Ukraine claims 60 dead, 100 wounded, in blasts on Crimea as satellite images show destroyed Russian aircraft

Clara Weiss

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian minister of internal affairs, claimed on Thursday that 60 pilots and technicians had been killed and 100 people wounded in a series of explosions at a Russian Saki air base on the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula on Tuesday. Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the air base has housed the Russian 43rd Independent Naval Assault Air Squadron.

As of this writing, there has been no official denial of this claim by Russian officials, which have only acknowledged that one person had been killed and 14 wounded. While the Kremlin has deliberately sought to downplay the significance of the incident, more and more information has emerged indicating that it was far more serious than Russian officials have been willing to admit.

The blasts on Tuesday occurred close to a tourist resort, prompting panic among thousands of tourists, some of whom sought to leave the peninsula immediately. The Associated Press quoted one local resident who had heard a roar and saw a mushroom cloud from his window: “Everything began to fall around, collapse.”

Crimean officials have acknowledged that 62 apartment and 20 commercial buildings were damaged, and at least 250 people had to be temporarily evacuated. Satellite images appear to show that about 2 square kilometers (0.75 square miles) of grassland were burned at the air base, and two buildings destroyed.

These images also indicate that at least seven Russian war planes were destroyed and two damaged. This would mark the biggest loss of Russian military aircraft in a single day since World War II. Based on the satellite images, the destroyed aircraft were Su-24 and Su-30 fighter jets, each of which cost over $24 million.

There has been no official acknowledgment from Ukraine that it conducted strikes on Crimea. However, Oleksyi Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, effectively claimed Ukrainian responsibility for the blasts, stating that they had been caused either by Ukrainian-made long-range weapons or by Ukrainian guerrillas operating in Crimea. Without explicitly referring to the blasts, Zelensky stated on Tuesday, “Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give it up.”

The Kremlin’s response to the blasts on Crimea was reminiscent to its reaction to the humiliating sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, in March. Clearly seeking to downplay what would represent a grave military setback and the basis for a potentially major escalation of the war, the Russian government has vehemently denied that the blasts were the result of an attack by Ukraine. Instead, the Kremlin claims that the blasts were caused by the detonation of stored ammunition. The Russian media, which is only allowed to refer to the war as a “special military operation,” has virtually ceased all coverage of the incident.

The Saki air base is at least 125 miles or 200 kilometers from the closest Ukrainian military position and none of the weapons and ammunition officially in the arsenal of the Ukrainian army can strike targets that far away. The ammunition for the American-made HIMARS rocket system, which the US has been officially delivering since May, can only hit targets of a distance of up to 50 miles.

The German magazine Spiegel surmised that the blasts could have been caused by a Ukrainian Grim-2 short range missile, which has been in development since 2003 and could strike targets at a distance of up to 280 kilometers. Alternatively, the Spiegel noted, Ukraine could have used a modified Neptun missile which may have also caused the sinking of the Moskva. In either scenario, Russian missile defense systems on Crimea could have only been circumvented by American AGM-88 anti-radar missiles. Remnants of such a missile were recently found on Ukrainian territory even though the US has not confirmed that AGM-88 missiles were among the weapons and ammunition that Washington has officially delivered to Ukraine.

The Spiegel wrote, “This could mean that Kiev’s most important partners may have delivered also other weapons to Ukraine in secret, such as the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). The ATACMS can be used by the American HIMARS as well as the German and British M-270 multiple launch rocket systems, which have been deployed in Ukraine for the past several weeks and have been causing serious problems, especially for Russian logistics. Currently, they [these rocket systems] can only reach up to 80 kilometers with the GMLRS-rockets, but with ATACMS they could reach up to 300 kilometers, which theoretically could make strikes on Crimea possible.”

The blasts on Crimea occurred against the backdrop of ever more aggressive threats by the Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelensky, that they were determined to “recover Crimea.” The US-backed adoption of the “recovery of Crimea” as Ukraine’s official military doctrine in March 2021 was a major factor in provoking the Russian invasion of February 24 and Russian officials have repeatedly warned that they could respond with nuclear weapons to any attack on Crimea. In July, a Pentagon spokesman has notably refused to preclude that American missiles will be used to strike the Russian-built Kerch bridge, which connects Crimea with the Russian mainland.

Writing for the Washington Post, David Ignatius interpreted the presumed Ukrainian attack on Crimea as the beginning of a long-announced “southern offensive.” Russian troops have now occupied about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the East and significant parts of the south. It is expected that the Kremlin will organize referendums in these territories about joining Russia in the coming weeks, and an offensive by Ukraine would not least of all be aimed at preempting such a development.

