This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for May 31–June 6, 2026

To help ameliorate stress caused by a higher cost of living, the British government is offering discounts on some goods and activities. In what's being seen as a bid to win back frustrated voters, the treasury secretary announced reduced taxes on chocolate, cookies, and other imported food, as well as price cuts for tickets to theme parks, zoos, and more attractions. The lower prices are intended to ease the hardship of inflation. The Latin root of ameliorate means "better."

A rare type of antelope was spotted in a region of Kenya where it had long been considered extinct. Scientists had believed that the few remaining wild mountain bongos — brown, hoofed animals with distinctive white stripes and horns — lived in one small mountainous area. A trail camera recently caught images of several bongos nearly 125 miles away from that known population, renewing conservationists' hopes for the antelope's survival.

The San Antonio Spurs dethroned the reigning NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, winning the Western Conference in seven games. The outcome was considered to be an upset, with the Thunder favored to win before they were ousted by the underdogs. The Spurs, now facing the New York Knicks in the NBA finals, have home court advantage for the first two games of the series at San Antonio's Frost Bank Center.

Rescuers in Laos safely extricated five men who had been trapped in a cave for 10 days. Divers continued working to free two more people who remained missing in the flooded cave system. The seven villagers had entered the mazelike network of caves in search of gold, becoming stranded when flash flooding blocked the entrance. Extricate derives from the Latin extricare, "disentangle."

The restoration of wetlands in Venice, Italy, has led to an increasingly large population of flamingos visiting the Venetian Lagoon. While the pink, long-necked birds are native to Mediterranean Europe, including Italy, they are historically rare. A healthier salt marsh ecosystem has made Venice more hospitable to the birds, and ecologists hope they will nest there soon, rather than just stopping by for the winter. Flamingo is from Spanish flamengo, "flame-colored."

Several European countries are facing a glut of potatoes. Factors contributing to the surplus of spuds include unusually large crops, U.S. tariffs, and new Asian competitors. The oversupply has hit Belgium, the world's largest exporter of frozen French fries, especially hard. Many farmers there are hosting potato giveaways and dumping extras back into their fields. Glut first meant "a gulp" and then "a condition of being full" before it came to mean "overabundance."

This past weekend in Vilnius, Lithuania, more than 150,000 people attended a three-day festival in honor of cold beet soup. Known locally as šaltibarščiai, the iconic summer soup is considered a cultural treasure in the country. Made from beets, kefir (fermented milk), cucumbers, potatoes, eggs, and dill, the bright pink dish is a point of pride for Lithuanians, representing their culinary identity.

In Papua New Guinea, the rate of malaria deaths fell from 13 per 100,000 residents to just one. The island country sees the most cases of this mosquito-borne illness in the Western Pacific region. Health officials there attribute the drop in fatalities to coordination between surveillance and healthcare teams, who distribute mosquito nets, test kits, and medicine to residents. Malaria is from the Italian mala aria, "bad air," once thought to cause the disease.

New data showed that for the first time, electricity generated by wind and solar outstripped the amount produced by natural gas. Globally, 22 percent of electric power came from renewables in April, 2026, while gas accounted for 20 percent. Some experts say the higher cost and unreliable availability of fossil fuels means more people are turning to wind and solar. Outstrip originally meant "pass in running," from a Middle English meaning of strip, "move quickly."

Scientists have long been puzzled by the source of a pigeon's internal magnetic compass. New research suggests the answer may lie in the bird's liver. Experts know that pigeons use Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves, but how their bodies do that has continued to perplex them. Experiments showed that charged particles in their iron-rich liver cells rearrange themselves when the pigeons pass through the magnetic field, possibly relaying directional information to the bird's brain.