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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. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned Congress that they must raise the debt ceiling by this date.
[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”]Lew reminded Congress last week that they need to raise the debt ceiling by February 27th so the federal government can pay its obligations. House Republicans are angling to tie a debt ceiling increase to a political concession from the White House, but President Obama refuses to negotiate on the debt ceiling.[/toggle]
2. Voters in Switzerland recently approved of this measure, which has antagonized the European Union.
[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”]Swiss voters last weekend voted to implement strict quotas on the number of EU citizens that could immigrate to their country. The vote was a victory for Switzerland’s right-wing Swiss People’s Party that says foreigners are draining public services and hurting native workers. Switzerland is not an EU member, but followed the EU’s free movement policy in 2007.[/toggle]
3. Vice-President Joe Biden announced last week that he will make a decision about whether to seek the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination by this time 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”]Biden announced on Friday that he would decide by the summer of 2015 whether he would enter the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. Test polls show him well behind former Secretary of State and presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.[/toggle]
4. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently secured a political victory over rival and former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when a candidate that he backed won election to this office.
[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 governorship of Tokyo. Prime Minister Abe backed Yoichi Masuzoe, a former Liberal Democratic Party health minister, who won a smashing victory over former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. Hosokawa was backed by Mr. Koizumi. The election was seen as a referendum on Mr. Abe’s political influence and nuclear power, as Hosokawa and Koizumi supported ending Japan’s use of the power source. Nuclear power has been a controversial issue in Japan since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, but Japan has so few raw materials that nuclear power is arguably the best alternative the country has for a power source.[/toggle]
5. World health experts were alarmed when a woman in this country died of a new strain of bird flu 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”]China. An elderly woman died from a new strain of bird flu, H10N8, which is the fifth new influenza virus to emerge in the last 17 years.[/toggle]
6. How many times has the European Union tried to reach a settlement with Google over its search practices?
[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”]Three times. The EU has tried since 2009 to reach an agreement with the online search giant, who it worries is favoring its own searches over other competitors. The EU also has concerns about Google’s use of content and its agreements with advertisers.[/toggle]
7. Kentucky Senator and potential 2016 presidential hopeful Rand Paul told Democrats that they should give back money raised by this “sexual predator.”
[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 President Bill Clinton. Senator Paul has taken to attacking the former president recently, which some commentators say is a pre-emptive attack on potential 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. It may also be a way to make women voters skeptical about Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy.[/toggle]
8. Recent riots in Bosnia broke out for two reasons. What were they?
[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 Bosnian riots, which saw protesters storm government buildings and set them on fire, are being attributed to the country’s 40% unemployment rate and government corruption. The violence is the worst the country has seen since its 1992-1995 war with Serbia.[/toggle]
9. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report last week that conservatives used to claim that the Affordable Care Act was bad for the economy. According to the CBO report, how many jobs will be lost due to fewer hours worked because of the Affordable Care Act’s mandates?
[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”]2.5 million jobs. Republicans have used the statistic to claim that the law is bad for the national economy, but Democratic leaders argue that working fewer hours is a positive for American families and that the law helps workers avoid “job-lock” whereby their jobs are the only place they can find health insurance.[/toggle]
10. How many estimated illegal immigrants are in the United States?
[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”]It is estimated that there are 11-12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. Handling this population has become a political issue between the Democratic and Republican parties as they argue over immigration reform.[/toggle]