Australian government moves to boost data-swapping with US spy network

Mike Head

The Australian government is helping spearhead moves by the Trump administration to force internet companies to hand over encryption-cracking capabilities, and to intensify data-swapping within the US-dominated “Five Eyes” global surveillance network.

At a Five Eyes summit in Washington D.C. last week, Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton joined US Attorney General William Barr and senior ministers from the UK, Canada and New Zealand in ramping up their demands that the tech companies provide unprecedented access to their customers’ encrypted communications.

At the same time, in Canberra, the Liberal-National Coalition government unveiled a bill to expand and legalise the capacity of the US intelligence and police agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA), to obtain intercepted data from their Australian counterparts, and vice versa.

This dual development highlights the frontline role being played by the Australian government and military-intelligence apparatus in the mass spying operations and war preparations of the US authorities.

As the thousands of secret US documents published by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden and by Julian Assange via WikiLeaks showed, the Five Eyes partners intercept the communications of millions of people around the globe, routinely exchange data about each others’ citizens, and also supply cyber warfare facilities and targeting information to their militaries.

Both Barr and Dutton dressed up the intensified collaboration as one focused on combating on-line paedophilia. Dutton hailed “a new page” in the fight against child-sex abuse after the Washington meeting approved guidelines designed to push companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to shut down “Dark Web” sites on their platforms.

The measures are part of a drive to compel the companies to hand over to the Five Eyes agencies information about how to open up the encryption technologies that millions of people employ to protect their privacy from government and corporate monitoring and interference.

Both Barr and Dutton targeted encryption. Barr said “predators” communicated using “virtually unbreakable encryption.” Dutton echoed him, saying encryption “allows offenders to diversify their methods and evade law enforcement.”

The actual concern of these governments is not “child sex predators,” whose activities are closely monitored by international police agencies, which already have vast interception powers. The overriding fear in ruling circles is that working people worldwide use encrypted messages to discuss and organise free of government eaves-dropping, amid mounting social unrest and political disaffection.

Last Thursday, a day before the Five Eyes announcement, US congressional leaders released a bipartisan bill that threatens to strip the liability protections of internet companies if they do not help block the use of encryption and other privacy safeguards on social media platforms.

Currently, section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act can shield sites from lawsuits over user content. The proposed Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT) would force companies to “earn” their liability protection by complying with anti-encryption measures.

In Australia, equally anxious to block access to encryption services, Dutton has been engaged in a public attack on Facebook since it announced plans to roll out end-to-end encryption from WhatsApp to its other messaging services, Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

The top-level Five Eyes gathering at the White House coincided with the introduction of a bill to the Australian parliament that would clear the way for a reciprocal agreement under the US Clarifying the Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (the CLOUD Act).

The Trump administration introduced the CLOUD Act in 2018 to force US-based cloud and tech companies to hand over data held offshore. This power is now to be extended to Australia and other close partners.

In a media release, Dutton said the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production Orders) Bill was an “essential precondition” for agreements with the US and other countries to replace “outdated, cumbersome processes” for exchanges of electronic information.

Dutton referred to combating terrorism and paedophilia, yet section 1 of the Bill allows for much wider exchanges. It refers to investigations of “serious offences.” This could cover a vast field, including leaks of government documents and other offences under Australia’s draconian “ foreign interference ” legislation.

Section 1 also permits the swapping of information connected to “the carrying out by the Organisation of its functions.” This refers to the country’s primary political spy force, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). In other words, the Bill covers ASIO’s extensive operations, which are, above all, focused on “subversive” activity deemed a threat to the political establishment and capitalist order.

The Bill further allows interception of the communications of a person who is not even under investigation if authorities assert “reasonable grounds” that the suspected “offender” uses that other person’s communications services.

The legislation would compel Australian service providers to hand over data to US authorities if presented with an “international production order.” Hand-picked members of a vetted tribunal, the Security Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, could issue such orders.

The orders could be for (1) interception, to authorise wiretaps of video and voice calls, (2) stored communications from a messaging application or (3) telecommunications “metadata,” including customers’ names, contact details and account information.

The Bill comes just days after ASIO’s head Mike Burgess admitted, in a “threat assessment” speech, that the agency had accessed encrypted data within 10 days of the anti-democratic Assistance and Access Act coming into effect with the Labor Party’s support.

That Act allows intelligence and police agencies to issue “technical assistance notices” or “capability notices” to compel cooperation from technology companies in building weaknesses into products to make them open to hacking or encryption-cracking.

Encrypted data from these operations would be available to the US under the CLOUD Act exchange plan.

In his speech, Burgess alluded to the danger of large-scale violent attacks by right-wing extremists, like the ones seen in Germany and New Zealand. Dutton, however, immediately insisted that “left-wing extremism” posed an equal threat.

The Bill was tabled just after Dutton and Prime Minister Scott Morrison revived a propaganda campaign to justify plans to formally allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the electronic eavesdropping and cyber warfare agency, to spy on people inside Australia. The ASD is a key component of the Five Eyes network.

Digital Rights Watch chairperson Lizzie O’Shea told the Guardian the latest Bill “largely solidifies in legislation the existing practical cooperation that occurs informally with Australia’s Five Eyes partners.”

O’Shea commented: “Our concern is every time legislation permits increased surveillance capabilities, that becomes the lowest common denominator and our allies can access that same information using powers in Australia to do so.”

A police-state framework is being created, with the complicity and assistance of the internet companies. According to a Facebook transparency report, Australian authorities made 931 requests for user data between January and June 2019, and the company complied with three-quarters of the requests.

This is occurring under conditions of both rising domestic political discontent and sharpening US conflicts with China.

