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Here is this week’s new quiz. How well did you follow the events of the last week?
1. This European nation recently had its credit rating reduced to AA status by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s. The downgrade was due to poor economic growth in the country.
[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”]France. The French economy contracted by 0.1% in the third quarter. France is the second largest economy in the European Union.[/toggle]
2. According to figures that the federal government released last week, how many people have signed up for new health insurance under Obamacare?
[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”]106,000. This was well short of the mark that the Obama administration was hoping for and was largely due to problems with healthcare.gov.[/toggle]
3. This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of this significant event in American history.
[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”]November 22nd will mark the fiftieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy is the last American president to be assassinated and was the last to die in office.[/toggle]
4. On Monday the Supreme Court refused to take a case on this national security issue.
[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 Supreme Court rejected hearing a case that challenges the National Security Agency’s collection of telephone data. The case could have seen the Court look carefully at whether the NSA has violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). For more about this case, click this link.[/toggle]
5. At the Commonwealth Conference last week, this nation warned Sri Lanka that if it did not investigate human rights abuses during the end of its civil war that it would have to demand an independent inquiry into the situation.
[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”]Great Britain. The British government has faced criticism for continuing to engage the Sri Lankan government, which has not made a full accounting of human rights abuses that took place near the end of the country’s 26 year civil war with the Tamil Tigers.[/toggle]
6. What modification to the “one child” program did the Chinese government announce 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”]The Chinese government announced that it will allow parents to have two children if one of them is an only child. The move comes in the midst of concerns that China’s economy will be negatively impacted by constricted population growth and after decades of human rights advocates arguing that it hurt the poor and was applied unevenly.[/toggle]
7. The daughters of this prominent Republican are having a public feud over the issue of gay marriage.
[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”]Dick Cheney. His daughters Liz and Mary are having a public fight over the issue with Liz, who is running for a Senate seat in Wyoming, opposing it and Mary, who is a lesbian, arguing that she is incorrect.[/toggle]
8. Michelle Bachelet could have avoided a runoff for the Chilean presidency if eight percent of voters did not “spoil” their ballots by voting for this.
[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”]Eight percent of Chilean voters voted for a constituent assembly to rewrite the nation’s constitution. The current Chilean constitution has been in force since 1980, when General Augusto Pinochet ran the country as a military dictatorship and the “AC” movement wants to change it. Chile does not have a system to reform its constitution, but leftists want to enact changes that would reduce the overrepresentation of conservatives.[/toggle]
9. NASA’s most recent Mars mission is called what? What is the mission’s purpose?
[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 mission is called MAVEN. The mission will seek to answer scientists questions about why Mars went from being warm and wet a billion years ago to the cold and dry place it is today.[/toggle]
10. On Monday, Indonesia recalled its ambassador from Australia. Why did they do this?
[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”]Indonesia recalled its ambassador after evidence emerged that Australia was spying on the mobile phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife, and other prominent members of the Indonesian government.[/toggle]