South Korea experiences worst-ever wildfires

Ben McGrath

Massive wildfires tore through southeastern South Korean for 10 days at the end of March and were finally extinguished on Sunday. The fires have been described as the worst in the country’s history, killing 30 people and destroying upwards of 48,000 hectares of land.

Houses burnt-out by wildfires in Andong, South Korea, Friday, March 28, 2025. [AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon]

The blazes began in Sancheong County, South Gyeongsang Province on March 21. Over the next two days, there were 30 individual wildfires around the country. Separate fires broke out in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province. It was this fire that quickly spread east across the region to other nearby cities and counties, including Andong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang and Yeongdeok.

The Uiseong fire, the largest of the blazes burning some 45,157 hectares, had supposedly been extinguished on Friday but reignited Saturday evening and was brought under control again on Sunday. The Sancheong fire was also contained on Sunday.

Among the fatalities, 26 died in the Uiseong fires while four were killed in the Sancheong fire. An additional 45 people were injured. Around 37,000 people were forced to evacuate, many of them elderly, but received little or no help from local governments. Several people died after being caught in their cars while attempting to flee.

A resident of Cheongsong in his 60s with the family name Kim stated that there was “no guidance (by the authorities) as to which direction was safe or dangerous” while evacuating, according to Yonhap News. “They just told us to evacuate quickly, so I just ran outside—but it was frustrating that there were no clear or proactive instructions.”

Evacuees also reported receiving conflicting information as they attempted to reach safety. Messages alerting people to evacuate were sent too late or did not inform people of the location of evacuation centers. In one example, the Yeongdeok County government called for people to evacuate to the nearby towns of Ganggu or Namjeong, only to have the wildfires reach both within 30 minutes. Similar examples of confusion and conflicting information have been reported in other counties and towns.

Strong winds, dry conditions and rough terrain helped to spread the fires and made them more difficult to extinguish. An estimated 5,000 buildings including homes, factories and agricultural facilities were destroyed in the fires. Historical sites were also destroyed, including the Goun Temple in Uiseong, which had been built in 681 during the Unified Silla Period (668-935). Artifacts in the temple, however, were relocated. Houses and structures preserved from the Joseon Period (1392-1910) were also destroyed in the fires.

Police, firefighters and other related authorities began a joint investigation into the causes of the fires on Monday. At present, a 56-year-old has been accused of starting the fire that began at Uiseong as he tended to his grandparents’ graves on a hillside. Media reports suggest that he attempted to clear branches from the graves by burning them. Embers spread, igniting the blaze. He has been charged without detention and has denied the allegations.

Acting President Han Duck-soo on March 26 declared, “The record for worst-ever wildfire is being rewritten.” He continued, “We have been confronting the worst ever wildfires by mobilizing all available personnel and equipment but the situation is out of the ordinary.”

Han recently resumed his role as acting president after the Constitutional Court rejected his impeachment. He serves in this position until the court rules on whether or not to remove President Yoon Suk-yeol from office after he was impeached for his failed attempt to impose martial law in December.

Wildfires are not uncommon in South Korea. Huge wildfires also took place in North Gyeongsang Province as well as Gangwon Province in 2022. However, it is clear that the government was unprepared to deal with the current disaster.

Lee Cheol-u and Park Wan-su, the governors of North and South Gyeongsang Provinces respectively, both stated that firefighters lacked the necessary equipment and support to react quickly to the fires.

Lee stated, “We need to completely change the system for responding to wildfires. We need equipment that can put out fires early on with at least tens of thousands of liters of water, such as mobilizing transport aircraft like in other countries, and helicopters or firefighting equipment that can fly at night.”

Money that could be spent on preparing for natural disasters is being spent on preparations for war. Both governors are members of the right-wing People Power Party, which along with the Democratic Party, has backed the US-led war drive against China, funneling huge amounts of money into these military preparations. Last year, South Korea spent 59.42 trillion won ($US40.37 billion) on its military, or 2.8 percent of its GDP. This percentage is higher than most countries in the region. Seoul plans to spend 61.59 trillion won ($US41.84 billion) this year.

At the same time, wildfires in South Korea and around the world are not simply the result of mistakes or the lack of equipment, but the criminal failure of capitalist governments to take the necessary steps to halt climate change. Extreme wildfire activity around the globe has more than doubled over the past two decades, with northern and temperate forest regions, which includes South Korea, being particularly affected.

The Korea Meteorological Administration reported in January that the yearly average temperature in 2024 was 14.5 degrees Celsius, or two degrees higher than the norm. This was the hottest since recordkeeping began 113 years ago. The previous record high was 13.7 degrees set in 2023. In addition, during the wildfires themselves, the temperatures in South Korea were 4.5 degrees to 10 degrees higher than the 1990-2020 average, according to Climate Central which conducts research on climate change.

Dry conditions and higher temperatures mean wildfire seasons are also lasting longer, exacerbating the conditions that worsen wildfires in countries like South Korea and Japan, which recently experienced its own worst wildfire in 50 years.

