24 Jan 2019

WHO-TDR Clinical and Research Development Fellowship 2019/2020 for Developing Countries

Application Deadlines: 7th March 2019, 16:00 (GMT)

Eligible Countries: Low- and Middle income countries of WHO African Region.

About the Award: Successful applicants are placed for 12 months in host training organizations (pharmaceutical companies, product development partnerships (PDPs) or research organizations) and then receive a reintegration plan for 12 months at their home institution.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: On the date of the deadline set for submission of applications, the fellow should:
  • Be a postgraduate (MSc or PhD) or medical/pharmacy graduate conducting clinical research activities in the scope of TDR’s mandate.
  • Have obtained their first degree within the 15 years prior to submission of this application.
  • Have been a researcher or clinical staff member employed for the past 12 months in an institution with a registered legal entity in an LMIC conducting clinical research activities in the scope of TDR’s mandate.
  • Must be a national or citizen of, and resident in, an LMIC.
Number of Awards: Ten (10) Master’s scholarships

Value of Award: 
  • The grant covers one economy class return air ticket (home – host training organization – home); a monthly stipend of approximately US$ 4000; a one-time allowance of US$ 1500 for educational support materials; health insurance and support to attend relevant meetings during the course of the fellowship, up to a maximum amount of US$ 3000, and access to an alumni website and to the Professional Membership Scheme for clinical trialists website.
  • A break at 6 months of fellowship may be offered to the fellow to return to their home institution to present to their peers the acquired training and scientific progress made.
  • The grant also includes provisional funds for reintegration, conditional upon the approval of a progress report and reintegration plan.
How to Apply:
  1. Please send the completed application form in electronic format (Word or PDF only) to cdftdr@who.int.
  2. It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage see link below) before applying
Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: World Health Organisation, Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)

Shanghai Government Scholarship 2019/2020 for Bachelors, Masters and PhD International Students

Application Deadline: from 1st March 2019 to 30th March 2019.

Eligible Countries: International

To be taken at (country): China

Eligible Field of Study:
  1. Bachelor’s degree programs
  2. Master’s degree programs (except MBA and MTCSOL*)
    • Note: MBA is short for Master of Business Administration;
    • MTCSOL refers to Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages.
  3. Doctoral degree programs
Type: Bachelors, Masters and PhD

Eligibility: 
  1. Be a non-Chinese citizen in good health.
  2. Not be an enrolled degree student in Chinese universities at the time of application.
  3. Be a high school graduate under the age of 25 when applying for the undergraduate programs;
  4. Be a master’s degree holder under the age of 40 when applying for doctoral programs.
  5. Be a bachelor’s degree holder under the age of 35 when applying for master’s programs.
  6. 3.Language proficiency: new HSK5 level (scored at least 180)
Value of Scholarship: The scholarship covers tuition waiver and comprehensive medical insurance for bachelor’s students; it covers tuition waiver, accommodation, stipend, and comprehensive medical insurance for master’s students and doctoral students.

Duration of Scholarship: 
  1. Bachelor’s Degree Program: 4 to 5 years
  2. Master’s degree programs: 2 to 3 years
  3. Doctoral degree programs: 3 to 4 years
How to Apply: 
Step 1 – Submit the scholarship application on http://study.shmec.gov.cn, print out the scholarship application form and sign on it.
Step 2 – Submit the program application on http://ao.sufe.edu.cn, print out the degree program application form and sign on it.
Step 3 – Present the supporting documents to the Admission Office at ICES SUFE.
Please mail or hand in directly to the Admission Office by the application deadline (mailing date considered as submission date).
  • It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage see link below) before applying
Visit Programme Webpage for details

Dag Hammarskjöld Journalism Fellowships 2019 at United Nations Assembly for Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 1st March, 2019. 

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries:
  • Developing nations of Africa, Asia (including Pacific Island nations), Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • For 2019 only, the Fund will not accept applications from the countries of the 2017 fellows – Argentina, India, Kenya and Yemen – in an effort to rotate recipient countries.
To be taken at (country): New York, USA

Area of Interest: Journalism

About Fellowship: The Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists accepts applications from journalists of the developing nations of Africa, Asia (including Pacific Island nations), Latin America and the Caribbean to cover the United Nations General Assembly beginning in September each year. The fellowships offer a unique opportunity for promising young journalists from developing countries to see the United Nations at work and to report on its proceedings for news media in their home countries.

