April Fool’s Day round-up: From drug-detecting chickens to Aldi’s new dating show
With the window for April Fool’s Day pranks now closed, we round up some of the more creative and canny jokes.
Search and rescue sheep deployed on Dartmoor
Anyone getting into trouble while hiking on the Bank Holiday could be aided by a rescue sheep, Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team announced.
They are equipped with hi-vis bandanas and bells around their necks so casualties can hear them coming.
“They’re the perfect animal to be searching,” team vet Ashley said.
“They’re already domesticated, there’s plenty of them, they’re adapted to our hill conditions, they come with their own jackets, you don’t need to carry food and water for them, they’re very easily trained.”
Detect estate agents’ BS
Pic: Purplebricks
The BS detector app from real estate company Purplebricks promises to alert you to any lies from estate agents.
Using AI lie detector technology, it will give a warning “bleep” when it hears suspicious speech patterns.
Drug-detecting chickens
Swiss Police announced the newest weapon in their war on drugs: sniffer chickens.
The new flock of “Drogenspürhuhn”, or drug-detecting chickens, joined the squad after a successful testing phase, according to police.
Cheaper to train and keep than dogs, the chickens also lay a daily egg, police said, contributing to their cost-effectiveness.
Service cats
Putting the cat amongst the chickens, Zurich police also announced felines would be joining their canine unit.
“After [a period of] long planning, intensive selection, and many hours of training, today the time has come [to announce] we are supplementing our service dogs with service cats,” the Zurich City Police said.
“Their quiet velvet paws and compact body mass are ideal for use in confined spaces, but also for house searches and peaceful Mantrailing,” they said.
Sending toilet paper to Uranus
Pic: Who Gives A Crap
Sustainable toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap is launching a toilet roll into space – all the way to Uranus.
“With billionaires chucking cars into space and taking their midlife crises to the moon, we thought it was time to do something truly meaningful,” the company said.
The 3.2 billion kilometre journey will take about nine years and names for the spacecraft are being crowdsourced on Instagram – current frontrunners are High Plyer and C.R.A.P. (Cosmic Roll Aerospace Program).
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Ant and Dec’s career move
The duo claimed to be hanging up their TV hats to focus on culinary ventures – including a “tell-all recipe book” and a pop-up restaurant.
“I believe that food has the power to bring people together and create cherished memories, that’s how my family feel when I make them beans on toast,” Ant said.
Dec said Ant would make a “brilliant pot washer” and he “adores” cooking as he gets to “snack on the ingredients (mostly cheese) as I go”.
Aldi launches dating show
Love Aisleland is the latest reality dating show looking for contestants, if Aldi is to be believed.
The supermarket chain invited potential applicants to tell them why they deserved to find love in the aisles.
But in a follow-up post – after midday, when the opportunity for playing April Fool’s jokes traditionally expires – the company said it was cancelling the show as it had not been shown to the legal team.
It added: “Because of this, our boss has now confirmed the show cannot go ahead and that although we give off the vibe that we love court cases, they are incredibly costly and going forward with this plan would not be ‘within our best interests’.”
Where canines and cardio collide
Pic: Gymbox
London gym chain Gymbox is launching a workout class for you and you four-legged friend: Gymbarx.
“With more and more Londoners looking for new ways to treat their pets, it made perfect sense to not only let dogs visit Gymbox but to create their very own fitness class,” Gymbox brand and marketing director Rory McEntee said.
Expect downward dog stretches before moving into fence jumps, “furpees” and leash pulls, ending with tennis ball track sprints and a “hair of the dog” HIIT finisher.
The King has spoken about losing his sense of taste as he discussed the side effects of cancer treatment.
During a visit in Hampshire, he made the remark as he spoke to a veteran who had previously undergone chemotherapy for testicular cancer.
The monarch is receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer and was given permission by his doctors to return to public duties last month.
Ahead of his first major investiture on Tuesday since his cancer diagnosis, the King officially handed over the role of colonel-in-chief of the Army Air Corps to Prince William today.
The monarch and the heir-to-the-throne were pictured smiling while chatting together during a visit to the Army Aviation Centre in Middle Wallop on Monday.
It came as Kensington Palace posted two photos of the Prince of Wales when he was an Apache pilot.
“Time flies! Looking back at the last two visits to @ArmyAirCorps in 1999 and 2008 ahead of today’s handover at Middle Wallop,” the post on X said.
The Army Air Corps is the Duke of Sussex’s old unit, in which he served as an Apache helicopter commander and co-pilot gunner during his second tour to Afghanistan in 2012.
The decision to hand the role to William was seen as a blow to Harry when it was announced last year.
The King admitted the handover was “tinged with great sadness” – but hoped the Army Air Corps would continue to go from “strength to strength”.
He said: “Let me just say what a great joy it is to be with you even briefly on this occasion but also it is tinged with great sadness after 32 years of knowing you all, admiring your many activities and achievements through the time that I’ve been lucky enough to be colonel-in-chief of the Army Air Corps.
“I do hope you’ll go from strength to strength in the future with the Prince of Wales as your new colonel-in-chief.
“The great thing is he’s a very good pilot indeed – so that’s encouraging.”
Pic: Ben Birchall/PA
Pic: PA
The King also unveiled a plaque commemorating an Apache AH Mk1 going on display, the first of its kind to be installed at a UK museum.
William will embark on his first engagement with the Army Air Corps on Monday afternoon, receiving a briefing on its work and inspecting training and operational aircraft.
After speaking to soldiers, he will then leave the base in an Apache as part of a capability flight.
