915. The World News Quiz 2024 🌍 with Stephen from SEND7 Podcast | Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson

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you're listening to Luke's English podcast for more information visit teacherluke .co .uk hello listeners welcome back to Luke's English podcast and season's greetings as well and happy New Year and I hope everyone's doing well out there.

Today on the podcast, it's time for the World News Quiz 2024.

Whoa. Yep, that's right.

It's become a sort of long -running tradition.

I say long -running, it's the third year that we've been doing this.

And I'm joined in this episode by Stephen Devincenzi from the Send7 podcast.

Hello, Stephen, how are you today?

Hello, Luke. It's great to be back.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for when that comes.

It's a pleasure to be here.

It's extremely windy outside here in South East England.

I can see my neighbour's plastic chairs rolling around the garden.

But other than that, yeah, I'm doing very well.

How are you? I'm doing fine, thanks.

It's not quite as windy here, just a few degrees south of you in Paris.

It's not windy at all today, but it is grey and just sort of a bit overcast and generally a bit miserable.

I mean, this doesn't feel like Christmas, Stephen.

Christmas doesn't look like this, does it?

No, it's supposed to be snowing, isn't it?

But instead, it's just grey.

Yeah, it's grey here as well yeah no snowflakes no none of those christmasy things no icicles or anything just kind of generally gray and overcast so yeah steven welcome back onto the podcast it's i think it's been actually a year since the last time uh because the last episode that we did together

was the 2023 world news quiz that's right yeah it's flown by it's flown by it has hasn't it um How has 2024 been for you?

Yeah, I think it's been pretty good.

Yeah, I drove to Spain in the summer, as I have done for the last three summers, which is always fun.

Spent a lot of time in France on that journey, as you can imagine.

And just came back from Bulgaria.

So if anybody listens to Send 7 and doesn't know why I wasn't there last week, it's because I was in Bulgaria for a thing.

um a thing well actually it was my uh my partner's thing i just tagged along okay um to her thing it was like some sort of thing that you can't talk about like some kind of special mission in bulgaria of some kind i don't know what that would be actually no i just uh it's it was my partner's uh job

and i've never asked her if i can talk about it on uh on a podcast so i'm not going to just in case there's no for some reason i totally understand no i i understand completely okay so you're in in bulgaria okay for a thing yeah that sounds pretty cool how was bulgaria yeah it was great actually yeah

really really fun uh it was in just in sofia in the capital um because my partner was uh doing work related stuff all the time i had lots of time by myself so I just walked around drank a lot of coffee and a lot of coffee shops and yeah they've got lots of ancient Roman ruins in Sofia one of them is all

in a metro station so they they were excavating to make a metro station and they found all these Roman ruins in the place where they were excavating it's really interesting yeah those Romans they got around a bit didn't they they It really did.

Everywhere just hiding ruins under the ground.

Why would they do that?

Put loads of ruins underground and then just bury them and go, there you go.

When you build a metro station, when you try to build a metro station in the future, remember the Romans.

Going to have all these ruins in the way.

Okay. So, Stephen, what is the plan then for this episode?

What are we going to do?

Because you're kind of – yeah, I'm sort of – what's the word for it?

at your mercy in this episode, in the sense that you're kind of like going to be the host of this one.

So tell us what the plan is.

Yeah. So I've got 20 questions that I've written about things that have happened in the world over the last year.

So in 2024. And the idea is for you, Luke, to see how many questions you can get right.

And for everybody who's listening or watching, if you're watching on YouTube, they can try and get as many questions as they can, maybe even try to beat you, which I think some people did in 2023.

Again, this reminds me of last year because last year, I think I said that I couldn't remember what score I got the previous year.

I can't remember either last year, but it definitely wasn't 100%.

It was a pass. It was like at least, I don't know what, 60 % at least.

So there's definitely listeners, you definitely have a big chance of beating me this year again, especially since.

And again, this is another kind of caveat that I made last year is maybe, you know, trying to cover up for any mistakes or questions I get wrong.

Is that I feel like I haven't really been keeping up with the news this year.

Although, yeah, I said that last year.

One of the reasons for that is that I think I used to get a lot of my news on social media, which is kind of the way it is these days, right?

The news landscape is quite complicated these days.

It used to be, in my younger days, it used to be a bit more straightforward.

You basically had the TV news, you had the radio news, you had newspapers, and that was it.

You would always watch the news on TV.

You'd have newspapers lying around at home, and that's how you got your news.

These days, we've still got those things, radio, TV, newspapers, but then there's all this other stuff online, the social media, different social media platforms, email newsletters.

news agencies which are online, podcasts as well.

So, for me, I don't really go on Twitter or x .com as it's called, of course, these days.

I don't really go on there these days so much.

Since it changed to x, for some reason, it just became less enjoyable as an experience to go on the platform.

I just found that my feed was full of stuff that I didn't want to see and from accounts that I wasn't following.

And it was pretty nasty.

Some of the content was very unpleasant, the sorts of things I didn't really want to see.

And it was always being thrown at me and I just found it to be not as enjoyable.

So I haven't been on X .com very much this year.

I think probably I get my news from little bits of radio that I listen to and some podcasts as well.

I listen to the rest is politics sometimes.

And it's interesting to listen to those guys.

But you will be, I mean, obviously you're the quiz master today.

And the reason for this is that you do a podcast about the news for learners of English.

And so you are way more informed than I am because you spend so much time researching global news and then turning it into your episodes.

Tell us just briefly about your podcast again, if you would.

Yeah, sure. So just in case anybody doesn't know me i'm steven devincenzi and i'm the present presenter and the uh the founder of simple english news daily which is a daily podcast as the name suggests and it's only seven minutes long so every day we cover stories from all parts of the world a couple

of stories from europe a couple of stories from africa a couple of stories from asia and oceania a couple of stories from the americas um and just in really simple language we just say what's happened it's kind of like uh headlines it's just a seven minute episode of the real uh base of the story um

and so yeah i've been doing this for four years or a bit more um and uh it's yeah i think what you were saying there luke about people getting their news from social media more I've seen some statistics some data which suggests that more people are getting their news from social media these days than from older

traditional types of media which might bring into question the term mainstream media because actually if more people are getting their their information from social media then you could say that that now is mainstream but anyway um yeah i uh the podcast gets most of its information from professional

journalists and things like that um the questions that we're going to be uh talking about in today's episode are not going to be based on excuse me i'm not going to be based on everything that's happened in the world because of course there are a lot of negative things that have happened in the world

uh in 2024 and um we spoke about it a little bit and we thought maybe after doing this quiz in 2022 and 2023 we thought maybe in 2024 we would keep the questions to uh not necessarily positive things but just not uh negative things about war and uh other topics like that um so that we don't trivialize

uh these uh world events so all of the 20 questions that we've got uh for today are going to be about random other events um if that makes sense luke yeah so i wanted to say something about this as well and that was that i was thinking about the potential complexity of navigating the world of global

news on my podcast.

And generally speaking, my episodes, the tone of my episodes is quite kind of lighthearted and entertaining and humorous.

You know, that's kind of the way I try to do it, you know, to help people learn English in a sort of fun way.

I try to be insightful.

I try to go into depth about things.

But overall, the tone is supposed to be fairly light and entertaining and humorous.

Now, the World News Quiz, I love doing these because I just love a quiz.

And it's also quite a nice way for me to kind of, you know, just think about what's been going on this year.

But yeah, so it's tricky to navigate that, keeping the tone of this lighthearted podcast while also talking about some very serious events in the news.

So yeah, we've decided to go for questions that are perhaps a bit more in line with the kind of tone of the podcast itself.

But I did want to mention, you know, some of the more serious events in the world.

And, you know, 2024 has seen plenty of very serious and very troubling events in various places.

And I, you know, I think it's important to acknowledge this and mention it.

So before we start the quiz, I just wanted to say a few things.

Uh, in fact, both of us wanted to say a few things on this.

Um, so, you know, you do talk about those serious, big news stories in your podcast episodes, right?

I mean, you always talk about those things and then here you are doing something a bit more uh humorous so that that's that's also a little a bit of a um uh a tone shift uh for you as well right actually it could be both ways so if somebody is uh used to listening to send seven my podcast simple english

news daily and then listens to this episode they might think oh why is he not talking about the serious things that happen in the world and then of course if people are listening to LEP all the time and then come over to CEN7, they think, why is he always talking about all these terrible world events?

It might not make sense.

So yeah, it's probably worth mentioning this.

Yeah. So we're going to start the quiz in a moment, everyone, right?

But first of all, I just wanted to say a few words about 2024 24, and some of the serious things that probably should be mentioned in an episode like this.

And then we will start the quiz properly.

So actually, what I wanted to do was read out an extract from the Wikipedia page for the year 2024, which is actually quite a neat summary of some of the most serious and somber stories of the last 12 months.

And actually, in my mind also, I've got a question about news and what makes things newsworthy.

In the news, they always prioritise these very serious stories.

We could talk about that briefly in a moment.

Anyway, the Wikipedia page for the year 2024.

This is what it says.

2024 is the current year and is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2024th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 24th year of the 3rd Millennium and the 21st Century, and the 5th year of the 2020s decade.

The year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar Civil War, the Sudanese Civil War and the Islamist insurgency of the Sahel.

