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1. About what percentage of voters turned out to submit a ballot in Bangladesh’s general elections on Sunday?
25 percent
42 percent
67 percent
98 percent
Sheikh Hasina’s reelection to a fourth consecutive five-year term as prime minister was widely expected—with the largest opposition parties boycotting the election and deflating voter turnout, FP’s Allison Meakem wrote in her “Elections to Watch in 2024” roundup.
2. How old did North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turn on Monday?
32
37
40
51
No lavish festivities accompanied Kim’s birthday, but FP’s Jack Detsch and Robbie Gramer predicted in Situation Report that Pyongyang will conduct its seventh nuclear test in 2024. In other words, the explosive birthday bash is yet to come.
3. Which French minister unexpectedly resigned on Monday?
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne
Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin
Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire
Borne’s resignation comes just months before European Parliament elections and shortly after France’s far right passed stricter immigration laws, FP’s Alexandra Sharp reports in World Brief. Borne was succeeded on Tuesday by Gabriel Attal.
4. What was unusual about an attack launched by a group of armed men in Ecuador on Tuesday?
It was later proved the attackers’ weapons were toys
It occurred at a TV station during a live broadcast
The attackers realized they were in the wrong building and left
It was executed to facilitate a prison escape
Newly elected Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa took over a country facing a crisis of extreme violence, Isabel Chiriboga wrote in November 2023. She urged the United States to increase its humanitarian and financial support to Quito.
5. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with which Middle Eastern leader on Wednesday to discuss a plan for postwar Gaza?
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
Blinken said he had secured commitments from numerous countries in the region to assist with rebuilding and governing Gaza after the war. But FP’s Stephen M. Walt argues the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has persisted for more than 75 years, won’t end any time soon—in part because too many outsiders are trying to influence the region.
6. Ahead of this weekend’s elections in Taiwan, China warned on Thursday that which Taiwanese presidential candidate presented the most immediate danger to cross-strait peace?
Kuomintang candidate Hou Yu-ih
Democratic Progressive Party candidate Lai Ching-te
Taiwan People’s Party candidate Ko Wen-je
Incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen
FP’s Howard W. French writes that the Taiwanese people may elect Lai as president but temper his more independence-minded initiatives by electing an opposition parliament.
7. Hearings on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza began at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Thursday. Which African nation petitioned the case?
South Africa
Nigeria
Egypt
Mozambique
Israel now finds itself defending its actions against South African arguments based on the Genocide Convention, which was drawn up after World War II to prevent another event like the Holocaust, which killed 6 million Jews, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi writes in Africa Brief.
8. About how many targets did U.S. and British forces strike in a bombing campaign against Yemeni Houthi rebels on Thursday?
16
33
46
60
Amid turmoil in the Middle East, the United States continues to throw money and weapons at the region, perpetuating a policy that has clearly failed, Jon Hoffman argues.
9. Parks Canada this week warned travelers not to let moose do what?
Eat out of parkgoers’ hands
Lick the tires of their cars
Present their antlers to parkgoers
Make eye contact with parkgoers
Moose require vast quantities of sodium to maintain their bodily functions. But in allowing moose to lick salt off car tires during the winter months, the animals could lose their fear of vehicles—potentially resulting in harm or death to both parties, the CBC reports.
10. A man in southern England was sentenced to 12 months of community service this week for fraud after falsely claiming that a walking stick he was selling on eBay belonged to which former monarch?
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth I
George VI
Victoria
Dru Marshall, from Hampshire, said the proceeds from the sale of the “antler walking stick” would go to cancer research, The Associated Press reports.
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