Latest Politics Trivia Game. 31 Big Questions

Roe v. Wade was a 1973 US Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide. On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overruled the decision, which the majority opinion described as "egregiously wrong" because "the US Constitution does not refer to abortion."

What's the 2022 Supreme Court leak?

Politico reporters Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward released on May 2, 2022, a "1st Draft" of the "Opinion of the Court" in a case challenging Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks, a case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

What happens now?

The decision to overrule Roe leads to abortion bans in roughly half of US states.

Are most American anti-abortions?

A May 2021 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 59% of US adults believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

The "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory suggests that a powerful cabal of leftist and Jewish politicians and businessmen plan to replace white Americans with masses of indebted immigrants from other ethnic groups. Investigations into the May 14, 2022, mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, are focusing on a 180-page manifesto containing the white nationalist conspiracy theory that is believed to have been written by the gunman Payton Gendron aged 18. Gendron was charged with shooting at about a dozen mostly Black people.

According to the Jan. 6 House Committee Hearings, Donald Trump's supporters donated $250 million to a non-existent "Election Defense Fund" after the election. The committee investigator said millions of donated dollars flowed into a super PAC that Trump set up just days after the election, sending millions to charitable foundations and political groups run by several of Trump's former staff members.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed off his final "Prime Minister's Questions" parliamentary appearance on July 20, 2022, with the line "hasta la vista, baby," made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1991 movie "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." The line roughly translates as "see you later."

The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 and came to Japan a decade later. Since the 1980s, the church has faced accusations of problematic recruiting and donations, often leading to financial strains on the followers' families. On Aug. 31. 2022, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his ruling party would cut ties with the Unification Church.

Is it connected to the Shinzo Abe assassination?

The suspect arrested at the scene allegedly told police he killed Abe because of his apparent link to the church. A state funeral for Abe is set for Sept. 27.

Britain's Prime Minister, Liz Truss, began her tenure by speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sept. 6, 2022, in her first call with a foreign leader. 45 Days later, on Oct. 20, 2022, she quit and broke the record for the shortest tenure of any British prime minister. The Conservative Party will elect Britain's fifth prime minister in six years by Oct. 28.

On Sept. 26, 2022, the Brothers of Italy, a neo-fascist party, won the most votes in Italy's national election. With the election results, Giorgia Meloni will be Italy's first female premier and the first for the far right since World War II.

Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised reelections in the regions that Moscow has falsely annexed after what it called referendums, that Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014, be formally recognized as Russia, and that Ukraine remains neutral. Ukraine's outgoing ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, tweeted "F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on the other hand, said, "It is a positive thing that somebody like Elon Musk is trying to find a peaceful way out of this situation."

Mahsa Amini, 22, was stopped by Iran's morality police at a train station in Tehran and accused of not following the country's hijab rules. Three days later, on Sept. 16, 2022, she was killed. Protests in Iran erupted in the weeks following. On Oct. 11, the Norway-based rights group Hengaw reported heavy casualties in Sanandaj, Amini's hometown, where protests have been particularly intense.

On Oct. 12, 2022, eight Sandy Hook shooting victims' families won $965 million against Infowars' Alex Jones. Jones claimed for years that Sandy Hook was a government hoax. He now faces financial ruin, making it unclear how much money the families will ultimately receive.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has been in office for 16 years. Now 66, Merkel has led Germany, the European Union’s biggest economy, since she took office in 2005. She said over two years ago that she wouldn’t seek a fifth term as chancellor. Merkel’s center-right party is choosing a new leader in 2021.

During her 70 years on the British throne, the longest reign of any English monarch, there have been 14 U.S. presidents, of which Queen Elizabeth II has met all, except for Lyndon Johnson.

Biden and the Queen 2021 Fact

On Sunday, June 13, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II met at the Group of Seven leaders’ summit. Biden praised the then 95-year-old British monarch saying she reminded him of his mother.

Proud Boys, a far-right group founded in 2016, calls itself a “white chauvinist” organization. Trump told them to “Stand back and stand by” during the 2020 debate. Proud Boys leaders co-conspired with other extremist groups to take over the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Proud Boys Fun (!) Fact

In 2021, Twitter users flooded the #ProudBoys hashtag on social media with images of LGBTQI+ pride, displacing posts made by neo-Nazis and white supremacists using the tag.

Mar-a-Lago is a private club accessible not only to Trump, his staff, and his family but also paying members and their guests, attendees at various functions, weddings, political fundraisers, and charity galas.

What did Trump keep in Mar-a-Lago?

The FBI’s Aug. 14 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate reinstated 15 boxes to the National Archives and Records Administration – 14 of which contained US intelligence documents with classifications ranging from confidential to top secret.

Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani was New York City’s Mayor between January 1, 1994, and December 31, 2001. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, Oprah Winfrey called him “America’s Mayor,” while Time magazine declared him “Person of the Year” (pictured.) Twenty years later, New York state has suspended Giuliani’s law license amid his connections to Donald Trump.

Glasnost (meaning “openness”) and perestroika (“reconstruction”) were policy reforms associated with the 1980s General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, that eventually led to the Soviet Union’s disintegration. Gorbachev, also credited with ending the Cold War, died on Aug. 30, 2022,  at a Moscow hospital at 91.

