April Fool’s Day 2019: How to avoid falling victim to the biggest pranks and jokes

Staying with the airline industry, even bigger news comes from Ryanair. 

The budget carrier has announced it will expand its operations even further, by offering flights into space.

The Dublin-based airline said it wanted to battle it out with ambitious entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson in competing to offer paying customers the chance to leave Earth. 

"Twenty years from now, tourists will not be content with a week in Spain, or a fortnight on the beach in Turkey. They will be looking further afield, maybe to Mars, but certainly as far as the moon and the outer limits of the stratosphere," the firm's head of space development, "Eprila Murka", said. 

Brexit was bound to come up in this year's April Fools sooner or later, and here it is from mail-order clothing brand Boden.

The company reports as a result of Britain's disentanglement from the EU it has been stripped of its certification to produce France's famous Breton striped tops.

New rules allegedly coming into force today would mean anyone caught wearing a Breton top in Britain without the appropriate EU licence could face a €1000 fine. 

Thankfully, the thoughtful folk at Boden have come up with a solution: a complimentary Bret-off service which will erase all stripes from Breton tops. 

Steering us onto less contentious waters are Sainsburys, who charmingly offer us a simple, straight down the line April Fools this year: pink avocados.

Apparently the supermarket has been working with a new supplier in Peru for five years to perfect the world's first rose-hued avocado, which is said to "guac" your world (sorry). 

These "rosa-vos" will go on sale today to gauge interest, mainly expected to be millennials hungry for new content for their Instagrams. 

The Guardian's April Fools offering this year is also Brexit-themed. It reports political parties are working together behind the scenes to come up with a national healing and reconciliation project to bring the country back together after the division of Brexit.

The parties are said to be squabbling over who should be appointed to the new post of "healing tsar". The Liberal Democrats favour famous Remainer Bob Geldof, arguing he had already proven his capacity for national catharsis by spearheading Live Aid. But Labour are instead proposing the lead singer of Chumbawumba Alice Nutter, whose hit Tubthumping would be the perfect anthem for our times: "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down..."

Also in the pipeline is a new Festival of Britain, although plans are being held up by the Democratic Unionist Party's insistence it be renamed the Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and be held in the constituency of their leader, Arlene Foster.

Social media has in many ways turbo-charged April Fools' Day, so it is perhaps appropriate it is the theme of the prank from the International Cricket Council (ICC). 

In a tweet-thread posted earlier this morning, the governing body for world cricket announced a slew of changes to the gentlemanly sport including printing players' Instagram handles on their kits and choosing who bats first via Twitter poll rather than coin toss.

In a move likely to shock the conservative custodians of the game here in Britain, the ICC will also allow players to switch from trousers to shorts when the temperature hits 35 degrees or higher. 

Leading stock imagery company Shutterstock has decided to expand into the physical world and is building a literal library. 

The firm has decided to follow in the footsteps of digital businesses which have moved into the real world such as Amazon, and is constructing a bricks-and-mortar library to house 250 million volumes of images and 14 million reels of film. 

Despite being printed off, all the content will still include the Shutterstock watermark. 

"Sometimes innovation means moving backwards," said Jon Oringer, Shutterstock's founder and chief executive.

In a marriage made in either heaven or hell, Heinz and Cadbury's have joined forces to create a unique new food product set to hit supermarket shelves: Creme Egg Mayonnaise.

2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of Heinz and they have decided to team up with Cadbury's to mark the occasion which this new spread.

Martina Davis, brand manager of Heinz mayonnaise, said they set out to make the most Easter-y mayo ever by blending their condiment with the goo inside creme eggs and creme patissiere.

"We're very happy to report that it’s absolutely delicious," she said. "A real taste adventure. The only question we’re asking ourselves is why we haven’t done it sooner?!"

It apparently works best dolloped onto waffles, or even crumpets. Try it at your own risk. 

More political April Fools now, from the Health Service Journal (HSJ). The healthcare industry bible reports it has managed to get hold of leaked plans from Labour to nationalise all GP practices. 

The party is allegedly considering bringing not only family doctors into direct state control, but also all gym and fitness facilities, in an effort to promote public health.

The HSJ adds the British Medical Association will likely resist Labour's plans under the slogan: "First they came for the GPs. Are opticians and chemists next?"

Rounding out Labour's policies on healthcare are allegedly a show trial for Jeremy Hunt "for crimes against junior doctors" and reclassifying NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens as a "national asset" to stop him "doing a David Miliband". 

The Times journalist Matt Chorley, famous for always noting wearily in his early morning politics email that "Theresa May clings on, obviously" has shocked Westminster by announcing in this morning's email he had resigned and would soon begin a new role - working as a Number 10 advisor.

"There is so much we agree on, and unlike journalism, this is a job which has some long-term prospects," he joked.

Multi-talented George Osborne is rumoured to be seeking to add Mr Chorley's old job to his ever-growing portfolio.

Anyone with the language-learning app Duolingo will be familiar with the green owl who pops up on your phone to passive-aggressively remind users when they fail to do their allotted language practice. 

But the company has realised notification in your pocket is just too easy to swipe away and ignore, so has launched a new feature: Duolingo Push. 

Now, a literal green owl will show up in real life to prompt you to crack on with mastering those difficult verbs, making it impossible to avoid. 

Satisfied customer Oliver from London said: "I was relaxing after a long day when that bloody owl knocked on my window at 11:55 pm. Almost had a heart attack, but at least my streak is alive and well!"