Friday, Feb. 11 News Quiz of the Week: Consort, Convoy

Queen Elizabeth II expressed a “sincere wish” on Feb. 6, 2022, that when the time comes for her son to succeed, Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, should be known as Queen Consort.

The “Freedom Convoy” began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers. Protesters have paralyzed downtown Ottawa since late Jan. 2022, with some participants waving US Confederate or Nazi flags and some saying they want to dissolve Canada’s government. The “Freedom Convoy” organizers say they will not leave until the vaccine mandates are ended.

Who’s funding the Freedom Convoy?

The blockade has relied partly on funding from the United States. GoFundMe took down the Freedom Convoy’s donation page, angering some US Republican lawmakers who pledged to investigate the move by the website. Former US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed support for the protesters. Ottawa declared a state of emergency on Feb. 6, 2022. An Angus Reid Institute survey of 1,620 Canadians, conducted between Jan. 27 and Jan. 31, indicates that 78% of Canadians are worried American politics will affect their country’s economy and security.

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, 15, became on Feb. 7, 2022, the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics – and did so twice during the free skate event. She is also the second woman ever to land the quadruple toe loop after Alexandra Trusova, the fourth to land a quadruple jump of any kind, and the third woman to land a triple Axel and quadruple jump in the same program after Alysa Liu and Sofia Akateva.

Did Kamila Valieva get an Olympic medal?

On Feb. 9, 2022, Russian newspaper RBC reported that Valieva tested positive for Trimetazidine, a drug used to treat angina and help endurance. The International Olympic Committee then delayed the medal ceremony for the figure skating team event due to an unspecified, last-minute “legal consultation.” At a news conference on Feb. 11 in Beijing, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee said he did not know when the IOC would resolve the matter or when the medals for the event would be awarded.

Peter Thiel is a Silicon Valley billionaire and advisor to former President Donald Trump. On Feb. 7, 2022, Facebook’s parent company Meta announced Thiel is leaving its board of directors. Thiel joined Facebook’s board in 2005, a year after the company was founded and seven years before it made its debut on Wall Street.

Nitrite salts are widely used in cured meats such as ham, bacon, and sausages. They extend the shelf life of processed meats and give boiled ham its pink color. In 2015, a World Health Organization report showed adding nitrates or nitrites to processed meat can lead to the formation of potentially cancer-causing chemicals. On Feb. 4, 2022, the French parliament has approved a bill that gradually reduces nitrite’s use in cured meats.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe took its first visible-light images of the surface of Venus from space in July 2020. The spacecraft collected more pictures in a later flyby, creating a video of Venus’s entire nightside. An analysis of the images and video, published on Feb. 9, 2022, in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, adds to scientists’ understanding of the planet dubbed Earth’s twin, revealing Venus’s distinctive features like continental regions, plains, and plateaus.

Super Bowl 56 was the first time the event was happening simultaneously with the Winter Olympics. It’s also the second Super Bowl (and second-consecutive) to feature a team playing in its home stadium. The Los Angeles Rams won against Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 on Feb. 13, 2022, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California – the home stadium of the Rams.

Grammy-winning artist India.Arie posted the hashtag #DeleteSpotify on her Instagram account after a video emerged showing Rogan repeatedly using the N-word. Rogan apologized on Feb. 5, 2022, saying that the slurs were the “most regretful and shameful thing” he has ever had to address and that he hasn’t used the N-word in years.

The Brits’ first-ever genderless award show was on Feb. 8, 2022 – with more women nominated than at any time in the past decade and female artists or female-fronted bands winning two-thirds of the awards. Adele won three out of the four main prizes in the ceremony, including the first-ever gender-neutral Artist of the Year award.

Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog” led nominations to the 94th Academy Awards with 12, including best picture, best director, and recognition for its top actors: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. The film’s director, Jane Campion, became the first woman to be nominated twice for best director. She earned her first nomination for ’93’s “The Piano” but didn’t win at the time. “Dune” followed “The Power of the Dog” with ten Oscar nominations – most of which were in the technical categories.

Which film won the most Oscars in 2022?

The Academy Awards ceremony on March 27, 2022, saw Dune winning a leading six awards, while The Power of the Dog took a single award – for Best Directing. The Oscar for Best Picture went to CODA, which won three Oscars (out of four nominations).

Steven Spielberg, whose “West Side Story” landed seven nominations for the 2022 Academy Awards, is the first filmmaker nominated for best director in six different decades. He also holds the record for most Best Picture nominations – with 11 Oscar-nominated films over the years.

In an Oscar historic first, two real-life couples – Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, Kirsten Dunst, and Jesse Plemons – received nominations covering all four acting categories. On Feb. 9, 2022, Bardem was nominated as the leading actor for his role as Desi Arnaz in “Being the Ricardos.” Cruz earned her nomination for the leading actress role in “Parallel Mothers.” In the supporting categories, both Plemons and Dunst received nominations for their roles in “The Power of the Dog.”