Quiz of The Week: 6 - 12 April

Rishi Sunak's fancy footwear took up a considerable number of column inches in the UK's newspapers this week.

The prime minister wryly offered a "fulsome apology" to fans of one particular brand after his trainers sparked widespread mockery in the media and online, some noting that the shoes looked practically unworn. Far from being a fun bit of PR for the PM, what the shoe debacle really underlined is that "it's just over" for the Tories, as the party enters the final stages of its "death spiral", said Hugo Rifkind in The Times. 

And Sunak isn't just being outshone by his shoes. His foreign secretary, David Cameron, is increasingly grabbing the spotlight both at home and abroad as he makes the most of his return to the frontline of British politics. As Cameron made a high-profile trip to the US, British diplomats were telling how he has brought "weight and heft" to the Foreign Office, and "injected fresh confidence and ideas into British foreign policy".

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Even more unusual choices were being made in South Korea as the country headed to the polls this week. Voters sought out green onion themed memorabilia to wear to polling stations after the humble vegetable – a staple in the South Korean diet – became a symbol of protest against President Yoon Suk Yeol. His conservative People Power Party was crushed in Wednesday's national elections, with the liberal opposition party winning a landslide victory and retaining control of parliament. 

In good news for graduates in the US, President Biden has announced a new programme that would reduce the amount that 25 million borrowers owe on their undergraduate and graduate loans. But the proposal will almost certainly face a number of conservative legal challenges as the legislative clock ticks down to this year's presidential election.

Finally, family board-game nights could get a little less fraught after Mattel announced it will release a "less competitive" edition of its classic game Scrabble. The new version will include helper cards, use a simpler scoring system and be quicker to play. 

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

1. Who did David Cameron have a surprise meeting with in the US?

• Barack Obama
• Donald Trump
• Bill Clinton
• Taylor Swift

2. A senior judge in which country accused Elon Musk of waging a public "disinformation campaign"?

• Australia 
• Portugal
• Russia
• Brazil

3. Which MP tabled a Commons amendment that would end the prosecution of women who terminate pregnancies after the 24-week limit?

• Harriet Harman
• Caroline Nokes
• Caroline Ansell
• Diana Johnson

4. Which women's basketball team won this year's NCAA championship, which drew a TV audience bigger than the men's event for the first time?

• Iowa Hawkeyes
• South Carolina Gamecocks
• Connecticut Huskies 
• NC State Wolfpack

5. Which Ukrainian city is facing being turned into a "grey zone" – ie, uninhabitable – due to constant Russian drone strikes?

• Donetsk
• Kyiv
• Kharkiv
• Lviv

6. Republicans are trying to get the Electoral College system changed in which US state reportedly at the behest of Donald Trump?

• New Jersey
• Nebraska
• Wyoming
• New Mexico

7. M&S is investing £1 million to improve the diet of its dairy cows in an effort to curb emissions of which gas?

• Carbon dioxide
• Nitrogen dioxide
• Methane
• Water vapour

8. A recent study found that providing people with what object can boost a person's earnings in low-income countries?

• A leather wallet 
• Reading glasses 
• Vitamins 
• A book

9. Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a brand of trainers uncool by wearing which shoes?

• Nike Air Jordans
• Adidas Stan Smiths
• Converse All Stars
• Adidas Sambas

10. The Botswanan president has threatened to send 20,000 of which animal to Germany? 

• Zebras
• Hippos
• Meerkats
• Elephants

1. Donald Trump
Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, visited the former US president at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to try to persuade the de facto leader of the Republican Party to allow Congress to push through $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine.

2. Brazil
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes initiated an investigation into Musk, citing a public "disinformation campaign", after refusing to comply with a court order to block certain accounts on X. Moraes labelled the X owner's actions an "obstruction of Brazilian justice" and "disrespect" for the country's sovereignty.

3. Diana Johnson
The Labour chair of the Home Affairs Committee has tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill calling for abortion to be fully decriminalised in England and Wales after a spate of prosecutions of women in the past five years.

4. South Carolina Gamecocks
The Gamecocks won the championship after defeating superstar Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75. The game was watched by an average of 18.9 million TV viewers, while the men's final attracted 14.8 million. 

5. Kharkiv
Since February, Ukraine's second-largest city has been subjected to a wave of drone attacks as Russia intensifies its bombardment of the strategically important city ahead of a possible major summer offensive.

6. Nebraska
Most states operate on a "winner-take-all" system for Electoral College votes. Not Nebraska. Republicans tend to win the statewide popular vote, but Democrats have often prevailed in the "competitive 2nd District" centred in Omaha. GOP lawmakers are now trying to shift to a winner-take-all system, which would benefit their candidate, Trump.

7. Methane
M&S claims that switching its dairy cows to a diet derived from mineral salts and a by-product of fermented corn will reduce methane production during digestion, cutting the carbon footprint of the cows' milk by 8.4%.

8. Reading glasses
The study examined more than 800 people from 56 villages in Bangladesh. It concluded that providing them with glasses "increases income in near vision-intensive occupations and may facilitate return to work for those currently unemployed".

9. Adidas Sambas
When the claim was put to him, Sunak told LBC's Nick Ferrari: "I issue a fulsome apology to the Samba community. But, in my defence, I would say I have been wearing Adidas trainers including Sambas – and others, in fact – for many, many years." 

10. Elephants 
After the German government said it wants to ban the importing of hunting trophies, Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany. Botswana has seen a surge in its elephant population, and allowing elephants to be hunted is an "important means to keep them in check", Masisi said.