Last year was also the hottest year on record globally, with the UN World Meteorological Organization stating in January that temperatures had risen 1.55 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. This surpassed the 1.5-degree level that governments had agreed to keep temperatures below in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The reality is that this supposed limit, itself inadequate to protect the environment, is being ignored as the major capitalist powers responsible for climate change base their policies on the profit interests of big business, not science and human need.

Russia says terms of US-proposed peace deal inadequate

Andrea Peters

Following comments on Sunday by US President Donald Trump that he is “angry” and “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin and could impose tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy resources, Kremlin Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov stated that Moscow thus far cannot accept Washington’s proposals for a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. Indicating that the White House’s current terms fail to recognize the country’s basic interests, Rybakov declared in an interview excerpt published on Tuesday, “There’s no place [in the US plans] for our main demand today, which is resolving problems related to the root causes of this conflict.”

The “root causes” to which he refers are Western threats to overthrow the government in Moscow and break apart the country. For decades, Washington and its allies have, in addition to openly supporting regime-change in Moscow, worked to expand NATO up to Russia’s border and install rabidly anti-Russian regimes in neighboring countries. The Kremlin, which launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in an attempt to block Ukraine’s entry into NATO, force Western recognition of Moscow’s control over Crimea and the Donbass and bring about a more friendly government in Kiev, cannot accept terms that do not, however illusory and fleeting, provide security guarantees and roll back Western sanctions. The latter, while failing to bring about the collapse of the Russian economy, have inflicted serious damage for which Moscow has no long-term solution.

The International Criminal Court said Friday, March 17, 2023 it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine. [AP Photo/Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP]

Last week’s “Black Sea Initiative”—a ceasefire announced between Russia and Ukraine that would halt attacks on each other’s military and commercial ships in the body of water—is already stalled. The European powers, led by France, stated Thursday that the Kremlin’s terms, which include an end to sanctions on Russian agriculture and its agricultural banking industry, are a non-starter. On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas accused Russia of “playing games and not really wanting peace.”

The following day, Germany announced that, for the first time since World War II, it is permanently deploying troops to Lithuania, situated on Russia’s western border. The unit will be fully operational by 2027.

The same day, the Kremlin announced that its spring conscription, one of two annual military call-ups that happen each year, will bring 160,000 new recruits into the armed forces, the largest number since 2011.

In an indication of the conflicts emerging on the world stage as the Trump administration erupts in an orgy of militarist violence and threats, Russia’s deputy foreign minister also warned this week against the US president’s promise to bomb Iran if it does not agree to a nuclear deal. This would have “catastrophic consequences,” the Kremlin representative declared.

Despite the ongoing tensions, the Russian ruling class is hoping that a negotiated settlement with the United States over the war in Ukraine will give it some relief. Saddled with massive military-industrial expenditures and burdened by international sanctions, Moscow is confronting mounting fiscal problems.

On Monday, the country’s treasury announced that in January and February of this year, budget expenditures exceeded revenues by 3.841 trillion rubles ($45.5 billion). For the first month of the year, outflows were about one and a half times that which was planned. While the Ministry of Finance insists that the gap is smaller, it too has established that the Kremlin is spending far more than it is taking in.

There are three primary causes. First, Russia is oil-dependent and the price per barrel that it is earning from its sales is too low, in part because trade partners such as China and India have secured special discounts due to the fact that the country cannot sell its resources on the global market. Second, Russia’s budget calculations assumed a weak ruble, with the hope that revenues from foreign-denominated oil sales would be transformed into large amounts of its national currency and thus cover the treasury’s outlays. The recent strengthening of the ruble, which is expected to continue, has blown up these calculations.

And, above all, Moscow has massively increased spending on the military and national security. In 2024, the Putin administration announced a 70 percent increase in these expenditures, which have now climbed to about 6 percent of the country’s GDP, an amount unprecedented in the post-Soviet period.

While these outlays are crippling the budget, they have been key to keeping the economy afloat over the last three years. After suffering a significant decline in 2022, Russia returned to growth in 2023 and 2024, overwhelmingly as a result of state expenditures on the military-industrial complex.

The consequence has been the further accumulation of wealth by Russia’s super-rich. Forbes just announced that Russia added 21 people last year to its list of billionaires, of which there are now 146. Their total wealth, estimated at $625.5 billion, increased by $72 billion over the course of 2024. In short, the Kremlin has ensured that the war in Ukraine has, despite all the damage inflicted by Western sanctions, secured and expanded the ranks of Russia’s oligarchy.

At the other end of society, according to a March 20 article in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta, more than one-third of Russia’s workers are employed in low-paying, low-productivity work. While there is a severe deficit of skilled and educated labor in the country, which economists cite as a major factor holding back further growth, much of the population does not have access to the training and education necessary to move up.

As an analyst from the Russian Academy of Sciences cited in Nezavisimaya Gazeta noted, the “cheapness” of their work from the standpoint of employers acts as a lag on the country’s overall economic modernization, as there is little point in enterprises making major investments to boost productivity if there is a large pool of low-paid people available to employ.

