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”.

Donald Trump’s 75-country US Visa Suspension Challenged

A group of United States citizens and immigrant rights bodies have launched a lawsuit seeking to challenge the sweeping suspension of immigrant visa processing for 75 countries by the administration of President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday, argues that the Trump administration has relied on a false narrative to justify the visa processing suspension, one of the most substantial restrictions on legal immigration in the country’s history. 

The lawsuit charges that the policy “constitutes an unlawful nationality-based ban on legal immigration and a new set of discriminatory, unlawful public charge rules that strips families and working people of the process guaranteed by law”, according to a case overview by the National Immigration Law Center, which are among the groups supporting the legal challenge. 

The sprawling 106-page complaint further alleges that the administration relies “on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare and are likely to become ‘public charges'”. 

The State Department has described the action, announced in mid-January, as a “pause” on immigrant visa processing on “countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates”. 

The department have not revealed the criteria it used to determine which countries were added to the list, which comes amid a wider effort to constrict legal immigration pathways into the US and to deport undocumented citizens from the country. 

According to a January 14 state department cable obtained by the Guardian, the sweeping list cuts across every major region of the world, spanning countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and eastern Europe. 

Amongst the affected countries include Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

The Henley Passport Index 2025 Global Ranking

For the first time since the Henley Passport Index began, the United States passport has fallen out of the world's Top 10 most powerful passports. 

Once ranked No. 1 in 2014, it now stands at 12th place, tied with Malaysia, offering visa-free access to 180 of 227 destinations. 

The index is compiled using data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Malaysia were given an early scare before storming to a 5-1 win over minnows Laos in their Asian Cup Group F qualifier at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Tuesday. 

World No. 185 Laos shattered World No. 123 Malaysia's clean sheet record in the qualifiers when a Laotian's deflected strike found the net in the 19th minute. 

Stunned by the opener, Peter Cklamovski's men piled forward in search of an equaliser but were repeatedly denied by a stubborn Laotian defence and went into the break trailing 1-0. 

Harimau Malaya emerged far sharper after the restart, and Faisal Halim curled in a free-kick in the 59th minute to spark the comeback. 

Colombian-born striker Romel Morales, who had wasted chances earlier, made amends with a quick-fire brace in the 65th and 70th minutes to hand Malaysia a two-goal cushion. 

The hosts grew in confidence and relentless pressure forced a Lao player to put the ball into his own net in the 79th minute for 4-1. Substitute Paulo Josue sealed the rout just seconds after coming on, scoring in the 82nd minute. 

The victory extends Malaysia's dominance over Laos to 15 wins in 21 meetings since 1968 and keeps them top of Group F with a perfect record of four wins from four and 12 points.

Tomahawks for Nobel Peace Prize Nomination

Ukraine's (V)ladimir (Z)elensky has urged US President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles and added that if such a step leads to a ceasefire, Kiev will nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. 

According to Axios, however, White House officials have expressed concern whether the US could control the use of Tomahawks once they’re in Ukrainian hands.

But local news outlet Strana.ua reported that the Ukrainian parliament have failed to pass a motion to nominate the US president for the said award. Trump has repeatedly claimed he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating conflicts around the world. 

The initiative to nominate Trump was registered in the Verkhovna Rada last month by MPs who credited him with efforts to mediate the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. 

However, according to Strana, only 132 deputies have supported the resolution, falling short of the number required for adoption. The result has effectively ended Ukraine’s bid to endorse Trump for the award. 

Malaysia claimed their third straight win in the Asian Cup qualifiers by overcoming Laos 3-0 in Thursday's Group F match in Vientiane. 

The three goals for the Harimau Malaya squad were scored by Arif Aiman Hanapi, captain Dion Cools and substitute Faisal Halim in the second half. 

Ranked 123rd in the world, Harimau Malaya were expected to make light work of 185th-ranked Laos, yet they laboured to find rhythm for much of the game. 

Anyway, the result keeps Malaysia top of Group F with nine points from three matches, following earlier victories over Nepal (2-0) in March and Vietnam (4-0) in June. 

Malaysia will next host Laos at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Tuesday.

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!

Harimau Malaya Pull Out of CAFA Cup

I just read the disappointing news this morning. After weeks of hype, Harimau Malaya's debut at the CAFA Nations Cup has been called off, with the national team pulling out due to logistical hurdles and player availability issues. 

