Google Africa PhD Fellowship Program 2019 for African Students

Application Deadline: 4th February 2019 at 11:59:59 PM GMT

Eligible Countries: African countries

About the Award: Nurturing and maintaining strong relations with the academic community is a top priority at Google. The Google Africa PhD Fellowship Program has been created to support and recognize outstanding students pursuing or looking to pursue PhD level studies in computer science and related areas.

Fields of Study: Computer science and related areas

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: 
For current PhD Students

• Applicants must be enrolled into a full-time PhD program at a university in Africa. Applicants who are currently in their first year of a part-time PhD program and transferring to full-time positions are also welcome to apply.
• Students should be early stage PhD students, i.e., should not have been into more than 1 year of their PhD. Applicants for the 2018 Fellowship must have started their program on or after 1 January 2017.
• Students must remain enrolled in the PhD program for the duration of the Fellowship or forfeit the award.
• Applicants must be pursuing a PhD in Computer Science or related areas.
• Google employees and family members of Google employees are not eligible.
• Students who are already receiving another corporate fellowship are not eligible.

For current Undergraduate/Masters students and Professionals

Grant of the fellowship to this category of applicants is contingent on them joining a full-time PhD program at a university in Africa within the calendar year of the award.

• Student applicants must be current full-time Undergraduate or Masters students enrolled at an African university. Professionals must be employed/affiliated with an organization registered in Africa.
• The Google Fellowship award shall be contingent on the awardee registering for the full-time PhD program of an African university, in Computer Science or related areas, within the calendar year 2018, or the award shall be forfeited.
• Grant of the Google Fellowship does not mean admission to the PhD program of a university. The awardee must also complete the PhD admission process of the respective institute/university where he/she wishes to register for a PhD.
• Grant of the Google Fellowship will be subject to the rules and guidelines applicable in the institute/university where the awardee registers for the PhD program.
• Google employees and family members of Google employees are not eligible.
• Applicants who are already receiving another corporate fellowship are not eligible.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Details of Award: 

• Successful students receive named Fellowships, which include a $10,000 award per year over 3 years.
• The funds are given directly to the university to be distributed to cover the student’s expenses and stipend as appropriate.
• The funds are given as an unrestricted gift, and it is Google’s policy not to pay for overhead on unrestricted gifts.
• In addition, the student will be matched with a Google Research Mentor who we hope will become a valuable resource to the student.
• There is no employee relationship between the student and Google as a result of receiving the fellowship.
• Fellowship recipients are not subject to intellectual property restrictions unless they complete an internship at Google.
• Fellowship recipients serving an internship are subject to the same intellectual property and other contractual obligations as any other Google intern.
• If a Fellowship student is interested, an internship at Google is encouraged, but not guaranteed or required.

How to Apply: 

• Applications are accepted directly from students. There is no limit to the number of students who may apply from each university.
• Applicant’s areas of research interest must be one of the areas listed at https://research.google.com/.
• Awardees will be announced on the Google Research blog by mid-March 2019

Instructions for Applicants

• Gather the following documents:

• 1. Applicant’s resume with links to publications (if available).
  2. One-page resume of the student’s PhD program advisor.
  3. Available transcripts (mark sheets) starting from first year/semester of Bachelor’s degree to date.
  4. Research proposal (maximum two pages).
  5. Three letters of recommendation from those familiar with the applicant’s work (at least one coming from the thesis adviser in case of current PhD students). If the recommendation writers want to send the letter separately, they can mail it directly to research-africa@google.com with the subject “Recommendation for [applicant-name]”.

Apply here. For any questions, please email research-africa@google.com.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Google

Africa Energy Indaba African Youth Energy Innovator 2019

Application Deadline: 4th January 2019 (midnight GMT+2).

About the Award: Africa needs to invest in and grow its next generations of energy leaders if its countries and the broader continent are to compete in the global arena. Africa Energy Indaba is committed to empowering talented young Africans by allowing them to be seen by the industry experts and energy decision makers. Africa Energy Indaba wants to encourage empowerment and help find solutions to energy problems in Africa. We want to foster inspirational and innovative thinking, starting with the talented youth in Africa.

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility: 

• Individuals who are between 18 to 35 years old; AND
• Have citizenship to any country in Africa

Selection Criteria: 
1. Energy Security: Can your innovation help with effective management of energy supply, reliability of energy infrastructure, or meet a specific set of current and future demands?
2. Environmental Sustainability: Does your innovation provide clean renewable or low carbon supply energy?
3. Energy Equity: Can your innovation improve accessibility and affordability of energy in Africa?
4. Job creation: Could your innovation create jobs?
5. Target customers: Who is the innovation going to benefit? For example Utilites / Rural communities / Corporates etc.?
6. Customer value: What are the key benefits of your innovation to customers?
7. Your unique value proposition: How will you differentiate and position yourself?

Number of Awards: 5. A winner and 4 runners-up

Value of Award: 
• The winner will receive the Best Innovator Award and will be recognized at the Africa Energy Indaba 2019 in Johannesburg.
• The winner and the 4 runners-up will each receive an all-inclusive ticket to attend the Africa Energy Indaba 2019 and showcase their innovations in a 2-day exhibition. This will provide the following benefits:
– Publicity and exposure of the winning innovations to local and international market opportunities
– Access to exclusive Business Matchmaking networking program to meet with potential investors
– Opportunity to meet key public and private sector stakeholders
– The possibility of attracting funding or sponsorship

How to Apply: Download the Submission Form and submit the completed forms with any diagrams and pictures to deveena@energyindaba.co.za BY 15 January 2018.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Borlaug Global Research Alliance Fellowships 2019 for Researchers in Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 31st December, 2018

Eligible Countries: Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam

To be taken at (country): Africa and Middle East, Egypt, Ghana, East Asia and the Pacific, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Western Hemisphere, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru

Fields of Research: 