The Russian government places much emphasis on economists’ calculations that real incomes have on average been rising, by 18 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to some estimates. But this fact does not necessarily translate into improvements in everyday life for tens of millions of people. First of all, many do not experience “the average.” And beyond that, for those making a pittance, 20 percent more of that pittance is hardly a major boon to one’s personal finances.

Analysts at the Russian real estate firm TsIAN, for instance, recently estimated that residents of cities with a population over 1 million expend over one-third of their monthly income on housing. Depending on where one lives, this leaves between 37,000 and 76,000 rubles a month in income for other things—that is, between $435 and $899. Notably, this is 2.4 to 3.3 times the country’s “minimum income,” which says not so much about ordinary Russians’ well-being as it does about the absurdity of official calculations regarding what it means to be poor.

Inflation, which ran at about 10 percent in February, is constantly chipping away at workers’ earnings. Currently, a conflict has emerged within the Russian elite over the Central Bank’s decision to keep interest rates high in an effort to bring down inflation, as this makes borrowing more expensive for business, undermining expansion.

A March 27 article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta took note of the fundamental socioeconomic problem the government faces as it attempts to balance between economic growth, which appears to be slowing, and mass anger over constant price rises.

“The inflation dilemma is getting tougher: either the population starts paying for the phenomenal economic growth at a certain point due to inflation, which will bite off more and more of their income, or with a fierce fight against inflation, this phenomenal growth will soon come to naught,” noted Anastasia Bashkatova.

Estonia Government Scholarships 2025

Application Deadline:

The application period for Summer and Winter School Scholarships and Researcher & Academic Staff Grants is March 17th, 2025 – April 16th, 2025 (23:59 Estonian time).
The application period for degree and exchange study scholarships will be announced in May 2025.

Tell Me About The Award:

The Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, in collaboration with the Education and Youth Board, offers scholarships to international students, researchers, and academic staff through the Estonian Scholarship Programme. These scholarships are based on bilateral agreements between Estonia and other countries.

Which Fields are Eligible?

• For Degree and Exchange Studies: Master’s and PhD studies in all fields. Bachelor’s scholarships are available only for Estonian language and culture.
• For Summer and Winter Schools: Courses cover Estonian language & culture, IT, media, international relations, synthetic biology, self-driving cars, and more.
• For Researchers & Academic Staff: Fields vary based on research and teaching opportunities at Estonian institutions.

Type:

• Fully Funded & Partially Funded Scholarships
• Grants for Researchers and Academic Staff

Who can Apply?

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD students from eligible countries (must have completed at least one year of study).
• Foreign researchers and academic staff with an academic position at a non-Estonian institution.

How are Applicants Selected?

Applicants are evaluated based on:

• Academic merit and motivation
• Relevance of study/research to Estonia
• Potential for academic collaboration
• Pre-registration confirmation (for summer/winter school applicants)

Where will the Award be Taken?

At Estonian universities and research institutions. Some summer and winter school courses are available online.

How Many Awards?

The number of scholarships is limited and highly competitive. Historically, only 10% of applicants receive the award.

What is the Benefit of the Award?

• Summer & Winter School Scholarships: Covers course fees up to €700 and accommodation up to €25 per night (max. 4 weeks).
• Degree and Exchange Scholarships: Financial support for studies in Estonia.
• Grants for Researchers & Academic Staff: Funding for research, teaching, and academic collaboration.

How Long Will the Award Last?

• Summer/Winter Schools: 1–4 weeks
• Degree and Exchange Studies: One academic year (with potential renewal)
• Researchers & Academic Staff Grants: Varies based on research project duration

How to Apply:

1. Prepare your documents, including the completed application form, motivation letter, proof of enrollment/employment, and course registration confirmation (if applicable).
2. Submit your application via email to rvo.dokumendid@harno.ee (in Word format, no signature required).
3. Results will be announced in June 2025 for Summer/Winter Schools and Research Grants.

Visit the Award Webpage for Details:

Estonian Scholarships Official Website

Mass protests growing in Serbia against the government and President Vučić

Markus Salzmann & Peter Schwarz

Demonstration in Belgrade during a general strike on January 24, 2025 [Photo by SergioOren / wikimedia / CC BY 4.0]

After four and a half months of constant protests, the Serbian capital Belgrade recently witnessed the biggest demonstration since the breakup of Yugoslavia more than 30 years ago.

At least 300,000 people—some estimates are even higher—demonstrated against abuses of power and corruption.

Students and pupils from all over the country, which has a population of just over 7 million, traveled to Belgrade. Numerous workers and pensioners also joined the demonstration, despite the government doing everything it could to make it impossible to travel to Belgrade. The state-owned railways and bus lines suspended services to the capital due to alleged terror warnings.

These measures, however, only sparked even more solidarity. Carpooling groups formed on social networks, and taxis and even private bus companies drove participants to Belgrade for free.

The demonstration was the highpoint so far of the wave of protests against the government and President Aleksandar Vučić that has been going on for months. In all the larger cities of the Balkan state, students in particular have repeatedly taken to the streets. Almost all universities in the country have been occupied for months, with university staff showing their solidarity with students.

