Panamanian Golden Frogs Are Making Their Return to the Wild

Not long ago, golden frogs were on the brink of extinction. 

The story began in the late 1980s when an invasive fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) spread through Central America, eventually reaching Panama. The fungal spores, which travel easily through water, quickly affected the golden frogs, who live near streams. 

While Bd is harmless to humans, it has a devastating impact on amphibians like the golden frog. The fungus infects the frogs’ skin, disrupting their electrolyte balance, which leads to heart failure and death. This disease, called chytridiomycosis, reached Panama’s last remaining population of golden frogs in El Valle de Anton in 2004. By 2009, the frogs had completely disappeared from the area. 

Although the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) species was not completely lost, it faced an uncertain future. Wildlife biologists from the Smithsonian-affiliated Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARC) worked tirelessly to breed golden frogs and related species in controlled environments. Only recently have the lab populations stabilized enough for the next stage in their recovery. 

“We care for some of the most endangered amphibians in Panama, and now we are entering a new phase of our work to study the science of rewilding”, said Roberto Ibañez, director of PARC. 

The reintroduction process is not easy. Bd still exists in several regions of Panama, posing a significant threat to the frogs. During the initial 12-week soft release, approximately 70 of the 100 golden frogs died from the disease. However, the surviving frogs were eventually rewilded, and the data collected will help conservationists understand how the disease works. 

“These crucial data will guide our future conservation strategies”, said Brian Gratwicke, a conservation biologist. “Our earlier models suggest there are potential release sites that could serve as climatic refuges – places that are suitable for the frogs but too hot for the fungus”. 

For those who are concerned about the future of the golden frog, the track record of PARC provides reassurance. Last year, the team successfully released three other frog species back into their natural habitats: the crowned tree frog (Tripion spinosus), Pratt’s rocket frog (Colostethus pratti), and the lemur leaf frog (Agalychnis lemur). 

While the golden frogs’ return is exciting, it’s important to remember that they produce toxic substances. These include steroidal bufadienolides and guanidinium alkaloids, which are deadly to predators. 

So, if you encounter a golden frog near a Panamanian stream, please admire it from a safe distance.

Adding 3 New Territories to the United States

Donald Trump on Saturday, blithely boasted about his plans to expand the United States by adding Canada, Denmark colony Greenland, and Venezuela as new states, RT News reported, citing the Washington Post. 

He audaciously asserted that Canada will be the 51st state, Greenland the 52nd and Venezuela the 53rd! 

Later, he retreated and claimed he was only joking. 😅😅😅

I cannot imagine that the Canadians, Greenlanders and Venezuelans are laughing! 

😡😡😡

The above aside, methinks, Trump forgot to add Panama as the 54th state! And I would even include the Philippines as the 55th!

Donald Trump is Emboldened

After the criminal acts against Venezuela – refer my blog post "US Kidnaps Venezuelan President And Wife" yesterday – US President Donald Trump is emboldened and he is now warning other countries. 

He threatens Colombia and its president, Gustavo Petro, describes Cuba as “ready to fall”, warns Mexico “to get their act together”, and reasserts his desire to acquire Denmark's self-governing territory of Greenland.

And don't forget that Iran, Canada, Panama and Nigeria are in his sights too.

I'm sure Russia and China are on his list – but I reckon he will deal with them last. After he's finished the job with the other countries. It should be easy-peasy. After all, who dares to challenge America's military might?

To Trump, might is right!

On Saturday, I was at a Toastmasters meeting in Kajang, where I was the Toastmaster of the Day. Photos of the said meeting:

Plants Know How to Bribe Their Pollinators with Sugar

Plants aren't just sitting there looking pretty – they're eavesdropping on insects and strategically sweetening their nectar for the right visitors. 

New research by Francesca Barbero from the University of Turin reveals plants can distinguish between the buzzing of helpful pollinators and nectar-stealing "robbers", adjusting their sugar production accordingly. When they hear good pollinators approaching, they pump up the sweetness. When thieves come calling, they dial it back. 

"When we played the sounds of the best pollinator, the plant reacted by secreting a nectar with a high sugar concentration", Barbero explained to Bob McDonald on his Quirks and Quarks podcast for CBC, broadcasted on June 06, 2025. FYI, she had presented this work at a recent joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and 25th International Congress on Acoustics. 

"And the most amazing thing is that when we play back the sounds of a robber insect [that takes nectar but doesn't reciprocate by pollinating], the plant is sort of keeping their resources and producing the nectar with the lowest concentration of sugar". 

