This Week in Words: January 12 - 18, 2019

A suicide bomber walked into a restaurant in Syria and detonated his vest filled with explosives, killing 19 people, including four Americans. Prior to this, only 2 Americans had been killed in Syria since 2014. Three other Americans were wounded in the attack. The restaurant was known to be frequented by American service members and observers say this is why it was targeted.

The terrorist organization known as The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the explosion in Syria. This is the first attack since the United States announced that it will withdraw troops from Syria in the near future. The Trump administration, including Vice-President Mike Pence, assured the media on Wednesday that the withdrawal will continue as planned, but that the U.S. will do everything in its power to stop this terrorist group.

Confirmation hearings were held this week for President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr. Much of the questioning has centered around the Mueller investigation, which the Attorney General oversees- that is the issue under discussion in the highlighted sentence. Barr was Attorney General during the administration of George H.W. Bush. His experience and the Republican majority in the Senate both suggest that he will be confirmed with ease.

A study from Barnard College in New York was released this week which suggests that students who get to write about their test-taking anxiety for ten minutes before the test end up doing better on those tests than students who did not participate in a writing exercise. The researchers theorize that writing about one’s anxiety can help channel and focus the nervous energy into something productive. A discrepancy is a difference where one would expect the facts to be in agreement.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Trump to ask him to postpone the State of the Union address or deliver it in writing. Pelosi’s reasoning is that federal workers in departments critical for the safety of the President and Congress have been out of work since the shut down, and making them work at a gathering like the State of the Union would be unfair. In this instance, the furlough is not absence from military service, but rather federal employment.

In Kenya this week there was a siege of an office and hotel complex by an Islamic military group that is an offshoot of al- Qaeda. Gunman were in a standoff with police and at least 20 people ended up dead. The complex was said to be a target because Westerners and upscale customers frequent the businesses there. The al- Qaeda offshoot claimed their actions were a response to the United States moving their Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, which President Trump did last year.

This was another rough week for British Prime Minister Theresa May. Early in the week her version of the Brexit plan was firmly rejected by Parliament. This led to what is called a no-confidence vote, where Parliament votes on whether May should continue as leader. The Prime Minister survived the no-confidence vote and now must try to hammer out a new Brexit deal. There must be some sort of plan in place by March 29, the date when Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union.

The weather in California has been absolutely crazy in the past week. Parts of the state are just beginning to recover from the recent destructive wildfires, and now residents must deal with floods and mudslides and heavy snow, all at the same time. These weather phenomena have led to more destruction of property and have even caused some motor vehicle accidents in the state. Luckily, the forecast calls for the wild weather to taper off by the end of this week.

President Trump decided to lift some sanctions on Russia, a move which would benefit a close ally of Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. Democrats in Congress were trying to prevent doing away with these sanctions, but they were unable to secure the votes to keep the sanctions in place. This use of temper is about finding a middle ground, avoiding extremes, quite unlike the other use of temper which involves anger and hostility.

Democratic New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has announced that she is running for President in 2020. Senator Gillibrand took the unusual step of declaring herself a candidate on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Gillibrand enters what is expected to be a very crowded field for the Democratic nomination. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has already announced her candidacy, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and California Senator Kamala Harris are expected to announce soon.