The year's best stories
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1. In the first week of 2023, Palestinian leadership criticized new Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he visited which contested holy site in Jerusalem?
The al-Aqsa Mosque compound
The Mount of Olives
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Western Wall
Ben-Gvir is a member of Israel’s most far-right government in history. He has been convicted of supporting a Jewish supremacist terrorist group and inciting racism against Palestinians, Neri Zilber reported in November 2022.
2. Days later, right-wing rioters in which country staged their own version of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection?
Indonesia
Brazil
Sudan
Egypt
Although the revolt by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro failed to remove newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from office, it revealed the strength and reach of Brazil’s far right, FP’s Catherine Osborn wrote at the time.
3. In mid-January, Western defense leaders met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss the war in Ukraine. Which issue was at the top of their agenda?
Possible Ukrainian land concessions to end the war
Speeding up the delivery of F-35 fighter jets to Ukraine
Russia’s push to advance nuclear warfare technology
German and U.S. reluctance to send tanks to Ukraine
“[Ukraine has] been very blunt with the Pentagon that what we’re providing them is not addressing these critical [advanced weapons] gaps,” a senior U.S. congressional aide told FP’s Jack Detsch and Amy Mackinnon.
4. In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would invoke an obscure constitutional measure to pass which controversial bill?
An official trade exit from the European Union
A pension reform increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64
A tariff on all tech products from China
An extension of French presidential term limits from five to seven years
The unpopular pension reform was a “make-or-break moment for Macron,” FP’s Michele Barbero reported in January amid mass demonstrations against the proposed measure.
5. Later that month, lawmakers in Uganda approved extensive new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Which of the following did the law not criminalize?
Abetting and promoting homosexuality
Identifying as LGBTQ+
Allowing your property to be used for homosexual acts
Criticizing the government’s stance on gay rights
African countries have become increasingly anti-LGBTQ+ in recent decades, in no small part thanks to the efforts of U.S. evangelicals, Caleb Okereke wrote.
6. Former U.S. President Donald Trump was arraigned in early April in New York on which charge?
Inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol
Storing classified documents at his Florida estate
Interfering in the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia
Making hush-money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election
Most of Trump’s fellow Republicans decried his indictment, and the erstwhile leader looks on track to secure his party’s nomination for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. If Trump wins the presidency again, it “would arguably mark the final dismantling of the credibility of Western liberal democracies,” John Kampfner recently argued.
7. China said in late April that U.S. accusations about what were “groundless”?
The mass detention and reeducation of Muslim Uyghurs
A secret deal to supply weapons to Russia
An overseas Chinese police presence
A plan to expand China’s nuclear arsenal
FP’s Stephen M. Walt argued that China and the United States need to work together to bring peace to Ukraine. But the latest finger-pointing has only heightened tensions between the two powers.
8. In early May, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa accused the country of doing what?
Providing weapons to Russia
Signing a secretive oil agreement with Iran
Covering up abuses in its emerald mines
Orchestrating an assassination attempt against former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter
South Africa has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and instead cozied up to Moscow—a posture Eusebius McKaiser and FP’s Sasha Polakow-Suransky slammed as self-defeating last year.
9. What did Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of doing in early June?
Poisoning the drinking water in Crimea
Blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam
Torching thousands of acres of wheat fields in the Kherson region
Dropping bombs on the Russian city of Belgorod
If Russia were to be found responsible for the explosion, it would seriously hinder Moscow’s war effort—and add to the long list of alleged war crimes the Kremlin has committed in Ukraine, FP’s Robbie Gramer, Christina Lu, and Brawley Benson reported at the time.
10. Later that same week, which Pacific island nation indicated that it was reconsidering its security ties with China?
Solomon Islands
Nauru
Fiji
Tonga
Though China has made some gains courting Pacific countries, its grossly bungled diplomacy has ensured that the United States will not lose its regional allies anytime soon, Derek Grossman wrote.
11. Which Colombian paramilitary group said that it would “cease all offensive actions” against the country’s military starting in early July?
M-19
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Popular Liberation Army
National Liberation Army
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced plans for a cease-fire with the group in June, FP’s Catherine Osborn reported in Latin America Brief at the time. It went into effect in August.
12. By how many votes did progressive Thai politician Pita Limjaroenrat fall short of becoming prime minister in the first round of parliamentary voting on July 13?
25
51
73
101
Pita was eventually dropped from the prime minister vote in August, FP’s Alexandra Sharp reported at the time. The next month, Srettha Thavisin was elected as Thailand’s prime minister.
13. Africa’s first climate summit ended on Sept. 6 with a call for world leaders to unite in support of what?
A global carbon tax on fossil fuels
A global ban on single-use plastics
An Africa-wide clean energy initiative
A new climate fund for developing nations
The call for action comes amid a population boom across the continent, straining countries’ abilities to respond to climate catastrophes, FP’s Ashley Ahn wrote in August.
14. Roughly how many people have left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia since Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive in the disputed enclave in late September?
70,000
85,000
100,000
120,000
A Russia-brokered cease-fire gave Azerbaijan control over the disputed region, FP’s Alexandra Sharp reported in World Brief.
15. Who won the Maldives’ presidential election runoff over the final weekend of September?
Mohamed Muizzu, leader of the opposition People’s National Congress
Incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
Former Home Minister Umar Naseer
Maldives Reform Movement leader Ahmed Faris Maumoon
The election was seen in part as a referendum on great-power competition between China and India, FP’s Michael Kugelman wrote in South Asia Brief ahead of the vote.
16. On Oct. 25, the U.S. House of Representatives elected its new speaker. Who was it?
Rep. Jim Jordan
Rep. Mike Johnson
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise
Johnson is a Trump supporter and rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch reported in Situation Report.
17. The United Nations said on Oct. 30 that nearly how many people had been internally displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
5 million
6 million
7 million
8 million
The crisis in the country is a result of violence between M23 rebels and militia forces loyal to the government in the eastern province of North Kivu, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi reported in Africa Brief.
18. In mid-November, Israeli forces stormed which major structure in Gaza in pursuit of Hamas militants?
Al-Ghifari Tower
Al-Ahli Hospital
Al-Jalaa high-rise
Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israeli military claimed that Hamas was using the hospital as an operational command center. Whatever weapons or evidence of Hamas’s presence Israel might have found in the hospital hardly justified the human toll that the army exacted in pursuit of erasing the militant group, FP’s Howard W. French wrote.
19. Later that same week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set off to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin to discuss their differences over what issue?
The Israel-Hamas war
Sweden’s NATO bid
Military and economic aid for Ukraine
The treatment of Kurds in each country
Jason Pack argued that Turkey could be a possible mediator in the conflict. But Erdogan’s recent incendiary comments about Israel opened a rift between Ankara and its Western allies that Scholz hoped to ameliorate.
20. Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, said in early December that his country is taking necessary steps to be able to defend itself against which encroaching South American state?
Suriname
Brazil
Colombia
Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s steps to take over the oil-rich Essequibo region ahead of 2024 national elections could endanger his regime’s survival and stability, FP’s Alexandra Sharp explained.
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