Quiz of The Week: 5 - 11 June

Joe Biden’s visit to the UK this week has triggered much soul-searching in both Downing Street and the media about the health of the so-called “special relationship” between the two nations.

A post-Brexit trade row with the EU threatened to derail Boris Johnson’s first in-person meeting with the president, with the most senior US diplomat in Britain reportedly warning No. 10 against “inflaming” tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

But come the day, the two leader put on a display of friendship centring around a new agreement on UK-US cooperation.

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With Johnson focusing on further boosting ties with Biden and other world leaders at the G7 summit in Cornwall, questions remain about whether the prime minister will go ahead with the scheduled ending of all coronavirus restrictions on 21 June. Sources have suggested that he could delay the last step in the roadmap out of lockdown by four weeks, with a final decision expected to be announced on Monday.

To find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest developments in 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?

Matt Hancock faced a grilling from MPs on the Health and Science Select Committee over his handling of the Covid-19 crisis. The health secretary was quizzed about a number of allegations made by Dominic Cummings, who told MPs last month that Hancock should have been “fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions”.

Hitting back at the former No. 10 aide, Hancock insisted that he had always been driven by an approach of “honesty and integrity”, and that the government “has operated better over the past six months” following Cummings’ exit from Downing Street.

Rows over the pandemic response have also caused unrest in other European countries, with a newly published survey of EU member states suggesting that public confidence in the bloc’s ability to handle crises has been seriously damaged over the past year.

Meanwhile, the authorities in China are scrambling to contain a new wave of infections that is believed to have been triggered by the arrival of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Africa has also been hit by a surge in new Covid cases, with countries across the continent appealing for urgently needed vaccines to help stop the spread.

In happier, non-Covid-related news, more than 800 criminals were arrested in countries worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, in what has been described as the “biggest and most sophisticated crime sting in history”.