World Boston What in the World? Weekly Quiz – August 29-September 4, 2022

 

Pfizer and BioNTech were sued by THIS major manufacturer of Covid-19 vaccines “for infringing patents central to (its) mRNA technology platform." The suit seeks a portion of profits and is not an attempt to halt production.

 

Twenty new Cardinals were welcomed by Pope Francis, bringing to 82 of 132 the number of electors for his successor he has chosen. Pope Francis, aged 85, has signaled he may retire, as did THIS predecessor in 2013, the first papal retirement in 600 years.

 

Electrical transmission lines linking Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reactors to the power grid were cut posing serious risk of a “radiation disaster” according to President Zelensky. He called for THIS UN nuclear watchdog agency to visit the plant, occupied by Russian troops, and assess the situation.

 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha stepped down as Prime Minister of THIS country following a Constitutional Court in Bangkok ruling he may have overstepped the term limits of the office. 

 

 

Washington announced $3 billion in new aid for Ukraine on the 31st anniversary of its independence from THIS. The aid will go to purchase arms including artillery shells and air defense equipment from industry but will not be decisive in breaking the stalemate in fighting, six months into the Russian invasion

 

Giorgia Meloni and her hard-right Brothers of Italy party are poised to lead a coalition in upcoming elections that could give power to a movement fashioned after THIS Italian political legacy. The ultranationalist movement may further strain ties with the EU.

 

Battles among militias in the streets of Tripoli threatened to return THIS country to open warfare that had largely subsided in the last two years.

 

Bratislava announced NATO partners Poland and the Czech Republic would assume security of its airspace so that THIS country can transfer 11 MIG fighters to Ukraine.

 

Fresh battles erupted in THIS region of Ethiopia breaking a five-month truce and threatening to worsen the humanitarian disaster facing the region’s six million people who are facing starvation.

 

Human rights groups marked “Rohingya Remembrance Day,” highlighting the plight of the Muslim minority oppressed and attacked by government and militia forces in THIS country. Over 750,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they face misery in refugee camps and 600,000 remain in THIS country under the thumb of their oppressors.