2021 Year in Review - What in the World? Quiz
As the United Kingdom completed “Brexit” and left the European Union, many feared for the chaos in cross border commerce that would come from it. With a new custom border in play, trucks from the UK smoothly made clearance from WHAT country before passing through the Eurotunnel?
Belgium
France
Netherlands
Ireland
The Drugs Controller General of THIS Asian country approved an AstraZeneca-Oxford developed drug, cheaper and easier to store, as their first COVID-19 vaccine. In January, the Serum Institute had already stocked 50 million doses from AstraZeneca for distribution in THIS nation of 1.3 billion people.
Mongolia
Indonesia
India
Bhutan
THIS official tenet of U.S. foreign policy was undermined by the deadly attack, January 6th, on the U.S. Capitol, as evidenced by criticism from Russia and China and Iran’s President Rouhani’s remarks, “What happened in the US shows how fragile Western democracy is.”
Multilateralism
Promotion of democracy
Validation of office holders’ fitness
Security of the seat of government
A Sriwijaya Airlines 737-500 jet leaving Indonesia crashed at sea with 62 passengers aboard on January 9th. Although it did not have the same software system that led to the grounding of THIS company’s 737 MAX jets after the crash of a Sea Lion Air flight in the Java Sea, it was a reminder of the recent resumption of MAX jet service.
Airbus
Boeing
Comac
Embraer
Russian authorities detained THIS most prominent opposition politician when he returned to Moscow on January 17th and staged a trial at a police station. He had been in Germany recovering from an attempted assassination by poisoning, which he blamed on Vladimir Putin. The U.S. and EU called for HIS release.
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Alexei Navalny
Dmitri Medvedev
Sergei Furgal
A “caravan” of desperate migrants bound for the United States met a blockade of security forces in THIS country on Mexico’s southern border.
Honduras
Guatemala
Belize
El Salvador
President Biden signed a letter on his first day in office to the UN Secretary General signaling America’s rejoining of THIS agreement that bound over 200 countries to global goals combatting an existential threat.
The New START Nuclear Threat Reduction Treaty
The Paris Climate Accord
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement
The Muslim Travel Ban
A twin-bombing attack in Baghdad killed 23 and wounded 100 and was believed to be the work of THIS group that was suppressed by a U.S.-led coalition. The group may have launched the attack, first in three years in Iraq’s capital, to “prove its existence.” [“Daily Chatter” Question of the Week]
Iranian Republican Guard Corps
Al Qaeda
Islamic State
Al Nusra
The march to democracy in THIS country was halted when the military detained the senior officials including Senior Counsellor and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and installed Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. The military said a state of emergency would be in place for one year.
Bangladesh
Laos
Vietnam
Myanmar
Representatives of THIS organization completed their two-week quarantine period at the end of January and continued forward in Wuhan searching for the origins of the coronavirus. THIS organization was founded in 1948 and has a primary goal of promoting the highest level of health.
International Red Cross
World Health Organization
Center for Disease Control
Doctors Without Borders
The International Criminal court charged Dominic Ongwen with 61 accounts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This Ugandan commander is known for his role in THIS Christian extremist and terrorist organization founded by Joseph Kony.
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)
Peoples Liberation Front (PLF)
Vanguards of the Congo (VOC)
1987
President Biden began work on a restoration of a 2015 multilateral agreement signed by the UN “Perm 5” plus Germany and the EU with Iran to restrain production of fissile material. The agreement is called THIS.
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons
The Tehran Agreement
A powerful temblor struck eastern Japan in THIS region, injuring at least 150 and cutting power to over a million households. The 7.3 magnitude earthquake occurred one month before the tenth anniversary of an earthquake-tsunami that left 19,000 people dead or missing and led to meltdowns at three reactors in a nuclear power plant.
Kamakura
Kagoshima
Okinawa
Fukushima
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was delayed to the summer of 2021 due to Covid-19, faced another misstep when THIS occurred.
