"What in the World?" - Week of April 2-8, 2017

When and where will the 9th annual Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival be held?

THIS leader who assumed power in a military coup was welcomed at the White House this week in what the New York Times characterized as more concern for the battle against international terrorism then “concerns over its brutal suppression of domestic dissent.”

An apparent suicide bombing on a subway car killed 11 people and injured dozens in this European city on April 3rd.

U.S. Military forces have stepped up attacks against terrorist targets in THIS country launching 20 strikes in less than a week, 70 since February 28th.

Exiled Turkish citizen Mahir Zeynalov told a Tennessee World Affairs Council Global Town Hall meeting last week about tactics used by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to intimidate he and his colleagues before and after the June 2016 coup. What is Zeynalov’s profession?

United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May triggered her country’s exit, or “Brexit,” from the European Union last week and launched a two-year negotiation setting out the “arrangements for the withdrawal” and providing for the “framework for its future relationship with the Union.” The triggering mechanism is delineated in WHAT document?

The world little noticed when last week the number of refugees from Syria to neighboring countries and Egypt passed THIS mark:

Pakistan approved the appointment of one of its general officers to head THIS organization of several dozen countries cobbled together by Saudi Arabia with the professed aim of countering terrorism, although “it has taken no significant military actions, least of all fighting the Islamic State in Syria or Iraq,” according to the New York Times. THIS organization is called:

In the wake of the UK “Brexit” Scotland is seeking a new referendum on independence. The first minister of Scotland responded to the March 29th triggering of Brexit with a letter to UK Prime Minister May that said “The U.K. Government has decided to remove Scotland not just from the European Union but from the single market as well, and that’s clearly against the will of the majority of people who live here.” The first minister of Scotland is:

In the first demonstration of opposition defiance in years over 1,000 protesters were arrested after rallies over two-weekends in several cities including THIS capital: