First newsquiz of 2019 - give it a go

Happy New Year to all you newsquizzers ... I trust you are bracing yourselves for a news-packed 2019. The top scorers in the last quiz of the year were Jamie Bryla and Janet Boyle who both scored 17. Dave Bromage scored 16, Toby Brown 15 and Gavin Devine 14.5. The top team was Adam Batstone and Lucy Thorpe with 16. Here is the first quiz of 2019. As usual there are 25 questions about the last seven days. Give it a go and let me know how you get on. 

The first front pages of 2019

1. Environment Secretary Michael Gove told the Oxford Farming Conference that: 'It’s a grim but inescapable fact that in the event of a no-deal Brexit the effective tariffs of meat and sheep meat would be above ____ per cent. In some cases well above that’. What is the missing figure?

2. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, as part of no-deal Brexit preparations, awarded a £13.8 million contract to charter extra ferries to a 'start-up' company that has no ships. What is the company’s name?

3. Home Secretary Sajid Javid flew back early from a family holiday in which country to discuss how to stop migrants travelling across the Channel in small boats?

4. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed that a Royal Navy patrol ship has been sent to the English Channel to deter migrant crossings. What is the ship called?

5. What happened in London on New Year’s Eve that ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage described as ‘highly inappropriate' and Tory MP Andrew Bridgen as a ‘betrayal of democracy’?

6. MPs and scientists called for chemical additives to be removed from what because they are believed to cause around 6,600 bowel cancer cases in the UK every year?

7. Lee Valentine said that 'instinct took over' as he did what?

8. Who was knighted in the New Year’s Honours for services to travel, culture and geography and said he 'may just have a quiet celebration, just myself and a glass of Horlicks and then go to bed’?

9. Susanna Dinnage withdrew from the role of chief executive of which organisation only six weeks after her appointment was announced?

10. A man died and 23 people were injured when a minibus overturned while travelling to which racecourse?

11. Who made an announcement, saying: 'It is with great sadness and immense grief that we have to announce that Ruth passed away today as a result of her rare lung cancer’?

12. Which company cut its sales forecasts, wiping $55billion (£44billion) off its value, and blamed the unforeseen ‘magnitude' of the economic slowdown in China? 

13. She was an OBE, a CBE and a dame and claimed that lack of confidence in her looks made her concentrate on comedy. Who is she?

14. US singer Jimmy Osmond was diagnosed with a stroke after a performance in which pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome?

15. A female student from Bristol University was killed where on New Year’s Day?

16. What is the name of the bridge where six people were killed and 16 injured in a train accident in Denmark?

17. Who targeted 'snowflakes, selfie addicts, class clowns, phone zombies and me, me, millennials' in a recruitment drive?

18. Strictly Come Dancing star AJ Pritchard and his brother Curtis were battered and bruised in a nightclub in their home town. Where is it?

19. Why was 33-year-old Romanian Tudor Simionov in the headlines?

20. Which country said it had killed 40 terrorists who 'were planning to carry out a series of aggressive attacks targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism... and Christian places of worship’? 

21. Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft beamed home images of Ultima Thule, a rock four billion miles from earth, which was described by the mission’s principal investigator as resembling the shape of what?

22. To the nearest million pounds how much did Frances and Patrick Connolly, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, win in the New Year's Day EuroMillions lottery?

23. Sir Billy Connolly said his age and his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease meant he was now 'at the wrong end of the ____ of life’. What is the missing word?

24. What did Greggs the bakers introduce into 950 stores after 20,000 people signed a petition?
25. Who posted a video on Twitter in which she said ‘the rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated’?

Answers here