UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Mike Nesbitt has announced he will step down as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, triggering a leadership transition within the party.
When the episode aired on January 1, host Amol Rajan and many viewers laughed at the awkward time.
Denyer, appearing as part of four Durham University alumni, was asked:
“Now the most populous city north of the Arctic Circle, which Russian city was founded on the Kola Peninsula in the 1910s to serve as a naturally ice-free seaport for the country?”
Journalist, author, and TikToker Sophia Smith Galer, part of the Durham quartet, turned to her teammates to ask:
“Minsk isn’t in Russia is it?”
The presenter laughed when team captain Denyer turned to Rajan and responded,
“Minsk is the capital of Belarus.”
The Durham team defeated Trinity College Cambridge by 185 to 125 in the semi-final in spite of the blunder.
As the squad captain, Denyer was the one who provided the response at MacLeod’s insistence, but she is also being teased because of her previous role as the Green Party’s co-leader.
“Carla Denyer MP, until recently leader of the Greens, was on University Challenge last night and she didn’t know where Minsk was,”
tweeted one viewer under the username CptHastings1916.
“Am I being unreasonable in thinking that seems like a pretty big knowledge gap for a party leader given events in Ukraine over the last four years?”
However, after the First World War, the city became the Belarusian Republic’s capital from 1919 until 1991, when Belarus gained independence.
You can watch more of the University Challenge Christmas special for 2025 when the finale airs on BBC Two at 8.30pm on January 2.
Why was the Minsk mistake widely shared on social media?
University Challenge observers extensively participated in the clip of former Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer mistaking Minsk for a Russian megacity due to its irony amid her prominentanti-Russia station.
As MP and ex-co-leader championing Ukraine aid and warrants, the boob
fueled right- sect accounts like@LeeHurstComic labeling it” peak herbage ignorance.” Amol Rajan’s impassive correction amplified jocundity, with X posts garnering 50k views in hours, reviving” woke terrain fail” memes.
Telegraph and Express captions like” Green MP thinks Minsk is in Russia” drove shares, differing Belarus data with her moxie claims. Protectors cited quiz pressure, but counterreaction dominated amid Green Party scrutiny.
