Good morning, and happy-day-after-the-day-before. Later on, before anyone suggests another round of charades or “helping in the kitchen”, here is a more civilised alternative: corral your family back together, fire up the WhatsApp group chat, and resolve yesterday’s arguments over the correct name of a South Korean president or the activities of Archie Bland’s dog.
Below are the same questions as yesterday, but this time the right answers are in bold with a link to the relevant issue of First Edition. Feel free to keep score, settle grudges, and offer formal apologies where necessary. But first, the news.
Let the gloating and grovelling commence …
1) What was the name of the Chinese AI app that rapidly became the most downloaded free app in the US in January, sparking a tech-stock dive?
A) DeepSeek ✅
b) DeepMind
c) DeepThought
d) DeepHeat
Deep Thought was, of course, the supercomputer in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, while Deep Heat definitely needs to be applied very carefully.
2) Who has appeared in the main image of First Edition the most times in 2025?
a) Volodymyr Zelenskyy
B) Donald Trump ✅
c) Keir Starmer
d) Mr Blobby
He appeared twice as many times as any world leader, although to be fair, he was often pictured alongside either Zelenskyy or Starmer.
3) In May, Friedrich Merz became Germany’s chancellor. Which party does he belong to?
A) Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU) ✅
b) Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD)
c) Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP)
d) Bei der Leoparden Gesichter fressen Partei (BLGP)
Bei der Leoparden Gesichter fressen Partei (BLGP) are of course the Leopards Eating People’s Faces party in Germany.
4) The list of people that Nigel Farage has fallen out with is spectacularly long. Who is the Great Yarmouth MP who got propelled out of the door marked ‘do one’ by the Reform leader in March?
a) Jonathan Gullis
B) Rupert Lowe (pictured, below) ✅
c) Ben Habib
d) Paddington Bear
Lowe took it well, announcing that he would sue Farage for defaming his reputation. I’d put a punchline here but legal would only take it out.
5) Also in March, the very best people that Donald Trump employs in the White House accidentally added a journalist to a message group discussing strikes on Yemen using which messaging app?
a) Whisper
b) Telegram
C) Signal ✅
d) Threema
Idiots. Idiots everywhere.
6) Earlier this year, the papal conclave elected Pope Leo XIV to lead the Catholic church. What is his pre-papal name?
A) Robert Prevost ✅
b) James Abbott
c) Peter Bailiwick
d) Derek Tardis
He is the first pope to have been born in the US.
7) In December, we wrote about the resurgent space race. What is the name of Nasa’s programme to return US astronauts to the moon?
a) Horizon
B) Artemis ✅
c) Intrepid
d) Elder One
Elder Ones have no need of space exploration. We’re a bit tired.
8) Which city in England has had rubbish piling up in the streets thanks to a protracted industrial dispute?
a) Liverpool
B) Birmingham ✅
c) Sunderland
d) Ambridge
Jill Archer and co wouldn’t stand for that in Ambridge.
9) What was the name of the South Korean president removed from power earlier this year after he was impeached following an attempt to impose martial law?
a) Park Geun-hye
b) Moon Jae-in
C) Yoon Suk Yeol ✅
d) Yasaeng Dwaeji
Yasaeng Dwaeji is, of course, a rough Google Translate rendition of “feral hogs” into Korean. Watch out for 30 to 50 of them infiltrating your yard within 3-5 mins.
10) France has been chopping and changing prime ministers this year more than a Tory party with Liz Truss involved. How many prime ministers have now served under Emmanuel Macron?
a) Five
B) Seven ✅
c) Nine
d) It might as well have been 1,057, we’ve lost count
Chaos. Still, unlike Liz Truss, at least they haven’t all started their own YouTube chatshow.
11) Angela Rayner’s abrupt exit from the cabinet left Keir Starmer in a pickle. Why did she resign?
A) She had underpaid stamp duty on her seaside flat ✅
b) It emerged she had pleaded guilty to a fraud offence involving a work phone a decade ago
c) She had been holding unauthorised meetings with foreign government ministers
d) She was caught secretly upgrading the Downing Street printer to print everything in Comic Sans
UK government documents being in Comic Sans wouldn’t be a problem. It is only the Trump administration that has a problem with “woke” fonts.
12) Zack Polanski (pictured, below) became leader of the Green party of England and Wales (the Scottish Greens are their own separate thing). Who did he beat in the leadership election?
a) Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer
b) Adrian Ramsay and Siân Berry
C) Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns ✅
d) Lord Buckethead and Count Binface
Of course, it wouldn’t have been Lord Buckethead and Count Binface. Lord Buckethead used to be in the Gremloids party, not the Greens, and anyway, the pair hate each other after a bizarre copyright dispute.
