“What in the World? Weekly Quiz" | November 16-22, 2020

A global affairs awareness service provided by the
Tennessee World Affairs Council

CLICK IMAGE FOR QUIZ

Thanks to quiz master LCDR Pat Ryan, USN(Ret) for this week’s quiz.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ WINNERS

David Hillinck, Huntsville, AL
Sana, Phoeniz, AZ
Pat Miletich, Nashville, TN
Rich Buck, Peoria, IL
Barbara Gubbin, Jacksonville, FL
Austin Travis, Nashville, TN
Kathy Ingleson, Brentwood, TN
Charles Bowers, Nashville, TN
Abrock, London
Tim Douglas, Nashville, TN
Beverly Ketel, Peoria, IL
Joseph Mendenhall, Bedford, TX
Bernard Drake, Peoria, IL
Stephen Friedberg, Boston, MA
Jim Shepherd, Nashville, TN
Himanshu Manchanda, Nashville, TN
Herb Marsh, Lincoln, NM
Laurie Bergner, Normal, Il
Roger French, Washington, IL
Connie Tomczyk, Peoria, IL

WELL DONE!

Connie in Peoria said it was a “tough week” but did well on the quiz. Himanshu in Nashville found it “interesting.” Joseph in Bedford, TX said there was “so much shaking going on” — even if we didn’t have a question about “The Killer.” And, yes, Yezzie in Nashville, we’ll “keep them coming.”

Thanks to all who are curious about the world every week. Good luck this week.

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November 2020 – Quiz Prize

A prominent authority on China’s Belt and Road Initiative reveals the global risks lurking within Beijing’s project of the century

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the world’s most ambitious and misunderstood geoeconomic vision. To carry out President Xi Jinping’s flagship foreign-policy effort, China promises to spend over one trillion dollars for new ports, railways, fiber-optic cables, power plants, and other connections. The plan touches more than one hundred and thirty countries and has expanded into the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. Beijing says that it is promoting global development, but Washington warns that it is charting a path to global dominance.

Taking readers on a journey to China’s projects in Asia, Europe, and Africa, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals how this grand vision is unfolding. As China pushes beyond its borders and deep into dangerous territory, it is repeating the mistakes of the great powers that came before it, Hillman argues. If China succeeds, it will remake the world and place itself at the center of everything. But Xi may be overreaching: all roads do not yet lead to Beijing.

Jonathan E. Hillman is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of the Reconnecting Asia Project, one of the most extensive open-source databases tracking China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Hillman has testified before Congress, briefed government officials and Fortune 500 executives, and written on economics, national security, and foreign policy issues for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other outlets. His first book is THE EMPEROR’S NEW ROAD: China and the Project of the Century (Yale University Press, 2020).

Prior to joining CSIS, Hillman served as a policy adviser at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where he contributed to the 2015 U.S. National Security Strategy and the President’s Trade Agenda and directed the research and writing process for essays, speeches, and other materials explaining U.S. trade and investment policy. He has also worked as a researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Council on Foreign Relations, and in Kyrgyzstan as a Fulbright scholar. He is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a presidential scholar, and Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Garrison Prize for best thesis in international relations.

LAST WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What in the World? Quiz – Week of Nov 9-15, 2020

1. After weeks of the largest protests Poland has seen since the fall of communism, the government has delayed implementing a court ruling that would outlaw THIS:

A. All non-European immigration
B. Marijuana
C. Free travel within the country
D. Abortion

Correct Response: D. Abortion
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/03/poland-stalls-abortion-ban-amid-nationwide-protests

2. A few days after an ISIS sympathizer shot and killed four people in Vienna’s historic city center, Austrian authorities reacted by doing THIS:

A. Arresting all male residents of Vienna with suspected ties to ISIS
B. Setting up roadblocks with metal detectors around the perimeter of the city center
C. Closing down two mosques
D. Establishing ID checkpoints throughout the city

Correct Response: C. Closing down two mosques
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/6/austria-closes-mosque-promises-to-shut-more-in-wake-of-attack

3. On Wednesday, November 4, the United States became the first country to leave THIS historic international agreement:

A. The United Nations Charter
B. The Paris Climate Accord
C. The Geneva Convention
D. NATO

Correct Response: B. The Paris Climate Accord
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/04/politics/us-exits-paris-climate-agreement-next-steps/index.html

4. Numerous countries have sent congratulatory messages to President-Elect Biden. The list includes ONLY THIS ONE. (As of 8:00 a.m. Nov 9)

A. Vladimir Putin, Russia
B. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel
C. Xi Jinping, China
D. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico

Correct Response: B. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-global-reaction/china-russia-hold-off-on-congratulating-biden-u-s-allies-rally-round-idUSKBN27P1GT

5. Armed conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw, the national army, has escalated sharply in the past two years. This development has been largely eclipsed, however, by the continuing international focus on the human rights crisis of THIS Muslim minority. [USIP Question of the Week]

A. Rohingya
B. Peshmerga
C. Tigray
D. Kutupalong

Correct response: A. Rohingya
https://www.usip.org/publications/2020/11/arakan-army-myanmar-deadly-conflict-rises-rakhine-state

6. Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo’s president, resigned his office this week in order to do THIS:

A. Face trial for accusations of war crimes committed during Kosovo’s war for independence
B. Accept a position as secretary general of the United Nations
C. Undergo a complicated heart and lung transplant
D. Head Kosovo’s first delegation to the International Space Station

Correct Response: A. Face trial for accusations of war crimes during Kosovo’s war for independence
https://apnews.com/article/hashim-thaci-kosovo-face-war-crimes-3cbaf9f0f41a2bc491a832e5df3813cb

7. In response to an attack on national troops by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a government organization that controls THIS country’s northernmost region, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered federal troops to engage in military confrontation with the TPLF, leading the country in question to the brink of civil war:

A. Eritrea
B. Ethiopia
C. Guinea
D. Tanzania

Correct Response: B. Ethiopia
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/04/931241968/ethiopia-edges-toward-civil-war-as-federal-government-orders-attack-on-tigray-re

8. THIS nation’s first school for transgendered citizens opened in the capital, Dhaka. The privately funded seminary will offer courses in Islamic and vocational studies, and help create access to employment, which is often difficult for transgendered citizens to obtain:

A. Bhutan
B. Nepal
C. Sri Lanka
D. Bangladesh

Correct Response: D. Bangladesh
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54838305

9. In its largest such demolition in the past decade, the Israeli government bulldozed the Palestinian village of Khirbet Humsah, displacing 73 people, including 41 children. When questioned, residents of Khirbet Humsah stated that they felt that THIS had emboldened the Israeli government, encouraging it to proceed with the destruction of the village:

A. The corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
B. The U.S. presidential election, which has drawn world attention elsewhere
C. The recent re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states
D. Israel’s difficult legislative elections earlier this year

Correct Response: B. The U.S. presidential election, which has drawn world attention elsewhere
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/04/931379662/israel-uses-cover-of-us-election-to-destroy-palestinian-homes-critics-say

10. China’s Ambassador to the UN told a World Health Organization meeting it was “illegal and invalid” to include THIS as a WHO observer state since it would violate the “One China” policy.

A. Taiwan
B. Hong Kong
C. Tibet
D. Macau

Correct Response: A. Taiwan
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-taiwan/china-says-inclusion-of-taiwan-in-who-meeting-would-be-illegal-idUSKBN27P1SL

THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AWARENESS AND EDUCATION OUTREACH

THE MISSION of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world.

THE VISION of the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a well-informed community that thinks critically about the world and the impact of global events.