On every front, from encryption-cracking to increased US access to military bases in northern Australia, the Coalition government is placing the country on the frontline of a potentially catastrophic US war against China. This is accompanied by a barrage of anti-China propaganda.

The government is doing so with the support of the opposition Labor Party, which is equally committed to the US military alliance and has backed every move over the past two decades to strengthen the powers of the military and intelligence apparatus.

Oil price war set to trigger new financial storms

Nick Beams

The economic and financial effects of the global spread of the coronavirus are widening rapidly as global growth forecasts are revised sharply down.

The conditions have been created for further turmoil on financial markets this week. Following the worst week since the financial crisis of 2008, the oil market plunged yesterday amid the outbreak of an oil price war between two of the world’s major producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Markets in Asia fell sharply today with Japan’s Nikkei index down by as much 6 percent at the opening while in Australia the ASX was 5 percent lower.

Trading this week began with a fall in the price of Brent crude from $45 a barrel to $31.52, one of the biggest single-day falls in its history, on the back of a Saudi decision to increase production and offer major discounts to purchasers.

The Saudi move followed the breakdown of negotiations with Russia to cut production to try to curb the drop in oil prices resulting from falling demand because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking to the state-owned Russian news agency TASS, Mikhail Leontiev, press secretary for Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, said the relationship with Saudi Arabia had become “meaningless.”

This was because the reduction in oil supplies agreed to with Saudi Arabia had been “quickly replaced in the world market with American shale oil.”

The plunge in the market will have an immediate effect on US shale producers that have been struggling to generate profits and have financed their operation through high-yield or so-called junk bonds.

This could become an avenue through which the effects of the oil price plunge are transmitted into debt and credit markets that are already starting to tighten.

In a note issued on Friday, JP Morgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou warned that supply chain disruptions caused by the virus disruption could already be causing cash-flow problems for companies.

He said credit markets were facing an “increased risk of the cycle turning with a lot more downgrades or even defaults over the coming months.”

The JP Morgan note, as reported by Bloomberg, said that market concerns about ratings downgrades and debt being lowered to junk status were justified by credit fundamentals.

The median net debt to earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) ratio in Europe and the US, for companies issuing high-yield debt, had risen sharply in the last decade. It was now higher than before the recessions of 2007–2008 and 2001–2002.

“Rate markets are now implying that something that looks like US recession is almost a certainty,” Panigirtzoghlou wrote.

There are other indicators pointing in the same direction. Last week the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds hit a new record low of 0.7 percent as investors sought a safe haven. At the beginning of the year the yield was 1.9 percent. UK and German government bonds have also hit new record lows.

Forecasts of global growth are also rapidly being revised down. Last week the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development cut its global growth forecast from 2.9 to 2.4 percent and said a “longer lasting and more intensive coronavirus outbreak” could see global growth fall to 1.5 percent in 2020.

Given the shutdown in northern Italy, which is almost certain to push the country into recession, and the spread of the virus in the US and elsewhere, that prediction, or an even lower figure, has become increasingly likely in just seven days.

Oxford Economics has further cut its global growth forecast for the year to just 2 percent.

“The effects of financial market weakness and the disruption to daily life around the world will trigger lower consumer spending and investment on top of the disruptions to the global supply chain,” it said in a note to clients.

The latest data from China point in the same direction. Exports plunged in the first two months of the year, contracting by 17.2 percent, more than was expected by a Bloomberg poll of economists. Imports dropped by 4 percent over the same period.

The trade figures came after data showed that manufacturing activity in February fell to a record low under conditions where China’s annual growth rate, before the coronavirus outbreak struck, was already the lowest in three decades.

According to a survey conducted by China’s customs administration released at the weekend, more than 80 percent of the country’s foreign companies have returned to work. However, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said that less than a third of small and medium-sized businesses that employ 80 percent of the labour force are operating normally.

While it is not directly related to the coronavirus outbreak and has its immediate source in particular national factors, the announcement by Lebanon that it will default on its $1.2 billion of US dollar-denominated debt—the first such failure in history—is nevertheless a sign of broader global processes.

Prime Minister Hassan Dian said the country was facing “an economic crisis of unprecedented scale.”

When the announcement was made, the prevailing view was that this would not trigger a crisis in other so-called emerging markets that are highly dependent on dollar-denominated loans.

“If this does trigger something more broadly negative for emerging markets it would need to be coupled with more negative news on the coronavirus and global GDP and oil prices falling further,” Nick Eisinger, an emerging markets portfolio manager told the Wall Street Journal .

But in the three days since the announcement, that is exactly what has taken place.

Moreover, the crisis is not just manifesting itself in the extremities, but in the heart of the global capitalist economy, the US.

In a comment published today, the editor of the Financial Times, Rana Foroohar, noted that the coronavirus was a trigger for what, at this point, she termed a “correction” in the stock market.

“The US is in the longest economic cycle on record, with mounds of global debt, falling credit quality, and decades of low interest rates driving asset prices to unsustainable levels. … The truth is that the US economy is now dependent on asset bubbles for survival.”

This situation was the result of policy changes, stretching back decades and driven by both Democrat and Republican administrations, that have built an economy “dangerously dependent on the whims of Wall Street.”

Modi government leaves millions of Indians vulnerable to coronavirus

Wasantha Rupasinghe

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is leaving millions vulnerable to a coronavirus epidemic, as popular anxiety rises over the spread of the disease. The number of confirmed cases in the country has risen to 30, including a Gaziabad local who tested positive on Thursday, and 16 Italian visitors diagnosed on March 3. According to Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, 27,000 people have been placed under community surveillance so far.

Local authorities in the capital, New Delhi, have ordered all primary schools closed in the region until March 31, as a “precautionary measure” to prevent the spread of the virus among children.

