2023
See how well you remember the biggest headlines of the past year in a special expanded edition of our international news quiz.
1. In the first week of 2023, Palestinian leadership criticized new Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he visited which contested holy site in Jerusalem?
Ben-Gvir is a member of Israel’s most far-right government in history. He has been convicted of supporting a Jewish supremacist terrorist group and inciting racism against Palestinians, Neri Zilber reported in November 2022.
2. Days later, right-wing rioters in which country staged their own version of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection?
Although the revolt by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro failed to remove newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from office, it revealed the strength and reach of Brazil’s far right, FP’s Catherine Osborn wrote at the time.
3. In mid-January, Western defense leaders met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss the war in Ukraine. Which issue was at the top of their agenda?
“[Ukraine has] been very blunt with the Pentagon that what we’re providing them is not addressing these critical [advanced weapons] gaps,” a senior U.S. congressional aide told FP’s Jack Detsch and Amy Mackinnon.
4. In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would invoke an obscure constitutional measure to pass which controversial bill?
The unpopular pension reform was a “make-or-break moment for Macron,” FP’s Michele Barbero reported in January amid mass demonstrations against the proposed measure.
5. Later that month, lawmakers in Uganda approved extensive new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Which of the following did the law not criminalize?
African countries have become increasingly anti-LGBTQ+ in recent decades, in no small part thanks to the efforts of U.S. evangelicals, Caleb Okereke wrote.
6. Former U.S. President Donald Trump was arraigned in early April in New York on which charge?
Most of Trump’s fellow Republicans decried his indictment, and the erstwhile leader looks on track to secure his party’s nomination for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. If Trump wins the presidency again, it “would arguably mark the final dismantling of the credibility of Western liberal democracies,” John Kampfner recently argued.
7. China said in late April that U.S. accusations about what were “groundless”?
FP’s Stephen M. Walt argued that China and the United States need to work together to bring peace to Ukraine. But the latest finger-pointing has only heightened tensions between the two powers.
8. In early May, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa accused the country of doing what?
South Africa has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and instead cozied up to Moscow—a posture Eusebius McKaiser and FP’s Sasha Polakow-Suransky slammed as self-defeating last year.
9. What did Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of doing in early June?
If Russia were to be found responsible for the explosion, it would seriously hinder Moscow’s war effort—and add to the long list of alleged war crimes the Kremlin has committed in Ukraine, FP’s Robbie Gramer, Christina Lu, and Brawley Benson reported at the time.
10. Later that same week, which Pacific island nation indicated that it was reconsidering its security ties with China?
Though China has made some gains courting Pacific countries, its grossly bungled diplomacy has ensured that the United States will not lose its regional allies anytime soon, Derek Grossman wrote.
11. Which Colombian paramilitary group said that it would “cease all offensive actions” against the country’s military starting in early July?
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced plans for a cease-fire with the group in June, FP’s Catherine Osborn reported in Latin America Brief at the time. It went into effect in August.
12. By how many votes did progressive Thai politician Pita Limjaroenrat fall short of becoming prime minister in the first round of parliamentary voting on July 13?
Pita was eventually dropped from the prime minister vote in August, FP’s Alexandra Sharp reported at the time. The next month, Srettha Thavisin was elected as Thailand’s prime minister.
13. Africa’s first climate summit ended on Sept. 6 with a call for world leaders to unite in support of what?
The call for action comes amid a population boom across the continent, straining countries’ abilities to respond to climate catastrophes, FP’s Ashley Ahn wrote in August.
14. Roughly how many people have left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia since Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive in the disputed enclave in late September?
A Russia-brokered cease-fire gave Azerbaijan control over the disputed region, FP’s Alexandra Sharp reported in World Brief.
15. Who won the Maldives’ presidential election runoff over the final weekend of September?
The election was seen in part as a referendum on great-power competition between China and India, FP’s Michael Kugelman wrote in South Asia Brief ahead of the vote.
16. On Oct. 25, the U.S. House of Representatives elected its new speaker. Who was it?
Johnson is a Trump supporter and rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch reported in Situation Report.
17. The United Nations said on Oct. 30 that nearly how many people had been internally displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
The crisis in the country is a result of violence between M23 rebels and militia forces loyal to the government in the eastern province of North Kivu, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi reported in Africa Brief.
18. In mid-November, Israeli forces stormed which major structure in Gaza in pursuit of Hamas militants?
The Israeli military claimed that Hamas was using the hospital as an operational command center. Whatever weapons or evidence of Hamas’s presence Israel might have found in the hospital hardly justified the human toll that the army exacted in pursuit of erasing the militant group, FP’s Howard W. French wrote.
19. Later that same week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set off to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin to discuss their differences over what issue?
Jason Pack argued that Turkey could be a possible mediator in the conflict. But Erdogan’s recent incendiary comments about Israel opened a rift between Ankara and its Western allies that Scholz hoped to ameliorate.
20. Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, said in early December that his country is taking necessary steps to be able to defend itself against which encroaching South American state?
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s steps to take over the oil-rich Essequibo region ahead of 2024 national elections could endanger his regime’s survival and stability, FP’s Alexandra Sharp explained.
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