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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. What is the new U.S. unemployment rate?
[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 new U.S. unemployment rate is now 6.3%. This is the lowest unemployment rate since September 2008. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in April.[/toggle]
2. In conjunction with question #1, what is the current U.S. employment participation rate?
[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 employment participation rate, which measures the rate of adults working is currently 62.8%, which down from 63.2% from the last unemployment report. This is the lowest (labor) employment participation rate in 35 years, but some economists argue that the decline is tied to “Baby Boomers” retiring rather than an indication that people are dropping out of the labor force.[/toggle]
3. The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram’s latest declaration drew outrage from the international community. What did it say?
[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 group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, recently declared that he would sell Nigerian girls kidnapped last month into slavery. Shekau says that he is empowered to do this from Allah. The United Nations says that Boko Haram’s actions are “crimes against humanity.”[/toggle]
4. Yesterday an Egyptian court banned these types of political figures from running in upcoming 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”]The court banned leaders of the former ruling party of former President Hosni Mubarak from running in the Egyptian elections, which are due to begin later this month. The ruling creates the possibility of a new Egyptian political class, since Mubarak-era officials were poised to have a strong showing in the elections due to the absence of the Muslim Brotherhood.[/toggle]
5. Which African nation is playing host to peace talks between the two factions of South Sudan’s civil war?
[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”]Ethiopia. Currently, United Nations, United States, Chinese, and African officials are trying to hammer out a lasting peace accord between South Sudan’s warring factions in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.[/toggle]
6. What role does John Podesta play in the Obama White House?
[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”]Podesta is the Counselor to the President. He was brought into the White House to help President Barack Obama craft a better political strategy for his second term and served as Bill Clinton’s chief of staff between October 1998 and January 2001. Podesta is a supporter of President Obama’s use of executive orders, especially in regards to climate change.[/toggle]
7. Which two U.S. states have decided to abandon state-level health insurance exchanges as mandated by the Affordable Care Act?
[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”]Oregon and Massachusetts. Both states encountered problems enrolling their citizens in their state-level insurance exchanges during the first rollout year of the Affordable Care Act. They will now direct their citizens onto the federal healthcare.gov exchange.[/toggle]
8. Why was Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’s political strategist recently forced to resign?
[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”]Juan Jose Rendon, Mr. Santos’s political strategist, resigned because of allegations that he was paid by drug lords to assist their surrender talks with the Colombian government. Jailed drug lord Javier Antonio Calle Serna recently told a Colombian news weekly that he gave Mr. Rendon $12 million to arrange favorable surrender terms with Colombian federal authorities. Rendon denies the allegations.[/toggle]
9. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that the spread of this disease is “an international public health emergency.”
[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”]Polio. The WHO recently pointed out that outbreaks in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East of the debilitating disease constitute an international emergency. Polio usually affects children under five years old and is typically transmitted through contaminated food and water. It causes paralysis in one in every 200 infections and could cause death. One of the most notable American polio sufferers during the 20th century was President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[/toggle]
10. What statement did President Obama recently make with regards to the Senkaku Islands and American defense policy in Asia?
[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”]President Obama announced during his recent foreign trip to Asia that the Senkaku islands (called the Diayous by China) are covered by the U.S.-Japanese Treaty of Mutual Co-operation and Security. He also pledged support for Japan’s administration of the islands. Ownership of the island is disputed by China and Japan due to deposits of oil and natural gas in their surrounding waters.[/toggle]