There is little question that any offensive, as well as any strike on Crimea, are not only carried out with the weapons and ammunition delivered by the imperialist powers, but also discussed and prepared in the closest consultation with Washington. Having staged a coup in Kiev in 2014 to install a NATO-compliant regime in Ukraine and transform the country into a launching pad for war against Russia, the US, Britain, Germany and other NATO powers have delivered weapons and ammunition to Ukraine worth tens of billions of dollars since February alone. Just this Monday, the Biden administration approved the largest single military aid package to Ukraine yet, worth $1 billion, including for ammunition for the HIMARS rocket systems and 1,000 Javelin missiles.

Only a week before the blasts on Crimea, Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence, Vadim Skibitsky, gave a provocative interview to the British Telegraph, acknowledging that every Ukrainian strike on Russian targets was preceeded by discussions with the US which “would allow Washington to stop any potential attacks if they were unhappy with the intended target.” Skibitsky also said that “we use real-time information” provided by the Americans to strike Russian targets.

The imperialist proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has already claimed the lives of over 5,000 civilians, while the losses among troops on both sides are estimated in the tens of thousands. Over a fourth of the country’s prewar population of under 40 million has been turned into refugees. An offensive in the south and an attempt to “recover Crimea” by Ukraine would directly threaten the lives of thousands, if not millions more, even as US imperialism is escalating its war provocations against China over Taiwan in the Pacific.

Italy faces the threat of a far-right government

Peter Schwarz

It is looking increasingly likely that a neo-fascist party will take over the government in Italy this autumn, exactly one hundred years after Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome.

Fratelli d’Italia leader Giorgia Meloni speaks at the February 2022 CPAC conference in Texas

With just under seven weeks to go before the September 25 general election, the right-wing alliance—comprised of the neo-fascist Fratelli d’Italia, the far-right Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia—is well ahead in the polls. With a 45 percent share of the vote, it could win around 60 percent of the seats due to Italy’s complicated electoral system—a mixture of proportional representation and majority voting that clearly favours larger parties and party alliances.

Within the right-wing alliance, in turn, the Fratelli lead with 24 percent, followed by Lega with 11 percent and Forza Italia with 8 percent. Giorgia Meloni, the 45-year-old leader of the Fratelli, is therefore considered the most promising candidate for head of government.

Meloni leads a party that stands in the unbroken historical continuity of Mussolini’s fascist movement and still bears its symbol, the green-white-red flame, on its coat of arms. At the age of 15, Meloni joined the youth organization of the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), which succeeded Mussolini’s fascist party after his death and provided a political home for numerous high-ranking fascists.

In 2008, Silvio Berlusconi appointed the 31-year-old, by then a member of the MSI’s successor party Alleanza Nazionale, as youth and sports minister. After the Alleanza Nazionale dissolved into Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Meloni founded the Fratelli d’Italia in 2012 to continue the fascist tradition. The party pays homage to the memory of Il Duce and is supported by neo-fascist thugs. Its election rallies regularly feature the “Roman salute,” the Italian equivalent of the Nazi Sieg Heil.

Although Meloni herself no longer openly acknowledges Mussolini for tactical reasons, she does not distance herself from him either. Instead, she downplays the fascist dictator, saying that he must be “seen in the context of history.”

Her international allies and political views, however, leave no doubt where Meloni stands politically. She admires former US President Donald Trump and maintains close ties to Spain’s Vox, a party of Franco supporters, as well as to Hungary’s right-wing leader Viktor Orbán. She is also chairwoman of the European Conservatives and Reformers party, which includes the Polish PiS, the far-right Sweden Democrats and the Spanish Vox, as well as the British Tories.

Politically, Meloni represents a mixture of right-wing nationalism, aggressive xenophobia, and Christian fundamentalism. She rages against the “mass invasion of immigrants,” the “Islamization of our Christian identity,” the “LGBT lobby” and the “bureaucrats from Brussels.” She describes herself as a mother, a Christian and an Italian and sees these identities threatened by mass migration, by gender politics and by the European Union.

In April 1945, the fascist dictator Mussolini was executed by Italian partisans and his body publicly displayed in Milan hanging. How is it possible that 77 years later, one of his political heirs again has serious prospects of taking power in Italy? And this in a country that has a long anti-fascist tradition and a militant working class, and where social antagonisms are tense to the breaking point?