Given India’s high population density—particularly in sprawling cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai—and the appalling state of the public health and sanitation systems, the Indian population faces the danger of a rapid spread of this untreatable, potentially lethal virus. It will have the most devastating impact on workers and other rural and urban poor. While the country’s super rich and privileged sections of the upper-middle class can afford expensive treatments in private hospitals, most workers will have to depend on public hospitals.

An Indian lift operator stands inside a dedicated lift for people suspected to be infected with the new corona virus at the Government Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, India. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

However, Modi’s Hindu-supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, like its counterparts across the world, has shown its complete unwillingness and incapacity to combat the pandemic. In a cynical attempt to downplay the danger, Modi tweeted: “There is no need to panic.”

The government’s response underscores the contemptuous and ignorant attitude of the Indian ruling elite as a whole toward the plight of millions of working people and rural toilers, who are condemned to impoverished conditions by successive national and state governments. More than 800 million Indians subsist on less than $US2 per day.

At the top of society, the wealth of 63 billionaires is greater than the yearly budget for the fiscal year 2018–19, according to Oxfam’s study “Time to Care.” India’s top 1 percent holds more than four times the wealth held by the 953 million people who make up the bottom 70 percent of India’s population.

The Indian political establishment bears enormous responsibility for this massive social polarization, and the danger that countless thousands or even millions of Indians could fall victim to the disease. Like its counterparts around the world, the Modi government has implemented nationalist border control measures in the name of containing the spread of coronavirus, like suspending visas for those from the worst-affected countries such as China, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan.

Health minister Vardhan has announced that passengers from all countries will be screened at airports as a precautionary measure to stop the virus from spreading. On March 4, the Modi government boasted that these were “important changes” to “further enhance our level of preparedness,” in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) after an inter-ministerial meeting to “review preparedness and response on the coronavirus issue.”

The statement asserts that “decisions” were taken to “rapidly implement opening of proper testing, isolation and quarantine facilities in various parts of the country… in partnership with the state government.” However, the PMO’s statement was completely silent on what finances would be dedicated to these health care projects.

Whatever the Modi government’s claims, there is no sign it is taking any meaningful steps, like launching a rapid program to build much-needed health care facilities. The BJP government allocated just $9.7 billion for health in its latest annual budget, while setting aside a massive $66 billion for defence expenditure. This underscores the Indian elite’s complete disregard towards the health of working people and the rural poor, in contrast with its enthusiasm for pursuing its reactionary geopolitical interests and its developing alliance with US imperialism aimed at threatening China.

India’s under-funded public health system cannot even deal with relatively preventable diseases. In a March 4 interview to Scroll.In, Dr. Jocab John, a leading virologist based in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, said: “We don’t have separate vertical programs to monitor different diseases like tuberculosis, malaria or cholera.”

He made clear this failure to effectively monitor and treat diseases means that far more patients die in India—citing the fact that the H1N1 influenza mortality rate in India is around 5 percent, around 50 times the average global H1N1 mortality rate of 0.1 percent. With the global mortality rate for coronavirus currently standing at approximately 3 percent, a substantially higher mortality rate in India could have devastating consequences.

India’s doctor-to-population ratio is 1 to 1,457, well below the WHO-recommended 1 to 1,000. For people living in rural areas dependent on government hospitals and clinics, the ratio falls to a staggering 1 to 10,926, according to the National Health Profile 2019. “Rural areas have an especially severe shortage of qualified health professionals,” said Dr. Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India.

While India has a massive population of 1.34 billion people, it has just barely over two million (2,048,979) registered nurses and midwives. Moreover, many of them would need infection control training to care for patients with airborne infections like coronavirus.

India’s public health system does not have enough ICU facilities to treat coronavirus patients in critical condition. “There are not enough ICU beds in India, which is needed for about 5 percent of Covid-19 [coronavirus] cases,” said Dr. G. Arunkumar, director of the Manipal Institute of Virology in Karnataka.

Prices of surgical facemasks are already skyrocketing as manufacturers fail to keep up with skyrocketing global demand. “Globally, governments keep a stock of these personal protection items for use during emergencies. In India, we do not have such system,” said Abhay Panday, National President of the All Food and Drug License Holder Foundation (AFDLHF). There are no large-scale manufacturers of surgical masks in India. The few dozen medium-sized companies that dominate the industry have a production capacity between 20,000 and 100,000 masks a day—not enough to deal with a sudden demand for large quantities.

While the Ministry of Health is reduced to issuing guidelines of “Basic Protective Measures to all” like “wash your hands frequently,” even this is difficult for large sections of India’s population.

According to a 2018 report issued by WaterAid, a UK-based charity, nearly 163 million people (12 percent) have no access to clean water close to home. The Asian Development Bank has forecast that by 2030, India will have a water deficit of 50 percent. Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation data shows almost 19,000 villages across India still did not have a regular water supply in 2016–17. This underscores how dangerous the coronavirus outbreak is for millions of Indians.

At the same time, millions of jobs are at risk due to the pandemic’s impact on India-China trade, which stood at $87 billion in 2018–19. Several Indian industries—antibiotics, fertilizer, textiles and automobiles—depend on supplies from China, and any long-term disruption in supplies due to the impact of coronavirus could have far-reaching economic consequences for India.

The disruption of necessary raw material imports from China has already affected India’s pharmaceutical industry. On Tuesday, the government ordered this industry to stop exporting 26 drugs and ingredients used in antibiotics without its explicit permission. This will severely affect other countries that depend on relatively cheap drugs from India, like Sri Lanka.

The island’s public health system mostly uses medicine from India. Here also, those most affected will be the vast majority of working people and rural poor in those countries, who have to depend on government hospitals for their basic health needs.