The wave of protests has long since spread across the entire country. The Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) recently reported 410 protest actions in 165 different locations in just one week. A study by the CRTA shows that 80 percent of the population support the students’ demands and that two-thirds are involved in the protests in some way.

The protests were triggered by the death of 16 people, including two children, following the collapse of a station canopy in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad in November last year. Just last week, the 16th fatality, a 19-year-old student, succumbed to his injuries. In response to the news of the young man’s death, students and schoolchildren blocked two central bus and tram depots, causing significant disruptions to public transport.

The collapse of the canopy was preceded by a renovation of the train station, but the dilapidated canopy was not replaced. Protesters blame the corruption rampant in the ruling party and the state apparatus for the tragedy and are demanding that all documents relating to the Novi Sad disaster be made public.

Furthermore, they demand that the attacks on students and professors during the protests be investigated and those responsible prosecuted. In addition, the proceedings against students who took part in the peaceful protests should be dropped and the education budget increased by 20 percent.

However, the protests go far beyond these limited demands. They are an expression of widespread opposition to the abuse of power and corruption of the ruling elites and to the intolerable social conditions for the majority of the population. While they are primarily directed against the president and government and the ruling right-wing nationalist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the country’s so-called opposition parties have so far been unable to gain a foothold among the protesters.

This is despite Vučić’s increasingly brutal crackdown on the protests and his attempts to divide the population by stirring up toxic nationalism and racism, provoking conflicts with neighboring states and oppressing minorities.

Vučić is pitting SNS officials, who are often linked to fascist groups, against the students in an attempt to intimidate them. During the demonstration in Belgrade, a notorious fascist unit associated with executions and war crimes in the 1990s marched. High-ranking SNS members, such as Vladimir Đukanović, who has repeatedly made headlines with his fascist outbursts, have threatened to fire into the crowd if protests continue.

In Belgrade, numerous protesters were arrested. Security forces used pepper spray and a sonic weapon against the peaceful mass demonstration. Although the authorities officially denied the use of a sonic weapon, video recordings and assessments by military analysts clearly confirm its use.

The use of sonic weapons is banned in Serbia, as it is in numerous other countries, because they can cause permanent damage to protesters. In addition to hearing loss and tinnitus, they can lead to headaches, dizziness, disorientation and even organ failure. On the evening of the protest, dozens of people presented themselves at the emergency rooms of the clinics with severe headaches and earaches.

The EU is backing Vučić

In Ukraine, Georgia and other successor states of the Soviet Union, pro-imperialist forces have repeatedly succeeded in splitting protests against abuse of power and corruption from the social struggles of the working class and in steering them into the wake of the European Union and the US in the form of so-called “color revolutions.” This has not yet happened in Serbia because the reactionary character of the EU and the US has become so obvious they can no longer pose as “democratic” alternatives to the authoritarian regime in Serbia.

The EU has openly backed Vučić in Serbia, whom it needs to repel the influence of Russia and China, integrate Serbia into the EU and exploit the country’s vast lithium deposits. For his part, Vučić is determined to continue on a path towards the EU, even if he repeatedly plays up the traditionally close relations between Serbia and Russia and the country’s economic ties with China to reinforce his status. China has invested billions in Serbia and is its second largest trading partner after Germany.

In October, shortly before the outbreak of mass protests, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Belgrade to thank “dear Aleksandar” for his “implementation of reforms, particularly with regard to the foundations of the rule of law and democracy.” “You have shown that you walk the talk,” she said, commending Vučić.

Three months earlier, in July 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also in Belgrade to attend the signing of a “Memorandum on Critical Raw Materials” that grants the EU access to Serbia’s lithium deposits. The Jadar mine, operated by the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto, can meet 90 percent of Europe’s current lithium needs.

Massive protests against the environmentally destructive mining had previously forced the Serbian government to halt it for two years, until the project resumed under pressure from the EU. Many of those who took part in those protests went on to play a leading role in today’s demonstrations. It is no wonder, then, that there is little enthusiasm for the EU. According to surveys, only 40 percent of the Serbian population supports EU accession.

“As so often in the world, the EU has chosen to prioritize business interests, which do not necessarily go hand in hand with political liberalization, over freedom and democracy in Serbia,” commented political scientist Branislav Radeljic.

Vučić also plays a central role for the EU in the repulsion of refugees coming via the so-called Balkan route.

Vučić also has a good relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron. During Macron’s visit to Belgrade in 2024, Vučić purchased 12 Rafale fighter jets from the French manufacturer Dassault, worth €2.7 billion. Although the sum is unaffordable for Serbia, the political advantages that Vučić expects to gain were obviously worth the price to him.

Donald Trump’s administration—or more precisely, his family—is also pursuing its business interests in Belgrade with Vučić’s active support. On March 24, thousands protested in Belgrade against the construction of a luxury project by the US investment firm Affinity Partners, which is owned by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The property is to be built on the site of the former Yugoslav army headquarters, which was destroyed by a US air force attack exactly 26 years ago as part of the NATO war against Yugoslavia. The Serbian government has leased the property in the heart of Belgrade to Kushner’s company for 99 years.