The answer to these questions lies not so much with Meloni and her party as with the so-called centre-left parties, the trade unions, and their pseudo-left appendages. The latter have long played a key role in rehabilitating far-right and fascist forces and have recently adopted their program—social attacks, war, stepping up the power of the state, and policies allowing the coronavirus to run wild in the pandemic—more and more openly, imposing them against growing resistance.

When the Italian economy was in free fall in early 2021 and the pandemic claimed tens of thousands of lives in Italy, all parties—from the Democrats (PD) and their various spin-offs to the Five Star Movement to Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the far-right Lega, whose leader Matteo Salvini himself admires Mussolini—joined forces to form a government of “national unity” under former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

A confidante of international finance capital, Draghi shifted the burden of the crisis onto the working class and brought Italy, which had previously maintained close political and economic ties with Russia, onto NATO’s war course. The Democrats and the trade unions suppressed any opposition to this and supported Draghi even more resolutely the more obvious the anti-working class character of his policies became.

They would also have readily included Meloni in their government of “national unity,” but the Fratelli, which received only 4.4 percent of the vote in the 2018 general election, preferred to remain the only party in opposition—and grew rapidly.

The current election campaign being conducted by the Democrats under their leader Enrico Letta is on the basis of an extreme right-wing program. In late July, when Italian daily La Stampa reported on alleged close ties between Salvini and the Russian Embassy in Rome, Letta declared, “Today’s findings about the links between Salvini and Putin’s Russia are disturbing, the election campaign is starting in the worst way, with a big stain. We want to know if it was Putin who brought down Draghi’s government.”

In other words, Letta criticizes Salvini and his far-right Lega not primarily for their fascist tirades against immigrants and praise of Mussolini, but for not supporting the war course against Russia aggressively enough. On the other hand, as soon as the fascists swung behind NATO’s offensive, he was full of praise. When Meloni, during a joint appearance in the Italian Senate, made known her support for Western arms supplies to Ukraine and the NATO proxy war against Russia, Letta spoke of an “idyllic moment” with the fascist leader.

Enrico Letta (PD) and Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d’Italia) in the Italian Parliament (Alberto Pizzoli/Pool photo via AP)

The Democrats are themselves working on establishing a coalition to tighten Draghi’s anti-working class stance. Earlier this month, Letta announced the formation of an alliance with former Economy Minister Carlo Calenda’s Azione party and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino’s Più Europa party, two right-wing liberal outfits that both support the European Union. When he then included the Greens and the Italian Left Party (Sinistra Italiana) in the alliance a few days later, however, Azione jumped ship again. According to political experts, this has “reduced to a minimum” the centre-left alliance’s chance of winning the election.

Sinistra Italiana plays a particularly foul role in these manoeuvres, whose main task is to strengthen the right-wing offensive and prevent any social mobilization against it. Founded in 2015, the party is a catch-all for shipwrecked former pseudo-left parties like Rifondazione Comunista and Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL), each of whose policies ended in disaster. Between 2005 and 2008, Rifondazione was part of the “centre-left” government under Romano Prodi (PD), whose pro-war and austerity policies opened the door to Meloni’s entry into government.

Even defectors from the Democrats and the Five Star Movement, which governed with Salvini for 15 months from 2018 to 2019, have found shelter in Sinistra Italiana. The party’s role models are Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos, both of which carried out massive attacks on the working class as governing parties—in Syriza’s case, in alliance with the far-right Independent Greeks (Anel). Significantly, at EU level, Anel belongs to the same political grouping as Meloni’s Fratelli.

Italy is a social powder keg. Decades of attacks on the working class have driven social inequality, poverty and unemployment to record highs. Strikes and protests are mounting. The far-right is needed to intimidate the working class, channel social tensions along racist lines, build a police state and strip the security forces of their last scruples.

Salvini, whose far-right party has sat at the cabinet table with Letta & Co. for the past year and a half, already sees himself as a future interior minister again—though he has not yet given up hope of becoming head of government. A few days ago, during a campaign appearance at an immigration centre on Lampedusa, he promised to once again stop accepting refugees in Italian ports altogether.

Meloni went even further, proposing to impose a naval blockade on the North African Mediterranean coast, which, under international law, would be an act of war. She also made it clear that as head of government she would continue the social attacks of her predecessors. The next legislative period will be a difficult one, she said in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News. “We have to tell Italians the truth in the election campaign. We can’t promise something we can’t deliver.”

For all these reasons, Europe’s ruling circles are also looking forward to Meloni’s possible takeover of the government somewhat sympathetically, despite her anti-EU rhetoric. The European media paint an extremely flattering picture of the neo-fascist.