India restricts drug exports due to coronavirus impacts, threatening global drug supply

Kranti Kumara

Citing shortages due to the coronavirus of raw materials sourced from China, India has placed restrictions on the export of thirteen Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and another 13 generic drugs produced from these ingredients until “further notice.”

As India is a major global supplier of generic drugs, there are widespread fears that these export restrictions will lead to pharmaceutical price-hikes and shortages in countries around the world.

India's far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government claims the restrictions, announced last Tuesday, are meant to prevent drug shortages in India. In fact, poverty and the Indian state's miserly expenditure of less than 3 percent of GDP on health care mean that large sections of India's 1.3 billion people lack access to quality health care, including drugs, under “normal” let alone, emergency conditions.

Due to hoarding by merchants, as well as actual shortages, India has already experienced steep increases in the prices of several drugs, especially antibiotics made with Penicillin G. “There are already signs that the reduction in supply to India has pushed up prices there considerably," an Oxford Economics' economist told BBC last week.

India accounts for the manufacture of at least 20 percent of the world's generic drug supply. The 26 APIs and drugs now under export restrictions account for about 10 percent of India's pharmaceutical exports.

While India is a major source of generic drugs, the country’s drug manufacturers are themselves dependent upon Chinese manufacturers for basic raw materials used in drug production, with some 70 to 80 percent of these coming from China.

The current supply disruptions in India are due to weeks-long shutdowns of Chinese drug manufacturing plants because of the coronavirus epidemic. At present it is unclear when normal production will resume in China. A further factor in the Indian shortages is the disruption of shipping within, and from, China.

According to Indian spokespersons, if the supply disruptions continue into April, it could seriously threaten the availability of many commonly used generic drugs worldwide. Those that would likely be impacted include: acetaminophen, calpol, crocin and sumo, which are used to alleviate aches and pains; common antibiotics such as tinidazole, metronidazole, chloramphenicol, and neomycin; clindamycin salts, and vitamins B1, B6 and B12; and hormone supplements such as progesterone used in birth control pills.

Europe and the USA have become heavily dependent upon the Indian supply of these drugs.

African countries also rely upon Indian generic drugs because of their cheaper cost. Due to widespread poverty and inadequate health care infrastructure, Africa would be especially vulnerable to drug shortages and price hikes.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Nigeria, warned of the devastating impact the looming drug shortage could have on her country: “If India is feeling it, we should start praying, because we don’t manufacture anything here except water; we import almost everything – active and non-active ingredients, equipment etc.”

Dr. Dinesh Dua, the chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), an official body set up by the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, told Reuters that the Indian government's moves to restrict drugs exports are “panicking” European drug manufacturers and authorities.

“I am getting a huge number of calls from Europe,” said Dr. Dua, “because it is very sizably dependent on Indian formulations and we control almost 26 percent of the European formulations in the generic space. So, they are panicking.”

The Indian government implemented its drug-export restrictions after a high-level government committee asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India’s top biomedical research body, to assess the supply availability of 54 drug raw materials as it became apparent that there were serious disruptions to key ingredients from China.

According to the Economic Times, which first reported on this development, fully 34 of these had no alternative suppliers to those based in China.

It is unclear what the impact of the export restrictions will be. At present, New Delhi has not imposed an outright export ban, but drug manufacturers have to seek government approval before shipping any of the 26 restricted items overseas.

Drug manufacturing has become globalized in recent decades, with US and European transnational pharmaceutical companies coming to rely upon China and India for basic raw material, generic drugs and medical devices. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), China is the second largest exporter to the US of drugs and biologics, that is drugs extracted from living organisms.

China has become the choice destination for API and other key ingredients because of its cheap labor and lax environmental controls, which facilitate the careless disposal of toxic wastes produced from drug manufacturing, as well as the availability of high-quality and cheap infrastructure, especially electricity.

Some observers have stated that shifting some of this manufacturing from China to India would significantly increase the cost of drugs, although wages in India are significantly lower than those in China. This is because India's physical and social infrastructure are vastly inferior.

So irrational is a system that subordinates drug manufacture to the pursuit of ever greater profits by transnational pharmaceuticals companies, the FDA now maintains a web page that lists hundreds of drugs currently in short supply.

One of the most important of such drugs, vincristine, which is used to treat cancer and tumors causing kidney disease in children, is now in acute short supply threatening the lives of children stricken with these diseases. This is because Teva Pharmaceutical Industries recently decided to stop manufacturing vincristine because its sale was not generating enough profits. Meanwhile, Pfizer, the only other producer of vincristine, is experiencing manufacturing problems.

Last Friday, the Indian news website The Print reported that the Indian drug industry is pushing back against the Indian government's export restrictions because they fear a hit to their profits and loss of markets. In a letter to India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Pharmexcil complained, that as a result of the restrictions, Indian drug companies will “not only suffer monetary losses, but also their credibility and reputation in the international market (are) at stake.”

According to The Print, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government may well withdraw the export restrictions. Should this come to pass, it will not be out of any desire to improve the well-being of the world's population, but due to the profit calculations of big business. These developments underscore the utter precariousness and irrationality of global drug manufacture and supply under decaying capitalism.

Italy quarantines multiple provinces as coronavirus death toll rises to 366

Allison Smith

As the coronavirus epidemic spirals out of control in Italy and across Europe, the Italian government announced plans to place the economic centers in northern Italy on lockdown.

On Sunday, Italy announced 1,492 new cases and 133 new deaths—more deaths than in the rest of the world combined—bringing the total to 7,375 cases and 366 deaths in Italy. Several European countries also saw large increases, including France (177 new cases for 1,126 total), Germany (240 new cases for 1,040 total), Spain (148 new cases for 673 total) and Switzerland (69 new cases for 337 total). While Iran also announced a staggering 743 new cases and 49 deaths, Europe now has the world’s fastest-rising numbers of documented coronavirus cases.

