UK Higher Ed: Prestige at a Discount

The competition is heating up and getting fiercer as UK higher education desperately fights to hold onto crashing foreign student enrollment. 

At least 22 universities are offering guaranteed tuition-fee discounts of up to £8,000 for overseas students. This shift is driven by a 17 percent drop in postgraduate enrollment in the two years leading to March 2026, stricter visa rules, and a 2024 ban on family members accompanying students. 

The reduced net fee at these varsities is likely to fuel concerns about the education sector's approach to recruiting overseas students, on whose fees it already depends.

The University of Nottingham, which set out plans to trim more than 600 jobs, offers an immediate £3,000 scholarship for 2026 taught master’s courses with no application needed, replacing merit awards. 

Meanwhile, the University of Aberdeen, where 100 jobs could be cut as part of a £10m savings plan, introduced an £8,000 scholarship directly deducted from the tuition bill. 

Furthermore, the University of Kent are offering a pre-approved £5,000 discount for master's degree entrants from 14 specific countries – including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam – requiring no separate application process. 

The University of Leeds are also providing a hassle-free £5,000 regional scholarship reduction directly to eligible international undergraduate students, such as applicants from Kenya. 

Zeenat Fayaz, founder of The Brand Education, which advises universities on branding, said this “pricing war” could backfire by sparking competition between institutions on the basis of a degree’s cost rather than their own strengths. 

“Higher-tariff universities are not only offering scholarships, but they’re also reducing their grade requirements to allow students in... It’s a race to the bottom”.

Axis Redux

Beware of Japan! And Germany!

In 1940, the imperial regimes of both of these two countries (as well as Italy) joined what would be known as the Axis powers, bound by a shared desire for territorial expansion and imperial supremacy. 

They fought a world war, and they lost it, and their populations spent the next 85 years with shrunken militaries and a heavy reliance on their former enemy, America, for security. 

Now, both countries are moving to reduce their reliance on US security guarantees and are accelerating efforts to bolster their own defense capabilities. And, once again, they are strengthening ties. 

Their cooperation is expected to gather momentum at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) in Évian-les-Bains, France, taking place now. It already includes sharing know-how, technology and weapons, like drones and helicopters, critical to the countries’ respective efforts to rearm. 

In a few years, Germany’s military spending could be larger than that of France and Britain – combined. Japan commits half as much as Germany, but it is still one of the world’s top spenders on defense, with a budget this year of about $58 billion. 

Already, Germany has forged close ties with Ukraine in developing and deploying new weapons and has asked France to help provide it with a nuclear deterrent. 

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who won office last year with nationalist calls to revive the military, has deployed long-range missiles – capable of reaching China – in southern Japan, and has reversed postwar bans on arms exports. The country recently sealed a $6.5 billion deal to supply warships to Australia, and it is in talks with the Philippines and Indonesia about exporting warships. 

Make no mistake, this is an Axis redux – as both countries enthusiastically embrace the ambition to reassert their dominance. Indeed, Germany and Japan are primed and eager to unleash their military might once more.

And the US is encouraging the two countries – but they have to be stopped before they start getting ideas and threaten the world! 

Methinks, Japan should confront its wartime legacy and seek genuine reconciliation with the countries it once invaded. It should also respect the postwar international framework and the spirit of its pacifist constitution instead of pursuing belligerent strategies.

Sky Bridges Help Protect Malaysia’s Langurs

A graceful black monkey edges across a swaying red rope bridge strung over a busy residential road in Malaysia’s Penang, watched by local conservationists who carefully record her movements. 

For Malaysia’s endangered dusky langurs, recognisable by the “masks” of white fur that ring their eyes, survival increasingly depends on such man-made crossings and the work of “citizen scientists”. 

A fragmented habitat, conflict with local communities, and poaching have all pushed the species to endangered status. But the Langur Project Penang (LPP) conservation group hopes that low-tech engineering and high-tech community engagement can help protect the species, also known as the dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus). 

Key to their efforts is helping the monkeys navigate fragmented habitat crisscrossed by busy roads where the animals are often killed. 

LPP founder Yap Jo Leen realised the need for a solution when she saw dusky langurs repeatedly risking road crossings as she carried out fieldwork in 2016. 

“I realised that they don’t just stay in the forest. They also cross roads to the coastal area to look for food”, she told AFP. She came up with the idea of building some kind of crossing, and pairing the solution with community engagement. 