1. Developing Tools for Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Sequestration Assessments
   • Develop easily used methods for measuring or estimating greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural settings
   • Develop easily used methods for measuring or estimating carbon sequestration in agricultural soils
   • Develop and field test user-friendly software for quantifying and reporting emissions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
2. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Crop Production Systems
   • Identify agricultural management strategies leading to reduced net greenhouse gas emissions per unit of commodity produced in agronomic (including rice), horticultural, or agro-forestry crop systems
   • Develop models for application of experimental data in decision support tools for different crop or agro-forestry systems in different countries
3. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Livestock Production Systems
   • Identify agricultural management strategies leading to reduced net greenhouse gas emissions per unit of commodity produced in grazing or confined animal production systems
   • Develop models for application of experimental data in decision support tools for livestock production systems in different countries
4. Developing Databases and Strategies for Synthesis, Integration and Decision Support to Manage Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Systems
   • Develop databases assembled from different research teams working on identifying methods to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration
   • Develop process models as a foundation for projecting emissions and sequestration in different agricultural systems and for decision support tools

About the Award: The Borlaug Global Research Alliance Fellowships seek to:

• Provide early-to-midcareer agricultural research scientists, faculty, and policymakers with individual training opportunities in climate change mitigation research
• Provide practical experience and exposure to new perspectives and/or technologies that can be applied in their home institutions
• Foster increased collaboration and networking to improve agricultural productivity and trade
• Facilitate the transfer of new scientific and agricultural technologies to strengthen agricultural practices
• Address obstacles to the adoption of technology such as ineffectual policies and regulations

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: To be considered for the Borlaug Global Research Alliance Fellowships, candidates must:

• Be citizens of an eligible country
• Be fluent in English
• Have completed a Master’s or higher degree
• Be in the early or middle stage of their career, with at least two years of practical experience
• Be employed by a university, government agency or research entity in their home country
• Demonstrate their intention to continue working in their home country after completing the fellowship

Selection Criteria: Applicants are selected based on their academic and professional research interests and achievements, level of scientific competence, aptitude for scientific research, leadership potential, likelihood of bringing back new ideas to their home institution, and flexibility and aptitude for success in a cross-cultural environment. Consideration is also given to the relevance of the applicant’s research area to the research topics highlighted in the application announcement and to global food security and trade.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Fellowship: To be communicated (TBC)

Duration of Fellowship: up to 12 weeks

How to Apply: Candidates must apply via the online application system (link below). The following information will be required:

• Completed application form
• 2-3 page program proposal and action plan
• Signed approval from applicant’s home institution
• Two letters of recommendation
• Official copy of transcript for college/university degree(s) received
• Copy of passport identification page

Click here to access the online application system

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider:  U.S. Department of Agriculture

International Masters in Rural Development (IMRD) Scholarship 2019/2020 for Students in Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 28th February, 2019

Eligible Countries: 
For Erasmus Mundus:

• Countries labelled as Partner countries under the EMJMD Consortium agreement.

For VLIR-UOS:

• Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Niger
• Asia: Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Palestinian Territories, Vietnam
• Latin America: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru

To be taken at (University): Through IMRD you can study at least one semester at the following universities:
within Europe

• Ghent University (Belgium)
• Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany)
• Agrocampus Ouest (France)
• University of Pisa (Italy)
• Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia)

outside Europe

• ESPOL (Ecuador)
• China Agricultural University (China)
• Nanjing Agricultural University (China)
• University of Arkansas (USA)
• University of Pretoria (South Africa)
• University of Agricultural Sciences of Bangalore (India)

Type: Masters

Eligibility:
For Erasmus Mundus:
Applicants which have the official nationality of an Erasmus+ Partner Country, and who meet the IMRD admission requirements and have been be academically admitted by the IMRD Management Board to participate the IMRD programme. Other eligibility requirements of the program include:

• Applicants must have at least a Bachelor’s degree of min. 3 years from a university or recognized equivalent in preferably bioscience engineering or agricultural sciences, (preferably agricultural economics) with good overall scores (at least a second class or equivalent, preferably higher).

• Applicants must be able to demonstrate through their transcripts basic science training in: (i) mathematics and/or statistics; (ii) agronomy and/or biology and/or environmental sciences; and (iii) social sciences/sociology and/or rural development and/or economics.

• Language requirements:
  The English language proficiency can be met by providing a certificate (validity of 5 years) of one of the following tests:
  –    TOEFL IBT 80
  –    TOEFL PBT 550
  –    ACADEMIC IELTS 6,5 overall score
  –    CEFR B2 Issued by a European university language centre
  –    ESOL CAMBRIDGE English CAE (Advanced)
  Language of instruction is not accepted anymore, except applicants who are nationals from or have obtained a bachelor and/or master degree in a higher education institute with English as mode of instruction in USA, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland or Canada, and in the latter case a certificate that the mode of instruction was English has to be submitted.

For VLIR-UOS:
VLIR-UOS offers a limited number of full scholarships for students each year, according to a specific list of eligibility criteria. Applicants need to be a national AND resident of one of the 31 scholarship countries at the time of application.

Selection: The selection of awardees of these scholarships, is conducted by the IMRD Management Board. They take their decision carefully after assessing all complete application files of the academically admitted candidates for the IMRD programme who applied correctly and timely for the Scholarships.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship:  
For Erasmus Mundus:

• 2 year Programme Costs for the IMRD programme (= 2 x 9,000 => 18,000 EUR)
• 2 year full worldwide insurance coverage
• contribution to travel and installation costs (either 5,000 or 7,000 EUR)
• 24 monthly subsistence allowances (= 24 x 1,000 => 24,000 EUR)

The EMJMD Student Scholarship does not include:

• visa costs
• study material
• transportation costs from one mobility to another

For VLIR-UOS:

• The scholarship covers ALL related expenses (full cost).

