Ripped from the Headlines: October 2024: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for October 20–October 26, 2024

Environmental and world leaders gathered at a biodiversity summit in Colombia. Experts say the meeting is crucial for protecting the world's wide variety of organisms and ecosystems. The main purpose of the 16th United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity is to evaluate how close the participating countries have come to reaching the goals of the 2022 Paris Climate Agreement. Biodiversity was coined in 1988 from biological and diversity.

After a nationwide failure of the power grid, the entire island of Cuba suffered blackouts that lasted for most of the weekend. Although the lights are back on in some parts of the country, millions of people still had no electricity more than four days later. The power loss is a disaster for many, who are faced with spoiled food, no means of cooking, and a lack of fresh water in some cases. The massive outage is partially blamed on Cuba's struggling economy and aging electrical stations.

After 27 disappointing seasons, the New York Liberty are the new WNBA champions. New York defeated the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime during Game Five of the Finals. The Liberty's victory makes them the first pro basketball team in the state to win a title since 1973, when the New York Knicks won the NBA championship. The Latin root of champion means "gladiator or fighter."

Researchers are studying a Roman precursor to concrete as they develop new building materials that are more durable and ecologically friendly. The 2,000-year-old cement, used in ancient structures like the Pantheon and the aqueducts that provided water to Pompeii, was sturdier than today's concrete. This popular material cracks over time and is degraded by water, and its manufacture creates significant emissions. The ancient Roman version, on the other hand, lasts for centuries.

A historic deluge in New Mexico caused deadly flash floods. Two people were killed and dozens injured after torrential rain triggered flooding in the Spring River channel that runs through downtown Roswell. Several cars were swept away, and emergency responders rescued 290 people stranded by the rising water. Deluge is from the Latin diluvium, "flood," and its root, which means "wash away."

At least 40 people were on a ferry dock gangway in Sapelo Island, Georgia, when it collapsed, killing seven. The narrow aluminum walkway suffered a "structural failure," according to authorities. The barrier island off the Savannah coast was the site of a fall celebration by the Gullah-Geechee community, who are descendants of enslaved people. The Old English root of gangway, gangweg, means "road or passageway."

An Indigenous lawmaker heckled King Charles III during his speech to the Australian Parliament on October 21. Senator Lidia Thorpe approached the stage and accused the royal family of stealing land and committing genocide against Aboriginal Australians, shouting, "You are not my king!" King Charles is Australia's ceremonial head of state. Heckle originally meant "comb roughly with a flax comb." The figurative meaning came from the idea of "treating roughly."

Two weeks before the presidential election, a seven-state poll had Kamala Harris and Donald Trump running neck and neck. The results show a dead heat in the battleground swing states, where many voters remain undecided. Among registered voters, 47 percent said they would probably support Harris, and 47 percent said the same of Trump. The idiom neck and neck comes from horse racing, in which the competitors' necks are so close together it's hard to see who's winning.

After a group of paragliders spied a dog running around on top of an Egyptian pyramid, their videos of the intrepid canine went viral on social media platforms. More than a million viewers watched footage of the dog barking at birds on the summit of the ancient triangular monument. People are barred from climbing the 448-foot tall Pyramid of Khafre, one of the three Pyramids of Giza, but that didn't stop one daring dog.

For the first time in 43 years, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers will meet in Major League Baseball's World Series. Game One of the latest face off in one of the sport's most longstanding rivalries is October 25. The teams have played each other in 12 World Series over the years, starting in 1941 when the Dodgers were based in Brooklyn, and have been rivals since 1903.

Two new studies show how early humans evolved to eat starch. Researchers found that amylase, the digestive enzyme that breaks down floury foods like potatoes and pasta, first appeared in our ancestors when they began to cook with fire hundreds of thousands of years ago. A second wave of amylase genes developed just after the agricultural revolution, around 10,000 BCE. The findings clarify how humans evolved to adapt to changing food supplies, including starchy breads and vegetables.

On a two-year trial basis, Medicaid will cover the cost of traditional health services for Native Americans in four states. Low-income patients at Indian Health Services and tribal facilities in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon will have access to ancestral healing practices like sweat lodges, dancing, and music therapy. Traditional is from tradition and its Latin root traditionem, which means "a teaching or saying handed down from former times."