What in the World?
This week in FP’s international news quiz: France votes, Boris Johnson travels to India, and an Israeli nuclear research site gets some unwelcome guests.
Are you a major news nerd? Test your skills with our weekly international news quiz!
Have feedback? Email whatintheworld@foreignpolicy.com to let me know your thoughts.
Are you a major news nerd? Test your skills with our weekly international news quiz!
1. French voters go to the polls this weekend, with incumbent President Emmanuel Macron hoping to defeat challenger Marine Le Pen for a second time. Who was the last French president to win reelection?
The polls show Macron ahead, but his margin is narrow, Michele Barbero reported from Paris ahead of the vote.
2. The Bretton Woods institutions held their annual spring meetings this week. What two organizations are considered the Bretton Woods institutions?
The Bretton Woods institutions have dragged their feet on climate-related debt swaps, and countries such as Ecuador—otherwise bound by IMF austerity measures—are tired of waiting, FP’s Catherine Osborn reports.
3. Protesters in Sri Lanka have continued to rally against the government, including over high levels of public debt.
Some in the international community blame China for what has been labeled “debt-trap diplomacy” because it holds about 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt. But China is not alone: What other country retains approximately the same amount of Sri Lanka’s debt?
Despite the protests, don’t expect Sri Lanka’s leadership to step down anytime soon, FP’s Sumit Ganguly and Dinsha Mistree write.
4. Which island nation—viewed by the United States as key to security and great-power competition with China—did senior White House official Kurt Campbell visit on Friday?
5. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to India this week. In what year did India gain independence from British rule?
6. While Johnson toured South Asia, which fellow leader of a former European colonial power canceled a high-profile tour of two African countries after testing positive for COVID-19?
7. This week, U.S. officials in Washington held the highest-level talks in four years with representatives of what nation?
8. In East Timor, former President José Ramos-Horta won Tuesday’s presidential runoff election to retake office. What honor was Ramos-Horta famously given in 1996?
9. The West has started to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine, which continues to battle Russia’s invasion. Which of the following is not considered a heavy weapon?
Some Ukrainians worry the heavy weapons deliveries could be too little, too late, FP’s Robbie Gramer, Jack Detsch, and Amy Mackinnon report.
10. An Israeli nuclear research facility in the Negev Desert has been besieged by hordes of what creatures?
The porcupine population at the research center has skyrocketed, causing disruptions for the facility, Ynet reported.
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Nina Goldman is a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.
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