Summer 24
On June 2, Claudia Sheinbaum made history as the first woman elected to lead which country?
Ireland
Liberia
Mexico
The answer is Mexico. The other two countries have both elected women as heads of state, either as president or prime minister.Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won her nation’s elections on June 2 in a landslide victory that brought a double milestone: She became the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to be elected president of Mexico.
n June 19, Louisiana’s governor signed a law requiring classrooms in the state to display what?
An American flag
The governor’s photo
The Ten Commandments
Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation on June 19 requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in Louisiana. In a related move later that month, Oklahoma’s state superintendent directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments. Both moves reignite a debate over the boundaries between church and state.
The mandates are part of a broader campaign by conservative Christian groups to amplify public expressions of faith, and provoke lawsuits that could reach the Supreme Court, where they expect a friendlier reception than in years past.
The race for the White House is entering its final stretch with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump targeting battleground states. How many electoral votes are needed to win the November presidential election?
It takes at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. There are a total of 538 electoral votes up for grabs.
On Sept. 3, Phoenix set a record for how many consecutive days of at least 100 degrees?
25
56
75
100
The Weather Service said on social media that 100 straight days at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit was the longest streak on record for the city. The previous record was 76 straight days, set in 1993.
This year’s meteorological summer — June, July and August — was also the hottest on record for Phoenix, with an average temperature of 98.9. That was a “significant” mark because it was nearly two degrees higher than last year’s average, 97 degrees, which was also a record, a meteorologist with the service in Phoenix said.
In a significant move to ease pressure on the immigration system and address a major concern among voters, President Biden issued an executive order on June 4 that will close the U.S. border to migrants when what occurs?
Daily illegal crossings hit 2,500.
Mexico requests its closure.
The temperature rises above 90 degrees.
The measure is the most restrictive border policy instituted by Mr. Biden, or any other modern Democrat, and echoes an effort in 2018 by President Donald J. Trump to cut off migration that was blocked in federal court. In remarks at the White House, Mr. Biden said he was forced to take executive action because Republicans had blocked bipartisan legislation that had some of the most significant border security restrictions Congress had considered in years. The policy is a significant shift in how asylum has worked for years. Typically, migrants who cross illegally and claim asylum are released into the United States to wait for court appearances, where they can plead their cases. But a huge backlog means those cases can take years to come up.
The Israeli military and Hamas observed brief pauses in fighting last week to allow for what?
640,000 children in Gaza to be vaccinated for polio
Families with two or more children to flee Gaza
Israeli hostage and Palestinian prisoner exchanges
United Nations food deliveries into northern Gaza
Gazans are experiencing an explosion of infectious diseases in the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions created by the war with Israel and the destruction of Gaza’s health care infrastructure.
Under ratcheting international pressure to prevent a polio outbreak, Israel agreed to temporary and localized pauses in fighting to allow United Nations aid workers to deliver vaccines to 640,000 children. Hamas said it would also abide by the staggered pauses, which began on Sept 1.
The World Health Organization and its partner agencies in Gaza said they needed to reach 90 percent of children under 10 to avert the spread of polio.
Millions of people were urged to evacuate southern Japan this week as a result of which event?
Earthquake
Typhoon
Volcanic eruption
Wildfires
Nearly 4 million people in southern Japan were urged to evacuate as Typhoon Shanshan made landfall Thursday, leaving thousands of residents without power and lashing Kyushu Island with hurricane-force winds, torrential rain and dangerous storm surge.
Why did a box of chicken nuggets at the U.S. Open make headlines?
All players received a box of nuggets as part of a swag package.
Jannik Sinner credited the nuggets with helping him with the men’s tournament.
One box of six “golden” nuggets cost $100.
The nuggets were recalled after being tied to a nationwide listeria outbreak.
At this year’s U.S. Open, there was a new novelty treat on which tennis fans, foodies and social media influencers alike trained their focus: a $100 box of chicken nuggets.
Like so many coveted items, the nuggets became a hot commodity over the two-week tournament — and the subject of some heated debate online — in part because of their exorbitant price and their air of exclusivity. Created by the team at Coqodaq (a luxe Manhattan fried chicken restaurant that can be famously hard to book), the nuggets were at a stall open only to tennis fans with a ticket for the club level, home to the suites at Arthur Ashe Stadium. On the afternoon of Sept. 8, the cheapest tickets on that level available via Ticketmaster were selling for roughly $1,000 each.