By contrast China, the disease’s original epicenter, has been able to limit its spread by imposing large and drastic quarantines, isolating areas where the disease was widespread to prevent the sick from spreading the disease further. It also has devoted large financial resources to building hospitals and paying for treatment and unemployment compensation for workers trapped in the quarantine. As a result, it saw only 52 new cases yesterday—a number that has continued to fall, relieving pressure on hospitals and medical staff.

The Colosseum, that will be closed following the government's new prevention measures on public gatherings, is reflected in a puddle where a face mask was left, in Rome, Sunday, March 8, 2020. . (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Late Saturday night, media reported that the government planned to put the region of Lombardy and other areas in Italy’s industrial north on lockdown to quarantine these areas. This caused a panic, sending thousands rushing to the central train station in Milan, the capital of Lombardy, to try to leave before being trapped in the quarantine.

To quell rising public fear, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte made a televised statement at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. Conte tried to downplay the significance of the measures he was proposing. He said the government decree does not establish a new quarantine area nor an absolute ban on activity, as it will be possible for people to travel for work, medical care or other reasons, but that the “security forces” would ensure people have valid reasons for their movements.

Nonetheless, Conte’s quarantine order suspends all public and private gatherings including weddings, funerals and religious events. It forces the closure of all cinemas, theatres, night clubs, bingo halls, gyms, swimming pools, museums and ski resorts in the whole of the region of Lombardy and in 14 provinces: Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Regio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro & Urbino, Alessandria, Asti, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Vercelli, Padova, Treviso and Venice. This area has more than 16 million inhabitants.

Restaurants and cafés in the affected areas can stay open, but only from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and customers must stay at least 1m (3ft) from each other. Incredibly, travel will continue unabated, however—with airports and train stations remaining open, albeit with fewer passengers.

Asked what resources will be spent to fight the epidemic, Conte offered that he will ask Parliament and the European Union (EU) to divert just €7.5 billion of the current budget to the coronavirus.

This is hardly enough to fight the virus, and many wondered what Rome plans to cut in order to divert funds, as social and infrastructure programs have already been cut to the bone in recent years. Conte said specific measures would be elaborated by Tuesday. Conte also claimed his government could boost domestic production of critical medical equipment, such as masks, and order whatever remaining equipment was needed abroad.

At the same time, the Democratic Party (PD)-Five Star Movement (M5S) coalition government was shaken by the news that PD leader Nicola Zingaretti is infected with the virus. This raises the risk that many top figures in the Italian state and ruling establishment, who have recently met Zingaretti, may also be infected.

The Italian government is leaving the population largely in the dark about the illness and about the massive investment of resources that will be required to halt its spread. Objections came both from workers and from Conte’s rivals in the ruling class. Many asked why train services and flights weren’t halted before the quarantine’s implementation, to prevent people from infected regions spreading the disease more widely.

“In China, they are more rigid,” waitress Miriam Ben Cheikh Amor told the New York Times. “Maybe we need some of that, too.”

Local politicians in the affected regions criticized the central government for leaving them in the dark about the preparation and implementation of the quarantine decree, which they cannot explain to their constituents. “It’s incredible. No one told me,” said Rasero Maurizio, the mayor of Asti, a city affected by the decree in northern Italy’s Piedmont region.

Since the crisis began, the Italian government’s response has been haphazard at best. On February 28, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Health Minister Roberto Speranza downplayed the outbreak’s seriousness, saying it only concerned a tiny fraction of the country and that Italy is safe for tourists to visit—despite repeated warnings from the World Health Organisation that more had to be done.

Di Maio also criticized reporting on the disease for causing a panic on stock markets and thus hurting the government’s main priority: the stock portfolios of the rich. He said, “The epidemic of misleading information is doing more damage to Italy than the risk of the virus epidemic itself.”

On March 4, as it become clear that Italy faces a catastrophic emergency, the government issued a decree closing all schools and universities and banning fans from all sporting events until March 15.

Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana, a member of the far-right Lega party, assured Sky TG24 that the quarantine would not disrupt work or cause famines. He told his constituents not to stock up on food: “The supermarkets will always be full and stocked. We’re not going to war but fighting the contagion of a disease. It’s useless, a waste of time to buy food that goes bad. That is a fear of those who have lived through the anguish of war.”

Lega Party leader Matteo Salvini, who was reportedly unaware of the plan’s details until they were released earlier today, issued a xenophobic rant blaming the disease on economic globalization: “From an evil we must draw good, rediscover the pride of being Italian, and then eat, dress, consume Italian, holiday in Italy. This serves as a lesson, because evidently the model of development based on globalization has failed.”

In fact, it is only through intense international collaboration, both scientific and industrial, that the resources can be found to fight this highly contagious and potentially fatal disease, for which there is currently neither a vaccine nor a cure. The central force that can be politically mobilized is the working class. After a decade in which Italian workers have been looted by EU austerity imposed by Rome, the funds must be taken from the financial aristocracy to guarantee affordable treatment for all.

Rehabilitating Surrendered Militants in J&K: Lessons from Past Experiences

Shivangi Seth


In 2018, New Delhi directed the then Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Governor, Satya Pal Malik, to formulate a new surrender and rehabilitation policy for ex-militants to J&K, a draft of which was floated in 2019. Post the state’s reorganisation in 2019, such policies will fall directly under the centre’s purview. This commentary traces the experiences of previous such policies implemented in J&K to identify insights that might be useful for formulating a new one.

