The Week of December 16, 2018 by CoenM

Merriam-Webster named what WORD as its word of the year, noting that it was "at the center of many of our national debates in the past year," with respect to issues including race, crime, and the economy?

The US Supreme Court voted to uphold a lower court ruling preventing the implementation of stricter asylum rules favored by the Trump administration, with what JUSTICE voting is from a hospital bed while recovering from lung surgery?

Not to be left behind by Amazon and Apple, what TECH COMPANY announced it would invest in a $1 billion Hudson Square campus in New York City to go along with its $2.4 billion purchase of shopping and office complex Chelsea Market?

The White House announced that there would a full withdrawal of US troops from what MIDDLE EASTERN NATION, stating that there was no more need to be there as they defeated the Islamic State there?

What AFRICAN COUNTRY delayed its presidential vote - already two years overdue - by a week in the aftermath of a fire that destroyed nearly 80 percent of its voting machines?

In a year-end press conference, what WORLD LEADER chided the US and UK for not being democratic enough (with actions against Donald Trump and Brexit seen as going against the will of the voters), while also saying the chances of nuclear war are understated based on the "breakdown of the international arms control order?"

What COUNTRY announced it wold withdraw from the International Whaling Commission so it could resume commercial whale hunting?

What US SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, apparently not in agreement with the decision on withdrawing troops, announced his resignation effective in February, saying that Trump has "a right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned’’ with Trump's?

What UK AIRPORT was shut down (just in time for the holidays!) due to repeated drone flights near runways and planes? The airport resumed operations the following day, though the drones were still flying.

Your HallR mini-theme(TM) of the week: Anti-Social Media. The New York Times reported that what SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY shared user data with other tech firms - including Microsoft, Netflix, and Spotify - that allowed the companies to read users' private messages and access the data of users' friends?

Two reports compiled for the US Senate detailed Russia's sophisticated use of social media to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, with the most notable new revelation being the widespread use of what SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM, where disinformation postings received over twice as many impressions as more widely-reported posts to Facebook?

Over 200 died as a tsunami hit Indonesia in the wake of a volcanic eruption on an island whose name identifies it as the “child” of what VOLCANO whose 1883 eruption killed over 35000?