Duration of Scholarship: 2 years

How to Apply: 


Visit Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Webpage   and  VLIR-UOS Scholarship Webpage for details  

DAAD/PLAAS 2019/2020 Scholarship Programme in Strengthening Advisory Capacities for Land Governance in Africa

Application Deadline: 7th December 2018

Eligible Countries: African countries

To be taken at (country): University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

About the Award: DAAD is offering competitive scholarships for Masters (3) in Poverty, Land & Agrarian Studies, offered at PLAAS.

Field of Study: Masters in Poverty, Land & Agrarian Studies, offered at PLAAS.

Type: Masters

Eligibility: These scholarships are aimed at young candidates, mid-career professionals, researchers and university staff. Female applicants and candidates from less privileged regions or groups are especially encouraged to participate in the programme.

Selection Criteria: For admission to the MPhil Research in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, applicants must have obtained an Honours degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. sociology, history, economics, political science, agriculture, public administration, development studies, geographical and environmental studies). Students must demonstrate a good understanding of their chosen research topic and have research experience in one or more of the following themes – poverty, land and agrarian reform, rural development, and natural resources.

Number of Awards: 3

Value of Award:
Tuition fees
Study and research allowance
Printing allowance
Monthly Scholarship (Accommodation, Food etc.)
Travel allowance (In-Region only)
Insurance

Duration of Programme:  2 years

How to Apply: Applicants are required to apply online to UWC, as well as submit the relevant supporting documents listed below. Click here for more information on the DAAD Call for Applications 2019.

• GOODLUCK!

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

Children – Civilization’s Future, Victims of Western Brutality

Peter Koenig

The United Nations Universal Children’s Day – 20 November – has come and gone – and nothing has changed. No action that would now protect children any more than before, no move even by the UN to call on nations at war to take special care to protect children – if for nothing else but the fact that children are our planets future. They are the standard bearer of human generations to come – and of our civilization as a whole, if we don’t run it into the ground. Yet, children are among the most vulnerable, discriminated and abjectly exploited and abused species within human kind.

The culture of greed and instant profit has no space for children, for their rights, for their up-bringing within a frame of human rights, fair education, access to shelter and health services everywhere. For much of our western society, children are a nuisance, at best, a tool for cheap labor, especially when the west outsources its production processes to poor developing countries, mostly in Asia and Central America, so poor that they cannot enforce laws against child labor – all to maximize corporate profits.

Otherwise the western driven killing and war machine indiscriminately slaughters children, by famine, by drones, by bombs, by disease – by abuse. Collateral damage? I doubt it. Children could be protected, even in illegal wars. But eradicating by death and poverty entire generations in nations the west intends to subdue has a purpose: rebuilding of these nations will not take place under the watch of educated children, grown adults, who would most likely oppose their ‘hangmen’, those that have destroyed their homes and families, their villages and towns, their schools and hospital, their drinking water supply systems – leaving them to the plight of cholera and other diseases brought about by lack of hygiene and sanitation. So, in the interest of the empire and its puppet allies, children’s calamities and crimes on them are at best under reported – in most cases nobody even cares.

Look at Syria. The poison gas attacks instigated by US and NATO forces, carried out by their proxies ISIS and Saudi Arabia, to blame them on President Bashar al Assad, were directed at children for greater public relations impact – further helped by the fake heroes, the White Helmets. Can you imagine! (I’m sure you can) – children have to be poisoned and killed by western forces who want to topple the Syrian Assad regime to put their puppet in Assad’s place, so that they can control the country and eventually the region. Yes, children are sacrificed – a huge crime against humanity – to commit another horrendous international crime – forcefully change a democratically elected regime. That’s what the west does and is – and probably always was for the last 2000 years.

Take the situation of Yemen, where for the last 3 ½ years the network of the world’s biggest mafia killer scheme, led by Saudi Arabia, as the patsy and foreign money funnel aiding the United States and her allies in crime, the UK, France, Spain, several of the Gulf States, until recently also Germany, and many more – has killed by bombs, starvation and cholera induced by willingly destroyed water supply and sanitation systems, maybe hundreds of thousands of children.

According to Safe the Children, some 85,000 children below 5 years of age may have already died from famine; mind you, a purposefully induced famine, as Saudi and Gulf forces destroyed and blocked the port of Hodeida, where about 80% – 90% of imported food enters the country. The most vulnerable ones, as with every man-made disaster, are children and women.

Already a year ago, the UN warned that the cholera outbreak in Yemen is the fasted spreading cholera epidemic since records began and that it will affect at least a million people, including at least 600,000 children. A year later – how many of them have died? Extreme food shortages, destroyed shelters and hospitals, lack of medication, as medicine is also blocked at the points of import, have reduced children’s natural immune systems even further.

Imagine the suffering caused not just to the children, but to their parents, families, communities – what the west is doing is beyond words. Its beyond crime; and all those ‘leaders’ (sic) responsible will most likely never face a criminal court, as they are controlling all the major justice systems in the world. Though, no justice could make good for the killing and misery, but at least it could demonstrate that universal crime – as is the war on Yemen and many others fought for greed and power – is not tolerated with impunity.

UNHCR – the UN refugee agency reports that worldwide some 70 million refugees are on the move or in refugee camps. This figure does not include a large number of unreported cases, perhaps up to a third more. Most of the refugees are generated in the Middle East by western initiated wars; wars for greed, for natural resources, for controlling a geopolitically and strategically important region – on the seemingly ‘unstoppable’ way to full power world dominance.

At least two thirds of the refugees are children – no health care, no education, no suitable shelter, or none at all, malnourished-to-starving, raped, abused, enslaved – you name it.

Where do all these children go? What is their future? – There will be societies – Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan – missing a full generation. The countries are suffering a gap in educated people. This wanton gap will likely prevent rebuilding and developing their nations according to their sovereign rights. These countries are easier to control, subdue and enslave.

