Thursday news quiz: A German shock, tapes that rock, Truss is back but Monty’s gone

1. 

   Monty Don, pictured here with Ned, is stepping down from what after 23 years?

   1. Top Gear

   2. Countryfile

   3. Love Your Garden

   4. Gardeners’ World

2. 

   Norway buried King Harald V. Where?

   1. Oslo Cathedral

   2. Frogner Park in Oslo

   3. Akershus fortress in Oslo

   4. The body will be buried at sea, as per tradition

3. 

   Germany has been shaken by the victory of far-right Alternative für Deutschland in which state election?

   1. Thuringia

   2. Saxony-Anhalt

   3. Brandenburg

   4. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

4. 

   A woman has been buried in a coffin made from what in New South Wales, in an eco-friendly first for Australia?

   1. Mushrooms

   2. Rice paper

   3. Eucalyptus leaves

   4. Pressed seaweed

5. 

   Thieves took four artworks from a museum dedicated to a painter on the French Riviera, including which of these?

   1. Au Café (l'Absinthe) by Edgar Degas

   2. Jeune femme au puits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

   3. The Pont du Carrousel, Afternoon by Camille Pissarro

   4. The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies by Hans van Klomp

6. 

   A German startup has launched the first commercial rocket (not pictured) to reach orbit from continental Europe. Where did the Isar Aerospace vehicle take off from?

   1. Germany

   2. Albania

   3. Latvia

   4. Norway

7. 

   An Italian man is facing a hefty fine or possible prison term after what was found in his luggage at Turin’s Caselle airport?

   1. A crate of illegal venomous Asian giant centipedes

   2. A second-century Roman amphora full of olive oil

   3. The dried head of a critically endangered crocodile

   4. A very naughty miniature dachshund

8. 

   This week's guest feline is Salt, a cat that lives at the Oakside Stadium in Barkingside, where it was watching women's side Atlético London cruise to a 5-3 victory at the weekend. She wants to know which TV show is changing its name following Donald Trump's recent splurge of renaming things?

   1. South Park is becoming South America

   2. The Simpsons is becoming The Americans

   3. Family Guy is becoming American Guy

   4. Beavis and Butt-Head is becoming Beavis and Maga-Head

9. 

   This week's other guest feline is Pepper, another cat that lives at the Oakside Stadium in Barkingside. He stayed in the bar and ignored the football, and wants to know how much a ticket for Glastonbury in 2027 costs. Tell him …

   1. £308 including a £5 booking fee

   2. £408 including a £5 booking fee

   3. £508 including a £5 booking fee

   4. £608 including a £5 booking fee

10. 

    The Thursday quiz is not in the habit of shaming horses. However, Najidi Storm (pictured, left) has brought eternal shame on his bloodline by becoming the shortest-priced loser in British racing history. What were his odds of winning the Cleansing Service Group Novice Stakes at Goodwood, which he did not, in fact, win?

    1. 1-25

    2. 1-33

    3. 1-50

    4. 1-1,057

11. 

    The city of Malibu, California, has ordered the evacuation of more than 30 properties after a large sinkhole (pictured) opened in a house reported to be owned by which actor?

    1. Jared Leto

    2. Eric Roberts

    3. Edward Norton

    4. Nicolas Cage

12. 

    Which band are somewhat aggrieved that the child of one of their former sound engineers is auctioning off an archive of more than 100 hours of their recordings?

    1. Blur

    2. Coldplay

    3. Oasis

    4. Sparks

13. 

    The Thursday quiz regrets to inform you that Liz Truss has been at it again, this time 'relaunching' her podcast on which channel?

    1. Mike Graham’s YouTube channel, UKLive

    2. Julia Hartley-Brewer's YouTube channel, JuliaLive

    3. Dan Wootton's YouTube channel, Outspoken

    4. Gary Barlow's massive son's YouTube channel, GiantTV

14. 

    It is little Alex Horne's birthday today. Happy birthday Alex! Your time starts now! When was Taskmaster first broadcast in the UK?

    1. 2009

    2. 2012

    3. 2015

    4. 2018

15. 

    And finally … the Angry People in Local Newspapers Facebook page would call them 'pencil-necked desk jockeys at the council', but what have officials in Conservative-led Westminster council decided to ban in Soho?

    1. Card-only retail outlets

    2. Delivery e-bikes

    3. Vertical drinking

    4. Feral hogs

Solutions

1:D - After 23 years leading the show, which he has hosted alongside his dogs from his own garden in Herefordshire since 2011, Don said it was 'the right time for a change', 2:C - The castle's royal mausoleum is the final resting place of a number of Norwegian royal figures, 3:B - The AfD won nearly 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt but fell three seats short of an absolute majority, 4:A - The mushroom coffin, created by the Dutch firm Loop Biotech, was grown from mycelium – the root network of fungi – and hemp fibres, 5:B - They got away with four artworks but appeared to have also dropped two more in the garden suggesting they weren't the sharpest tools in the burglary box, 6:D - It blasted off from Andøya Spaceport, carrying five small satellites along with an in-flight technology experiment, 7:C - Crocodiles are protected under the Washington Convention, a global agreement signed in 1973 to protect endangered plants and animals from the risk of international trade, 8:A - They say the satirical programme’s new title is ‘inspired by the bravery and patriotism’ of Apple and Google, who capitulated to Trump’s requests to change Lake Ontario to Lake America, 9:B - It is a rise from the 2025 cost of £378.50. Tickets go on sale 9am on Sunday 4 October, 10:B - For shame. For shame, 11:D - It has grown to roughly 25-30ft deep and 30 by 60 feet wide, but suggestions Cage is preparing for a role as the Mole Man are as yet unconfirmed, 12:C - The collection was amassed by the band’s sound engineer Huw Richards and comprises 209 DAT tapes, 73 analogue cassettes and three MiniDiscs. it is being sold by Richards’s son, Owain, 13:A - The Thursday quiz remembers the concept of people retiring from public life after a humiliating failure, 14:C - He had presented a version of the show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival earlier in the decade, but the first broadcast series was on Dave in 2015 before Channel 4 acquired the format, 15:C - The council says new licences for pubs and bars should only be granted to venues which have table service instead of ordering at the bar, and those in which people are seated rather than standing, the dullard killjoys

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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