WHO ARE THEY?
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UK POLITICS
1) What did Keir Starmer shockingly demand during his speech at the Labour Party conference?
2) Which famous quote by an Italian did David Cameron repeat during an interview with Kay Burley during the general election?
3) Who responded to losing his seat at the UK general election by quoting Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
4) Reform fired York Central candidate Tommy Cawkwell for “being inactive”. Why did the party then apologise?
5) Which two words of advice from the late Queen did Liz Truss admit in her autobiography that she should have heeded?
6) Who was seen during the election campaign performing CPR on a dummy to the accompaniment of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees?
7) How did Reform’s Lee Anderson respond to a tweet reading: “Women deal with periods, pregnancy, and menopause.
What do men have to deal with?”
8) What nickname did Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick give himself before discovering it was slang for a sexual act?
9) What did an excited Angela Rayner tell Sky’s Beth Rigby about her election battle bus?
10) What drink did Kemi Badenoch request at meetings when she was business secretary?
EUROPE
1) In his memoirs, Boris Johnson claimed he nearly launched an aquatic invasion of which country, in order to seize Covid vaccines?
2) Elon Musk has denied being in a relationship with which European, despite calling her “someone who is even more beautiful inside than outside”?
3) Whose political fortunes failed to improve despite releasing a set of cringeworthy black-and-white photos of himself hitting a boxing punchbag?
4) Where were a royal couple pelted with mud in November?
5) Which country hit the headlines for becoming Nato’s 32nd member – but also for its love of banana and curry powder pizza?
6) What was unusual about the alleged Russian spy found dead in waters outside Stavanger, Norway, in September?
7) Which Canadian, who once represented Switzerland at Eurovision, was France’s star turn at the Olympics opening ceremony?
8) How has Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, of Hobart, Australia, been known since January 14?
9) The Guinness Book of Records initially refused to certify the world’s tallest matchstick model, made by Richard Plaud using 700,000 matchsticks. What was it a model of?
10) What European consolation prize has been given to TV presenter Kimberly Guilfoyle after Donald Trump Jr dumped her?
ART & ENTERTAINMENT
1) Which painting, on show at the Louvre, was dubbed “the world’s most disappointing masterpiece” after 37% of visitors left negative reviews?
2) What began at the Friends Arena, Stockholm, on May 17 and ended at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, on August 10?
3) French actress Isabelle Adjani published a book of her imaginary conversations with which screen icon, who died in 1962?
4) Which Italian artist, whose final painting was exhibited at the National Gallery in May, died in 1610 as a result of either murder, lead poisoning or consuming unpasteurised dairy?
5) TV drama So Long, Marianne was about Norwegian writer Marianne Ihlen’s relationship with which musician and poet?
6) Martin Garrix of the Netherlands has displaced Frenchman David Guetta in a poll of the world’s greatest what?
7) Which series left the Amalfi coastal town of Atrani “saturated by tourists”?
8) In books and on TV, who solves cosy crimes in the village of Kleinfreudenstadt-on-Dumpfsee?
9) Why did Anthony Hopkins say he was “shocked and appalled” by Donald Trump?
10) Season 4 of Netflix series Emily in Paris appeared to conclude with the title character moving to which city?
US POLITICS
1) Who may return to writing children’s books after penning 2019 bestseller Superheroes Are Everywhere?
2) Which US political figure admitted, “A worm… got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died”?
3) How did Joe Biden suggest his pilot uncle had died in Papua New Guinea during WWII?
4) In which Ohio city did Donald Trump say migrants were “eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats”?
5) At a Nato summit in May, Joe Biden said: “And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen…” What came next?
6) Which Brit said “If you care about freedom, I don’t know how you could do anything other than vote for Donald Trump”, then celebrated his victory by wearing a “Make Jesus First Again” baseball cap?
7) Which actor – who in 2006 infamously called a female police officer “sugar tits” – said he was voting for Trump as Kamala Harris has “got the IQ of a fence post”?
8) Which singer disagreed, tweeting in reference to her hit album, “Kamala IS Brat”?
9) What did vice-presidential candidate JD Vance claim to have found in his grandma’s house after she died?
10) Which European leaders did Joe Biden claim to have spoken to in February, despite one of them having been dead since 1996 and the other since 2017?
SPORT
1) How did Rishi Sunak upset Welsh football fans in May?
2) What nickname was given to the tennis doubles partnership of the 2008 and 2010 Wimbledon men’s singles winner and its 2023 and ’24 men’s singles winner?
3) Which great defender, who died in January, is said to have been the target of this message from a New York Cosmos executive: “Tell the Kraut to get his ass up front. We don’t pay a million for a guy to hang around on defence”?
