Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
King Charles pledged this week to “strengthen the connections” between the UK and Germany, during his first overseas state visit since becoming monarch.
The monarch delivered a speech partly in German at a state banquet in Berlin on Wednesday that was attended by politicians and diplomats including President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former chancellor Angela Merkel – as well as a number of Charles’s distant relatives.
The King and Queen Consort Camilla had been due to visit France before travelling on to Germany, but their Paris visit was postponed amid ongoing protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial reforms of the French pension system.
With Macron’s final term in office set to end in 2027, analysts and pundits are already speculating about France’s political future, amid suggestions that far-right leader Marine Le Pen is positioning herself as a “president-in-waiting”.
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 European city is launching a “Stay Away” campaign to deter Brits from visiting?
- Amsterdam
- Naples
- Budapest
- Prague
2. Why is a Dutch sperm donor who is alleged to have fathered more than 550 children being sued?
- For not disclosing a genetic health condition
- For increasing the risk of incest
- For not paying child support
- For donating other men’s sperm under his name
3. Why did Prince Harry make a surprise appearance in London this week?
- To attend a High Court hearing
- To attend a charity event
- To rehearse his role in King Charles’s coronation
- For relationship-building talks with Prince William
4. Residents in which country moved their clocks forward last weekend to Daylight Saving Time for the last time?
- Turkey
- Lebanon
- Germany
- Greenland
5. Humza Yousaf won the second round of the SNP leadership election with what percentage of the vote?
- 51.5%
- 52.1%
- 52.7%
- 53.2%
6. A company that specialises in lab-grown meat has unveiled a meatball created from the DNA of which extinct species?
- Dodo
- Tasmanian tiger
- Woolly mammoth
- Irish elk
7. Vladimir Putin has announced plans to station Russian nuclear weapons in which neighbouring country?
- Belarus
- China
- Mongolia
- Kazakhstan
8. Tory MP James Wild has suggested doing what to help prevent littering?
- Adding warnings on packaging about the environmental impact of litter
- Increasing the number of public recycling bins
- Printing customers’ licence plates on takeaway food wrappers
- Gathering DNA evidence from litter hotspots to identify offenders
9. Tech experts and execs including Elon Musk have called for artificial intelligence development to be paused for how long, amid fears of a threat to humanity?
- Five weeks
- Six months
- Two years
- Five years
10. What is the name of the UK government’s new plan to deliver net zero by 2050?
- A Clean New Chapter
- Go for Green
- The Renewable Revolution
- Powering up Britain
1. Amsterdam
Internet users in Britain who use search phrases such as “stag party Amsterdam” are being targeted with pop-up videos warning of the consequences of getting drunk and rowdy in the Dutch capital.
2. For increasing the risk of incest
Jonathan Jacob Meijer is facing a lawsuit brought by the Netherland’s DonorKind Foundation on behalf of 25 families who claim he may have increased the risk of accidental incest and inbreeding by defying guidelines limiting sperm donations.
3. To attend a High Court hearing
The California-based royal attended hearings in a lawsuit that he and other high-profile figures – including Elton John, Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost – have brought against Associated Newspapers Limited for alleged privacy breaches.
4. Greenland
Greenland’s parliament voted to stick to Daylight Saving Times in order to give people in the Danish semi-independent territory more time in the afternoon to do business with Europe and North America. Find out more with The Week Unwrapped podcast.
5. 52.1%
The former health secretary beat rival Kate Forbes in the battle to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the Scottish National Party, after Ash Regan was eliminated in the first-round ballot of party members.
6. Woolly mammoth
Australian firm Vow has previously created lab-grown meat from the cells of animals including alpacas, buffalo and kangaroos, and used DNA from the extinct Ice Age species to show how far the boundaries of cultured meat may be pushed.
7. Belarus
Ukraine accused Moscow of holding Belarus “as a nuclear hostage” after the Russian president threatened to station tactical nuclear weapons in the neighbouring nation, and Nato condemned his “dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric”.
8. Adding personalised licence plates to takeaway packaging
The MP for North West Norfolk outlined his proposal to The Telegraph following a law change that allows councils to issue the keeper of a vehicle from which litter is thrown with a civil penalty, rather than having to prove who discarded the rubbish. Ministers are “currently cool on the plan”, according to the newspaper.
9. Six months
Tesla tycoon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak are among more than 1,000 signatories of an open letter arguing that work on “giant AI experiments” should be paused until “we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable”.
10. Powering up Britain
The revised strategy includes dozens of measures ranging from increasing UK wind, solar and nuclear energy to investing in carbon capture and storage.
