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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
To access a list of all our old quizzes, click here.
1. Who is the leader of Hezbollah?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah has been the Secretary General of Hezbollah since February 1992 when his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Defense Forces. A border incident that recently saw Hezbollah ambush an Israeli patrol on January 28, which led to the death of two soldiers, nearly caused a renewed conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militia. Israel last campaigned against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, a conflict that Hezbollah arguably won.[/toggle]
2. American police recently arrested a Russian spy in this city.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]New York City. Prosecutors allege that Evgeny Buryakov, executive of Russian state-owned financial agency Vnesheconombank worked to collect economic intelligence and funnel that information to Russian intelligence officials.[/toggle]
3. Sprint and Amazon are considered the primary bidders for the retail locations of this bankrupt business.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Radio Shack. Sprint and Amazon are looking to lease some of Radio Shack’s 4,000 American stories as part of the company’s bankruptcy.[/toggle]
4. Standard & Poor’s recently agreed to pay $1.5 billion to the Justice Department, the District of Columbia, and nineteenth states in order to settle lawsuits over this controversy.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Standard & Poor’s (S&P) agreed to the settlement to resolve lawsuits over its ratings of mortgage securities prior to the 2008 financial crisis. The Justice Department and states alleged that the ratings agency gave high ratings to acquire more business. The federal government’s lawsuit against S&P has been ongoing since 2013 and initially sought $5 billion.[/toggle]
5. This federal department will run out of money unless Congress approves a funding bill for it by February 27.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]The Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Senate recently failed to pass a new fundng bill this week because it included provisions that would block President Obama’s executive action on immigration. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has vowed to use Congress’s fiscal authority to weaken the President’s immigration policy. If Congress refuses to allocate funds for the DHS by February 27, it would shut down until funds were restored.[/toggle]
6. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that this year’s budget deficit would be this large.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]$468 billion. The CBO’s number equates to 2.6% of GDP. This would be the smallest budget deficit in the history of the Obama administration.[/toggle]
7. This prominent global leader is facing a leadership challenge within his party due to likely defeats in upcoming state elections.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Tony Abbott. Although Abbott has only served for a year-and-a-half, conservative members of the Liberal Party are calling for his ouster after polling shows the party will lose state elections in Victoria and Queensland. Thus far, Abbott has rebuffed calls for a leadership election.[/toggle]
8. Who is Yanis Varoufakis?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]The current Finance Minister of Greece. He was appointed to the position by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras following SYRIZA’s victory in the recent Greek general elections. Varoufakis, who previously taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, is a vocal critic of austerity measures advocated by the “Troika” of the European Union, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.[/toggle]
9. Britain recently became the first country in the world to approve of this IVF technique.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Britain voted on Tuesday to become the first country to allow a three-parent IVF technique called mitochondrial donation whereby a child could be conceived with DNA from a mother, a father, and a female donor. Critics allege that the procedure, which could work to prevent certain incurable diseases, is a step toward the creation of “designer babies.” The vote in favor of the legislation was 328-128.[/toggle]
10. This country promised a “strong, earthshaking, and decisive response” to the Islamic State’s murder of one of its pilots.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Jordan. The Islamic State recently released video showing the death of pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was captured in December when he his jet crashed over Syria. Al-Kaseasbeh was burned to death on January 3.[/toggle]