The UK was hit by the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade as half a million workers from multiple sectors went on strike on Wednesday.
School teachers, train drivers, university staff and civil servants staged walkouts across the nation over pay and working conditions. According to unions, 300,000 teachers, 100,000 civil servants, 70,000 university staff, 12,000 train drivers and 2,000 bus workers downed tools.
Such widespread industrial action has not taken place since the pensions dispute in 2011, when more than a million public sector workers walked out. And following the failure of negotiations with the government, the strikes are continuing today, as train and bus drivers again take action.
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On Monday, thousands of ambulance workers will join nurses on the picket line in what is set to be the biggest strike in NHS history.
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. A Chinese food blogger was fined the equivalent of £15,000 for eating which sea creature?
Blue whale
Great white shark
Colossal squid
Sea turtle
2. Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open victory this week brings his total tally of grand slam wins to how much?
20
21
22
23
3.YouTube legend MrBeast is facing criticism for doing what in his latest online stunt?
Paying for 1,000 people to have cataract removal surgery
Cooking a three-course meal of roadkill for friends
Giving $50,000 to drug addicts
Organising a mass wedding in Las Vegas
4.Which film star is at the centre of a “race row” after being nominated for Best Actress at the upcoming Oscars?
Andrea Riseborough
Michelle Williams
Cate Blanchett
Ana de Armas
5. Which “sleepy” town is the UK’s capital for Satanists, according to latest census data?
Rye, East Sussex
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Braintree, Essex
Bungay, Suffolk
6. An independent review found that “too many” of which broadcaster’s journalists “lack understanding of basic economics”?
Sky
GB News
BBC
ITV
7. New research found that which UK coffee chain brews up the most caffeine-packed cappuccinos?
Starbucks
Greggs
Costa
Pret a Manger
8. Which billionaire has fallen off Forbes’s top ten rich list following fraud allegations?
Bernard Arnault
Gautam Adani
Bill Gates
Elon Musk
9. Which energy giant has announced the highest profit in its 115-year history?
Shell
BP
Exxon Mobil
Chevron
10. A Jewish family is suing the Guggenheim over a painting by which artist that was allegedly sold under duress during Nazi rule?
Pablo Picasso
Claude Monet
Piet Mondrian
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1. Great white shark
Police began investigating after the blogger, known as Tizi to her almost eight million followers, posted footage on Chinese social media site Douyin last year showing her illegally buying and then cooking the endangered shark.
2.22
The 35-year-old tennis player is now level with rival Rafael Nadal on 22 grand slam titles, and is once again No.1 in the ATP world rankings.
3.Paying for 1,000 people to have cataract removal surgery
The YouTuber, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has been accused of “charity porn” after posting a now-viral video documenting how he paid for life-changing operations for people blinded by the condition.
4.Andrea Riseborough
The British actor is up for the gong for her role in To Leslie following a celebrity-backed campaign, but has become the focal point of an ongoing row about racism in Hollywood as critics point to the lack of black nominees.
5.Bungay, Suffolk
The 2021 census found that 70 out of around 8,500 people living in Bungay and nearby villages identified as devil-worshippers – more than a hundred times the national average.
6.BBC
In a BBC-commissioned report on its coverage of government financial policies, economic experts Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot warned that impartiality was “at risk” because some of the broadcaster’s journalists “make assumptions and have gaps in their knowledge”.
7.Costa
According to a Which? analysis, a medium cappuccino from Costa contains a “massive” 325mg of caffeine – almost five times more than the Starbucks version, with 66mg. Pret a Manger has the strongest espresso, with 180mg per shot.
8.Gautam Adani
A New York-based research group has accused the Indian industrialist’s Adani Group of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” that amounted to “the largest con in corporate history”.
9. Shell
The British multinational oil and gas company has recorded an annual profit of $40bn (£32bn) after energy prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
10.Pablo Picasso
Picasso’s Woman Ironing was bequeathed to the New York museum decades after being sold at a cut-price by Jewish art dealer Karl Adler in order to fund his family’s escape from Nazi Germany. Find out more with The Week Unwrapped podcast.
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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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