William spent time with service personnel. Pic: PA
Pic: PA
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On Tuesday, the King will knight the Archbishop of Canterbury for his key role in the coronation, and bestow a damehood on bestselling author Jilly Cooper.
The monarch will greet 52 recipients in total, one by one, at Windsor Castle.
The King has invested a handful of people with honours over the past few months.
However, these ceremonies took place in private during individual audiences at royal residences.
UK
Law allowing asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda disapplied by court in Northern Ireland – but UK govt to appeal
Rishi Sunak has said the government will appeal against a court ruling that provisions of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act – which created powers to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – should be disapplied in Northern Ireland.
The High Court in Belfast on Monday morning ordered the “disapplication” of sections of the act as they undermine human rights protections guaranteed in the region under post-Brexit arrangements.
The Illegal Migration Act provides new powers for the government to detain and remove asylum seekers it deems to have arrived illegally in the UK. Central to the new laws is the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Mr Justice Humphreys said aspects of the Illegal Migration Act were also incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK remains signed up to.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would appeal against the ruling and the judgment “changes nothing about our operational plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda this July or the lawfulness of our Safety of Rwanda Act”.
Following Brexit, the UK and the EU agreed the Windsor Framework, which stipulates there can be no diminution of the rights provisions contained within the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, even if they differ from the rest of the UK.
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Migrant pays to return to France
The judge found several elements of the Illegal Immigration Act cause a “significant” reduction of the rights enjoyed by asylum seekers in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
“I have found that there is a relevant diminution of right in each of the areas relied upon by the applicants,” he said.
He added: “The applicants’ primary submission therefore succeeds. Each of the statutory provisions under consideration infringes the protection afforded to RSE (Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity) in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.”
The judge ruled that the sections of the Act that were the subject of the legal challenges should be “disapplied” in Northern Ireland.
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The ruling will fuel a row between Ireland and the UK in recent weeks following the Dublin government introducing plans to return asylum seekers to the UK who cross the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic.
The plans were introduced after the Safety of Rwanda Bill became law at the end of April. The law declares the African nation a safe place to deport asylum seekers to.
Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee more than 80% of recent arrivals in Ireland came via the land border with Northern Ireland.
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Ireland plans to return migrants to UK
Moday’s cases were brought to Belfast’s High Court by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a 16-year-old asylum seeker from Iran who arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied child on a small boat from France last summer.
He is currently living in Northern Ireland where his application has not yet been determined but said he would be killed or sent to prison if returned to Iran.
Mr Justice Humphreys agreed to place a temporary stay on the disapplication ruling until another hearing at the end of May, when the applicants will be able to respond to the judgment.
Lawyer Sinead Marmion, who represented the teenager, said the judgment was “hugely significant”.
She said it would prevent the Rwanda scheme applying in Northern Ireland.
“This is a huge thorn in the government’s side and it has completely put a spanner in the works,” she said.
The UK government passed a law declaring Rwanda safe. Pic: AP
The prime minister said: “This judgment changes nothing about our operational plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda this July or the lawfulness of our Safety of Rwanda Act.
“I have been consistently clear that the commitments in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement should be interpreted as they were always intended, and not expanded to cover issues like illegal migration.
“We will take all steps to defend that position, including through appeal.”
Gavin Robinson, leader of Northern Ireland’s DUP, called on the government to prevent a fracture in immigration policy between the UK’s nations.
He said if nations have different policies it would make Northern Ireland a “magnet for asylum seekers seeking to escape enforcement”.
Rishi Sunak will argue that Britain is safer under the Conservatives against the backdrop of two escalating conflicts likely to dominate the week.
In the last few days, the prime minister has broken with US President Joe Biden by insisting the UK should continue to supply arms to Israel.
It comes as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to mount another massive military operation in the southern Gaza town of Rafah against warnings from the US and UK.
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Meanwhile, there are fears in Whitehall that Russia could mount an operation on Kharkiv by the end of the week to retake Ukraine‘s second-largest city.
Both operations could trigger wider repercussions.
Amid this worsening global outlook, the Conservatives want to highlight what they say is the gap between Tory and Labour pledges on military spending.
Politics latest: Cameron warns Israel against Rafah invasion
Rishi Sunak at the Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire on 3 May. Pic: AP
Sunak announced last month that a future Tory government would ensure 2.5% of GDP will be spent on the military by 2030, while Labour says it will do it when the economic conditions allow.
After the initial announcement, Sunak wants to ensure he gets full public credit for the big spending commitment while pushing Labour on its failure to match the promise.
Labour says that the Tory spending plan does not add up.
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Israel arms embargo ‘not a wise path’
On Monday, Sunak will use a set-piece speech to mount the argument that there is a need for security at home and abroad in an ever-increasingly dangerous world and describe the country as being at a crossroads at the next general election.
In a further major political dividing line, Labour has broken with the government and called this weekend for a suspension of arms to Israel, placing it alongside the United States.
However the Tory government is holding firm, arguing that now is not the time and that Britain only supplies a small amount of the munitions used by Israel.
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Some people inside government suggest that the US government position is driven by President Biden’s need to take a tougher position to shore up votes in the upcoming election race.
Sunak’s Monday speech is one part of a set of security-themed announcements by the government, following Lord Cameron’s media blitz at the weekend.
On Monday, deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell will address a Tory-leaning think tank, while on Tuesday Defence Secretary Grant Shapps will make a speech, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt speaking on Friday.
Also, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will lead a trade delegation this week to Saudi Arabia.
Although boosting trade will be the focus, Saudi Arabia, like Qatar, is one of the backchannels used by the UK to deliver messages to Hamas.
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