Just imagine, many of the lost children pass under the radar of human statistics, ignored, many of them are totally abandoned, no parents, no family, nobody to care for them, nobody to love them – they may quietly die – die in the gutters, unknown, anonymous. We – the brutal west – let them.

And the UN-declared Children’s Day has come and gone – and nothing has changed, Nothing will change as long as the west is devastating indiscriminately countries, cities, villages for sheer greed. Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan — never were threatening the United States, nor Israel, of course. But they have resources the west covets, or they are geopolitically of strategic importance – for step by bloody step advancing towards world hegemony.

According to the UN, about 300 million children around the world do not go to school. Again, the unreported figure is possibly double or higher, especially including those that attend school only sporadically. Many of the children are abducted, sold into slavery, prostitution, imprisoned for medical testing – and for use in orgies of blood thirsty secret societies, their organs harvested and traded by mafia type organizations. Organ trading allegations are levied against Israel’s armed forces killing thousands of children in Israel’s open prison and extermination camp, called Gaza; and against Ukraine’s Kiev Nazi Government.

Did you know, 60% of all children in Gaza are mutilated and amputated as a result of Israel’s war against the Palestine population? And the world looks on, not daring to protest and stand up against this criminal nation – God’s chosen people.

In the UK, 1 of 4 children live in poverty. In the US, 60million children go to bed hungry – every night. As I write these lines, at the US-Mexican border refugee children and their mothers are being shot at with teargas canons by US police and military forces, to prevent them from entering Mr. Trump’s Holy Land, the Great United States of America.

The former UN Secretary General, Koffi Annan, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, referring to the horrific siege on Aleppo and calling for international action to stop the war, he said, “The assault on Aleppo is an assault on the whole world. When hospitals, schools and homes are bombed indiscriminately, killing and maiming hundreds of innocent children, these are acts that constitute an attack on our shared, fundamental human values. Our collective cry for action must be heard, and acted upon, by all those engaged in this dreadful war.”

But, how could the world of today be described better than by Caitlin Johnstone in her recent poem “Welcome to Planet Earth”, where she says, “Welcome to Planet Earth…… where children who do not know how to live, teach their children how to live; where children pray for miracles, using minds that are made of miracles; with clasped hands that are made of miracles; where children wander in search of God, upon feet that are made of God, looking with eyes that are made of God.”

Where have all the children gone?

Thousands forced to flee “catastrophic” fire event in Australia

Mike Head 

Unprecedented weather conditions—a combination of record-breaking temperatures, “tornado-like” winds and unusually low humidity—fanned huge fires that have threatened entire townships in coastal central Queensland this week.

Already, at least 8,000 people have been forced to evacuate in the face of the northern Australian state’s first-ever “catastrophic” fire emergency. No one has yet been reported killed, but an unknown number of homes have been destroyed.

Flames as high as 20 metres have suddenly loomed over homes, giving residents just minutes to flee. Comparisons have been drawn with recent devastating bush fires in Western Australia and this month’s infernos in California.

A firefighting commander, Rural Fire Services Central Region manager Brian Smith said: “This is something we don’t want to overstate, but they’re comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires.”

Nearly 200 fires, with fronts up to 50 kilometres wide, burnt thousands of hectares on Wednesday, causing authorities to warn of “catastrophic fire risks” from central Queensland north to the tropical city of Townsville.

Around 100 fires were still burning across the state yesterday, and that number could rise again, with five more days of heatwave predicted. More than 40 schools remained closed and the main north-south highway was cut for a period.

Hundreds of firefighters have been flown in from interstate to help relieve their exhausted and over-stretched Queensland counterparts. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services inspector Andrew Sturgeous said the state had never seen fires like this before.

In the region around the central Queensland city of Rockhampton, the official fire danger rating reached 135 on Wednesday, well above the “catastrophic” level of 100. That rating, the highest possible, indicates fires of such severity that no house can survive, no matter how well constructed.

Residents were shocked and often caught unawares. About 50 people at Campwin Beach, south of Mackay, were forced to leave their homes at 2 a.m. on Thursday. Vicky Crichton told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she was woken by authorities telling her to evacuate immediately. “It was so quick … I just opened the door and it was like opening the door to hell.”

In another typical account, Lindsay Barram, 70, told AAP that the people of the small township of Mount Larcom, north of Gladstone, had to flee with just minutes’ warning, taking just the clothes on their backs. He described the sky turning black, reducing the sun to a “glowing” red fireball. “You could see the smoke getting much, much worse,” he said. “You knew you were in trouble… The wind was just horrific when we left, it was nearly blowing me over, actually.”

Queensland State Disaster Commissioner Bob Gee said conditions were “not normal for Queensland” and “people would burn to death” if they did not heed warnings to evacuate. Some residents complained of being “nearly arrested” by police to force them into paddy wagons to flee.

Because of its normally higher humidity, Queensland previously has been spared the frequent fire disasters that strike Australia’s southern states, but this week’s dry heat broke many records. Summer has not even begun, yet temperatures soared above 40C (104F) in many locations.

Weather bureau forecaster Bruce Gunn said “too many records” were set on Wednesday to list them all. Temperatures in Rockhampton reached 41.7C and Mackay had an unprecedented six consecutive days above 35C.

The weather conditions were unlike anything seen before, Gunn said. “In the past in Queensland, we’ve only found a few minutes (of catastrophic conditions) here and there in individual events. In Rockhampton we had catastrophic conditions sustained for 3.5 hours. Certainly something outside our experience.”

This is a foretaste of a potentially disastrous summer across Australia. In its latest Seasonal Bushfire Outlook, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre predicted “above-normal” fire risks across much of southern Australia, due to very low rainfall and “above average “temperatures. The Bureau of Meteorology, in its detailed outlook for summer, warned that most of Australia has an 80 percent chance of higher-than-normal temperatures between December and February.

In a display of official indifference, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said neither he nor Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack planned to visit the fire-ravaged area. Morrison said people needed to “focus on the firefighting effort and the firefighting response.”