On June 17, the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced that he would push for a warning label on what?
Candy
Social media platforms
Soda
The proposal builds on several years of escalating warnings from the surgeon general. In a May 2023 advisory, he recommended that parents immediately set limits on phone use, and urged Congress to swiftly develop health and safety standards for technology platforms.
The United States on Sept. 4 announced a broad effort to push back on influence campaigns in the November election from which country?
China
Germany
India
Russia
The actions include sanctions, indictments and the seizure of web domains that U.S. officials say the Kremlin uses to spread propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than two years ago.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland detailed the actions taken by the Justice Department. They include the indictment of two Russian employees of RT, the state-owned broadcaster, who used a company in Tennessee to spread content, and the takedown of a Russian malign influence campaign known as Doppelgänger.
American officials have stepped up their warnings about Russian election influence efforts. American spy agencies have assessed that the Kremlin favors former President Donald J. Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the November contest, seeing him as more skeptical of U.S. support for Ukraine.
The Supreme Court declined this week to lift a sweeping block on which of President Joe Biden’s signature initiatives?
Student debt relief
Lower prescription drug prices
Infrastructure rebuilding
Gun violence prevention
The Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to lift a sweeping block on President Biden’s student loan repayment plan that aims to slash monthly payments and accelerate the path to loan forgiveness.
US regulators want to investigate which two companies for selling “deadly” baby products?
Amazon and Best Buy
Walmart and Target
Sam’s Club and Costco
Shein and Temu
Shein and Temu, two Chinese low-cost e-commerce websites, are the target of a proposed investigation by the US government for selling “deadly baby and toddler products.”
Which company, powered by the boom in generative artificial intelligence, briefly surpassed Microsoft in June as the world’s most valuable public company?
Novartis
Novo Nordisk
Nvidia
On June 18, Nvidia leapfrogged two of tech’s most storied names, Microsoft and Apple, to become the world’s most valuable public company, according to data from S&P Global. Its ascent has been powered by the boom in generative artificial intelligence and surging demand for the company’s chips — known as graphics processing units, or GPUs — which have made it possible to create A.I. systems.
Nvidia’s rise is among the fastest in market history. Just two years ago, the company’s market valuation was a little over $400 billion. Now, in the span of a year, it has gone from $1 trillion to roughly $3 trillion.
The US Justice Department seized which of the following that belonged to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro?
Bank accounts
Helicopter
Yacht
Airplane
The DOJ seized Maduro’s airplane in the Dominican Republic after determining that its acquisition violated US sanctions, among other criminal issues.
According to the FBI, which country is behind hacking attempts targeting the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns?
China
Belarus
Iran
Venezuela
The US government has concluded that the Iranian government is behind the hack and leak operation that targeted Donald Trump's presidential campaign and also attempted to target the Biden-Harris campaign.
Walmart this week recalled nearly 10,000 cases of which type of juice?
Apple juice
Grapefruit juice
Orange juice
Pineapple juice
Walmart recalled nearly 10,000 cases of apple juice sold in 25 states that were found to contain potentially harmful levels of inorganic arsenic.
As students return to school, many are encountering a new reality this fall. So far, at least eight states have passed laws, issued orders or adopted rules to curb the use of what during the school day?
cellphones
chewing gum
hats
lockers in between classes
Last year, Florida passed a law requiring public schools to bar students from using personal wireless devices, like smartphones and earbuds, during class time. Several states, including Indiana, Louisiana and South Carolina, have followed Florida’s lead, passing laws or adopting new rules this year that, with limited exceptions, ban student cellphone use either during class or throughout the entire school day.
The Times’s Natasha Singer writes:
"Cellphones have become a school scourge. More than 70 percent of high school teachers say student phone distraction is a 'major problem,' according to a survey this year by Pew Research. That’s why states are mounting a bipartisan effort to crack down on rampant student cellphone use."
The Biden administration announced a sweeping set of actions this week to tackle a major effort to influence the 2024 US presidential election by which country?
China
Iran
Russia
Venezuela
In the most significant public response yet to alleged Russian influence operations targeting American voters, the Biden administration unveiled criminal charges against two Russian nationals, sanctions on 10 individuals and entities and the seizure of 32 internet domains.