“At the time, the idea was wild because no one in Malaysia had actually done it before” she said of the crossing plan. 

Similar canopy bridges have helped other endangered primates elsewhere, including in Indonesia, where an orangutan was recently seen using such a crossing for the first time. 

Yap’s team experimented with different materials before settling on upcycled fire hoses “twisted to mimic tree branches”. They are suspended over roads from a tree on one side and a custom-installed pole on the other. 

LPP have now installed three, including in April in the coastal suburb and beach destination of Batu Ferringhi. 

Yap said the group’s research showed they work. At one site, at least eight monkeys died in traffic accidents between 2016 and 2018. No deaths have been recorded since the crossing was installed in 2019. 

The crossings also allow groups of monkeys that were once largely confined to an area to expand their range. 

“They have more opportunity to venture closer to the hills… and find their way to a safe haven”, she said. 

That not only benefits the animals, but decreases pressure on local communities that have come into conflict with hungry roving bands of dusky langurs seeking food in urban neighbourhoods. 

Addressing that conflict is another part of LPP’s efforts. They recruit members of the local community to serve as “citizen scientists” who track langur movements, collect data and record GPS coordinates using spreadsheets and the Wikiloc trail app. The volunteers receive a small stipend and training in fieldwork in return for committing to tracking the monkeys for at least three months. 

The data helps researchers understand more about the monkeys, including their home range and their feeding habits, and could one day even help guide reforestation efforts.

The current volunteers range from age 17 to 65 and “call themselves the ‘monkey stalkers’ or ‘monkey whisperers'”, Yap said with a laugh. 

Orangutans Take Naps Too

Orangutans have been found to nap during the day to make up for lost sleep, according to a new study in the Indonesian rainforest. The research reveals how these great apes balance rest with the demands of daily life – and it seems they behave in a way very similar to humans. 

“Moving through the canopy, finding food, solving problems, navigating social relationships; these are all tiring and cognitively demanding tasks”, says Alison Ashbury (left), a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) and the University of Konstanz, and the study’s first author. 

“When an orangutan doesn’t get enough sleep, it does what any sleep-deprived human might do: it climbs into bed, lies down, and takes a nap”. 

The findings, published in Current Biology, shed light on how one of our closest living relatives manages sleep in a complex, natural environment. 

The team studied data on 53 adult Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) and recorded 455 days and nights of sleep behaviour at the Suaq Balimbing Monitoring Station in Sumatra. They found that orangutans typically enjoy a sleep period of nearly 13 hours overnight, snoozing high in the rainforest canopy in specially built tree nests. 

These 'night nests' are constructed fresh each evening using branches and leaves, shaped into a stable platform with a leafy base and even a pillow. Mothers will share these nests with their young, but adult orangutans almost always sleep alone. From the forest floor, researchers could only hear movements and rustling, but this stillness proved to be a reliable indicator of sleep. 

“From our point of view on the ground, we usually can’t see orangutans at all in their night nests, but we can hear them rustling around, getting comfortable”, says Caroline Schuppli, the study’s senior author. “Eventually, everything goes quiet and still. And the reverse happens in the morning”. 

Several factors were linked to shorter night-time sleep periods: cold weather, travelling longer distances during the day, and proximity to other orangutans. The latter was particularly striking, suggesting that even orangutans experience disrupted sleep from social disturbances. 

“We thought it was really interesting that just being near other orangutans when building a night nest was linked to shorter sleep periods”, says Ashbury. “Imagine you stay up late hanging out with your friends, or your roommate is snoring so loudly in the morning that you get up early. I think it’s a bit like that”. 

To make up for this lost sleep, the orangutans were observed taking longer naps during the day. In fact, for every hour of reduced sleep at night, they added around 5 to 10 minutes to their nap time the next day. On 41% of observed days, orangutans napped at least once, with nap periods averaging 76 minutes. 

These naps usually took place in simpler, quickly made 'day nests'. Built in under two minutes, they were less elaborate than night nests but still provided enough comfort for a proper rest. 

“Day nests are less sophisticated, have fewer comfort elements, and are made quicker than night nests”, says Schuppli. “But even so, when we’re able to see an orangutan resting in a day nest, we see that their bodies are relaxed and their eyes are closed. They really do appear to be sleeping”. 

The researchers believe this habit may support the orangutans’ impressive cognitive abilities. The Suaq population is known for its use of tools and social learning, traits that may require more restorative rest. Their semi-solitary lifestyle also allows them the freedom to nap when needed, without having to co-ordinate with a group.