World No. 125 Malaysia were drawn in Group B alongside Asian giants Iran (No. 18), Tajikistan (No. 104) and Afghanistan (No. 161). The matches were scheduled to take place in Tajikistan from August 29-September 08. But with the tournament set just outside the official FIFA international window (September 01-09), the national team struggled to secure key players, particularly those based overseas in Spain, Argentina and Colombia. 

Clubs are not obliged to release players outside the window. 

"With the matches being played in Tajikistan, logistical operations become very difficult," said national coach Peter Cklamovski (left) on Wednesday. "It's a difficult scenario for our players to get there and be ready to go. I'll never want to compromise the players. I want us at full strength". 

Malaysia had planned to use the tournament as part of their long-term development strategy, and Cklamovski admitted he had lofty ambitions. 

"I wanted to go into this tournament to win it", he declared. "But once the fixtures were released a few days ago, it became clear that it would be tough. We have to respect the clubs". 

Besides player availability, the tight schedule and travel logistics posed major challenges, especially with FIFA's newly enforced 72-hour recovery rule between games. Long-haul flights, rising costs and preparation issues only compounded the problem. 

"We've got players in Spain, Colombia, Argentina. It's difficult to get them there", said Cklamovski. "Then there's the impact on the budget – all that effort to arrive under-strength. It just doesn't make sense". 

He insists the decision to withdraw was the right one. 

"It's a smart call. What's more important now is to use the September window wisely and focus on October and November, especially with big matches coming up against Laos and Nepal (in the Asian Cup qualifiers)". 

While the withdrawal may come as a letdown for fans eager to see Harimau Malaya tested, the FA of Malaysia and Cklamovski believe it is a necessary step in the push for long-term progress. 

Malaysian women's doubles Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan made a confident start at the Japan Open by beating reigning European champions Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva in the opening round on Wednesday. 

The world No. 3 needed just 31 minutes to dispatch the world No. 16 Bulgarian sisters 21-16, 21-14. 

The duo will next face either Taiwan's Hsieh Pei Shan-Hung En Tzu or the United States' Francesca Corbett-Jennie Gai in the second round.

Donald Trump’s New Tariffs

We're seeing another TACO moment! 

United States President Donald Trump on Monday extended a pause on his sweeping reciprocal tariffs to August 01, while also sending “tariff letters” to fourteen countries, warning they would be subject to the new tariff rates if they failed to reach a trade deal with the US by the new deadline. 

As he spelt out in the letters, the rates could be modified "upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country". I'm not even sure anymore what he actually means. 

[Note: The term TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – was coined by Financial Times commentator Robert Armstrong to describe what he says is the president's tiresome pattern of announcing heavy tariffs on countries causing economic shock, panic and stock market hits and then later reversing course with pauses or reductions that create a market rebound]. 

For South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, these tariff rates are identical to what Trump had announced on April 02. Malaysia and Japan saw a 1 percent increase and the other eight countries – Kazakhstan, Laos, Myanmar, Tunisia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, Serbia and Cambodia – will now encounter lower tariffs than they did on "Liberation Day". 

FYI, during the 90-day pause, the US only managed to broker two "deals" (if you can call them deals!) with the United Kingdom and Vietnam. 

The first deal was secured on May 08, between the US and the UK, setting a 10 percent tariff on UK exports to the US. The deal states that the first 100,000 vehicles imported into the US from the UK each year will face a 10 percent tariff, down from the 27.5 percent imposed earlier. Additional vehicles imported each year will face a 25 percent tariff. 

On July 02, Trump announced that he had secured a deal with Vietnam, which now faces a minimum 20 percent tariff in exchange for opening its market up to the US. Transshipments from third countries through Vietnam will face a 40 percent levy, while US products will not face any tariff in Vietnam. Specific details for this deal are unclear. On April 02, Trump had announced a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam. 

Meanwhile, US stocks, based on the three major indices, fell on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.94 percent; S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 leading US companies, fell by 0.79 percent; and the Nasdaq Composite saw a 0.92 percent drop.

Malaysia Gets Invite to CAFA Nations Cup 2025

It is good news to read that Malaysia is able to secure an invite to participate in the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) Nations Cup (August 26-September 09), which offers a rare opportunity for Harimau Malaya to play world class teams outside Southeast Asia. 