Tokyo Olympic chief Yoshiro Mori was forced to resign for saying women talked too much.
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake in eastern Japan caused extensive damage to the Olympic village.
Olympic officials said they would rely on “herd immunity” to protect athletes from the Covid pandemic.
Athletes from Global South nations will be required to quarantine for 30 days upon arriving in Japan.
Unrest erupted in Port-au-Prince after President Jovenel Moïse refused to acknowledge the end of his term in office and ordered the arrest of 23 opposition figures in THIS nation, among the poorest in the world. [“Daily Chatter” Question]
Dominican Republic
Haiti
Cuba
Venezuela
THIS Japanese tennis star claimed her fourth Grand Slam title beating Jennifer Brady at the Australian Open in February. She is 4 for 4 in Grand Slam finals, a feat achieved in the Open era only by Monica Seles on her way to nine total championships and Roger Federer on his way to 20.
Kurumi Nara
Mayo Hibi
Misaki Doi
Naomi Osaka
More than 300 school girls were abducted in the northwest of THIS African country that has been plagued by such crimes. Boko Haram and Islamic State militants were the earliest groups to engage in school girl abductions but there were no claims made for this attack.
Nigeria
Angola
Niger
Uganda
President Biden ordered an air strike against militia facilities in eastern Syria on February 26th in response to rocket attacks against US forces and installations in Iraq. The U.S. attributed the attacks to militias backed by THIS nation.
Syria
Lebanon
Iran
Turkey
Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been protesting new farm laws on the outskirts of THIS city, capital city of India since September 2020. The prominent presence of women in what is perhaps the world’s largest ongoing protest movement, and certainly the biggest domestic challenge facing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, has put a spotlight on the important role women play in agriculture in this South Asian nation according to USIP’s Farida Nabourema. [US Institute of Peace Question]
Bombay
New Delhi
Calcutta
Islamabad
THIS former President of France is the first to receive jail time – one-year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence – after being found guilty of corruption?
Emmanuel Macron
Jacques Chirac
Français Hallande
Nicolas Sarkozy
The military in THIS Asian country shot dead 50 protestors in the bloodiest day there since the February 1 coup installed General Min Aung Hlaing, as countries like Japan consider increasing sanctions.
Cambodia
Bangladesh
Laos
Myanmar
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken proposed new plans to advance the peace process in a letter to THIS Afghan President. The letter recommends several efforts to “move matters more fundamentally and quickly” toward peace, according to a USIP report. [USIP Question]
Zalmay Khalilizad
Ashraf Ghani
Abdullah Abdullah
Mohammed Zahir Shah
THIS association agreed to sanction several Chinese officials over human rights abuse against the Uighurs, a Muslim minority whose repression in China has been called “genocide” by the United States.
European Union
United Nations
World Health Organization
ASEAN
The Prime Minister of Sudan asked the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, and the United States to help in their dispute with THIS country over a controversial dam opened on the Nile River.
Egypt
Uganda
Ethiopia
Rwanda
The Suez Canal was blocked by the Ever Given, a massive container ship that grounded on March 23rd. The blockage delayed an estimated $400 million an hour in goods flowing through the Mediterranean Sea and THIS body of water at the southern approach of the canal.
Gulf of Oman
Black Sea
Red Sea
North Arabian Sea
President Denis Sassau N’Guesso won reelection to the office in THIS country he held for 36 years, following the Covid-19 death of his opponent. The country, with its capital in Brazzaville, is smaller than its similarly named neighbor.
