Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
First semester tournaments have been kind to National Points Race leader Daniel Kind of Lake Highland Preparatory School (FL) whose momentum continued at last weekend’s George Mason University Patriot Games, hosted in an online setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kind won his fourth major national circuit event of the season – and third in a row – against a final round field that included three other top ten extempers, although none of those competitors finished second as unranked Olivia Wetzel of Whitmer High School (OH) took second place.
With the win, Kind becomes the first extemper from Florida to win the George Mason Patriot Games since 2015, when Nathaniel Saffran of Trinity Preparatory School captured the championship.
Dev Ahuja of Solon High School (OH), who came into George Mason ranked third, finished in that same position when the competition was over. George Mason is the third time this semester that Ahuja has reached the final round of a National Points Race event. Teammate Vikram Sundaram, who is ranked eighth in the nation, finished fifth.
Seventh ranked Marc Zavarro of Western High School (FL) also notched a third National Points Race final, finishing fifth.
Isabel Brittin of the Potomac School (VA) rounded out the final round with a sixth place finish.
George Mason counts as a third tier tournament in the National Points Race, so all competitors who reached the quarter-final round will earn points. All quarter-finalists will also receive a bid to the Extemp Tournament of Champions (TOC). Since the tournament attracted a smaller field than normal, with only forty-three competitors participating, all finalists will receive a bid to the University of Kentucky TOC.
Here are the results from the 2021 George Mason University Patriot Games (Click here for tab sheet):
1. If Russia invades Ukraine, should China invade Taiwan?
2. Should Great Britain allow Scotland to hold another independence referendum?
3. Will Eric Zemmour be Macron’s runoff challenger in the next French presidential election?
4. How can Xiomara Castro improve Honduran democracy?
5. Did the BJP err by repealing India’s farm laws?
6. Will international powers fail to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program?
7. Does Sudan’s military have too much control over the nation’s political transition?
8. Will Silvio Berlusconi become the next president of Italy?
9. Has Africa become the battleground of the West’s emerging rivalry with China?
10. Five years on, has Colombia’s peace deal lived up to the hype?
1. To what extent should the United States defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity?
2. Is President Biden responsible for Vice President Harris’ poor poll numbers?
3. Are existing discipline guidelines making America’s schools less safe?
4. Will the omicron variant doom Democratic efforts to keep control of Congress in 2022?
5. What should the Biden administration do if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade?
6. Will Major League Baseball’s owners reach a new labor agreement with the players’ union by spring training?
7. Can Dr. Oz win Pennsylvania’s Senate seat?
8. Will a reduction of the Fed’s quantitative-easing program substantially lower inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy?
9. What role should the U.S. federal government play in fixing lead pipes throughout the country?
10. Will Stacey Abrams win Georgia’s governorship next year?
Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd (pronounced “prepped”). Prepd is building debate technology that helps extempers and congressional debaters research, practice, and compete. Visit www.prepd.in to learn more.
This week’s R&D covers the omicron variant of COVID-19. First discovered in South Africa, the variant is still under study and as of the time of this R&D’s creation, a handful of cases have been identified in the United States. There are fears that the new variant might infected vaccinated individuals and be more contagious than the delta variant from India.
As the omicron variant stirs concerns across the globe, the CDC says all American adults who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should get a booster shot. https://t.co/bwuKaSZMaG
— U.S. News & World Report (@usnews) December 2, 2021
The possibility that Omicron might now outcompete Delta has the world on edge and may yet see markets lose their cool. We explain how wildly it differs from other variants https://t.co/KZFM8lNm7P
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 2, 2021
Biden says his top experts anticipate COVID-19 cases to increase in the weeks and months ahead as the omicron variant is likely to spread throughout the United States this winter. https://t.co/XiYLK6DWTj
— Roll Call (@rollcall) December 2, 2021
Pranav Pattatathunaduvil attended Plano West Senior High School in Plano, Texas. He was the 2021 NSDA National Champion in International Extemp, 2020 Champion of the Glenbrooks in Domestic Extemp, and runner-up at the 2021 Montgomery Bell Academy Round Robin, 2020 Harvard Invitational, and 2020 Tournament of Champions (TOC). He is currently a freshman at Yale University, studying Global Affairs and Economics.
Pranav graciously agreed to talk with Extemp Central about his career, sharing his thoughts on navigating the wild 2020-2021 national circuit season and the people who helped him along the way.
Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
1. Will the omicron variant cause a new wave of COVID lockdowns in the U.S.?
2. How can the Biden administration convince Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema to vote for the Build Back Better Act?
