1. 

   Record numbers of what found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far as Scotland (pictured) and Wales?

   1. Portuguese man o' war

   2. Carpet sea squirt

   3. Octopuses

   4. Aquatic feral hogs

2. 

   Where has Starbucks faced a consumer backlash and senior executives resigning after it launched a marketing campaign called Tank Day that coincided with the anniversary of a massacre of a pro-democracy demonstration?

   1. South Korea

   2. Vietnam

   3. Hong Kong

   4. Macau

3. 

   The Thursday quiz was immensely saddened by the death of Anthony Head, star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso, Doctor Who, coffee adverts, and by all accounts an all-round good egg. What was the name of his character in Buffy?

   1. Robert Giles

   2. Reginald Giles

   3. Rupert Giles

   4. Ronald Giles

4. 

   More than a million people turned up to see the pope deliver an open air mass in which European capital city at the weekend?

   1. Lisbon

   2. Madrid

   3. Warsaw

   4. Klow

5. 

   Which US city has voted for a year-long ban on new AI datacentres (not pictured)?

   1. Seattle

   2. Denver

   3. Miami

   4. Innsmouth

6. 

   Send Derren Brown today's collective noun. Use your psychic powers to let him know the collective noun for chimpanzees.

   1. A lurch

   2. A scree

   3. A ruction

   4. A whoop

7. 

   It is Hugh Laurie's birthday today. Happy birthday Hugh! What is the first name of his character in House?

   1. Fenwick

   2. Barnaby

   3. Gregory

   4. Lupus

8. 

   This week's guest superhero is a Fathers 4 justice-style Spider-Man spotted in Brighton recently. He knows there has been a brouhaha about some fake AI videos depicting Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, and Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, having a dust-up, but on the set of which BBC programme?

   1. Question Time

   2. Newsnight

   3. Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

   4. Noel's House Party

9. 

   Scores on the doors with Swindon's Diana Dors! This week, with the tournament starting today, the Thursday quiz imagines the statue wants you to remind her of the score at the end of extra time of the last World Cup final.

   1. Argentina 1 - 1 France

   2. Argentina 2 - 2 France

   3. Argentina 3 - 3 France

   4. Argentina 4 - 4 France

10. 

    Talking of the World Cup, organisers have made a U-turn on a proposed ban and will now allow what (not pictured – that's just a Netherlands fan with a massive cheese on her head) into stadiums?

    1. Branded T-shirts from non-Fifa sponsors

    2. Bottles of water

    3. Battery operated mini-fans

    4. Very naughty miniature dachshunds

11. 

    Whose company was named as the fastest-growing business in Britain?

    1. Jeremy Clarkson's Hawkstone Squat

    2. Ant and Dec's DecadAnt

    3. Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger

    4. Liz Truss's Lettuce Corps

12. 

    Boffins who study people (the correct technical term) have discovered that on the whole we all prefer to walk which way?

    1. Clockwise

    2. Anti-clockwise

    3. Like an Egyptian

13. 

    The Shacklewell Arms is one of the Thursday quiz's favourite small gig venues in London, where it has seen up-and-coming young bands such as Pit Pony, Deep Tan, Wych Elm (pictured) and Dream Phone. But which superstar unexpectedly played there at the weekend?

    1. Katy Perry

    2. Shania Twain

    3. Sabrina Carpenter

    4. Kate Bush

14. 

    On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 11 June is the anniversary of Diane Abbott being elected to parliament as the UK's first Black female MP. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which year.

    1. 1979

    2. 1983

    3. 1987

    4. 1992

15. 

    Audience members at a matinee performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production Tempest, starring Kenneth Branagh (pictured, left, not the other guy) as Prospero, complained it was ruined by what?

    1. One of the actors phones going off

    2. A hipster getting a typewriter out

    3. A baby gurgling and cooing

    4. Gary Barlow's massive son sitting in the front row while wearing a top hat

Solutions

1:C - The bloom has been mixed news for fishers. Those who rely on shellfish have been badly hit because octopuses target crabs and lobsters in their pots. Others have cashed in with record hauls of octopuses, which are highly intelligent but also, unfortunately for them, absolutely delicious, 2:A - The date of the promotion’s launch, and its imagery and wording, reopened painful wounds of a 46-year-old massacre and a dictatorship-era torture scandal, 3:C - Head's stuffy British watcher was a vital part of the Scooby Gang's appeal in the succesful TV series, 4:B - Queues for the mass began forming hours before sunrise on Sunday as people scrambled to secure a spot for what was billed as the biggest gathering of the pope’s six-day visit to Spain. Organisers estimated that more than 1.2 million people had turned up for the event., 5:A - The major tech hub whose metro area is home to Amazon and Microsoft has told companies to exit the door marked "do one" with their plans, 6:D - It is indeed, according to Grammar Monster, a whoop of chimpanzees. Odds bodkins!, 7:C - It's never lupus, 8:A - We truly live in one of the dumbest timelines imaginable, 9:C - Kylian Mbappé became the second player to score a hat-trick in a men's World Cup final, although as many Scots observed, technically the first where all three goals actually crossed the line, 10:B - 'All fans will be permitted to bring in one, soft, plastic, 20 ounces (590ml), factory sealed disposable water bottle' – so generous, 11:C - Goalhanger made £37.9m in sales in 2025, growing at an average annual rate of 321% over the past three years, according to the latest Sunday Times list of the 100 quickest-growing private companies, 12:B - Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction, but no one knows why, 13:B - Twain’s intimate pub performance was part of the rollout for her seventh studio album, Little Miss Twain, which comes out on 24 July, 14:C - She was elected in the same election as Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant, the first time that there had been Black MPs in the Commons, 15:C - 'There was a young woman with a baby in the audience – and it mithered all the way through the first act' said one grumpling to the Daily Mail. The Thursday quiz very much approves of the deployment of the word 'mithered'

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!