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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. Which city has suddenly become the number one choice of the U.S. Olympic Committee to receive the 2024 Summer Olympics?
[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”]Los Angeles. The U.S. Olympic Committee on Tuesday announced that Los Angeles will be its candidate to host the 2024 Games. Boston was the original choice, but a lack of public support for the city hosting the Games scuffled those plans. Los Angeles last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1984.[/toggle]
2. European Union (EU) members have accused this nation of failing to follow EU rules on freedom of movement.
[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”]Hungary. EU members such as Austria accused Hungary of allowing hundreds of migrants to board Germany and Austria-bound trains, with 3,650 migrants reaching Vienna in a single day last week. The EU has struggled with migrants this year, with more than 300,000 making their way into Europe and the EU divided over giving refugees a safe haven and whether to put some limits on migrants so as not to provoke anti-immigrant populist sentiments back home.[/toggle]
3. A county clerk in this state has refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
[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”]Kentucky. Kim Davis of Rowan County has thus far refused to grant same-sex marriage licenses despite the Supreme Court’s decision on the issue, arguing that she will not do so on religious grounds. The Supreme Court denied Davis’s appeal that religious freedom allows her to not grant the licenses, thereby paving the way for her to be charged with contempt.[/toggle]
4. To offset a long-term decline, this fast food chain recently decided to sell breakfast all day.
[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”]McDonald’s. The company announced that its franchises have voted to begin offering all-day breakfast on October 6. The compnay makes some of its biggest sales at breakfast, so investors hope that it can revive the company’s fiscal future.[/toggle]
5. This state recently agreed to overhaul its use of solitary confinement.
[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”]California. As part of a legal settlement, the state agreed to reduce the number of inmates that are held in isolation units where inmates are confined to their cells for more than twenty-two hours a day. Sometimes these cells have no windows and prison reform advocates say that the extended use of solitary confinement is counter-productive.[/toggle]
6. CNN recently announced the next Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library on September 16 will include this candidate that was not on the main stage on August 6.
[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”]Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Fiorina was heralded as the winner of the “consolation” debate among the GOP presidential candidate that did not poll within the top ten of the inaugural Fox News debate. CNN’s decision to allow for polling between August 6 and September 10 to determine who gets to debate will allow Fiorina to get in and her participation may lead to eleven candidates sharing the stage.[/toggle]
7. Why did Azerbaijan jail award-winning journalist Khadija Ismayilova?
[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”]Ismayilova was jailed for tax evasion and embezzlement. She was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison, but her legal team says that the charges were politically motivated. Ismayilova has exposed government corruption in the past and her conviction may silence other journalists.[/toggle]
8. Syriza is promising voters in Greece that if it wins snap elections in a few weeks it will scrap this tax.
[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”]A value added tax (VAT) on private education. The tax was part of a financial restructuring plan that Greece agreed to with its creditors in July. European governments worry that the pressures of the election may make Syriza less likely to fulfill its pledges to creditors and make future bailouts difficult to agree to.[/toggle]
9. Why did anti-government activists occupy the office of Lebanese Environmental Minister Mohammed Machnouk on Tuesday?
[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 protesters are seeking Macknouk’s resignation, who they blame for a dispute over a landfill that has led to excessive piles of garbage in the capital city of Beirut.[/toggle]
10. What action did Pope Francis recently take on the abortion issue within the Catholic Church?
[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”]Pope Francis announced that he was allowing rank-and-file priests to grant absolution during a “Year of Mercy” between December 8, 2015 and November 20, 2016. Priests can forgive women who have had abortions during this time frame.[/toggle]