Quiz of The Week: 8 - 14 June

It's been a week of earthquakes both political – Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to call a snap general election in France after a lacklustre performance in the European elections – and literal – in the case of the 2.3 magnitude tremors generated by Taylor Swift fans dancing the night away at the megastar's concert in Edinburgh.

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And now, find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest news and other global events by putting your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week.  

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1. The vice-president of which East African country was among those killed in a plane crash on Monday?

• Rwanda
• Zambia
• Malawi
• Mozambique

2. Apple unveiled which new feature at its Worldwide Developers Conference?

• Schedule text messages 
• Instant language translation 
• Hologram videos 
• Self-deleting photos 

3. American Bill May narrowly missed the cut to become the first man to compete in which Olympic discipline?

• Artistic swimming
• Beach volleyball
• Rhythmic gymnastics
• Heptathlon 

4. Joe Biden's son Hunter was convicted of what on Tuesday?

• Illegal gun possession
• Tax evasion 
• Selling pardons 
• Embezzlement

5. Which Israeli minister quit Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet with a swipe at the prime minister?

• Yair Lapid
• Benny Gantz
• Israel Katz
• Moshe Arbel

6. Which UN Security Council member country this week abstained from endorsing a US-backed ceasefire deal for Gaza?

• France
• China
• Russia
• Algeria 

7. The leader of which party stunned the French political establishment by offering to team up with the far-right National Rally?

• Renaissance
• The Socialist Party
• The Republicans
• Democratic Movement

8. At a rally in Las Vegas, Donald Trump described an unusual scenario involving which sea animal?

• Killer whale
• Seal
• Barracuda 
• Shark 

9. Which of these pledges is not in the Labour Party's general election manifesto?

• 40,000 extra GP appointments
• 6,500 more teachers
• 1.5 million new homes
• 10 new "garden cities"

10. What demographic group was found among the Mayan remains thought to have been ritually sacrificed? 

• Pregnant women
• Male siblings 
• Elderly women 
• Fathers of girls 

1. Malawi
Vice-President Saulos Chilima and nine other passengers were killed when their military aircraft crashed in low visibility conditions over a national reserve. Find out more about what this means for the future of one of Africa's poorest countries in this week's episode of The Week Unwrapped podcast.

2. Schedule text messages 
Apple revealed new features including the ability to schedule text messages, send texts via satellite when necessary, and record and transcribe calls from the phone app. Notably, it's enhancing Siri and other apps with AI, calling it "Apple Intelligence".

3. Artistic swimming
May, 45, missed out on a spot in the USA squad for the Paris Olympics. But World Aquatics, which oversees the sport formerly known as synchronised swimming, said it was "absolutely determined" that men will participate at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

4. Illegal gun possession
Hunter Biden was convicted on three criminal charges. He was found guilty of lying about his drug use to purchase a handgun and illegally possessing the firearm for 11 days in October 2018.

5. Benny Gantz
Gantz, the popular leader of the National Unity party, said Netanyahu's fixation on "total victory" over Hamas was prolonging the conflict and putting the lives of Israeli hostages at risk.

6. Russia 
The UN Security Council voted 14-0 on a three-stage plan approved by Israel's war cabinet. The "unusual show of relative unity by a deeply divided Security Council" puts pressure on Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement.

7. The Republicans
In shambolic scenes, leader Eric Ciotti locked himself in the party's headquarters in an apparent attempt to keep his colleagues from holding an emergency meeting to sack him. Interim leader François-Xavier Bellamy will now lead the centre-right party into the snap election.

8. Shark
During his speech, the former president veered off on a tangent about whether he'd rather die by electrocution in a sinking electric boat or face a hungry shark waiting for him in nearby waters. This fixation with sharks appears to be a recurring theme in many of his public addresses.

9. 10 new "garden cities"
The garden cities are part of the Liberal Democrats' manifesto, also unveiled this week. Leader Ed Davey said creating new towns would help the party reach its goal of building 380,000 new homes a year, almost half of them social housing.

10. Male siblings
DNA analysis discovered that the 64 Mayan remains discovered near Chichén Itzá in Mexico in 1967 were mostly boys between the ages of three and six, and many were closely related. Among the remains were two sets of twins.