Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.
1. What gun violence policy did Canada’s government recently announce?
Spoiler
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that there would be a “national freeze” on all handgun sales and purchases. There will also be limits on magazine capacities and bans on toys that look like firearms. Trudeau justified the measures because of rising gun violence in the United States.
2. Which two candidates will face off in the Georgia gubernatorial election this fall?
Spoiler
Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams. It is a rematch of the hotly contested race from 2018 where Kemp beat Abrams by 55,000 votes, the closest gubernatorial election in the state since 1966. Abrams claimed to be the winner of the election, arguing that voting irregularities caused her defeat and that Kemp, who was Secretary of State, had a conflict of interest.
3. This week Denmark is holding a referendum on which issue?
Spoiler
Whether to join the European Union’s common defense policy. Thirty years ago Denmark opted not to join, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted policymakers to reconsider the nation’s defense footing. If Danish voters approve, their military forces would be able to join defense topic discussions in the EU and their military forces could play a role in EU military operations.
4. Israel recently signed a free trade deal with which Arab country?
Spoiler
The United Arab Emirates. It is Israel’s first free trade deal with an Arab power. The agreement provides rules for tax rates, import levels, and intellectual property protections and is expected to be a boon for Israeli businesses that wish to work in the UAE. Economists project that the deal could boost trade between the two countries by more than $10 billion over the next five years.
5. California recently inked a climate change partnership with which country?
Spoiler
New Zealand. The pact will allow each side to share ideas and best practices to fight climate change and does not obligate either side to do anything specific. One area of expected cooperation is electric vehicles, something that both sides want to phase in over time. The agreement also allows for the sharing of ideas to boost agriculture, especially in terms of reduce methane emissions and increasing water efficiency.
6. What type of exemption from the European Union’s Russia sanctions did Hungary recently receive?
Spoiler
Hungary will not have to ban the use of Russian oil. After four weeks of negotiations, the EU agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year. Prime Minister Viktor Orban opposed the ban, calling it “outrageous.” After threatening to detrail the agreement, which bans all Russian oil imports via the sea, Orban got an exemption that allows imports through the Druzhba pipeline to landlocked countries in Central Europe. Hungary gets 65% of its oil from Russia.
7. In response to recent gun violence, President Biden suggested that he would like to see which former policy re-enacted by Congress?
Spoiler
An assault weapons ban. In 1994, as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, there was a prohibition on the manufacture, transfer, and sale of semi-automatic assault weapons. These prohibitions expired when Congress did not renew them in September 2004. While it is unlikely that Republicans would approve this measure, there are discussions in Congress to create a bipartisan package to overhaul U.S. gun restrictions in some way.
8. Governments that are unhappy with the U.S. Census Bureau’s count of their population can challenge the counting of what types of places?
Spoiler
Prisons, dorms, and nursing homes. Local, state, and tribal authorities have until June 2023 to request a review of the population counts of these places if they think there were undercounts in the 2020 Census. Census counts matter because they impact federal aid to states, as well as congressional representation. While the latter is not impacted, the former could and the Census Bureau is allowing a one-time challenge to the 2020 counts because of the difficulties of counting prisons, dorms, and nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
9. What oversight might lead to some ballots going uncounted in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary?
Spoiler
Voters not including a handwritten date on their mailed-in ballots. Republican candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick are separated by less than 1,000 votes and 860 mailed-in ballots do not have a handwritten date as required by Pennsylvania state law. However, that requirement has been challenged in the past and in 2020 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots without a date should be counted because missing a date did not “warrant the wholesale disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvania voters.” However, that ruling was specific to the 2020 election was not an invalidation of the law.
10. Which two candidates qualified for the Colombian presidential runoff?
Spoiler
Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernandez. Petro, a state senator and former rebel, has become the face of the country’s left-wing. Hernandez is a right-wing populist who was the former mayor of Bucaramanga. The results of the first round were seen as a rejection of the country’s political establishment. Petro would be the country’s first leftist president and wants to expand social programs and halt oil exploration, while Hernandez has advocated combining ministries and declaring a state of emergency for ninety days to end corruption, something that people fear could threaten Colombian democracy. The two men will face off in a runoff on June 19.