“Among all studied orangutan populations, the Suaq orangutans arguably exhibit the widest range of cognitively demanding behaviours”, says Schuppli. “This may be linked to their relatively high propensity for daytime nest use”.

The study highlights the value of observing animals in their natural habitats. “Studying sleep in the wild, in the natural social and ecological conditions under which it evolved, is important to broadening our understanding of the evolutionary origins and the ultimate functions of sleep”, says Meg Crofoot, co-author of the study. 

“If we’re going to answer this question, we need to bring sleep research out of the lab and into the field. Studies such as this one contribute to that effort”.

Ancestral Spirits Help Save a Crocodile Species

When village conservation teams find a Siamese crocodile nest in the Xe Champhone wetlands of central Laos, they move fast, collecting eggs within 24 hours before poachers, predators or floods can reach them. 

But before they touch the eggs, there’s a ritual, and offerings are made to the spirits. With the spirits appeased, villagers carry the eggs to hatch in the village, where the baby crocs’ chances of hatching are nearly five times higher than in the wild. 

Oudomxay Thongsavath, program manager at Wildlife Conservation Society and a native of the region, has been involved with the program since its start. He told Mongabay that locals make an offering and explain to the spirits, “We collect the egg, we incubate it in the village, and we return your children back to your area… Please take care of them. Make sure they are safe in the future when they go back to their habitat”. 

Of the world’s 27 crocodilian species, the Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) is among just four classified as critically endangered. Fewer than 1,000 are thought to survive on the planet. 

Locals say that to harm a Siamese crocodile is to risk illness, misfortune or death. Not because the crocodiles are particularly dangerous (as crocodiles go), but because these scaly beings are the living embodiment of their ancestors. That spiritual connection to crocodiles, upheld for generations in a landscape stripped of most large wildlife, may be the single most important reason this species still exists here. A decade-long conservation program built on the cultural bedrock of that belief is restoring a globally significant population of this critically endangered crocodile species to central Laos. 

The heart of the conservation initiative is its head-starting program, in which village conservation teams are paid what WCS calls a “modest stipend” to collect wild eggs, hatch them in village facilities, and raise the young crocs past their most vulnerable stage before releasing them back into the wetlands. 

On March 19, the conservation team released 56 juvenile Siamese crocodiles back to the Xe Champhone wetlands. The program has released 294 individuals since 2013. Another 191 are being reared for future release. 

“This species is very strong for the culture in the area,” Oudomxay said. “They believe it protects the wetland and protects the community. If you do bad behavior in the wetland or speak not nicely, something can happen to that person. Can get sick. In big cases, can die”. 

“The people there still believe and they take this very seriously”, said Steve Platt, associate conservation herpetologist with WCS, who has helped lead the project since 2011. “That’s why those crocodiles are still there”.

It’s very hard to count crocodiles in the wild, but nest surveys from 2022 to 2024 suggest between 60 and 225 individuals inhabit the area, making this likely the largest remaining wild population in mainland Southeast Asia, according to a special report by the Crocodile Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. 

Once widespread across mainland Southeast Asia, the Siamese crocodile was driven to the brink of extinction by illegal hunting for its skin and meat, government extermination campaigns, habitat loss, and mass collection for commercial farms. Now, the species occurs in very small populations in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia.

From mid-May through early August, village conservation teams, each comprising five to 20 local recruits, search for crocodile eggs. They examine microsites used by nesting females in years past and search for other suitable nesting habitats. Many nests are also found by team members engaged in their day-to-day lives while fishing, harvesting snails, or cultivating rice fields. 

Drones, deployed since 2022, have made nest surveys much more effective. “We can see the whole landscape and identify if the grass starts to dry or if a mound has been made,” Oudomxay said. “The drone is very good because it doesn’t disturb the crocodile, the sound is not very loud, so we can identify the mother and the nest clearly”. 

Clutch sizes average around 27 eggs, and the village teams often leave a small number of eggs, up to five, in the nest mound to “avoid offending the attending female crocodile”, according to the report. In 2025, the teams collected half of each clutch from a total of seven nests.

Once they locate the eggs, workers alert the main office, which quickly sends out research techs. At the site, they mark each viable egg and pack them in Styrofoam boxes with sand and nest material, and transport them to incubation facilities in the villages of Tan Soum and Dongyanong. The eggs incubate in ambient conditions for about 75 days. An estimated 53% of collected eggs hatch — a much higher rate than the 13% in the wild, where flooding and predators are the main causes of eggs failing to hatch. 