Angola
Republic of Congo
Uganda
Zambia
The corruption trial of THIS former world leader started March 29th just days after the country held its fourth election in two years for national leadership. He was charged with helping a business win profitable deals in exchange for favorable news coverage.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel
President of France Nicolas Sarkozy
John Magufuli, President of Tanzania
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele
THIS phenomenon results in the death of 1.2 million Indians and 128,000 Pakistanis annually according to USIP’s Jumaina Siddiqui. However, the Covid battle and a moment of détente may result in rare collaboration and the “only strategy that can work: a joint one.” [USIP Question of the Week]
Climate driven tidal rise
Air pollution and smog
Religious rivalries
Climate driven Monsoon floods
In April 2021, clashes involving pro-British unionists in THIS capital and elsewhere in Northern Ireland resulted in the injury of 27 police officers and the arrest of eight people. The unrest follows the United Kingdom’s formal exit from the European Union at the end of 2020, a move that has shaken the fragile political balance in the British territory, where a segment of the population identifies as British and the rest as Irish.”
Londonderry
Dublin
Belfast
Edinburgh
Prince Philip of England, who died in April 2021 at the age of 99, was born into the royal family of THIS country, and he traced his ancestry to the royalty of Denmark, Germany, Russia and Britain.
Greece
Norway
Netherlands
Czechoslovakia
President Biden in April 2021 charged the Russian government with last year’s extensive hacking attack against private and government institutions known by the name of THIS software service company. Biden announced extensive new sanctions on Moscow in retaliation.
GoDaddy
SolarWinds
IBM
Excellium
In April 2021, Ukraine’s Defense Minister said Russia has massed over 100,000 troops near its border the largest mobilization against Ukraine since the invasion and eventual annexation of THIS Ukrainian region in 2014.
Moldova
Donbas
Crimea
Azov
The submarine Nanggala-402 was lost in the Bali Sea with 53 crewmen aboard in April 2021. The Nanggala is a 40-year old submarine serving in THIS country’s Navy.
Taiwan
Philippines
Japan
Indonesia
In April 2021, militants fired scores of rockets from Gaza into Israel and violent protests erupted in the West bank and in THIS city that is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over 100 Palestinians and 20 Israeli police were injured and dozens arrested in the clashes there.
Ashdod
Tel Aviv
Ramallah
Jerusalem
In April 2021 THIS nation launched the first module for its space station, the CSS, which will be manned by “Taikonauts” (space sailors) in coming missions.
Russia
The EU
China
Brazil
On April 26th Japan approved THIS trade agreement, the world’s largest, signed by 15 Asia-Pacific nations. The pact, expected to go into effect later this year, will eliminate tariffs on 91 percent of goods and sets investment and intellectual property rules in a zone covering about 30 percent of global GDP. It groups the 10 ASEAN members—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)
Comprehensive Pacific Trade Pact (CPTP)
Asia Pacific Economic Compact (APEC)
In May 2021, a technology battle was unfolding between United States and Chinese tech firms over who will control what millions of people in Africa can see, hear, read and say, according to USIP. THIS Chinese tech giant could change Africa’s mobile ecosystem with the release of its own mobile phone operating system.
Alibaba
Huawei
Genesis
Sinotech
In May 2021, The World Health Organization granted emergency approval to the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine produced by THIS country, certifying its safety and effectiveness.
Russia
China
India
Belgium
In May 2021, nearly 70% of the population of THIS country did not want the summer’s Olympic Games to proceed as they coped with a Covid-19 state of emergency in the capital and other major regions. The country’s prime minister said the government would “not put the Olympics first,” but that the final decision belonged to the IOC.
Mexico
Brazil
Indonesia
Japan
A controversial travel ban was ended by THIS country on May 15 but about 10,000 of its citizens remain stranded in India. The Covid-19 related policy has sparked charges of racism by government ministers.
Australia
United Kingdom
Canada
Japan
In May 2021, a jetliner enroute from Greece to Lithuania was diverted over THIS country to permit the arrest of a journalist who has been a persistent critic of President Lukashenko, accused of election rigging. Roman Protasevich was detained in THIS country after the jet was diverted due to a supposed bomb scare and escorted by warplanes.
Poland
Latvia
Belarus
Ukraine
President Cyril Ramaphosa of THIS nation testified against former President Jacob Zuma, a member of his own party, charged with corruption. Ramaphosa said the African National Congress (ANC) party should have done more to address Zuma’s graft.
