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Midweek arrives and brings one more opportunity for you to test your knowledge in our weekly challenge. Have you been paying attention to the news – especially the more unusual bits? Discover here, while also experiencing a series of tedious in-jokes, and then post your score in the comments to let us know how you performed. Let's go!

Our Queries

1. The historic church is getting its first female archbishop. Which person?

   • Ella Connelly
   • Ms. Mullally
   • Ms. Bellamy
   • Ms. Holloway

2. Pope Leo has announced his first overseas tour. To which location is the pontiff traveling?

   • The African nation and its neighbor
   • Greece and the island
   • The transcontinental nation and Lebanon
   • The fictional country and Borduria

3. Amazon Prime has changed promotional pictures on its online content service after people complained it was doing what …

   • Showing Sherlock Holmes without his tobacco accessory
   • Showing The adventurer Jones without his whip
   • Depicting James Bond without his gun
   • Depicting The musician from Sparks without his moustache

4. Amusingly, the first midweek quiz after the hiatus inquired who France's new government leader was, and just four weeks later they have already been yeeted through the door labeled 'do one'. Which French PM has just quit, giving President Macron one more problem?

   • Mr. Lecornu
   • Gérald Darmanin
   • Mr. Bayrou
   • Mr. Colbert

5. We lost Author Cooper, renowned for her 'bonkbuster' romance novels. Which of these two very famous titles came first?

   • Rivals
   • Riders

6. Talking of literature, The organization America’s Prohibited in the USA report found what was the most banned book in the 2024-25 academic year in the US?

   • Author Blume’s The novel
   • Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange
   • Stephen King's The horror story
   • Gary Barlow's Massive Son

7. At the Conservative political conference, the Tories managed to give out a complimentary gift where the word 'Britain' was spelled wrong. What was the gift?

   • A sweet bar
   • A small jar of sweet substance
   • A labeled bottle of water
   • A extremely naughty small dog breed

8. This is The canine, the designated pet of the midweek quiz. The dog would like to find out which well-known children's character is taking legal action against the makers of the satirical show over their latest apparent depiction of it …

   • The cloth cat
   • The stringed puppet
   • Basil Brush
   • Paddington

9. The current guest dog is Frank, who the midweek quiz encountered down the pub. Such a well-behaved dog. The dog would like to know what charitable effort Drew Scanlon, the man in the Blinking White Guy animation internet phenomenon, has used his online popularity to raise funds for

   • HIV/Aids
   • Cardiovascular illness
   • The disease
   • Multiple sclerosis

10. Seventeen of David Hockney's digital artworks are to be auctioned at sale. The artworks are of where?

    • Padstow
    • The Yorkshire location
    • The Hampshire town
    • The Herefordshire market town

11. Which entity will provide a partial refund to the Australian federal government over a $440,000 report that contained multiple errors, after confessing it employed AI technology to assist create it?

    • The consulting firm
    • Accenture
    • KPMG
    • The fictional Cybernetics Corporation

12. Next up our recently added regular segment, comparative with the entertainer's spirit. Currently the Thursday challenge imagines the spirit of the pianist would like to know which of these people has the MOST European Champions League winners' medals?

    • The defender Ramos
    • The forward Benzema
    • Luka Modrić
    • The singer Bush

13. A boffin (the correct scientific term) only found out he'd won the Nobel prize in medical science when his spouse switched her mobile on after they had been on a technology detox in the American West backcountry. Which is his name?

    • Jed Branscombe
    • Grant Denshaw
    • Mr. Ramsdell
    • Mr. Dugnutt

14. Midweek challenge favourite Taylor Swift has a latest album out. What is it called?

    • Admissions of a Romance Novelist
    • The Life of a Showgirl
    • The Curriculum of Heartbreak
    • Exotic Creatures of the Ocean

15. And finally … a new regular segment! On this day with The guitarist May! And his badger! This week the midweek quiz envisions the legendary Band musician would like to learn about the Prague astronomical timepiece. 9 October is usually considered as the day of the first reference to the existence of the timepiece. But in which date?

    • 1210
    • 1410
    • The 17th century
    • 1810

If you truly believe there has been an egregious error in a single of the queries or answers – and can show your reasoning and are completely 100% certain you are not attempting to verify a humorous element – you can raise an issue about it in the comments below.