The protests lack a viable perspective

Although the Serbian protest movement has so far not allowed itself to be hijacked by the EU or NATO, it lacks a viable perspective. The Green Left Front (ZLF), a party that emerged from the movement against the Jadar mine and other environmental protests, supports the protests but does not go beyond pious hopes for a reform of the parliamentary system and cooperation between all opposition parties.

“The Green-Left Front believes that the only solution for a way out of the crisis is the formation of a transitional government, which would be endowed with a time-limited mandate to ensure free elections and free media and urgently stop the theft of public funds through large infrastructure projects,” said Radomir Lazović, co-chair of the ZLF, to the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Such a transitional government, the ZLF says, should revise voter lists to ensure fair elections and create conditions for objective media reporting. ZLF has initiated meetings with all of the opposition parties and insists that extra-parliamentary organizations and civil society be involved in this proposal, otherwise it would be manipulated by the authorities.

Such a proposal amounts to trying to cure a cancer patient by administering placebos. The cancerous growth of corruption and dictatorial rule, which has also infested the US and the European Union, cannot be fought with homeopathic remedies. It is the result of the rot of capitalist society. The dominance of billionaire oligarchs over economic life is just as incompatible with democracy as the global struggle for raw materials, markets and profit is with peace.

Huge earthquake causes death and destruction in Myanmar and Thailand

Peter Symonds

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 that struck in Myanmar yesterday has killed more than 700 people in that country and neighbouring Thailand. The death toll, however, could rise into the thousands as bodies are recovered from the rubble and information comes in from towns and rural areas.

Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. [AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn]

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake occurred at around 1.30 p.m. local time at a depth of about 10 kilometres. Its epicentre was near Mandalay in central Myanmar—the country’s second largest city—and it was followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. The relative shallowness of the earthquake has meant that its impact has been greater. 

Based on its analysis of the strength and depth of the quake, the USGS warned on Friday that “high casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread.” It predicted that more than 1,000 people may have been killed, with a death toll over 10,000 a strong possibility.

The official death toll in Myanmar so far is 694, with another 1,670 injured, according to an official statement reported by state media today.

In some places, buildings collapsed, Myanmar’s junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said in a televised speech yesterday, after visiting a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw. The junta declared a state of emergency across six regions.

State media reported that the quake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway. Damage is likely to be far more extensive. Limited on-the-spot reportage from Myanmar includes photos of the twisted remains of a bridge over the Irrawaddy River near Mandalay and video footage of the spire of a pagoda collapsing.

A Mandalay resident told Reuters: “We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking… I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside.”

A rescue worker in Mandalay told the news agency that the bodies of 30 people had been recovered from collapsed multi-story apartment blocks. “I have never experienced anything like this before—our town looks like a collapsed city,” he said, estimating that about a fifth of the buildings had been destroyed…

“We received calls for help from people from the inside, but we cannot help because we do not have enough manpower and machines to remove the debris, but we will not stop working.”

A Red Cross spokesperson in Yangon, the country’s largest city, said the damage to public infrastructure included roads, bridges and public buildings, adding that there were also concerns over the stability of large-scale dams.

In his televised address, General Hlaing made a direct appeal for international assistance: “I would like to invite any country, any organisation, or anyone in Myanmar to come and help. Thank you.”

The UN, EU and US, along with other countries and agencies, have promised aid, but none has spelled out what they are planning to provide. 

Responding to reporters, Trump tossed off the offhand remark: “It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping.” His administration, however, has already eliminated more than 90 percent of US foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall international assistance. 

All USAID direct hire personnel, with few exceptions, internationally have been placed on administrative leave. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced yesterday that most would be fired.

The Myanmar disaster is being compounded by the country’s ongoing civil war. It erupted after the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, deposing the democratically-elected government headed by the National League for Democracy (NLD) of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta violently cracked down on protests, shooting demonstrators on the streets. Thousands were killed and many more arrested. Others fled to regions controlled by separatist ethnic militias that have been battling the military for decades.

Over the past four years in these areas, a coalition of forces has established a National Unity Government (NUG) in opposition to the junta.

In a phone call with Reuters, Zin Mar Aung, a top NUG spokesman, said troops from militias aligned with it, known as the People’s Defence Forces, would provide humanitarian help. “It’s very serious, we need humanitarian and technical assistance from the international community.”

The impact of the earthquake was felt beyond Myanmar. In Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, over a thousand kilometres from the epicentre, a 33-storey building under construction collapsed into a heap of rubble. So far, 10 people have been confirmed dead, but at least a hundred others are missing.

Bangkok was declared a disaster zone after tremors caused buildings to sway dangerously. Thousands of people in the megalopolis of 17 million were forced to evacuate their homes and workplaces.

Later yesterday, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra told residents they could return home, saying the affected area was limited in scope. The full extent of the damage in Thailand, however, is not known.

