Ripped from the Headlines: February 2023: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for February 4–February 10, 2023

On February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria. It could be felt hundreds of miles away, in countries including Iraq and Israel. The massive quake was followed by many powerful aftershocks, including one that registered 7.5 on the Richter scale. At least 19,000 people have died in the disaster, and rescuers continue to search through rubble from collapsed buildings for survivors.

A new French law will require canopies of solar panels over parking lots. The energy-generating awnings will eventually cover nearly all the country's parking lots, together generating as much electricity as ten nuclear plants. Canopy is from the Old French conope, "bed curtain," and its Greek root, kōnōpeion, "couch with mosquito curtains."

Beyoncé made history at the Grammys on February 5 when she set a new record for the most career awards won by a single artist. Although she was also a favorite to win album of the year, that honor went to Harry Styles for Harry's House. During the course of the two decades she's spent making music, Beyoncé has raked in a historic 32 Grammy awards. Career, "the course of one's professional life," evolved from an earlier meaning, "a running at full speed."

A NASA spacecraft observed a formation on the surface of Mars that has an uncanny resemblance to a bear's face. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter camera captured images of a circle with two eyes, a bear's snout, and a smiling mouth. In reality, a hill on the planet's surface forms the nose and mouth, with round craters making up the image's eyes. Some scientists speculate that the nose is a volcanic vent, and the circle (or "head") is evidence of deposit from past lava flow.

An idle fish species has offered scientists new clues about how sedentary humans might evolve. The Mexican cavefish became physically inactive over thousands of years, after floods pushed the species into deep caves. The fish's metabolism changed as it adapted to a life of slow movement, darkness, and little food; some of these changes may provide insight into the effects of humans passing their couch potato habits on to future generations. Idle's root means "worthless."

Bob Born, who is credited with making marshmallow Peeps widely available to consumers, died at the age of 98. Born designed machinery to mass-produce the brightly colored, squishy confections; his company, Just Born Quality Confections, makes nearly two billion Peeps every year, using a recipe of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin. A process that took 27 hours in 1953 takes just six minutes today thanks to Born's automation.

A U.S. military plane shot a suspected Chinese spy balloon out of the sky on February 4 under orders from President Biden. China has refused requests to discuss the incident, and officials there insist it was a "civilian airship" used for meteorology, not spying. U.S. officials say the balloon was intended to surveil strategic nuclear sites. Surveil derives from the French surveiller, "oversee or watch," and a Latin root meaning "watchful."

The National Enquirer was sold for an undisclosed amount to VVIP Ventures. The sale followed a four-year effort to find a buyer for the troubled tabloid. The weekly publication, famous for its shocking headlines and scandalous stories, was fined by the Federal Election Commission in 2018 for secretly aiding Donald Trump's election campaign. A tabloid was originally "a tiny tablet or pill," and came to describe small versions of many things, including newspapers.

Recent research suggests that bears rub their backs on trees in part as a natural tick repellent. In a new study, a bear biologist found that the animals were accomplishing several things at once when they engaged in the common behavior: scratching their itchy backs, marking trees with their scent, and applying sap and resins to their fur. The sticky substances deter the tiny parasites from attaching themselves, protecting the bears from diseases the ticks carry.

The New York Nets traded Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks on February 5. The NBA team exchanged Irving and forward Markieff Morris for forward Dorian Finney-Smith, guard Spencer Dinwiddie, plus three first- and second-round picks in future drafts. Irving requested a trade last week, after unsuccessful talks to extend his contract with the Nets. The U.S. sports meaning of trade, "exchange players," dates from 1899.

The U.S. Labor Department reported accelerating job growth and a sharp decline in the unemployment rate for the month of January. The 3.4 percent rate, which indicates the number of people who are out of work and looking for jobs as a percentage of the labor force, is the lowest it's been since 1969. The report reflects surprisingly robust employment and suggests that the U.S. economy has not yet moved into a recession, as many economists have predicted.

President Biden's February 7 State of the Union address focused on health care and the economy. Biden also challenged Republicans and Democrats to come together in the face of common goals. The speech was met with jeers, boos, and expletives from several GOP members of Congress. The U.S. political sense of union is attested from 1775, and it was often used during the Civil War, in reference to the remaining part of the United States after the Southern secession.