Ripped from the Headlines: January 2021: This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for January 2–8, 2021

Members of Congress met to certify the presidential election results, but the proceedings were interrupted as rioters stormed the Capitol, breaking in to the House and Senate chambers and vandalizing congressional offices. Officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and others, were rushed to safety. Hours later, once the building had been cleared, Congress reconvened to finish certifying the vote.

Iran resumed enriching uranium to 20 percent purity, a violation of the international agreement it entered to limit its nuclear activities. Enriched uranium is used as fuel in nuclear power plants but can also be used to make bombs — although weapons-grade uranium needs to be 90 percent pure. The Iranian government says that it has resumed its enrichment program in response to sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after the U.S. pulled out of the agreement.

A British judge blocked the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S., citing Assange's mental health issues. Assange faces charges in America for 17 counts of conspiracy and violating the Espionage Act. If he were found guilty on all counts, he could face 175 years in prison. Espionage comes from the French word espion, meaning "spy."

When rioters broke into the Capitol on Wednesday, legislators on both sides of the aisle, including Republican Senators Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell, called the break-in an insurrection. Insurrection comes from the Latin verb insurgere, meaning "to rise up." This verb is also the root of insurgent and surge.

New data from studies on exercise show that even a few minutes of high-energy activity — working out as hard as possible for short periods — can make a significant difference to health and fitness, especially in older people. Interval training, as it's known, which alternates brief bursts of intense exercise with short rests, appears to improve strength, circulation, and overall fitness significantly, even when the periods of exertion are just a few seconds.

Nancy Pelosi was reelected as Speaker of the House of Representatives, although the Democratic majority in the House will be smaller than it was two years ago. Pelosi faced some dissent from members of her caucus, but overall she continues to enjoy broad support from Democratic members of the House.

All of the living former Secretaries of Defense from both parties — ten in total — wrote an open letter expressing their deeply held convictions that the military has no role in American elections. The letter affirmed that the outcome of the 2020 election was clear and that the votes were counted properly. It also said that anyone who interfered with the election process could face "criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”

Pedro Pierluisi was sworn in as the new governor of Puerto Rico. He ran on a promise to achieve statehood for the U.S. territory. The island recently voted to approve statehood, with 52 percent supporting the referendum, but it would take a vote in the U.S. Congress to make Puerto Rican statehood a reality.

According to a recent job posting, Microsoft is planning a "sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows." The company has been making small changes to its user interface (UI), but rumors have been swirling that a major overhaul is in the works, as this posting would seem to confirm. Iuvenis is Latin for "young" — it's where we get juvenile — so to rejuvenate something is to make it youthful again.

In Georgia's runoff election on Tuesday, Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won Senate seats. Georgia’s election rules require a runoff if no candidate in the general election receives more than 50 percent of the vote. The election of Georgia’s new senators means that the Senate will be evenly divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. The Constitution says that the Vice President, in this case Kamala Harris, acts as the tie-breaker when Senate votes are tied.

Democrats asked the FBI to look into the President's call to the Georgia Secretary of State in which he asked Brad Raffensberger to "find 11,780 votes." Mr. Raffensberger recorded the call and released the audio to the media. Georgia state law criminalizes "solicitation to commit election fraud," as does federal law.

The U.S. government's decision to impose more tariffs on French wine and other European products is causing concern in a number of industries. Import taxes on goods get passed along to consumers, so many restaurants and retailers say such taxes hurt their businesses. Tariff comes from the Arabic ta rif, meaning "notification or explanation." Merchants used the Arabic term in their ledgers to keep track of import and export duties.

General Electric has unveiled a new line of enormous wind turbines, each of which can generate 13 megawatts of power, enough to provide 12,000 homes with electricity. Each turbine is 853 feet high and has a rotor with a diameter of 722 feet. The company has begun selling the new turbines to power companies around the world, though none have been installed yet. Wind currently makes up about 5 percent of global power generation, but this percentage is expected to grow.

Employees at Google formed a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union, which calls itself the Alphabet Workers Union — Alphabet is Google's parent company — has about 230 members. Organizers say that their goals include securing better benefits for contract workers and maintenance and cafeteria staff.

Nations around the world have begun vaccination programs to fight Covid-19. In the U.S., the distribution of vaccines has been plagued with problems and is moving more slowly than promised. In December, 5 million people were vaccinated — far fewer than the target of 20 million. Observers attribute some of the distribution problems to the federal government's decision to let state and local governments, many short on cash and resources, handle vaccination efforts.