News quiz

News quiz

Multiple Choice

President Joe Biden has officially recognised the massacre of a Christian ethnic group in the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide. About 1.5 million people were killed. Which ethnic group?

• Armenians

• Uzbeks

• Rohingya

Genocide = the deliberate attempt to kill a whole class of people identified by their ethnicity, nationality, race or religious affiliation. The term was first coined to describe the Nazi attempted to wipe out the Jewish people (the Holocaust), and other groups during the Second World War.

During the First World War in 1915 and 1916, the Ottoman Empire attempted to wipe out their Christian Armenian minority. The Armenians were seen as a threat because there were so many of them and because of their religion.

At the time the Ottoman Empire's principal enemy was Russia and Armenian volunteers fought on the side of Russia in the hope of gaining independence from the Ottomans.

Armenians who escaped being killed have campaigned for decades internationally for the atrocities to be recognised as a genocide.

Multiple Choice

In May 2020, George Floyd died in Minneapolis, USA. The policeman who caused his death has now been convicted of "second-degree unintentional murder". What does that correspond to in Swedish law?

• Vållande till annans död

• Mord

• Dråp

Murder is the deliberate killing of another person. But there are degrees of murder. Did the murderer plan to kill? Did the murderer not plan to kill, but do so in a fit of rage? Did the murderer kill by accident?

The laws of every country define different degrees of murder. It is often difficult to translate one country's definition of a type of murder exactly with a term in another language.

In the USA, murder is a crime defined by state legislation and not by federal legislation. In other words the names and definitions of murder differ from state to state within the USA.

Police officer Chauvin killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, slowly suffocating him. What kind of killing was this? 

Chauvin was accused of three different kinds of murder: second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was found guilty on all three counts.

Multiple Choice

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has been elected the new leader of the country's Communist Party. This means that a family that has ruled Cuba for 60 years has now handed over power. Which family?

• Castro

• Chávez

• Perón

The man who led the Cuban revolution and took power in Havana in 1959 was Fidel Castro. He was President of Cuba until 2008, when ill health caused him to hand over power to his brother Raul Castro. Fidel Castro remained as the leader of the Cuban Communist Party until 2011. He died in 2016. Raul Castro took over control of the Communist Party in 2011, but only gave up the Presidency in 2018 to Miguel Díaz-Canel. Now Raul Castro (aged 89) has retired, but everyone expects him to continue to take an interest in politics.

Multiple Choice

EU countries have agreed on a new climate goal. The goal is for EU carbon dioxide emissions to have decreased by 55% by … Which year?

• 2030

• 2040

• 2050

The new climate law agreed among the member states of the EU is not quite as tough as the European Parliament wanted. Parliament wanted a target of 60% lower CO2 emissions by 2030. Still, if the law is accepted by the EU Parliament and by each of the parliaments of the 27 member states, it will be an important step on the road to net zero emissions by 2050.

Multiple Choice

Three Swedish soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb in a country in West Africa. They are part of a contingent of 150 Swedish soldiers taking part in "Task Force Takuba". In which country?

• Mali

• Eritrea

• Sudan

Task Force Takuba is a French led, joint EU task force to assist the Mali Armed Forces and other African military groups in keeping peace and combating terrorism in Mali. According to this report from Swedish Radio, the Swedish soldiers suffered only minor injuries.

Multiple Choice

Parental leave (föräldraledighet) is something all workers in Sweden can expect. Not so in other countries. Recently Volvo introduced parental leave for all its employees world-wide. How much parental leave can Swedish parents take?

• 480 days

• 240 days

• 120 days

Half of the 480 days is reserved for one parent, half for the other. Even in modern Sweden, not more than 30% of fathers take their full 240 days. But around the world the right to parental leave is by no means recognised in every country. Some countries only allow mothers to take a few weeks or even a few days paid parental leave. Some have made it legal for parents to take unpaid leave, while many leave it up to employers to choose.

Without legal encouragement, not even every company with a Swedish connection gives its employees parental leave. Over the last decade, though, it has become more common for companies, especially in retail, to do so. Among "Swedish" international retail companies, IKEA and H&M stand out. Among engineering or construction companies, Volvo's "Family Bond", introduced from 1st April this year, seems to be leading the way

Multiple Choice

When international travel becomes possible again, it will be important to have a valid passport. EU passports are "biometric". Each contains a chip that holds a photo, personal information and ... What else?

• Your voice recording

• Your DNA profile

• Your fingerprint

At present biometric passports only contain information that can help uniquely identify the carrier. But will they in the future also include information about our health as well? This issue has come to the fore because of the coronavirus pandemic. Several countries around the world, especially those which depend very much on income from tourism, have been advocating for "Covid passports" as well. A Covid passport would show that the carrier has been vaccinated against Covid-19, or has recovered from infection with the Covid virus. The European Union is trying to co-ordinate moves towards a Covid passport, while several countries of the EU (including Estonia and Denmark) rush ahead.

Multiple Choice

For the first time, an aircraft built on Earth has flown on another planet. Over the last week the 1.8 kg Ingenuity has flown several times on Mars. What type of aircraft is Ingenuity?

• An airship

• A helicopter

• A glider

Ingenuity was carried to Mars aboard the Perseverance Rover.

Multiple Choice

Twelve large European football clubs announced that they would start their own closed league. Their plans were fiercely criticised and now they've been dropped. What was the new league to be called?

• The Super League

• The Euro League

• The Masters League

The European Super League was modelled on the structure of the professional American Football league. It would have disengaged the clubs that joined it from the national leagues in their different countries, and also from the UEFA Champions League.

The people organising the European Super League were hoping it would draw in more advertising revenue, and make fortunes for the owners. Fan protests across Europe, but especially in the UK, caused the clubs to reconsider participating. First one (Chelsea) then a second (Manchester City), and finally all six of the English clubs involved pulled out.

Multiple Choice

Again this year, several major youth competitions will be cancelled due to the corona pandemic. These include the Gothia Cup, Partille Cup, and O-ringen. If you compete in O-ringen, what is your sport?

• Football

• Handball

• Orienteering

Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain.

Originates from Sweden.

Multiple Choice

Josef Fares has made films in the past such as Jalla! Jalla!, Kopps and Zozo. In recent years he's had great success in another industry. He has just launched It Takes Two. What is it?

• A dating site

• A computer game

• A fashion collection

It Takes Two is a romantic comedy re-conceived as a co-operative computer game. It launched only recently and has already sold more than a million copies. This demonstrates that players want to play co-operative games, says Josef Fares

Multiple Choice

The Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's film Another Round, with Mads Mikkelsen, was one of this year's Oscar winners. In which category did the film win its Oscar?

• International Feature Film

• Writing (Original Screenplay)

• Documentary (Feature)

Another Round (Druk in Danish) is the fourth Danish film to win the best international film Oscar