Phan Thúy An

TWO KINGS. 👑

Vultures eat anthrax, botulism, rabies, and cholera for breakfast. Their stomach acid is among the most corrosive in the animal kingdom, with a pH around 1, low enough to dissolve the bones, hide, and pathogens of dead animals that would kill almost anything else. A vulture eating a diseased carcass isn't a vector for disease, it's a terminus. The disease chain ends in the vulture's gut, and that's pretty hardcore. When vulture populations crashed in India in the 1990s, rotting livestock carcasses sat where vultures used to clean them. Feral dogs and rats took over the cleanup, both of which actually do spread rabies. Researchers later linked the vulture collapse to roughly 500,000 deaths in India over the following decade. The same collapse is now underway in sub-Saharan Africa. Six of eleven African vulture species are threatened with extinction, primarily from poisoned poaching baits. The animals nobody finds cute are doing more public health work than most of the species we actively protect.

SecWar Pete Hegseth tells U.S. allies, "the time for free-riding is over" "We barely use the Strait of Hormuz as a country. Our energy doesn't flow through there.[...] Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free-riding is over."

🇨🇳 Xi Jinping: "Those who forget their ancestors, betray the homeland, or seek to divide the country will meet a miserable end."

J.d Vance' trip to Pakistan

Japan has for the first time deployed a military contingent to the Philippines for the “Balikatan 2026” drills 🇯🇵🇵🇭🇺🇸 Japan became the third-largest participant after the United States and the Philippines. The contingent includes: - Around 1,400 personnel; - The helicopter carrier JS Ise, one of Japan’s largest warships; - The landing ship JS Shimokita; - The destroyer JS Ikazuchi; - Transport aircraft C-130H Hercules; - Type 88 anti-ship missile systems. This marks Japan’s first large-scale deployment of combat units since the 2025 mutual access agreement between Tokyo and Manila came into force. Previously, the Japan Self-Defense Forces had only participated as observers or in limited humanitarian missions. Other than Japan, this year’s exercises will include combat troops from Australia, Canada, France, and New Zealand. In total, over 17,000 troops will take part in the “Balikatan 2026” military drills. The exercises are scheduled to take place from April 20 to May 8.

Huge widespread dust storms have hit Xinjiang, China, after a cold air mass swept across the region, setting off severe conditions and reducing visibility across large areas.

🚨🇺🇸 Trump says NATO called offering help now that the Strait of Hormuz is "almost over": "I told them, I would have liked your help two months ago, but now, I really don't want your help anymore." Macron and Starmer held a 49-country summit to plan a maritime mission for a problem that's already being solved. NATO calls today to offer help for a crisis they refused to touch when it mattered. And Trump told them exactly what everyone was thinking. Trump has many flaws. But the man has receipts, and he's never been shy about reading them out loud.