Quiz of The Week: 30 December - 5 Jan

Labour leader Keir Starmer delivers his first major speech of 2024, telling an audience in Bristol that the UK was 'ready for an election' and 'crying out for change'

(Image credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK

published 5 January 2024

Elections are set to dominate headlines in 2024 as more than half of the global population heads to the polls.

In the biggest election year in history, an estimated four billion people will be eligible to vote in presidential, legislative and local elections in more than 60 countries, including the UK and US.

In the UK, Labour leader Keir Starmer has launched his election bid by promising a "politics that treads a little lighter on all our lives" if his party wins power. Pundits predicted that a snap spring poll was on the cards after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set a March date for the Spring Budget, but Rishi Sunak then told journalists that his "working assumption" was that the next election would be in "the second half of this year".

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Over in the US, the signs are pointing towards another election showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in November, with both leading the races to secure their respective party nominations. In the meantime, China hawks will be watching as voters in Taiwan go to the polls later this month to elect their next president, with the outcome likely to have a profound impact on both domestic and global politics.

4. Henk
The first named storm to hit the UK in 2024 brought winds of up to 94mh and caused widespread flooding and travel disruption. Henk was the eighth named storm in three months and came days after Storm Gerrit ripped through the country.

5. Denmark's Queen Margrethe II
The world's only reigning queen and Europe's longest-serving monarch said she would step down on 14 January – 52 years to the day since she became monarch following the death of her father, King Frederik IX. The throne will go to her 55-year-old son, Crown Prince Frederik.

8. Baby formula powder
Reckitt Benckiser said it was voluntarily recalling 675,000 cans of Nutramigen Powder, a hypoallergenic formula sold in the US and UK, as a "precautionary step" owing to a "possibility of contamination" with Cronobacter sakazakii. The bacteria can cause the potentially fatal infections sepsis and meningitis, but the company said that no "illnesses or adverse events" linked to the products had been reported.

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Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.

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