Tremors were also felt in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, which neighbours Myanmar. In the border town of Ruili, residents ran away from a high-rise residential building as it shook violently, as shown by a video posted on the Weibo social media platform. Violent shaking was also felt by people in the Chinese city of Mangshi, about 100 kilometres northeast of Ruili.

The earthquake occurred on the Sagaing fault, running roughly north-south. It marks the boundary between the Indian tectonic plate to the west and the Eurasian plate to the east. According to Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, it was probably the biggest quake on the Myanmar mainland in three-quarters of a century.

Given the length of time since the last major earthquake, it is likely that many of the buildings in Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest countries, have not been constructed to withstand quakes.

“A combination of size and very shallow depth will maximize the chances of damage,” McGuire said. “It is highly likely that build quality will generally not be high enough to survive this level of shaking, and casualty numbers will almost certainly climb significantly.”

Yesterday’s earthquake was the strongest recorded globally since a 7.8- magnitude quake struck Turkey and Syria two years ago, causing more than 60,000 fatalities.

Antimicrobial resistance crisis a major threat to human health

Frank Gaglioti

Microbiologist works with tubes of bacteria samples in an antimicrobial resistance and characterisation lab at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [AP Photo/David Goldman]

A stark warning of the impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or so-called superbugs was issued in January by Sally Davies, who was Britain’s chief medical officer from 2010 to 2019. She told the Guardian: “About a million people die every year because of the spread of microbial resistance, and that figure will rise over the next 25 years. It is really scary.”

Davies has long advocated for measures to resolve what has become a major health crisis and, in 2013, wrote a book entitled “The Drugs Don’t Work: A Global Threat.” In 2022 the issue became very personal when her 38-year-old god daughter Emily Hoyle, who suffered from cystic fibrosis and was severely immune compromised, died after acquiring a drug-resistant lung infection.

“I’ve started calling it [AMR] the Grand Pandemic.… It’s the third most important underlying cause of death in the world,” she told The Naked Scientists.

The death toll Davies calculates, while shocking, may be a significant underestimation. An editorial published in the prestigious British medical journal, the Lancet, last May “Antimicrobial resistance: an agenda for all” cited a study from 2022 that “almost 5 million deaths per year are associated with drug-resistant bacteria, with a higher burden among low-income and middle-income countries.”

The Lancet also published an important assessment of the developing AMR crisis in September 2024 entitled “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050.”

“Our forecasts show that an estimated 1·91 million (1·56–2·26) deaths attributable to AMR and 8·22 million (6·85–9·65) deaths associated with AMR could occur globally in 2050,” the researchers stated. When compared to their estimate for 2021 of 1.14 million deaths, their forecast represents a 67.5 percent increase in annual deaths in the next 25 years directly attributed to bacterial AMR.

The study also predicted: “Super-regions with the highest all-age AMR mortality rate in 2050 are forecast to be south Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains threatens to set back the world a hundred years to the age when even a minor infection from a cut or an infection acquired during childbirth could result in a life-threatening condition.

This only changed with the development of the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928 by Alexander Fleming in London. Penicillin only became widely used during World War II when mass production was developed in the 1940s in the US by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain to treat wounded soldiers. This was the start of the “antibiotic era.”

Professor Alexander Fleming at work in his laboratory at St Mary's Hospital, London [Photo: Ministry of Information]

It is difficult to imagine today the impact of infection not only on individuals but on whole populations. Infectious diseases such as syphilis, scarlet fever, pneumonia, rheumatic fever, bacterial meningitis and diphtheria ravaged societies. Infections acquired during surgery were eliminated enabling the development of more complex surgical procedures.

Antibiotics virtually eliminated puerperal (childbed) fever, caused by Streptococcus pyogenes which was a major cause of maternal death. Penicillin greatly reduced the risk of infection during more complicated birth procedures such as C-sections. The impact of infectious diseases had vast social and political implications for society. The rise of superbugs threatens the return of these diseases.

Antibiotic resistance develops as a natural consequence of the use of antibiotic drugs. The use of a particular drug eliminates organisms susceptible to that antibiotic, allowing any survivors to develop into a resistant strain. Over time, particularly with widespread overuse of antibiotics, resistant strains emerge to an ever-wider range of drugs.

Today a handful of antibiotics are reserved to attempt to deal with the most-deadly resistant bacteria. This includes Carbapenems used to treat multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae usually found in urine and Pseudomonas aeruginosa that commonly exists in the environment, in water, plants and soil, causing pneumonia and infecting the urinary tract, blood and wounds. Along with several other antibiotics of last resort they have to be used very judiciously as they can also have severe side effects.

The discovery of antibiotics was a great scientific and medical discovery, but under capitalism such breakthroughs are perverted and distorted in the interests of profit. In her Guardian interview, Davies points to some of these issues.

She especially highlights the massive overuse of antibiotics in agriculture where 70 percent of all antibiotics are used on livestock—a huge arena for the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. While some antibiotics are reserved for the exclusive use of the agriculture industry many human antibiotics are used as well. The drugs are not used to treat sick animals but to prevent infection in order to enable agribusinesses to keep animals in cramped and unsanitary conditions, and thus boost profits.