The response happens in just 10 minutes – lightning-fast in plant time. Barbero's team found that hearing pollinators actually triggers genes involved in sugar transport. 

While plants don't have ears, they do possess specialized mechanoreceptors that detect air vibrations. Each insect species produces a unique acoustic signature that plants have evolved to recognize. Meaning, they're savvier than we thought.

China is unquestionably the driving force that holds BRICS together. Without China, they wouldn’t have come into existence. 

Why China invests so much on its Belt and Road initiative:

As of recent data, approximately 146 to 150 countries are estimated to be involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This includes countries that have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China. 

[Note: Two countries have exited the BRI, Italy in December 2023 and Panama in February 2025]. 

The BRI was launched by China in 2013 as a global infrastructure development strategy.

Monkey Fad: Kidnapping Babies of Another Species

Scientists are ascertaining that bored young male capuchins (Subfamily: Cebinae; family: Cebidae) are kidnapping baby howler monkeys (Genus: Alouatta), in what they say is the first time animals have been recorded stealing another species' infants for no apparent reason. 

Behavioral ecologist Zoë Goldsborough (right) first noticed something wrong in 2022 while sifting through footage captured by motion-triggered cameras on Jicaron, an island 55 kilometers (34 miles) off the coast of Panama and part of Coiba National Park. 

"I was very shocked" to see a white-faced capuchin monkey (Scientific name: Cebus imitator) with a baby howler monkey on its back, Goldsborough, a researcher at Germany's Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, told AFP.  The scientists nicknamed the capuchin Joker because the small scar at the side of its mouth reminded them of the "Batman" villain. 

After reviewing more footage, they spotted Joker carrying four different howler monkey babies. 

At first, they thought this was the "heartwarming story of a weird capuchin adopting these infants", said Goldsborough, the lead author of a new study in the journal Current Biology. 

Then they found that, starting with Joker, four sub-adult and juvenile male capuchin monkeys had abducted at least 11 infant howler monkeys between January 2022 and March 2023. With no evidence of the capuchins eating, caring for or playing with the infants, the study authors suspect the kidnapping behavior is a kind of “cultural fad” – and potentially a symptom of the monkeys’ unique conditions in the ecosystem of Jicarón. They reported their initial findings May 19, 2025 in the journal Current Biology.

And they also discovered footage of mournful howler monkey parents calling for their lost babies, showing that the infants had actually been abducted. 

The trend came with a high price: Four howler babies were observed to have died, but the researchers believe none survived. 

Exactly how the capuchins manage to kidnap the babies remains a mystery. The abduction likely takes place in the trees, and the cameras cover only the ground at the island's Coiba National Park. 

"They're very successful at it, because they seem to even be able to get a one- or two-day-old infant off its mother", Goldsborough said. The capuchins also do not suffer injuries, despite adult howler monkeys being three times their size. 

Cultural fads spreading among animals is rare but not unheard of. 

Barrett has previously studied capuchins in Costa Rica that suddenly started grooming porcupines, before growing bored of the trend. 

And back in the 1980s, orcas (Orcinus orca), took to donning dead salmon on their heads off the northwestern US coast. This trend returned decades later when the killer whales were again spotted wearing these "salmon hats" last year.

The Camouflaged Invasion of Panama

The United States is returning to Panama. Unlike its invasion of the country in 1989 as part of what it called “Operation Just Cause” to depose leader Manuel Noriega, this time, it managed to get Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino to capitulate without firing a shot. 

On Wednesday, both countries signed a military pact which allowed US troops to be deployed at three former military bases – Fort Sherman, Rodman Naval Base and Howard Air Force Base. [Note: The last US troops were pulled out from the country in 1999]. 

And it includes a deal with the Panama Canal Authority which would allow US warships and auxiliary ships “first and free” passage through the canal that connects the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic and is a chief conduit for global trade. 

The agreement was reached after a three-day visit by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared that “the Panama Canal is key terrain that must be secured by Panama, with America, and not China”. 

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump confirmed that US soldiers and military personnel were deployed to Panama as part of the deal, telling reporters, “We’ve moved a lot of troops to Panama”. 

Despite an insistence by the Panamanian government that these are not “military bases” and that the deal is temporary, the opposition believe the US has re-established its military presence in the country. In fact, they have labeled it as a “camouflaged invasion”.