In November, heavy fighting resumed in the Syrian civil war, leading to the toppling of Ba 'athist Syria, with Bashar al -Assad fleeing Syria in December.

The ongoing Israel -Hamas war has led to spill over into numerous countries, most notably Lebanon, who Israel invaded in October.

This followed an intensification of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

In the preceding month, Israel escalated an offensive against the group, including an attack using explosives -laden communication devices and carrying out a bombing of its headquarters, which resulted in the killing of the Secretary General Nassan Nasrallah.

Ismail Hania, I hope I'm pronouncing that properly, the political leader of Hamas, had already been assassinated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in July.

The year also saw a rise in activity by the Houthi movement, which has contributed to a crisis in the Red Sea that has impacted global shipping.

The ongoing conflict has sparked widespread protests against the war.

So that is just the first two paragraphs of the page about 2024, which is much longer.

Of course, it's all very serious stuff.

And we know that there are millions of ordinary people caught in the middle of these events and situations.

And this is obviously tragic and deeply saddening.

But I wanted to mention that thankfully, there are people and organisations who are working very hard to bring relief and medical aid to those who are directly affected by things like this.

And we can actually contribute to their efforts by giving them support.

Because sometimes in the face of these news stories.

We read about these things and you kind of feel a little bit, you obviously feel saddened and it's horrendous and you kind of feel a little powerless when you understand that there are these huge seismic global political situations and most normal people are just kind of like subjected to it.

One of the organisations that people can help out by donating to is Médecins Sans Frontiers, which is in English, Doctors Without Borders.

I just wanted to mention that people could consider donating to Doctors Without Borders in order to help people in need around the world.

Let me just give a little bit more information.

This is not a paid promotion of any kind.

We don't want to preach to everyone or anything like that.

You can do whatever you want.

But I feel like since we are talking about these global events, it just wouldn't really be right not to mention the serious stuff while also mentioning something that we can specifically do.

So Doctors Without Borders is a renowned international humanitarian organisation that provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.

The reasons why it's a good idea to donate to them, they work on the front lines, often in the most dangerous and neglected areas, providing emergency care to those who might otherwise have no access to medical assistance.

And donations directly support life -saving interventions, such as surgeries, vaccinations, and maternal health services.

Also, MSF, Médecins Sans Frontières, is independent and neutral, which is a really important thing.

They refuse funding from governments or from political entities for its emergency programs.

This makes sure that their work remains neutral and independent.

This independence allows them to provide aid solely based on need.

That's, I think a really important thing.

I could go on. People can find out more by Googling Doctors Without Borders.

And that's also where people can donate in order to support the organisation if that's what you would like to do.

But anyway, I just wanted to mention those things.

I think that was really, really, really nice, Luke.

Well done. Well said.

Okay. Well, so shall we do our quiz now?

I think we shall. I think we shall.

Yeah, Yeah let's go to it Okay ready for question one Yeah I wonder what you're going to ask I'm now thinking oh my god what is he going to ask me about And I'm just trying to Cast my mind back over the last 12 months It's been a lot of podcasting I can tell you that much but other things as well Yes

I'm afraid there's No podcast related question I'm afraid it's all things That have happened including question Number one yes in January There we go so before 2024 only four countries had landed spacecrafts on the moon the united states the soviet union china and last year india which country became

the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon in january 2024 oh my god because as you were asking me the question i was thinking oh it's India, right?

India is the answer, but no, they were the fourth.

So I need the fifth.

I need to try and think aloud when I'm responding to these questions.

You do. I'm thinking at this point, I don't know the answer off the top of my head.

So is there any way that I can kind of work it out?

Fifth country to land something on the moon?

Yeah. I'll just remind people which countries it isn't, the ones that have already done it.

So, the countries that had already landed on the moon were the United States, the Soviet Union, aka Russia, let's just say, because it's not Russia, China, and India.

So, it's not one of those ones.

It's the fifth country to land on the moon.

They did it in January 2024.

So, I don't really know, but I'm pretty sure it's not the UK.

I don't think there's been a British spaceship landed on the moon, although maybe it's the European Space Agency.

maybe it's the although i don't think they've got the funding to put something on the moon and also the question does say which country which country yeah it's not britain because you know what would we be doing on the moon just be like you know there's no you can't drink tea on the moon can you so what's

the point you know um no fish and chips on the moon i don't know steven i don't know i'm sorry to say that i don't know everyone out there i can tell already you're going to beat me this year but um so who was it which which country do you want to choose one at random just in case i don't know only

195 other countries to choose from so yeah yeah um i'm just trying to think what's the most unlikely of countries to put something on the moon but um i know wales wales wales your final answer i think the welsh have been putting all of their resources into putting um you know a welsh flag on the moon i

think that's it's wales okay well i can tell you that you are not correct i'm afraid it is not wales what a surprise unfortunately it's not wales uh the correct answer is japan japan was the fifth country to land on the moon they did that in uh january yeah that's right really yeah okay i'm surprised

why didn't i know about this what are they doing up on the moon then japanese listeners what you what's what's all that about it's a good question yeah they but uh they were the fifth country to arrive to the moon do you know that the the us is the only country that has ever sent people to the moon um

and they only did that between 1969 and 1972 and they haven't done it since then so nobody has been to the moon since 1972 what's the reason for that do you think i think there's nothing there i think it might be because it's uh quite dangerous and extremely expensive but the the us has said that they

are going to put people on the moon again in 2027 so uh yeah that'll be exciting in a few years time two years time yeah it's mainly just sort of dirt isn't it really it's not like there's much to do there are no like good restaurants um you know no i mean what there's no no swimming pools no golf clubs

no i mean you can play golf on the moon the americans did that didn't they in the 70s i think but yeah it's like it's going to cost you billions and when you get there there'll be nothing to do so um nah probably best just stay at home yeah yeah yeah i wonder uh if a space golf course would actually

ever be a possible thing to do i suppose the ball would just go really high wouldn't it do you reckon it's possible to whack a golf ball out of the orbit of the moon i don't know we're gonna have to try that one day because it's got gravity it's got gravitational pull it's just obviously not as not as

strong as it is on earth so i wonder if it's possible to whack a golf ball into space from the moon that's what i would do if i went there so uh anyone listening from any of the space agencies um and you know you're thinking we'd like to go to the moon because a lot of countries are doing it it seems

to be a really cool thing to do but we're not quite sure what we would do when we got there Well, I know what we would do.

We'd try and hit a golf ball out of the gravitational orbit of the moon.

That, I think, is probably worth spending, what, £300 billion for, I would say.

Well, if there's anybody that can help you with that, Luke, it is the main character of question number two.

Question number two is, the world's richest person, Elon Musk, has got lots of companies.

one of them is spacex as you uh just uh were talking about there and one of them is called neurolink question two is what does neurolink do what does neurolink do i think it connects the brain it's basically step one uh in the it's like a matrix prequel isn't it basically it's like a prequel to the matrix

so they've as far as I understand Neuralink is a way to connect the human brain to the internet or to a computer and it allows you I think to control a computer from your brain rather than some other interface like a keyboard or a mouse or something you can do it from your from your own mind is that right

that is absolutely right well done luke yeah yeah got one right yeah yeah yeah that's completely right yeah so neural link actually has implanted i think they've done it to two people now microchips into their brain which is such a crazy thing to think about and they are actually able to uh control

uh for example things on a computer screen like i've seen a guy playing chess you moving a mouse around with his just by thinking it which is it sounds so insanely futuristic um but that is actually happening so yeah wow um i don't know if i am uh excited or terrified or some sort of combination of the two

at this idea yeah yeah it is a pretty crazy thing to think about but if you think about it in this way the two people who have had it done are paralyzed so they are not as a result no no no no okay no no of course not no they're unparalyzed people they were fine before enough so they can move a mouse

they can move a cursor in a computer but they can't move their body anymore i hope that they were told this is not the case they weren't paralyzed as a result of course but uh no no no they are people who uh were previously paralyzed of course so that means that they did not have the ability to move

their hands or legs or any part of their body like they they were paralyzed from the shoulders down and right having this chip has been able to give them a little bit more freedom of being able to to do things like as i say moving a mouse around a keyboard screen uh and that kind of thing i saw one

guy playing mario karts which is pretty incredible with his brain so uh if you think about it from the perspective of somebody who has lost all of their uh ability to to to use their body parts this is really fantastic yes yeah absolutely this is a really good positive application of it yeah that that's

great that someone who's paralyzed can play Mario Kart and as well do so many other really important things.

Yeah, absolutely. And hopefully this is just the beginning of it.

Okay, question number three.

In June and July, the Euro 2024 football tournament took place in Germany.

Spain were the winners and one of their players broke the record for being the youngest player to play in a Euros tournament and score in a Euros tournament when he scored against France in the semifinal aged just 16.

God. What was his name?

I don't know. But I remember him because he was both 60.

He turned 17 during the competition, didn't he?

Yeah, a couple of days after scoring that goal against France.

He was both 16 and 17 during the tournament.

