Quiz of The Week: 19 - 25 June

Millions of sun-starved Brits longing for distant shores have welcomed the expansion this week of the government’s travel “green list”.

Holiday hotspots including the Balearic Islands, Malta and Madeira are being added, Transport Minister Grant Shapps has announced, along with the Caribbean destinations of Antigua, Barbados, Barbuda, Dominica and Grenada.

But while travellers to the listed destinations will not have to quarantine after returning to the UK, European holiday hopes have been threatened by a call from Angela Merkel for all EU countries to make British travellers quarantine on arrival, to slow the spread of variant strains of Covid-19.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

And on another down note, Boris Johnson warned that while plans to end coronavirus restriction on 19 July were “looking good”, the UK should brace for a “rough winter” as predicted flu outbreaks intensify the “big pressures on the NHS”.

To find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest developments in the pandemic, and other global events, put your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week:

Need a reminder of some of the other headlines over the past seven days?

A leaked government report has revealed the predicted economic cost of continuing any Covid restrictions after so-called Freedom Day next month. Modelling by the government’s Events Research Programme (ERP) found that retaining even “low intervention” measures - with wearing face masks as the only mandatory rule - would result in the events industry achieving just 82% of its 2019 turnover, with indoor venues at 72% and indoor non-seated at 65%.

Meanwhile, a controversial new report from the Education Select Committee has accused the Department of Education of having “little interest” in exploring why white working-class pupils in UK schools are underperforming “relative to similarly deprived peers”.

Over in Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that his government will pardon the nine jailed leaders of Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence referendum, in an effort to promote reconciliation in the divided nation.

Leaders in France and Germany, meanwhile, are reportedly hoping to promote closer ties between the EU and Russia. Sources claim that Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are pushing for the bloc to “consider inviting the Russian president to a summit with EU leaders”, following Joe Biden’s effort to realign US-Russian relations during his face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin last week.

The UK is also out to strengthen ties, for trading purposes, with negotiations to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership kicking off this week. However, experts have warned the potential economic gains to be made by joining the bloc of 11 nations may be small.