DR Congo
Mozambique
South Africa
Tanzania
In May 2021, President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. Intelligence Community to further its investigation of the Covid-19 origins, “whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal, or from a laboratory accident.” The facility in questionis THIS Chinese laboratory.
Beijing Pathogens Institute
Shanghai Center for Infectious Diseases
Wuhan Institute of Virology
People’s Institute of Disease Control
Couples in THIS country will be allowed to have up to three children as of May 2021 after a census report warned of a declining birth rate, despite the 2016 reversal of one-child limits to two-children per family.
China
India
Japan
North Korea
G-7 finance ministers reached an historic agreement in June 2021 to increase revenues through THIS measure.
a 20% Valued Added Tax (VAT) on information industry services like Facebook and Twitter
a per container surcharge on international maritime traffic from China
a new tax placed on Covid-19 vaccinations purchased by nations not participating in the Covax sharing program
a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%
In June 2021, fire ravaged the container ship MV X-Press Pearl off the coast of Colombo on THIS Indian Ocean island nation, resulting in the potential release of oil and hazardous chemicals, the worst environmental crisis the nation has faced.
Madagascar
Sri Lanka
Mauritius
Seychelles
While its main currency remains the U.S. dollar, in June 2021, THIS country has become the first state to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. The digital currency may aid the country’s development because 70% of citizens do not have access to traditional banking systems.
Ecuador
Panama
Canada
El Salvador
In June 2021, France announced an end to French military operations in THIS West African region
The Horn
Sahel
Guinea
Sudan
In June 2021, President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson signed a new form of THIS historical agreement originally forged by FDR and Winston Churchill. It commits the US and UK to cooperating on science, technology and climate change, and support for NATO.
North Atlantic Pact
Monroe Doctrine
Atlantic Charter
Treaty of London
In June 2021, Iran chose a president to succeed Hassan Rouhani in an election marked by low turnout among voters who saw the result predetermined. The new President of Iran is THIS hardline cleric who has “a record of human rights abuses, including accusations of playing a role in the mass execution of political opponents in 1988,” according to the New York Times.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Ali Khamenei
Ebrahim Raisi
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
In June 2021, the Bank of England introduced a 50-pound banknote into circulation that features THIS legendary World War II Bletchley Park codebreaker, mathematician and father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was prosecuted for homosexual acts in 1952 for which the British Government later apologized for his appalling treatment.
Dilly Knox
Alan Turing
Fran Pearlmutter
Bill Tutte
In July 2021, Beijing celebrated THIS event with great fanfare, military parades, and patriotic shows. Chinese President Xi Jinping told thousands assembled in Tiananmen Square that nations trying to bully China will “get their heads bashed” and will meet a “great wall of steel.”
75th anniversary of defeat of Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces
100th anniversary of the “Nine-Dash Line” marking Beijing’s South China Sea claim
Chinese Communist Party founding centennial
Final adjudication of the transition of Hong Kong from Britain to China
In July 2021, American troops handed over control of THIS strategic airbase to Afghan security forces and completed withdrawal from a facility that was key to the 20-year fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Meanwhile, some officials warned the Taliban might defeat the Afghan government following the American withdrawal expected to be finished by September.
Bagram
Kandahar
Peshawar
Shindand
In July 2021, the President of Haiti was assassinated by a group of highly trained foreign mercenaries. The killing of THIS leader came amidst a surge of political unrest in the poverty-stricken nation that lies about 700 miles from Florida’s shores.
Rodrigo Navarro
Jovenel Moises
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Rene Preval
In July 2021, a 6.1 magnitude underwater earthquake struck the coast of the Sulawesi Island of THIS archipelagic country. The country is located in the “Ring of Fire,” which consists of a series of fault lines, making it extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.
Indonesia
Chile
New Zealand
Guatemala
Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “The German language has no words, I think, for the devastation,” referring to THIS catastrophe.
Wild fires that have erupted in the Black Forest.