And it's a big plus because the national side get to prove themselves against more physical and tactically advanced footballing countries. 

The tournament experience would be the best preparation before they take on Laos in the 2027 Asian Cup third-round qualifiers in October. 

At the PSA Squash Tour Finals (June 23-27, 2025) in Toronto, Canada, in Round One, it was not the dream start Sivasangari Subramaniam had hoped for. 

The world No. 8 gave a good account of herself but eventually went down 11-9, 11-9 to American world No. 4 Olivia Weaver in a Group B match on Monday. 

It was her seventh defeat to Weaver in eight meetings. 

Sivasangari will face world No. 14 Fayrouz Aboelkheir in her second group match today – a must-win clash for both players to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

Another New AI Agent From Another Chinese Start-up

Chinese AI start-up Zhipu AI unveiled a free AI agent on Monday, in the latest example of what has been described by some industry leaders as "explosive growth" in China's artificial intelligence industry marked by a rising number of products and technological advancements. 

It has been claimed that AutoGLM, marks the world's first AI agent capable of both deep research and practical operations, the company said in a press release sent to the Global Times on the same day. 

Specifically, AutoGLM is capable of performing complex "thinking" and executing tasks simultaneously, Zhipu AI CEO Zhang Peng (right) said and adding that it is capable of opening and browsing web pages like a human being and conducting tasks such as data retrieval, analysis and research report writing.

According to Zhang, the AI agent is based on ZhiPu's self-developed models, including its latest reasoning models GLM-Z1-Air and GLM-4-Air0414. The company said that GLM-Z1-Air is a model that "matches the performance of DeepSeek's R1, while running up to eight times faster and requiring only one-thirtieth of the computing resources of its counterpart". 

AutoGLM will become open source on April 14, a move that aims to promote the development of the AI industry ecosystem, according to the company.

The launch follows a surge in Chinese AI products this year. In early March, Beijing-based start-up Monica unveiled Manus, a general AI agent that it claims can make decisions and execute tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required compared with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek. [Read my post "Manus, Another DeepSeek Moment" published March 10, 2025]. 

China's COMAC delivered their first C909 aircraft to Lao Airlines on Sunday. This is the first time that a Chinese jet airliner have entered the Lao market, marking a new step in the development of China's commercial aircraft's internationalization.

Currently, one hundred and sixty-two aircraft of this model have been delivered, with a total of 645 routes in operation, connecting 158 cities, and safely transporting more than 20 million passengers.

Thailand Offers New Hope for Tigers

Today is International Tiger Day and there’s good news for the big cats in Thailand. 

 

The tiger population in the country’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) – an 18,000-square-kilometer (6,950-square-mile) area of forest encompassing 11 national parks and six wildlife sanctuaries – is estimated to have more than tripled between 2007 and 2023, from 41 to 143. 

 

The remarkable comeback was observed in a new collaborative study "Rigorous assessment of a unique tiger recovery in Southeast Asia based on photographic capture-recapture modeling of population dynamics" led by Thailand’s Department of National Parks and the Wildlife Conservation Society, newly published online in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 53, September 2024, e03016.

 

It’s not just tigers bouncing back: a companion study, published alongside the tiger assessment, found that populations of threatened ungulate species – hoofed mammals like deer and wild cattle, that are the main prey for the tigers – have doubled in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, one of three protected areas, along with Thung Yai East and Thung Yai West, in the forest complex. 

 

This increase reflects “more effective management” of the forest and is the result of more than a decade of conservation interventions, says Pornkamol Jornburom (right), director of WCS Thailand and one of the wildlife biologists working on the new study. 

 

“This forest complex is the home of many endangered species”, she adds. She hopes WEFCOM can be “a role model for conservation and recovery of the wildlife population”. 

 

WEFCOM represents the biggest forest area in Thailand, and the largest forest track in mainland Southeast Asia, according to WCS and is a hugely important habitat, not just for tigers, but endangered animals including Asian elephants, hornbills, and banteng. 

 

The complex has a huge diversity of species too: 150 mammals, 490 birds and 90 reptiles. 

 

It’s also a relatively uncommon landscape in the region. Most tiger conservation focuses on protecting small, isolated areas, but WEFCOM connects multiple national parks and protected areas through forest corridors across a wide expanse – vital for tigers, which require up to 300 square kilometers (115 square miles) of habitat to roam. 

