NewsTracker Answers for week of May 12, 2025

Q: India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire last week after intense attacks on each other using manned and unmanned warplanes, missiles, and artillery. The latest fighting between the nuclear-armed rivals was triggered by a terrorist attack last month in the disputed Kashmir region. Where are Pakistan and India?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Since gaining independence, India and Pakistan have fought for control of Kashmir, a former princely state which had a Muslim majority ruled by a Hindu minority. Who once ruled what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar?

A. Afghans

B. British

C. Chinese

D. Dutch

B. In 1947, Britain partitioned most of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The Buddhist-majority nations of Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma) gained independence from the British in 1948. Bangladesh separated from the rest of Pakistan in 1971.

Q: Religious conflicts across the Indian subcontinent have killed millions of people. Which of the world’s four largest religions is the oldest?

A. Buddhism

B. Christianity

C. Hinduism

D. Islam

C. The world’s oldest religion is Hinduism, which covers a range of Indian religious and spiritual traditions. Buddhism is the second oldest belief, followed by Christianity and then Islam. Christianity has the most followers, and Islam is the second-largest religion. However, there are more people in the world with no religion than there are either Hindus or Buddhists.

Q: India and Pakistan have fought four wars and engaged in many armed conflicts and skirmishes. The nations developed and tested nuclear weapons in the 1970s through the 1990s. How many countries have nuclear weapons?

A. Six

B. Seven

C. Eight

D. Nine

D. The United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea have nuclear weapons. Israel is understood to have a nuclear arsenal of 90 to 300 warheads, but does not acknowledge it. Besides devastating themselves, it is estimated that a Pakistan-India nuclear war would indirectly kill more than 2 billion people by starvation during a nuclear winter.

Q: Most of last week's attacks used unmanned combat aerial vehicles, commonly called drones. Experts say at least 118 countries now have drones in their arsenals. When were unmanned combat aerial vehicles first used?

A. Italian War of Independence

B. World War I

C. World War II

D. Vietnam War

A. In 1849, Austrian forces launched about 200 paper hot air balloons carrying bombs against a besieged Venice during the First Italian War of Independence. The attack failed when the winds changed, sending some balloons back over the Austrians. An American inventor designed and built an unmanned plane-bomb during World War I.