Rampaging flood waters of the River Ahr that killed about 200.
Villages evacuated and dozens injured by dangerous gas spilled by a derailed train.
Mudslides that buried most of the Zugspitze ski resort.
In July 2021, vigilante groups emerged to battle unrest in THIS African nation following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.
Zimbabwe
Suriname
South Africa
Congo
As of July 2021, the Delta variant of the coronavirus was threatening populations around the world with a more virulent illness spreading more quickly, increasing infections mostly among the unvaccinated. The Delta variant was first identified in THIS Asian country.
China
Japan
India
Brazil
In July 2021, the world’s fastest ground transportation system was introduced in THIS country. The new MagLev (magnetic levitation) train is capable of speeds up to about 600 kph (370 mph) and will cut a ten-hour train trip in this country to about two and a half hours. A short-distance MagLev line has been operational between an airport and major urban city center.
France
Japan
China
Germany
Athletes in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics competed in 339 medal events in 33 sports in a competition delayed a year by Covid-19. The next Summer Olympics is set for THIS city in 2024.
London
Athens
Paris
Sydney
In August 2021, a series of wildfires broke out in THIS country, starting on the country’s second largest island, Evia, and the fires eventually even burned at ancient Olympia in the Peloponnese, the home of the first Olympic games.
Italy
Albania
Greece
Tunisia
The Afghan government collapsed in August 2021 when THIS president fled the country.
Ashraf Ghani
Hamid Karzai
Abdullah Abdullah
Zalmay Khalilizad
In August 2021, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked THIS Caribbean island nation and resulted in the deaths of more than 2,200 people, 12,000 injured, and hundreds more still missing. The country is located atop the Caribbean Plate, which makes it vulnerable to devastating earthquakes like one in 2010, whose epicenter near the capital Port-au-Prince resulted in over 120,000 fatalities.
Guadeloupe
Jamaica
Dominican Republic
Haiti
In August 2021, Japan increased its territory when THIS occurred.
Agreement with Moscow to repatriate the southernmost Kuril Island, Etorofu, seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
The right to sovereignty over the Senkaku Island chain, claimed by China, was decided by an International Tribunal at the Hague in favor of Japan.
A submarine volcano eruption produced a new island near Iwo Jima.
Signing a dual citizenship treaty with South Korea governing two disputed islands in the Tsushima Strait.
In August 2021, A suicide bomb attack at the Abbey Gate of Hamad Karzai International Airport killed over 170 including 13 American military personnel. An Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State, called ISIS-K, claimed responsibility and later was subject to a retaliatory U.S. drone strike. The “K” stands for THIS.
ISIS-Kyrgyzstan
ISIS-Kabul
ISIS-Kandahar
ISIS-Khorasan
In August 2021, Israel agreed to allow equipment and goods to enter THIS isolated territory and Egypt opened the Rafah gate for access. The materials are intended for civilian and international projects and will flow into the besieged zone following protests by Palestinians.
West Bank
Golan
Gaza
Shebaa Farms
In September 2021, the International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea appeared to have restarted its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, a source of plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. In January THIS leader committed to expanding nuclear weapons production including miniaturized warheads for ballistic missiles, tactical weapons and a “super-large hydrogen bomb.”
Kim Jong-un
Kim Il-song
Kim Jong-il
Kim Nod-song
The announcement in September 2021 that Prime Minister Suga would step down following criticism over THIS government’s response to Covid and declining support has launched a wide open race for a replacement.
Indonesia
Myanmar
Philippines
Japan
In September 2021, President Kais Saied of THIS country indicated he would amend the constitution, barely two months after what his critics called a coup. Saled seized powers in this country, wedged between Algeria and Libya, that was the ignition point of the Arab Spring ten years ago, and was seen as the most successful country in moving from a dictator to democracy.
Morocco
Egypt
Cyprus
Tunisia
The long-delayed trial of THIS mastermind of the 9/11 plane hijackings resumed in September 2021. He and four other Al Qaeda defendants will be tried by a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, and face the death penalty.
