| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| This state contains the world's largest stadium, formerly known as Motera Stadium, which hosted an event called Namaste Trump in 2020. In 2002, this state's Godhra train burning prompted a series of riots which targeted its Muslim minority in the capital city of Ahmedabad. For the point, name this Indian state from which Narendra Modi hails. | Gujarat |
| One member of this political party, Björn Höcke, is part of its radical faction, Der Flügel. This political party is the only one in the Bundestag which denies human-caused climate change, and it emerged from the more liberal Christian Democratic Union. For the point, name this right-wing German political party opposing the EU and foreign immigration. | Alternative für Deutschland (or AfD; accept Alternative for Germany) |
| This man, known for his frequent conversations with conservative counterpart Robert P. George, resigned from Harvard University's faculty in 2021 for its alleged anti-Palestine bias. This man recently announced a 2024 presidential campaign under the People's Party before primarying with the Green Party. For the point, name this American left-wing philosopher and author of Race Matters. | Cornel West (or Cornel Ronald West) |
| This political party, which competed with the Referendum Party in its early years, had Douglas Carswell as its only member of parliament. This political party formed the largest contingent of the British delegation to the European Parliament. This political party’s leader, Nigel Farage, resigned upon achieving its main goal in 2016. For the point, name this political party which advocated for Brexit. | United Kingdom Independence Party (or UKIP) |
| This company’s CEO, Larry Fink, has responded to criticisms of its environmental, social and corporate governance investing by claiming it is “not woke.” That policy of this company caused West Virginia to stop doing business with it, and this company, with The Vanguard Group and State Street, is considered one of the “Big Three” index fund managers. For the point, name this American company, the world’s largest asset manager. | BlackRock, Inc. |
| This man created a tactical voting strategy called “Smart Voting,” and this man, during the “Snow Revolution,” coined a phrase calling a leading party one of “crooks and thieves.” This man was poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent in 2020, after which he was evacuated to Germany. For the point, name this leader of the Russia of the Future party, an opponent of Vladimir Putin. | Alexei Navalny (or Alexei Anatolievich Navalny) |
| President Obama said, "If I had a son, he would look like [this person]," and later said this person "could have been me, 35 years ago." Protestors wore hoodies in support of this person, who was followed by a Neighborhood Watch member while returning home from a convenience store. The phrase "black lives matter" began appearing when Florida's Stand Your Ground law was used to defend George Zimmerman's shooting of, for the point, what Sanford, Florida teenager? | Trayvon Martin (or Trayvon Benjamin Martin) |
| This incident saw the execution of a rescue operation called San Lorenzo organized by the Codelco company, which a film called The 33 was made about. President Sebastián Piñera visited the site of this accident near Copiapó, which called into question the safety of the world's largest copper industry. For the point, name this accident where a cave-in trapped 33 men underneath the Atacama Desert. | Chilean Mining Accident (accept clear-knowledge equivalents about a Cave-in in Chile; accept 2010 Copiapó mining accident until mentioned) |
| François Fillon served under this politician, who helped negotiate a ceasefire in the Russo-Georgian War. This man was convicted on corruption charges for the Libyan bankrolling of his presidential campaign, and this man was defeated by socialist François Hollande. For the point, name this conservative French president who held office from 2007 to 2012. | Nicolas Sarkozy (or Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa) |
| This man, along with Paul Manafort, succeeded Corey Lewandowski as de facto campaign manager for one man, and was the author of a "peace plan" which faced controversy for including a 34 kilometer tunnel connecting the West Bank and Gaza. This man helped negotiate the Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel-UAE relations. For the point, name this senior advisor to Donald Trump, the husband of his daughter, Ivanka. | Jared Kushner (or Jared Corey Kushner) |
| General Min Aung Hlaing came to power due to this event, which, contrary to popular belief, was not shown in the background of a viral video. That video shows a fitness instructor exercising while tanks behind her went through the streets of Nay Pyi Taw. For the point, name this event where Aung San Suu Kyi was deposed in a Southeast Asian country. | 2021 Myanmar Coup D'état (accept clear-knowledge equivalents; accept Burma in place of "Myanmar") |
| This company's CEO, Albert Bourla, helped remove a taste defect called boar taint from pork products and developed Eliquis. This company, which also developed Paxlovid, was sued for patent infringement by Moderna in 2022. For the point, name this company which, with BioNTech, produced a vaccine against COVID-19. | Pfizer Inc. |
| After a political candidate was accused of corruption, one person involved in this event attended a different political rally where limited security was offered at a road junction behind a stage. After this event, laws were passed against the practice of "spiritual sales" by the Korea-based Unification Church. For the point, name this 2022 action perpetrated by Tetsuya Yamagami against a Prime Minister of Japan. | Assassination of Shinzo Abe (accept in either order; accept equivalents such as "Killing" or "Murder" for "Assassination") |