She also enjoys a lot of support in European capitals and in Washington because she is unreservedly on NATO’s side in the Ukraine war. “This conflict is the tip of the iceberg in a process aimed at realigning the world order,” she told Fox News. “If the West loses, Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China are the winners—and in the West, it’s the Europeans who pay the highest price.”

There is no doubt that if Meloni does indeed win the election, European leaders will welcome her into their ranks with open arms. Italy is not an isolated case. The ruling class is responding to growing social tensions and class struggles everywhere with a sharp shift to the right. Far-right parties like Spain’s Vox, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National in France, and Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) are preparing to take over the government or—as in refugee policy—are setting the political line being followed by governments.

Henan rural bank scandal points to wider social tensions in China

Jerry Zhang

Protests erupted in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province, on July 10, as thousands of village bank depositors complained about a financial scandal at several rural banks. The rally sparked a standoff between protesters and police, and in a widely circulated video, protesters were also beaten by unidentified thugs in uniform. This brought the scandal involving several rural banks in Henan to the public’s attention.

Protester at a central bank in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, July 10, 2022. [Photo by Yang]

By April, many such banks in Henan Province had said depositors could not withdraw money, and closed their platforms for online withdrawals and transfers. At least a thousand customers began to travel to Zhengzhou hoping to solve the problem. Larger protests began in May. Hundreds of protesters gathered at the site of the Henan Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission on May 23 and were dispersed by police.

Official crackdowns only deepened the scandal, sparking a tsunami of public criticism and comment on the Chinese internet. Many savers said on social media that although they had undergone nucleic acid testing as required and had not been infected with COVID-19 or had close contact with someone with COVID-19, their “health codes” had turned red (meaning “risk personnel”). That meant they were restricted from travel or required to quarantine under the provisions of pandemic prevention and control. Health codes are QR codes set up by many cities in China for epidemiological investigations and are often associated with people’s travel and daily activities.

This response led to more criticism and wider public attention. Angry people questioned the abuse by authorities of pandemic measures to suppress protesters. Many accused officials of “acting as thugs for the capitalists.”

In response to these denunciations, in late June, a number of officials were punished. They included Feng Xianbin, executive deputy secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Political and Legal Committee and head of the city’s pandemic prevention and control headquarters, and Zhang Linlin, secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of Henan Province and deputy director of the pandemic headquarters.

According to the official investigation, a total of 1,317 village bank depositors were forcibly given “red codes” and restricted from traveling. The investigation report stated that Feng and Zhang had acted “without authorisation” and ordered their subordinates to implement their measures. This had “seriously endangered the seriousness of the management and use of health codes, and caused serious adverse social impacts.”

However, many people believed that the removal and demotion of such officials was not enough. The investigation report evaded or did not explain many key questions. How did the officials of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission obtain the personal information of depositors of the rural bank? By what means did these officials arbitrarily assign a ‘red code’? Several comments said other regions had used similar methods to suppress dissent.

After the initial public outcry passed, officials still provided no solution to the problems related to the rural banks, and that led to the protests on July 10. The violent attack that day caused tens of thousands of comments on social media in a short period of time, before related topics were blocked.

On the evening of July 10, Zhengzhou police issued a notice to try to calm the anger of depositors. The notice said the police had arrested a group of financial crime suspects and frozen the funds involved in the case. Henan province’s financial regulator said it was speeding up the formulation of a resolution plan.

But the violence of the day and the relationship between the thugs and the police remain unexplained. Moreover, according to online posts, some protesters were forced by the authorities to sign “guarantee letters” and “letters of admonition,” promising not to participate in rallies.

Subsequent news reports and investigations revealed that the banks involved are controlled by a group called Xincaifu (New Fortune), which was deregistered in February. According to media reports, the amount involved in the case currently exceeds 39 billion yuan ($US5.8 billion), and the affected depositors number up to hundreds of thousands of people. Many of these depositors are not local residents of Henan, but conduct business through third-party internet platforms, often because rural banks offer higher interest rates.

Since 2011, according to a police investigation, the New Fortune group has controlled a number of village banks through various means, including by installing or manipulating bank executives, using internet platforms to sell financial products and attract depositors, illegally transferring funds, and setting up companies to delete data.

In an attempt to ease the dissatisfaction of depositors, the Henan Provincial Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said it would gradually release funds to relevant depositors. The first batch of funds was to be released on July 15, covering customers who had deposited less than 50,000 yuan. The second batch of funds was be released on July 25, extending up to deposits worth 100,000 yuan.

