Foodie thefts, lottery wins and Roman rulers – take the Thursday quiz

A bust of the Roman emperor Nero. Photograph: Lanmas/Alamy

When the quiz master sat down at a blank page to write this week’s introduction, nothing came to mind. There must be an infinite number of ways that you could introduce readers to a quiz, but not a single thought popped into his head. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Still, here the quiz is – 16 questions on topical news, popular culture, general knowledge and whatever else cropped up during the writing process, all liberally sprinkled with some jokes. There are no prizes, but you can let us know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 199

1. 

   Who has acquired creative control of the James Bond franchise from the Broccoli dynasty (pictured)?

   1. Sony

   2. Disney

   3. Netflix

   4. Amazon

2. 

   Sweary celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has said what keeps being stolen from one of his restaurants?

   1. Embossed napkins

   2. Cat figurines

   3. Custom-printed candles

   4. Very naughty miniature dachshunds

3. 

   Two homeless men who bought a winning lottery scratchcard with a stolen credit card have been offered a share of the winnings if they can produce the ticket. Where?

   1. France

   2. Spain

   3. Italy

   4. Portugal

4. 

   The former Doctor Who actor Jodie Whittaker is starring in a new TV show called Toxic Town about the campaign to prove that industrial pollution was causing birth defects in which English town?

   1. Darlington

   2. Kendal

   3. Corby

   4. Leadworth

5. 

   Huge sinkholes appearing in Buriticupu have put about 1,200 people at risk of losing their homes. Where?

   1. Peru

   2. Brazil

   3. Ecuador

   4. Syldavia

6. 

   Which football club, with an annual revenue of about £650m, is closing its staff canteen to save money?

   1. Newcastle United

   2. West Ham United

   3. Manchester United

   4. Fulchester United

7. 

   The 2,000-year-old The Lives of the Caesars is back in the book charts after being marketed as a new translation by Tom Holland. Who wrote it originally?

   1. Tacitus

   2. Suetonius

   3. Catullus

   4. Cacofonix

8. 

   This week's geography topic is Mozambique. What is the capital of Mozambique?

   1. Beira

   2. Lilongwe

   3. Antananarivo

   4. Maputo

9. 

   It's scores on the doors with Swindon’s Diana Dors. Ignoring all this new-fangled Super Shot business, this week the statue wants to ask you about netball. How many points do you get if you score from a free shot at the net?

   1. One point

   2. Two points

   3. Three points

   4. It is a trick question, there is no such thing as a free shot in netball.

10. 

    Thursday quiz favourite Kate Bush (cosplayers pictured) was among a host of artists who have done what to protest at AI ingesting their copyrighted works without permission?

    1. Announced a benefit concert to raise money to sue AI companies.

    2. Withdrawn their songs from US radio stations.

    3. Released a completely silent album.

    4. Set 30 to 50 feral hogs free at OpenAI's HQ.

11. 

    We lost the wonderful Roberta Flack, who had a global hit with Killing Me Softly With His Song. Who made it a huge hit again in 1996?

    1. Black Eyed Peas

    2. The Fugees

    3. A Tribe Called Quest

    4. Ron from Sparks

12. 

    It is Karl-Heinz back with his opening lines. This week the Thursday quiz imagines the German soccer legend would like to know which James Joyce work opens with the line 'riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs'?

    1. Ulysses

    2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    3. Exiles

    4. Finnegans Wake

13. 

    Speaking of Germans, who is expected to be the next chancellor of Germany after his conservative alliance scored the highest vote share in Sunday's federal election?

    1. Friedrich Merz

    2. Felix Banaszak

    3. Markus Söder

    4. Dreißig-Fünfzig Wildschwein

14. 

    Which tech company is fixing its dictation services after its phones repeatedly wrote the word 'Trump' when people were, in fact, saying 'racist'?

    1. Samsung

    2. Google

    3. Apple

    4. Magpie Electricals

15. 

    What did Chris Eubank Jr hit Conor Benn with at the press conference before their 26 April professional punch-up?

    1. A baguette

    2. A shoe

    3. An egg

    4. A microphone

16. 

    And finally, this is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She heard somebody was suing a cinema chain for showing too many trailers and adverts before the main feature. Where?

    1. South Korea

    2. Australia

    3. Indonesia

    4. India

Solutions

1:D - Amazon MGM Studios said last Thursday it had struck a deal with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. It has been four years since the 2021 release of No Time to Die., 2:B - The chef claimed nearly 500 cat figurines were stolen in one week from Lucky Cat 22 Bishopsgate by Gordon Ramsay., 3:A - The men are yet to claim the €500,000 winnings on the card they purchased in Toulouse., 4:C - Redevelopment work after the closure of the steelworks spread toxic waste., 5:B - The city government earlier this month said: 'In the space of the last few months, the dimensions have expanded exponentially.' Probably aliens., 6:C - Absolute tightwads., 7:B - Holland said he was 'delighted for Suetonius, to see the lad is capable of getting on the bestseller list after two millennia'., 8:D - It has a population of more than 1 million people and has been the capital since the end of the 19th century., 9:A - Just the one simple point, the same as scoring any regular time except for the new-fangled Super Shot nonsense introduced by Netball Super League 2.0., 10:C - One of the silent tracks was recorded at her studio., 11:B - Lauryn Hill sang the vocal on this version, and it was the UK's best-selling single that year., 12:D - … halfway through the sentence that closes it, the whole novel acts as a loop, with the opening paragraph starting …, 13:A - Merz's CDU/CSU alliance won 28.5% of the vote., 14:C - The tech company blamed 'phonetic overlap'., 15:C - He slapped an egg on the side of his face., 16:D - A 30-year-old man from the southern city of Bangalore was so annoyed at having to sit through 25 minutes of trailers and adverts he is suing the cinema chain PVR Inox, claiming the delay ruined the rest of his day.

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 Close Season by Katherine Priddy and Simon Armitage instead

Close Season by Katherine Priddy and Simon Armitage