Here is this week’s news quiz. Good luck!
1. Which member of the U.S. House of Representatives announced their early resignation last week and how does this impact Lauren Boebert?
Spoiler
Ken Buck. Buck, who represents Colorado’s conservative fourth district, announced that he would leave Congress earlier than planned last week. Boebert moved from her district into Buck’s because of its more conservative leaning. However, to contest a special election for Buck’s vacant seat she would have to resign from Congress herself, which she has refused to do. As a result, voters in Buck’s district on June 25 will cast votes in a special election and a primary, which could put Boebert at a disadvantage in her attempt to return to Congress even though she has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
2. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised eyebrows by talking about how Turkey could have ended up controlling which country if Turkish military forces had pressed hard enough in 1974?
Spoiler
Cyprus. Erdogan made the remarks to Turkish military personnel on Monday. The remarks caused a diplomatic row with Greece, which criticized the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. Cyprus remains divided between its Turkish north and Greek south. The Turkish half, known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared its independence in 1983 but is only recognized as legitimate by Turkey. The European Union (EU) argues that the entire island belongs to Cyprus, which is an EU member. In an international climate where territorial revisionism seems to be popular, some diplomats wonder if Erdogan’s statements signal a desire by Turkey for a more aggressive posture toward Cyprus in the future, especially after talks to unify the island under UN supervision have gone nowhere since 2017.
3. Which nation’s central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years this week?
Spoiler
Japan. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to raise its key interest rate from -0.1% to a range of 0-0.1% as wages have begun to climb. The BOJ cut rates below zero in 2016 to try to stimulate the economy, which has struggled since a housing bubble burst in 1990 and sent the country in a deflationary spiral. Earlier this month, Japan’s biggest companies agreed to a salary increase of 5.28%, the biggest in 30 years.
4. What is the name of Haiti’s most prominent gang leader?
Spoiler
Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the nickname Barbecue. A former police officer, Cherizier runs a gang federation in Haiti called the G9 alliance that has spent the last few weeks attacking government installations and infrastructure. Haitian police launched an operation against his forces last weekend to try to re-establish some sense of stability in the country.
5. How did a Georgia judge rule on the status of district attorney Fani Willis prosecuting former President Donald Trump last week?
Spoiler
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis was not to be disqualified from prosecuting former President Trump but she or special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship, should step aside in the case. After the ruling, Wade resigned from handling the case. That means that the case against Trump for election interference in Georgia can proceed because if Willis had been forced to step aside because of ethical issues then the case would have been halted and there would have been no certainty it would have resumed. In response to McAfee’s decision, Trump’s legal team said it was disappointed that a more aggressive ruling was not taken because of alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
6. Due to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, what problem has re-emerged in the Indian Ocean?
Spoiler
Somali piracy. The first successful Somali hijacking of a vessel in the Indian Ocean took place last week when the MV Abdullah and its 55,000 tons of coal were seized going from Mozambique to the United Arab Emirates. Somali piracy disappeared as a concern after 2017 when an international task force worked to contain the issue. However, growing tensions in the Middle East are fracturing that cooperation and Somali piracy could re-emerge as another security concern for vessels in the Indian Ocean.
7. Which political faction won the largest share of the vote in Portugal’s elections last week?
Spoiler
The centre-right Democratic Alliance. One of its member, the Social Democratic Party, won the most seats (79) with 29.5% of the vote. The governing Socialist Party won 28.% of the vote and 77 seats, a decline from the 120 seats it enjoyed in the previous election. The far-right Chega party captured 48 seats and 18% of the vote, continuing a recent trend of far-right parties doing well in European elections. The result creates a fragmented parliament and Democratic Alliance leader Luis Montenegro said that he will not coalition with Chega.
8. What would the House of Representatives’ recent anti-TikTok bill force the social media platform to do?
Spoiler
The House’s bill, which passed last week and moves to the Senate, would require ByteDance, a Chinese parent company, six months to sell its controlling stake in the app. If it did not do so, the app would be banned across the United States. President Joe Biden has signaled that he will sign the bill, which has bipartisan support. China has threatened to retaliate if the bill becomes law.
9. What is the name of the political party of former South African president Jacob Zuma that is contesting South Africa’s next election?
Spoiler
uMkhonto we Sizwe, translated as Spear of the Nation. The party is known by the acronym MK and is named after the former armed wing of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC). MK is another blow to the ANC’s attempt to hold onto power in the next South African election, scheduled for May 29. Polls show that MK could win close to 15% of the vote, which would give it leverage in possible coalition talks with the ANC.
10. Which prominent U.S. senator called for Israel to hold fresh elections last week?
Spoiler
New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York who is also the Senate Majority Leader. Schumer argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed too many civilian casualties in Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas and that Israel risked becoming a “pariah state” with Netanyahu leading its government. He is the most prominent political figure to this point to call for political change in Israel.