The Oslo Accords were a 1993 attempt to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, resulting in the formation of a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, but without a Palestinian state or peace for either side.

New Fact

The historic events are being made into an HBO Max movie, starring Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott.  Steven Spielberg is producing the film,  based on the award-winning play by J.T. Rogers, named ‘Oslo.’

Benjamin Netanyahu served in office for 15 years until 2021 and was reelected in 2023, the longest-serving Israeli prime minister. Israel’s national founder David Ben-Gurion is the previous Israeli record holder with 13 years in power.

Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk was South Africa’s last white president, ending apartheid in 1994 and becoming the country’s first Deputy President – under Nelson Mandela. The two shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. De Klerk died on Nov. 12, 2021, aged 85.

Greta Thunberg was born in Sweden.

News Fact

The Swedish-born environmental activist celebrated her 18th birthday on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021. In an interview for the Sunday Times magazine, she said her ideal birthday present would be replacement headlights for her bike, explaining: “In Sweden, it gets very dark in the winter.”

Ferdinand Marcos was the 10th president of the Philippines, ruling as a kleptocrat dictator from 1965 to 1986 when he fled with his family to Hawaii. He and his wife, Imelda Marcos, currently hold the Guinness World Record for “Greatest Robbery of a Government.”

Is Ferdinand Marcos the president of the Philippines in 2022?

Photo: Avito C. Dalan for the Philippine News Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

While Marcos Sr. died in 1989, his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was elected governor, congressman, and in 2010, a senator in the Philippines. He won the 2022 presidential race alongside his VP Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, who worked to aid a Marcos comeback during his years in power. Marcos’s sister is a senator and a former governor, and his mother, Imelda Marcos, was elected to Congress for four terms.

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, died of cancer on March 23, 2022, at 84. Albright served in that role from 1997 to 2001. She fled the Nazis as a child with her family from her native Czechoslovakia to London during World War II and was raised a Roman Catholic. Still, her parents likely converted to Catholicism from Judaism to avoid persecution as Nazism gained strength in Europe, according to research by Washington Post.

Chirac. Photo: Christian Lambiotte © European Communities, 1997

Only six presidents in the history of won a second-term election. The previous one was Jacques Chirac, who entered his second term in 2002.

Macron was elected to a second term on April 24, 2022, defeating right-wing extremist Marine Le Pen for the second time and becoming the first French presidential candidate to win re-election since 2002.

Cresson. Screenshot: TV5 Monde

Édith Cresson is the first woman to have held the office of Prime Minister of France. She served from May ’91 to Apr. ’92, and left office due to corruption charges dating from her tenure as European Commissioner for Research, Science and Technology.

Who’s Élisabeth Borne?

On May 16, 2022, Élisabeth Borne, 61, became France’s first female prime minister in 30 years and second in modern French history. A Macron ally, Borne served as minister for transport, environment, and labor during his first term.

Sweden has avoided military alliances since the end of the Napoleonic Wars and kept its policy of neutrality during World War II and the Cold War. Thus, approximately 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated and placed with families in Sweden during the Second World War, and nearly all of Denmark’s Jewish population.

Is Sweden ending its neutrality?

After being firmly against NATO membership for decades, public opinion in Sweden and Finland shifted following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Sweden decided on May 16, 2022, to seek NATO membership. The country’s governing Social Democratic party endorsed a plan for the country to join the trans-Atlantic alliance one day after Finland’s government announced a similar move.

Anthony Albanese was sworn in on May 23, 2022, as Australia’s 31st prime minister, marking the first time a person with a non-Anglo surname has held the office and making him the first Italian Australian to become prime minister. He replaced Scott Morrison, who had a minor acting career as a child.

Screenshot: Tony Blair, The Guardian

Serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, Tony Blair is the British PM with the longest term in the 21st century – even if we’re only counting his seven-plus post-millennial years in office. David Cameron’s term, which started in 2010, was 6 years, 63 days long.

Did Boris Johnson’s term as PM end?

With eight ministers resigning on July 7, 2022, after months of scandals, Boris Johnson spoke to the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee and agreed to resign.

Britain’s Prime Minister, Liz Truss, began her tenure by speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sept. 6, 2022, in her first call with a foreign leader. 45 Days later, on Oct. 20, 2022, she quit and broke the record for the shortest tenure of any British prime minister. The Conservative Party will elect Britain’s fifth prime minister in six years by Oct. 28.

As the chief executive officer of His Majesty’s Treasury, the chancellor of the Exchequer is a senior member of the British Cabinet. The chancellor is ranked third in the ministerial hierarchy, behind the prime minister and the deputy prime minister.

Who’s the UK’s treasury chief in 2022?

To avoid a financial market meltdown, Jeremy Hunt was appointed as Treasury chief by Britain’s prime minister Liz Truss on Oct. 14, 2022. Hunt announced on Oct. 18 that he would scrape “almost all” of Truss’ tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy, and promise not to cut public spending. In October 2022, UK consumer price inflation reached 10.1%, the highest level since 1982 and the level last reached in July.