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The giant anteater is a large insectivorous mammal native to Central and South America. It is one of four living species of anteater and is classified with sloths in the order Pilosa. This species is mostly terrestrial, in contrast to other living anteaters, which are arboreal or semi-arboreal. It is the largest of its family, stretching 182–217 cm (5.97–7.12 ft) and weighing 33–41 kg (73–90 lb) for males and 27–39 kg (60–86 lb) for females. It is recognizable by its elongated snout, bushy tail, long foreclaws and distinctively colored pelage. The anteater's habitats include grassland and rainforest and it feeds primarily on ants and termites, using its foreclaws to dig them up and its long, sticky tongue to collect them. The giant anteater is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Threats to its survival include habitat destruction and hunting. The anteater has been featured in pre-Columbian myths and folktales, and modern popular culture. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

... that Demi Sims (pictured) was described in December 2020 as one of the "very few openly bisexual women on mainstream reality television"?

... that Rita Lee tracked down two boa constrictors from a concert by Alice Cooper in São Paulo, and later brought them to her recording sessions for Fruto Proibido?

... that after an NBA Twitter parody page posted a fake report of Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers promising to take coaching "seriously", their performance improved during the 2024–25 season?

... that Margaret Lambert was the British historian responsible for examining the Marburg Files and deciding when they should be published?

... that the opening of a Hejaz railway station in Amman in 1904 helped to transform the city from a small village into a major commercial hub in the region?

... that Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard Divinity School graduate, sued Harvard University for failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism?

... that Greek government officials tried to cover up the Yugoslav corn scandal by forging documents and delaying investigations, only to later defend the scheme as being in the "national interest"?

... that Sharon Wylie has served in the state legislatures of both Oregon and Washington?

... that Dayo Wong, the lead actor of the first film, did not return for Table for Six 2 and said that he would not reveal the reason for ten years?

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In the news

• Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured) South Korea's Constitutional Court removes Yoon Suk Yeol as the president of South Korea, following his earlier declaration of martial law.
• US president Donald Trump announces trade tariffs on most countries.
• Marine Le Pen, the runner-up in the 2017 and 2022 French presidential elections, is convicted of embezzlement and banned from standing in elections for five years.
• A magnitude-7.7 earthquake leaves more than 4,300 people dead in Myanmar and Thailand.

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On this day

• April 5: Feast day of Saint Vincent Ferrer (Catholicism)
• 919 – The Fatimid Caliphate began a second unsuccessful invasion of Egypt, then under Abbasid rule.
• 1614 – Pocahontas (pictured), a Native American woman, married English colonist John Rolfe, leading to a period of peace between the Powhatan people and the inhabitants of Jamestown, Virginia.
• 1944 – Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, escaped from Auschwitz with the aid of an SS officer who opposed the Holocaust.
• 1986 – The Libyan secret service bombed a discotheque in West Berlin, resulting in three deaths and 229 others injured.
• 2009 – The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking concerns it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.

al-Nuwayri (b.1279), Thure de Thulstrup (b.1848), Marie-Rosalie Cadron-Jetté (d.1864), Judith Resnik (b.1949)

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Today's featured picture

Nadar (born Gaspard-Félix Tournachon; 5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910) was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist, and proponent of heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first person to take aerial photographs, and during the Siege of Paris in 1870–71, he established the first airmail service. In 1863, Nadar commissioned the prominent balloonist Eugène Godard to construct an enormous balloon, 60 metres (196 ft) high and with a capacity of 6,000 m3 (210,000 cu ft), named Le Géant (The Giant). For publicity, he recreated balloon flights in his studio with his wife, Ernestine, using a rigged-up balloon gondola. This self-portrait of Nadar in a balloon basket was taken c.1863.

Photograph credit: Nadar; restored by Adam Cuerden

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