Today’s Big Story

It’s April Fools’ Day

How’d this become a thing?

Beware: Don’t be a fool today. Your friends might prank you, the kids around you will definitely try to trick you and even your favorite brands and websites could pull on a fast one over you. It’s April Fools’ Day. And while this might seem like one of those goofy, made-up holidays that America runs with so well, it’s actually been celebrated by different cultures for several centuries—though its exact origins remain a mystery.

Of course, while its exact history is shrouded in mystery, the embrace of April Fools’ Day jokes by everyone from dads and major brands has ensured the unofficial holiday’s long life. In fact, some might aruge that the day would've fizzled out by now, if it weren’t for the internet and social media’s embrace of it. But really, where did this all start? Why April? And how did it become such a thing?

According to the Library of Congress, all we know is that the custom was known in Renaissance Europe, and probably has roots older than that. Some people think the idea of April Fools’ Day goes back to classical Roman times, when a joyful festival called Hilaria, probably originally an equinox celebration, came to be celebrated on March 25. In Roman terms, March 25 was called “the eighth of the Calends of April,” which associates the festival strongly with April 1, the Calends of April. However, there’s no hard evidence to connect Hilaria with April Fools’ Day, so this is just one of the many advanced guesses by curious people.

There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather. What we know for sure is that April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century and then soon, the day developed into celebrating with more and more elaborate hoaxes. Newspapers, radio, TV stations and websites have participated in the April 1st tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences.

Of course, we’re all a little savvier these days (right?!). April Fools’ Day ain’t what it used to be. Companies will come up with gags (many will backfire). The news spreads via social media and everybody will have a good laugh, but nobody will be fooled. As Benjamin Franklin once famously said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”

Gold Hits an All-Time High

The precious metal hit a record high at $3,128.06 an ounce

Gold prices extended their stellar run on Monday, topping more than $3,100 per ounce to hit another record high. Why? You guess it: Uncertainty around tariffs continues to stoke inflation fears while investors search for safe-havens for their money. And the panic has kept bullion on course for its strongest quarter since 1986.

According to Reuters, the big banks have raised their outlook on gold prices, citing trade-war tensions and strong central bank demand, with Goldman Sachs expecting gold to surpass $4,500 within the next 12 months under extreme market conditions. The precious metal is up about 10% since President Trump won the election last November, outperforming most other asset classes. It’s not exactly a marker of a good economy, but since Trump loves gold, perhaps he’s happy about it.

The truth is that there's a psychological value to a physical investment that’s comforting those who are seeing their stock portfolios and other investments take a hit. The Wall Street Journal spoke with a 38-year-old consultant who was skeptical about the current administration’s plans so he recently took his money out of crypto and bought 16.5 ounces worth of gold bars. Other investors have poured a net $11.4 billion into physical gold ETFs since the start of February, according to Morningstar. The funds are on pace to net the most monthly inflows in March since July 2020, during the height of the pandemic’s panic.

The New Space Race

The commercial space industry is booming, and it’s only expected to keep growing

While Elon Musk’s SpaceX continues to dominate the commercial space industry with dozens of launches each year, it could soon have some serious competition with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launching its rival New Glenn rocket for the first time in January.

Plenty more launches are to come, including another test of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, which exploded while in flight in March. And have you heard about Blue Origin’s all-woman mission, set to send Katy Perry and Gayle King into orbit on April 14th. Then there’s Boeing, which NASA isn’t giving up on even after issues with Starship resulted in astronauts having to extend their week-long stay at the Space Station to nine months. NASA and Boeing are aiming for another crewed flight later this year or in early 2026. The European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket is also in the mix, which embarked on its first commercial mission in March.

But it’s not just satellites and rockets. Nowadays, the ambitions of wealthy space entrepreneurs are focused on building commercial space stations that can act as a successor to NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) when it retires in the next few years. While a handful of private companies are already racing to develop ISS alternatives, startup Vast Space has something that many of its competitors do not—tight connections with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and a willingness to lose massive amounts of cash. Meanwhile, China is pushing its commercial space industry to grow in a bid to spur greater innovation and close the gap with America’s recent progress.

Male Birth Control Is Almost Here

And it doesn't even involve your hormones

While the FDA has approved more than 20 types of contraceptives, only two options currently exist for men: condoms and vasectomies. Although about 25% of women who use contraception rely on the oral birth control pill, there is no equivalent pill available for men … yet. But popping a pill could become a reality in the near future. YCT-529, a hormone-free male birth control pill, has moved on to clinical trials in humans after proving it works in animals.

“This is really the first time a non-hormonal contraceptive for men has entered clinical trials,” Gunda I. Georg, PhD, who is researching YCT-529 and serves as the director for the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development at University of Minnesota, tells Men’s Health. “It’s very exciting to see that this could become a reality.” Of course, given that this is an experimental medication and involves important elements like your sperm count, it’s fair to have a few questions.

The current study, which was published in Communications Medicine, analyzed the impact of YCT-529 on male non-human primates and mice. In the mouse study, the researchers found that the medication caused temporary infertility and was 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancies within four weeks after the mice started taking the drug. In non-human primates, YCT-529 lowered sperm counts within two weeks. The drug also had no side effects in either group, and both types of animals got their full fertility back after they stopped taking the drug, although the timelines were different. In mice, sperm counts fully rebounded within six weeks; In non-human primates, it was back within 10 to 15 weeks.

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