Well done, Trump! You did it!

👏👏👏

One down and two more to go. 

Your next priorities are to bring Canada and Greenland into the US fold.

China Strikes Back at US

The US–China trade war appears to be restarting. When US President Donald Trump put a 10% sweeping levy on over $60 billion worth of Chinese goods, which takes effect February 04, 2025, he had one expectation: economic pressure would force China to give in. 

But that’s not what happened. China is not Colombia. Or Panama. Instead, China is responding with a strategy that’s been years in the making – targeting not just American products, but the foundation of America’s economic influence. 

Within days, China announced tariffs targeting $35 billion in American goods – focusing on farming, energy, and cars. A 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US. 

But it’s not just about what they targeted; it’s about where. China focused on industries tied to important political regions in the US – e.g., soybeans from the Midwest, oil from Texas. This wasn’t just about hurting the economy. It was about creating pressure from inside the US, knowing that affected businesses would push back against these policies. 

That's not all. Beyond tariffs, China made new trade deals with countries like Brazil, Russia, and even Mexico – finding new suppliers to reduce their need for American goods. 

And while the US was focused on applying pressure through tariffs, China was quietly building a new strategy involving critical minerals, the backbone of modern technology. And China tightens export controls on them.

These include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, many of which are essential to US economic or national security that have supply chains vulnerable to disruption. They are needed to make things like smartphones, electric cars, and even military hardware. And China controls over 80% of the world’s supply. 

[The export controls are in addition to ones China placed in December on key elements such as gallium and germanium (and antimony and graphite, which were covered in subsequent export controls)]. 

A very smart move to put pressure on industries the US depends on for both business and security. Think about trying to build advanced technology without the raw materials needed to make it work. That’s the kind of quiet but powerful pressure China is using – not with loud threats, but with control over the resources the world relies on.  

All this time, China is securing critical supply chains, strengthening its hold on rare resources, and cutting deals with US rivals to weaken America’s leverage globally.

And Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), vowing to "resolutely defend its rights".

Trump had campaigned on winning an economic competition against China and the tariffs on Chinese goods represent his opening salvo of what may become a bruising trade war. Still, I note that the 10% duties are a far cry from the upwards of 60% tariffs that Trump had threatened to levy on China during his presidential campaign, signaling that there could be more to come if he decides to escalate.

Trump is a bully. 

But as China is showing, it will not take it lying down. China is not only standing its ground but fighting back.

💪💪💪

Panama Formally Pulls Out of China's BRI

Donald Trump has always been a big bully. In his second term as US president, he is still the big bully. 

In the case of the Panama Canal, he has repeatedly accused Panama of ceding control of the strategic waterway to China and even vowed the US was "taking it back".

His Secretary of State Marco Rubio had traveled to Panama on Sunday to personally convey Trump's message: End Chinese influence over the canal or face US action. 

On Thursday, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino (left) announced his country has formally filed notice to exit from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project. He added that the Panamanian Embassy in Beijing had given China the required 90-day notice of its decision not to renew its involvement in the infrastructure program, which it joined in 2017.

In other words, Mulino has buckled under US pressure. 

FYI, Mulino is not Trump's first victim. That ignominy goes to Colombia's Gustavo Petro – check out my January 28, 2025 post "Colombia Buckles Under Donald Trump's Tariff Threat". 

For sure, the bullying won't stop. 

And if you don't know, Trump enjoys being a bully. 

Yoon Suk Yeol Is Charged With Insurrection

South Korea's prosecutors have indicted impeached Yoon Suk Yeol (right) on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 03.

In a statement on Sunday, the prosecutors said they “indicted Yoon Suk Yeol with detention on charges of being the ringleader of an insurrection”.

“After a comprehensive review of evidence obtained during investigations, the [prosecutors] concluded that it was only appropriate to indict the defendant”, the statement announced. 

Earlier on the same day, Democratic Party spokesperson Han Min-soo told a news conference: “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally”. 

Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades. 

Yoon's ill-fated attempt to impose military rule plunged the country into an unprecedented political crisis and he becomes the first sitting president in South Korean history to be charged with a crime. The indictment comes after a court in Seoul rejected a request to extend Yoon's detention on Saturday, which meant prosecutors had to make a decision on whether to charge or release him before Monday. 

Separately, the Constitutional Court have begun deliberations on whether to formally dismiss Yoon as president or reinstate him. 

