“What in the World?” Quiz – Week of May 13-19, 2018

Don’t forget to JOIN as a World Affairs Council member (TNWAC.org/join) to be eligible to win the monthly quiz prize.

Check your global affairs awareness with these ten questions taken from the week’s news reports provided via @TNWAC #TNWACquiz.

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QUIZ WINNERS FROM LAST WEEK

Anthony Campanella, Avola, Italy

Deb Monroe, UK

David Hillinck, Huntsville, AL

Julia Lydon, Nashville, TN

Pat Miletich, Nashville, TN

Colleen Ryan, York, UK

(If you're a weekly winner you'll be entered for the monthly prize drawing but you must be a TNWAC member to win.  TNWAC.org/join )

MAY 2018 MONTHLY PRIZE

War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence

By Ronan Farrow

ABOUT THE BOOK

A harrowing exploration of the collapse of American diplomacy and the abdication of global leadership, by the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.

US foreign policy is undergoing a dire transformation, forever changing America’s place in the world. Institutions of diplomacy and development are bleeding out after deep budget cuts; the diplomats who make America’s deals and protect its citizens around the world are walking out in droves. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We’re becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later.

In an astonishing journey from the corridors of power in Washington, DC, to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth―Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea among them―acclaimed investigative journalist Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His firsthand experience as a former State Department official affords a personal look at some of the last standard bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan.

Drawing on newly unearthed documents, and richly informed by rare interviews with warlords, whistle-blowers, and policymakers―including every living former secretary of state from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton to Rex Tillerson―War on Peace makes a powerful case for an endangered profession. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, shortsightedness, and outright malice―but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ronan Farrow is an investigative journalist who writes for The New Yorker and makes documentaries for HBO. He has been an anchor and reporter at MSNBC and NBC News, and his writing has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. A series of stories he wrote in 2017 exposed the first allegations of sexual assault against the movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Prior to his work as a journalist, he served as a State Department official in Afghanistan and Pakistan and reported to the Secretary of State as a senior official focused on youth uprisings. He is a Yale Law School-educated attorney and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the George Polk Award, and the National Magazine Award, among other commendations, and has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People (and also one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive, which doesn’t have anything to do with his career, but he still brings it up a lot).

More Information and Ordering

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We'll post the answers and the names of the winner(s) in next week's quiz.

Here's last week's questions and answers:

WHAT IN THE WORLD? QUIZ

Week of May 6-12, 2018

1. Vladimir Putin was sworn in to his fourth six-year term as President of Russia saying the country would prove a strong, muscular player on the world stage, backed by a powerful military, while pushing hard to improve life for its citizens at home, according to Reuters. Attention now shifts to Putin’s choice for Prime Minister. Among those in the running is THIS current Prime Minister and former President of Russia:

A. Dmitry Medvedev
B. Alexei Navalny
C. Alexander Ovechkin
D. Alexander Rutskoy

Correct Response: A. Dmitry Medvedev
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/russias-putin-sworn-in-for-another-six-years-in-office.html

2. In recent talks President Trump’s lead trade negotiator, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, is said to be including a requirement for 40% of the content of a car manufactured in the North American bloc to come from workers who earn a minimum wage – said to be $16 per hour. Lighthizer is engaged in THIS process:

A. Renegotiation of the TPP
B. Bilateral trade talks with Mexico
C. Renegotiation of NAFTA
D. Trade talks with the APEC nations

Correct Response: C. Renegotiation of NAFTA
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pushes-nafta-partners-to-accept-a-wage-floor-in-auto-sector-1525685401?mod=e2tw

3. Breaking with decades of US Government policy the Trump Administration will open a new American Embassy in this controversial Middle East capital on May 14.