I remember that and obviously made it made me feel very old and and all the rest of it but I can't remember his name I'm sorry mate I know he's listening because obviously everyone listens to this podcast but so I'm really sorry that I can't remember your name mate but you know you're really good at football

you know so swings and roundabouts isn't it I suppose it's like oh what's the matter oh Luke Thompson couldn't remember my name oh well but at least you're really good at football so it's alright at least he's the youngest player to ever score at a Euros tournament ok well all of the Spanish listeners

are obviously I know I'm so sorry how could you not remember his name lo siento how do you say I'm sorry lo siento right lo siento or perdón or what else do you say yeah perdón lo siento how do you say I'm an idiot who can't remember important things about Spanish footballers right exactly what he said

okay everybody I'm really sorry especially to the to the the man himself is he a man anyway right so actually do you know what I don't think he is technically a man i mean by law he's still 17 so he's still a boy i guess still a minor anyway this minor's name is yamin lamal yamin lamal is uh that's

right yamin lamal was 16 now 17 and uh scored an absolutely incredible goal i don't know a lot about football but i knew that that was an incredible goal when i saw it against france from really far away outside the penalty area um there you go okay luke you are on only one out of three so far you've

got one out of three right so listeners if you've got two out of three right you're already beating luke at the moment um we're going to stick to sports yeah okay yeah i was gonna say i'm just you know i'm failing at this point i've only got 33 .3 recurring percent which is definitely below the general

pass mark of 60 you know this is like what this is like ielts what level four or three and a half i'm basically like a kind of elementary level uh if this was ielts then i'm i'm no no university will accept me with this current score so i need to i need to improve and quickly here's your chance because this one

is from your home city and by home city i mean where you live not where you were born of course um here we go in july and august the olympics took place in paris why was the men's triathlon event delayed by one day oh i love this question are you going to give people a moment to think yeah yeah so the men's

triathlon it was delayed by one day now this was this is one of the talking points that everyone finds very amusing and it's something that a lot of parisian people are sort of quite uh interested in let's say so the triathlon involves three different around disciplines.

There's running, there's cycling, and there's swimming.

So the swimming part was planned to take place in the River Seine itself.

They were going to go insane and actually jump in the Seine.

I say insane because for some people that was a crazy idea because the Seine is not very clean.

Although these days, according to the mayor of Paris, it's fixed, it's just clean now.

But no. So the reason it was delayed, the reason that it was delayed is because every day they had to take water samples from the river to check the level of, for example, very harmful bacteria and other things that you don't really want to be swimming with.

And the day it was supposed to happen, they checked the water quality and it wasn't considered safe to swim in.

I don't know how the athletes felt about this.

So, it was delayed by a day and they checked the quality of the water again.

And on that particular day, it was okay.

I mean, I don't know if they had like a pass mark like I've got in this test where it was like the previous day, 61 % no sorry this is dangerous but the next day 59 % so yeah that's fine you can swim in that just you know don't open your mouth if possible it sounds like it yeah yeah so that's the reason is because they

had to the the first day the water wasn't considered clean enough but the next day it was it was clean enough i don't know what happened in that 24 hour period where just people didn't use the toilet in the entire city for a day.

Although, because people were so annoyed about this, the idea that...

And the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in order to prove her point that it was safe to swim in, she actually swam in the river itself.

She went in with a few other people and swam in the river with a full wetsuit on and everything.

She's not that popular with some people.

And so there was this thing going around social media, I think, where some people in Paris were saying, right, so Anne Hidalgo is going to go in the river on this date.

Everyone flush their toilet.

Everyone use the toilet and flush at exactly the same time.

You know, so anyway, that's my answer.

Okay. Well, yeah, as you can tell, you know your stuff.

Yeah, that is absolutely right um well you've stolen everything that i was going to say in my nice explanation of this uh question because you knew the answer just too well but yeah the uh triathlon event was delayed because on one day they said it was a bit too polluted and then on the next day they

said oh no it's okay now and i've been asking myself the same question ever since what happened how is it possible but one day it's not okay and just the next day it is okay but yeah you're right and And Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, swam in the river two weeks before.

I think it was just before the opening ceremony to try and show that the river was clean.

And then, of course, they said, actually, it wasn't clean the day before the triathlon.

And then they said it was.

Anyway, that is the correct answer.

Well done, Luke. Have you been swimming in the Seine?

I've never swum in the Seine and I don't plan to at any time.

No, thanks. I mean, yeah, it's got it.

it doesn't look appealing either I mean it's quite a the current in the river is quite strong yeah as far as I can see and as a result it kind of brings up a lot of the earth and silt from the riverbed so the water is quite dirty looking anyway and it's quite the current is quite strong and then you

think well all sorts of stuff goes into this river from the city And also, I mean, we've seen that Disney movie Ratatouille, but we know that there are rats in the city.

So no thanks. I think I'll stay on dry land.

Thanks very much. Yeah.

There's not really any good reason to swim in the Seine really, is there?

Yeah. Only if there's a gold medal, you know, up for grabs perhaps, or if, you know, you've got no choice, I suppose.

um i understood i think that they had ways of introducing other water into the river system upstream they have these kind of i don't know how they do it but they've got these kind of um pools of water with with gates sluice gates and they can open these gates and release cleaner water into the system

which apparently improves the water quality for a limited time And I don't know exactly, but I understood that it was something like that.

This was their way of managing the cleanliness of the water.

But when it rains a lot, you know, obviously that introduces a lot of rainwater, which washes in from the streets and from the land and stuff.

And so the system also gets filled with, you know, dirty water in that way.

So it must be very difficult to manage it.

But there are probably different factors that influence the changing, you know, cleanliness of the water.

But still, no, not for me.

Yeah, absolutely right.

OK, we're going to stay at the Olympics for question number five.

So, and Luke, whilst I'm reading this, maybe you can open that photo file, which I found.

I don't know if you can share that picture on the screen somehow, or we can put that in later, up to you.

probably have to put that in later okay that's fine okay okay question number five staying at the olympics in one event these two participants were spoken about as being the coolest olympians uh if you're watching on youtube then you can see the photos and if you're just listening to the podcast that's

fine as well i'm going to describe them to you so the first person is kim Yeji from South Korea, and she is wearing a backwards baseball cap and some interesting technical eye gear over her eyes.

Over her right eye, there is a black monocle, and over her left eye, there is just a square that would block her vision completely from that eye.

And the second person is Yusuf Dikec from Turkey.

I'm probably saying his name wrong, Yusuf Dikec, something like that.

And he is just wearing normal glasses.

So the question is, what sport do these two participate in?

And these are the people who were called the coolest Olympians in some media around the time so what sport do these two people participate in that's the question it's a very generous question and i appreciate that because uh i think it was impossible to um live on earth and not know about these two

this summer right um they were like the the heroes of the of the olympics in a way there's just so much so many memes and so much entertainment uh around these to so uh that i think the event is called simply shooting is that right it's just yeah yeah i think technically it's it's air pistol but it

doesn't matter shooting is is fine too shooting is right so if you said shooting or pistol or air pistol or something like that you have got a point yeah well done and i've got to say i can understand why there were so many memes because they really did look super cool they look like they were straight

out of a an action film or something but the interesting thing is like the difference between the two so kim yeji she looks really cool because she looks like some sort of cyborg assassin from the future right where she looks like a character a side character from you know star wars or the terminator or something

like that like if there was a new terminator i mean they could be two characters in a in a terminator film like kim yeji has been sent back from the future to kill you know you or something you know because you make your podcast it's just too informative it's the yeah anyway uh and yusuf is the guy

who the humans sent back to try and defend you against kim yeah yeah because she looks i won't watch this film yeah totally yeah but yeah yusuf yusuf is the complete opposite right he is so cool because he looks like he just doesn't try at all he's got his hand in his pocket and he's just like bang

you know just uh like it's the the easiest thing he's ever done in his life yeah totally she she looks like a james bond villain with all of the technology and she's like got all the tech technical gear and everything and uh and then yusuf just rocks up and just literally stands there he puts his hand in his pocket

as well he just the most casual stance he's got one hand in his pocket and he just uses his eyes yeah with some glasses on and then kim has got all this super duper technology with the with the monocle and everything yeah yeah really really funny stuff but they were successful right kim won a medal

didn't she yes i think ah sorry i should know this i think one of them got silver or maybe both of them got silver i think um yeah i think they both got medals of some kind yeah yeah just interesting the two different approaches and also kim she looks so kind of badass like a ninja or assassin or something

but also um she was holding like this cuddly toy or something as well wasn't she i don't remember that i didn't see that pocket or maybe in one of her hands she had this little fluffy elephant which was kind of an interesting combination of like this badass looking assassin with a little cuddly elephant

toy in her hand um but in reality i think she's not you know this is just she just looks like that because she was being so serious and doing her best to to to shoot accurately um and i think in in interviews she's a much more smiley and warm person um but obviously she had to focus really hard she

was wearing the cap um because she wanted to try and keep the hair out of her eyes you know and the technology is probably something that works for her whereas yusuf I think according to him, he just prefers to shoot without the encumbrance of the technology on attached to his head.

And he finds that just using the naked eye is what works for him.

So, you know, it's an interesting sport, you know, that you can use the technology or maybe just simply the naked eye is the, is the best approach, but you know, different things for different people, I suppose.