The impeached president has largely refused to co-operate with the criminal investigation over the martial law declaration. Yoon is set to stand trial along with his former defence minister and senior military commanders, who are accused of helping him plan and carry out the attempt to seize total power.

On Saturday, MAGA President Donald Trump, in a speech in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States announced: “We might be an enlarged country pretty soon”. 

In recent weeks, he has declared grandiose ambitions to expand US territory and showed earnest interest in annexing Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. And not forgetting to mention that Trump too had vowed to send astronauts to Mars and plant the American flag there. 

To demonstrate his seriousness, he refused to rule out the use of military force against Greenland and Panama, saying the US needs both for “economic security”. As for Canada, he would only use “economic force”, he asserted.

These are the low-hanging fruits for Trump. As for Russia and/or China, neither is within reach to be plucked. It definitely won't be easy. Deep down inside, he knows it.

Donald Trump "Buys" Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal on Amazon

Eric Trump shared a post on social media platform X featuring his father, President-elect Donald Trump, humorously describing himself as "buying" Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal – through the Amazon app. 

 

[For background info, kindly refer to my posts "American Puppets" and "Greenland Again Tells Donald Trump It Is Not For Sale", published December 12 and 24, 2024 respectively].

 

The image below shows Trump searching on his phone, adding the three territories to his "cart", Telegrafi reports:

 

😂😂😂

 

Yesterday, Celtic won an emphatic 4-0 victory over Motherwell at Parkhead.

 

The league leaders won a penalty just before the break when the Well goalkeeper was adjudged to have impeded Hyun-Jun Yang following the forward’s dramatised fall in the 18-yard-box. And the spot-kick was confidently converted by Arne Engels. 

 

Then, Engels turned provider, teeing up Liam Scales, who diverted his header to the feet of Daizen Maeda, who coolly slotted his finish into the back of the net in the 57th minute. 

 

Second-half substitute Nicolas Kuhn struck home in the 74th minute after his low-drilled strike deflected off of an onrushing Motherwell player and directed into the far corner. 

 

And Reo Hatate wrapped up the three-points finding the opposing corner in the 81st minute, with a similar low strike on-goal.

 

After struggling to break through, Celtic’s quality took them to a triumph that was ultimately comfortable. They remain clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table on 47 points.

 

 

Greenland Again Tells Donald Trump It Is Not For Sale

Greenland has once again said it is not for sale after US President-elect Donald Trump said he wanted to take control of the territory. 

 

"Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland", its prime minister said on Monday, a day after Trump repeated comments about the Arctic island that he first made five years ago. [Check out my post "Donald Trump Eyes Real-estate Purchase" published August 21, 2019]. 

 

Greenland, which is an autonomous Danish territory, is home to a large US space facility and lies on the shortest route from the US to Europe, meaning it is strategically important for the US. 

 

There was no immediate response to Trump's comments from Denmark. 

 

Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday, the US president-elect (left) said: "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity". 

 

His comments prompted a sharp rebuke from Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede, who said: "We are not for sale and we will not be for sale". 

 

And he added: "We must not lose our long struggle for freedom. However, we must continue to be open to co-operation and trade with the whole world, especially with our neighbors". 

 

Separately on Sunday, Donald Trump threatened to reassert control over the Panama Canal, one of the world's most important waterways – accusing Panama of charging excessive fees for access to it. And he just had to add that the Panama Canal was not China's and that it should not fall into the "wrong hands". 

 

For good measure, he posted this on Truth Social on Monday, dubbing Panama Canal as "United States Canal":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Note: The 51-mile (82km) Panama Canal cuts across the central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Some 75% of the cargo passing through the waterway in the latest fiscal year was either destined for or originated from the US, according to the Panama Canal Authority]. 

 

José Raúl Mulino, Panama's president, later said "every square metre" of the canal and surrounding area belonged to his country. And added that Panama's sovereignty and independence were non-negotiable.

 

Trump is unbelievable. He's not yet president but he's already "governing" through social media!

Warmongering USA

Sabre-rattling by the US is putting the world on edge. Targeting China and Russia is a dangerous proposition.

But we shouldn't be too surprised. After all, the United States is a warmongering nation. 

It is the country that has been embroiled in the most wars in the past one hundred years – if wars are defined as all wars, military conflicts, military occupations, large scale rescue missions, and policing and peacekeeping actions performed by military units. 

Its hands are stained with blood. It may speak of peace – but in truth, it promotes strife and it participates in conflicts all around the world. 

