Quiz of The Week: 24 - 30 April

Boris Johnson’s long list of political headaches has continued to grow this week, amid fresh allegations of government sleaze.

The so-called “cash for curtains” row about who footed the bill for a refurb of Johnson’s 11 Downing Street flat has dominated headlines. And the prime minister is facing more embarrassing questions as the Electoral Commission launches a probe into claims that Tory donors including Conservative peer David Brownlow may have funded the makeover.

With just a week to go until the local elections, speculation is mounting about how the allegations will play out with voters. But latest polling by YouGov showing the Tories widening their lead over Labour may calm the PM’s frazzled nerves.

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

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?

India is battling a record surge in Covid cases, with the port city of Kolkata emerging as the epicentre of the outbreak. Neighbouring Pakistan has also been identified as a “ticking timebomb” for infections, after recording its deadliest day since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to a further year in jail in Iran - prompting her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, to accuse Tehran of using her imprisonment as a “negotiation tactic” in ongoing talks over the revival of the Iran Nuclear Deal.

News from the US offered more reason for cheer. Half a century after he first entered Congress as a senator, Joe Biden marked his 100th day as president with a speech to Congress outlining a $1.8trn (£1.3trn) spending package to revive the US economy.

And a new Malaria vaccine showed excellent results in tests in the West African country of Burkina Faso. The Phase 2 trial findings have raised hopes that scientists are nearing a breakthrough in the fight against a virus that every year kills around 400,000 people, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.