Thursday news quiz: blindside shocks, volcano rocks and an airport pub unlocks

This was a drink at a bar in Nairn called the Classroom, but where can Wetherspoons’ customers expect to drink next year? Photograph: Martin Belam/The Guardian

After the recent kerfuffle over what constitutes the first line of a play, the Thursday quiz has decided to avoid theatre altogether and focus instead on its core principles: sowing mischief, mayhem and mild confusion. Take your seats, silence your mobile phones and prepare for 15 questions of topical tomfoolery – and a couple of cute-looking dogs. There are no prizes, but we love it when you tell us how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz: No 225

1. 

   Wetherspoons is to open its first pub outside the UK and Ireland, in the departure lounge at which airport?

   1. Antalya airport, Turkey

   2. Faro airport, Portugal

   3. Malta international airport, Malta

   4. Alicante airport, Spain

2. 

   At $9.12m, what just became the most expensive comic ever sold?

   1. Marvel Comics No 1

   2. Superman No 1

   3. Batman No 1

   4. Doctor Who Weekly No 1

3. 

   Jeremy Corbyn is making a video cameo in a panto in Islington alongside which other celebrity?

   1. Sir Ian McKellen as Toto the dog

   2. Sir Patrick Stewart as the Genie of the Lamp

   3. Tom Baker as the Big Bad Wolf

   4. Gary Barlow's Massive Son as the Pantomime Horse (front half)

4. 

   The Hayli Gubbi volcano (not pictured) has erupted – according to seismological boffins (the correct technical term) – for the first time in almost 12,000 years. Where is it?

   1. Cotopaxi national park, Ecuador

   2. Chatkal mountains, Uzbekistan

   3. Tanna island, Vanuatu

   4. Afar region, Ethiopia

5. 

   The minimum wage for 18- to 20-year-olds will be rising after Rachel Reeves's budget yesterday. To what (not pictured)?

   1. £9.85 an hour

   2. £10.85 an hour

   3. £11.85 an hour

   4. Air pie and a walk round the garden

6. 

   This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She heard Mexico is having a crisis with its 50 peso note, because people are hoarding it for the picture of which little critter on it?

   1. Gorda the axolotl

   2. Pepita the coati

   3. Bravío the jaguar

   4. Nyarlathotep the chihuahua

7. 

   This week's guest canine is Robert, whom the Thursday quiz often meets at Bar Trash cinema screenings. Robert wants to know which country has pledged to eradicate its feral cats by 2050.

   1. Colombia

   2. Turkey

   3. New Zealand

   4. Syldavia

8. 

   Canada is also on a mission to eradicate a pesky critter (not pictured). In this case, Ottawa is proposing to cull which unlikely menace?

   1. A plethora of aggressive swans in the city centre

   2. A curse of feral turkeys ripping through the place

   3. A scourge of goldfish filling up ponds

   4. A cabal of very naughty miniature dachshunds

9. 

   Keir Starmer said: 'I didn’t start it, Miss' after he appeared to encourage children to indulge in which meme during a visit to a school in Peterborough?

   1. The Skibidi toilet meme

   2. The Dugga Doo meme

   3. The Sigma face meme

   4. The 6-7 meme

10. 

    Here is Karl-Heinz, with his opening lines, which almost rhymes. This week the Thursday quiz imagines the German soccer ace would like to know which film begins: 'People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.'

    1. American Psycho

    2. Fight Club

    3. Memento

    4. Donnie Darko

11. 

    Everton's Idrissa Gueye was sent off against Manchester United on Monday night. What did he get the red card (pictured) for?

    1. Slapping the assistant referee Nicholas Hopton

    2. Slapping the ball boy Jake McLean

    3. Slapping Everton's Michael Keane

    4. Slapping Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes

12. 

    Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (not pictured) has claimed he took a soldering iron to his electronic ankle monitor after what?

    1. He tried to 'fix a fault' because it started beeping in the middle of a church service

    2. A substance-induced 'psychotic attack' caused him to hallucinate that the device was bugged

    3. The strap tightened painfully and he was 'loosening it with heat'

    4. A big boy did it and ran away, and he goes to a different school anyway so you don't know him

13. 

    And now, least or most with Liberace's ghost. This week the Thursday quiz imagines the ghost of Liberace would like to know which of these recordings has spent the most weeks at No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US.

    1. As It Was by Harry Styles

    2. A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey

    3. Last Night by Morgan Wallen

    4. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini by Bombalurina, featuring Timmy Mallett

14. 

    It's time for On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 27 November is the anniversary of the first performance of Also sprach Zarathustra, forever associated with 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen’s legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – who composed it.

    1. Gustav Mahler

    2. Richard Strauss

    3. Anton Bruckner

    4. Ron from Sparks

15. 

    The actor Brian Cox appeared to be blindsided by what recently?

    1. An announcement he was starring in a Fox News podcast called The Life of Jesus Christ

    2. The discovery that a secondary school had named its new drama studio 'The Brian Cox memorial suite' while he is very much alive

    3. A viral deepfake of him endorsing budget frozen pies

    4. A troop of escaped macaques riding 30–50 feral hogs while they were on a crime spree

Solutions

1:D - The opening in Spain, scheduled for January, will be pub chain's first foray into continental Europe, 2:B - Superman No 1 was published in 1939 and was the Man of Steel’s first solo title, 3:A - McKellen's appearance comes complete with a pair of furry ears and a fluffy coat, 4:D - About 500 miles north-east of Addis Ababa, near the Eritrean border, it erupted for several hours on Sunday, 5:B - It's still a couple of quid less than what a real grownup can earn, 6:A - She's a cutie, 7:C - The conservation minister, Tama Potaka, told Radio New Zealand the 'stone-cold killers' would join ferrets, stoats, weasels, rats and possums on the extermination list, 8:C - City staff removed 5,000 fish from Celebration Park earlier in the year, but as many as 1,000 are believed to still be living in the water, 9:D - SIX SEVEN!, 10:B - We all know the rules, 11:C - Despite one of those options being eminently more smugly slappable, he did indeed get sent off for slapping his own teammate in the face, which is frankly hilarious, 12:B - The Thursday quiz would like to say we've all been there, but we all very much haven't, 13:B - 19 weeks. The Thursday quiz had a quick listen and is none the wiser, 14:B - It was dear old Dicky, 15:A - 'Brian recorded audio for a project over a decade ago,' a rep for Cox said in a statement. 'He was unaware that the audio would be repurposed for a new podcast series in 2025'

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 remember Mani by watching the iconic Top of the Pops performance of Fool’s Gold by the Stone Roses instead?

Fool’s Gold by the Stone Roses