In 2025, the teams collected eggs from nine nests, incubated 114 viable eggs, and hatched 61. After hatching, the juvenile crocs grow in village pens for roughly 30 months, where they’re hand-fed fish, eels, frogs, and crushed golden apple snails. Once they reach about 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) in length, big enough to avoid most predators, they’re ready for release into the water. Here, they stay in submerged acclimation pens to adjust to their surroundings and have a safe retreat as they explore their new home. Gradually, over the course of weeks, they disperse to live out their lives in the wetlands. 

Releasing the young crocodiles back into the wetland is a significant event for the community. They hold a ceremony attended by government officials and members of neighboring communities, during which Buddhist monks bless the small reptiles as they enter the water. 

This year, on March 19th, 56 crocodiles were moved into bamboo-and-netting acclimation pens and gradually released. Another 191 await release, once they are big enough. 

“[The ceremony] focuses government attention on this, and they realize the significance of what they’re doing”, Platt said. “For the communities that house the facilities, it lets them see that the work they’re doing is important”.

Parallel efforts, led by a mix of NGOs and government agencies, are also seeing promising results in Cambodia and Thailand. In 2025, conservationists released 10 captive-bred Siamese crocodiles into Cambodia’s Virachey National Park. And 15 crocodiles were released in Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary in eastern Thailand. 

“Reintroduction efforts in Vietnam and Thailand are greatly restricted by habitat availability, and the ability to establish large populations is also restricted”, Charlie Manolis, co-chair of the IUCN’s Crocodile Specialist Group, who isn’t involved with the Laos project, told Mongabay. “In Cambodia and Laos, where habitat is still available, these countries are thus very important in a regional context for conservation of the species”. 

In Laos, one of the program’s most significant milestones, Platt said, came in 2022. A female crocodile, hatched from an egg collected in 2013, head-started and released in 2015, was found defending her own nest. It was the first confirmed breeding by a known-age, captive-reared Siamese crocodile there. She returned to the same nesting site in 2024 and again in 2025. 

“We’ve gone full circle. Which is great!” Platt said. “It took 10 years for that to happen. But when you work with long-lived animals, you don’t expect immediate results”.

Pop Music's Bias Towards English is Diminishing

English language music is losing its stranglehold on the charts, according to new data from music streaming giant Spotify. 

The company say songs in 16 different languages, including Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish, Indonesian and Arabic, appeared in their Global Top 50 last year. That's more than double the figure from 2020. 

Bad Bunny, who sings exclusively in Spanish, was the most-streamed artist in the world. And Brit Award winner Rosalía sings in 14 dialects on her latest album, Lux. 

Spotify said Brazilian Funk was the fastest-growing genre in the world, with audiences up by 36%. K-Pop saw a 31% increase, and Trap Latino was up by 29%. 

All of those genres earned more than $100m in royalties from Spotify last year, the company said. English still dominates the charts, with 14 of last year's Top 20 best-selling albums sung exclusively in the language, according to the music industry body the IFPI. 

But South Korean bands such as Stray Kids, Enhypen and Seventeen all featured in the list, as did Japanese rock group Mrs Green Apple, as fans increasingly explore music outside the typical paradigms of rock and pop. 

According to a 2021 analysis of listening behaviour published in the journal Nature, this trend has been accelerating since 2017. Not coincidentally, that's the same year that streaming overtook CDs and vinyl as the music industry's biggest source of income.

Last week, Spotify's most-played chart included songs from Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro (Puerto Rico), Nadhif Basalamah (Indonesia), Tyla (South Africa), Tems (Nigeria), Ryan Castro (Colombia), El Bogueto, Peso Pluma, Neton Vega and Fuerza Regida (Mexico), Blackpink, Jung Kook and Jin (South Korea). 

Spotify's data was revealed as they announced their annual Loud And Clear report, which breaks down the global streaming economy. The streaming giant said they had paid $11bn in royalties to the music industry last year, up from $10bn in 2024. The figure makes it the highest-paying retailer globally, the company claimed. 

It is worth noting, however, that royalties distributed by Spotify don't necessarily go directly to musicians, with record labels, distributors, publishers, managers and songwriters often taking a cut.

