This week featured a bounty of international summits. Were you following the rest of the headlines, too?
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This week featured a bounty of international summits. Were you following the rest of the headlines, too?
1. Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal blocked the suspension of which political party on Sunday?
National Unity of Hope
Seed Movement
Vamos
National Change Union
The party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo was slapped with the suspension by a lower court on dubious grounds, part of a trend that FP’s Catherine Osborn analyzed in Latin America Brief.
2. In a Monday meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sought to persuade officials from which nation to remain part of China’s globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative?
India
Iran
Greece
Italy
Italy’s decision to withdraw from China’s signature infrastructure program is a major blow, as Italy was the Belt and Road Initiative’s only G-7 member, FP’s Christina Lu reported last month.
3. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit opened meetings on Tuesday in which country?
Indonesia
India
Vietnam
Brunei
Notably absent from the summit was U.S. President Joe Biden, who may have missed a chance to take advantage of growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the region, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Christina Lu report.
4. Why did Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday delay a hearing on the legality of the government’s proposed judicial overhaul?
Mass protests in Tel Aviv
Opposition from Israel’s attorney general
A shortage of justices to hear the case
Opposition from the Knesset
The situation is Israel’s most serious constitutional crisis in decades, and the Supreme Court must not be timid in the face of government pressure, Garvan Walshe argued last month.
5. Africa’s first climate summit ended on Wednesday with a call for world leaders to unite in support of what?
A global carbon tax on fossil fuels
A global ban on single-use plastics
An Africa-wide clean energy initiative
A new climate fund for developing nations
The call for action comes as populations boom across the continent, straining countries’ already-flimsy ability to respond to climate catastrophes, FP’s Ashley Ahn wrote last month.
6. Why was recently deposed Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba freed from house arrest on Wednesday?
To return to the presidency
So he could seek medical care
To join the coup leaders as an advisor
He agreed to leave the country permanently
Gabon is the latest African nation of French colonial heritage to succumb to a coup, reflecting a lack of concern on France’s part for democratic health in its former colonies, FP’s Howard W. French wrote.
7. On Friday, a foreign intelligence employee from which European nation was charged with treason for allegedly passing secret information to Russia?
Hungary
Romania
Germany
Italy
Although the reason behind the employee’s actions is not yet clear, Adrian Karatnycky’s examination of treason in Ukraine provides insight into turncoat mentality.
8. At least how many people were injured following a Russian missile attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown Friday morning?
33
54
79
96
The attacks in Ukraine are another reminder that the West should not bet on Russia coming to the table to negotiate peace, Alexander J. Motyl argued last month.
9. What collection of artifacts was recently discovered in remarkably well-preserved condition near the Dead Sea in Israel?
Scrolls in ancient Greek
Phoenician textiles
Roman-era swords
Babylonian religious icons
Found on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, they were likely crafted in a European province and brought to Israel, The Associated Press reports.
10. Chinese authorities this week arrested two people for driving an excavator through a section of which iconic monument?
The Forbidden City
The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
The Leshan Giant Buddha
The Great Wall
Despite efforts to pass national protection laws, the wall still suffers from brick theft, degradation, and general human carelessness, FP’s James Palmer writes in China Brief.
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