2022 World Affairs Council of the Year
Network of Independent World Affairs Councils of America

“What In The World? Weekly Quiz” – Nov 25-Dec 1, 2019

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Don’t forget to sign up 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.
 
 
 
Keep up with global current events by following the World Affairs Council on Twitter @TNWAC. #TNWACquiz

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ WINNERS

Himanshu Manchanda, Nashville, TN

David Hillinck, Huntsville, AL

Sam Horner, Nashville, TN

Allan Ramsaur, Nashville, TN

Jacob Church Williams, Nashville, TN

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

Volunteers make the World (Affairs Council) go round!


NOVEMBER 2019 MONTHLY QUIZ PRIZE

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

David Wallace-Wells

Amazon Review

It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation.

An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress.

The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s.

About David Wallace-Wells


To get in on the quiz make sure you’re getting TNWAC emails (here’s the free subscription link: http://eepurl.com/gt6dn) and make sure you’re following @TNWAC on Twitter.

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 NOV 18-24, 2019

1. This weekend, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the US is taking THIS action as an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea, to “keep the door open” for diplomatic efforts aimed at eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

A. Removing the Fifth Air Force from Japan’s Yokota Air Base
B. Lifting sanctions on agricultural imports to North Korea
C. Postponing military exercises with South Korea
D. Hosting Kim Jong-un at Camp David in January

Correct Response: C. Postponing military exercises with South Korea
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/17/us-postpones-military-exercises-with-south-korea-in-nod-toward-north-korea-071301

2. The United States and many Western allies have been urging opposition to a Russian-led resolution at the United Nations that calls for the creation of a global cybercrime treaty, with opponents to the treaty arguing THIS. Russia framed its proposed treaty as an alternative to the 2001 Budapest Convention on cybercrime that Russia has criticized as infringing on state sovereignty.

A. The proposed treaty establishes global norms for how the Internet and information should be controlled
B. The proposed treaty does not include any plans to address threats of cyberterrorism
C. The proposed treaty would give states an unprecedented ability to block external media
D. The proposed treaty would give too much influence to private Internet firms in the creation of cybercrime policies within signatory states

Correct Response: A. The treaty is trying to establish a set of global norms for how the Internet and information should be controlled
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/the-us-is-urging-a-no-vote-on-a-russian-led-un-resolution-calling-for-a-global-cybercrime-treaty/2019/11/16/b4895e76-075e-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html

3. In one of the most significant leaks of papers from the Communist Party of China in recent decades, the New York Times released over 400 pages of internal government documents revealing new details on the origins and execution of China’s mass detention of 1 million + Uighur, Kazakh, and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the country’s Xinjiang region. THIS is among the revelations arising from the documents, directly contradicting Communist Party officials’ public claims that the camps in Xinjiang are voluntary job-training centers.

A. Access to popular social media platforms Weibo and WeChat was monitored within the camps, with camp authorities directing camp residents how to communicate about their experiences
B. Local authorities were advised to tell students returning to Xinjiang that their relatives had been “infected [by the] virus” of extremism and needed to be ‘quarantined’ and ‘cured’
C. Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure projects previously planned for Xinjiang have been moved to neighboring Gansu province for fear that extremist attacks will render them unviable
D. The Communist Party has a ten-year plan to eliminate mosques and Islamic schools across the country, with Xinjiang simply being a pilot initiative

Correct Response: B. Local authorities were advised to tell students returning to Xinjiang that their relatives had been “infected [by the] virus” of extremism and needed to be ‘quarantined’ and ‘cured’
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html

4. More than 100 people were arrested in Paris on the first anniversary of THIS anti-government movement. Rallies took place nationwide to send a message to French President Emmanuel Macron, whom many have accused of ignoring the needs of ordinary citizens.

A. Ensemble!
B. Bonnets Rouges (“Red Caps”)
C. Nuit Debout (“Rise Up at Night”)
D. Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”)

Correct Response: D. Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50447733

5. Former wartime defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa has won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, taking 52.25% of the vote. The clear victor in Sinhalese majority areas of the country, Mr. Rajapaksa is a highly controversial figure among some in Sri Lanka for his role in THIS, though Rajapaksa has already made a call for unity in his country.

A. The alleged commission of war crimes during the 1980s and 1990s that are currently under investigation by the Permanent People’s Tribunal
B. The alleged misuse of funds intended for helping cholera victims in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami
C. The defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War
D. Outlawing Hindu Sri Lankans from participating in the Sri Lankan military during his tenure as Secretary of Defense and Urban Development

Correct Response: C. The defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50449677

6. As Taiwan’s campaign season picks up pace in the lead up to 2020 elections, and mere hours after President Tsai Ing-wen announced her running mate, the People’s Republic of China took THIS action in the sensitive Taiwan Strait. Featuring prominently in the intimidation effort was China’s first-ever domestically-built aircraft carrier, which China has announced will enter service in 2020.

A. Sailed a carrier group in a southerly direction through the Strait
B. Unveiled plans for a new maritime base in Xiamen, facing out to Taiwan
C. Ordered the enforcement of a decades long no-fly zone provision over the Strait
D. Moved its aircraft carrier into Taiwan’s Magong Harbor

Correct Response: A. Sailed a carrier group in a southerly direction through the Strait
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-elections/china-sails-carrier-group-through-taiwan-strait-as-election-campaign-picks-up-pace-idUSKBN1XR073

7. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed ongoing protests in the country on “hooligans” and counter-revolutionaries while offering his support for THIS, the original spark to the demonstrations that brought violence to cities across the country.

A. The planned opening of a US consulate in Tehran in 2021
B. The rationing of petroleum and reduction of petroleum subsidies
C. The closure of the beloved City Theater of Tehran
D. The elimination of the national government’s pension scheme for civil servants

Correct Response: B. Rationing of petroleum and reduction of petroleum subsidies
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50450581

8. At least eight people have been killed and dozens injured in Sacaba, Bolivia following clashes between security forces and supporters of THIS former leader, Bolivia’s first indigenous president. HE resigned under pressure from the military three weeks after declaring himself the winner of an election marred by widespread allegations of fraud. HE has since referred to his exit as a “coup” and been granted asylum in Mexico, claiming his life to be at risk.

A. Jeanine Añez
B. Jair Bolsonaro
C. Nicolas Maduro
D. Evo Morales

Correct Response: D. Evo Morales
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/16/780118421/8-killed-in-bolivia-as-protesters-call-for-return-of-ousted-president-evo-morale

9. The US is cutting THIS West African country out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade pact, alleging a failure to address US concerns about “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Anglophone residents of the country complain of marginalization by the largely Francophone government, and both security forces and separatists have been accused of killing and torturing civilians in the ongoing chaos.

A. Democratic Republic of Congo
B. Nigeria
C. Cameroon
D. Mauritania

Correct Response: C. Cameroon
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/africa/cameroon-trump-trade-pact/index.html

10. The UN voted overwhelmingly last week to extend the mandate of THIS embattled agency until 2023, approving by 170-2 a resolution that made no mention of an ongoing ethical probe into its managerial conduct. The United States and Israel both voted against the resolution, following a long campaign by both countries against the agency on the grounds that it prevents a practical solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A. UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
B. International Criminal Court (ICC)
C. UN Special Coordinator (UNSCO)
D. UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)

Correct Response: A. UN Relief and Works Agency
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/despite-israel-u-s-pressure-and-ongoing-probe-un-renews-unrwa-mandate-1.8131376

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