Ripped from the Headlines: October 2023: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for October 14–October 20, 2023

California banned four food and drink additives that may cause cancer and other illnesses, becoming the first state to do so. The substances, which are added to cookies, candy, fruit juice, and other products, are brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and red dye 3. Prohibiting these added ingredients will force companies like Mars, which makes Skittles, to change their recipes in order to produce safer snacks and drinks.

Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy protection on October 15. The company's sales have fallen and its debt increased as a growing number of lawsuits accuse it of contributing to the opioid crisis by filling dubious prescriptions. Rite Aid has lost more than $300 million in the last three months, and the legal filing will help it pay its debts and restructure the company. Bankruptcy is from the Italian banca rotta, literally "a broken bench."

Researchers at the National Museum of Denmark discovered evidence that the Vikings had windows in their dwellings. They say it's further proof that ancient Norse people weren't as barbaric as they are often portrayed as being. Experts previously assumed that window glass was invented much later, during the Middle Ages. Vikings are commonly described as being uncivilized barbarians. The Greek root of barbaric is barbaros, "foreign or strange."

Jim Jordan is the Republican party's candidate for the House speakership, vacant since Kevin McCarthy was ousted two weeks ago. Jordan lost the first round of voting on October 17, failing to win the votes of 20 Republican colleagues. In a second vote the following day, he lost two additional votes. Despite the opposition, Jordan remains the top contender for the powerful speaker position. Candidate is from a Latin word for "white-robed," and a root that means "to shine."

This weekend, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour had the most successful domestic release of a concert film in history. The movie, filmed at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, documents Swift's currently touring musical performance. It made $96 million in the U.S. and $128 million worldwide on October 14 and 15. Tickets are more expensive than a typical movie, and many theaters screening Eras Tour have transformed into impromptu dance parties, with enthusiastic crowds of screaming fans.

According to scientists, concussions should be taken much more seriously than they usually are. Research shows that these blows to the head, common among young athletes, are actually traumatic brain injuries. When a person's head or body is hit hard enough, their brain can actually bounce back and forth — which is, by definition, a concussion. Stricter protocols for school sports would mean much faster treatment. Concussion is from a Latin word meaning "earthquake."

Experts will take more time to consider all video and photographic evidence before declaring the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the designation in 2021, which would officially remove the bird from the list of endangered species. While many birders claim to have seen the woodpecker in recent years, no solid proof has surfaced of its survival since the last confirmed sighting 80 years ago. Extinct's Latin root means "quench."

An infestation of blue crabs in Goro, Italy, is threatening the clams that have been harvested there since the 1980s. Originally imported from the Philippines and used in the popular regional dish spaghetti alle vongole, clams are devoured by the invasive crabs, which have no natural predators in the Adriatic Sea. Harvesting clams is a large part of the region's economy. The Latin root of infestation is infestare, "to attack or disturb."

A pepper that's been declared the world's hottest is more than 100 times hotter than a jalapeno. Unlike the familiar green fruit of the Capsicum plant, commonly used in salsa and other Mexican food, "Pepper X" contains a concentration of spicy capsaicinoids that have been described as "painful" to eat. Jalapeno means "of Jalapa, Mexico," from an Aztec root meaning "sand by the water."

The most famous rivalry in the world of cricket moved onto the field at the sport's World Cup last week. India hosted Pakistan in a match that was viewed by hundreds of millions of fans. The Indian team won by seven wickets, a wide margin. The fiercely competitive relationship between the teams dates back to Partition in 1947; ongoing political tensions between India and Pakistan have occasionally been relieved by the opportunity for the countries to compete in a sporting event.

Daniel Noboa, the scion of a global banana brand, was elected president of Ecuador on October 15. Noboa is heir to the business empire established by his family generations ago. His father has run for the presidency five times and been defeated; the younger Noboa is a 35-year-old Harvard graduate who is considered to be a political outsider. Scion was originally "a shoot or a twig," later gaining the figurative meaning "heir or descendant."

Scientists say worry over potential lab leaks is delaying important virology research. Lingering questions about whether the Covid virus escaped a Chinese laboratory have intensified disagreements over funding the study of deadly pathogens. Most researchers say this work is needed to avoid another pandemic, but some argue it could start the next one. Virology adds the Greek -logy, "science," to virus, from a Latin root meaning "poison."