Offered Since: 1961

Type: Professional Fellowship

Eligibility: The Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists fellowships are open to individuals who:
  • Are native to one of the mainly developing countries of Africa, Asia (including Pacific Island nations), Latin America and the Caribbean. For 2019 only, the Fund will not accept applications from the countries of the 2018 fellows – Argentina, India, Kenya and Yemen – in an effort to rotate recipient countries.
  • Currently live in and write for media in a developing country.
  • Are between the ages of 25 and 35.
  • Have a very good command of the English language since United Nations press conferences and many documents are in English only.
  • Are currently employed as professional journalists for print, television, radio or internet media organizations.  Both full-time and freelance journalists are invited to apply.
  • Have approval from their media organizations to spend up to three months in New York reporting from the United Nations.
  • Receive a commitment from their media organizations that the reports they file during the term of the Fellowship will be used and that they will continue to be paid for their services.
Number of Fellowships: not specified

Value of Fellowship: The Fund will provide: round-trip airfare to New York; accommodations; health insurance for the duration of the fellowship, and a daily allowance to cover food and other necessities. The Fund will not be responsible for other expenses of a personal nature, such as telephone calls.

Duration of Fellowship: first three months of the General Assembly session

How to Apply: 
  • CLICK HERE for the application in Word format
    CLICK HERE for the application in PDF format (requires Adobe Reader, free download)
You MUST ALSO INCLUDE ALL necessary documentation as outlined in the Eligibility and Documentation Requirements with your application.
An originally completed AND signed application, along with all six (6) of the Documentation Requirements, should be sent by postal or courier service (such as DHL, FedEx, Airborne) to:
Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists
512 Northampton Street, No. 124A
Edwardsville, PA 18704 USA



Visit the Fellowship Webpage for Details

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Doctoral Scholarship Program 2019 for Students from Developing Countries

Application Deadlines: Applications will be accepted no later than:
  • diploma / magister / state examination: by the end of 6th semester
  • Bachelor/ undergraduate programmes: until 3 semesters before finishing the standard period of study (if 6 semesters by the end  of 3rd semester; if 7 semesters by the end  of 4rd semester)
  • postgraduate/ Master programmes: by the end of 1st semester
  • duration of application process:
    4-7 months
Offered Annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Students from Developing Countries already studying in Germany.

About the Award: The promotion of young talent has been one of the founding principles of the FES.
At the time when Friedrich Ebert was elected as the first president of the Weimar Republic, it was almost impossible for talented children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to study at universities or take part in research programmes. With the foundation of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in 1925, the first scholarships were awarded to particularly talented young individuals from a working class milieu who were taking an active part in the young democracy of the Weimar Republic.
To address social disadvantages by supporting students who actively work for freedom, justice and social cohesion in their commitment to social democracy, or will do so in future, continues to be one of the aims of the FES.

Type: Doctoral

Eligibility: The FES can only award scholarships to applicants from abroad who have already enrolled in a German university or have a supervisor for their doctoral studies.
    • For the FES, service to the common good deserves recognition. It is therefore not only the applicants’ academic achievement but their social and political involvement and personal attitudes that play an important part in the selection process.
  • The FES also supports foreign applicants who are already studying, or doing their postgraduate studies, in Germany at the time of application. Up to 40 students from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe may qualify for the scholarship programme every year with the exception of those who are already receiving some support from public sources.
  • Students are expected to be living in Germany before they apply and have to provide proof of an adequate command of the German language by submitting a language proficiency certificate ( C 1, TestDAF)
  • Since foreign scholarship holders will receive an extensive social and political side programme, German language proficiency is crucial even when the study programme itself (M/B) is carried out in English.
  • We do not support foreign students from Western European countries at present, but only those from the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
  • At the time of application, foreign students should be able to submit proof of their initial academic achievements/marks with the exception of those enrolled in Master or other postgraduate programmes.
Selection Criteria: The FES supports
  • all academic subjects
  • students from public or state-approved universities and from universities of applied sciences/polytechnical colleges (FH)
  • postgraduate programmes (PhD)
The FES does not support
  • second degree courses
  • study visits outside Germany
  • final phases of academic studies
  • postgraduate courses in medicine
Number of Awards: This year, about 2.700 students and postgraduates will receive a grant from FES.

