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
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.
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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
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).
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
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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
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.
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenterposted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
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Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
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She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
In central Scotland, wind speeds of 50-60mph are likely, and gusts up to 70mph could be felt near the coast and on exposed bridges.
Met Office chief meteorologist Andy Page said that while the risk of snowfall had now diminished, rainfall would “affect much of the UK”.
Frequent showers are expected in Northern Ireland, northern England, Wales and the West Country, with the heaviest expected in southwestern parts of England and South Wales.
Mr Page said weather warnings “could still be amended” and possibly at short notice, and urged people to “keep up to date with the very latest forecast”.
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Sky News meteorologist Christopher England warns there could be a risk of hail and thunder in northern Scotland, at the start of the week.
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Storm Bert causes flooding in Wales
As of Monday morning, there were hundreds of flood warnings and alerts in place. Three of those – two in Wales and one in England – were “severe warnings”.
A further 160 flood warnings and more than 200 flood alerts were issued by the Environment Agency in England, and eight flood warnings and 23 flood alerts in place in Wales at the time of writing.
Bert to clear UK by Tuesday
By Tuesday, Storm Bert will finally clear the UK, the Met Office said, bringing with it “quieter weather for many”.
However, parts of the country may not be without rain or wind for long, as the forecaster says strong gusts and rainfall could start again on Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
“How long the more settled conditions last is uncertain, with rain probably returning to westernmost areas at least by the end of the week,” the Met Office website says.
Chris England adds: “Wednesday will bring strong winds and a spell of heavy rain across the south, while the north looks mostly fine after a frosty and foggy start in places.
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Woman loses umbrella to Storm Bert
“Thursday looks cool again, but mostly fine. Friday will be milder, with outbreaks of rain likely over Ireland, Northern Ireland and north-west Scotland.”
He says going into the weekend, Saturday “looks cloudy and breezy in the north and west, with a little rain possible at times”.
When could the next named storm be?
Storm Bert was the second named storm of the season after Storm Ashley brought similar wet and windy conditions towards the end of October.
Although it cannot be known for sure when the next storm will be, the Met Office already knows it will be referred to as Storm Conall. The forecaster names storms in alphabetical order.
It says it only names a storm when it has the “potential to cause disruption or damage which could result in an amber or red warning” and according to its long range forecast, this could be as soon as next month.
It says that between 9 and 23 December, “there are signs” there will be wetter and windier interludes with a risk of snow, adding: “These conditions look more likely to dominate towards the middle of December.”
Whether this will be strong enough for a storm to be named remains unknown.
Microsoft has said it is “investigating an issue” after users reported problems with Outlook and Teams.
In a post on X, Microsoft365 Status said: “We’re investigating an issue impacting users attempting to access Exchange Online or functionality within Microsoft Teams calendar.”
Microsoft Exchange Online is a platform for business communication that has a mail server and cloud apps for email, contacts, and calendars.
Down Detector, a website that tracks outages, said problems started at approximately 8am on Monday morning.
It said 87% of reported problems involved Outlook, when the email application is accessed through the web.
Other reported problems, according to Down Detector, included connection to the server and logging in.
Users from the UK and around, Europe took to social media to report they were having problems accessing the platform.
One user wrote: “When you need to check an important mail, but #outlook decides to not work…”
While another added: “Here in Belgium mainly issues with tracking of e-mail in Dynamics 365. Inbound and outbound in Outlook still work.”
Microsoft directed affected users to its admin centre, a page that is intended for those who have access to business networks and other professionals who manage IT networks. The page requires a login.