Ripped from the Headlines: March 2025: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for March 23–March 29, 2025

After a legal battle that lasted several years, Mexico City’s lawmakers voted to ban traditional bullfights, replacing them with a gentler version of the sport. The new law prohibits lances, spears, and swords in the bullfighting ring at the city's 42,000-seat Plaza México arena. Matadors will be allowed to interact with bulls using only their red capes, and the bulls' horns will be covered with padding. The Germanic root of ban means "to speak formally" or "to order."

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported that he was accidentally included in a group chat between U.S. national security officials on the messaging app Signal. The security breach revealed details of planned military strikes on Yemen and other protected information. Communicating via text message violates the rules for national security discussions, which normally take place in a secure room. The Old English root of breach means "act of breaking."

As he accepted the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on March 23, Conan O'Brien emphasized how much Twain disliked bullies. In a speech that indirectly addressed President Trump's firing of the Kennedy Center's president and board members last month, O'Brien said that Twain "punched up, not down," and "deeply empathized with the weak." The word bully has changed dramatically from its 16th-century meaning, "sweetheart," to the late 17th-century "harasser of the weak."

Researchers have found that when golf courses shut down, the surrounding environment can benefit. As interest in golfing has declined in recent years, courses have closed, and neighborhoods bordering former courses have seen improvements that include reduced flooding and less pesticide runoff. With deliberate interventions, many shuttered golf greens in the U.S. have been reimagined as nature preserves, with the tidy, short-cut grass of fairways transformed into wildflower meadows.

As part of its efforts to end federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the White House cut funding to an urban forestry project aimed at making neighborhoods cooler. The program, which was funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, would have used $75 million in federal grants to plant trees in 100 U.S. cities. The initiative's mission was to improve equity by planting shade trees in poorer urban neighborhoods that tend to be several degrees hotter.

The World Happiness Report ranked Finland as the happiest country for the eighth year in a row. Other Nordic nations were also at the top of the list, which is compiled using polling data from participants who rate their own level of contentment. The U.S. dropped to its lowest ranking ever, at number 24, with Afghanistan taking the bottom spot. Researchers found that happiness was linked to factors like loneliness, belief in human kindness, and frequency of shared meals.

The Duke Blue Devils, a favorite to win the men's NCAA tournament, have a major height advantage — they are the tallest college basketball team in the country. Duke's fifteen team members range from the five-foot, eight-inch guard, Spencer Hubbard, to center Khaman Maluach, who is seven feet, two inches tall. But besides Hubbard, no Duke player is shorter than six feet, five inches, meaning the team, with an average height of 79.8 inches, towers over its competitors.

A new study shows how North American iguanas may have ended up on an isolated island in Fiji. Using genetic data, scientists found that the giant lizards most likely floated thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean using pieces of fallen trees as rafts. If confirmed, it would be the longest migration of any land vertebrate (besides humans) across an ocean. Iguana is from Spanish, with an Arawakan root, iwana, the local name for the lizard in the West Indies.

Bernie Sanders is attracting record crowds to rallies during his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour. The independent senator's focus on economic populism appeals to voters frustrated with both President Trump and the Democratic Party. Sanders often criticizes what he describes as "government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires" and accuses Democrats of neglecting working-class Americans. The Latin root of populism is popul-, "people."

After Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital on March 23, his lead doctor said the pontiff had been so close to death that his medical team discussed stopping treatment. Francis experienced two life-threatening crises during his hospitalization, and his doctors conferred over whether to continue aggressive medical care that could potentially damage his organs. In the end, they decided to use "all available medicines and treatments," a decision that saved the pope's life.