Morrison told reporters in Canberra: “The entire country is there to help in this time of great need.” But his Liberal-National Coalition government merely activated a national disaster assistance plan, allowing the Queensland state Labor Party government to seek as-yet unspecified federal help and financial assistance.

State premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described the fire situation as “off the charts … nobody has recorded these conditions any time in the history of Queensland.” While the fires are unprecedented, however, the emergency provides more evidence of the disastrous impact of the extreme weather events caused by climate change. Scientists have long warned of these processes.

An Australian Climate Council report in 2015 found there had been a nearly 20 percent increase in global fire seasons between 1978 and 2013. As a result, firefighters had less time to carry out hazard reduction burns, undertake training and community awareness campaigns, or give crews a rest. And firefighting personnel and equipment could not easily be shared between countries in the northern and southern hemispheres.

In a report published on Wednesday by the Lancet medical journal, scientists and health experts from 27 organisations around the world said climate change impacts—from heatwaves to worsening storms, floods and fires—were surging and threatened to overwhelm health systems.

Rising heat and wilder weather linked to climate change made it “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.” Already, 157 million more people worldwide were exposed to heatwaves last year than in 2000.

Despite increasingly dire warnings from scientists, Australian governments, like capitalist states around the world, have demonstrated their inability to take the necessary measures to halt global warming. International agreements that have been adopted are totally inadequate, and even these are under constant attack as each ruling class seeks to maximise corporate profits.

Taiwan elections reveal widespread hostility to the ruling DPP

Robert Campion

Taiwan’s local elections last weekend produced a landslide defeat for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), revealing deep dissatisfaction over deteriorating living standards and fears about the rising trade war tensions between the US and China that are leading to war.

The DPP lost seven of the 13 city and county seats it has held since 2014, including the southern city of Kaohsiung, a DPP stronghold for 20 years. The rival Kuomintang (KMT) captured 15 seats, up from six. Taipei City remained in the hands of a so-called independent Ko Wen-je.

Voter turnout was among the highest recorded, with polling stations remaining open past the advertised closing time in parts of Taipei and Kaohsiung.

The widespread losses prompted token resignations. President Tsai Ing-wen stepped down as party chief—though continuing as the country’s president—thus opening the possibility of a leadership struggle for the 2020 presidential elections.

“I hereby announce my resignation as chairwoman and shoulder responsibility,” Tsai said. “We have learned a lesson and must reflect on ourselves as, obviously, voters have a higher expectation of us.”

Fellow party members, Premier William Lai and presidential secretary general Chen Chu, also offered to resign, only to be asked to stay on.

The results are a stark reversal of the 2014 local elections, in which the then ruling KMT was resoundingly defeated in response to a stagnating economy and worsening social crisis, including high youth unemployment.

Of significance is the rise of third-party candidates, exploiting the broad hostility to the two major parties. Of the 912 local legislature seats, independent candidates claimed 280, up from 221 in 2014. They outnumber the DPP, which lost 70 seats, cutting its overall total to 238. The KMT gained 20 seats, securing 394 all up.

KMT candidate Han Kuo-Yu’s victory in the previous DPP stronghold of Kaohsiung provides an indication of Taiwan’s underlying class tensions. Despite receiving no money or resources from his party, which perceived the seat as unwinnable, he won 53.87 percent of the vote by fashioning himself as a political outsider.

The media depicted the contest as being between “vegetable vendor” Han and a “political elite [candidate] born out of a rich and political family.” Speaking before a pre-election rally of 200,000 cheering supporters, Han promised to “make Kaohsiung great” again.

“If I was elected mayor, I would return the city to its former glory, when people were rich and young men were able to find a decent job,” Han said.

Such populist promises fly in the face of reality as Taiwan’s export-dependent economy continues to slow. In the first half of 2018, real gross domestic product growth fell to just 1.5 percent, from 4 percent in the second half of 2017.

Taiwan is caught up in the trade war instigated by the US against China, which has affected major corporations with operations on the mainland, especially electronics companies that account for about a third of Taiwan’s exports. Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer and a major supplier for brands such as Apple, has seen its share price drop more than 8 percent in recent weeks.

In addition, Taiwan’s steel sales to the US have dropped 12 percent since Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium in March. The island’s tech industries could be further affected if the US carries out its threat to raise tariffs on $US200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent in January.

During the election campaign, the DPP, in concert with the US, waged a hysterical campaign against Chinese “interference,” claiming that Beijing was spreading disinformation throughout Taiwan in order to confuse voters and sabotage electoral processes. DPP officials seized upon an intelligence agency’s report to launch an investigation into the alleged meddling.

In reality, many voters were concerned about Taiwan’s flagging economy and the tensions that have increased between Taipei and Beijing since Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016. Under Trump, the US has forged closer ties with Taiwan and provided support for the DPP, which has long advocated a more independent stance from China.

Tsai has refused to officially acknowledge the “1992 Consensus,” a diplomatic agreement that both the mainland, or People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan, or the Republic of China, constitute part of the same country, while leaving open the character of the government. Acknowledging the “One China” principle is a precondition for talks with Beijing.

Emboldened by the US, Tsai proposed greater independence and a stronger military, resulting in a freeze in formal cross-strait dialogue.

As part of the local elections, voters were asked whether its international sports teams should change their name from Chinese-Taipei to Taiwan. That move would anger Beijing and could risk Taiwan’s right to compete in the Olympics. The referendum was overwhelmingly defeated.

Commenting on the election results, China’s state-run China Daily criticised the DPP. “The election shows that the Tsai administration has betrayed Taiwan’s interests and become a troublemaker whose actions have drifted farther away from the practical needs of the Taiwan people and the historical truth of the consensus that there is only one China,” it said.

