It's certainly been a week not short on news. The Bank of England, perhaps rather surprisingly, chose not to raise interest rates on Thursday. Antonio Conte found 15 million (per annum) reasons to take on the mammoth task of being Tottenham Hotspur's manager. COP26 continued in Glasgow whilst Scotland’s T20 cricket side kept India’s hopes of a semi-final spot alive after falling to yet another crushing defeat on Friday. The Weekly, as always, has attempted to condense the week’s news into five questions for you to tackle this Sunday morning. Good luck!

Questions:

1. The Chinese Ministry of Housing has banned the construction of ‘super-high skyscrapers’ in some cities. A statement last week said that those cities with populations of less than three million people will be restricted from building skyscrapers taller than 150 metres in order to stop ‘vanity projects’. Instead, focus is to be channelled on leasing up the vacant office space in the existing skyscrapers. In the past, the Ministry of Housing has previously banned the development of any buildings taller than 500 metres, along with any ‘copycat’ buildings such as replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the Kremlin which can already be found across China. Can you recall what other rather broader development-related ban the Chinese Ministry of Housing introduced earlier this year?

2. Avison Young’s Big Nine report released this week showed that confidence in the regional office investment market remains fairly robust. Total office investment volumes in Q3 2021 amounted to £753 million in these markets, up 26% on the ten-year average (£599 million). Occupationally, office requirements that were previously put on hold due to the pandemic are slowly starting to come to fruition, evidenced by office take-up of 2.3 million sq. ft. during the quarter, some 11% up on the ten-year average. Despite these encouraging signs, office availability within the Big Nine city centres has continued to rise, up to 11.6 million sq. ft. from 8.1m in Q1 2020. Current office availability is broadly in line with pre-GFC levels in early 2007, but what was the highest office availability post-GFC, and for a bonus point, can you name the year?

3. Following the now infamous Olympic horse punching incident in Tokyo, it has been announced that the modern pentathlon is going to be modernised, with cycling to replace horse riding. This, however, isn’t the first time the individual sports that make-up the modern pentathlon have been changed. How many of the original five sports which were included at the ancient Olympic Games in 708 BC can you name?

4. The Office for National Statistics have revealed the most popular baby names in 2020 for England and Wales. Olivia and Oliver once again topped the charts as the most popular names for boys and girls, making it the eighth year running! However, according to the ONS, there are quite a few previously popular name choices which have or are in serious danger of becoming extinct. Only three baby boys were named Greg in 2020 and only nine baby girls were named Lorraine. How many babies were named Nigel and Carol ?

5. British cyclist Alex Dowsett attempted to write his name into the record books this week as he attempted to break the record for the furthest distance ever cycled in one hour. The 33-year-old has severe haemophilia A, a type of blood clotting disorder, and his attempt was hoping to also raise money for his charity 'Little Bleeders' and The Haemophilia Society. Unfortunately, Dowsett, who is a six-time British time trial champion, fell an agonising 534 metres short of the current record held by Belgium’s Victor Campenaerts. Do you know what is the record distance covered on a bike in one hour?

Answers:

Photo: The golden age of comic books between 1938 and 1956.

1. A ban on ‘ugly architecture'.
2. According to Avison Young, office availability within their Big Nine city centres was 18.3 million sq. ft. in 2013.
3. A 200-yard run, the long jump, the discus, the javelin and a wrestling match between the top two athletes after the other four events has finished.
4. Zero!
5. 55.089km!