Thursday news quiz: weird particles, Welsh conquests and web issues

1. 

   Which country's consumer council has issued a promotional video protesting against the 'enshittification' of the internet (not pictured)?

   1. Estonia

   2. Sweden

   3. Norway

   4. Denmark

2. 

   The Djidji Ayôkwé, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, has been returned to which country?

   1. Djibouti

   2. Côte d'Ivoire

   3. Senegal

   4. Mali

3. 

   Everybody – except presumably Michael O'Leary (pictured) – laughed when bailiffs boarded a Ryanair plane after the airline had refused to pay delayed flight compensation. Where?

   1. Linz airport, Austria

   2. Košice international airport, Slovakia

   3. Trieste airport, Italy

   4. Klow Ottokar IV airport, Syldavia

4. 

   Which English Premier League team ludicrously surrounded referee Paul Tierney at the weekend while performing their pre-match 'huddle'?

   1. Newcastle United

   2. West Ham United

   3. Chelsea

   4. Fulchester United

5. 

   Guinness, in a transparent attempt to get its brand featured in the Thursday quiz, has teamed up with the luxury clothing brand JW Anderson to produce a unisex V-neck jumper that uses textured jacquard stitches to 'recreate the feel of pub carpets'. How much will it set you back?

   1. £695

   2. £980

   3. £1,295

   4. £2,475

6. 

   Which slightly irritating celebrity chef has appeared in a new video by CMAT (pictured) for a song that name-checks them?

   1. Gordon Ramsay

   2. Jamie Oliver

   3. Heston Blumenthal

   4. The Swedish Chef from the Muppets

7. 

   It is the birthday of Bruce Willis today! Happy birthday, Bruce. Yippee-ki-yay, etc. What was the name of his character in Moonlighting?

   1. John McClane

   2. Jeffrey Fairbrother

   3. Duffy Sharp

   4. David Addison

8. 

   This week's guest canine is Blue, who the Thursday quiz, quite clearly, met in the pub. She wants to know which social media network quietly announced it was phasing out end-to-end encryption for private messages?

   1. TikTok

   2. Bebo

   3. Snapchat

   4. Instagram

9. 

   The author of The Ipcress File has died aged 97. What was his name?

   1. Anthony Price

   2. Len Deighton

   3. Gavin Lyall

   4. John Christopher

10. 

    Pen-pushers at which local council have stopped residents from installing any more memorial benches in the town amid concerns that it is becoming 'overwhelmed'?

    1. Hartlepool

    2. Gosport

    3. Kingston upon Hull

    4. Thetford

11. 

    Who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup this year?

    1. Jukebox Man

    2. Gaelic Warrior

    3. Noble Yeats

    4. A troop of escaped macaques riding 30–50 feral hogs

12. 

    Scientists at the Cern nuclear physics laboratory near Geneva have discovered a heavier version of what?

    1. Strange quark

    2. Electron

    3. Proton

    4. Gary Barlow's massive son

13. 

    The Thursday quiz fondly remembers Keith Chegwin, so here is Cheggers Plays Population! What is the population of Malta?

    1. 169,730

    2. 269,730

    3. 369,730

    4. 469,730

14. 

    On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 19 March is the anniversary of The Statute of Rhuddlan, which essentially incorporated the principality of Wales under the English king. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which year …

    1. 1084

    2. 1184

    3. 1284

    4. 1384

15. 

    And finally … two long-lost episodes of Doctor Who have turned up. They are from which story?

    1. The Reign of Terror

    2. The Daleks' Master Plan

    3. The Dunwich Experiment

    4. Invasion of the Cybermen

Solutions

1:C - The video’s opening shot shows a man hiding under a bed snipping a hole in someone’s sock. Seconds later, the same man uses a saw to shorten a table leg so that it wobbles during breakfast. 'My job is to make things shitty,' the man explains, and he appears to have also been moonlighting on writing the Thursday quiz recently, 2:B - Before and during colonial times, it was used to send messages over several miles to announce deaths or celebrations – and in some cases, alert villages about coming danger, 3:A - If you want a joke to go with this answer, there is an additional €5 charge, 4:C - A cynic might say the stunt has effectively distracted from the news that the club have just been fined £10.75m by the Premier League over breaches of financial rules during Roman Abramovich’s ownership. Who could possibly have guessed there may have been 'undisclosed payments to agents, non-licensed intermediaries and other figures, including players, around signings between 2011 and 2018'?, 5:C - In order to get the genuine pub carpet texture, it is unclear whether the jumper comes pre-vomited on or whether you have to provide your own vintage sick stains, 6:B - The lyrics to The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station recall the singer being at one of the Shell garages that sell his line of salads and sandwiches, and losing the plot at the sight of the chef’s face. In fairness, he has clearly been a good sport about it, 7:D - Sadly, Willis was forced to retire from acting by aphasia, and then diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The Thursday quiz loves you, big guy, 8:D - Instagram will stop encrypting private messages between users from May, after years of criticism from law enforcement and child safety groups over the feature, 9:B - Best known for his debut, The Ipcress File, Deighton went on to write more than 30 books over a career spanning four decades, establishing him as one of the most distinctive voices in postwar fiction, 10:A - A report found there were 115 memorial benches on the Headland, 112 on Seaton promenade and 48 in Ward Jackson Park, 11:B - The race was won by Gaelic Warrior, owned by Rich Ricci, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, so why the long face?, 12:C - Last week, they were driving anti-matter around in a lorry, and no, the Thursday quiz doesn't understand either, 13:D - That is according to the archived version of the 2026 CIA World Factbook, which has been discontinued by the Trump administration. That makes it one of the most densely populated places in the world, 14:C - It was in the 13th century under Edward I of England, 15:B - The two episodes haven't been seen since 1965 and will be available on iPlayer at Easter

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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