This Week in Words: March 17- 23, 2018

No time to scour the headlines or watch the news? No problem! We’ve rounded up the top words heard, read, debated, and discussed this week.

This week's news is all about matters of perspective. Is Vladimir Putin's victory in the Russian election a testament to his prowess as a candidate, or a symptom of the demise of democracy in that country? Closer to home, was F.B.I. second-in-command Andrew McCabe unjustly besieged by President Trump, or is that just a partisan excuse made up by someone who deserved to be fired?

Take a look back at the week that was, vocabulary style.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. demise
    the time when something ends
    The demise of Toys R Us is just another a reminder that retail is a brutally competitive business. - USA Today (Mar. 18, 2018)
    Toys R Us, the toy store chain which declared bankruptcy last year, has announced that it will close all of its stores. The demise of Toys R Us leaves many unanswered questions about business and the future of the retail economy in an increasingly digital shopping environment, but perhaps the most pressing question is: What's going to happen to Geoffrey the Giraffe, the store's beloved mascot? Jobs for unemployed giraffes are not easy to come by.
  2. besiege
    harass, as with questions or requests
    McCabe had more recently been regularly taunted by President Donald Trump and besieged by accusations that he had misled internal investigators at the Justice Department. - cnn.com (Mar. 17, 2018)
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired the man who is second-inn-command at the F.B.I., Andrew McCabe. McCabe was two days away from collecting retirement benefits when he was fired. McCabe was officially fired after an internal investigation concluded that he had misled investigators about corruption in the Clinton Foundation, but McCabe insists that he was let go because of his friendship with ousted F.B.I. Director James Comey and their connection to the special prosecutor.
  3. imprimatur
    formal and explicit approval
    The victory provides an imprimatur of public support for Mr. Putin’s efforts to challenge the U.S. and its allies abroad in Ukraine and Syria and undermine them at home through various clandestine means. - The Wall Street Journal (Mar. 18, 2018)
    To the surprise of absolutely no one, Vladimir Putin was elected to another term as Russian President this week. Putin was essentially unopposed after a court ruling last year which barred the major opposition candidate from running a campaign. Imprimatur , in addition to meaning "approval," can also refer to one's personal style of doing something — the individual stamp that can only come from you.
  4. accommodate
    provide a service or favor for someone
    But regulators in California and elsewhere have become more accommodating lately. In April, California is expected to follow Arizona’s lead and allow companies to test cars without a person in the driver’s seat. - The New York Times ( Mar. 19, 2018)
    A pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona was run over and killed this week by a self-driving automobile. Even though there was a person in the car monitoring its performance, they could not stop the car in time. Uber, the company responsible, has temporarily suspended all self-driving tests throughout the country until a full investigation into the incident is completed.
  5. partisan
    devoted to a cause or political group
    Last month, the justices refused to block a state Supreme Court decision that declared districts drawn by Republicans unconstitutional because of their partisan tilt. - USA Today (Mar. 19, 2018)
    The battle to redraw the election map of Pennsylvania continues. In this latest round, the Supreme Court refused to block the current version of the map of voting districts. Republicans have been campaigning to use the old map, which the State Court ruled was unconstitutional. The new map is considered more fair and less partisan, but Republicans see it as potentially very bad for them when elections roll around.
  6. ravaged
    having been robbed and destroyed by force and violence
    The president traveled to New Hampshire, a state ravaged by opioids and which is also an early marker for the re-election campaign he has already announced. - The Chicago Tribune (Mar. 19, 2018)
    President Trump was in New Hampshire this week. While there, he introduced his plan to fight the opioid drug crisis, which includes a media component to get the message to young people that drugs are dangerous. President Trump is also in favor of using the death penalty against drug dealers.
  7. frantic
    marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion
    The confusion underscored the frantic pace of the investigation, which has widened after five explosions in less than three weeks and now includes more than 300 federal agents along with scores of local law enforcement officers in Texas. - The Washington Post (Mar. 20, 2018)
    On Wednesday the suspect in a series of package bombings in Texas was killed after detonating a bomb inside his car. The explosives, five bombs in all, had been sent through the mail via FedEx and other carriers. Two people were killed and several others wounded as a result of these bombings, which were centered in the Austin area.
  8. substantiate
    establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
    The school increased security, and law enforcement investigated the threats, which were not substantiated, according to the letter from school principal Jake Heibel. - The Wall Street Journal (Mar. 20, 2018)
    There was another shooting on the grounds of a school this week, this time in Maryland. Two students were injured before the gunman was shot and killed by a school resource officer. Unlike other recent school shootings, whose victims were random, the gunman here, a 17-year old male, had a prior relationship with the 16 year old girl he shot. The girl is in critical condition while the boy who was shot is currently in stable condition at a local hospital.
  9. disclosure
    the act of making something evident
    The security team generally pushed for more disclosure about how nation states had misused the site, but the legal and policy teams have prioritized business imperatives, said the people briefed on the matter. - The New York Times (Mar. 19, 2018)
    Alex Stamos, Facebook's Chief Information Security Officer, is leaving the company. Facebook is under heavy pressure to tighten its security in order to prevent the manipulation of the site by those who would spread made up news stories and propaganda. Exactly how to accomplish this, and what to tell the public about the measures it is taking, has been a huge source of controversy within the company.
  10. prowess
    a superior skill learned by study and practice
    In selling his firm’s prowess, Nix said the company could arrange for a secretly recorded effort to offer a political opponent “a deal that’s too good to be true, and make sure that that’s video-recorded.” - The Washington Post (Mar. 20, 2018)
    There was more bad news for Facebook this week, as it was reported that Cambridge Analytica a research firm that worked for the Trump campaign, had improperly accessed 50 million of Facebook's voter profiles. This revelation, combined with the release of a videotape which appears to show Cambridge Analytica's C.E.O. Alexander Nix bragging about his ability to set up candidates and destroy campaigns has led to Nix's suspension.
  11. fractious
    easily irritated or annoyed
    General McMaster had struggled for months to impose order not only on a fractious national security team but on a president who resisted the sort of discipline customary in the military. - The New York Times (Mar. 22, 2018)
    H.R. McMaster has resigned as National Security Advisor. He will be replaced by John Bolton, the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, who will assume office on April 9th. McMaster is the latest member of The Trump administration to exit; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired last week.
Created on Sun Mar 18 20:31:36 EDT 2018 (updated Sat Mar 24 11:51:59 EDT 2018)

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