Ramzi Yousef
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Richard Reid
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Saying “we need multilateralism with teeth,” THIS United Nations Secretary General issued a dire warning in September that the world is moving in the wrong direction and faces “a pivotal moment” where continuing business as usual could lead to a breakdown of global order and a future of perpetual crisis, according to AP News.
Ban Ki-moon
Antonio Guterres
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
David Malpass
In September 2021, the defense agreement signed by Australia, the UK and the United States included development of THIS weapon system, resulting in cancellation of a project with France. The reaction from Paris, over the arms industry implications and the cold shoulder it received by the signatories, has been severe with France recalling its ambassador from Washington.
Air defense systems
Armor including M-1 tanks
Intelligence satellite systems
Nuclear powered submarines
In September 2021, the center-left Social Democrat (SPD) party was the narrow winner in a closely fought election in Germany that will see a new Chancellor, replacing THIS formidable politician who led the Christian Democrat (CDU) party and the country for 16 years.
Merkel
Macron
Scholz
Laschet
In September 2021, San Marino voters chose to legalize abortion, the latest Catholic-majority state to do so. San Marino’s 33,000-person republic is nestled within the borders of THIS country.
Spain
France
Austria
Italy
In September 2021, U.S. Special Envoy Daniel Foote, in his resignation letter to the Secretary of State, said, he “will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to” do THIS.
Restrict Afghan refugees from U.S. resettlement
Deport Haitian refugees massed in Del Rio, Texas
Return Cuban refugees arriving in Key West, Florida by boatlift
Craft legislation to water down asylum eligibility
Twelve million leaked files from 14 financial service companies have exposed 35 current and former world leaders, including Vladimir Putin, King Abdullah of Jordan and Tony Blair, and over 300 public officials in secret financial dealings and corruption in a case called THIS, according to an international consortium of journalists in October.
Panama Report
Pandora Papers
St. Petersburg Portfolio
Indigo Files
A Nigerian artist from Benin City said in October THIS renowned museum, residence of the Rosetta Stone, accepted his gift of a bronze plaque but the gesture did not win a positive response to the request to return the priceless Benin Bronzes, looted in 1897.
Hermitage Museum
Louvre Museum
British Museum
Metropolitan Museum
In October the White House hosted the Quad Summit a grouping aimed to counter China’s expanding influence. The Quad includes all of the following countries EXCEPT THIS one.
Japan
New Zealand
Australia
India
The World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed the world’s first vaccine for THIS disease that kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly in the Global South, including about 260,000 children under age 5, in a move the WHO Director called a “historic moment.”
Polio
Covid-19
Smallpox
Malaria
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development announced in October THIS “landmark deal” agreed to by 136 nations and jurisdictions, more than 90% of global GDP, that will “reallocate more than $125 billion of profits from around 100 of the world’s largest and most profitable MNEs to countries worldwide.”
Global minimum tax
Ban on offshore tax havens
Tax collections limited to corporate home bases
Tax revenue sharing among signatory countries
Missionaries on a visit to an orphanage in THIS nation were kidnapped in October in the midst of spiraling violence including the assassination of the President. Sixteen Americans and one Canadian were taken in a country where armed gangs are growing more prevalent.
Venezuela
Myanmar
Haiti
South Sudan
India and Pakistan have been at odds over control of THIS region since the 1950s. New violence has struck with attacks on civilians and a security force crackdown leaving 33 people dead. Analysts forecast Pakistan intelligence services, newly freed from attention on Afghanistan, may turn to troublemaking there.
Sri Lanka
Tamil Nadu
Kashmir
Cox’s Bazaar
The world is NOT on target to reach the Paris climate conference goal of limiting global warming by THIS amount compared to pre-industrial levels, by mid-century.
.5 C
1.5 C
2.0 C
3.0 C
The Brazilian Senate released a damning report in October accusing THIS President of crimes against humanity for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. It said his approach was “macabre” and a “crime against public health,” over his organizing large rallies of supporters and his criticism of scientists.