Davies explained that the overuse of antibiotics enables superbugs to become established in the environment: “If you’ve got intensive farming where a lot of antibiotics are used or a busy hospital that has a poor sewage system, resistant bacteria can get into waterways. Winds blow over these patches of contaminated land or water and pick up bacteria and genes with resistance in them, then let them rain down in other places. That is how pernicious this problem has become.”

A paper by Zahra Ardakani and her team at the University of Bologna in Italy entitled “Evaluating the contribution of antimicrobial use in farmed animals to global antimicrobial resistance in humans” was published in One Health in December 2023. It found that the nonresponse to antibiotics frequently used in animal farming is also high in human patients. At the same time, it is low for the antibiotics rarely used on animals.

The researchers explained: “For example, E. coli resistance to Aminopenicillins is found at 73.3 percent (extremely high), while E. coli resistance to Glycylcyclines, banned in animal farming, is 0.78 percent (very low resistance). For S. aureus, resistance to Macrolides represents 56.0 percent, considered very high, while resistance to Vancomycin, a more recent antibiotic banned in animal farming, is very low (0.22 percent).

“This evidence shows the importance of avoiding the use of critical antibiotics for both humans and farmed animals,” Ardakani et al. commented.

While Davies focuses on agriculture, general practitioners and hospitals, often acting under pressures of time and patient expectations, are a significant contributor to the development of antibiotic resistance. Doctors, who prescribe antibiotics for viral conditions such as the flu, know antibiotics will not combat viruses and will at best prevent secondary infections. Patients, who stop taking the full course of their anti-biotic because they feel better, also contribute to the development of drug resistance. Hospitals in particular are a hotspot for antibiotic resistance as antibiotics are over used and vulnerable patients become a reservoir for the superbugs.

According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) “Nearly 2 million Americans per year develop hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), resulting in 99,000 deaths—the vast majority of which are due to antibacterial-resistant pathogens.”

In some hospitals where anti-resistant microbes have become entrenched, this can lead to serious complications and even death. In 2021, at the University Hospital in Geneva in Switzerland, resistant Enterobacter cloacae infected patients in the intensive care unit. The bacteria were spread through the hospital’s plumbing and ventilation system.

The lack of new drugs to combat antibiotic resistance strains is not an accident. As Davies explained, the giant pharmaceutical companies are simply not uninterested in funding the necessary research.

“We’ve had no new classes of antibiotics come into routine use since the late 80s and the market model that would promote the creation of new ones is broken. If you develop a new antibiotic, it might be used by someone for a weekly course once a year. Where’s the profit in that?… So there is no incentive for them to try to develop new antibiotics. It is a real headache,” she commented.

Antibiotic resistant microbes have become a particular problem for poor countries as the use of antibiotics is not regulated and they are often readily available, leading to their misuse. The prevalence of infectious diseases and the lack of proper medical care has led to the inappropriate use of antibiotics for viral conditions such as HIV/Aids. Many of these societies lack clean drinking water and basic sanitation and people live in overcrowded conditions providing a perfect breeding ground for superbugs. In agriculture, antibiotics are used to boost the productivity of livestock and to keep the animals healthy. Any developing superbugs can be easily transferred to the human population. Antibiotic resistant microbes can be spread internationally through travel and migration.

Although Davies and other principled scientists have taken an important stance in highlighting the AMR crisis, their aim is to pressure governments to act to resolve the crisis.

Davies commented on the Lancet: “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021” study: “This landmark study confirms that the world is facing an antibiotic emergency, with devastating human costs for families and communities across the world. It substantiates our calls to all sectors to take decisive action now to save lives and save modern medicine for generations to come, and address the needs of low-and-middle income countries who bear the greatest tragedies from AMR.”

Not surprisingly, Davies’ remarks, despite her previous role as chief medical officer, have fallen on deaf ears. Governments around the world have used the ongoing COVID pandemic to ditch their support for public health, dismantling even minimal mitigation measures as an impost on the profits of the oligarchs. In this case, a virus is being allowed to debilitate and kill, and mutate unimpeded into new and potentially deadlier strains.

In November 2021, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson notoriously blurted out the attitude of ruling classes around the world: “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” Now Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a notorious anti-vaxxer and purveyor of quack remedies, has been installed by Trump as health secretary in the United States.

OECD report points to mounting global debt crisis

Nick Beams

A report issued by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) earlier this month has pointed to mounting debt problems in the world economy, which are being intensified by the rise in interest rates.

Global Debt Report 2025: Financing Growth in a Challenging Debt Market Environment [Photo by OECD Publishing, Paris / CC BY-SA 4.0]

Among its findings is that across the membership of the organization, comprising 38 countries and all the major economies, the interest bill on government debt is swallowing up an ever-greater amount of government revenue with no sign this will decrease. Debt service costs rose to 3.3 percent of GDP in 2024, up from 2.4 percent in 2021, amounting to more than $2 trillion.

