Barometer
Barometer
Whole-life sentences How many prisoners are serving whole-life sentences? — There are currently 74 prisoners in prison with whole-life tariffs;…
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Scummy idea Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner called Tories ‘scum’ in a speech to activists at her party’s conference. The…
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Seeds of change The Chelsea Flower Show opened in autumn for the first time, delayed thanks to the pandemic. The…
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Floating vote Voters in St Petersburg were presented with three candidates all calling themselves Boris Vishnevsky, with two believed to…
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Escape velocity The evacuation of Afghanistan was likened to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. What were the…
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Birth of the Paralympics While Athens can claim to be the home city of the Olympic Games, the Paralympics can…
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Student takeover Where did the Taliban come from? — The word ‘Taliban’ means simply ‘students’ in Pashtun. They were originally…
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Woolly thinking There were protests in Whitehall to save Geronimo, an alpaca due to be put down after testing positive…
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Happy valet Police Scotland dropped what they said was a randomly generated codeword — ‘Bunter’ — for the security operation…
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Reinventing the wheels Skateboarding made its debut at the Olympics. Who invented the skateboard? — There are many reports of…
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Waiting Games What did Japan, and the world, look like the last time Tokyo held the Olympics in 1964? —…
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Space cadets Richard Branson joined a test flight on his Virgin Galactic craft to the edge of space, to promote…
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Mask crusader Who first wore a medical face mask? — The beaked outfits worn by plague doctors aside, the first…
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Isolated cases Large numbers of people are still being ordered to self-isolate in spite of having been vaccinated — 137,560…
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Royal waves Does any other country have a royal yacht? — The Queen of Denmark uses HDMY Dannebrog, a 260ft…
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On this day Would 19 July make a suitable ‘freedom day’ (assuming Covid restrictions are lifted even then)? There is…
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Rare Lili Other than the new royal baby, is there anyone in the world formally called Lilibet? — There are…
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Game, set, chat Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open after being fined $15,000 for failing to…
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Marrying in office It was announced Boris Johnson will marry his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, next year. This will be only…
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Call to arms Is hugging important to health? A study by Carnegie Mellon University and published in the journal Psychological…
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At Redwall Abbey Does fiction provide any guide as to the ultimate fate of Labour’s Red Wall? — Redwall Abbey…
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Flat spin Which prime minister spent the most on their Downing Street flat, according to figures reported over the years?…
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Falling from grace Six Premier League football clubs had announced their intention to join a European Super League, from which…
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D of E awards A few of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s lesser-known titles and honours: — Royal Chief of the Order…
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Positive thinking The government wants us to test ourselves for Covid-19 twice a week, using lateral flow kits which will…