At the Squash Australian Open semi-final yesterday, Sivasangari Subramaniam got the better of world No. 12 Nele Gilis, beating her 3-0: 11-8, 13-11, 11-4. 

And Malaysia's world No. 6 is just one match away from ending a 13-month title drought after storming into the final! 

20 Things You Need to Know About the Protests in Iran

20 things you really must know about the supposedly popular protests in Iran that broke out on December 28, 2025!

1. Allegations of “mass casualties” among Iran protesters are not dependable. They come from a group called Center for Human Rights in Iran. The Center for Human Rights in Iran are NOT in Iran. They are in New York, USA. 

2. Are they an Iranian group? No. They are financed by the CIA-adjacent National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC and related bodies, specializing in disinformation. 

3. They are run by the people of Iran? No. The chairperson is Minky Worden, an American woman who ran anti-China campaigns for many years. She tried to get the Beijing winter Olympics renamed the genocide Olympics and cancelled. She failed. 

4. Worden worked closely with the Hong Kong "pro-democracy" movement (also NED-funded) and her husband was on the board of Apple Daily and had a contract with the Pentagon. Yes, the US regime-change operations around the world are THAT incestuous. 

5. The other main source of unbelievable tales of massive protests and huge numbers of deaths in Iran are coming from the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). This is also a NED-funded, US-based disinformation outlet. 

Iranians Have Become Less Anti-government 

6. Having said that, protest groups against the Iranian government do exist, but they are not large. Western groups including the NED-funded media, and the Persian service of Voice of America, have spent years cultivating anti-government groups. But Trump’s bombing campaigns, and Israel’s shocking behavior in Gaza, has meant Iranians have become very notably LESS anti-government, not more. This is important. 

7. The loudest and most prominent Iranian “protest leader” quoted in the west is Masih Alinejad, a women who was salaried by NED for years, and currently works for the US Agency for Global Media. 

8. Which part of Iran does she live in? No part of Iran. She lives in the US. 

9. What’s her professional background? Propaganda. Her job was and is to push pro-US anti-Iran propaganda through various media services. Despite this, she is quoted in the media as if she is a reliable source of news from the people of Iran. 

10. Press reports show that between 2015 and 2022 alone, Masih Alinejad received $628,000 in funding from NED and related groups. And yes, this regime-change campaigner received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

11. Remember Mahsa Jina Amini, a woman said to have been beaten to death by Iran police for wearing her hijab wrongly? Masih Alinejad pushed that tale, but it was debunked by a security video, which showed that no one was standing near her when she collapsed through a medical issue. 

12. A 2009 Brookings policy paper "Which Path to Persia?" goes into detail about how the US can take control of Iran, by creating mobs attacking government facilities, which can be labelled a “popular uprising” by the media, or by fostering division and putting puppet leaders in control. Variations of this US game plan have been used multiple times around the world. 

Women's Rights in the Forefront

13. Why is so much of the US propaganda about Iran based on alleged violations of women’s rights? Because similar US disinformation operations in other places, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, showed that women’s rights made western audiences angrier faster than weaponization of the usual western “Big Three” propaganda lines: Democracy, freedom and human rights. 

14. Is the “strictly hijabs only” tale true? No. In general, women in Iran do prefer to dress modestly in Islamic fashion, but it’s far more relaxed and tolerant that the US propagandists pretend. Think of the religious dress codes of Indonesia and Malaysia, for example, where most people dress modestly and religiously, but the atmosphere is tolerant and reasonable. 

15. What about the atrocity stories of ill-treated women? They are invented and circulated by US and Israeli sources: the US has long had an atrocity fabrication department (see AB Abram’s research for numerous examples of their work worldwide). 

Infiltration 

16. Academic studies apparently “proving” that most Iranians want a US-allied leadership appear in The Journal of Democracy – which is not a real academic publication, but a NED magazine. 

17. NED operatives have spent years in Iran, funding scholars and journalists to build up a stranglehold in many educational, civic and media groups, just as they did in Hong Kong, and have done in many places. 

18. A widely quoted group from Iranian politics are the Foundation for Democracy in Iran. They are also not Iranian. They are funded by NED and the executive director is American activist Kenneth R Timmerman. 

Hope for the Future 

19. Iranians are smart. They know about NED and nickname them “National Enemy of Democracy”. 

20. Western mainstream media reports (BBC, Guardian, Reuters, etc) absolutely CANNOT be trusted. They have a long history of downplaying, or, more usually, completely hiding the western manipulation processes that create regime change. 