The value of outstanding government and corporate bonds in the OECD exceeded $100 trillion last year, with global GDP at between $105 and $110 trillion. Governments and corporations in the OECD borrowed $25 trillion in 2024, almost triple the level of borrowing in 2007 before the global financial crisis the following year.

Much of the increase in borrowing over the past decade and a half has been because of measures taken in response to the global financial crisis and the outlays as a result of the pandemic. This money was used, in the main, to provide handouts and in some cases bailouts for corporations while virtually free money was pumped into the financial system, boosting stock market and other forms of speculation.

Debt raised in this period, corporate and government, was at ultra-low rates, even negative in some cases.

But with the onset of inflation in 2021, the highest in four decades, and the subsequent lifting of interest rates starting in 2022, debt servicing problems have continued to grow.

And they will increase. This is because, as the OECD report explained, the current debt stock is “largely a legacy of the low-interest rate period” and “most outstanding debt carries a cost that is much lower than current market rates, and likely to be lower than the cost of borrowing going forward.”

At the end of 2024, more than half of OECD sovereign debt, 30 percent of emerging market debt, 63 percent of corporate debt, and 74 percent of non-investment grade debt had interest costs below the prevailing market level.

But that situation is changing rapidly as existing debt must be refinanced at much higher interest rates.

The report noted that 45 percent of OECD countries’ sovereign debt will mature by 2027 and must be rolled over, together with around one-third of corporate debt.

Even before the full impact of interest rate increases takes effect on the debt mountain, there has been a very sharp increase in interest payments. The OECD noted that while the effect of interest rate rises tended to be gradual “nonetheless, between 2021 and 2024, interest costs to GDP increased from the lowest to the highest level in the last 20 years, reflecting the speed of recent changes.”

The growing crisis is most graphically expressed in the US, where government debt is $36 trillion, and interest payments are around $1 trillion and set to become the biggest item in the budget.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the US debt-to-GDP ratio would rise from its present level of around 100 percent to 109 percent in 2027.

The CBO warned that 'mounting debt would slow economic growth, push up interest payments to foreign holders of US debt, and pose significant risks to the fiscal and economic outlook.'

Growing debt problems are not confined to the US but extend across the major economies. An example was provided this week with the bringing down of the Australian Labor government’s budget. It recorded that government debt had reached the $1 trillion mark and the interest bill was increasing at 9.5 percent, the fastest rate of increase of spending of any item in the budget.

The OECD noted a significant fact about the growth of corporate debt, highlighting the growing divorce between the financial operations of corporations and the underlying real economy.

Corporate bond issuance had grown significantly above trend, but corporate investment, that is, spending on new factories, technology, that is the development of the productive forces needed to promote real growth, had not.

“Rather than productive investment, much debt in recent years has been instead used to fund financial operations like refinancing… and shareholder payouts. This suggests existing debt is unlikely to ‘pay itself off’ through returns on productive investments,” the OECD report said.

The economy, in all major countries, is increasingly coming to resemble an inverted pyramid in which a growing amount of non-productive debt sits on top of a relatively smaller productive base.

The OECD warned of growing financial turbulence from at least two sources. As central banks withdrew from the debt through “quantitative tightening”—the reduction of their financial asset holdings—the “existing investors will need to buy more debt or new, likely more price-sensitive, investors will need to enter the market, which could increase volatility.”

Foreign investors would be needed in all markets, and this demand depended on the level and functioning of international financial flows.

“However, geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties may lead to rapid changes in risk aversion that could, in turn, disrupt certain international portfolio flows.”

So far at least, the worsening situation had not led to a major increase in corporate defaults, and no major economy had defaulted or undergone a significant debt restructuring. But debt trajectories in recent years could not be ignored.

The report noted that “several sovereigns” were “shortening the maturity of their issuance” of debt. The US is a major example of this trend.

Increasingly, new debt is being issued at the short end of the market for two-year Treasury bonds rather than for ten-year bonds. This action by the Federal Reserve is being undertaken because of fears that there will be a shortage of investors at the longer end of the markets, and this deficiency of demand will lead to a lowering of bond prices and a rise in their yields or interest rate. (Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.)

But this maneuver has its downside because an increased reliance on the short end of the market, where rates can move more sharply, “can amplify already heightened financial risks.”

The body of the report, which runs to more than 170 pages, made virtually no mention of the spending policies of governments. But the executive summary contained a winged sentence that indicates the direction these policies must take.

“Many governments,” it said, “will likely mean a combination of prudence, structural reforms to boost growth, and greater efficiency in public spending.”

What these anodyne terms mean is a deepening assault on the social position of the working class—major cuts in spending on services necessary for modern life and intensified exploitation of workers via so-called “structural reforms.”

The attacks are already underway as military spending is increased. In the US, Elon Musk, the head of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has labeled the Social Security system a “Ponzi scheme,” the clear implication being that it should be subjected to his “chainsaw.”

In Europe, the so-called “peace dividend” is at an end with all governments increasing their military spending to record levels, with German imperialism leading the way with an allocation of €1 trillion on war to be financed by the release of the so-called debt handbrake.