Value of Award: Foreign scholarship holders receive:
  • 650 € per month (basic scholarship programme) / 1000 € per month (graduate scholarship programme)
  • 276 € of family allowance, if applicable
  • refund of health care costs
  • any income exceeding 400 € per month will be credited against the scholarship.
Expectations: FES expects scholarship holders:
  • to participate in extra-curricular seminars and activities of FES campus groups on a regular basis
  • to achieve above-average results in their degree courses
  • to continue and intensify their socio-political commitment.
At the end of each term, a semester report has to be submitted to FES which describes the scholarship holder’s current academic performance and his/her social engagement.

How to Apply: 
    • Self Application: Please use the “Online-Bewerbung” on the Internet – in German only! supplementary sheet
    • Individual interviews: In a second step, selected candidates will be invited to two individual interviews. The first interview will be conducted by one of the lecturers from the FES, and the second interview by one of the members of the FES scholarship committee (AWA). Two reports are written on the basis of these interviews and presented to the AWA.
    • Discussion and final decision by the AWA: The AWA will eventually make a final decision about your application. The AWA is an independent body composed of university lecturers as well as other persons from the fields of science, politics, art and media. The committee meets at least three times a year. The AWA will discuss every application at great length and then make the final decision.
  • Written notification: You will be notified of the AWA’s decision.
Visit the Program Webpage for Details


Award Providers: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)

DW Akademie Journalism Masters Scholarships 2019 for Journalism Students and Professionals in Developing Countries – Germany

Application Deadline: 31st March 2019

Eligible Countries: Developing Countries

To Be Taken At (Country): Germany

About the Award: The program is targeted at students from around the world that want to work in a position of responsibility in journalism or the communications sector. It especially addresses journalists-in-training, media representatives from radio, TV, online and print and communication experts. Those interested must have completed an academic program (bachelor’s degree or equivalent) and have acquired at least one year of professional experience in a media-related field after their first degree. The program is bilingual (English and German), whereby English is the prevalent course language.
Full Scholarship: We are granting full scholarship to up to 10 applicants each year. Prospective students from developing countries can apply for the full scholarship. The scholarship is 750 EUR per month covering costs for living and accommodation. The tuition fee and the flight will be also reimbursed. A committee will decide which applicants are to receive a scholarship after the application deadline has expired.
Partial Scholarship: Prospective students from developing countries and countries in transition who do not meet the requirements for the full scholarship, may apply for a partial scholarship. This will cover the costs of the tuition fees of 6,000 EUR. The expenses for travelling, accommodation and living will have to be paid by yourself.

Type: Masters, Training

Eligibility: Especially targeted at:
• Media representatives from radio, TV, online and print
• Journalists-in-training, especially from electronic media
• Journalists and management from community radio stations
• Communication experts
• NGO employees
• Employees from ministries
• Employees from cooperative development groups and projects
• Representatives from regional working groups and national broadcasters
• Media association representatives

For the Master’s Program, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree, at least one year of professional experience in a media-related field and advanced skills in German and English.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Full and Partial scholarships are available.

Duration of Program: Four semesters

How to Apply: Applications must be made online.
Before you begin filling out the online application form make sure you have all the required documents:
• Letter of motivation (signed and dated)
• Current Curriculum Vitae (Europass format, signed and dated)
• Certificate of your first academic degree (including ALL transcripts)
• Evidence of at least one year’s professional experience in a media-related field AFTER obtaining your first academic degree (for a full scholarship you must give evidence for at least one additional year of professional experience)
• Certificate of APS (for applicants who completed their first degree in China, Vietnam or Mongolia)
• Evidence of sufficient English language skills (TOEFL IBT: score of 83 or higher, IELTS: score of 6.0 or higher, BULATS: score of 70 or higher, LCCI: level 3) – English language certificates are valid for two years from the date of issue
• Evidence of sufficient German language skills (TestDaF at least level TDN 3 in all four parts of the examination, Goethe Zertifikat at least level B2 or DSH at least level 1)
• Copy of your passport.

