"What in the World?" - Week of December 4-10, 2016

President-elect Trump talked with the President of Taiwan last week, the first such high-level Washington-Taipei contacts since 1979 when the United States recognized the People’s Republic of China. The policy recognized by Washington since then is referred to as:

The Italian Prime Minister was set to resign after a reform referendum he championed went down to electoral defeat on Sunday. The vote was viewed as a victory for right-wing and populist groups in Western Europe. The Prime Minister who is losing his job for having proposed the referendum, and losing, is:

In another Sunday election the far-right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer lost to the Green Party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen (and issued his concession speech via Facebook). The post of president in THIS country is largely ceremonial but was being watched by those concerned about the rise of right-wing political parties in Europe. What country elected Van der Bellen its president?

There are some 3.6 million people in THIS country, the newest nation, who face severe food shortages – the highest ever at harvest time, according to a Reuters report citing the World Food Program. The country has struggled through a civil war since 2013 over ethnic differences between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar. THIS country is:

Yahya Jammeh ruled THIS tiny West African nation for 22 years since taking power in a coup and had vowed to stay in power for “a billion years.” Last week he was defeated in an election by Adama Barrow and agreed to step down. What country is about to lose its “billion year” ruler?

Chinese officials in Beijing are increasingly worried about independence minded officials in THIS territory after a battle over allegiance oaths by newly elected legislators. The status of THIS territory is known as “one country, two systems.”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he was encouraged by his phone call with President-elect Trump on the state of relations with Washington. In recent months Duterte has engaged in a war of words against the United States over all of these issues except which ONE of these?

An estimated half million protestors marched on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Park Geun-hye in Seoul which would make her the first democratically elected South Korean leader to resign in disgrace. Park’s departure is being sought because:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to visit Pearl Harbor this month with President Obama, the first visit there by a Japanese leader, for the purpose of “consoling the souls of those who died in the war,” according to a spokesman. It follows President Obama’s visit to this Japanese city seven months ago, the first by an American president:

Months of fighting by Libya’s Misrata brigades backed by American airstrikes has succeeded in dislodging ISIS militants from THIS city: