June 16 News Quiz: Who’s the First US President Arraigned in a Federal Court?

On June 9, 2023, the Department of Justice unsealed a sweeping 37-count indictment against Donald Trump and his aide Walt Nauta. The indictment alleges that they willfully retained and concealed documents containing the nation’s most sensitive secrets, including nuclear programs, after he left office. The indictment also accuses Trump of showing some documents to guests at his golf club in New Jersey and instructing his lawyers and aides to obstruct the investigation into their whereabouts. Trump appeared in a Florida federal court on June 13, 2023. He denounced the indictment as a political “witch hunt” and claimed he was innocent.

Nicola Sturgeon became Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister on May 25, 2022, serving seven years, six months, and five days after becoming the county’s first female first minister. Sturgeon resigned in February 2023 amid a scandal over her ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) funding. She was arrested and questioned by police on June 11, 2023, becoming the first Scottish first minister to be arrested. She was released without charge later that day. Sturgeon maintained her innocence and vowed to clear her name.

Fun Fact: Humza Yousaf is the current, youngest and first minority ethnic first minister of Scotland. He succeeded Nicola Sturgeon in March 2023 after she resigned. He has not been in office long enough to break other records.

Silvio Berlusconi was Italy’s longest-serving postwar prime minister, serving three non-consecutive terms: 1994-1995, 2001-2006, and 2008-2011. He was known for his lavish lifestyle, controversial policies, and numerous legal troubles. In 2013, he was found guilty of tax fraud in a case involving his media empire. He was sentenced to four years in prison, later reduced to community service. He was also barred from holding public office for six years. He died on June 12, 2023, at 86, two months after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Tucker Carlson launched his brand-new show on Twitter on June 6, 2023. Carlson’s Twitter show, aptly named “Tucker on Twitter,” premiered with a 10-minute episode, receiving millions of views. In the first episode, Carlson suggested that the destruction of a major dam in Ukraine was self-inflicted, as usual, without providing any proof.

How did Fox News react?

Fox News has claimed that Tucker Carlson’s new Twitter show violates his contract with the network. Carlson’s Fox News contract lasts until 2025. He was the top-rated talk show host on US cable television at Fox News.

Ted Kaczynski was an American domestic terrorist who killed three people and injured 23 others with mail bombs from 1978 to 1995. He was motivated by a radical anti-technology ideology and wanted to stop industrial society from destroying nature and human freedom. He mainly targeted professors, scientists, and executives in engineering, computer science, psychology, and genetics. Before his identity was revealed, the FBI gave him the case name UNABOM, for University and Airline Bomber. The media adopted this name and called him the Unabomber. He was finally captured in 1996 after his brother David recognized his writing style in a manifesto published in The New York Times and The Washington Post. He pleaded guilty in 1998 and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. He died by suicide in prison on June 10, 2023, at 81.

Novak Djokovic is the only male tennis player to achieve this feat. He won his third French Open title on June 11, 2023. He also holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won by a male player with 23. Djokovic is also the only male player to win all nine Masters tournaments and has done so twice. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players ever. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have both won each of the four Grand Slam tournaments at least once, but not three times.

The Denver Nuggets play their home games at Ball Arena, 5,280 feet (1,609 meters) above sea level. This makes it the highest-altitude arena in the NBA and the highest venue for any major professional sports team in North America. The Miami Heat, who faced the Nuggets in the 2023 NBA finals, had to deal with thin air and low oxygen levels. The Nuggets won all three home games in the series, including the decisive Game 5 on June 12, 2023. They beat the Heat 94-89 to clinch their first-ever NBA title. Nuggets center Nikola Jokić was named the NBA Finals MVP after averaging 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds, and 7.2 assists in the series.

Lionel Messi, one of the greatest soccer players of all time, announced on June 7, 2023, that he had joined Inter Miami. This is a club owned by another soccer legend, David Beckham. Messi played for Paris Saint-Germain for two years after leaving Barcelona, his long-time club, in 2021. He won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022. Messi had other offers from Europe and Saudi Arabia, but he chose Miami for its lifestyle and brand opportunities.

Cormac McCarthy was a celebrated US novelist who wrote acclaimed books such as The Road, No Country for Old Men, and Blood Meridian. He died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on June 13, 2023, at 89. Stephen King tweeted his tribute to McCarthy, calling him “maybe the greatest American novelist of my time.” McCarthy was known for his bleak and violent visions of the American South and West and his sparse prose that influenced many other writers.

Treat Williams starred as George Berger, a charismatic hippie, in the film, directed by Milos Forman and based on the Broadway musical Hair. Some of his other notable appearances include Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, Deep Rising, and TV’s Everwood. Williams died on June 13, 2023, at 71, after a motorcycle accident in Vermont, where he lived. He posted a photo of his lawn mower on Twitter hours before he died.

Paul McCartney told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on June 12, 2023, that AI technology was used to separate Lennon’s voice and a piano from a 1978 demo recorded two years before his death. “Now And Then” was given to McCartney by Yoko Ono in 1994. Two other songs from the same cassette, “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” were released in 1995 and 1996 as part of the Beatles’ Anthology series. However, “Now And Then” was abandoned due to background noise and technical issues. McCartney said AI had given him another chance to finish the song, which he called “the final Beatles record.” The song was released in October 2023.