The KMT, which ruled Taiwan as a dictatorship for decades after it fled China following the 1949 Chinese revolution, has insisted that the island is part of China. After Beijing moved to restore capitalism from 1978, it effectively shelved its claim to be the rightful ruling party of all China, and developed closer relations with the Chinese Communist Party regime.

After the election victory, KMT chairman Wu Den-yih told reporters his party was committed to reducing diplomatic frictions with China and returning to mutually beneficial, two-way trade. “We hope the two sides will soon go back to a peaceful and stable trend in relations,” he said.

The Trump administration has deliberately stoked tensions with China over Taiwan. Just last month the US navy sailed warships through the Taiwan Strait, the second time this year. Washington also has sealed two major arms deals with the island, totalling over $1.7 billion. China has responded with threatening military exercises, simulating an invasion by flying bombers and other military aircraft around the island, as well as sailing its aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait.

As Trump ratchets up the US trade war and military provocations with China, Taiwan, a dangerous geo-political flashpoint, increasingly will be drawn into the conflict.

UAE pardons British PhD student Matthew Hedges on spying charges

Paula Smith

The United Arab Emirates’ rulers granted British PhD student Matthew Hedges “gracious clemency.” Just days earlier a court in Abu Dhabi sentenced him to life imprisonment on charges of espionage, following a five-minute court hearing that gave him no opportunity to offer a defence.

According to Attorney General Hamad al-Shamsi, Hedges was convicted on charges of “spying for a foreign country” and “jeopardising the military, political and economic security of the state.” However, the UAE did not publish any evidence or even state on whose behalf Hedges was supposedly working, although this is widely assumed to mean Qatar, which the UAE—along with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States—has been blockading for the last 18 months over its support for Iran and sponsoring “terrorism.”

Hedges’ fate provoked a diplomatic crisis for the British government that remained tight-lipped following his arrest and detention in solitary confinement in an Emirati jail last May, with little consular access or contact with family members. While a comparable case in Russia would have involved a furious outcry, the Foreign Office urged Hedges’ family to say nothing in public about the case, claiming any publicity would impact adversely.

Hedges, 31, was brought up in the UAE and used to work for a security and political consultancy firm based there as an analyst. He had spent two weeks in Dubai researching the UAE’s foreign and internal security policies for his PhD at Durham University. According to his wife, Daniela Tajeda, he was arrested last May as he was leaving Dubai and kept in such dreadful conditions that he was hospitalised at one point. Hedges has denied all accusations against him, but was made to sign a confession, written in Arabic, which he does not read.

Over 650 academics from British universities, many with campuses in Dubai, and internationally signed a petition—co-signed by Professor Clive Jones, Hedges’ supervisor—calling for his release and saying that Dubai could not be regarded as a safe place for academics to work. Durham and Essex are among a number of universities that have severed ties with the UAE.

The American Political Science Association published a letter calling on the UAE to release Hedges and to “reaffirm the UAE’s respect for academic freedom and freedom of expression.”

The UAE routinely hands down long jail sentences to critics, dissidents and human rights activists, particularly after its bust-up with Qatar, when showing sympathy with its neighbour became punishable by up to 15 years in jail. Abu Dhabi has installed a vast surveillance system across the city that it purchased from an Israeli-owned security company to keep tabs on its citizens, migrant workers and tourists. The new Falcon Eye surveillance system “links thousands of cameras spread across the city, as well as thousands of other cameras installed at facilities and buildings in the emirate.”

Nicholas McGeehan, a former Human Rights Watch researcher in the Gulf, told the Middle East Eye that the country had no independent judiciary. “It’s a police state. You have these squads of people who operate completely outside the rule of law and snatch people off the street, snatch people out of airports, and disappear and torture them based on spurious allegations, or based on their background, or based on their associations that the UAE disapproves of.”

The public outcry and the sham nature of the trial finally forced the British government to speak out. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was “deeply shocked” by the sentence, while Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “deeply disappointed.” Hunt finally agreed to meet Tajeda for the first time since Hedges’ arrest in May, despite repeated requests.

Attorney General al-Shamsi responded by pointing out that the verdict against Hedges was not “final” and that he had 30 days to appeal the sentence. The next day, Hunt held “a constructive conversation” with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE’s foreign minister, who said that his country hopes to find an “amicable solution… The UAE is determined to protect its important strategic relationship with a key ally.”

Hedges’ pardon came yesterday and was one of more than 800 remissions granted by the UAE during National Day when the UAE often grants such reprieves.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme last Thursday, Tejada said that the British did not want to upset their close ally. “I got the impression that they were putting their interests with the UAE above a British citizen’s rightful freedom and his welfare and his right to just a fair trial, just to freedom,” she said. “They were stepping on eggshells instead of taking a firm stance.”

The previous week, Baroness Rona Fairhead, the Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion at the Department for International Trade, headed a delegation of 50 companies at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference in a bid to boost trade following Brexit. Britain exported goods, including weaponry, and services worth £11.1 billion to the UAE in 2017 and imported £7.4 billion. Not only is the UAE the region’s second largest purchaser of Britain’s non-military exports, it is host to more than 120,000 UK citizens who work there and is a key investor in Britain.

Fairhead said, “The UAE is the fifth largest trading partner for the UK outside Europe, coming after the US, Japan, China and Hong Kong, and bilateral trade is now growing in double digits. In terms of investment, we are the biggest foreign direct investor today in the UAE.”

The previous day, Hunt met Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

It is not just Britain’s economic relations with the UAE that are at stake. The UAE, which as a member of the Trucial States, was once under British “protection,” plays a crucial role in American and British imperialism’s plans to undermine Iran and dominate the resource-rich region as “a long-established partner in security and intelligence matters.”

The UAE joined the NATO-led intervention to topple Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, where it continues to support the forces of General Khalifa Hiftar in the Benghazi region in opposition to the UN-recognized government in Tripoli. It financed, sponsored and trained proxy forces to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and leads the Saudi-sponsored war on the ground against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

But it is increasingly, along with Saudi Arabia, pursuing its own interests that on occasion conflict with those of the imperialist powers—as evidenced by the bitter row with Qatar. The UAE’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed backed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his rapid rise to power. Their joint opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood, shared by Egypt’s dictator, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has set them against Qatar and Turkey, which hosts Egyptian members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist exiles.