The scandal is just one reflection of the ongoing pressure on China’s economy. In recent years, the real estate crisis has worsened local economic and government finances. Over the past two decades, the real estate market has grown into an important pillar of China’s economy and local fiscal revenue. In fact, the real estate industry accounts for about a quarter of China’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Since the beginning of the year, house prices have dropped sharply, falling by 8.8 percent in May and 7.2 percent in June. This will inevitably affect financial companies and the capital markets.

At the same time, attention has been drawn to unfinished housing projects in many regions, with more than 100 being halted across 50 cities, prompting thousands of homebuyers to protest and refuse to pay bank loans.

The continuing scandals in the fields of economy and finance have led many people to believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, with concerns about a domino effect. Economic issues, along with rising youth employment and social inequalities, remain among the hottest topics on the internet.

United Nations – Nippon Foundation Fellowship Program 2023

Application Deadline: 14th September 2022

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Organisation): Participating host institutions and the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

About the Fellowship: The United Nations – Nippon Foundation Fellowship provides Government officials and other mid-level professionals from developing States with advanced training on ocean affairs and the law of the sea, as well as related disciplines, including marine science in support of management frameworks. Fellows will learn about international legal frameworks, key issues and best practices in ocean affairs, become familiar with the work of the United Nations, and develop professional skills. Fellows will also conduct individual research, under academic supervision, and develop a written thesis on a topic selected by them.

Upon completion of the Fellowship, Fellows are expected to return to their home countries and use their in-depth knowledge and extended experience to assist in formulating comprehensive ocean policy and in implementing the legal regime set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and related instruments, including through designing, implementing and/or evaluating specific improvement projects.PDF

Type: Fellowship

Offered Since: 2004

Who is qualified to apply? Candidates must meet all the following criteria:

• You must be between the ages of 25 and 40;
• You must have successfully completed a first university degree, and demonstrate a capacity to undertake independent advanced academic research and study;
• You must be a mid-level professional from a national government organ of a developing State, or another governmental or non-governmental agency in such a State, which deals directly with ocean affairs issues, and your professional position must allow you to directly assist your nation in the formulation and/or implementation of policy in this area. This includes marine sciences and the science-policy linkage. Your “Nomination and Recommendation Form” should be completed by a Government official or other official who can attest to the nature of your work with respect to the Government’s ocean affairs and law of the sea related activities, and indicate how an Award would directly contribute to these activities;
• Your proposed research and study programme must contribute directly to your nation’s formulation and/or implementation of ocean affairs and law of the sea policies and programmes; and
• You must be free of all non-Fellowship obligations during the entire Fellowship period unless otherwise authorized by the Division.

Women candidates are strongly invited to apply, with a view to achieving gender balance in the selection process.

Selection Criteria: Satisfaction of the above criteria must be clearly demonstrated by the candidate through the application forms.

Number of Awards: 12

Value of Nippon Award: Fully-funded. Fellows will receive a stipend in accordance with the cost of living in the country in which he/she will be studying; travel costs and other support.

Programme Structure: The 9-month UN Nippon Fellowship Programme is composed of two consecutive phases which provide Fellows with advanced and customized research and training opportunities in their chose fields:

• Phase One: 3-month Research and Training, which is normally undertaken between March/April and June at DOALOS at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
• Phase Two: 6-month Advanced Academic Research and Study, which is normally undertaken between July and December at one of the prestigious participating Host Institutions and under the guidance of subject matter expert(s) who have recognized in-depth expertise in the Fellows’ chosen field of study.

The deliverables of the Fellowship Programme are:

• A 100-page written thesis
• A presentation of the research
• An ocean governance matrix

In addition, a number of assignments will be completed in the context of the training curriculum delivered during phase one of the programme.

How to Apply: The Fellowship application package consists of the following forms. To apply, please complete these forms:

The Online Form

For further details on the curriculum of the programme, please see this documentPDF and for full details of the programme requirements, please see this documentPDF.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for Details

UK RAEng Enterprise Fellowships 2022

Application deadline:

5th September 2022 by 4pm

Tell Me About Award:

Enterprise Fellowships is a 12-month accelerator programme for creative and entrepreneurial engineers who have an impactful innovation ready to commercialise at the seed or pre-seed stage. Over the course of the year, we will equip you with the confidence, skills, experience and networks you need to bring your engineering product to market.  

What Type of Award is this?

Entrepreneurship

Who can apply?

