Saturn’s moons, royal songs and sporting politicians – take the Thursday quiz

This is Saturn’s moon Mimas … but how many moons does Saturn have? Photograph: Nasa Nasa/Reuters

The Thursday quiz was all set to announce a massive expansion, which would have, no doubt, generated a huge number of jobs and benefitted the whole economy of the UK. Sadly, despite almost certainly being more profitable than many a faded football club currently languishing in the lower reaches of the Premier League, the Thursday quiz has been quite unable to convince the government to also stump up a load of taxpayer cash as part of the deal to regenerate the neighbourhood. So we will just have to stick to the tried and trusted format of 15 topical, general knowledge and pop culture questions laden with a few jokes, however shabby the surroundings are. Let us know how you got in the comments …

The Thursday quiz, No 201

1. 

   Who is replacing Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal party in Canada?

   1. Dominic LeBlanc

   2. Mark Carney

   3. François-Philippe Champagne

   4. Ron from Sparks

2. 

   Which European nation's postal service has said letters can 'do one', and in future it is only going to deliver parcels?

   1. Denmark

   2. Poland

   3. Norway

   4. Estonia

3. 

   This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She knows a religious TV channel has been fined £150,000 for giving UK airtime to an evangelist selling which clearly misleading product …?

   1. "The Jesuscoin cryptocurrency"

   2. "True splinters of the cross"

   3. "Miracle spring water"

   4. "Very well-behaved miniature dachshunds"

4. 

   Art boffins think they have found the only known portrait of Lady Jane Grey, who was bullied into declaring she was queen, lasted less time in post than Liz Truss, and ended up executed within a year. Ooops. Which year did Lady Jane Grey try to claim the throne?

   1. 1453

   2. 1553

   3. 1653

   4. 1753

5. 

   BBC boffins, meanwhile, have announced who will be representing the UK at Eurovision this year. Who is it?

   1. Happy Mondays

   2. The Mondays

   3. Remember Monday

   4. Chris Martin falling through a trap door on a Monday

6. 

   Talking of music and royalty, you don't get much more pop royalty than Kylie Minogue. Which of her tracks did King Charles III put on his recent playlist claiming to be his favourite songs?

   1. The Loco-Motion

   2. Can't Get You Out Of My Head

   3. Padam Padam

   4. Spinning Around

7. 

   Which country has suspended a ski jumping coach and an equipment manager after a cheating scandal erupted at the ski jump world championships?

   1. Austria

   2. Norway

   3. Italy

   4. Syldavia

8. 

   It's scores on the doors with Swindon’s Diana Dors. This week the statue wants to ask you about Olympic judo. How many points do you get awarded for an ippon (一本)?

   1. Two points

   2. Three points

   3. It doesn't score points, an ippon (一本) is the judo equivalent of a red card, and is how you can get disqualified in judo

   4. It doesn't matter, an ippon (一本) finishes the match and you win

9. 

   It is the anniversary of astronomer William Herschel first having a peek at Uranus through his telescope in 1781, and initially thinking it was a comet. Once he was convinced it was a planet, what did he initially seek to name it?

   1. Georgium Sidus

   2. Julius Sidus

   3. Carolus Sidus

   4. Raxacoricofallapatorius

10. 

    Talking of Uranus, its neighbour Saturn is showing off after astronomers discovered a huge number of previously undiscovered moons of the planet. How many moons do astronomers now think Saturn has?

    1. 30-50

    2. 128

    3. 196

    4. 274

11. 

    This week's geography topic is Thailand. Spot the odd one out – which of these countries does NOT border Thailand?

    1. Myanmar

    2. Laos

    3. Cambodia

    4. Vietnam

12. 

    It is Neil Sedaka's birthday today. Happy birthday, Neil! Breaking up is hard to do! One of his early hits was written about someone destined to become a star in their own right. Which of these was it?

    1. Oh! Joni about Joni Mitchell

    2. Oh! Carly about Carly Simon

    3. Oh! Laura about Laura Nyro

    4. Oh! Carol about Carole King

13. 

    A man in which US state has been charged with repeatedly carrying out heists of Lego from Target stores?

    1. California

    2. Florida

    3. Texas

    4. Kentucky

14. 

    Greenland's centre-right Democrat party became the largest party in its Inatsisartut after the election this week. Leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen (pictured) is a former champion in which sport?

    1. Curling

    2. Volleyball

    3. Badminton

    4. Nordic skiing

15. 

    And finally, fashion brand Boohoo is rebranding itself as what?

    1. C & A

    2. Debenhams

    3. D H Evans

    4. Derek

Solutions

1:B - The 59-year-old will be the first person to become Canadian prime minister without having ever been an MP, 2:A - PostNord said it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes, citing the “increasing digitalisation” of society, 3:C - Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, penalised the operator of The Word Network after an investigation into the programme Peter Popoff Ministries. Popoff was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority in 2007 for promoting a similar product, 4:B - She reigned over England for just over a week in the summer of 1553. It is not known whether, like Liz Truss, she then went on an extensive self-publicity drive, 5:C - The all-female trio make country-tinged pop and have been described as "pop girlies with a lil bit of yeehaw". The Thursday quiz is 100% confident that leaning into an Americanism is the perfect approach to getting votes from the European public in 2025, given how swimmingly US-European relations are going at the moment, 6:A - Yes, Charles picked the Gerry Goffin and Carole King penned song that was a hit for Kylie in 1988, having previously been a hit for Little Eva in the 1960s, 7:B - They were accused of modifying suits to gain an extra bit of lift during the jump at the championships, which the nation was hosting, 8:D - Bang. Cop that, 9:A - He wanted to name the planet that he initially thought was a comet "George's Star", making him sound like quite a silly goose, 10:D - Saturn now has a whopping 274 of the things, suggesting that at some point scientists might need to tidy up the criteria for what qualifies as a moon, as they did with planets, otherwise they are going to run out of names, 11:D - Vietnam is on the east coast of the Indochina Peninsula, and does not share a border with Thailand, 12:D - Carole recorded Oh! Neil as a joking response and released it. Oh mate, 13:A - This one was California, and he is accused of walking off with $25,000 worth of beloved Legos, 14:C - He won the national badminton championship as recently as 2022, 15:B - Debenhams, founded as a single store in London in 1778, disappeared from the high street in 2021 after Boohoo bought the brand, but not its shops, shortly after the department store chain collapsed

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 Hearsay by Anika instead?

Hearsay by Anika