Thursday news quiz: security scrapes, sordid statues and feral ferrets

Test yourself with 15 questions covering topical news, popular culture and general knowledge. Illustration: Anaïs Mims/The Guardian

Welcome once again to the Thursday quiz. There are no prizes but plenty of opportunities to discover which of your firmly held opinions are, on closer inspection, just question marks in disguise. Fifteen questions await you, covering topical news, popular culture and general knowledge, and surprisingly not one of them is about that possum found among the toys at an airport. Let us know how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 240

1. 

   What was the UK's most popular attraction last year, with 7.1 million visitors?

   1. Tate Modern, London

   2. British Museum, London

   3. Natural History Museum, London

   4. Gary Barlow's massive son, Gary Barlow's house

2. 

   Argos has ignited a debate among parents and child development campaigners after promoting what?

   1. A "junior crypto trading starter set" for children aged 5+

   2. A wooden "influencer kit" aimed at toddlers

   3. A "kids' mindfulness vape" designed to reduce screen anxiety

   4. A toy police scanner walkie-talkie set aimed at children 8+

3. 

   Niche even for the Thursday quiz, which pop goddess has got into a social media set-to with *checks notes* former Arsenal and Chelsea footballer Jorginho after he claimed her security made his stepdaughter cry?

   1. Katy Perry

   2. Chappell Roan

   3. Kylie Minogue

   4. Lady Gaga

4. 

   Predatory feral ferrets have been removed from an island for the first time ever. Where?

   1. Inisbofin, Ireland

   2. Isle of Eigg, Scotland

   3. Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland

   4. Dunwich Shoal, Wales

5. 

   Josh Wardle, who had a hit with Wordle, has a new game out. What is it called?

   1. Parseword

   2. Anagramble

   3. Lexicordle

   4. Raxacoricofallapatorius

6. 

   Rejected in 1887 amid fears it mocked Kaiser Wilhelm I, the painting Mors Imperator (Death is the Ruler), which depicts a hulking skeleton wrapped in a cloak with ermine fur and wearing a jagged iron crown (not pictured, that is just any old painting) is now finally on show in Berlin. Who painted it?

   1. Max Liebermann

   2. Hermione von Preuschen

   3. Arnold Böcklin

   4. Karl-Heinz Derek

7. 

   It would have been Leonard Nimoy's 95th birthday today. Happy heavenly birthday, Leonard. Highly illogical, Captain! What planet did his Star Trek character Spock hail from?

   1. Romulus

   2. Janus

   3. Vulcan

   4. Kronos

8. 

   This week's guest canine is Mr Foxy of Walthamstow again. He wants to know who has been announced as writing the forthcoming 1,057th entry in the franchise, Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past?

   1. Stephen Colbert

   2. Seth Meyers

   3. Amy Poehler

   4. Ronald Mael

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 – Washington DC, US, or Tehran, Iran?

   1. Washington DC, US, is nearer to Newcastle upon Tyne than Tehran, Iran

   2. Tehran, Iran, is nearer to Newcastle upon Tyne than Washington DC, US

10. 

    Danone has spent a cool €1bn on buying which Idris Elba-backed protein food brand?

    1. Huel

    2. Grenade

    3. YFood

    4. Myprotein

11. 

    Which football club allowed their stadium to be used as the backdrop for a Nigel Farage and Reform UK social media video this week – Farage famously being a man who said "keep politics out of football" in 2021?

    1. Grimsby Town

    2. Millwall

    3. Ipswich Town

    4. Dinamo Klow

12. 

    Donald Trump has erected a statue of who at the White House?

    1. Thomas Jefferson

    2. Christopher Columbus

    3. Robert Edward Lee

    4. Greta Thunberg

13. 

    The Thursday quiz fondly remembers Keith Chegwin, so here is Cheggers plays population! Which of these countries has the biggest population: Venezuela, Ecuador or Bolivia?

    1. Venezuela

    2. Ecuador

    3. Bolivia

14. 

    On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 26 March is the anniversary of the introduction of the UK driving test. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which year …

    1. 1924

    2. 1934

    3. 1944

    4. 1954

15. 

    And finally … people are questioning the abilities of a bank robber (definitely not pictured – Thursday quiz lawyer) who has hit six banks in the space of five days and managed to steal only $605/£450/€520. Where?

    1. New York

    2. London

    3. Paris

    4. Munich

Solutions

1:C - The British Museum was second on the list with 6.4m visits, and the crown estate in Windsor (4.9m), Tate Modern (4.5m) and the National Gallery (4.1m) made up the rest of the top five, 2:B - Critics have warned that the playset could normalise the precarious world of digital labour and prematurely expose children to the pressures of online visibility. It includes a wooden tripod stand, a wooden miniature camera with an adjustable aperture lens, a wooden smartphone model, a wooden tablet and a wooden microphone, 3:B - The American musician said Jorginho’s stepdaughter "did not deserve that" and the situation had made her "really sad", adding that the man involved in the incident was not her personal security, 4:C - Rathlin is home to endangered ground-nesting birds such as corncrakes, cliff-nesting birds including peregrine falcons and choughs and more than 250,000 seabirds, including puffins, razorbills, guillemots and Manx shearwaters, all of them now safe from a ferret-induced mauling, 5:A - It is based on the way cryptic crosswords work, 6:B - Born in Darmstadt in 1854, Von Preuschen was a poet, world traveller and painter known for her large-scale and flamboyant historical still life pictures, 7:C - He was half-human from his mother's side, 8:A - It is said to be a new Peter Jackson-produced film based on unadapted chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, and frankly not one single person on the planet has asked for it, 9:B - Tehran is only about 4,525km away from Newcastle upon Tyne, whereas Washington DC is about 5,692km away, a difference of about 2,450,700 ancient Sumerian cubits. Top bins!, 10:A - The British company, which makes food powders, snack bars and meals from a blend of plant-based ingredients and fortified with vitamins, started out selling its powders online, 11:C - It is possible with their nickname Tractor Boys that he thought he was going to a farmers' protest, 12:B - It is a replica of a monument torn down and tossed into Baltimore’s inner harbour by protesters in 2020. The new statue was built in 2022 with shattered pieces of the original, and the pedestal of the statue is modestly inscribed: "Destroyed July 4, 2020 … Resurrected 2022 ... Rededicated by President Donald J Trump, October 13, 2025", 13:A - Venezuela has a population of 31 million, compared with Ecuador's 18.3 million and Bolivia's 12.3 million – that is, according to the archived version of the 2026 CIA World Factbook, which has been discontinued by the Trump administration, 14:B - The test could be taken voluntarily from 1934 and became compulsory the following year, 15:A - Oh dear

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 Daniel by Modern Woman instead?

Daniel by Modern Woman