If you would like to apply for a full scholarship, you will be required to submit some additional documents:
• Recent recommendation letter from a University (with letterhead, official University stamp, signature and date)
• Recent recommendation letter from your employer (with letterhead, official company stamp, signature and date)
• DAAD application form
• High school diploma

Please sign the documents where required, scan them and upload them. You will need to bring the originals with you in case you are accepted to the program.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details


Award Providers: DW Akademie

How Worried Should We be If China’s Growth Rate Slows to 6.4%?

Dean Baker 

There have been numerous articles in the news recently telling us about China’s slowing economy (e.g. here and here). From the accounts I’ve seen, it does sound like China has problems, although we have heard this story before. (There have been China experts predicting a financial collapse since the late 1990s.)
But the striking part is that a slowing economy is treated as something unexpected. China had been maintaining extraordinary double-digit growth through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The idea that China could continue to grow at this rate seemed pretty far-fetched. In fact, if we go back to 2016 and look at the IMF’s forecast for growth in China in 2018 and 2019, it was 6.0 percent for both years. The IMF’s forecasts are generally in the middle of professional forecasts. For this reason, it is a bit strange to read an article in the NYT telling us that China’s slowdown to 6.4 percent growth last year is really bad news for the world economy.
It is also worth noting the ostensible problem here. The idea is that if China’s economy were growing more rapidly, it would be creating more demand for goods and services produced by other countries. This is true, but there is another way that the countries facing insufficient demand can generate it if China’s economy is not cooperating. Their governments could spend money.
The problem of insufficient demand is best countered by more demand. Insofar as the US faces this problem right now (it may not), it can be remedied by doing things like extending access to health care and child care or starting a Green New Deal. It really is not that hard to find ways to spend money.