 

The DNP began working with WCS to “build and strengthen site-based protection”, says Jornburom. Patrol teams began using GPS to precisely identify locations, and a standardized reporting form to collect data has helped to identify patrol routes, distribution of wildlife, and sites of illegal activity. 

 

In 2007, conservationists installed camera traps which built up a data set that researchers could use for their population assessment in the current study across the three main protected areas.

 

Individual tigers can be identified by their unique stripes, similar to a human fingerprint. 

 

Jornburom says the 250% increase in tigers, as well as the twofold increase in banteng (Scientific name: Bos javanicus) and sambar deer (Scientific name: Rusa unicolor) is proof that the increased patrols are working. 

 

“When we conserve tigers, it actually leads to conserving many other species: not only the prey, but also the habitat”, she says. 

 

While Thailand’s success story offers hope, the outlook across the region is not so optimistic. Once widespread across Southeast Asia, tigers became extinct in Singapore, Java and Bali in the 20th century, and in recent years have also disappeared from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the wild. This has left small, isolated tiger populations in Myanmar, Indonesian Sumatra, and peninsular Malaysia – the latter of which is worrying conservationists after a recent spate of tiger deaths. 

 

Tigers are a “conservation-dependent species” that require constant interventions to protect them from the threat of hunting and poaching, says Stuart Chapman, leader of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative. 

 

In Southeast Asia, their numbers are so low that they’ve reached a “tipping point” where accidents, disease or conflict can cause populations to go extinct, he adds. “Every tiger counts, particularly when populations get to such low levels that recovery then depends on no additional threats coming in that can potentially wipe them out”. 

 

Chapman, who was not part of the study, says that the research from WEFCOM is a “historic” moment for the species, and shows that “with good habitat management and healthy prey populations, results are possible”. 

 

According to the DNP’s most recent survey, there are an estimated 179 to 223 adult tigers in the wild in Thailand, up from 148 to 189 tigers in 2022. 

 

WEFCOM currently boasts most of the country’s tiger population, and has the potential to support up to 2,000 tigers, according to WCS. However, this depends on factors like effective protection, prey availability, and community engagement, says Jornburom, adding: “We also need more technology to help and support the (rangers) on the ground”. 

 

She is optimistic that with more patrols and funding, the population in WEFCOM can continue to grow – and hopes that other national parks will adopt the model to save their tiger populations too. 

 

“I think it’s a very inspiring model of intervention for other landscapes and protected areas – not only in Thailand, but also our neighboring countries”. 

 

Given that Malaysia's tiger population is dire, it's time we learn from the Thais.

Southeast Asia's Brutal Heatwave

Presently as the brutal heatwave grips Southeast Asia, it is not surprising to find Malaysia searing, scorching and sweltering. 

 

In an Instagram post by @seasia.stats, Kuala Lumpur has come in seventh place as the capital city with the hottest temperature at 34°C.

 

The steaming list features all the capital cities in the Southeast Asian region recording the highest temperatures according to the findings from weather forecast website AccuWeather’s update from last Monday (May 06). 

 

Meanwhile, Yangon, Myanmar takes the first spot with a blistering 39°C, Bangkok, Thailand in second place at 38°C and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam in third place at 36°C.

 

The other capital cities include Manila, Philippines in fourth place (36°C), Phnom Penh, Cambodia in fifth place (36°C), Vientiane, Laos in sixth place (36°C), Singapore in eighth place (33°C), Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam in ninth place (33°C), Jakarta, Indonesia (33°C) in tenth place and Dili, Timor-Leste (31°C) in last place. 

 

“It is estimated that the temperature will continue to rise to 45.9°C, and the very hot conditions are expected to persist”, the post said.

 

Malaysia's S Sivasangari made short work of American Caroline Fouts to reach the third round of the World Squash Championships in Cairo, Egypt yesterday. She needed just 24 minutes to win 11-6, 11-7, 11-6. 

 

The London Classic winner's real test will begin when she faces the winner of the match between Egypt's world No. 3 Hania El Hammamy and France's Melissa Alves next.

C919's Demo Flights in 5 ASEAN Countries

The Chinese-developed C919 (and ARJ21) aircraft, which debuted at the Singapore Airshow, have started their demonstration flights in five ASEAN countries, i.e. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia, the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) announced on Tuesday. 

