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

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?

• 5 
• 7
• 12
• 15 

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 

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