This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 15–June 21, 2025

On June 15, after a two-day manhunt, Minnesota police apprehended Vance Boelter, the suspect in an attack that killed one state lawmaker and her husband, and wounded another and his wife. Officers spotted Boelter in a wooded area near his home. SWAT teams helped track Boelter, and police took him into custody. Boelter was charged with murder and attempted murder. Officials said that he had a list of additional targets. The Latin root of apprehend means "take hold of."

Researchers found that the more social cohesion there is in a community, the more resilient it is when recovering from climate emergencies. In places where people know each other, socialize, and share resources, responses to floods, fires, and other disasters are faster and more effective. Planned "eco-communities" that focus on sustainable living recover especially well. The word cohesion is built from the Latin prefix co-, "together," and the root her, "stick."

Israel and Iran, which have had a contentious relationship for decades, traded deadly strikes. Israel attacked Iranian military sites late last week, and Iran retaliated with a barrage of missiles. The two countries continued exchanging fire, resulting in hundreds of deaths, as well as antagonistic rhetoric. Experts are concerned that the war may escalate and spread into other places. Contentious is derived from the Latin contentiosus, "quarrelsome."

The Washington Nationals' bat-retrieval dog made his debut at a game with the Miami Marlins. Bruce, a golden retriever who fetches bats from the field on command and returns them to the team dugout, appeared on a Major League Baseball field for his very first time. The good boy was promoted from his former job with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings.

Two major events on the same day struck many as a symbol of the divisive politics in the United States. Around the country, hundreds of "No Kings" demonstrations against the Trump administration were held; in Washington, D.C., a White House military parade celebrated the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army on the president's birthday.

After a fifth summer combating invasive species on Governors Island in New York, five sheep will retire to a farm in Albany. This is the last year the animals are needed to help curb the spread of mugworts, phragmites, and bromes. Before the sheep were enlisted to control them, the fast-growing, nonnative plants completely overwhelmed native species. Thanks to Bowie, Chad, Evening, Jupiter, and Philip Aries, the invasive plants are now under control.

Recent studies show that music therapy can help cancer patients feel more sanguine. One study showed that a guided process of composing music to express one's emotions was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy for cheering people up as they received cancer treatment. While sanguine originally meant "blood-red," from a Latin root meaning "bloody," the word evolved based on ancient medicine's theory that excess amounts of blood in the body made people cheerful.

The Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Canada, was primarily focused on the current conflict between Israel and Iran. The annual meeting of leaders from seven industrialized nations is used as an opportunity to discuss global issues. This week's conference was marked by subtle discord over how to proceed in the Middle East, and it ended without a planned meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Scientists suspect that each person may have a unique "breath print," or breathing pattern. New research suggests that everyone has their very own, one-of-a-kind way of breathing through their nose, and that this singular pattern might be used to identify individuals in the same way that fingerprints and eye scans are used. Unique is derived from the Latin unicus, "alone of its kind," from unus, "one."

A new study found evidence that bedbugs are the oldest pests to affect cities, and their populations swelled along with human urbanization. Researchers deduced that bedbugs first feasted on the blood of Neanderthals about 245,000 years ago, but their numbers declined as humans became more nomadic. Once people started building and settling in dense cities, the population of these tiny parasites — who feast on blood — exploded. Bedbugs are still thriving, especially in urban locations.