Wall Street Chronicle

Thursday news quiz: Stranded whales, stricken ships and very cute sea otters

Martin Belam
thursday-news-quiz:-stranded-whales,-stricken-ships-and-very-cute-sea-otters

Thursday news quiz: Stranded whales, stricken ships and very cute sea otters

Welcome to the Thursday news quiz, where it pays to listen carefully – although not necessarily to the extent of developing a question mark for an ear, as our illustration by Anaïs Mims may suggest. Have you been paying attention to the week’s events or just hearing half the story? Fifteen questions await on topical news, pop culture and general knowledge, generously sprinkled with some in-jokes. There are no prizes, but we always enjoy hearing how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 246

  1. 1.AI platforms (not pictured) are more likely to reference who more than any other UK politician when prompted about British politics, according to an AI analytics firm?

    Robots

  2. 2.What is the name of the cruise ship that has been struck by a suspected hantavirus outbreak?

  3. 3.This week’s guest canine is Pudding, whom the quiz master met on the Weaver line and who was very friendly indeed. Pudding heard that dog owners in an Italian city will be required to clean up their pets’ urine from public spaces or face fines of up to €500. Where?

  4. 4.Who (not pictured) sponsored this year’s Met Gala?

  5. 5.Which country expelled three Russian embassy staff this week (not pictured) after a ‘forest of antennae’ was discovered?

  6. 6.Here’s Melvyn Bragg, he loves a flag. Which of these countries has a flag that can be described as a wide horizontal red stripe bordered above and below by a thin white stripe and a broad blue stripe; the red stripe is charged near the hoist with a five-pointed red star inside a white disc?

  7. 7.Yoko Ono (pictured, some time ago) has upset a small brewer by insisting they stop selling what, which was adorned with John Lennon’s image?

  8. 8.It would have been Eva Perón’s birthday today. Oh, what a circus! Don’t cry for me, Argentina. In which year did she die?

  9. 9.Farther or nearer with Geordie Alan Shearer. This week we imagine the England soccer legend, if he leaves his home town of Newcastle upon Tyne, wants to know which – as the crow flies and according to freemaptools.com – is farther or nearer – Winnipeg, Canada, or Tomsk, Russia?

  10. 10.The people trying to rescue a humpback whale that was stranded for weeks off Germany’s Baltic coast have had to admit that the tracker they fitted to it isn’t working, so nobody knows what has happened to it. What is (or … was?) its name?

  11. 11.The locals are revolting over plans to install traffic lights at which Scottish landmark (not pictured, that is the Kelpies)?

  12. 12.Who is the British artist at the Venice Biennale 2026?

  13. 13.The Thursday quiz fondly remembers Keith Chegwin, so here is Cheggers plays population! According to the 2026 CIA World Factbook, which of these four countries has the largest population?

  14. 14.On this day with Brian May. And his badger. 7 May is the anniversary of the rather embarrassing collapse of the dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, just 20 years after it was built. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen’s legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which year …

  15. 15.And finally … one of these sea otters adopted the other when it was orphaned. They live at a California aquarium. What are their names?

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 Why Am I Like This? by Grace Kay and Kirsten Izer instead?

Why Am I Like This? by Grace Kay and Kirsten Izer
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