Yeah. And all about having a steady hand and controlling your breathing and stuff like that and i think that i'm not sure if this is uh for air pistol but for some shooting things they even um know they can like listen to their heartbeat and know to shoot based on the rhythm of their heartbeat so that they

know that they can hold the position meta or something like that which is uh just incredible yeah you got to hold your breath and yeah because the the heartbeat obviously creates a pulse that runs through your whole body and that can yeah probably move your arm by just millimeters or micro you know

very small amounts micro millimeters so yeah you just like wait for your heartbeat and you shoot between each beat yeah yeah incredible did you ever play metal gear solid by the way the computer game uh my friend's houses i don't think i had it myself but i remember uh going around to their houses it's

like a like it's like a shooting game but it's more based on spy side of things right so you're doing everything really slowly no yeah it's a strategic espionage kind of shooting game and um uh there's just one scene where he has to use a sniper rifle and these things come into play as you're playing

you know you kind of realize that his breathing affects the your ability to shoot uh accurately and also So you realize that he needs to take diazepam and that part of the way you actually succeed the mission is that you have to get some diazepam.

And he takes the diazepam and it slows down his heartbeat and it allows him to complete the mission.

So it's kind of interesting.

Diazepam is Valium, right?

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, I expect that using Valium in the Olympics would not be allowed, but it's just interesting to see the different factors involved in a sport like that.

Absolutely. Okay, moving on.

Question six. In July, millions of Windows computers crashed around the world.

You remember this? Yeah, I do remember this, but as an Apple Mac user, I was just like, yeah, fine.

Carry on, everyone.

Well, let's see if you were paying attention to the problem for other people then.

This affected all types of businesses, most notably government services, airports and hospitals, and it is believed to have cost the world $10 billion.

But what caused the problem?

And I've got some options for you for this one, A to D.

So what caused the problem?

A, a faulty security update, B, a cyber attack, C, broken undersea cables, or D, a fire at an important server.

Should I say those options again?

Yes, please. Okay, so what caused all of those computers to crash all around the world?

Was it A, a faulty security update, so a problem with a security update, B, a cyber attack, C, broken undersea cables, or D, a fire at an important server?

I noticed that one of your options is not just someone with too many windows open on their computer, which is normally the thing that does it.

Like if it's a Zoom call and the Zoom call crashes, it's like who had all their applications running?

If it's my wife's computer, then it would be that her browser has got about a million different windows open, a thousand tabs running on her computer.

That's enough to bring down.

The last thing I did before I started talking to you, Luke, today was close everything that I could possibly close, just to make sure that we didn't have a 10 billion problem on our head.

So faulty security update, so a security update that did the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do.

Right, right. A cyber attack.

Yeah, it's possible.

Broken cables under the water.

because, like, they got eaten by fish or something or Jaws, Jaws 2.

Fire at an important server.

I don't think a fire at a server would probably cause all those computers to get the blue screen of death.

I don't think a fire in a server would do that.

It would just cut out some of the internet.

Broken cables. cyber attacks faulty i'm going for faulty security update i think i think that's probably it it's probably just something as annoying as that that you like security update yeah i want to make sure that my computer doesn't crash and that all my data is secure yeah i'll i'll i'll do that meanwhile

millions of other people around the globe are doing it and then oh god oh yeah don't download that security update okay whatever you do oh no millions of people have already downloaded it i think it's the security update yeah you are absolutely right luke it is a a faulty security update so there's

this company called crowd strike which is a security uh cyber security company and uh they pushed out a uh an update and millions of people downloaded it, as you do.

And they realized very, very quickly, I think it was within one or two hours, they realized that it had a mistake in it, which was going to stop all of these computers from working.

But it was too late.

And even after just a couple of hours, so many millions of people had already downloaded it, or so many millions of computers had already downloaded it, that it caused all of these terrible problems.

And it caused problems for weeks to fix all of these, all of these computers which needed some other kind of manual update to correct them so yeah I even had just booking an appointment at the doctors uh that they their system was down and they had to do everything uh on the phone uh instead the old

-fashioned way um and but there were a lot of a lot of problems around the world especially airports um have a lot of problems But yeah, it was all down to a faulty security update.

That was it. Oh, God, imagine being the person responsible for that.

You'd be absolutely devastated, wouldn't you?

Yeah, terrible. I mean, that's worse than the Millennium bug.

Do you remember the Millennium bug?

Yeah, but the Millennium bug didn't really exist, did it?

It was just something that we were all planning for, and we're showing our age here, Luke.

But yeah, I mean, we were all planning for it just in case something would happen and then nothing did happen nothing happened but people were talking about planes falling out of the sky because computers weren't ready for the the year to change to zero zero they thought that would just end civilization but no it

was fine thankfully um yeah all right i'm doing a little bit better now i've got three out of five sixty percent i'm better than that luke you've got four out of six oh have i that was that was question six you've got four out of six yeah yes yeah well done you've really uh percentage that is 66 .66

isn't it 666 brilliant yeah yeah okay yeah um good this is better let's let's carry on okay let's carry on like that all right question seven one animal which is considered vulnerable to extinction has seen some positive trends over the last 25 years Before the growing number of humans, there were probably

over 25 million of this animal in the world.

However, today there are only just over 400 ,000.

So today there are about 400 ,000 of this animal.

The good news is that the population seems to have stabilised and even grown a little bit over the last 25 years mostly because of conservation efforts what animal am i talking about let me just whack the microphone there um all right so there used to be 23 million uh but before the population of humans

went crazy there was probably people think that there were probably 25 million of these animals and then the population came down and down and down and down And today there's only 400 ,000 and they are they have been considered at risk of extinction.

But over the last 25 years and recently, the reason that this was in the news this year is because there was some like positive reports about this animal showing that the population has stabilised and is has even grown a little bit over the last 25 years.

And I'll give you a little bit more information.

they've actually in some places have even caused a bit of problems by there being too many of them in some areas and uh and uh yeah i don't want to give too much information okay okay um so an animal that uh used to be doing really well and then humans came along and not so good anymore and they've

dropped down to a fraction of their former numbers and but they they're now getting they're kind of coming back a little bit um the only animal i could think of i mean obviously i can think of a lot of animals but might not be the right ones but the only animals that i can think of that might fit the bill

for this is possibly wolves are we talking about wolves here because obviously there used to be a lot of wolves and then as you can see from so many children's stories uh us humans decided that wolves were a really bad thing and a lot of them got killed you know.

And then they've been sort of, we've realised how important they are to natural habitats and stuff.

And I think a lot of them have been, in a lot of places, wolves have been reintroduced quite successfully in places like Yellowstone National Park and stuff.

So I'm going to say wolves, but I could easily be completely wrong.

Okay. I'm going to tell you that the answer is not wolves.

The answer is not wolves.

And I want everybody who's listening to remember the answer that they've got right now.

I'm going to give you the opportunity to get half a point instead if i give you one extra piece of information so you can have half a point luke and everybody else who's listening uh if i tell you that this is an african animal it's an animal which is in africa and a bit in asia but mostly in africa oh

all right what animal half a point if you can get it with that info elephants it is elephants well done okay great okay there you go you salvaged half a point there so now you've got four four and a half four and a half out of seven it is it is elephants so elephants they say probably uh i don't know

when exactly but the people think that there were 20 sorry 25 million elephants on the planet at some point most of them in africa some of them in atia and people were hunting them for their ivory that is their tusks and their teeth and of course when people build cities and things like that this also has a bad

effect on the elephants and they came down and down and down and down and there were lots of conservation efforts that mostly started about 25 years ago and positive news it's actually worked and today the situation for the elephants has stabilized and in some areas they've actually been growing and there

was one story that came out this year from Botswana.

Botswana says that it's got too many elephants and they've been trying to send them to other countries, some other African countries.

They've said, can you have some?

And they've gone, okay, and they've taken a few thousand, they've taken a few thousand.

And there was a story about the president of Botswana threatening to send 20 ,000 elephants to Germany because the German environment minister was complaining about the Botswana, about the way that Botswana was treating its elephants and saying that some of them should be able to be killed, essentially,

because they have too many.

And so the president of Botswana said, OK, well, look, all right, fine, then you can take them And then so they said, you can have 20 ,000 elephants.

That didn't actually happen, but he did threaten to send 20 ,000 elephants to Germany.

Wow. Incredible. Imagine if he'd actually done it.

And then, you know, in Germany, they'd just be like, oh, God, we've got all these elephants.

What are we going to do?

It's really difficult to get to work.

Just too many elephants.

Right. A new Uber service, Uber elephants.

Yeah, maybe. Oh, wow.

Okay. Interesting story.

All right. Sticking with animals.

Number eight, a baby hippopotamus went viral this year, a few months after being born in Thailand and caused a massive surge in visitors to the Khao Kyo Zoo.

She is called Moodeng.

What does Moodeng mean?

Does Moodeng a mean dirty cat b bouncy pork c sticky chicken what or d spicy pigeon i'll go through them again a here we go so this is what what does mudang the name of the hippopotamus uh mean a dirty cat B.

Bouncy pork C. Sticky chicken or D.

Spicy pigeon It sounds a little bit like you're reading from a menu in some random restaurant Something that's been translated really badly Yeah, exactly Spicy chicken, please because the other ones don't sound very tasty Um, uh, no, it was spicy pigeon, wasn't it?

Oh God. A, dirty cat.

Dirty cat. B, bouncy pork.

Yeah. C, sticky chicken.

Or D, spicy pigeon.

Which one of those is moodeng?

So bouncy pork, the word pork in English refers to the meat.