Broadly speaking, we support: 

• Researchers wishing to spinout a company from a university 
• Recent graduates seeking to found a startup 
• International PhD students (already based in the UK) wanting to spinout or startup  

You meet our key eligibility criteria if: 

• The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your solution is 4 or above 
• Equity investment in your business is less than 500,000 GBP 
• Your innovation is protectable and you own or co-own the IP 
• Within the founding team, you own the highest equity stake in the company 
• You are, or have the ambition to be, the CEO or COO of the business 
• For startups: you are not a student or otherwise employed during our programme  
• In addition for startups: you have completed your very first university degree by 1 July 2017 
• For spinouts: you are currently employed by the university 
• If relevant, your PhD viva will be held no later than 30 November 2022 

Which Countries are Eligible?

African countries

Where will Award be Taken?

Remote

How Many Positions will be Given?

Not specified

What is the Benefit of Award?

What we offer works – we have provided £9.2 million in grant funding to upskill over 150 Enterprise Fellows, who have gone on to create companies valued over £550 million. As a charity, we don’t take any equity, all we ask in return is your passion and determination to become part of the next generation of entrepreneurs. 

You will receive: 

• Up to £75,000 equity-free startup funding grant, 
• Expert business mentoring and coaching, 
• 15 days of business training, 
• Subscription to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit, 
• Access to our community of Hub Members, Academy Fellows, investors, industry experts and partners, 
• Flexible working space at the Taylor Centre, our physical hub, 
• Hub membership for life. 

How Long is the Program?

12 months

How to Apply for Program?

Apply here 5 September 2022, 4pm >>

Visit Award Webpage for Details

DAAD MIPLC Scholarships 2023/2024

Application Deadline: 15th October, 2022

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Germany

About the DAAD MIPLC Scholarships: With its development-oriented postgraduate study programmes, the DAAD promotes the training of specialists from development and newly industrialised countries. Well-trained local experts, who are networked with international partners, play an important part in the sustainable development of their countries. They are the best guarantee for a better future with less poverty, more education and health for all. The scholarships offer foreign graduates from development and newly industrialised countries from all disciplines and with at least two years’ professional experience the chance to take a postgraduate or Master’s degree at a state or state-recognised German university, and in exceptional cases to take a doctoral degree, and to obtain a university qualification (Master’s/PhD) in Germany.

Fields of Study: Development-Related Postgraduate Courses

Type: Postgraduate

Eligibility: Candidates eligible for the DAAD scholarship for “Development-Related Postgraduate Courses” must:

• hold at least a four-year Bachelor’s degree (or a three-year Bachelor’s degree plus a further degree), completed with above-average results.
• have received their latest degree no more than six years ago.
• have at least two years of full-time professional experience gained in a public authority or a state or private company in a developing country (university staff and academics are generally not taken into account). To meet this requirement, it is sufficient if candidate has completed the two years by the time the program starts in October. In any case, the experience must have been gained after the completion of your first university degree.
• have English test scores which meet the MIPLC requirements (see scholarship website).

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: 

• The scholarship recipient(s) will get a full tuition waiver from the MIPLC.
• The DAAD will pay the scholarship recipient(s) a monthly stipend of EUR 750.00.
• As a rule, the scholarship additionally includes certain payments towards health, accident and liability insurance coverage in Germany.
• In addition, the DAAD will generally pay an appropriate travel allowance, unless these costs are covered by the home country or by another funding source.
• Furthermore, the DAAD will also pay a study and research allowance.
• Last but not least, the scholarship covers a mandatory two-month German course before the start of the MIPLC LL.M. program.

The scholarship does not cover additional costs, e.g. enrollment fees or the fees for a semester ticket for public transport in Munich.

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of course

How to Apply for the DAAD MIPLC Scholarships: You may apply more than a year in advance. To apply for this scholarship, please proceed as follows:

1. Please refer to the DAAD program brochure 2022/23 and read the information carefully.
2. Determine whether you are eligible to apply by DAAD and MIPLC standards, keeping in mind that where MIPLC and DAAD have differing requirements, the stricter requirements prevail.
3. Apply for admission to the MIPLC (please refer to the How to Apply page).
4. When you come to the end of the online application form, check “I would like to apply for the DAAD scholarship” and complete the MIPLC Financial Assistance Application Form that opens automatically (please refer to the Financial Assistance Application Instructions).
5. Print the forms and add all required documentation, as per the instructions provided.
6. Download and complete the DAAD Scholarship Application Form and add the other documents required by the DAAD (please refer to the DAAD brochure; NB: the MIPLC does not require a research proposal). You only have to submit one copy of each document, even if a document, e.g. your CV, is required by both MIPLC and DAAD.
7. Make sure that your file is complete, including all three application forms
   (the MIPLC application form for admission; the MIPLC application form for financial assistance, and the DAAD application form for the scholarship)
   and all the required documents. Otherwise, your application cannot be processed. Please note that we only need the original application package, no additional copies.
8. Make copies of all application documents. If your are awarded the scholarship, you will have to upload electronic copies of these documents to the DAAD’s system.
9. Send your application: Please submit your application directly to the MIPLC, unless you are from Cameroon, in which case you must submit your application through the German Embassy in your country. Your complete file must reach the MIPLC by October 15 of the year preceding the program start.