4) Which champion was called a “two-faced bully” and responded by calling his accuser “a backstabber and a loser”?
5) Italian boxer Angela Carini lasted 46 seconds against which controversial opponent at the Olympics?
6) Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen placed 20th, 25th and 25th in his three Olympic events, but still became famous. How?
7) In Euro 2024, who was named England’s player of the match against the Netherlands despite having only four touches?
8) France’s Anthony Ammirati failed in the Olympic pole vault but was offered a lucrative contract by an adult website. Why?
9) Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández was filmed celebrating Argentina’s Copa America win by singing a racist song about black footballers from which country?
10) What prize was won by Rodrigo Hernández Cascante?
GOODBYES
1) Which UK political figure, who died in November, once said, “When I die, after 50 years in politics, all they will show on the news is 60 seconds of me thumping a fellow in Wales”?
2) Norwegian art thief Pål Enger, who died in June, was best-known for stealing which painting in 1994?
3) Travel writer Arthur Frommer, who passed away in November, published a 1957 bestseller advising Americans how to navigate Europe on how many dollars per day?
4) Of which French singer, who died in June, did David Bowie say: “I was passionately in love with her. Every male in the world, and a number of females, also were.”
5) What last request of Alain Delon’s did his family refuse to carry out after his death in August?
6) Who died in Venice in 1973 before dying for real in Miami in June?
7) What was the stage name of French actor (and former wife of Albert Finney) Françoise Dreyfus, who also died in June?
8) Whose last wish before his death in August – to have his ashes scattered in Lake Fryken, Värmland – was denied by local council officials?
9) Whose memoir, published after his death in February, was called Patriot?
10) Which 4-foot-7 Bavarian, who died in New York in July, was nicknamed “Grandma Freud”?
ANSWERS
WHO ARE THEY?
1) Wimbledon ladies’ champion Barbora Krejčíková 2) Keir Starmer’s new cat, Prince 3) Swiss Eurovision winner Nemo 4) Barmy Brunch of the Monster Raving Loony Party, who ran against Jacob Rees-Mogg 5) Michal Berkner, Robert Jenrick’s lawyer wife
UK POLITICS
1) “The return of the sausages” 2) TV chef Gino D’Acampo’s “If my mother had wheels, she’d be a bicycle” 3) Jacob Rees-Mogg (“From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success”) 4) It discovered Mr Cawkwell was inactive because he had died 5) “Pace yourself” 6) Ed Davey 7) “Try the Battle of the Somme” 8) Bobby J 9) “You’re gonna love it. It’s got a fridge.” 10) Room temperature Coke Zero
EUROPE
1) The Netherlands 2) Giorgia Meloni 3) Emmanuel Macron
4) Valencia, Spain, where locals angry about flooding confronted King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia 5) Sweden 6) It was a whale called Hvaldimir, spotted in 2019 wearing a camera harness that read “Equipment St Petersburg” 7) Céline Dion 8) Mary, Queen (consort) of Denmark 9) The Eiffel Tower 10) She is his dad’s new ambassador to Greece
ART & ENTERTAINMENT
1) The Mona Lisa 2) The European leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour 3) Marilyn Monroe 4) Caravaggio 5) Leonard Cohen 6) DJs 7) Ripley 8) Miss Merkel, in a series based on the former German chancellor 9) Because the now president-elect praised Hannibal Lecter, calling him “great” and “a lovely man” 10) Rome
US POLITICS
1) Kamala Harris 2) Trump’s proposed health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr 3) Eaten by cannibals 4) Springfield 5) “President Putin” 6) Russell Brand 7) Mel Gibson 8) Charli XCX 9) “Nineteen loaded handguns” 10) François Mitterand and Helmut Kohl
SPORT
1) On a campaign visit, he asked brewery workers if they were looking forward to the European Championships, for which Wales did not qualify 2) Nadalcaraz 3) Franz Beckenbauer 4) F1’s Max Verstappen, criticised by George Russell 5) Imane Khelif 6) TikTok videos of him eating chocolate muffins went viral 7) Ollie Watkins 8) His genitals dislodged the bar on his decisive jump 9) France 10) The 2024 Ballon d’Or (he is better known as Man City’s Rodri)
GOODBYES
1) John Prescott 2) The Scream by Edvard Munch 3) Five 4) Françoise Hardy
5) For his dog Loubo to be put down and buried with him 6) Donald Sutherland 7) Anouk Aimée 8) Sven-Göran Eriksson 9) Alexei Navalny 10) Dr Ruth Westheimer