If you support the people of Iran, you need to know all this. The world needs to stand with Iran and tell the US that we've had enough.

New Findings on Critically Endangered Sumatran Tigers

Tigers once roamed across huge stretches of Asia, but their world has shrunk rapidly. Habitat destruction, poaching, and a sharp drop in prey have pushed them to the edge. 

Today, they occupy only about 5-10 percent of the places they once lived. It is a tough picture, and people who care about wildlife know how serious it is. Even so, a small corner of Indonesia shows signs of hope that deserves attention. 

A new study points to a promising population of Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) living on the island of Sumatra. 

The news lands at a time when good updates on tiger conservation feel rare. It helps to look closely at what is happening there and why it matters for the future of these big cats. 

Sunmatra's Leuser ecosystem stands out for a reason. It holds the largest stretch of connected tiger habitat left on the island. Lowland, hill, and montane forests create a mix of environments where wildlife can still breathe. 

Almost half of this area is considered an intact forest landscape, which is surprisingly uncommon today. It also receives more ranger patrols than most other parts of Sumatra which helps keep poaching pressure down.  

The research was led by Dr Joe Figel (left), a conservation biologist who works with Indonesian  wildlife and forestry agencies. 

“We documented a robust tiger population, apparently among the healthiest on the island”, he said. “For those on the ground, the onus now falls on us to double down and adequately protect them”.

The team worked with people from communities near the survey area. Together, they set up infrared cameras in the northern part of Leuser, located in Aceh Province.

The cameras stayed in place through three monitoring periods. Thirty-four cameras were set up from March to May 2023. Fifty-nine cameras followed between June and December 2023. Seventy-four cameras were added between May and November 2024. 

This long stretch of monitoring mattered. “Multi-year camera trap monitoring is critically important for estimating key tiger demographic parameters such as survival, recruitment, tenure, and population growth rate”, added Figel. “With these data – and only with these data – can we even begin to evaluate conservation efforts”. 

The cameras captured 282 clear images of Sumatran tigers. The stripe patterns revealed 27 individuals: fourteen female, twelve male, and one that could not be sexed. Female and male tigers showed up an average of 14 and 16 times. The high count of females signals strong habitat quality, since female tigers need stable spaces to raise cubs. 

During the six-month session in 2023, the team recorded three different sets of cubs. Two tiger brothers first photographed as cubs later appeared separately as adults. 

Gunung Leuser National Park sits inside the broader Leuser ecosystem, yet this work took place in forests protected by the Aceh government, not the central government. 

That difference matters because provincially protected forests receive fewer resources than national parks. 

Even so, the cameras here captured almost three times as many tiger images as earlier 90-day surveys at other sites in Sumatra. Only three past surveys across the island recorded more than ten individual tigers, and those were inside national parks. Higher density numbers were only seen in one intensive protection zone far to the south. 

Beyond the population counts, the study also gathered movement data that could improve future surveys. The patterns could help researchers understand where to place cameras and how far apart they should be. That kind of detail shapes long-term monitoring, which conservation projects depend on. 

The high number of tiger sightings here did not happen by luck. The region has preserved key pockets of lowland and hill forests – areas where tiger prey densities peak in Sumatra – because of sustained work and support from government agencies, local Acehnese and Gayo communities. 

Conservation successes rarely feel simple, and this one is no exception. The tigers of Leuser still face threats that could undo progress if pressure increases. 

But the study shows that with enough space, prey, and protection, these animals can hold on. It takes sustained work on the ground, strong community support, and long-term monitoring. 

Sumatra’s tigers remain critically endangered, but this population hints at what is still possible. In a world where large predators often lose their battles quietly, the signs from Leuser offer a reason to keep pushing. 

The full study was published on December 04, 2025 in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.

A 13-year Search for One of the World's Rarest Flowers

Deep in the dense Sumatran rainforest, Indonesian conservationist Septian Andriki is hunched over and crying uncontrollably after a rare discovery. 

Just metres away sits an extraordinary and otherworldly parasitic plant in bloom. Its scientific name is Rafflesia hasseltii. 

"When I saw her start blooming, I just broke down", said Andriki, who prefers to be called Deki. "The ranger thought I was possessed". 

He was part of a team of researchers that had trekked for almost a full day through the thick jungle in search of the plant after a tip-off from a local ranger. 

"After 13 years, a 23-hour journey, risking tiger attacks, nearly dead phone batteries, I couldn't talk. I just cried", Deki said. 