Visit DAAD MIPLC Scholarships Webpage 

Ashinaga Fully-funded Undergraduate Scholarships 2023

Application Deadlines:

• Deadline for English-speaking and French-speaking applications: 20th January, 2023 at 00h.Midnight GMT
• The deadline for applicants from Lusophone countries (Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique) is Midnight GMT  Friday  14th October  2022 

Eligible Field of Study: courses offered at candidate’s choice higher institution

To be taken at (country): Higher institutions outside of Africa, in countries such as Japan, US, UK etc

Eligible Countries: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, CAR, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Kingdom of eSwatini, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

About the Award: Ashinaga presents the “Ashinaga Africa Initiative” aiming to provide higher education to 20 brilliant students from Sub-Saharan African countries each year, some of which are among the poorest in the world, and encourage them to become leading professionals in their own countries.

We search and screen for potential candidates: orphaned or bereaved students with academic potential but who cannot afford to apply to university. We provide them with a concentrated study camp for six months at Ashinaga’s facility, Kokorojuku, in Uganda and Senegal, where they are given dedicated support and assistance with their study of various subjects and languages, as they prepare to apply to highly ranked universities around the world. We also provide them with a full scholarship and living expenses for four years during their studies abroad.

We expect to see these young, educated people go back to their own countries and establish democratic and fulfilled societies, bringing people a higher national income and high-quality education. This movement will eventually contribute to the overall wellbeing of Sub-Saharan countries by helping to break the cycle of poverty, even though the effects will not be immediate, as they are when food or equipment is donated.

There is a theory that the African population will expand to more than three billion by the end of this century. We believe if we can create a bright future for Africa, a continent with so much potential, humanity’s global prospects will be bright as well.

Offered Since: 2014

Type: undergraduate

Eligibility: Applicants must:

• Have lost one or both parents.   
• Have completed secondary school and received the results of their national secondary school examination (technical and vocational degrees not accepted) within the last two years (any date after 2nd August 2020, including all of 2021 and 2022) or will have completed secondary school and received final exam results before February 28th, 2023.   
• Be born after 1st September 2000.    
• Not have the means to attend university abroad without external financial support.   
• Be proficient in English, French or Portuguese.    
• Be regularly ranked in the top 10% of their class during their last 2 or 3 years of secondary school.   
• Be able to participate in the two Ashinaga preparatory programs, over the course of one year, before attending university.   
• Be committed to return home, or to Sub-Saharan Africa, and contribute to society in Sub-Saharan Africa after graduating from university.   
• Have no dependents who could interfere with academic progress.   
• Have a good enough health condition to be able to study abroad.

Number of Scholarships: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The Ashinaga (100-Year Vision) Scholarship provides a full scholarship that covers the cost of tuition, accommodation (during the terms and vacation), insurance, flight, and provides monthly stipend which covers food and necessary academic costs.

Duration of Scholarship: for the period of undergraduate studies

How to Apply: all students who register for the program will receive an email with a link to the application form within 1 month of their registration if they are eligible for the program.

This is a list of the documents you will need to submit as part of your application: 
 
Applicant  Registration;   
Photo or scan of at least one of the following documents; Passport, National ID Card or Birth Certificate  
Photo or scan of your most recent High School Term Report/Transcript  
Photo or scan of your final High School Examination Results Certificate (if applicable)**  
 
**For students receiving their examination results in February 2022, we will ask you to send your examination certificate as soon as possible after you have received it.   
  
Full Application;   
Passport style photograph  
Passport or National ID Card   
Birth certificate of applicant.   
Death certificate of deceased parent(s), including the deceased parent’s name, or alternative official documentation proving death of parent(s) or orphan status.   
All term reports / secondary school transcripts from the last 2 years.   
Final secondary school examination certificate, showing grades in each subject*  
A letter of recommendation from a principal or schoolteacher. This should be inclusive of their email address, phone number and must contain information about your performance and character whilst at secondary school. All recommendation letters should contain an official signature or stamp.   
Academic transcripts or other results from university (if applicable).  
Certificates for extracurricular activities, training courses, jobs or other commitments (if applicable).  

