Thursday news quiz: gold bars, bare bones and a lonely bullied macaque

Missing the Winter Olympics? Thanks to this week’s illustration by Anaïs Mims, here is your chance to discover whether you are gracefully landing a flawless triple axel under arena lights to the sound of your favourite tune, or merely skating on the thin ice of ignorance, arms windmilling gently as the cold reality of the answers draws closer. Fifteen questions on topical headlines, pop culture and general knowledge await. There are no prizes, but we always enjoy hearing how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 236

1. 

   A baby monkey in Japan captured hearts around the world when videos of him befriending a stuffed orangutan, after bullying by other monkeys and rejection by his mother, went viral last week. What is his name?

   1. Punch

   2. Skip

   3. Bolt

   4. Derek

2. 

   The head of which body has criticised the BBC for an entirely fictional scene in a drama programme in which some entirely fictional characters impersonate its staff?

   1. Electoral Commission

   2. Food Standards Agency

   3. Office for National Statistics

   4. National Directorate of Interim Solutions

3. 

   Where has received a hefty gift of gold bars worth £2.7m from an anonymous donor with a request for its specific use – to fix the city’s dilapidated water pipes?

   1. Osaka, Japan

   2. Busan, South Korea

   3. Hanoi, Vietnam

   4. Klow, Syldavia

4. 

   The Thursday quiz is genuinely baffled at how long it has taken to build Barcelona's Sagrada Familia. The final piece of the central tower has been laid in place. But when did construction of the whole thing originally start?

   1. 1857

   2. 1882

   3. 1907

   4. 1932

5. 

   A man (not pictured) in Catania, Sicily (pictured), trained his dog (not pictured) to do what?

   1. Pick up takeaway pizza for him and not eat it

   2. Steal delivery parcels from neighbours

   3. Fly-tip bags of rubbish by the roadside

   4. Ride a moped without a helmet

6. 

   Residents of Mumbai are being driven crazy by the musical sounds of a new road, which plays a tune when people drive under the speed limit. Which tune?

   1. Mundian To Bach Ke by Panjabi MC

   2. Naatu Naatu from the movie RRR

   3. Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionaire

   4. Drive by the Cars

7. 

   Today is the birthday of Jaz Coleman, the lead singer of Killing Joke. Happy birthday, Jaz! Love Like Blood! What was the name of Killing Joke's much-missed guitarist, who died in 2023?

   1. Geordie

   2. Taffy

   3. Weegie

   4. Paddy

8. 

   This week's guest canine is Anoushka's dog, Buffy. Awwwwwww. We imagine Buffy likes bones. But whose bones are being put on display to mark 800 years since their death?

   1. Elizabeth of Hungary

   2. Anthony of Padua

   3. Saint Francis of Assisi

   4. Saint Joan of Arc

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 – Reykjavik, Iceland, or Milan, Italy?

   1. Reykjavik is nearer to Newcastle-upon-Tyne than Milan

   2. Milan is nearer to Newcastle-upon-Tyne than Reykjavik

10. 

    Which band (not pictured) almost instantly sold out their comeback concert in Seoul after tickets were released on Monday?

    1. Wonder Girls

    2. BTS

    3. B.A.P

    4. 30~50마리의 야생 멧돼지

11. 

    Which MP has rather unexpectedly claimed that the UK is 'suffering from having a totally unregulated sexual economy'?

    1. Conservative MP Christopher Chope

    2. Reform UK MP Danny Kruger

    3. Traditional Unionist Voice MP Jim Allister

    4. Whig MP Peregrine Cholmondeley Fortescue-Browne

12. 

    Least or most with Liberace's ghost. This week the Thursday quiz imagines the ghost of Liberace would like to know: which athlete won the most gold medals ever at a Winter Olympic Games?

    1. Kazran Sardick of Finland

    2. Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands

    3. Linn Svahn of Sweden

    4. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway

13. 

    Fresh from hanging out at the Winter Olympics, the US rapper Snoop Dogg was given a guard of honour at which football club?

    1. Swansea City

    2. Wigan Athletic

    3. Port Vale

    4. Melchester Rovers

14. 

    On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 26 February is the anniversary (just about) of Galileo Galilei being formally banned by the church from teaching that Earth orbits the sun. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which year …

    1. 1414

    2. 1515

    3. 1616

    4. 1717

15. 

    And finally … what is the name of the dolphin that has moved into Venice lagoon?

    1. Bruno

    2. Pippo

    3. Mimmo

    4. Zammo

Solutions

1:A - Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww, 2:C - Wait until someone finds out that Juliet Bravo wasn't a real copper, 3:A - The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November , 4:B - It began under the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar, who later resigned, and was then taken over by Antoni Gaudí, who died in 1926, 5:C - Under Italian law, the unauthorised abandonment of waste – including household rubbish bags – can carry fines ranging from €1,500 to €18,000, 6:C - Civic officials say the feature is intended to encourage safer driving and is the first of its kind in India. Residents say the refrain of Jai Ho, which roughly translates from Hindi as 'let there be victory', plays repeatedly from 6am until midnight., 7:A - Kevin Walker was born in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, and was known as Geordie after his family moved south when he was a kid, 8:C - Giulio Cesareo, the director of communications for the Franciscan convent in Assisi, said he hoped the display could be 'a meaningful experience' for believers and non-believers alike. Saint Francis of Assisi was not available for comment, 9:B - Milan is only about 1,300km away from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, whereas Reykjavik is about 1,520km away, a difference of about 462,000 ancient Sumerian cubits. Top bins!, 10:B - The nearly four-year hiatus resulted from the requirement that all seven members of BTS – RM, Jin, Jimin, V, Suga, Jung Kook and j-hope – complete South Korea’s mandatory military service, 11:B - He was talking about tax breaks for married people. What a very odd way to look at the world, 12:D - He won six of the things, beating a record of five gold medals set in the 1980s, 13:A - The Swansea City co-owner was greeted with twirling towels and a guard of honour on his first visit to the Welsh club, 14:C - The Galileo affair was an early 17th-century political, religious and scientific controversy, and the church kept badgering on about it for decades, 15:C - The bottlenose dolphin has been spotted on several occasions since it made its first appearance in June last year, delighting tourists and residents with its acrobatic leaps

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. Or why not watch Matches by Katherine Priddy instead?

Matches by Katherine Priddy