University of Oxford Botanic Garden deputy director Chris Thorogood filmed the moment and the footage quickly went viral. The plant had not been seen in the wild by human eyes in more than a decade. 

There are dozens of species of Rafflesia (Family: Rafflesiaceae) – otherwise known as stinking corpse lily – in the world. Its flowers grow up to 1 metre in width and can weigh more than 6 kilograms. And Rafflesia hasseltii is one of the rarest of the species. 

"Hardly anyone has seen it, and to my mind it's the most beautiful", Dr Thorogood said. "It's kind of white with these big red spots and the reverse of that on the petals – it's just crazy". 

Deki, who has dedicated much of his life to conservation and finding rare flowers, started working with Dr Thorogood during the pandemic. The pair found several species of Rafflesia in 2021 while on a research expedition in the Sumatran rainforest. But the Rafflesia hasseltii eluded them. 

Earlier this year, a ranger in West Sumatra sent them a photo of the plant in its early stages. 

"The buds of this flower take several months, up to nine months to mature", Dr Thorogood said. "When the flower opens, it only stays open for a few days, so the chances of having this encounter are so unlikely".

The location of the plant was not only tricky to get to but was in "a place where tigers and rhinos live", Dr Thorogood said. 

"I imagine more tigers have seen this flower than people", he added. 

Deki and Dr Thorogood obtained a special permit to search the area and then set out with ranger Iswandi into the dangerous rainforest. They found the plant 23 hours later, but it was not yet in bloom. 

"I felt so down, we'd travelled so far and so long", Deki said. 

Night had almost fallen and Iswandi warned them that the area was a known Sumatran tiger habitat. But Deki did not want to give up after coming all that way.

"I came closer to the flower and I said, 'We need an hour here to wait'", he said. 

And so they did – wary of possible animal attacks, but hopeful of capturing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 

It was not long before the plant began blooming under the moonlight. 

"It's beyond compare", Dr Thorogood said. "We sat there and watched the flower open in front of our very eyes. It was just an absolutely magical experience and one that will remain living in my memory for the rest of my life". 

Deki likened the experience to the birth of his child. 

"The life cycle of the Rafflesia is nine months long, like a baby in the womb", he said. 

Deki hopes that future generations will be able to enjoy the Sumatran rainforest as much as he does. 

"I hope one day our children and grandchildren can come and see this forest and its diversity", he said. "For this we need to promote sustainable ecotourism". 

Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil and the expansion of plantations in Sumatra has been threatening rainforests. 

"The worst thing would be if they turn this forest into a palm oil plantation", Deki said. 

Dr Thorogood said it was thanks to the work of people like Deki and Iswandi that people understood more about the Sumatran rainforests, which increased the drive to conserve them. 

"Thanks to these custodians and stewards of their biodiversity, there is hope", Dr Thorogood said. "While there are still thriving rainforests like this one I've been in, there are people like this who want to protect them".

Prized Japanese Oysters Are Dying

In August 2023, Japan began dumping over a million tonnes of radioactive wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean. The IAEA said it was safe. The world agreed. 

China banned Japanese seafood immediately, citing radiation concerns. Everyone called it politics. 

Fast forward to November 2025: Japan's prized oysters are dying at rates up to 90%. Scallops too. 

The official explanation? "High water temperatures". But is that really the whole story? 

Remember, China warned us! Isn't it strange that Japan's not testing for radiation in these dead oysters. Why?

The graphic speaks for itself!

Crowning of Durian a Thorny Issue Amid Indonesia, Malaysia Claims Over Fruit

While every Malaysian may agree that durian (Genus: Durio), the king of fruits, is synonymous with Malaysia, the Indonesians are saying no. 

They insist that they have a stronger claim to the durian, creating a thorny issue in Malaysia’s bid to make it the country’s national fruit. 

On November 18, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan disagreed with Malaysia’s proposal, citing Indonesia’s larger production as justification. 

“Indonesia produced almost two million tonnes of durian in 2024. That is far above Malaysia. With this fact, I believe durian is Indonesia’s national fruit”, he said, as reported by CNBC Indonesia. 

Zulkifli highlighted data from the BPS institute showing Indonesia’s durian output reached 1.96 million tonnes in 2024 – the highest in five years – with major production hubs across Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. 

“By contrast, Malaysia’s production is lower, although the export value has increased, thanks to premium varieties such as Musang King", he added.

