As October and spooky season get underway, did you make sure to follow along with this week’s international headlines? Find out with our news quiz!
1. Moldova’s Sunday election saw its pro-West ruling party emerge with a majority of legislative seats. But accusations of attempted Russian interference hung over the polls, and several days before the vote, police arrested dozens of people allegedly trained in Serbia to do what?
The defeat of the pro-Russia parties is yet another example of Moscow’s diminishing influence around the globe, Adrian Karatnycky and Alexander J. Motyl write.
2. U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a peace proposal on Monday to end the Israel-Hamas war. The plan includes an international oversight committee that would count among its members which former British prime minister?
Trump wading deeper into Middle Eastern politics is just one of the ways he has proved he will never be a foreign-policy restrainer, FP’s Stephen M. Walt argues.
3. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a speech on Tuesday to top military brass, having abruptly called the meeting without disclosing its reason. What was Hegseth’s speech largely about?
The military leaders responded with stony silence to Hegseth’s remarks and Trump’s speech that followed, exemplifying professional restraint, Kori Schake argues.
4. The Taliban ordered an internet blackout and a total shutdown of mobile phone data on Tuesday. What did the regime want to prevent with this crackdown?
The announcement follows the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over their well-documented persecution of women and girls as well as LGBTQ individuals, which Lisa Davis wrote about in August.
5. The African Growth and Opportunity Act expired on Tuesday. Signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000, what did the act facilitate?
The act was originally enacted to help foster economic development in Africa, and its expiration puts more than a million jobs across the continent at risk, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi reports in Africa Brief.
6. The United Nations on Tuesday authorized a more muscular security support mission to combat gang violence in Haiti. What is this new body called?
The new mission will include military troops and permit greater use of force, including the ability to detain and “neutralize” gang members, FP’s Catherine Osborn writes in Latin America Brief.
7. According to a Wednesday report, the United States will now start providing Ukraine the intelligence it needs to accomplish what in its war against Russia?
The Trump administration is also weighing giving Ukraine weapons to facilitate these long-distance strikes at Russian infrastructure, FP’s Rishi Iyengar and John Haltiwanger write in Situation Report.
8. India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that, after a five-year freeze, direct flights with which neighboring nation would resume by the end of the month?
FP’s Ravi Agrawal sat down with former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao in early September to discuss how Trump’s tariffs are pushing India and China closer together.
9. On Saturday, Egyptian wrestler Ashraf Mahrous pulled a 700-ton ship across water in a feat he hopes will be recognized by Guinness World Records. To accomplish his Herculean task, Mahrous dragged the ship using a rope held by which part of his body?
Mahrous has also pulled a train, a locomotive, and a truck, The Associated Press reports.
10. Primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall died on Wednesday at the age of 91. Goodall was a pioneer in her field for her work studying the behavior of primates, with a focus on which species?
Goodall upended scientific norms of her time by naming chimpanzees and observing their distinct personalities, Reuters reports.
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