13) What day does Martin Belam publish his weekly Guardian news quiz that this First Edition quiz of the year is loosely based on?
a) Tuesday
b) Wednesday
C) Thursday ✅
d) Friday
Willow (pictured, below), the very naughty miniature dachshund, is the official dog of the Thursday quiz.
14) Aamna Mohdin spoke to the Guardian’s culture correspondent Lanre Bakare for a First Edition that discussed Black History Month in the UK. When is it celebrated each year?
a) February
b) April
c) July
D) October ✅
It was first celebrated in the UK in 1987, inspired by the American version, which began in the 1920s and is marked in February.
15) In August, Aamna confessed in an edition of this newsletter that she was a Swiftie – as is Martin. What was the name of Taylor Swift’s new album this year?
A) The Life of a Showgirl ✅
b) Confessions of a Showgirl
c) The Making of a Showgirl
d) Carry On Showgirls
Lead single The Fate of Ophelia has spent seven weeks at No 1 in the UK singles chart (in case you thought Swiftmania was over).
16) In October, First Edition asked if Kemi Badenoch was leading a Tory party on the brink of extinction. Which constituency does the MP represent?
a) North West Sussex
b) North West Norfolk
C) North West Essex ✅
d) North West Bedfordshire
She was elected as an MP in 2017, when the seat was known as Saffron Walden.
17) Who won the 2025 election in Canada, conducted amid Donald Trump’s tariff sabre-rattling?
a) Yves-François Blanchet
B) Mark Carney ✅
c) Pierre Poilievre
d) Alanis Morissette
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre not only lost the election, but contrived to lose his own seat into the bargain.
18) In April, Just Stop Oil staged a “last day of action” in London. When did the group form?
a) 2016
b) 2018
c) 2020
D) 2022 ✅
Just three short but glorious years of soup throwing and road blocking.
19) The HS2 saga never seems to end. What is the name of the station that may end up being the London terminus instead of Euston?
a) Great Elm Junction
b) High Beech Parkway
C) Old Oak Common ✅
d) Upper Broke Street
Old Oak Common is going to be a lovely huge new station with lots of connections to various networks, but it is not central London is it?
20) It was fairly predictable that the Donald Trump and Elon Musk love-in would end up in a public ego explosion. When did their big bust-up (this year’s, at least) happen?
A) June ✅
b) July
c) August
d) September
Musk announced he was stepping down from the government at the end of May, but it was the first week of June when the two started taking public lumps out of each other.
21) What did Your Party members vote to call the party after months of deliberation?
A) Your Party ✅
b) Our Party
c) Their Party
d) Party McPartyface
Stick with what you know, eh?
22) What was the name of the BBC director general who abruptly resigned in November?
a) Tim Lowe
b) Tim Cobb
C) Tim Davie ✅
d) Tim Idd
Head of BBC News Deborah Turness also found herself yeeted out of the corporation.
23) How long was the 2025 US federal government shutdown, the longest in history?
A) 43 days ✅
b) 53 days
c) 63 days
d) 73 days
Only six days less than Liz Truss (pictured, below) was prime minister.
24) What is the name of the scheme to help disabled people in the UK get access to cars, that got caught in the culture-war crosshairs in March?
A) Motability ✅
b) Motassist
c) MobilityPlus
d) MotiFlex
Reform’s Lee Anderson called for a return to three-wheeled cars for people with disabilities.
25) In March, Nimo Omer reported for First Edition that ice in the Antarctic was how much below average?
a) 6%
b) 16%
C) 26% ✅
d) 36%
Arctic sea ice was faring a bit better, but was still 8% below average.
26) Labour’s 49th safest seat was lost by just six votes to the Reform candidate Sarah Pochin. Where?
a) Croxden and Helsmere
B) Runcorn and Helsby ✅
c) Bridmore and Ottersby
d) Ellesmere Port and Bromborough
It was a majority of 15,000 that was overturned.
27) Which exoplanet do science boffins (the correct technical term) think is showing hints of biological life?
a) 01 811 8055
b) L1z 49dyz
c) 5PA Rk5
D) K2-18 b ✅
You’d think they could come up with more memorable names, right?
28) What was Archie Bland’s dog Quincy (pictured, below) doing in Archie’s final First Edition?
A) Sitting stoned on the sofa ✅
b) Eating an entire packet of Jaffa Cakes
c) Chasing a squirrel through the house
d) Fending off 30-50 feral hogs from Archie’s garden
The poor pooch had managed to inadvertently scarf down a lump of cannabis he had found in the park.
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