A. Tel Aviv
B. Tehran
C. Beirut
D. Jerusalem

Correct Response: D. Jerusalem
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-usa-diplomacy/u-s-embassy-road-signs-go-up-in-jerusalem-idUKKBN1I80IM?il=0

4. Leaders in France, Germany, and the UK affirmed their support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, with British foreign secretary Boris Johnson saying, “The Iran nuclear deal is not based on trust about Iran’s intentions; rather it is based on tough verification” following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s televised presentation that claimed THIS:

A. Iran is pressing ahead with enriching uranium for a nuclear weapon through a secret process.
B. Iran has reached agreement with North Korea to import fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
C. Iran, prior to 2003, had a secret research and development program to build a nuclear weapon.
D. Iran holds secret, secure stockpiles of fissile material and is ready to produce a nuclear weapon.

Correct Response: C. Iran, prior to 2003, had a secret research and development program to build a nuclear weapon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/us/politics/israel-iran-deal-united-states.html

5. Shortly after announcing he would visit THIS country’s capital in July – and likely face widespread protests, President Trump criticized gun control efforts there during remarks at the National Rifle Association conference in Dallas. He said the country “has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital right in the middle is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds.”

A. France
B. Turkey
C. UK
D. Spain

Correct Response: C. UK
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/world/europe/uk-trump-london-knife-crime.html

6. Former secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont, living in self-imposed exile in Germany, is said to be the named, by May 14th, to lead an independence-minded movement in THIS region. Puigdemont fled his homeland after the central government of Spain cracked down on the secession movement and took over direct rule of the region.

A. Wallonia
B. Basque Country
C. Castillians
D. Catalonia

Correct Response: D. Catalonia
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spain-politics-catalonia-germany/catalan-secessionists-again-back-absent-ex-leader-for-president-idUKKBN1I60UN

7. Last week the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international watchdog, reported on the amount of a nerve agent was used in the March 4th attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal in Salisbury, England. UK leader Theresa May blamed the assassination attempt on Moscow and led Western nations’ response of diplomatic expulsions and sanctions. The nerve agent believed to have been used was:

A. Novichok
B. Sarin
C. Chlorine
D. VX

Correct Response: A. Novichok
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/world/europe/opcw-skripal-attack.html

8. North Korea on Sunday followed up the April 27th historic meeting between DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jung-un and ROK President Moon Jae-in with a statement saying all of these things EXCEPT:

A. Washington should not “deliberately provoke” Pyongyang by deploying strategic assets to South Korea or raising human rights issues.
B. Kim Jung-un invited Trump to hold the summit meeting in Pyongyang.
C. Washington was “misleading public opinion” that the denuclearization pledge resulted from American sanction threats and other pressure.
D. It would be a mistake to view North Korea’s “peace-loving intentions” as a sign of weakness.

Correct Response: B. Kim Jung-un invited Trump to hold the summit meeting in Pyongyang.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-southkorea/north-korea-says-denuclearisation-pledge-not-result-of-u-s-led-sanctions-idUKKBN1I703P

9. This organization, listed by the US State Department as a terrorist group, won a majority of seats in the Lebanese Parliament last week highlighting Iranian influence in the country and drawing criticism from Israel, where an official said the Lebanese country and this group were indistinguishable.

A. Hamas
B. Hizbollah
C. ISIS
D. Al Qaeda

Correct Response: B. Hizbollah
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-election/hezbollah-allies-gain-in-lebanon-vote-underscoring-iran-sway-idUKKBN1I804F?il=0

10. Which of these statements is NOT TRUE concerning the US-China trade talks that are set for Thursday in Beijing:

A. President Trump has demanded a $100 billion annual reduction in the $375 billion U.S. goods trade deficit with China.
B. The most likely outcome of the meeting is for the two sides to agree to keep talking.
C. President Trump has threatened to raise the price of American agricultural products exported to China.
D. China said it will not negotiate on core interests like the “Made in China 2025” domestic manufacturing upgrade program.

Correct Response: C. President Trump has threatened to raise the price of American agricultural products exported to China.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-trade-meeting/chances-for-u-s-china-trade-breakthrough-seen-slim-in-beijing-talks-idUSKBN1I30BU

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