The Three Previous PoliciesThe 1995 Surrender Policy was the first one, and it entailed monetary incentives to surrendered militants—including INR 1,50,000/- as fixed deposit (FD); INR 1,800/- as monthly stipend; cash for surrendering weapons; and vocational training. However, although 1317 militants surrendered in the first two years (and an estimated 2200 surrendered in total), this policy had a myopic focus on monetary incentives and many returnees claimed that neither those, nor vocational training materialised.

The 2004 Rehabilitation Policy intended to offer “facility to those terrorists who undergo a change of heart and eschew the path of violence” and “accept the integrity of India and Indian Constitution.” It reflected the 1995 policy’s approach of cash for surrendered weapons and vocational training initiatives; promised surrendered militants INR 1,50,000/- in FD payable three years after surrender, contingent upon good behaviour; and a monthly stipend of INR 2,000/-. As of 2015 (over a decade since the policy’s introduction), 432 ex-militants had availed this policy’s monetary incentives. Much like the 1995 policy, the 2004 policy too had limited focus on socio-economic and psychological reintegration of militants.

The 2010 Policy on the Return of Ex-Militants to the State had a framework broader than those of its predecessors. It sought to “facilitate the return of ex-militants who belong to J&K state and had crossed over the PoK/Pakistan for training in insurgency but have given up insurgent activities due to a change of heart and are willing to return to the State.” It demarcated four entry-points for returnees—Wagah-Attari, Salamabad, Chakan-da-bagh and New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). Since some of these returnees had settled in Pakistan, their Pakistani wives, children, and other dependents were also to be considered for entry as per existing laws. This policy, too, however, was largely ineffective. As of 2016, only 489 of the 4,587 militants who had crossed the border to train had returned. Moreover, they mostly returned through the Indo-Nepal border instead of the four designated routes, thereby becoming ineligible to avail the scheme’s benefits. Furthermore, the returnees’ Pakistani wives faced trouble in acquiring identity cards and basic documentation in India. Notably, the 2010 policy was the first to consider psychological rehabilitation by establishing counselling centres for returnees and their families, but those centres were never set up.

Lessons for the FutureIn addition to systematic implementation of the policy, any policy for rehabilitating ex-militants in J&K must: a) address barriers that the context of rehabilitation pose, including security threats, social stigma, and recidivism; b) be designed to reverse the psychological components of radicalisation; and c) be able to offset the influence Pakistan might have vis-à-vis ex-militants’ ability to return.

Ex-militants are vulnerable to various stigmas, security threats and vices when attempting rehabilitation into the very context in which they had taken up arms. In conflicts like Kashmir, a small portion of the local population views militants as ‘freedom fighters’, whereas other locals view them as ‘traitors’, a state-of-affairs that  hampers reintegration prospects. This is exacerbated in the case of the returnees’ Pakistani family members. Furthermore, ‘surrendered’ militants are also vulnerable to security threats from their former ‘colleagues’, especially in contexts like J&K where the insurgency is ongoing. Additionally, whether ex-militants can fully adapt to non-violent and law-bound frameworks of civilian life in India’s context needs further examination. For instance, some ex-militants who worked as Special Police Officers under the 1995 policy and eventually constituted the Ikhwan force were accused of committing gruesome human rights violations against civilians. Where the militants should be rehabilitated—for reasons of stigma and security—and what professions they might be fit to enter, are questions that merit deeper analysis based on context-specific factors.

Given how the insurgency is still ongoing, there is also a risk of the rehabilitation policy ending up as a revolving door for militants. Psychological rehabilitation is crucial to reduce the odds of recidivism. Previous reintegration policies in J&K neglected its significance. Surrender presents an opportunity for psychological rehabilitation, on which future policies must capitalise. In this regard, relying on a simplistic understanding of ‘radicalisation’ could be counter-productive. Combining material incentives with structured and sustained psychological support will help create a holistic rehabilitation policy.

Additionally, given how returnees’ use of routes such as Wagah and IGIA allows India to prove Pakistan’s involvement in the J&K insurgency, the possibility of Pakistan threatening the safety of potential returnees cannot be ruled out. This potentially explains why many returnees chose the India-Nepal route. These realities must be addressed.

Comprehensively addressing all such relevant aspects is crucial for any policy aimed at reintegration of ex-militants to J&K to be effective and sustainable.

Anita Borg Systers Pass-It-On (PIO) Awards 2020 for Women in Fields of Technology

Application Deadline: 26th March, 2020

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): Online

Eligible Field of Study: Fields of technology

About the Award: The cash awards, funded by donations from the Systers Online Community and others, are intended as means for women established in technological fields to support women seeking their place in the fields of technology. The program is called “Pass-It-On” because it comes with the moral obligation to “pass on” the benefits gained from the award.

Type: Awards

Eligibility: 

• Pass-it-on Award applications are open to any woman over 18 years old in or aspiring to be in the fields of computing.
• Awards are open to women in all countries

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Award: Awards are open to women in all countries and range from $500.00 to $1000.00 USD. Applications covering a wide variety of needs and projects are encouraged, such as:

• Small amount to help with studies, job transfers or other transitions in life.
• A broader project that benefits girls and women.
• Projects that seek to inspire more girls and women to go into the computing field.
• Assistance with educational fees and materials.
• Partial funding source for larger scholarship.
• Mentoring and other supportive groups for women in technology or computing.

How to Apply: APPLY NOW

Visit Award Webpage for details

Award Provider: Anita Borg Institute

WomEng Africa Innovation Fellowship 2020 for Female African Innovators (Fully-funded)

Application Deadline: 1st April 2020.

