Ripped from the Headlines: September 2021: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for September 18–September 24, 2021

France withdrew its ambassador from Washington DC in response to a new alliance between the U.S. and Australia, which includes sharing nuclear submarine technology. Because of the new arrangement, Australia dropped a $66 billion submarine contract with France. French President Emmanuel Macron described the secret deal as a betrayal, and has also recalled France’s diplomatic representative from Australia. The Biden administration says it's working to mend the rift between countries.

After extensive testing showed its Covid-19 vaccine is safe for kids between the ages of 5 and 11, Pfizer announced that it will apply for FDA authorization by the end of September. If the agency gives the official green light, it's possible that young children may qualify for vaccinations by Halloween. Public health officials stress the importance of FDA approval for a vaccine for children under 12, as one in five new cases occurs this age group.

The Italian artist Livio De Marchi has created a giant floating violin on the Grand Canal in Venice. The 39-foot-long instrument, called Noah's Violin, is large enough to support a string quartet. The musicians played Vivaldi pieces as the craft drifted down the narrow waterway from the Rialto Bridge to the Piazza San Marco on September 19. In French, canal means "tube or pipe."

Major League Baseball hitter Anthony Gose was winding down his career when he decided to make a comeback as a pitcher. Beginning in 2012, the 31-year-old spent five seasons playing for Detroit and Toronto, though his career as an outfielder never quite took off. Gose was planning to retire in 2017 but instead decided to try his hand at pitching. In his triumphant return to the majors for Cleveland on September 20, eight of Gose's pitches exceeded 100 miles per hour.

On September 20, Paul Rusesabagina, a well-known Rwandan dissident, was found guilty of forming a terrorist group in what critics say was a "show trial." The Oscar-winning film Hotel Rwanda told the story of how Rusesabagina sheltered at least 1,200 people in his hotel during 1994's Rwandan genocide. Since then he has openly criticized the repressive tactics of Rwanda's president. Rusesabagina was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Dissident's root means "sit apart."

Entomologists are carefully destroying the nests of so-called “murder hornets” in Washington state in an effort to eradicate them. The insect experts have battled the invasive hornet species, Vespa mandarinia, which is deadly to honeybees, since it first appeared in the Pacific Northwest in 2019. Entomologists must wear special protective gear when removing the nests, as the hornets' painful stings can pierce bee suits. The insects kill about 50 people each year in Japan.

Horse owners are facing a shortage of equine ivermectin, which is used to eliminate parasites. Increasingly, people are using the horse dewormer in an attempt to cure or prevent Covid. Ivermectin is designed to treat large animals that are infested with pinworms and stomach worms, and FDA affirms that it is not an effective Covid treatment. Some livestock supply stores are requiring proof that ivermectin buyers have horses. Equine comes from the Latin equus, "horse."

A Colorado man won a candy factory in a scavenger hunt that was modeled on the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Andrew Maas traveled from state to state, following clues hidden by candy maker David Klein, and eventually found a "golden ticket." Maas won a 4,000-square-foot plant that manufactures sweet, edible sand called Sandy Candy. The Latin root of factory means "to do or to make."

Since June, when the Ethiopian government imposed a blockade of humanitarian aid to its Tigray region, a famine there has worsened. The United Nations is now describing it as “the worst hunger crisis in a decade.” Deaths from starvation have been reported in all of Tigray's 20 districts, and the population widely suffers from malnutrition. Famine derives from the Latin fames, meaning "hunger."

As of September 18, the KNP Complex fire in California had burned more than 17,000 acres. Now firefighters are girding giant trees in Sequoia National Forest, wrapping their trunks in aluminum, to protect them from encroaching flames. The sequoias, which can live up to about 3,000 years, are thought to be among the world's oldest trees. Gird has an Old English root meaning "put a belt around."

One of the astronomical markers of summer's end in the Northern Hemisphere is the harvest moon. This full moon, which occurred on September 20, signals the autumnal equinox, along with the start of cooler weather and colorful fall foliage. In the past, the harvest moon was very useful, being a bright light for farmers to see by as they gathered the last of their crops from the field. The Old English hærfest simply meant "autumn," or "the period between August and November."

The Biden administration has lifted restrictions on fully vaccinated international travelers. The move follows an 18-month ban that affected travel between the United States and 33 other countries, including China, India, and some European Union members. Opening travel from foreign countries means reuniting many families that have been separated for over a year.

On September 20, Myanmar's junta ordered an American journalist to remain in prison, where he is being held under vague charges. Danny Fenster was arrested by the country's ruling military forces in May and charged with disseminating information that might harm the military. Myanmar's government is controlled by a small, powerful group that strictly limits free speech. The Spanish word junta was originally the name for the resistance to Napoleon's 1808 invasion of Spain.

A new study suggests that one mutation explains how humans and apes evolved to lose their tails while other primates kept theirs. When scientists made a single change to the DNA sequence in mice, they didn't grow tails. Researchers say it’s clear evidence of the genetic tweak that occurred in humans 25 million years ago, giving us better support for standing on two legs — but costing us a tail that helped our ancestors balance. The Latin root of mutation means "change."

Russian vaccination teams are following nomadic Siberian reindeer herders in an effort to fully inoculate them. Using mobile vaccine clinics, the health care providers are able to travel with the herders as they follow their migratory herds of reindeer. The indigenous Nenets change their location as many as 100 times during an average year, up and down the Yamal Peninsula, traveling up to 400 miles. The Greek root of nomadic is nomas, or "wandering."

A September 20 snap election failed to expand the power of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political party in Parliament. While Trudeau kept his position, he had hoped to achieve a mandate within the country’s government; instead, he is now the leader of a parliamentary minority. The Liberal Party lost one seat in the Canadian legislative body, and its main opponent, the Conservative Party, maintained the same number of seats it had gained in 2019.

A British astronomer who won a Nobel Prize for the discovery of pulsars has died at the age of 97. Antony Hewish designed the powerful radio telescope that first detected the compact, spinning stars. He and his co-discoverer, Jocelyn Bell, initially wondered whether the radiation-emitting objects, which rotate so fast they appear to pulse, were signals sent from an extraterrestrial civilization, giving them the nickname LGM, for "little green men."

Researchers observing giraffes at Mogalakwena River Reserve in South Africa have found that they choose opponents of similar sizes when they spar. Though the long-necked animals rarely fight, when they do it's usually a practice duel that helps them establish social hierarchies within the group. Male giraffes test out head-butts on adversaries of the same general height and weight, rather than picking on smaller giraffes. Spar comes from the French esparer, “to kick.”

Recent studies suggest that petting a therapy dog before flying helps to calm people who feel anxious on planes. Research shows that for many people, just being near the specially trained dogs produces the relaxing hormone oxytocin, even in highly stressful environments like airports. At more than 70 U.S. airports, passengers feeling pre-flight stress can pet a therapy dog and experience that healing effect. The Greek root therapeia means "healing or curing."

On September 19, a volcano erupted on one of Spain's Canary Islands; days later, it continued to spew lava into the air. Thousands of people were evacuated from La Palma, a resort island whose Cumbre Vieja Volcano last erupted in 1971. Five days after the first eruption, lava was still flowing from the mountain, and ash blanketed homes and banana plantations. Volcano comes from the Italian vulcano, "burning mountain."