The October 4 News Quiz: Six Weekend Stories, Six Questions

Election day in Brazil, a handshake deal on AI safety at the White House, and Saturn at its brightest while meteors burn overhead. Plenty happened between Friday and this morning, so this October 4 news quiz is a simple check on how much of it actually stuck. Six questions below, pulled from the biggest stories of the weekend. Give yourself a point for each correct answer and keep an honest tally. The answers sit right under each question, so resist the urge to peek.

The six questions

Question one. Brazilians vote today in the first round of the country's presidential election, a two-person race between eighty-year-old incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and forty-five-year-old Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, as Open Chronicle reported on the first of October. If neither candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, the two meet again in a runoff on the twenty-fifth. Who are the two frontrunners in today's election?

Answer: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, the incumbent president and the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. This October 4 news quiz starts with the biggest democratic event of the weekend, and it is worth watching who pulls ahead tonight.

Question two. On the twenty-ninth of September, President Donald Trump and the heads of Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and SpaceX signed a one-page voluntary agreement at the White House, as MediaNama reported. The accord asks the companies to run internal controls, independent external audits and board oversight of their frontier AI models. Trump called it "morally binding," though it carries no penalties for companies that fall short. Can you name at least four of the six companies that signed?

Answer: Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and SpaceX. This October 4 news quiz gives full marks for any four, since remembering all six tech giants is a genuinely hard ask.

Question three. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X on the third that he is "very uncomfortable about people trying to ascribe religious force or a surrender of human judgment to AI models," calling it "a real safety issue," according to AI Stock Wire. Axios described the post as a veiled shot at Anthropic, whose co-founder Chris Olah has been meeting religious leaders about whether AI models could be conscious. Which tech chief executive made the "religious force" remark?

Answer: Sam Altman. This October 4 news quiz counts it as one of the stranger tech quotes of the week, and the wording is exactly as he posted it.

Question four. The leaders of the G7 nations agreed to release up to one hundred million barrels of crude oil and diesel over the next four months to ease a supply crunch that has pushed diesel to record highs, according to The Daily Jagran, with the wars in Iran and Ukraine blamed for much of the squeeze. How much oil and diesel did the group agree to release?

Answer: up to one hundred million barrels. A huge number on paper, and a reminder in this October 4 news quiz that energy prices are still the story behind a lot of other stories.

Question five. The attacker behind the NEAR Intents security breach returned the full three point eight million dollars taken in the hack after the platform issued a two-day ultimatum, CoinPasar reported this week. The platform said it is halting its investigation and asked future researchers to use bug bounties instead. How much money did the attacker hand back?

Answer: the full three point eight million dollars, every cent of it. Probably the only question in this October 4 news quiz where the good guys got all their money back.

Question six. Three meteor showers will cross the night sky this month, alongside Saturn's brightest weekend, potential northern lights and a final glimpse of the Milky Way before it fades for the season, according to Archynetys, synthesizing reporting from The Independent, the BBC and Sky and Telescope. Earth is currently passing through debris from Halley's Comet, which adds extra streaks to the show. What are the three big treats for stargazers this October?

Answer: the meteor showers, Saturn at peak brightness, and the northern lights, with the Milky Way's final appearance as a bonus. A lovely way to end this October 4 news quiz, and a good excuse to go outside tonight if the clouds cooperate.

How did you do?

Six correct is genuinely impressive and means you were plugged in all weekend. Four or five correct is a strong showing, since most people would have missed at least two of these. Three or fewer just means the weekend was busy, and the quiz forgives you. If you want to keep the streak going, take yesterday's October 3 news quiz and the October 2 edition, then compare your scores.