About the Award: Africa Innovation Fellowship, powered by WomEng and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is a nine-month leadership and business development opportunity for female African innovators with an early stage engineering innovation or startup. The Africa Innovation Fellowship aims to develop the talent pipeline for future cohorts of the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
Africa Innovation Fellowship (AIF) kicks off with an in-person training week in Accra, Ghana from 14 to 17 June 2020, focused on idea and business incubation, leadership development, networking and getting pitch-ready. The Fellowship training week is followed by nine months of personalised virtual support with regular check-ins and milestones, ending in March 2021.
Fellowship candidates who apply and are subsequently shortlisted for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation will receive additional individual coaching and mentoring to support them in getting pitch ready.
Apply now for this unique opportunity to take your innovation to the next level.

Type: Fellowship, Entrepreneurship

Eligibility:

• Applicants must be a female founder or co-founder. Note that the individual can be from a mixed team of co-founders
• Individual applicants must be citizens of a country within Sub-Saharan Africa*. For teams of two or more, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country within Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The innovation must be based in a country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Applicants must have an engineering innovation, though they are not required to be an engineering graduate or student themselves.
• Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible to apply.
• The lead applicant must be over the age of 18. There is no upper age limit.
• The applicant’s innovation can be any new product, technology or service, based on research in engineering defined in its broadest sense to encompass a wide range of fields, including: agricultural technology, biotechnology, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, design engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, ICT, materials science, mechanical engineering, and medical engineering. If you are in any doubt that your area of expertise would be considered engineering, then please contact aif@womeng.org to discuss your application.
• Applicants should have an early stage engineering innovation and/or startup that:
• Will bring social and/or environmental benefits to a country/countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which is near-ready or has been tested for commercial viability
• Has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• Successful candidates must be available to travel to Ghana from 13 to 18 June 2020 for the Fellowship training week in its entirety.
• WomEng will cover the costs of round-trip economy airfares to Accra, accommodation, transfers, meals and programme materials.
• Successful candidates must be able to commit at least two to five hours a month from June 2020 to March 2021 for online/virtual support.
• For teams applying, only the female lead applicant will be invited to attend the Fellowship training week.
• Only successful applicants will be notified by end of April 2020.

Duration of Programme:

• Successful candidates notified: 20 April 2020
• Fellowship Week Ghana: 14 to 17 June 2020
• Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation Submission deadline: 23 July 2020
• Online support & mentoring: June to March 2021

Eligible countries: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland/eSwatini, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

How to Apply: APPLY NOW

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

TWAS-CSIR Postgraduate Fellowship Programme 2020/2021 for Researchers in Developing Countries (Funded to India)

Application Deadline: 11th May, 2020

Eligible Countries: Developing Countries

To be taken at (country): India

Eligible Field of Study:

1. Agricultural Sciences
2. Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology
3. Biological Systems and Organisms
4. Medical and Health Sciences incl. Neurosciences
5. Chemical Sciences
6. Engineering Sciences
7. Astronomy, Space and Earth Sciences
8. Mathematical Sciences
9. Physics

About the Award: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of India and TWAS have established a number of fellowships for foreign scholars from developing countries who wish to pursue research toward a PhD in emerging areas of science and technology for which facilities are available in the laboratories and institutes of the CSIR.

Type: Doctoral, Fellowship

Eligibility: Applicants for these fellowships must meet the following criteria:

• Be a maximum age of 35 years on 31 December of the application year.
• Be nationals of a developing country (other than India).
• Must not hold any visa for temporary or permanent residency in India or any developed country.
• Hold a Master’s degree in science and technology.
• Be regularly employed in their home country and hold a research assignment there.
• SANDWICH Fellowships: Be registered PhD students in their home country and provide the “Registration and No Objection Certificate” from the HOME university.
• FULL-TIME Fellowships: Be willing to register at a university in India within the first year, if agreed to by CSIR.
• Be accepted at a CSIR laboratory/institution and provide an official acceptance letter from the host institution (see sample Acceptance Letter included in the Application Form). NB: Requests for acceptance must be directed to the chosen CSIR host institution(s), with copy to the CSIR contact person.  This will allow CSIR to monitor requests and offer support or assistance in finding  suitable host institution(s), if necessary;

• provide evidence of proficiency in English, if medium of education was not English;
• provide evidence that s/he will return to her/his home country on completion of the fellowship;
• not take up other assignments during the period of her/his fellowship;
• be financially responsible for any accompanying family members.

Number of Awardees:  Not specified

Value of Fellowship: CSIR will provide a monthly stipend to cover for living costs, food and health insurance. The monthly stipend will not be convertible into foreign currency. In addition, Fellowship awardees are entitled to subsidized accommodation.

Duration of Fellowship: TWAS-CSIR Postgraduate Fellowships are tenable in CSIR research laboratories and institutes in India for a maximum period of four years.

How to Apply:

• If already registered for a PhD in their home country, applicants should ensure that the Vice-Chancellor or Registrar of the HOME university signs a copy of the “Registration and No Objection Certificate” (see sample included in the Application Form), a copy of which should be sent to both CSIR and TWAS.
• Applicants should submit the acceptance letter from a CSIR institution to CSIR and TWAS when applying or by the deadline at the latest. Without preliminary acceptance, the application will not be considered for selection.
• Applications for the TWAS-CSIR Postgraduate Fellowship Programme can ONLY be submitted to TWAS via the online portal and copy of the submitted application must be sent to CSIR by email. A tutorial on how to use the online application form is available below for download.
• Please be advised that applicants may apply for only one programme per calendar year in the TWAS and OWSD portfolio. Applicants will not be eligible to visit another institution in that year under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes. One exception: The head of an institution who invites an external scholar to share his/her expertise under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes may still apply for another programme.