UK Intelligence and Security Committee admits Manchester bomb attack should have been prevented

Thomas Scripps 

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has stated that the MI5 intelligence agency made a series of mistakes in its handling of the case of Salman Abedi, failing to prevent him from carrying out a horrific terrorist attack.

Abedi detonated a bomb at the end of a packed Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017, killing 22 people and injuring over a hundred.

The ISC’s report stated that, “there were a number of failures in the handling of Salman Abedi’s case and, while it is impossible to say whether these would have prevented the devastating attack on 22 May, we have concluded that, as a result of the failings, potential opportunities to prevent it were missed.”

MI5 accepted that they “moved too slowly.”

In reality, the report and all such admissions are tailored to hide a host of damning facts about Abedi’s relationship with the British state that explain why such supposed “mistakes” were made.

The ISC is composed of tried and trusted MPs and Lords selected by the prime minister and sworn into the Queen’s Privy Council. Its “investigation” is meant to complete a whitewash begun in December 2017 with a report on UK terror attacks by David Anderson QC—building on the cover-up launched in the hours after the attack.

Immediately after the bombing, Prime Minister Theresa May claimed Abedi was a “lone wolf”, only known to the security services “to a degree.” Two D-Notices (a request to the press not to report on a particular issue) were issued over the attack and were for the most part slavishly obeyed by the mainstream media. Information soon emerged, mostly via the US, that tore the government’s claims to shreds.

It was revealed that the FBI had warned MI5 in January 2017 that Abedi belonged to a North African terrorist group looking for a political target in Britain. Then it was reported that Abebi was in contact with a Libyan Islamic State battalion and that he had twice visited in prison the convicted terrorist and fighter in Libya and Syria, Abdal Raouf Abdallah, which would have triggered extensive security checks as a matter of course.

Abedi regularly travelled from his home in Manchester to Libya to visit his parents, who were members of the anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group—which is closely tied to the British state. He is reported to have fought with Islamist forces himself. Actively investigated by MI5 in January 2014, Abedi soon had his case closed, to be reopened in 2015 and closed again within one day. At the time he detonated his bomb, four days after returning from a trip to Libya, he was supposedly not considered a threat.

Anderson’s December report was designed to cover for the security services in the face of these incriminating disclosures. He previously defended GCHQ’s mass surveillance of the entire population in a BBC documentary and paved the way for the Snoopers’ Charter with the report, “A Question of Trust.” He wrote, “It is not the purpose of the internal reviews, or of this report, to cast or apportion blame.” The case of Abedi outlined was cast in terms of “tragic” mistakes only noticeable “in retrospect.”

Anderson made no mention of the fact that came to light in August this year—that Abedi and his brother had actually been evacuated from Libya aboard a Royal Navy ship in 2014, with the personal knowledge of then Prime Minister David Cameron. He refused to comment on whether he had known about the evacuation when compiling his report and, if so, why he had chosen to omit it.

The only conclusion to be drawn from the available evidence is that Abedi was viewed as an intelligence asset, allowed free rein to participate in jihadist formations aligned with British imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa. Only this explanation makes sense of the incredible “lapses in security” revealed by the ISC, whatever combination of fact and fiction they may be.

According to the committee, Abedi’s two visits to Abdal Raouf Abdallah in Altcourse prison brought “no follow-up action” and were “not passed to MI5.” He was never referred to the government’s “Prevent” strategy—meant to prevent people being radicalized by “extremism”—and did not have his travel monitored or restricted.

Another security “failing” caused “serious concern” due to its “highly sensitive security aspects” and will only be revealed only to the prime minister in a classified report. Concealing this information strongly suggests that it is highly incriminating and possibly relates to Abedi’s role as an asset in the operation to topple Gaddafi. Theresa May was home secretary at the time when the security services allowed LIFG members to travel to Libya, providing them with passports after they had been previously confiscated and giving them security clearance as part of the military operations to overthrow Gaddafi.

Abedi was never referred to Prevent, yet in 2015-2016 over a thousand schoolchildren were referred to its “deradicalization” programmes. The UK is a world leader in mass surveillance and had direct links with multiple Libyan Islamist militias. These “errors of judgement” were part of a deliberate policy.

The ISC’s members know this is precisely how MI5 and MI6 operate: maintaining and protecting networks of jihadist fighters, who can be deployed against Middle Eastern and African governments. If some go rogue and kill British citizens, then that is considered collateral damage.

This pattern was confirmed in October, when head of counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu said that fighters returning from Syria were no longer considered the biggest terror threat to the UK. According to the UK’s own counter-terrorism strategy documents, around 900 British nationals of “national security concern” are thought to have travelled to Syria, and 40 percent of them are thought to have returned.

Basu’s comments prefigured a statement from Chief of the British General Staff General Mark Carleton-Smith last weekend. Smith declared that the threat from terrorism paled in comparison to the threat posed by Russia. Having served as a bogeyman to justify endless wars of intervention and attacks on democratic rights, “the terrorists” are now far more helpful as allies in proxy wars against rival powers—above all Russia.

The only ISC recommendations likely to be enacted are those which use state-created atrocities as an excuse for yet greater state surveillance and censorship in connection with rapidly escalating militarism. The report states that communication companies were failing to fulfil their duty to detect terror planning online and suggested government pressure be brought to bear.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid jumped at the opportunity, saying “We have updated our counter-terrorism strategy, introduced new legislation to allow threats to be disrupted earlier and have increased information sharing with local authorities. We are also ensuring technology companies play their part by stopping terrorists from exploiting their platforms.”