So you would, you know, eat or not eat pork.

pork. Pig is the animal, right?

So the animal's name is pig and the meat that comes from a pig is called pork.

But sometimes people mix up the words pork and pig.

So I was wondering if maybe it's bouncy pork because a baby hippopotamus is a bit like a bouncy pig, isn't it, in a way?

So I think it's probably bouncy pork meaning bouncy pig.

I think it's that. luke you are absolutely right yeah bouncy pork that is completely completely right you got five and a half points um i i actually in some translations that i could see of the name sometimes it was bouncy pig and sometimes it was bouncy pork so i think it might be that in thai they

don't have two words they just say the same thing for pig and pork uh which makes sense the same as we do for chicken i don't know why we change the word for for uh pig and pork cow and beef but we don't change the word for fish or for chicken but uh i don't know there'll be some story about about the norman invasion of britain and something's

poultry versus you know upper class people eating beef and pork but not chicken because that's for you know uh lower class people something like that it'd be that yeah yeah you're probably right yeah yeah okay should we move on to question nine yes let's do it the price of chocolate has been uh has risen

dramatically in the last two years yeah tell me about it yeah we i've met my wife and i've noticed it anyway yes do you know why uh inflation inflation or um why has the price of chocolate risen around the world?

Just to be clear, this is not question nine, but do you know why?

There could be all kinds of factors, but I suppose it's something to do with one of the ingredients involved in making chocolate has become harder to get.

So cacao, is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cacao or cacao or coca?

Yeah. So, okay, here's question nine.

The price of chocolate has risen dramatically in the last two years all around the world because of a rising cocoa bean prices because of rising cocoa bean prices the price of cocoa beans has doubled over the last year so unfortunately the price that we all pay for chocolate is probably going to keep

on rising uh heavy rain and other poor conditions have made bad cocoa harvests in the two west african countries that produce most of the world's cocoa can you name either of those countries so all you have to do is name one of the two countries which is in west africa which produces most of the world's

cocoa together these two countries make two -thirds of the world's cocoa so if you've eaten chocolate it's probably come from there west africa yeah that's right if you can name either of these countries, you can have a point.

Right. So you'd imagine, you would imagine, wouldn't you, that these countries are going to be fairly developed if something like, what was it, 65 % of the world's cocoa comes from these two places.

So they're probably going to be the more well -established countries.

So I'm thinking the bigger nations the the sort of perhaps richer nations like nigeria cameroon nigerian cameroon i don't know so i'm just guess i'm trying to make an educated guess but um i mean there's a large chance i've got to be wrong about this right nigeria cameroon but so the um i'm not sure

how to say this but the the the question uh says can you name one of those one can you name so because there's two of them I'm giving you an opportunity to get one of the two I tell you what I'm going to let you have two guesses to get the two or one to get one of the two so having said sorry having

said Nigerian camp and Cameroon I don't really remember ever hearing Nigerian cocoa like that's not a phrase I've heard in my life very much.

I thought Nigerian cocoa, Cameroonian cocoa, the finest cocoa from the Ivory Coast, the finest cocoa from Senegalese cocoa.

I'm just trying to decide which of those phrases I've actually heard before.

you know um it's none of those countries i feel like um nigerian cocoa senegalese cocoa well well done for already naming four or five countries in west africa luke you've uh you're showing that your geography's not too bad yeah yeah yeah it's not as good as it could be uh i don't know senegal okay

it is not senegal so senegal is not one of them i'll give you okay so if anybody else uh yeah you can just tell you the answer yeah tell you the answer all right no no half point for a second guess no no it's too generous okay i'm being too generous the answers are unfortunately you you did actually

say one of them one of them is court d 'ivoir ivory coast oh um and the other one you didn't say the other one is gana so court d 'ivoir and gana they make two thirds of the world's cocoa so if you said either court d 'ivoir or gana you can give yourself a point for that there some of the other ones that you

said there i'm not sure about senegal but um cameroon and nigeria they are in the top 10 but they're not but they're still very far down because the top two uh kodibar and ghana they make yeah like two thirds of the world's cocoa number three i think is ecuador so that's obviously in in south america in south america and then

uh most of the others are in other parts of west africa but they're still quite a long way down just because Côte d 'Ivoire and Ghana make so much of it.

And yeah, so the price of chocolate, if you've noticed that the price of your chocolate has gone up recently, it's largely because of this.

Well, as we all know, there's been massive inflation in the world in general for everything.

So it's not just your country, guys.

It's all countries have had big inflation in 2024.

But chocolate has been particularly bad because the cocoa harvests have been terrible for the last two years in Cote d 'Ivoire and Ghana and other places that make cocoa.

There's been too much rain and that's made some kind of rot on the trees and it's made some of the trees die and things like this.

So that's pushed the price of cocoa up a lot.

So unfortunately it might still go up a little bit more in 2025 fingers crossed Wow very interesting yeah okay well sorry to all my Ghanaian listeners because I didn't get that one right and Ivory Coast as well but so I don't get a point for that because let's be honest I said Senegal that was my final

answer which was not the right answer so I don't get a point so that was question nine right so it's 5 .5 out of nine now 5 .5 out of nine that's right five five out of nine okay number 10 here we go um the world's biggest cruise ship the icon of the seas launched this year and made its maiden voyage

after being christened by leonel messi but how big is the icon of the seas and i'm going to give you a length in meters and how many people it holds by the way for the the people it holds about a quarter of them are crew so whatever you hear you can think about a quarter of them are crew and the other

three quarters are um passengers so here we go a 160 meters and 4 000 people b 260 meters and 7 ,000 people, C, 360 meters and 10 ,000 people, or D, 460 meters and 15 ,000 people.

I'll say that again.

No, I got it. I got it.

You got it. 260 metres.

A, 160 metres long, holding 4 ,000 people.

That would be about 1 ,000 crew members and 3 ,000 passengers.

Check out my maths, everyone.

B is 260 metres and 7 ,000 people.

C is 360 metres, 10 ,000 people.

And D is 460 metres, 15 ,000 people.

So my ability to think about distances is not quite as good as, I think, as my ability to picture a certain number of people in one place.

So I can think of like a concert venue that holds about 10 ,000, 15 ,000 people.

I sort of get a general idea of what that looks like.

460 meters long. So I'm looking at option D and thinking 15 ,000 people.

that's like a kind of a modest -sized football stadium, right?

Not one of the bigger ones, not like a Manchester City or whatever, but maybe a sort of smaller Premiership club, like a Fulham or something smaller than that maybe, Wolves.

We'll go back to Wolves again.

Of course, bear in mind that they're all going to be having their own bedrooms on this shit.

Right, so yeah. Because a small football stadium is already massive and that's just seats.

that's just people sitting in seats but yeah people having a place to sleep everyone's got their own cabin everyone's got their own cabin there's a restaurant there's all the 50 000 people or maybe or maybe half or something you know imagining that you've got two people in the same room or three people

or something yeah but still that's a lot of space 15 000 people seems too much but this is the biggest this is the biggest ship in the world so it's got a cinema and swimming pools and a gym and you know some I think it's even got slides and things going into the pool and yeah plus 460 meters long I'm

still looking at option d that's that's really far I mean that's like nearly half a kilometer long that's ridiculous um can't remember how long a football pitch is that's normally the kind of yardstick for this sort of thing isn't it's like the length of four football pitches, you get an idea of how

big it is. I think D is too big.

That's insane. That's far too big.

It's probably going to be D now, but 7 ,000 people.

I think 260 meters, 7 ,000 people seems feasible.

And for that reason, I think it's not going to be the answer.

I think it's going to be something astounding, like 10 ,000 people, but not quite as astounding as 15 ,000 people, which is just too much.

So I think 15 ,000 people is unimaginable for me.

7 ,000 people seems quite reasonable for a huge ship.

So I think it's going to be somewhere in between.

I'm going 10 ,000 people, 360 meters long, about a third of a kilometer long, option C.

yeah yeah well done that's right yeah okay well done it is 360 meters long and uh it holds 10 ,000 people something like uh 7 ,500 passengers and 2 ,500 uh crew staff so uh well yeah it is uh it's pretty insane.

It looks like a city.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely amazing.

But the feats of humanity.

Well done, Luke. You've got, speaking of feats of humanity, you've got six and a half out of 10.

That's pretty good.

It's pretty good. It's still a pass, isn't it?

IELTS 6 .5. That will get me into a fairly decent university.

Okay. that's right okay uh okay we're coming on to uh elections for the next two questions here we go 11 donald trump became the first president in over a hundred years to win a non -consecutive term as president after winning in 2016 and losing in 2020 but by what percentage of votes did Trump beat Kamala Harris?

Is it A, 1 .5%, B, 3%, C, 4 .5%, or D, he didn't.

She got more votes than him, but he won the presidency anyway because of the electoral college system.

so uh by by what percent did trump beat kamala harris in the u .s presidential election was it a 1 .5 b three percent c 4 .5 or d he didn't beat her uh on percentage of votes she got more votes than him but he won the presidency anyway because of the electoral college system so this is interesting like option D

there just to kind of talk about that a little bit more.

In the way that these presidential elections are done in the United States, you have the popular vote which is like a direct just counting all the votes and working out who got more.

That's called the popular vote but that's not the way it works.