 

The demonstration flights have a significant meaning for Chinese passenger aircraft going abroad, as the flights can get international customers and the public to take a closer look at Chinese commercial aircraft. The demonstration flights, which will be carried out over two weeks, aim to verify the planes' adaptability for airports, suitability of ground service equipment, applicability of special flight procedures and economy of route payloads, laying a foundation to explore Southeast Asian markets, COMAC said.

 

[Note: At the just-concluded Singapore Airshow, China's Tibet Airlines have sealed a deal for 50 aircraft consisting of forty C919 and ten ARJ21 planes. And total orders for the C919 alone have reportedly surpassed 1,200 aircraft].

 

Liverpool's quadruple hopes are still alive! On Wednesday, Liverpool won 3-0 against Southampton in the FA Cup fifth round to progress to the quarter-finals. Thanks to two 18-year-olds.

 

With injuries to a host of first-team players, Jürgen Klopp named six players aged 21 or younger in his starting XI and, just as in Sunday's EFL Cup final, the youngsters delivered. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southampton had a host of chances in the first half but having failed to make them count, they were punished when Lewis Koumas collected Bobby Clark's pass and found the bottom corner as his low shot deflected off the Saints captain a minute before the break. FYI, Koumas (18 years 162 days) became the fourth youngest player to score on his senior debut for #LFC.

 

The Saints had further opportunities to level in the second period but remained profligate in front of goal. Again they were made to pay as Jayden Danns, on for Koumas, ran on to Harvey Elliott's pass to score with a lovely dinked finish in the seventy-third minute. 

 

And Danns struck again two minutes from time, thumping the ball home after the Southampton goalkeeper had parried Conor Bradley's shot into his path.

 

Again FYI, Danns only made his senior debut for Liverpool on February 21 against Luton Town, before coming off the bench to feature as the Reds beat Chelsea in the EFL Cup final on Sunday where he won his first medal. And yesterday, when he hammered in his second, the striker at 18 years and 43 days, became the youngest Liverpool player to score two or more in a game since Michael Owen scored a League Cup hat-trick against Grimsby in November 1997 aged 17 years, 339 days. 

 

A matchup with Manchester Unite is now on the horizon.

Malaysia Records Worst CPI Score in a Decade

The latest global watchdog Transparency International’s annual report was released yesterday and the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that most countries are failing to stop corruption. 

 

The CPI ranks countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The global average remains unchanged for over a decade at just 43 out of 100. 

 

And more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, while 26 countries have fallen to their lowest scores yet. Despite concerted efforts and hard-won gains by some, 155 countries have made no significant progress against corruption or have declined since 2012. 

 

Not surprisingly, Malaysia continued its slide, managing only 47 out of 100 possible points – its worst performance in a decade. 

 

TI’s piece “CPI 2022 for Asia-Pacific: Basic freedoms restricted as anti-corruption efforts neglected” published yesterday identified the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well as this narrative on Malaysia: 

 

“Malaysia’s (47) statistically significant decline is indicative of its ongoing struggle with grand corruption. The 1MDB scandal – first uncovered in 2016 – is considered one of the largest exposés of corruption in the world, implicating banks, celebrities and institutions across six countries. In 2022, former Prime Minister Najib Razak was sent to jail for his involvement. Yet this doesn’t even cover the full extent of corruption at the highest level in the country: in December the Anti-Corruption Commission opened a new investigation into a different prime minister¹ who allegedly misappropriated over $136 billion in government funds during his term. The current prime minister promised to clean up after ongoing scandals, but as part of efforts to stabilise his unity government appointed a deputy prime minister² with a number of serious corruption allegations against him, potentially inviting new risks”. 

 

Muhammad Mohan, the chairperson of the local chapter TI-Malaysia, said despite an "improvement" in the ranking from 62nd previously to 61st, Malaysia’s score continued to fall after reaching its height of 53 points in 2019. 

 

He listed the reasons for the low score, which included the lack of political will in fighting institutional corruption in the government, huge Covid-19 pandemic stimulus packages that were rolled out without parliamentary debate and scrutiny, appointing unqualified politicians to head government-linked companies, and the reluctance to firmly address cost overruns such as the Littoral Combat Ship project. 

Nothing new lah, as far as Malaysia is concerned.

 

¹ Muhyiddin Yassin
² Ahmad Zahid Hamidi