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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.  Good luck!

To accesquiz-01s 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”]4.9%.  The Commerce Deparmtent announced the figure last Friday, which is unchanged from last month’s figure.  255,000 jobs were said to have been added to the economy in July which beat projections.  However, the U-6 unemployment rate that includes those who are in part-time work that wish to be in full-time work and those who are discouraged from looking for work rose to 9.7%.  How best to define the unemployment rate is likely to factor into the presidential election.[/toggle]

2. This Republican senator recently said that they would not vote for Donald Trump.

[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”]Susan Collins of Maine.  Collins is one of the Republican Party’s two Northeastern senators and she has a track record of adopting very moderate positions.  Collins argued that if Trump were elected president that he would make the world more dangerous.[/toggle]

3. A federal judge recently upheld the fourteen-year prison sentence of this former governor.

[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”]Rod Blagojevich.  Blagojevich is serving a fourteen-year prison sentence for corruption charges after he tried to sell President Obama’s Senate seat following the 2008 presidential election.  Those actions led to Blagojevich’s impeachment by the Illinois state legislature in 2009.[/toggle]

4. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently came under attack after this individual was spotted at a campaign rally in Florida.

[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”]Omar Mateen.  Mateen was the father of the Orlando shooter and is controversial for airing views that are deemed as pro-Taliban and anti-homosexual.  Conservative news outlets have demanded that Clinton renounce Mateen’s support just as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been pressured to renounce the support of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.[/toggle]

5. Why is Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane on trial?

[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”]Prosecutors allege that Kane leaked confidential information to the press to embarrass to a political rival and lied under oath to a grand jury about doing so.  She is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.  Kane has also had her law license suspected as the trial takes place.[/toggle]

6. This nation recently announced that it would be phasing out economic sanctions directed at Turkey.

[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”]Russia.  Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the steps earlier this week.  The sanctions had been in place after Turkish forces shot down a Russian plane over Syria last year.  Observers think Putin is trying to form closer relations with Turkey in an attempt to weaken the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of which Turkey is a prominent member.[/toggle]

7. This influential Japanese official gave a televised speech that denounced some of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s foreign policy aims.

[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”]Emperor Akihito.  Akihito recently announced that a modern Japan must be “based on peace and democracy” which conflicts with some of Abe’s position to bolster Japan’s defenses and make the Japanese Army more than a self-defense force.  It is expected that Akihito may step down due to health concerns in the near future, but his verbal sparring with Abe could go a long way in dictating Japan’s future.[/toggle]

8. What is the legal issue engulfing the leadership struggle over the British Labour Party?

[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”]Whether new members of the party that joined after January 12, 2016 should be able to vote in the leadership election.  Labour rules said that anyone who joined after that date would be barred from voting unless they paid an extra £25.  However, a recent court ruling stuck down these regulations.  If more Labour members can vote that may help current leader Jeremy Corbyn fend off a challenge from the more moderate Owen Smith.[/toggle]

9. What does South Sudan pledge to do with $1.9 billion in aid from China if such aid is forthcoming?

[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”]South Sudan plans to spend the money developing oil fields and infrastructure.  A civil war has shut down some of the country’s oil fields and the government hopes Chinese assistance can get that sector of its economy going again.  Similarly, the war damaged roads that the government wishes to repair.[/toggle]

10. A computer glitch led to the cancelling of more than a thousand flights by this airline this 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”]Delta.  A computer glitch knocked out the carrier’s automatic kiosks and crippled its global reservation system following a loss of power at its Atlanta headquarters.[/toggle]