They have electoral cottages, electoral colleges which is kind of, I guess, Something similar to the British first -past -the -post system, which has constituencies.

I think that Trump won the popular vote and that he won the electoral colleges.

I think he won both, and it was a significant margin.

So, I think, again, it's option C.

I think he beat her by at least 4 .5%.

Am I right? You are not right, I'm afraid.

That is wrong. God damn it.

Yeah, surprisingly, even though he won the Electoral College easily, he got way more Electoral College votes than she did because he won a lot more states than she did.

I'm just going to pull up the Wikipedia presidential 2024 page.

So even though he won 312 electoral college votes and she only won 226, the amount of the percentage more votes that he got than her was only 1 .5%.

So it's A. A is the correct answer.

So in terms of the popular vote, he got only 1 .5 % more votes than her.

Wow. Yeah. So she got 48 .4%, 48 .4%, and he got 49 .9%.

So he got just under half, and she got a bit less than just under half.

There you go. so in terms of millions of votes he got 77 .2 something million and she got 74 .9 million um yeah so if you in the terms of the electoral college because he won a lot more states overall it looks like he got a much much uh bigger um win but in terms of percentage just 1 .5 percent so it It

is A. There you go.

Okay. God, I got it wrong.

I've slipped below the pass mark here, I think, with that one.

I overestimated how successful Donald Trump was.

I mean, obviously he still won the election, but it wasn't quite as huge a victory as perhaps we've been led to believe.

for such a because um yeah yeah I feel like we've come away from the election maybe just like someone like me who's not paying attention to all the details you just kind of come away from that story feeling like well he just won it out and out um and it was like a really big victory I mean he did it

he definitely won it out and out because he did get more votes than her which of course he didn't do in 2016 in 2016 um he won the presidency just because of that electoral college system uh he actually got three million less votes than hillary clinton in 2016 but in 2024 he has got more votes than kamala harris as

well so he's definitely totally out and out won it but uh if you look at the percentages the differences is not really that big so it's obviously still a very significant victory but um yeah it does put it into perspective though when you you see the the the margin it's not not that big anyway okay

number 12 sticking to elections around half of the world's population live in countries that voted in 2024 can you name five countries excluding the united states because i just talked about that can you name five other countries that held elections in 2024 and the way that we're going to do this is I'm

going to let you say six countries so that if you get one of them wrong that's okay you can have that one wrong so you can say six countries and as long as five of them are countries that have had elections then you will win a point oh dear so I'm sighing now because I'm going to look stupid I can just

smell it because I'm going to miss some things so the UK obviously had a general election this year Georgia very recently had an election um there was a European Parliament and that doesn't count um Japan didn't Japan have an election this year tell me I'm right or wrong about that I mean I'm not going

to change my answer you're not going to change your answer okay um if you're not going to change your answer then yes you are right Japan okay shall I just tell you what you've already got so far So yes, you've got those three, those three that you've said so far, UK, Georgia, Japan.

Good. Yeah. Why is my brain going France?

France, France, France, France.

But no, it wasn't this year.

That's mad. It was the European elections.

So the Marine Le Pen's party, and plus there have been a lot of political things going on in France at the moment recently, but there was a...

No, wait a minute. France had an election but not for not a presidential election that had a parliamentary any election yeah it can be presidential or parliamentary and france had a parliamentary election this year yes you are correct so france is one of them yeah france is one of them she's got to

get one more um why am i thinking india why do i think that india had an election this year there must be a reason for that but i mean i'm not sure i know that elections have been a big deal this year and no there've been a lot of significant elections around the world it's been like a hot topic all

year long of like the year of elections um so the fact that i'm struggling to name five countries that have had elections is um disappointing for me and slightly embarrassing but i'm gonna add india to the list but i'm really sorry you're right you're right no you're right yeah yeah it is india and i

tell you what one little clue to that was the fact that i said around half of the world's population lives in countries that have voted in 2024.

So yeah, India really helps on that.

As we now know, it is the most populous country in the world because it overtook China last year, as I think might have been a question in 2023.

That was, yeah. Yeah, so right.

So just to help out.

Well done, Luke. You've got seven and a half out of 12.

Well done. So just to obviously, for everybody who's playing at home and has just said different countries.

I've got a map of the world, so I'm just going to go around quickly just in case you said any of these.

So in North America, you could have said Mexico or Honduras or Panama or Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay.

In Africa, you could have said South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon.

No, that's not Cameroon, Gabon.

Togo, Ghana, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, South Sudan, Somaliland and Madagascar.

In Europe, you could have said UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria.

What's that? Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, San Marino.

If anybody said San Marino, then wow.

um macedonia bulgaria romania moldova belarus russia uh lithuania finland and georgia in asia you could have said japan south korea mongolia kazakhstan uh uzbekistan iran uh asbyjan syria jordan india pakistan bangladesh indonesia uh cambodia nearly finished taiwan sri lanka did i say that already and then

in in oceania probably nobody said any of these but just in case uh new caledonia vanuatu uh the solomon islands the uh tuvalu uh kiribati and new if anybody said new i don't even know how to pronounce new um then uh yeah if anybody said that then well done okay so actually um i uh it's not a surprise

then i got five because it feels like i could have just randomly chosen five countries and i probably would have got it right because it's almost every country had an election this year it's insane yeah it was a lot it was a lot yeah it's tons of countries okay but anyway i got i got my point so i've

got 7 .5 out of 12 okay yes you do okay uh right number 13 which european country legalized cannabis this year um which european country legalized cannabis this year okay um hmm so when you say legalized it you mean just in the same way that it's legal in in the netherlands like that people can actually

smoke it for just personal use or are you talking about medical marijuana it is uh it's legalized for recreational use so in this country it has been legalized this year and um people can grow up to three plants themselves and can own up to 50 grams themselves um however it's not sold in shops and as

far as i understand it to be able to if you want to be able to buy it and not grow it yourself then you have to go to one of these cannabis clubs which you have to be a uh resident in this country to join and you have to have been there for six months um it's something like that that's more or less

the system which is actually makes it more legal than in the netherlands where they have a really weird system like it's technically illegal but it's tolerated the netherlands technically it's not legal even though it's like tolerated yeah but in this country now it is actually legalized for uh recreational

use so that happened in 2024 which country and interesting that those laws obviously were to try and prevent the tourism, the kind of cannabis tourism that can happen as a result of that sort of thing where you have to be a resident.

You know what? I don't know.

I don't know. And I really don't know which country this is.

I know it's not France.

I mean, unless it was France and I've just forgotten, which probably would be a reason why, how to describe that.

But I don't know, Stephen.

I actually genuinely don't know.

Do you want to choose a country at random?

Random European country.

God, what kind of country would do that?

They're just smoking weed.

They're fine. It's Portugal.

Good try, but it's not Portugal.

It is Germany. germany yeah i know yeah this one really flew under the radar how did i not know that i know yeah so since april uh it's been um yeah marijuana has been legalized in germany and people can grow up to three plants and can own up to 50 grams um and they have started these cannabis clubs

that people can join to buy it as well but you have to be a resident so i and i think you're right that it probably is to avoid that amsterdam situation of people just going there to buy it and then leave but yeah there you go i know it's that that one has flown under the radar hasn't it so did you

say you can't buy it in shops you said that right they have these no you can't buy in shops they have these cannabis clubs to be honest i don't actually know if they look like a shop or something like that i don't know that um maybe somebody who knows more can leave us comments somewhere asking because i'm i'm

suddenly buying tickets for germany but But I was just curious because I was wondering about how that would affect the economy, but that a lot of countries consider legalizing cannabis in this way because they can tax the sales of it.

And if it's just commercially available, then obviously that's going to raise a lot of tax revenue.

You know, if it suddenly takes it out of the black market into the, you know, the common legal market, then there's a lot of tax that can be gained from it, which I would imagine would be a good reason for doing it.

So I was wondering if that's the case in Germany, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, German listeners, if you haven't fallen asleep yet, you can let us know how it's going.

How is that? Has it made it bad?

Have you noticed it?

Yeah. Yeah. Have you noticed any changes to, you know, the society around you?

Yeah. Or have you just been staying in a lot since the law was changed?

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, question 14.

In the United States and Canada, throughout 2024, two rappers have been involved in what has been called the biggest rap battle since the feud between Biggie and Tupac in the 1990s, can you name either of the two rappers involved in this rap feud of 2024?

Okay, two rappers having a feud.

One of them said one thing and the other one didn't like it and he got very upset and the other one's like, you said something about my mum or something.

it's a bit it's a little kind of pathetic isn't it the kind of uh these rap battle feuds but um i think one of them is drake you're not giving me any clues as to i'm gonna tell you yeah i will that is right yeah you have one of them is drake and who's who the hell is the other one who's the other one

i'm showing how uncool i am at this point because I don't know who the other one is.

But you're going to tell me and I'm going to go, yeah, of course.

It starts with a K.

Kendrick Lamar. Hey, well done.

Is it? Yeah, you got both of them.

It is Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

So if you, listener, have said either Drake or Kendrick Lamar, then you can have a point for that one.

That's right. Yes, the biggest rap feud since Biggie and Tupac.