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Government of Poland Postgraduate Scholarships 2020/2021 for Students from Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 16th March 2020 3pm Central European Time (Warsaw local time)

Eligible Countries: Developing Countries (Angola, Ethiopia, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Colombia, Lebanon, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam).

To be taken at (country): Poland

Field of Study: Varying

About the Award: Supporting the socio-economic growth of developing countries by raising the educational status and professional qualifications of their citizens constitutes the main aim of the Łukasiewicz Scholarship Programme.
The Programme offers foreigners an opportunity to pursue second-degree studies in the full-time mode in Polish in the field of engineering and technical, agricultural, applied and life sciences at higher education institutions subordinate to the Minister of Science and Higher Education, receiving a monthly scholarship from NAWA to cover the living allowance in the statutory period of education in Poland.
In the case of public HEIs, the Programme also offers an exemption from education fees.
Ignacy Lukasiewicz, the Programme’s patron was an eminent Polish inventor, pharmacist, pioneer of the oil industry and the creator of the kerosene lamp.

Type: Masters

Eligibility: The Scholarship will be offered to the citizens of the above-mentioned countries who:

• did not apply for Polish citizenship;
• do not have a permanent residence permit on the territory of the Republic of Poland and have not applied for a permanent residence permit;
• obtained a first-degree diploma in their country of origin not earlier than in 2017 or, at the time of submitting their application to the Programme, are in their last year of first-degree studies in engineering and technical sciences, agricultural sciences as well as exact and natural sciences;
• have not previously obtained a diploma certifying graduation from master’s degree studies (second-degree studies or uniform master’s degree studies). If the country of origin does not have a generally recognised two-stage system of study, candidates who hold a master’s
  degree or equivalent degree obtained not earlier than 2017 and candidates who are students in their final year of such studies in engineering and technical sciences, agricultural sciences as well as exact and natural sciences shall be admissible;
• are not second-degree studies students at the time of applying for the Programme. Persons authorised to submit an application under the Programme include students of seconddegree studies in Poland in the field of engineering and technical sciences, agricultural sciences as well as exact and natural sciences and meet the following criteria:
  • they have been recommended by the provost of a higher education institution as worthy of receiving NAWA scholarship and have achieved very good results in their academic pursuits (grade average over the course of studies until now at 4.75 or higher) or
  • are finalists of international student contests in a given field;
• have at least B2-level English language skills.
  Their linguistic competence has to be certified with a document indicated in point 2.5 of
  these Regulations.

Selection: Candidates are selected on the basis of a competitive procedure, based on the quality assessment of applications carried out by reviewers of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange who are academics working in higher education institutions.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Program:

• The NAWA scholarship is paid once a month through the higher education institution.
• The scholarship rate is PLN 1500 per month for second cycle programme students and for participants of the preparatory course for learning in Poland.
• During the course of education, beneficiaries shall also receive:
  • in the first year of studies, the first monthly scholarship is increased by PLN 500 to cover the costs of starting out in Poland.
  • in the last year of studies, the last monthly scholarship is increased by PLN 500 to cover the costs of the thesis.
• In the event of a documented unforeseen circumstance, the NAWA Director may, at the written request of the Scholarship Holder, increase the monthly scholarship paid out to him/her by PLN 500 on account of such an unforeseen circumstance

Duration of Program: 12 months

How to Apply: Submit an application to the programme.

Visit Program Webpage for details

Indonesian Government KNB Undergraduate & Masters Scholarships 2020/2021 for Students in Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 20th April 2020

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Indonesia

About the Award: The scholarship is offered to potential students from developing countries to earn their Master Degree at one of 16 prominent universities in Indonesia. Officially launched in 2006 by the Directorate General of Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia, this program has been attracting a significant number of applicants, as by 2015, 896 students from 64 countries had been awarded this scholarship.

Fields of Study: Humanities, Science,  Engineering, Social Sciences

Type: Masters, Undergraduate

Eligibility: 

1. Having maximum age of 35 year-old
2. Having a bachelor degree (master degree holder is not eligible to apply)
3. Having a TOEFL /IELTS/other English Proficiency Certificate scores of 500/5. or equivalent
4. Completing the on-line application form
5. Signing a statement letter provided by the KNB Scholarship management for the successful candidates prior to the departure to Indonesia.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The KNB Scholarship covers:

1. A Settlement Allowance of IDR 1,000,000 will be given to new students upon their arrival in Indonesia;
2. While taking the Indonesian language course and preparatory programs, the new students will only receive a Living Allowance of IDR 2,550,000 per month;
3. During the Master Program, the KNB students will receive a scheme of monthly allowance as detailed in the guide book (link below)
4. A health insurance with a maximum of IDR 200,000 monthly premium (In case of the cost of medical services exceeded to those covered by the health insurance, the difference should be borne by the student);
5. A round-trip international airfare (economy class) from the international airport of the student’s home countries to Indonesia, including local transport to the host university;

Please be advised that the scholarship scheme will only sufficient to cover one person to living properly in most cities where the universities are located.
Other expenses beside above mentioned items will be considered as personal expenses and will be borne by the students.

Duration of Scholarship:

• Indonesian Language Course and Master Preparatory Program: Maximum 12 months
• Master Program: Maximum 24 months (4 semester)
• Bachelor Program: Maximum 48 months (8 semester)

How to Apply: 

1. Downloading the Invitation Letter posted in the KNB Scholarship website
2. Submitting the Invitation letter, Passport, Academic Certificates and Academic Transcripts to the Indonesian Embassy to acquire the recommendation letter
3. Sign Up and Complete the online application
4. Receiving the selection result broadcasted online in the KNB Scholarship Website and/or officially announced through the Indonesian Embassy publication network.

It is  important to visit the Scholarship Webpage for the Application requirements and documents before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details