Answers to Ian’s Trivialus 8 December 2024

Answers

1. Balalaika
2. St Peter's Basilica (Vatican).  The chief architect was Michelangelo.
3. Belgium – the law was passed earlier this year, but only took effect on December 1.
4. Featherweight
5. b) Papua New Guinea.
6. France – the parties (both left and right) in the coalition government tabled a no-confidence vote against the PM when he sought to push through a budget without parliamentary approval.  Michel Barnier, Macron's appointment for PM, had been in office for 91 days, and now has the distinction of being France's shortest-serving prime minster since the new constitution of 1958.
7. Knots
8. Notre Dame cathedral – it's been almost 5½ years since the building was gutted by fire.
9. Galileo
10. Any of six or seven species of large tropical seabirds in the family Sulidae.  They are primarily found in central and southern America. They get their name from their clumsy, awkward behaviour.
11. He pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, of the criminal charges which he faced.  Previously President Biden had vowed that he would never personally interfere in the course of justice with regard to his son.
12. False – there was never any input from London (or the UK) in the research and development of nylon, a US invention.
13. Robert Maxwell – he named it after his daughter who is now in a US prison for sex trafficking on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein.
14. The president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, ostensibly due to a perceived threat from North Korea, or forces within South Korea sympathetic to it.  Reaction was swift.  MPs forced their way into the parliament building in the early hours of Wednesday morning and voted unanimously against the declaration. Mr Suk-yeol's position appears to be in jeopardy.
15. Limestone
16. Kolkata airport in India – the CCU was associated with Calcutta, the former name of the city.
17. b) Cabaret – won eight awards. The other two won seven each.
18. Quarks – up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom.
19. c) – Phoenician alphabet.
20. a) – an only child.  All have had siblings.  Fifteen have been freemasons and two have been Quakers.