What in the World?
Test yourself on the week of Oct. 22: Britain’s leadership scrambles, China’s Party Congress concludes, and Qatar faces scrutiny.
What in the world has gone on this week? See what you can remember with our weekly international news quiz!
Have feedback? Email whatintheworld@foreignpolicy.com to let me know your thoughts.
What in the world has gone on this week? See what you can remember with our weekly international news quiz!
1. The Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress concluded last weekend, but not everything went according to plan. What hiccup almost disrupted the highly choreographed event?
The Hu debacle proves that Leninist systems like China’s are inherently unstable, FP’s Howard W. French argues.
2. Last weekend, Tehran pledged to sue Washington over its alleged “direct involvement” in Iran’s anti-government protests. What initially catalyzed the unrest?
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remains the primary obstacle to regime change in the country, Afshon Ostovar writes.
3. The U.S. Justice Department accused Chinese nationals on Monday of seeking to disrupt a U.S. investigation into which Chinese company?
The announcement comes as the department clamps down on Chinese intelligence operations in the United States, FP’s Rishi Iyengar and Amy Mackinnon report.
4. After Liz Truss’s quick demise, who became Britain’s new prime minister on Tuesday?
Sunak’s first priority will be reversing the economic damages caused by Truss’s failed policies, Chatham House’s Robin Niblett told Mackinnon at an FP Live event on Friday.
5. Six cases of abuse by Qatari authorities against LGBTQ people have been recorded since 2019, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday. The new revelations come mere weeks before Qatar is scheduled to host which event?
Qatar faces increased scrutiny ahead of the major soccer event, Craig L. LaMay writes, making media liberalization in the country all the more necessary.
6. Somalia is facing its worst drought in four decades, with UNICEF warning that one child has been hospitalized for malnutrition every minute since August. What percentage of Somalia’s total population is expected to require food assistance in the coming months?
In February 2012, the United Nations optimistically declared Somalia’s famine over, Paul Salopek reported at the time. But history looks doomed to repeat itself.
7. Which Russian public figure fled to Belarus and then Lithuania on Tuesday using an Israeli passport?
Russia’s neighbors are struggling to cope with the number of Russians fleeing conscription and other impacts of its war on Ukraine, Yan Matusevich writes.
8. Which Mexican state on Wednesday became the last to legalize same-sex marriage in the country?
The Mexican government is working to reorient its foreign-policy agenda to focus on gender rights, including feminist and LGBTQ issues, Lyric Thompson argued in 2020.
9. An Iranian man holding which world record died last weekend at the age of 94?
The man died just months after washing himself for the first time, the Guardian reported.
10. This weekend is a spooky one in Brazil: Not only will Brazilians be voting in a high-stakes presidential election, but some will also be gearing up for Dia do Saci on Oct. 31. The government created the holiday in 2003 to celebrate Brazilian folklore and rival the American cultural influence of Halloween.
Which mythological monsters run rampant in Brazilian folklore?
The werewolf represents Brazilians’ own identities: It is a hybrid of local customs and Portuguese colonialism, Yuri Garcia wrote last year for FP’s Horror Week.
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Alexandra Sharp is the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @AlexandraSSharp
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