What in the World?

This week in FP’s international news quiz: The U.N. weighs its options in Ukraine, Elon Musk moves to buy Twitter, and Turkey’s foreign minister tours Latin America.

By , a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.
Colombian Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu laugh together
Colombian Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu laugh together
Colombian Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu deliver a press conference during his official visit in Bogotá on April 25. RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images

Are you up to date? Test your international news knowledge with our weekly quiz!

Have feedback? Email whatintheworld@foreignpolicy.com to let me know your thoughts.

Are you up to date? Test your international news knowledge with our weekly quiz!


1. As the United States ramps up efforts to aid Ukraine, whom did U.S. President Joe Biden announce on Monday as his nominee for U.S. ambassador to Kyiv?

Brink is expected to be confirmed quickly to the post, which has sat vacant for almost three years, FP’s Robbie Gramer reports.


2. What did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticize United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for this week?

“It would be logical to go first to Ukraine, to see the people there, the consequences of the occupation,” Zelensky said.

FP’s Colum Lynch details how the U.N. secretary-general is cautiously stepping into a peacemaker role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.


3. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu took a whirlwind tour of Latin America this week, visiting Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

While the foreign minister doesn’t speak Spanish or Portuguese, he is something of a polyglot. Which language does Cavusoglu not speak?


4. Which currency did Israel add to its foreign exchange reserves for the first time this month, in what it described as a change in “philosophy”?

Israel also added the Japanese yen, Australian dollar, and Canadian dollar to its reserves in an effort to diversify away from the U.S. dollar and the euro.


5. According to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military spending hit a milestone in 2021, surpassing what mark for the first time?


6. Of all military spending worldwide last year, what percentage came from the United States?

The United States is the world’s biggest military spender, followed by China, which accounts for an estimated 14 percent of the global total.


7. South Africa marked Freedom Day on Wednesday, celebrating the anniversary of what landmark 1994 event?

The 1994 elections were the first time South Africans of all races were allowed to vote.


8. Which two countries are expected to announce their intention to join NATO within the next few weeks?

After long asserting it had no reason to join NATO, Sweden is now expected to follow Finland into the alliance, FP’s Elisabeth Braw writes.


9. The tech billionaire Elon Musk struck a deal this week to buy Twitter for a whopping $44 billion. Which country’s GDP amounts to a roughly equivalent sum?

Cameroon, Bolivia, and Latvia, along with dozens of other countries, have GDPs lower than the dollar amount Musk is dropping to buy the social media platform.


10. Which country broke a Guinness World Record this week by having nearly 80,000 people congregated in one place wave national flags at the same time?

The Indian flag-wavers surpassed the record previously set by patriots across the border in Pakistan.

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Nina Goldman is a deputy copy editor at Foreign Policy.

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