The Week’s big New Year’s Day quiz 2024

Three four-sided building blocks with the numbers 2, 0, 2, and one being turned showing the numbers 3 and 4 simultaneously

(Image credit: Nora Carol Photography/Getty)

published 31 December 2023

A week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson may have once said – but a week of news is far longer.

After 52 weeks of endlessly enormous news, this year has felt like an epoch. Global temperatures reached record highs, causing more extreme weather events and posing the gravest threat to humanity. Deadly war has broken out in the Middle East, with allies drawn in but divided and rogue states threatening to take advantage. The meteoric growth of artificial intelligence has already led to scientific and technological breakthroughs, but raises fears of a dangerously uncertain future.

In the UK, we marked 100 days under leader Rishi Sunak. His tenure will likely be remembered for a struggling economy, stubbornly high inflation, two dramatic reshuffles and the loss of four key by-elections. Over in the US, former president Donald Trump has continued his race towards the Republican nomination, seemingly undeterred by four criminal indictments and a civil fraud trial. The world was buffeted by multiple shock election results, with knife-edge victories across the political spectrum. And every Friday, we have tested your memory for headlines and details with our Quiz of the Week.

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Now, we invite you to cast your mind back over the year as a whole. Good luck!

To find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to developments in the news and other global events, put your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Year.

1. In January, the funeral of which legendary three-time World Cup winning footballer took place in Santos, Brazil?

Bobby Charlton
Pelé
Trevor Francis
Luis Suárez

2. The now-ousted Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives after how many rounds of voting?

3. Which film won best picture at the 2023 Baftas?

Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Banshees of Inisherin
All Quiet on the Western Front
Elvis

4. Which pop star broke the record for most Grammy wins of all time at this year's awards?

Taylor Swift
Beyoncé
Adele
Dolly Parton

5. Which politician announced their resignation in February by saying they wanted to remind people they were a "human being as well as a politician"?

Giorgia Meloni
Nicola Sturgeon
Jacinda Ardern
Sanna Marin

6. The 10th reincarnation of the Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche, the third most important spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism, was discovered by the Dalai Lama in which country?

India
Nepal
Bhutan
Mongolia

7. A headteacher at a Florida school was forced to resign after pupils were shown a picture of which world-renowned sculptural masterpiece?

Rodin's The Thinker
Laocoön and His Sons
Michelangelo's David
Venus de Milo

8. An Australian company created a meatball out of which extinct ancient animal?

Mastodon
Woolly mammoth
Dodo
Saber-toothed tiger

9. Who was the civil servant Labour appointed as Keir Starmer's chief of staff?

Simon Case
Sue Gray
Mark Sedwill
Patrick Vallance

10. Who wrote the book "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret", which became a hit film in April?

Stephenie Meyer
Julia Donaldson
Judy Blume
Julie Powell

11. Which country became the 31st nation to join Nato?

Sweden
Finland
Ukraine
Georgia

12. Which church hosted the coronation of King Charles III?

St Paul's Cathedral
St Martin-in-the-Fields
Westminster Abbey
St Bride's Church

13. Which country was readmitted into the Arab League after being suspended since 2011?

Lebanon
Syria
Iraq
Egypt

14. What was the name of the late leader of the Wagner Group, the Russian government-funded paramilitary group that staged a rebellion in June?

Dmitry Utkin
Pavel Prigozhin
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Andrey Arshavin

15. Which Conservative announced she was standing down as MP for Mid Bedfordshire, triggering a by-election?

Theresa May
Nadine Dorries
Suella Braverman
Priti Patel

16. Barbie and which other film opened in July, prompting the most successful weekend for UK cinema-going since 2019?

Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

17. Which bank hit the headlines after it closed the personal and business accounts of Nigel Farage?

Coutts
Abbey National
Lloyds
Metro

18. What is the name of the barge used to house UK asylum seekers off the coast of Dorset?

Bibby Stockholm
Bibby Stockton
Bibby Stockwell
Bibby Stockley

19. The UK's first ever transplant of which body part took place in August?

Tongue
Gallbladder
Womb
Pancreas

20. The final of the Women's World Cup football tournament took place in which city?

Sydney, Australia
Brisbane, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand

21. The official invitations to the G20 conference in September sparked speculation that which country might be considering a change of name?

Bali
India
Indonesia
Brazil

22. The manufacturer of the weight-loss drug Wegovy became Europe's most valuable company, providing a major boost to which country's economy?

Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Germany

23. The Raac scandal hit the government in September but what does Raac stand for?

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete
Reissued automated asphalt concrete
Reinstalled aligned air dry concrete
Replaced artificial anomaly concrete

24. Which player captained their country to an opening night victory at the men's Rugby World Cup in Paris?

Sam Cane
Romain Ntamack
Antoine Dupont
Beauden Barrett

25. An activist poured what over Keir Starmer during his Labour Party conference speech?

Milkshake
Glitter
Paint
Oil

26. Where did the world's first summit on artificial intelligence safety take place?

Milton Keynes
Palo Alto, California
Austin, Texas
London

27. Which world leader visited the US for the first time in six years?

Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy
China's Xi Jinping
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu

28. Sam Altman was controversially fired from which tech company?

Microsoft
Spotify
Apple
OpenAI

29. Who was the most streamed artist of the year, according to Spotify?

Bad Bunny
Taylor Swift
Harry Styles
The Weeknd

30. A man known as El Peluca (the wig) was elected president of which Latin American country?

Mexico
Ecuador
Argentina
Guatemala

Tile reading: How did you do? Scroll down for this week's answers

1. Pelé

2. 15

3. All Quiet on the Western Front

4. Beyoncé

5. Nicola Sturgeon

6. India

7. Michelangelo's David

8. Woolly mammoth

9. Sue Gray

10. Judy Blume

11. Finland

12. St Bride's Church

13. Syria

14. Yevgeny Prigozhin

15. Nadine Dorries

16. Oppenheimer

17. Coutts

18. Bibby Stockholm

19. Womb

20. Sydney, Australia

21. India

22. Denmark

23. Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete

24. Antoine Dupont

25. Glitter

26. Milton Keynes

27. China's Xi Jinping

28. OpenAI

29. Taylor Swift

30. Argentina

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Harriet Marsden is a writer for The Week, mostly covering UK and global news and politics. Before joining the site, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, specialising in social affairs, gender equality and culture. She worked for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, and regularly contributed articles to The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, Tortoise Media and Metro, as well as appearing on BBC Radio London, Times Radio and “Woman’s Hour”. She has a master’s in international journalism from City University, London, and was awarded the "journalist-at-large" fellowship by the Local Trust charity in 2021.