanda, where 83 percent of people live in very remote places, drones are commonly used to deliver blood to hospitals. A new study shows that this method of getting the lifesaving fluid to rural areas is much faster than driving. The remote-controlled aircraft can transport blood from a storage hub to a healthcare facility in about 40 minutes, bypassing mountainous roads that take two hours by car. Drone first meant "male honeybee," named for their steady humming sound.

One year after the ivory-billed woodpecker was declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, conservationists say there is new evidence that it still exists in nature. The largest North American woodpecker, with its distinct saddle-shaped patch of white feathers, saw its numbers decline throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Sightings of the bird were so rare in recent years it was thought to be gone, but a ten-year field survey suggests that a few of them remain in Louisiana.

A new study published this week in the journal Nature found that pterosaurs, flying animals that lived about 100 million years ago, were covered in colorful feathers. Researchers found that these ancient dinosaur relations had fluffy plumage similar to the feathery bodies of modern birds. Pterosaur species may have used the patterns of color on their feathers to communicate with each other, according to scientists. The root of feather means "to rush or fly."

After nearly 40 years of research, mushroom cultivators in Copenhagen, Denmark have developed a way to grow prized morel mushrooms indoors. The wild fungi, considered a delicacy, have a nutty, earthy flavor and can normally only be foraged briefly in the springtime. The climate-controlled environment created by Jacob and Karsten Kirk allows for year-round cultivation of the valuable — and delicious — fungus.

Britney Spears said on April 24 that she will take a social media hiatus. The pop star, who announced in an Instagram post last week that she is pregnant with her third child, frequently uses social media to inform fans about details of her life and musical career. Although Spears made it clear that she is only pausing her Instagram updates, she did not say when she might resume posting on social media. In Latin, hiatus means "gap or opening."

Jon Stewart was awarded the country's top humor award, the Mark Twain Prize. The comedian hosted the political satire program The Daily Show for 16 years and is known for his quick-witted, sharply funny commentary on current events, government, politics, and the news media. Stewart was also recognized for his advocacy of emergency workers after the September 11 attacks.

As other countries struggle with overflowing landfills, Sweden sends just 1% of its garbage to trash dumps. Swedes recycle about half of everything that's thrown away, and the country incinerates most of the rest. The energy generated by burning garbage is used for heat and electricity in homes and buildings. While incineration produces carbon dioxide, experts say the negative environmental impact is less than that of landfills. The Latin root of incinerate means "ashes."

Proposed legislation in India would regulate the popular trade in exotic animals, which increasingly includes imported kangaroos. The large marsupials, native to Australia and New Guinea, are commonly smuggled into India from Southeast Asian breeding facilities. Meant to be sold as exotic pets, some kangaroos have been found wandering in eastern Indian forests, hungry and apparently frightened. Most experts think kangaroo derives from an Aboriginal Australian word.

A newly-discovered millipede has been named after Taylor Swift, according to a study published this week in the zoology journal ZooKeys. The long, worm-like bug, with its numerous tiny legs, was named Nannaria swiftae — or the Swift twisted-claw millipede. The name of this many-legged arthropod comes from Latin roots meaning "thousand" and "foot."

Officials in Beijing, China have tested more than 20 million residents in the wake of a city-wide Covid outbreak. The sudden rise of Omicron cases over the past week affected students, tour groups, and workers. A similar surge in Shanghai triggered widespread lockdowns earlier this month, but cases and deaths continue to climb. Chinese President Xi Jinping has a well-known "zero Covid" strategy and has ordered that Beijing completely eradicate all spread of the virus.

As Western countries held talks on how to support Ukraine in its defense against invading Russian forces, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov responded by accusing NATO of waging a proxy war. He told state media that NATO countries indirectly started and are engaged in the war against Russia, using Ukrainians as their stand-in. Proxy, which derives from a Latin root meaning "manage," was first used in the context of a war stoked by a powerful country in 1955.

Harvard University released a report on April 26 that details the school's direct ties to slavery over the past 400 years and states its intention to redress the harm caused by this legacy. The 134-page document lists enslaved people who labored at Harvard, as well as university presidents and donors who enslaved them. The school has formed a "Legacy of Slavery" endowment of $100 million, part of its effort to atone for the cruel and lasting effects of its complicity with slavery.

When a post office located on an isolated island in Antarctica announced it was hiring, hundreds of people applied for a job that includes regularly counting penguins. Known as the world's most remote post office, Port Lockroy is managed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. Five candidates are now in the running for the role of postmaster and penguin-counter on Goudier Island, which is smaller than a football field and populated with far more penguins than humans.

U.S. health experts say they are concerned about future outbreaks of measles and other diseases, after the rate of routine childhood immunizations fell over the last two years. These vaccinations, which most schools require, are an ordinary part of kids' lives. Widespread immunization has led to community protection from devastating illnesses like mumps and polio. Since the pandemic began, many children have missed their annual checkups, and vaccination coverage has dropped.

MIT physicists tried to design a device that uses a precise amount of torque to split an Oreo in two so the filling sticks equally to each cookie when it's twisted apart. They called their invention the "Oreometer." Despite carefully measuring the force used to rotate the two cookies, researchers failed to produce an Oreo with evenly distributed filling. "Sadly, even if you twist an Oreo perfectly, the cream will almost always end up mostly on one of the wafers," said one scientist.

President Emmanuel Macron won a decisive victory over Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election on April 24. Macron's 17-point win over his far-right opponent reflected support for his centrist, pro-Europe policies. It was the first reelection of a French leader since 2002. Victory comes from the Latin vincere, "to overcome or conquer."