A sample of its nefarious involvements: Korean War (1950-1953), Iranian coup d'état (1953), Bay of Pigs invasion (1961), Vietnam War (1965-1975), invasion of Grenada (1983), bombing of Libya (1986), invasion of Panama (1989-1990), Gulf War (1990-1991), war in Afghanistan (2001-2021), Iraq War (2003-2011), US-led intervention in Syria (2014-Present), and US intervention in Libya (2015-2019). 

And not only has the US been exporting wars but it is guilty of launching "color revolutions", formenting extremist ideologies, and promoting economic instability. E.g. China Hong Kong (2019-2020) and Thailand (2020-2021). 

"War is the American way of life", said US historian Paul Atwood, noting that the US was born, grew, and became a superpower out of war, slavery, and human slaughter. Therefore, we are not wrong to describe the US as belligerent, combative and hawkish.

But the American people should know:

US Provokes China on Taiwan

China has been really patient and unbelievably tolerant with the US even as the latter continues to provoke the former on the matter of Taiwan. 

The US appears to be abandoning its long-held policy known as "strategic ambiguity", where Washington helps prop up the rebel province's defences but does not explicitly promise to come to its assistance. The policy is designed to deter a supposed Chinese invasion and also discourage Taiwan from formally declaring independence, something Beijing regards as a red line. 

And the Joe Biden administration, through both word and deed, persist to demonstrate that Taipei should have no worries about Washington's commitment to the island.

I must say that I am not surprised with Biden’s declarations of commitment to Taiwan. He must show bravado. Likewise, he’ll want to follow the US presidential tradition of immersing himself in foreign military adventures as a way to feed their ravenous military-industrial complex and to deflect from domestic issues plaguing the country. 

In fact, all recent US presidents have either started a new war or been involved in escalating or starting a new military operation on foreign soil. Since 1945, the United States has had an aggressive foreign policy, with its military getting engaged all around the world. 

In case you doubt me, here’s a list of their most prominent military interventions overseas: 

• John F Kennedy’s botched Bay of Pigs invasion on the south coast of Cuba in April 1961. 
• Lyndon Johnson launched a three-year campaign of sustained bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Operation Rolling Thunder in March 1965. The same month, US Marines landed on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam as the first American combat troops to enter Vietnam. 
• Richard Nixon escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia – and for your info, he stalled the Vietnam peace talks – he had needed the war to continue, since he was running on a platform that opposed(!) the war – before finally settling for a peace agreement in January 1973 that was within grasp back in 1968. 
• Ronald Reagan deployed US Marines to Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, the invasion of Grenada in October 1983 and the bombing of Tripoli in Libya. 
• Under George HW Bush, the US invaded Panama codenamed Operation Just Cause – from mid-December 1989 to late January 1990 – in an attempt to overthrow Manuel Noriega. 
• During Bill Clinton’s presidency, under “Operation Uphold Democracy”, US troops were dispatched to Haiti in September 1994 to unseat a military junta. 
• George W Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom, an offensive in Afghanistan in October 2001 and he initiated the war on Iraq with the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. 
• With Barack Obama, the United States and its lackeys conducted months-long air strikes in Libya, Iraq and Syria, besides increasing the deployment of US troops to Afghanistan – although he would ultimately drop the troop level to about 8,400 by the end of his term. 
• Donald Trump may be pre-occupied with his own domestic missteps but he still managed to escalate military ops in Syria and he presided over the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani via a drone strike. 

Joe Biden too wants to be “one of the boys” and I betcha, he’s no different. He’s itching for a war and China is in his sights.

Latin America Hits 7 Million Cases

Latin America finds itself mired in a desperate situation insofar as Covid-19 is concerned. 

The virulent pathogen is stalking and hurting many countries – and yesterday, it breached the 7-million mark. Its caseload and fatality numbers represent 28.5% and 32.2% of the world total respectively. 

You may be interested to know that among the 12 worst-hit countries in Latin America, they combine to account for 98% and 99% of the region’s total confirmed cases and deaths. And 8 of those countries are among thirty nations from around the world yielding 100,000 cases or more. 

In Malaysia, the residents of Slim, a small, rural, Malay-majority constituency in Perak ensured that BN (actually UMNO) retained 13,060 votes to win the by-election today. It's a 10,945-vote majority.

Mahathir Mohamad’s party, Pejuang which made their debut lost, having secured only 2,115 votes.