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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. When will the Democrats and Republicans hold their presidential caucuses in Iowa next year?
[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”]Democrats are scheduled to hold their caucus in Iowa on Monday, February 1. Republicans will hold their caucus the next day on February 2.[/toggle]
2. Brazil’s Petrobras, its state-owned oil company, recently reported its first loss in decades. How big was the loss?
[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”]$7 billion. The company estimates that $2 billion of the loss was due to the costs of corruption, with other losses tied to the declining value of its assets.[/toggle]
3. Why have political protests broken out in Burundi?
[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 recent wave of political protests is due to President Pierre Nkurunziza trying to run for a third term. The BBC says that the protests, which include opposition supporters and students, are the largest since the country’s civil war ended in 2005.[/toggle]
4. What sentence did former Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi recently receive for ordering the torture of public protesters?
[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”]Twenty years. Morsi initially faced the death penalty over murder charges, but was acquitted. His imprisonment and trial has been criticized by the United States.[/toggle]
5. Who won the recent Finnish 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 Centre Party, a liberal centrist party, which won 49 seats. The kingmaker of the election, though, will be the True Finns, who captured 19% of the vote. The True Finns oppose continued Greek bailouts and are a Eurosceptic party. If they coalition with the Centre Party that could complicate the EU’s handling of Greece’s debts.[/toggle]
6. When arguing before the Supreme Court, Mary Bonauto, the lawyer representing same-sex couples, said that the Court should legalize gay marriage nationwide and used this 1967 case as a precedent.
[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”]Loving v. Virginia. In that case the Supreme Court found that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional. Gay rights supporters argue that gay marriages are a parallel to that decision.[/toggle]
7. What was the magnitude of the earthquake that hit Nepal last week?
[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”]7.8 The earthquake was the worst that the country has experienced in more than eighty years. It killed an estimated 4,000 people, including climbers on Mount Everest. Some relief supplies had to be airdropped to mountain villages after landslides blocked roads.[/toggle]
8. Who is the mayor of Baltimore?
[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”]Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. She took office in February 2010 after Mayor Sheila Dixon was forced to resign due to embezzlement charges. Rawlings-Blake serves as a secretary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.[/toggle]
9. Why have riots broken out in Baltimore?
[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 riots are linked to protests over the death of Freddie Gray, an African American male, who died in police custody after he suffered a spinal chord injury on April 19.[/toggle]
10. What is the name of the European Union’s Mediterranean border mission?
[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”]Triton. It was inaugurated last October after Italy suspended its migrant rescue operation Mare Nostrum due a lack of financial assistance from other EU nations. Critics allege that the operation lacks equipment, personnel, financing, and an adequate search and rescue mandate to aid migrants.[/toggle]