Jair Bolsonaro
Chico Mendes
Juan Manuel Santos
Lulu da Silva
President Biden met with THIS world leader on the sidelines of the G20 summit for the first time since a “clumsy” rollout of a new defense pact among the UK, Australia and the US, called “AUKUS.” The arrangement included Australian acquisition of nuclear submarines, scotching a proposed sale of diesel-electric submarines from THEIR country.
President Emmanuel Macron of France
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan
As world heads of state – minus some leading polluters like China and Russia – gathered in Glasgow for the COP26 UN climate summit, a United Nations report warned that current measures would result in THIS critical result.
A reduction of 15% in coal-fired power plants vice the Paris agreed 60%.
A rise in planetary temperatures of 2.7 degree C, not the 1.5 degree C target.
An increase in percentage of worldwide electric vehicles (EVs) of only 40% by 2025.
A reduction of agricultural methane emission of just 5%.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, has been sliding toward all-out civil war and epic humanitarian crisis, as rebels from THIS region, continued to advance on the capital city, Addis Ababa.
Djibouti
Tigray
Afar
Gambela
A plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party is expected to “enshrine” THIS president, as a sign of his power, in official history, among legendary leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
Li Keqiang
Zhao Qiang
Li Zhanshu
Xi Jinping
The EU in November was reviewing stronger sanctions against THIS nation and top officials over its use of migrants – many trapped in a standoff along the Polish border – in what the EU calls a “hybrid attack” against the West.
Estonia
Ukraine
Belarus
Kaliningrad
Chinese maritime units attacked Filipino vessels with water cannons to prevent resupply of units based in Philippine-claimed areas of THIS region in November. The United States said the act was, “dangerous, provocative, and unjustified,” and could invoke U.S.-Philippines mutual defense agreements.
East China Sea
Luzon Strait
Philippine Sea
South China Sea
As of November Iran has expanded its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the building blocks for a nuclear weapon, many times more than the limits of the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the UN’s nuclear “watchdog” agency, known as THIS.
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Monitoring Agency (JCPOA-MA)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
United Nations International Nuclear Regulatory Commission (UNINRC)
Moscow amassed over 90,000 troops near the border of THIS neighbor by November, leading to American and allied leaders being alert to the possibility of an invasion given the precedent of Russian takeover and annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Ukraine
Estonia
Poland
Belarus
The Omicron variant of Covid-19, which is highly transmissible, has been discovered in Asia, Australia and Europe as of November 28th. Omicron was first identified in THIS country.
South Sudan
Democratic Republic of Congo
Bangladesh
South Africa
The new Chancellor of Germany, the most influential nation in the European Union, is THIS former Mayor of Hamburg who worked to convince voters he was most like his predecessor, Angela Merkel.
Annalena Baerbock
Armin Laschet
Maximilian Berlitz
Olaf Scholz
After holding talks with top-level military officials on strengthening the armed forces, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, “It is necessary to … improve the actual ability to win modern wars.” Meanwhile 27 Chinese warplanes tested the Air Defense Zone of THIS nation, spurring alertment of fighters and missile batteries.
Japan
Taiwan
Philippines
Indonesia
A court in Myanmar, operating under a military junta that seized power last year, found THIS 76-year old Nobel laureate and former leader guilty of two of the many charges she faces and sentenced her to four years in prison.
Win Myint
Aun San Suu Kyi
Myint Swe
Min Aung Hlaing
The international association for women in THIS sport announced a suspension of tournaments in China in protest of the disappearance of athlete Peng Shuai and the handling of her charges of sexual assault against a senior Communist Party official.
Soccer
Tennis
Badminton
Basketball
On November 30th, Barbados stopped pledging allegiance to their queen and became a republic for the first time in history. WHO was Barbados previously pledging allegiance to?
Queen Margrethe II
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Victoria
Queen Anne
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