I mean, I don't follow this stuff either but um hey that was a big thing in the news do you know why do you know do you know what one of them said or did no no oh actually oh oh sorry i thought you were going to tell me uh no essentially i think it was just uh for i've i've read like briefly some some

of it like they were friends they they did some songs together about 10 years ago and i think uh one One of them said, I think it genuinely was just that kind of snowball effect where one of them says something small and the other one says something a bit bigger and the other one says something a bit

bigger. And then all of a sudden they're accusing each other of, you know, crimes against humanity.

And that's the way that it goes.

I've just Googled it.

According to Wikipedia, it looks like there's history, but the big major cause of the beef between these two rappers is that Kendrick Lamar allegedly accused Drake of sexual predation, including sex trafficking and fathering a second secret child.

So Lamar is accusing Drake of some sort of...

Heavy crimes. Yeah, some pretty nasty stuff.

That's it. That's why I try not to get into my rap battles.

Anyway, question 15.

In October, Claudia Scheinbaum became the first female president of which country?

So in October, Claudia Scheinbaum, I'm saying that in the way that people would probably say it in this country, but Claudia looks like Claudia to an English audience.

Claudia Scheinbaum became the first female president of which country?

Scheinbaum. Sounds kind of German, doesn't it, everyone, right?

But it can't be Germany because they had Angela Merkel for all those years.

so claudio can't be the first president female president where where else they speak german austria there was an election there this year wasn't there we heard that earlier could it be austria switzerland i'm sure there are other places where german is spoken but i'm going to just cut to the chase and i'm

going to say austria it's not austria i'm afraid it's not even it's not even a german -speaking country but that was quite a smart thing to say because uh obviously scheinbaum does sound very german probably is uh originally from a german country german -speaking country uh but no claudia scheinbaum is the new

president of mexico so oh mexican listeners i'm so sorry that i didn't get that right what an idiot what an uninformed idiot i am ask me about phrasal verbs i can tell you the president of mexico i'm sorry i fall down one good thing about these world world news quiz episodes is that you get to say sorry

to all of your different sections of audience very english isn't it this sorry everyone sorry sorry happy new year sorry okay luke you've got eight and a half out of 15 it's not looking good slightly above above half but there we go okay number 16 okay uh to which caribbean country has kenya sent its police

force to try to help fight against gang violence so this is a country with lots of a big problem of gang violence in the caribbean and kenya is leading a task force and it sent its police force to help fight against gang violence in this country.

What country is that?

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness.

Hmm. Right, I'm just thinking of like Caribbean countries where there might be gang violence.

Haiti, possibly Jamaica.

Because I know that you get rude boys in Jamaica and there's a bit of gang related stuff, I think, there.

And recently they dropped out of the Commonwealth, I think, which might account for why Kenya are stepping in to assist them, if it is them.

Could it be Haiti? Barbados, you kind of, for some reason, I've got, I imagine that Barbados is relatively stable.

sort of a tourist destination for a lot of Brits and stuff where else I mean there are other obviously other Caribbean places Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba is that considered to be part of the Caribbean yes but they're not going to get Kenya aren't going to be stepping in in Cuba um puerto rico but that that's

america who's really going to be involved in that united states oh i don't know steven i'm going to go for jamaica just because i know that they that they're you know they have had gang related issues there and not being in the caribbean not being in the uh commonwealth would mean that maybe another

nation might be sort of stepping in to help out rather than a commonwealth nation like you know britain of course um so uh jamaica it's not jamaica i'm afraid i'm really sorry but you actually it's actually the first country that you said haiti it is haiti yeah haiti what a shame um yeah it is haiti

um actually i've kind of broken the broken the original rule that we said at the beginning because i know i said that most of these questions were going to be the all of these questions were going to be kind of lighthearted but actually the situation in Haiti is really terrible like they've got really

bad gang violence controlling so so much of the country and that's the reason that uh Kenya uh has sent its police force to try and help out to try and stabilize the situation um so yeah that was that was Kenya sending its force to Haiti and I'm afraid that means you are now on eight and a half out

of 16 you're still just just above 50 but i've got a good feeling you're gonna pick it up with question 17 okay okay question 17 is on december the 4th look at that we're in the final stretch um what record high price did bitcoin pass on december the 4th so a particular milestone price that Bitcoin has just

passed a couple of weeks ago?

Oh, I've got no idea about cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin, the value of Bitcoin.

I don't know what is considered to be a good value for Bitcoin or not.

Some of my listeners are going, Luke, you should invest in crypto.

And sometimes I do get messages from people telling me that I need to be investing in cryptocurrencies.

And I know it's like a big thing for some people, but it's just i mean i'm i'm you know i've never really been invested interested in that kind of thing um well i have no idea neither am i and neither have i i don't know anything about cryptocurrencies either uh nothing at all but this was in the news

because it was a particular specifically uh you know round number high price that one bitcoin has passed i don't know if if it's if if it's a currency that's similar in value to, let's say, the pound or the euro, where it might be like $1, one Bitcoin is considered to be good or if that's really terrible.

Some people who know about this are listening to me going, just $1, that'd be ridiculous.

So I don't know. I've got absolutely no frame of reference for what is considered to be high value or low value of a Bitcoin.

Zero idea. And I didn't, this story did not reach me.

So I've got no clue.

If a Bitcoin is like closer to a Japanese yen, where it's like kind of in the hundreds per pound, or whether it's closer to a pound or a dollar or something, I don't know.

$1, $1. The answer is not $1.

It's not one dollar i'm afraid so you've got this question wrong however it could be so i mean you know currencies have all the kinds of values uh no the record high price for one bitcoin that was passed on december 4th was 100 000 so one bitcoin is worth 100 000 in fact right now it's probably a little

bit more than that i think uh we're recording on the 18th of december so there a little bit more than a hundred thousand dollars right now um a few years ago it would have been one dollar i think i can't remember maybe really do you know what it started at i don't know but less less than that i don't

know whether it's had a specific value that it started out probably didn't got i this is really is a question where all of the uh you know people that own bitcoin are gonna be listening going god what list of these guys talking about something they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about no clue

Yeah. So sorry to all the people who were hoping I was like a Bitcoin bro.

I would know all about that, but sorry, completely clueless on that subject.

January 2009 appears to be when Bitcoin was first introduced, and at that time it was worth basically nothing.

And then it kind of rose over the first four years all the way up to about $1 ,200 at the end of 2013.

It dropped in 2014, then picked up again sort of in 2017 and just rose and rose and rose up until the end of 2017 where it dropped again a little bit.

But in 2017, December, it was nearly $20 ,000.

And it dropped all the way over the next 12 months down to $3 ,300.

But by the middle of the next year, 2019, it was back up to $10 ,000 and ended the year at nearly $20 ,000 again.

And then pow, just in about two months, less than two months, Bitcoin rose to $41 ,000 at the beginning of January 2021.

And then basically since then, it's gone up and down.

There's been fluctuation up and down, up and down.

And now, December, $100 ,000.

Wow. So some people have made a lot of money from that.

You've given us a whole history of the Bitcoin there, Luke.

Thank you. I think I feel like, you know, on those whenever they talk about money on the TV or something, I think I feel like doing one of those disclaimers.

If you are investing in cryptocurrency, please be aware that you can lose all of your money.

Be prepared to lose everything that you invest.

OK, disclaimer done.

Question 18. Yep. Here we go.

Another another number related question.

So your answer is going to be numbers again here.

number 18 is Taylor Swift finished her Eris tour a few weeks ago after performing 149 shows over 21 months in five continents.

The Eris tour is the highest earning tour of any musician ever.

how much money did it make and the answer is a two with a certain number of zeros after it so for example 20 or 200 it's not one of those by the way 20 or 200 or 2000 or 20 000 200 000 it's two with a number of zeros so how much money did the eras tour make okay so it's not going to be two million because two

million she'd earned that the tour would earn that from one or two shows i think you could she could probably feasibly in a big venue get a million from one show so it's not two million from the whole tour uh which has been massive as you said 200 million is certainly in the right ballpark um because you

could imagine if it's a million plus per show, and she's done nearly 150 shows, you could do some basic maths and come up with about 200 million.

So it could be 200 million.

If you go higher than that, the next figure is 2 billion.

And that's ridiculous.

That's like that cruise ship containing 15 ,000 people.

It's just like cloud cuckoo land, Alice in Wonderland stuff.

So I reckon by process of elimination, the answer is going to be $200 million.

But even saying that, I'm thinking, there's a chance, there's a slim chance it's $2 billion.

But she could go to the moon with that, couldn't she?

Not that she would want to, as we've previously established, unless she wanted to try and play golf up there with me.

In which case, if you're listening, Taylor, I'm up for it.

But 200 million. There, that's my final answer.

I love that working out that you did there because that really made sense.

But you're wrong. It's 2 billion.

It's 2 billion. It is 2 billion dollars.

2 billion dollars. She made 2 billion dollars.

or the Ears tour, I don't know if she got it specifically for herself, but the tour itself made $2 billion.

Yes, and it's by far, it's way more than any other tour has ever made.

You know what she could have done?

She could have just invested in Bitcoin at the beginning of the tour.

She could have stayed at home.

The tour was only 21 months, so maybe she'd have started the tour in 2009 and knew a lot more than we did about Bitcoin then 21 months so that's 21 months ago yeah yeah that's that's like when was that then sort of March or something of 2022 exactly 2023 2023 yeah all right so let's say March 2023 yeah

it will Bitcoin bottomed out at $20 ,000 per Bitcoin in March.

