Politicians have had another stressful week as a series of dramas unfolded in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the US, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, as the GOP seeks evidence linking the president to his son Hunter's business dealings. Republicans allege bribery and corruption during Biden's tenure as vice president, but have yet to produce any proof, while Democrats have condemned the inquiry as a "political stunt" as the 2024 election approaches.
Tensions are also growing between the UK, US and EU over the issue of further support for Ukraine. US lawmakers began departing Washington this week for the holidays without approving a deal to send more military aid. And Hungary blocked €50 billion in EU aid for Ukraine at a crunch summit in Brussels.
However, Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán did agree to allow the bloc to open accession talks with Kyiv on Ukraine's membership bid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the decision as a "victory" for his country and for "all of Europe". But following many years of tensions between Russia and Ukraine, hopes of a resumption of peace remain low.
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. Which country suspended all football league fixtures after a club president punched a referee at the end of a match?
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Greece
Turkey
France
Spain
2. Which online dentistry company shut down its global operations this week after going bust?
Smile Direct Club
Invisalign
NewSmile
Byte
3. Which celebrity donated $1 million to residents in tornado-ravaged Tennessee?
Oprah Winfrey
Taylor Swift
Miley Cyrus
John Legend
4. Judges in England and Wales were given the green light to use which online tool to help write legal rulings?
ChatGPT
Microsoft Bing
Googlebot
Yahoo! Answers
5. Baseball star Shohei Ohtani signed a record-breaking $700 million contract with which US team?
San Diego Padres
Boston Red Sox
New York Mets
Los Angeles Dodgers
6. In which city did Vladimir Putin confirm that he will run for re-election next year?
St Petersburg
Vladivostok
Moscow
Yekaterinburg
7. Sports Illustrated CEO Ross Levinsohn was fired after the magazine was accused of what?
Libel
Publishing AI-generated content
Phone hacking
Promoting steroid use
8. Argentina's newly inaugurated President Javier Milei devalued the peso by how much as part of his economic "shock therapy"?
18%
26%
38%
54%
9. How much did Hayao Miyazaki's new film "The Boy and the Heron" earn in the US and Canada in its opening weekend?
$2.8 million
$5.3 million
$12.8 million
$17.4 million
10. King Charles is facing criticism for appointing as head of the royal medical household a doctor who has advocated for what?
Homeopathic remedies
Electroconvulsive therapy
Reiki healing
Ketamine microdosing
1. Turkey Referee Halil Umut Meler was punched to the ground by MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca, and then kicked after fans invaded the pitch, following a 1-1 Super Lig draw with Rizespor in Ankara on Monday. Koca was arrested and the Turkish football federation halted all matches, before later ruling that the league could resume on 19 December.
2. Smile Direct Club The US-based company, which sold teeth-straightening aligners, announced that it was closing down "immediately", two months after filing for bankruptcy – leaving many customers feeling "confused and stranded", said the BBC. Find out more with The Week Unwrapped podcast.
3. Taylor Swift The singer-songwriter donated to the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund after deadly tornadoes ripped through the region last weekend. "Nashville is my home and the fact that so many people have lost their homes and so much more in Middle Tennessee is devastating to me," Swift said on Instagram.
4. ChatGPT New guidance from the Judicial Office says that AI can be used to summarise large amounts of text or for administrative tasks. But judges were warned not to conduct legal research or analysis, as chatbots are prone to making up fictitious cases.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers Ohtani is the highest-paid player in MLB history after signing the 10-year contract, following the expiration of his contract with the Los Angeles Angels. The Japanese star has agreed to defer $680 million of his historic pay deal until 2034, so that his new team has more cash to enlist other new players. 6. Moscow Putin ended months of speculation when he confirmed his bid for another six-year term as president, during a military awards ceremony at the Kremlin. His expected victory in elections scheduled to take place in March paves the way for him to remain in power until 2036 – by which point he would have surpassed Joseph Stalin's 29 years to become Russia's longest-serving leader.
7. Publishing AI-generated content Levinsohn was fired weeks after tech website Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated had published several articles with fake author names and headshots from an AI-generated image website. The content was removed from the magazine's website, but published The Arena Group disputed the report's accuracy and said this week that Levinsohn had been sacked to "improve the operational efficiency and revenue of the company".
8. 54% Milei is slashing the value of Argentina's currency, the peso, against the US dollar as part of emergency measures to help the nation's struggling economy. The far-right president has also announced massive spending cuts since being sworn in on Sunday.
9.$12.8 million The long-awaited animated fantasy from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli is the first original anime title in history to top the North American box office chart. The film is getting rave reviews but is rumoured to be the last from 82-year-old Miyazaki.
10. Homeopathic remedies Dr Michael Dixon, "a champion of faith healing and herbalism", has "quietly" held the senior position for the last year, The Sunday Times reported last weekend. Dixon's duties include having overall responsibility for the health of the King and the wider royal family, and potentially even representing them in talks with government.
Harriet Marsden is a senior staff writer and podcast panellist for The Week, covering world news and writing the weekly Global Digest newsletter. Before joining the site in 2023, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, working for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent among others, and regularly appearing on radio shows. In 2021, she was awarded the “journalist-at-large” fellowship by the Local Trust charity, and spent a year travelling independently to some of England’s most deprived areas to write about community activism. She has a master’s in international journalism from City University, and has also worked in Bolivia, Colombia and Spain.
