Laser etchings, Chinese missions, and terrible PMs – take the Thursday quiz

Yvette Mattern’s spectacular laser art installation - Global Rainbow - is gorgeous. But Tesco are going to start using lasers on what? Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

An unearthed rare letter written by Franz Kafka to his publisher recently showed how much he struggled with writer’s block. He should have tried having a 15-question quiz to write to deadline every week without fail in the middle of a UK general election. Anyway, no prizes, but here are 15 questions on topical news, general knowledge and Björn Borg and Katy Perry for some reason. Let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 163

1. 

   Who is Mexico's new president?

   1. Xóchitl Gálvez

   2. Doña Arana

   3. Elena Solís

   4. Claudia Sheinbaum

2. 

   How many felony counts was Donald Trump convicted of last week?

   1. 34

   2. 44

   3. 54

   4. 1,057

3. 

   Who is being sued for producing “pornography without warning” at a concert where an attender says they were "forced to watch topless women on stage simulating sex acts”?

   1. Lizzo

   2. P!nk

   3. Madonna

   4. Ron from Sparks

4. 

   Tesco is trialling laser-etching barcodes on to which product to save on packaging and price stickers?

   1. Grapefruit

   2. Red peppers

   3. Avocados

   4. 30-50 feral hogs

5. 

   Platja d’Aro on Spain’s Costa Brava has banned what from its streets?

   1. Non-electric cars

   2. Inflatable penis costumes

   3. Running of the bulls

   4. Very naughty miniature dachshunds

6. 

   Young man! Today marks the anniversary of the founding of the YMCA. Young man! But when did Village People (not pictured) have their hit with it?

   1. 1976

   2. 1978

   3. 1980

   4. 1982

7. 

   You've always wanted to pass GCSE computer science, right? Try this one. Which of these internal components is required to connect a computer to a network?

   1. Network interface card

   2. Switch

   3. Hub

   4. Graphics card

8. 

   Katy Perry is far too nice to stand outside your house hurling abuse at you if you get it wrong, but she will be a bit miffed if you can't put her first four albums in the correct order of release. Which of these is it?

   1. Katy Hudson; One of the Boys; Teenage Dream; Prism

   2. Katy Hudson; One of the Girls; Teenage Nightmare; Witness

   3. Katy Perry; One of the Boys; Teenage Nightmare; Prism

   4. Katy Perry; One of the Girls; Teenage Dream; Witness

9. 

   It is Björn Borg's birthday today. Happy birthday Björn! In which year did he win the first of his five consecutive Wimbledon titles?

   1. 1972

   2. 1974

   3. 1976

   4. 1978

10. 

    Thursday quiz favourite Liz Truss told her local newspaper that she wasn't the worst UK prime minister of recent years. Who did she say was?

    1. Theresa May

    2. David Cameron

    3. Gordon Brown

    4. Tony Blair

11. 

    One question about every country taking part in the Euro 2024 finals this summer, and this is the 24th and final one. This week: Georgia, who qualified from play-off path C after beating Greece on penalties. It is a simple question. Is Georgia's capital city Tbilisi on the coast or not?

    1. Yes, Tbilisi is on Georgia's coast

    2. No, Tbilisi is not on Georgia's coast

12. 

    Where did China's Chang'e 6 mission recently land?

    1. On the asteroid Eros

    2. On the north polar region of Mars

    3. On the dark side of the moon

    4. On the shady side of Uranus

13. 

    A rather ridiculous election is taking place in Europe. No, not that one. Where is there a village with 46 residents and 30 local election candidates?

    1. Ingria in Italy

    2. Galatas in Greece

    3. Nadrupe in Portugal

    4. Qrendi in Malta

14. 

    In which US state did a couple who were 'magnet fishing' in a lake pull out a safe containing $100,000 in cash?

    1. Connecticut

    2. New York

    3. Arkansas

    4. Michigan

15. 

    This is Willow, official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She knows there is going to be a new Mr Man book coming out in September 2024. Who is new Mr Man?

    1. Mr Calm

    2. Mr Fib

    3. Mr Anxious

    4. Mr Obvious Doctor Who Reference

Solutions

1:D - Sheinbaum, a leftwing climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City becomes the country's first female president, 2:A - 👀, 3:C - If only there were some way of finding out what a Madonna concert would be like in advance, 4:C - Tesco is the UK’s largest supermarket and sells almost 70m avocados a year, making it single-handedly responsible, according to some boomers, for Gen Z not being able to get on the property ladder, 5:B - Seemingly beseiged by cheeky stag and hen parties, the new bylaw specifically bans people from appearing “on the public thoroughfare without clothing or only in their underwear or with clothing or accessories representing human genitals or with dolls or other accessories of a sexual nature”, 6:B - Young man! The enduring anthem was released in October 1978, 7:A - Well done if you picked this option – you've got one point towards your fictitious computer science GCSE, 8:A - These are the correct four – Katy Hudson is her real birth name and the title of her first album which was released under that name and was a commercially unsuccessful gospel/Christian rock effort before she got the pop bug and went on to sell 48m albums, 9:C - Björn Borg defeated Ilie Năstase in the 1976 final, then went on to dominate the tournament for the next four years too, 10:D - She told the Eastern Daily Press: “The worst prime minister in recent years is Tony Blair, who created things like the Equality Act, the Human Rights Act and the Climate Change Act". Blair won three general elections and was in the job for 10 years and seven days longer than Truss was, 11:B - Always on Paul McCartney's mind during the White Album era of the Beatles, Georgia borders Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Tblisi is slap-bang in the middle of it, 12:C - Pedants prefer to call it the far side of the moon, but that doesn't set up a joke about Uranus having a shady side, 13:A - The village is near Turin, and has experienced a huge rise in tourism and second home ownership after being named among Italy’s “most beautiful” villages in 2022, 14:B - Police, unable to link the money to any particular crime, said the couple could keep it. If you did that in the UK it probably automatically belongs to the king, 15:B - What a weird coincidence in a general election year

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 – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and you really should watch Doctor Who episode Dot and Bubble if you haven’t already seen it.