It is important to go through the Application instructions in the Scholarship Webpage before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for Details

Important Note: Please note that if you apply by post, all submitted documents will not be returned to you. Therefore, you must send copies of documents ONLY.

This application and the selection process are FREE. Any person requesting payment at any stage of the process, does against Ashinaga’s will, and should not be paid.

Germany becomes global monkeypox hotspot

Tamino Dreisam

Monkeypox is spreading worldwide, and Germany is becoming an international hotspot. Despite this, the government is downplaying the danger of the virus and doing nothing to curb its spread.

Four-year-old girl with monkeypox (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The first monkeypox case in Germany was reported on May 20. Since then, the number has risen steadily, from 28 cases per week in late May to 125 in early June. There are now 300 to 400 cases per week and a total of 2,916 cases have been reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Germany to date, corresponding to an incidence level of 3.54 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants. This is more than ten percent of the worldwide cases outside Africa. A recent study estimated the reproductive rate (R-value) of monkeypox in Germany to be 1.21, which is higher than the COVID-19 R-value, which is currently 0.86.

Due to widespread ignorance about the symptoms of monkeypox and generally limited testing facilities, it can be assumed that the actual number of infections is much higher.

Worldwide, Germany is among the most affected countries. In absolute numbers, Germany has the third most infections after the United States with 9,461 cases and Spain with 5,162 cases. On a per capita basis, however, the incidence rate in Germany, at 3.54, is already much higher than in the US, with 2.15 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants. This is despite the fact that the US administration has already declared monkeypox a public health emergency.

Within Germany itself, several cities are emerging as particular hotspots. Berlin, for example, has an incidence level of 41.18 with 1,443 cases—twelve times the national level. Other cities are also seeing an accumulation of cases: Cologne has had 325 cases, Munich 143, Hamburg 131, Düsseldorf 83, and Frankfurt 80.

So far, adults have mostly contracted the virus, but the RKI has also already confirmed three cases in minors—a 4-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old.

Although monkeypox continues to spread and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international health emergency on July 23, the German government is downplaying the threat. On the official website of the German Health Ministry, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democratic Party, SPD) says: “Monkeypox won’t cause a pandemic, the virus does not transmit fast enough for that, and we will get it under control with containments of those who are affected before there is a really big outbreak worldwide.”

Since Lauterbach made this statement on June 2, infection numbers have steadily increased and are approaching 32,000 cases worldwide. The 7-day average of new daily cases is 1,267.

To combat the virus, the government has so far received only 40,000 vaccine doses it ordered. Cities such as Berlin, which has received 9,500 vaccine doses, have already nearly used them up. Additional doses, however, are not expected until late September. Even then, only 200,000 doses are expected to arrive, and the government has no plans to order more for the time being. At the same time, organizations such as Deutsche Aidshilfe (DAH) recently called for one million vaccine doses to combat the virus.

Axel Jeremias Schmidt, an epidemiologist and DAH medical and health policy officer, said, “We don’t expect the epidemic to be over when the doses available so far have been used.” As long as there are monkeypox infections, he said, people who are at risk must be offered a vaccination.

Ulf Kristal of the DAH board also called on the German government to work for a massive expansion of vaccine production so that all people worldwide at risk could have access to vaccination. The goal, he said, must be to reduce the number of infections and bring them under control in the long term. “This is only possible if as many people at risk of infection as possible are vaccinated, in Germany and in all other affected countries.”

However, the German government has been doing nothing to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, setting a precedent for what will be done with monkeypox. With the recently announced Infection Protection Act, it also relaxed the last existing COVID-19 mitigation measures to a bare minimum.

Contrary to the way it is commonly presented, monkeypox is not a harmless disease. Infection causes lesions on all parts of the body, which in some people can lead to blindness, suffocation and scarring of the face or other parts of the body. Infected people often describe it as the most painful experience of their lives, unable to sleep or perform basic bodily functions without excruciating pain. Hospitalization is required in about 10 percent of all cases, primarily to manage this intense suffering.

To date, the mortality rate for the monkeypox strain now spreading worldwide has been estimated at about 1 percent, which is comparable to the mortality rate for COVID-19. Infection transmission can occur via aerosols, droplets, and fomites, with skin-to-skin and respiratory droplet infection considered the most important routes of transmission. Significantly, monkeypox can also spread through contaminated fabrics and surfaces and those infected with the virus can be contagious for over a month.