So if she'd invested, I don't know, do the maths, if she invested just some of the money that she spent in probably the plane tickets, she could have just stayed at home and recorded lots of albums instead of going out on tour.

But no, where's the fun in that, of course?

Millions of people have enjoyed those Taylor Swift concerts.

yeah 10 million apparently it's amazing my daughter's a huge fan of taylor swift she's a right big swifty yeah yeah yeah there's uh there's a lot of them um so uh when she's a little bit older maybe you'll be taking her to the next taylor swift tour yeah make even more than two billion dollars there you

go maybe she can break her own record uh next time okay right i'm afraid to say, Luke, that you have actually fallen below the 50 % mark.

That was out of 18 questions, you've now got eight and a half.

So you've gone just, just underneath.

So I dropped below my, my self -imposed pass mark of 60%.

And I've now dropped below the general dignity level of 50%.

And I'm into the sort of the kind of F range of this.

We're in the 40 somethings this is shameful it's difficult it's a it's a hard quiz it's a hard quiz i think this might be the hard hardest one that i've done so far but uh anyway here we go let's see if you can boost your score with number 19 here we go okay in november in november australia's parliament

voted to make australia the first country to make which limit to social media the new law will come into effect next year so uh australia's parliament has voted to make a particular limit on social media something that which will limit the use of social media what law is that and is going to come into

effect next year um i'm gonna just cut straight to the chase here and say that they're banning tick tock no it's not that i'm sorry it's not there all right um okay they've they're limiting cat videos because they're too many and and it's damaging the infrastructure of australians australia's internet

connection is like too many too many cat videos mate um i've no idea but it's okay they're not banning tick tock i know some places are considering in fact In fact, the United States, if nothing changes over the next two months, the United States is banning TikTok.

Maybe you've heard of that one.

Okay, so I'm not too far away from the truth then.

But what's Australia doing to control or limit social media?

They have become the first country in the world to ban under 16 -year -olds from social media.

Oh, okay. Fair dues.

Children are not going to be able to use social media anymore as soon as that law comes into effect next year.

All right. They're the first country to do that.

I understand why, because there's huge mental health issues related to kids on social media.

It's apparently very bad for their minds and their mental health.

So fair dinkum, mate.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Quite right. Okay, here we go.

Question 20. So you've got eight and a half at the moment.

I'm afraid you're not going to be reaching the 50 % mark, I'm afraid.

But let's see if you can come bring it a little bit closer on the last question.

Question 20. In November, a piece of art called Comedian by the Italian artist Maurizio Catalan was sold for $6 .2 million.

dollars can you describe the artwork brilliant it's really good 2 .6 million dollars right it's excellent or either that or it's just fine because that it maybe it's fine art you know which I love that I love the term fine art it's like yeah this it's what do you think of this art yeah it's fine yeah

it's all right it's fine yeah so I think it's fine i think this either this art is really good or it's just fine one of one or the other i'm i'm gonna leave uh i'm gonna leave this open a little bit longer because uh just in case some flash bulb comes into your mind it's not happening no uh it's called

comedian it's by marito catalan that's not gonna help you it's been sold for 6 .2 million dollars i'm gonna tell you one little clue it's very minimalist very minimalist um well i'm a comedian and maybe it's like a description of my brain at this moment so i'm thinking it's just a blank white canvas

with nothing on it just completely empty no it's not it's not that no this one slipped you by as well luke i'm afraid um there's one there's one really key word to this and it is banana it is it's a banana which has been uh sellotaped to a wall brilliant i mean just genius why didn't i think of that why

why didn't i think of that stephen did you think of that i didn't think of it i didn't think it yeah neither did i but mario did we would have 6 .2 million uh dollars yeah maurizio catalán that's right so this this this artwork um is a banana a freshly bought banana i think uh the catalan uh said that he

went and bought it from from a shop down the road before he put it in the exhibition and duct taped it to a wall and this is what has sold for 6 .2 million dollars some uh somebody who got rich from cryptocurrency um bought the artwork and uh ate the banana well yeah you would wouldn't you because i

mean um otherwise you're gonna get a disgusting banana stuck to a wall.

Cause like, I don't know if it's ever happened to you, but have you ever left a banana in your backpack and forgotten about it?

I mean, it's happened to me several times.

I've put a banana, I've got a banana.

I'll stick that in my backpack, eat it later.

Three weeks later. I'm like, what's, why is my backpack wet?

And it's because it's some disgusting banana at the bottom of it.

So if you, if he hadn't eaten it, then it would have just turned into some horrible, disgusting, rotten banana.

So yeah, but really though, really, he spent two point six million on a banana no no 6 .2 6 .2 even yeah yeah 6 .2 yes that is correct and it comes with instructions telling you that you the buyer the owner can uh can change the banana and the duct tape whenever necessary because the it's just the idea of the art

that you're really buying here.

So yeah, that's it.

This is how conceptual this art is these days.

That's bonkers because normally you would buy art as an investment, right?

You'd buy it as an investment because later on you can sell it and it's risen in value.

In fact, it can be one of the best investments you can make, you know, except for cryptocurrency or maybe investing in taylor swift as a commercial entity in some way or you know ideally do both you know um if imagine if you combined bitcoin taylor swift and a banana in some sort of investment package

you would just maybe this is going to be our money making scheme luke maybe we're going to have to come up with some way of combining these three things just try and find something look to the future and think right some some sort of cryptocurrency and i don't know who's the biggest who's going to be

the big pop star next year let's say uh i don't know someone else um duolipa and an apple and i don't know i don't even know the name of another cryptocurrency um so that's that's that's crazy though because um what was the buyer thinking because he's got 6 .2 million dollars just spare to spend on this this thing

which is instantly going to drop in value because he's eaten it well maybe not I mean the I watched the auction room when when it was being sold and I mean the reason it was 6 .2 million was because there were so many people bidding for it so the price was going up and up and up and up and up so there

were lots of people willing to pay you know millions and millions for this banana duct tape to a wall and I suppose for i suppose he probably does the owner now have the owner you know despite the fact he's eaten the banana or changed it or something i suppose he has the ability to sell the idea i guess

um need to get an art expert on to uh to explain this concept a little bit more but uh yeah i suppose he if he wants to he could actually sell the he could go to an auction room and duct tape a banana to a wall and then sell it to somebody for 6 .3 million dollars or something hmm okay remind me to buy

some duct tape when i go out after this yes and a banana just remind me don't leave it in your backpack you've got to maybe that would increase the value of it like this is a actual banana that was left in luke thompson's backpack i'll duct tape the entire backpack to the wall how about that yeah anyone

wants to buy that in auction uh let me know okay bidding starts at 6 .2 million dollars uh i uh yeah i'm afraid i'm not going to be uh putting a bid in anytime soon i'm afraid to say luke uh i think that this is probably the lowest score that you've got in one of these quizzes so far but you know what i'm

going to cut you some slack and i'm going to say that this was probably by accident because it's a bit random how i do this this seems as i've been as we've been going through i've been thinking actually that was quite difficult wasn't it so uh i wonder whether the audience is going to be getting really

low scores as well if so i'm sorry everyone sorry i'll make it easier next year i would say if you did better than me then congratulations you're brilliant if you did worse than me then you know i know well if you did worse than me, then I don't know.

What can I say to you?

Commiserations. But I feel like I fluked some of those.

And so I could have got a much worse score than I actually did.

So if you got worse than me, then I feel like we're in the same boat.

Maybe it's that massive boat from earlier where there's like 10 ,000 other people in there with me.

We're all in the same boat because we didn't know the answers to most of these questions but that's right don't feel too bad uh it's okay we know we now we know though so we've learned some things that we didn't know before so everyone's a winner at the end exactly right yeah yeah okay well thank you

very much steven for that um and uh that was good fun i enjoyed that i enjoyed that little tour of the world um and we learned some interesting factoids uh i hope it's given you some good vibes about 2024 that's uh made you rekindle some good memories uh about being in paris during the olympics and um

and having a mac so that you didn't have to suffer through that windows uh crisis um in july or whatever it was yeah i hope it's given you some some good memories of 2024 yeah it did thank you very much for that and uh all right good time to i've got to go out now and buy a banana and some duct tape

and stuff um but thanks very much for preparing the quiz steven it was really good fun and uh you know all the best for 2024 what's left of it a few days now enjoy your christmas same to you same to you and merry christmas uh i hope you have fun in a few days time and and for for for new year as well

happy new year as well happy new year to you too okay everyone thank you so much for listening to this all the way through to the end well done for making it this far even those germans who are possibly asleep at this point but everyone else congrats and uh looking forward to speaking to you again on the podcast soon everybody

but for now i'm going to say goodbye and i have to do it in the time -honored fashion Can I do it with you?

Well, you can do it with me too, if you want, Stephen.

Right. Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for listening.

Speak to you next time.

But for now, it's time to say good bye.

Bye. Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast.

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[Luke's English Podcast: The 2024 World News Quiz]-[915. The World News Quiz 2024 🌍 with Stephen from SEND7 Podcast]

📋 Summary

A Year in Review: The 2024 World News Quiz

Acknowledging Global Realities

Quiz Highlights and Global Events

Conclusion

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript