Thursday news quiz: French reshuffles, naked cyclists and a heroic dog

This is Rhett, competing at Crufts in 2017, and he has some questions for you … Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The Guardian

It is Thursday. You’re tired. The quiz is tired. The official dog of the quiz is tired. We’re all tired. But somehow, with the weekend in sight, it is time to summon up the enthusiasm for the only news quiz on the internet that deliberately trolls its readers with increasingly unhinged question themes and in-joke answers – the Guardian’s long-running and slightly baffling Thursday news quiz. There are no prizes but we love to hear how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 219

1. 

   Who won the Nobel prize for literature?

   1. Boris Jorgen

   2. Georgi Gospodinov

   3. Mircea Cărtărescu

   4. László Krasznahorkai

2. 

   The Thursday quiz cannot believe its luck with French politics at the moment, as for the third time in just six weeks it asks: who has been appointed/resigned/reappointed as prime minister of France by Emmanuel Macron (pictured)? Come on, you must have clocked his name by now …

   1. Gérald Darmanin

   2. Sébastien Lecornu

   3. François Bayrou

   4. Léon Colbert

3. 

   Which company is insisting staff hand over their biometric data to access its new Manhattan skyscraper office?

   1. Goldman Sachs

   2. Morgan Stanley

   3. JP Morgan Chase

   4. The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation

4. 

   Runners and cyclists are in a tizz because fitness app Strava has got itself into a legal dispute with which gadget manufacturer?

   1. Garmin

   2. Apple

   3. Fitbit

   4. Magpie Electricals

5. 

   Wales’s World Cup qualifier defeat by Belgium was interrupted by what?

   1. A dog getting on to the pitch

   2. A rat getting on to the pitch

   3. A cat getting on to the pitch

   4. Everybody decided to just switch off their television set and go out and do something less boring instead

6. 

   Thursday quiz favourite Taylor Swift has announced a behind-the-scenes look at her hugely successful last tour. What is the docuseries to be called?

   1. The End of an Era

   2. Once Upon an Era

   3. Eras: The Final Chapter

   4. Logopolis

7. 

   A Sydney club has announced it will change its name after initially suggesting it would be named after a song by the Thursday quiz favourite Chappell Roan, but then making clear it was trying to predominantly cater for men rather than women. Which song had they based the name on?

   1. Beat The Clock

   2. Red Wine Supernova

   3. My Kink Is Karma

   4. Pink Pony Club

8. 

   Which US city staged an impromptu Emergency World Naked Bike Ride (not pictured for obvious reasons) on Sunday to protest against Donald Trump (sort of pictured) attempting to deploy forces there?

   1. Chicago, Illinois

   2. Portland, Oregon

   3. Los Angeles, California

   4. Innsmouth, Massachusetts

9. 

   This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She wants to know which US high school girls basketball team returned a championship it had won after realising they had actually lost the title-clinching game after a scoreboard error. Who was it?

   1. The Academy of Classical Christian Studies team in Oklahoma

   2. The Maple Valley Charter team in Minnesota

   3. The Veritas Collegiate Academy team in Virginia

   4. The Bobson Dugnutt Memorial College in Utah

10. 

    This week's guest canine is Hendrix, pictured here helping out at the Someday bar in Finsbury Park in north London, where he 'works'. He wants to know the name of the hero dog who led a Florida sheriff’s deputy to where a missing 86-year-old woman had fallen while walking him. It was …

    1. Piglet

    2. Kanga

    3. Eeyore

    4. Derek

11. 

    The Thursday quiz was saddened to learn that Sia and her estranged husband, Dan Bernad (not pictured), are in a difficult legal divorce situation, but the news did remind the quiz what they had called their child – which was …

    1. Handspring

    2. Somersault

    3. Solstice

    4. Dugga Doo

12. 

    And now our exciting regular round … this week, the Thursday quiz imagines the ghost of Liberace would like to know which of these people has won the most Academy Awards for best actress?

    1. Katharine Hepburn

    2. Bette Davis

    3. Elizabeth Taylor

    4. Gary Barlow's massive son

13. 

    A 'very significant' unpublished story by Jack Kerouac (pictured in 1967) described as 'a lost chapter of the On the Road saga' has been discovered. What was the subtitle?

    1. The unsound, the unreal and a $20 bill

    2. The line, the cross and the curve

    3. The holy, beat, and crazy next thing

    4. The feral hog, the escaped macaque, and the door marked 'do one'

14. 

    It is time for on this day with Brian May! And his badger! 16 October is the anniversary of the execution of Marie Antoinette. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – when it happened …

    1. 1057

    2. 1693

    3. 1793

    4. 1893

15. 

    Thursday quiz favourite Kate Bush (not pictured) has commissioned 52 visual works of art to raise money for the War Child charity, based on the lyrics of which of her amazing songs?

    1. Wuthering Heights

    2. James And The Cold Gun

    3. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

    4. Army Dreamers

Solutions

1:D - The Hungarian novelist was celebrated for dystopian, melancholic novels that apparently 'reaffirm the power of art', much as the Thursday quiz does, 2:B - He still needs to do a couple more weeks in the job to have outlasted a Liz Truss premiership but he is nearly up to four Scaramuccis, 3:C - Biometric access requires staff to scan their fingerprints or eye to gain access through security gates in the lobby instead of swiping their ID badges, 4:A - The Thursday quiz is firmly of the opinion that if you didn't track it on Strava, those calories did not get burned, 5:B - Cardiff City, who were hosting the match, have defended their pest control practices, although clearly they had already let the Wales manager, Craig Bellamy, into the ground, 6:A - Disney+ will air the six-episode series The End of an Era from 12 December, with the first two episodes launching on that date, 7:D - Let's just say it did not go down well with the community, 8:B - Rider Janene King called the nude ride a “quintessentially Portland way to protest”, 9:A - Academy had erroneously been given more points than they had actually earned amid confusion about the scoreboard at one juncture of the game, 10:C - It is a donkey's name, to be fair, but yes, bless that good boy. And bless Hendrix, who is a very good boy indeed, 11:B - It is presumably a reference to the 2004 track she recorded vocals with Zero 7, rather than named after a gymnastics move. Presumably, 12:A - Lovely Katharine picked up four of the things during her glittering career, 13:C - It was apparently found languishing in the files of an assassinated mafia crime boss for at least 40 years, which is coincidently how the Thursday quiz would also like its discarded drafts to be discovered, 14:C - She was 37 when she was executed by guillotine at Place de la Révolution in Paris, 15:C - It is, of course, her epic international hit that is inspiring the works of art

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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

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 Unbroken by Howling Bells instead?

Unbroken by Howling Bells