Thursday news quiz: booze bans, Boudicca and bricks that glow

Lego is launching some fancy new smart bricks – but in which range? See question five for more details … Photograph: Martin Belam/The Guardian

Welcome to the first Thursday news quiz of 2026. A brand new year, the opportunity for a clean slate, and yet somehow we present you with precisely the same old nonsense, served up with over-confidence and questionable judgment. Fifteen questions on topical news, pop culture and general knowledge await you, including the welcome return of the popular “Farther or nearer with Geordie Alan Shearer”. As always, there are no prizes, but we do like to hear how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz: No 229

1. 

   Which former singer of Little Mix (pictured) is raising awareness of spinal muscular atrophy type 1 after revealing her twin babies have been diagnosed with the rare genetic condition?

   1. Jade Thirlwall

   2. Peri Brown

   3. Leigh-Anne Pinnock

   4. Jesy Nelson

2. 

   What is the name of the gambling platform refusing to pay out on bets that the US would invade Venezuela by the end of the month, claiming that the capture and rendition of Nicolás Maduro (sort of pictured) doesn't count?

   1. Polybet

   2. Polymarket

   3. Polypredict

   4. Polycule

3. 

   Which of these famous seaside piers in England (not pictured, that is Blackpool), bought by the current owners for £18m in 2016, has been put up for sale after a fall in visitor numbers and profits?

   1. Gosport's Queen Victoria Pier

   2. Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier

   3. Southend's Pleasure Pier

   4. Brighton’s Palace Pier

4. 

   Which actor (not pictured) has said he would 'rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger' than accept money from a GoFundMe set up in his name?

   1. Sean Penn

   2. Mickey Rourke

   3. Nick Nolte

   4. Ron from Sparks

5. 

   Lego is introducing new 'smart bricks' with lights and sounds into which of its ranges (not pictured, that is proper vintage 1980s space Lego)?

   1. Star Wars

   2. Batman

   3. Minecraft

   4. Pokémon

6. 

   Which European royal has been targeted by TikTok scammers, who are using AI-generated videos of her to cheat social media users out of money?

   1. Leonor, Princess of Asturias

   2. Princess Sofia, Duchess of Värmland

   3. Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands

   4. Princess Catherine Bush of Monaco

7. 

   The Africa Cup of Nations is reaching the sharp end, with the quarter-finals taking place on Friday and Saturday. Where will the final be held?

   1. Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire

   2. Lusail in Qatar

   3. Dar es Salaam in Tanzania

   4. Rabat in Morocco

8. 

   This week's feline interloper is Dorothy's cat Shinji, looking slightly appalled that 2026 has started out the way it has. He wants to know the name of the prime ministerial cat in Belgium who has become a social media star. What is it?

   1. Felis Primus Belgicus

   2. Maximus Textoris Pulcher

   3. Julius Cattus Nobilis

   4. Porcus Feralis XXX–L

9. 

   Farther or nearer with Geordie Alan Shearer! This week we imagine the England soccer legend wants to know, if he leaves his home town of Newcastle upon Tyne, which is farther or nearer – Marseille, France, or Copenhagen, Denmark?

   1. Marseille is nearer to Newcastle upon Tyne than Copenhagen

   2. Copenhagen is nearer to Newcastle upon Tyne than Marseille

10. 

    Defying his nation's reputation for polite and reasonable behaviour, Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has said he will ban which iconic Canadian alcoholic drink brand (not pictured, that is a nice cocktail in Nairn) from his province if it goes ahead with a move to shutter its operations there?

    1. Crown Royal

    2. Molson

    3. Labatt

    4. Mr Ring-a-Ding

11. 

    We lost David Rosen, who was one of the founders of which pillar of the video gaming and arcade industry (not pictured, those are Soviet machines)?

    1. Atari

    2. Nintendo

    3. Namco

    4. Sega

12. 

    It would have been the 91st birthday of Elvis (not quite pictured) today. What was his debut single called?

    1. Heartbreak Hotel

    2. Hound Dog

    3. That's All Right

    4. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini

13. 