| Ambassador Bisa Williams met with this country's former president, Mahamadou Issoufou, before a joint Franco-American drone base in Agadez was constructed to combat Tuareg insurgency in neighboring Mali. Spillover from the Boko Haram insurgency has crept northwards into this country. For the point, name this former French colony governed from Niamey. | Republic of the Niger (accept République du Niger) |
| This thing is produced from a field whose symmetry-breaking potential leads to non-zero values in empty space. François Englert won a Nobel Prize for discovering this thing, whose nickname was coined in a 1993 book by Leon Lederman. This thing decays within a nanosecond, has zero spin, zero charge, and is its own antiparticle. For the point, name this "God particle" discovered by CERN in 2012, which gives other particles mass. | Higgs Boson (prompt on "God particle" before mentioned) |
| Russ Feingold, the only Senator to vote against this bill, opposed its authorization of delayed notice warrants, also known as "sneak and peek." The 2015 case ACLU v. Clapper decided that the mass collection of phone records by the NSA, as revealed by Edward Snowden, was not authorized by, for the point, what U.S. national security act passed after 9/11? | USA PATRIOT Act (or Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001) |
| This country engaged in a "Milk War" with a much larger neighbor due to its refusal to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya [[tsee-KAH-noo-SKY-yah]] leads the opposition in absentia in this country, which herded thousands of migrants from Iraqi Kurdistan to its Polish border. Alexander Lukashenko leads, for the point, what former Soviet Republic governed from Minsk? | Republic of Belarus (or Respublika Byelarus'; accept Byelorussia; prompt on “White Russia”) |
| In 2022, Stage 10 of this event was delayed due to climate change protests amidst a 104 degree Fahrenheit heatwave. Lance Armstrong was a seven-time winner of this event who was stripped of his titles due to his doping activities. Tadej Pogačar [[tah-DAY poh-GAH-char]] and Jonas Vingegaard have competed for the "yellow jersey" in, for the point, what famous cycling event which ends in Paris? | Tour de France |
| This organization recently released a report on the hazards of aspartame. This organization's head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been criticized for his alleged softness on China. This organization was accused of causing unnecesary alarm during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak by declaring a "false pandemic." For the point, name this organization of the United Nations which helped counter the AIDS and Ebola diseases. | World Health Organization (or WHO) |
| An incursion into this country's port of Macuto was planned by the private military corporation Silvercorp USA and Clíver Alcalá Cordones. This country began to withdraw from the Organization of American States in 2017, and a toilet paper shortage affected this country in 2013. Juan Guaidó claims to be this country's legitimate president. For the point, name this Latin American country currently led by Nicolás Maduro from Caracas. | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (or República Bolivariana de Venezuela) |
| This woman declined to testify for a U.S. House Committee in 2019, instead submitting the SR15 report. This woman travelled on the yacht Malizia II in order to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a carbon neutral manner. This woman organized a movement called the Fridays for Future which resulted in massive student protests on September 20, 2019. For the point, name this Swedish activist known for organizing climate strikes. | Greta Thunberg (or Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg) |
| Some of these events, such as one named "Woolsey", was blamed by Donald Trump on poor management of forest floors, and he threatened to cut off federal funding to California because of it. A series of these events in Quebec caused the skies of New York City to become orange in June of 2023. For the point, name these natural events which often burn large amounts of vegetation. | Wildfires (accept clear-knowledge equivalents such as Forest Fires or Bushfires) |
| The cases Chapin and Charpentier v. France and Schalk and Kopf v. Austria determined that EU countries do not need to take this action, though Oliari and Others v. Italy obligated a lesser form of this action, which was endorsed in the documentary Francesco by Pope Francis. In 2001, the Netherlands was the first country to take, for the point, what practice allowing official relations between two people of the same gender? | Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage (accept clear-knowledge equivalents) |
| This woman was uncovered as using the pen name "Robert Galbraith" to publish the crime fiction series Cormoran Strike. This woman was the first author in history to become a billionaire from her work. Many players of one sport have renamed the sport "quadball" due to this woman's comments on transgender issues, and she also created the Wizarding World universe. For the point, name this author of the book series Harry Potter. | J. K. Rowling (or Joanne Rowling) |
| A former military base in this city was occupied by students and turned into the commune of Freetown Christiania. This city's Nyhavn Canal is known for its colorfully-painted houses, and its island of Amager has been heavily developed following the construction of the Öresund Bridge, which connects this city to Malmö, Sweden. For the point, name this city on Zealand, the capital of Denmark. | Copenhagen |
| The world's leading producer of these products has faced criticism for patronizing the Goro mine for its Nickel reserves in New Caledonia. The city of Irvine contains the headquarters of two companies producing these products, Karma and Rivian. A $7,500 federal tax credit has been offered to consumers who purchase these products. A factory in Fremont, California is dedicated to producing, for the point, what products made by Tesla? | Electric Vehicles (accept equivalents such as Electric Cars; accept EVs) |