On November 10, The Star reported that the Durian Manufacturer Association (DMA) had applied to Malaysia's Agriculture and Food Security Ministry for the recognition of the durian as the country's national fruit and to declare July 07 as National Durian Day. 

The Malaysian national football team have climbed two spots to 116th in the FIFA world rankings released Thursday. The last time Malaysia achieved this level was 20 years ago. 

This does not detract from the document fraud scandal rocking Malaysian football over the country’s fielding of ineligible foreign-born players. In other words, the Football Association of Malaysia became creative and generated seven fables about seven players. Well done, FAM (and their accomplices) for turning Malaysian football into a "farce"-ball!

100% China Tariffs Not Sustainable

US President Donald Trump admitted his proposed 100 percent tariff on goods from China would not be sustainable but blamed China for the latest impasse in trade talks that began with Beijing tightening control over its rare earth exports. 

Asked whether such a high tariff was sustainable and what that might do to the economy, Trump replied, "It's not sustainable, but that's what the number is". 

"They forced me to do that", he said in an interview with Fox Business Network broadcast on Friday.

Trump unveiled additional levies of 100 percent on China's US-bound exports a week ago, along with new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 01, nine days before existing tariff relief was set to expire.

The US president is just a big pile of shit! 💩💩💩

Consecutive victories in 2025 have helped Malaysia move past Indonesia in the latest update of the FIFA ranking in October and reclaim third place in Southeast Asia. 

Malaysia gained 13.3 points, moving up five places to 118th, following two wins over Laos in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. Indonesia lost 13.21 points and dropped three places to 122nd after losing 2-3 to Saudi Arabia and 0-1 to Iraq in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. 

In the ranking last month, Indonesia were still four places higher than Malaysia. 

Malaysia’s rise is driven by consistent victories in 2025. Peter Cklamovski’s side has recorded six wins, one draw and one loss, including four wins in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. Indonesia, on the other hand, had three wins, one draw and four losses, with all defeats coming from World Cup qualifiers, resulting in point deductions. 

China’s 80th Anniversary's V-Day Military Parade

Japan, in spite of its best efforts – refer my post "Unapologetic Japan Wants Countries to Boycott September 03" published August 27 – failed to dissuade countries from skipping China's World War II commemorative events, officially the Conference to Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. 

On Wednesday, leaders of 26 countries as well as other foreign dignitaries joined Chinese President Xi Jinping in what AP calls "a show of solidarity among nations friendly to Beijing". 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who made a rare foreign trip to attend were clearly the VVIPs. The others included Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni, Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Myanmar’s military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Nepali Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, and Maldives’ President Mohamed Muizzu. From Central Asia came Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedow, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and not forgeting Mongolia’s President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa. From Africa, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso were present as well as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the only leader from the Americas to attend. And from Europe, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan graced the event. 

Also on the guest roster were former Romanian prime ministers Adrian Năstase and Viorica Dăncilă, former New Zealand prime ministers Helen Clark and John Key, as well as Daniel Andrews, the former premier of the Australian state of Victoria. 

Not surprisingly, leaders from the US, Western Europe, Japan (obviously) and India (probably in deference to Japan because in the present global scenario, India's closest strategic partner is said to be Japan; besides, being the largest bilateral donor to India) were absent but not missed. And pro-Western countries like South Korea and Singapore sent lower-level officials. 

Since Wednesday, images of China's V-Day military parade have been trending on the front pages of major global media outlets. According to Global Times, this solemn moment to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, China, being a potent force for peace, sent a clear message to the world: The Chinese people will always remember this great victory, which stands as a monument in the history of the Chinese nation and the cause of world peace. 

In his opening address, Xi said the world was facing “a choice between peace or war” and "dialogue or confrontation", warning that China was a great nation that “is never intimidated by any bullies”. [I read it as a reference to the US and its allies]. And he stressed that the past showed that Chinese people always rallied together “to defy the enemy” when faced with adversity. 💪💪💪

The mammoth military parade – the 70-minute spectacle displayed a huge amount of military hardware. From tanks and drones to long-range and nuclear-capable missiles, fighter jets and stealth aircraft, the parade also revealed advances in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) weapons and assets – drew an almost immediate reaction from US president Donald Trump (right). 

“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un, as you conspire against the United States of America”, he posted on his Truth Social account. 

A very ungracious and rude comment from an uncivil and disrespectful person. That's Trump alright!