The media passed over the ISC report with nothing more than a “so what”, with no further reporting on it after 24 hours. The BBC and the Guardian said nothing of Abedi’s extensive connections with Britain’s Libya campaign in their coverage. BBC home affairs and security correspondent, Dominic Casciani, provided an apologia for MI5, writing , “The big problem is that intelligence on suspects is fragmentary. A British-Libyan young man travelling to Libya is not the stuff of red alerts.”

The Labour Party maintains its silence over Britain’s deadly imperialist intrigues. Instead of questioning the government about its relationship with Abedi, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott used the ISC report to call for more police and security: “This raises serious questions for the entire policing and security system, not simply MI5 alone. These questions include the proper identification, prioritisation and prevention of terrorists, which is an increasingly integrated process, involving multiple agencies, or at least it should be. But this government has undermined policing with cuts of 21,000 officers. And community policing, the frontline ears and eyes on the ground in the fight against terror, has been hardest hit.”

Survivors and those bereaved by the Manchester attack criticised the government and intelligence agencies. Survivor Robby Porter is considering taking legal action against MI5. “This could have been stopped,” he said, “and we're finding out now that it should have been stopped.”

The US mortality crisis: CDC reports extraordinary drop in life expectancy

Trévon Austin 

Life expectancy in the United States continued its extraordinary decline in 2017 after stagnating in 2016 and falling in 2015. Not since the combined impact of World War I and the Spanish Flu in 1918 has the country experienced such a prolonged period of decline in life expectancy.

The annual mortality report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) highlights the disastrous impact of the social crisis on the American working class. Suicides and drug overdoses, what have been termed deaths of despair, have been identified as the driving forces behind the continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live.

Age-adjusted drug overdose death rates: United States, 1999–2017

In 2017, over 2.8 million Americans died, an increase by approximately 70,000 from the previous year and the most deaths in a single year since the US government began keeping records. From 2016 to 2017, the age-adjusted death rate for the entire population increased by 0.4 percent.

The average life expectancy in the US declined from 78.7 to 78.6 years. Life expectancy dropped for males from 76.2 to 76.1 but remained the same for females at 81.1. Life expectancy for females has consistently been higher than males and the gap continues to widen. In 2017, the difference in life expectancy between females and males increased 0.1 year from 4.9 years in 2016 to 5.0 years in 2017.

Age-specific death rates between 2016 and 2017 increased for age groups 25–34, 35–44, and 85 and over. These statistics indicate a healthcare system failing the elderly and a societal crisis ravaging younger workers. Deaths of despair, including alcoholism, are a leading cause of deaths in younger ages groups.

The US suicide death rate rose to the highest in 50 years last year. Since 2008, it has ranked as the 10th leading cause of death for all ages in the US. In 2016, suicide became the second leading cause of death for ages 10–34 and the fourth leading cause for ages 35–54. From 1999 to 2017, suicide rates have increased for both males and females, with the greatest yearly increases occurring since 2006.

The average annual increase in suicide rates shifted from about one percent per year from 1999 through 2006 to two percent per year from 2006 through 2017. The age-adjusted rate of suicide among females increased from 4.0 per 100,000 in 1999 to 6.1 in 2017, while the rate for males increased from 17.8 to 22.4.

Age-adjusted suicide rates, by sex: United States, 1999–2017

The study also focuses on suicide in depressed rural regions. In 1999, the suicide rate in rural counties was 1.4 times the rate of most urban areas. The rate in rural areas was 13.1 per 100,000 with urban areas having a rate of 9.6 per 100,000. The difference further increased in 2017 with the suicide rate for the most rural counties (20.0 per 100,000) increasing to 1.8 times the rate for the most urban counties (11.1).

The rate in drug overdoses has skyrocketed in the same period. From 1999 to 2017, the overdose rate soared from 6.1 per 100,000 to 21.7 per 100,000. The rate increased by an average of 10 percent per year from 1999 to 2006, by 3 percent per year from 2006 to 2014, and a staggering 16 percent per year from 2014 to 2017. The rise coincides with the opioid crisis ravaging through parts of the US, concentrated in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The figures contained in the latest CDC report are a reflection of the diseased nature of American society and the failure of the capitalist system. The last decade has seen a historic rise in social inequality in the aftermath of the economic crash of 2008 and the bailout of Wall Street, overseen by Obama and the Democrats, which saw the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the working class to the rich.

Low-wage, tenuous employment, where it is available, has replaced the jobs that were destroyed in the process. The boondoggle that is known as Obamacare, far from providing the population with healthcare, has funneled billions of dollars to the healthcare industry and increased corporate profits by compelling workers to buy substandard health insurance out of their own pocket.

Life expectancy at selected ages, by sex: United States, 2016 and 2017

CDC director Robert R. Redfield lamented over the implications of his organization’s report: “The latest CDC data show that the US life expectancy has declined over the past few years. Tragically, this troubling trend is largely driven by deaths from drug overdose and suicide,” he said in a press release.

“Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the Nation’s overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable.”

As indicated by the prevalence of suicide in rural regions, joblessness and social isolation reap a terrible toll. Workers are driven to the very brink of despair under the ruling class assault against the living standards won by the working class in the 20th century.

There is no solution to the continued decline in life expectancy forthcoming from the ruling class. In reality, the increased death rates are seen as the cost of doing business, necessary to funnel ever greater sums of money into the pockets of robber barons like Jeff Bezos and fuel unprecedented spending on the US military.

A socialist response is required to meet the needs of the working class. A direct assault must be launched on the wealth of the corporate and financial elite. The wealth of the one percent must be expropriated to fund universal healthcare and turn the giant pharmaceutical companies into publicly-owned utilities.

The decades-long campaign to strip workers of their social gains must be reversed. Society must be transformed to ensure every person has access to high quality healthcare, education and housing, and ensure the right to a high-paying job and leisure. Above all this requires the building of a mass working class movement independent of both big-business parties, fighting for socialism.