[fblike]
Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
To access a list of all our old quizzes, click here.
1. The United Nations Security Council has declared this nation’s food crisis to be the “worst in the world.”
[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. The UN Security Council has urged donor nations to pledge $618 million to provide food aid to South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation. The country has been plagued by a civil war that has degenerated into ethnic cleansing. The UN estimates that 50,000 children could die of hunger if adequate funds are not provided.[/toggle]
2. What are the main points of Congress’s Veterans Affairs compromise?
[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 agreement, announced Monday, which reconciles House and Senate bills concerning the medical care given to veterans, provides $10 billion in emergency funding to veterans to get healthcare outside of the VA if they cannot secure an appointment. The compromise also allows for $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses, and other medical staff, and $1.5 billion to create 27 new VA clinics.[/toggle]
3. The United States has recently evacuated its staff from its embassy in this nation due to security concerns.
[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”]Libya. The U.S. says that the evacuation is merely temporary and was due to militant fighting near the Libyan capital of Tripoli.[/toggle]
4. The Urban Institute and Encore Capital Group’s Consumer Credit Research Institute announced yesterday that this percentage of Americans with credit possess delinquent debt.
[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”]35%, which amounts to about 77 million Americans. This group of Americans have not paid a bill at some point or have failed to pay an outstanding credit card balance.[/toggle]
5. Consumer confidence levels recently rose to 90.9, which is the highest level since this 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”]October 2007. The new consumer confidence level is a strong jump from the 86.4 mark achieved in June. The high level is being attributed to more employment opportuniteis and fewer firings taking place in the U.S. economy.[/toggle]
6. This U.S. state suspended all of its executions pending an investigation about why it took inmate Joseph Wood two hours to die.
[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”]Arizona. Wood was executed via lethal injection with an experimental cocktail of drugs. U.S. Senator John McCain has said that the execution constituted torture. Arizona’s problematic execution follows on the heels of Oklahoma’s controversial execution of an imate with experimental drugs in May.[/toggle]
7. This nation has recently issued an arrest warrant for two of its citizens for fighting in the Syrian civil war.
[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”]Australia. The country issued arrest warrants for Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar on terrorism charges after photographs emerged showing them with the severed heads of Syrian soldiers.[/toggle]
8. Zhou Yongkang is one of the latest figures of the Chinese Communist Party to be targeted in an anti-corruption campaign. What was his role in the Chinese government?
[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”]Yongkang was the former security czar of the Chinese Politburo. He was one of China’s nine most powerful leaders until 2012. If he is convicted he will be the most senior official found guilty of corruption since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.[/toggle]
9. The U.S. recently alleged that Russia violated the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. What has Russia supposedly done wrong?
[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 United States argues that Russia has tested new ground-launched cruise missiles, which violate the 1987 treaty then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan worked out with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The U.S. has called for talks on the issue, but Russia denies violating the agreement.[/toggle]
10. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has identified three ways that the international community can help reduce tensions in the Gaza Strip. Name them.
[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”]First, Netanyahu has called for the international community to help dismantle tunnels that arm militant groups such as Hamas. Second, Netanyahu wants the international community to monitor the importation of construction materials into the Gaza Strip to prevent the construction of new tunnels. And finally, Netanyahu wants international monitoring of Gaza’s borders to ensure that Hamas does not build up arms for another clash with Israel.[/toggle]