    Which famous US institution is hilariously suing its own charitable foundation?

    1. The National Football League is suing the National Football League Foundation

    2. The Walt Disney Company is suing the Walt Disney Foundation

    3. The National Rifle Association is suing the National Rifle Association Foundation

    4. The National Association of 1,057 Pedants is suing the National Association of 1,057 Pedants Foundation

14. 

    On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 8 January is the anniversary of George Washington in 1790 giving the first ever state of the union address in the US. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – where it was.

    1. New York, New York

    2. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    3. Washington, District of Columbia

    4. Innsmouth, Massachusetts

15. 

    Archaeology boffins (the correct technical term) reckon a battle trumpet found in Norfolk may have links to Queen Boudicca. Which tribe did she lead?

    1. The Brigantes

    2. The Iceni

    3. The Catuvellauni

    4. The Derekini

Solutions

1:D - The singer and her fiancé, Zion Foster, welcomed their twins in May, 2:B - Last Friday an anonymous trader on Polymarket appeared to invest $30,000 (£22,000) on the market 'Maduro out by 31 January 2026'. After Maduro’s capture was announced on Saturday morning, the trader appeared to have made profits of $436,759. Hmmmmm, 3:D - The leisure group that owns the 126-year-old structure, which has appeared in films including Brighton Rock and Quadrophenia, said it hoped to find a new owner by the summer, 4:B - He denounced an online fundraiser that was set up in his name and designed to pay off $60,000 (£44,000 or €50,800 or 2.54m Syldavian Khôrs) that he allegedly owes in rent on his Los Angeles home, 5:A - The smart bricks are being launched in three Star Wars-themed sets and are powered by a custom-made chip smaller than a single Lego stud, 6:A - In a tale as old as time on TikTok, 'Leonor' promises users payments running to thousands of dollars in return for an upfront 'fee' of a few hundred – and you can guess what happens next. That reminds us: the Thursday quiz had a very interesting email from a Nigerian prince the other day which it must reply to, 7:D - Morocco, which will also co-host the 2030 Fifa men's World Cup, is staging this year's Afcon. Côte d'Ivoire staged the last edition, and Tanzania will be co-hosts in 2027. Qatar is yet to host an Afcon, but given the rate at which countries in the Middle East are winning the right to stage tournaments belonging to other continents, the Thursday quiz would not rule it out, 8:B - It is a pun on the PM's name, conveying the meaning 'De Wever’s beautiful Maximus' (textoris being 'of the weaver', or De Wever) , 9:B - Copenhagen is about 560 miles (900km) away from Newcastle upon Tyne, whereas Marseille is about 870 miles away – a difference of about 1,050,000 ancient Sumerian cubits. Top bins!, 10:A - Ford ceremoniously dumped a bottle of Crown Royal in September, saying the brand's owners were 'a few fries short of a Happy Meal' and 'dumb as a bag of hammers' for wanting to shift operations to the US. Easy, tiger, 11:D - He stayed on in Japan after the second world war and eventually merged his company with another importer, Nihon Goraku Bussan, whose coin-op business, Service Games, was shortened to Sega. The rest is history, 12:C - Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black recorded Arthur Crudup's song at Sun Studio on the evening of 5 July 1954, 13:C - The NRA Foundation was founded in 1990 to raise 'tax-deductible contributions in support of a wide range of firearm-related public interest activities of the National Rifle Association of America' – which definitely sounds like a legitimate charitable activity, 14:A - It was indeed New York, 15:B - The bronze trumpet, or carnyx, is only the third ever found in Britain, and the most complete example discovered anywhere in the world. The object would have been mounted on a long mouthpiece high above the heads of warriors, allowing it to be sounded to intimidate the enemy in battle – or distract people while they were doing a quiz

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments

Regular readers will note the absence this week of Willow. Sadly she has not been very well recently and so we have taken the decision to retire her from the role of official dog of the Guardian Thursday news quiz for the time being. Rest assured, she is being looked after and she remains truly the very best of miniature dachshunds.

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Love Who You Love by Romy instead?

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