3. What explains the decline of college enrollment in the U.S.?
4. Are equity policies doing greater harm or good to the groups they are intending to help?
5. Does the U.S. still have a role to play in Afghanistan?
6. Has the Biden administration done enough to help organized labor?
7. Will the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve lower gasoline prices over the long-term?
8. How can California cities best prevent “smash-and-grab” thefts?
9. Does the U.S. need to do more to weaken kleptocracies across Latin America?
10. How can Glenn Youngkin position himself for higher office after his term ends in 2025?
1. Does China have too much influence over the WHO?
2. Are travel restrictions an effective tool in the fight against COVID variants?
3. Will cryptocurrency mining harm global efforts to mitigate climate change?
4. Should France grant autonomy to Guadeloupe?
5. Are the energy goals for Germany set by the Green Party unrealistic?
6. Should OPEC increase oil production?
7. Is the threat of a coup growing in Burkina Faso?
8. How can the Mexican government get criminal cartels under control?
9. Should Spain make changes to its Citizens Security Law?
10. Are Western efforts to ban arms sales to Myanmar’s military counterproductive?
Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd (pronounced “prepped”). Prepd is building debate technology that helps extempers and congressional debaters research, practice, and compete. Visit www.prepd.in to learn more.
This week’s R&D covers the Chilean presidential election. Last Sunday the country voted in the first round of its presidential poll and right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast and left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric advanced to a runoff as neither won more than 50% of the vote. The runoff will take place on December 19 and, as noted in this week’s quiz, the winner will inherit a messy social and economic situation as Chile is still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chile’s conservative presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast introduced a team of economic advisers, describing recovery and fiscal balance as central to his program https://t.co/ZgjSsRkeYF
— Bloomberg (@business) November 25, 2021
New in Opinion from @oppenheimera: The conventional wisdom is that Chile has committed political suicide after the victory of 2 extremists in the Nov. 21 first-round elections.
But there are reasons why they’ll have to make a sharp turn to the center. https://t.co/KIVYFC5oaf
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) November 24, 2021
The centrists guided Chile to stability and prosperity but came to be seen as unresponsive to citizens’ demands. José Antonio Kast and Gabriel Boric are heirs of this decade of discontent https://t.co/YXmRyV70Kp
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) November 25, 2021
Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin tournament director Adam Johnson would like to inform the extemp community that the dates for the 2022 Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin have changed.
The original tournament was scheduled for January 8-10, but has now been changed to March 4-6 in order to have more planning time. The tournament will take place in person this year and will not be done virtually or in a hybrid setup.
Johnson has informed us that invites for the tournament will go out soon, so the selection process will not be altered by the later date.
Updated standings for the 2021-2022 Extemp Central National Points Race have been posted! You can find them by clicking on the “National Points Race” tab at the top of the page or by clicking here.
The new standings reflect the results of the Glenbrooks, the season’s first third tier event. Next week will feature two National Points Race competitions, the last of the first semester. These will be the George Mason Patriot Games and the University of Texas Longhorn Classic. George Mason will be an asynchronous event and a third tier tournament while the Longhorn Classic will be a fourth tier event occurring in person.
Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
Daniel Kind of Lake Highland Preparatory School (FL) continued his recent run of success at the forty-second edition of the Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament, which took place virtually last weekend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kind vanquished three other competitors who were in the top ten of the National Points Race in the final round to win his second straight National Points Race event and third of the season. However, Kind did not runaway with the tournament as he defeated Dev Ahuja of Solon High School (OH) by one rank in the final round.
Mukta Dharmapurikar of Durham Academy (NC), who won last year’s NSDA International Extemp final round, reached her first National Points Race tournament final of the year and finished third, five ranks behind Kind. That finish will put her into the top ten of the new National Points Race standings, which will be released on Thanksgiving Day.
Peter Alisky of Smoky Hill High School (CO) and Cameron Roberts of Jack C. Hays High School (TX) both reached the final round of a National Points Race event for the third time, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Like Dharmapurikar, their finishes will help improve their national ranking.
Gabriel Frank-McPheter of Gabrielino High School (CA) rounded out the final round in sixth place. Frank-McPheter could have easily placed higher as one rank separated competitors placing third through sixth.
Other notable finishes beyond the final round included a quarter-final placing for Yale winner McKinley Paltzik of Phoenix Country Day School (AZ). Also, Marc Zavarro of Western High School (FL) and Vikram Sundaram of Solon High School, who are in the top ten of the National Points Race, dropped in semi-finals. And Blue Key finalists Kyle Letterer of Plano West Senior High School (TX) and Michelle Jin of the Harker School (CA) were eliminated in quarter-finals.
Although it did not have any finalists, Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA) had an impressive showing as four of its extempers reached elimination rounds, the most of any other school in attendance.
There were 116 entries at the Glenbrooks, so all competitors who reached the semi-final round will receive a bid to the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC) in April. All competitors who reached the quarter-final round will receive a bid to the Extemp TOC at Northwestern University in May. And all of the competitors that reached elimination rounds will earn points in the National Points Race.
Here are the results of the 2021 Glenbrooks (Click here for tab sheet):
1. Is the reinstatement of Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok a victory for the nation’s democratic forces?
2. Should European governments worry about growing protests against COVID-19 restrictions?
3. Does Israel need term limits for future prime ministers?
4. Will Russia’s anti-satellite test cause more countries to test similar weapons over the next several years?
5. Who is likely to win the Chilean presidential runoff?
6. Are pro-democracy forces in Cuba weakening?
7. Will recent bombings cause Uganda to violate the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo?
8. Do subsidy policies hurt the Indian economy?
9. Should Germany’s incoming government stop the nation’s involvement in NATO’s “nuclear sharing” agreement?
10. Is a “Cold War” with the United States in China’s best interest?