And so after nearly 70bn matches – or so it seems – the Fifa World Cup has reached the sharp end. But regular readers will know that they face the sharp end of the challenge of the Thursday news quiz every Thursday. Fifteen questions await on topical news, general knowledge and pop culture. Plus collective nouns for some reason. There are no prizes, but let us know how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 256

1. 1.We lost lovely Sam Neill, whom nobody seems to have a bad word about. He spent many years in New Zealand, but where was he born?
2. 2.Meta has said ⁠it is discontinuing an AI feature that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram ⁠accounts after drawing widespread ⁠criticism over ​privacy concerns. What was it called?
3. 3.Berlin’s mayor (not pictured) has abandoned his campaign to stand for reelection after failing to recover from a row over his decision to do what while large parts of the German capital were hit by a power blackout in January?
4. 4.Tokyo the dog has been rescued after falling ill from eating cannabis discarded on a mountain trail. Where?
5. 5.Send Derren Brown today's collective noun. Use your psychic powers to let him know what is the collective noun for magpies …
6. 6.Officials in Japan are hunting a bear (not pictured) that did what?
7. 7.Rapper Pitbull and his fans set a world record at his London show by doing what?
8. 8.This week's guest canine is Gitana, who was supporting Spain against France in the Fifa World Cup with her owners earlier this week. Spain's opening goal came from a penalty. Remind her who scored it?
9. 9.What did meme-king Erling Haaland carry off the plane with him when Norway arrived back in Oslo after their World Cup adventure?
10. 10.The Thursday quiz wasn't going to ask anything about the bison that yeeted a grandfather 8ft up in the air (yes, that is it pictured) until we were sure everybody was OK. But Carl McDaniel has said the incident wasn't 'as catastrophic as it could’ve been', so here goes. Where did it happen?
11. 11.A museum in Rotterdam (pictured) has paid tribute to the idiosyncratic character of one of the most influential figures in the Dutch arts by spreading 800lb of what across the floor of one of its galleries?
12. 12.This fossil Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton sold for $50.1m. What is its name?
13. 13.A natural sugar found in raspberries and used in fake tan lotions has been detected in an enormous cloud of dust and gas that lurks near the heart of the Milky Way. What is the sugar called?
14. 14.On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 16 July is the anniversary of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, dubbed the Trinity test, by the US. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which US state …
15. 15.And finally … in an egregious attempt to get into the Guardian Thursday news quiz, a pilot in north-west England flew around spelling out which phrase for the benefit of airplane trackers?

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Lost Boys by Phoebe Bridgers instead?