Lawsuits against Australian government reveal horror in refugee camp

Max Newman

At least four lawsuits have been filed against the Australian government and the security giant G4S, which the government contracted to guard its refugee prison camp on Papua New Guinea’s remote Manus Island. The former employees allege that G4S and the government deliberately put the security staff at risk, resulting in physical and psychological damage.
Roderick St George, who worked as an occupational health and safety (OHS) manager, alleges that the conditions on the island were misrepresented to him. He says he was told there were approximately 130 men, women and children detained on the island and they were “in good spirits.”
Instead, only men were imprisoned on the island. A statement of claim filed in the Victorian state Supreme Court states: “Many of the male detainees at the centre were not in good spirits and some were predisposed to inflicting physical violence on themselves, on each other and on staff at the centre.”
The claim says G4S and the Australian government had a duty of care to provide their employees with a safe workplace, free from the risk of psychiatric injury. St George’s submission paints a picture of a tinderbox ready to explode. The camp had inadequate medical facilities, no running water, no electricity and mould forming on the tent walls.
St George alleges that the staff lacked the correct training and resources to deal with the circumstances in the centre. As OHS manager, he claims he had a “manifestly excessive workload,” responsible for health and safety in a centre that was woefully under-equipped. Moreover, he was given further duties that included quality assurance, risk assessment and intelligence.
After a disturbance broke out in April 2013, in which a number of detainees physically attacked the staff, including St George, he says he began to fear for his life due to the unpredictable and explosive tensions.
In truth, the April riot was a predictable outcome of a string of events from January to April 2013, including mass hunger strikes and protests, as well as multiple self-harm incidents and suicide attempts.
St George was so horrified by what he experienced while working for G4S that he resigned and became a whistle-blower. In a July 2013 interview with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) “Dateline” program, he said “words really can’t describe” the conditions on Manus Island. “I have never seen human beings so destitute, so helpless, and so hopeless before.”
St George said he took the job with the intention of making the place safer, but that it “proved quite rapidly to be an impossibility. In Australia, the facility couldn’t serve as a dog kennel. The owners would be jailed.”
St George told “Dateline” the place was a tinderbox waiting to explode. “I believe it’s just a matter of time.”
Seven months later, St George’s warning came true. Three days of protests erupted in February 2014 after authorities organised a meeting of the approximately 1,300 detainees. They were informed that they would never be permitted to enter Australia and that the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government also refused to guarantee resettlement. G4S called in the notoriously brutal PNG Mobile Police Force which is Australian-funded. Joined by local thugs armed with machetes, and local security agents, they stormed the area, firing live ammunition at the detainees.
More than 60 people were injured in the resulting carnage. In what amounted to a state-sanctioned murder, Iranian-Kurdish asylum seeker Reza Barati was hit twice with a block of nail-pierced wood, before a large rock was dropped on his head. Barati died from a heart attack triggered by his catastrophic head injuries.
Labelled a “riot” by the Australian political establishment and the media, the WSWS explained at the time that the conflict bore “all the hallmarks of a calculated provocation orchestrated by the Australian government.”
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and current Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was immigration minister at the time, bear particular responsibility for these deaths, along with the previous Greens-backed Labor government that in 2012 reopened the Manus camp, and another on Nauru, an equally remote Pacific island.
St George claims he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and alcohol abuse. According to an opinion piece he wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald in March 2014, he resigned when “instances of sexual abuse and torture of vulnerable inmates at the hands of fellow detainees were uncovered” and the facility’s design made it impossible to “protect the victims.”
Gregory Wisely, a former security officer, has submitted a claim that after the violence broke out in February 2014 he was struck in the head with a rock, causing a brain injury. As a result, he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, neck and spine injuries and ongoing psychiatric problems, including depression.
Wisely alleges that G4S provided him “with little or no training as to the manner in which he should handle the traumatic or stressful situations” and failed to listen to his complaints about the stress of the job.
Wisely’s submission further alleges that the Australian government failed in its duty of care to the staff at the detention centre because it failed to process detainees in a reasonable time frame, leading to high levels of stress and anxiety. Moreover, the government failed to keep detainees informed about what was happening.
Another former security officer, Grant Potter, alleges that G4S knew by at least September 2013 that tensions at the centre had increased due to frustration among detainees because of the government’s policies.
Moreover, Potter says G4S employed “incompetent and malicious security staff, who escalated the violence at the premises during the riots and contributed to the death of one transferee and the injury to other transferees.”
Another former officer at the centre, Peter Baehnisch, alleges he was injured during the same riots. In its defence filed to the court, G4S says it acted on behalf of the Australian government, which “asserted control and direction over provision of services” to detainees.
These cases point to the level of prior knowledge that the government, the immigration department and G4S had about the escalating tensions on the island. The February 2014 disturbance was used as a springboard to further worsen the conditions of asylum seekers. Morrison blamed the asylum seekers and exploited the violent crackdown as a deterrent to other refugees seeking asylum in Australia.
Since 2010 there have been 37 deaths in Australia’s detention centres, both the “offshore” facilities on Manus and Nauru and the “onshore” camps on the mainland and Christmas Island, an Indian Ocean outpost.
The entire Australian political establishment is culpable for these crimes, including the Labor Party, the Greens and the Liberal-National Coalition. They pioneered the cruel treatment of refugees that was later imposed across Europe and in the United States.

UK: More troubling questions emerge in the Skripal case

Robert Stevens

It emerged this week that the first person to give first aid to the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia—poisoned in still unexplained events in Salisbury last March—was the most senior nurse in the British Army, Alison McCourt.
This adds a fresh layer to the ever-changing account cooked up by the British government and intelligence agencies, who immediately blamed Russia for the poisoning without providing any concrete information.
From facts that have been made public, Sergei and Yulia were found on a bench in Salisbury town centre on March 4, 2018 in an unconscious state. One witness, Jamie Paine, told the BBC that she saw them both in a distressed state. Sergei was “doing strange hand movements and looking up to the sky,” while Yulia was frothing at the mouth with her eyes “wide open but completely white.”
Paine decided not to intervene as “they looked so out of it that I thought that even if I did step in, I wasn’t sure how I could help. I just left them but it looked they had been taking something quite strong.”
It was known that a “nurse” did intervene, but hardly any details were made available. The Times reported last May, almost two months after the poisoning, “that the first person to respond to the Skripals when they passed out was an off-duty army nurse, who had worked on the ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. The nurse, a commissioned officer who has asked to remain anonymous, treated them before the emergency services arrived, and was vomited on but is not thought to have suffered novichok poisoning.”
Virtually no other details were provided.
In December, the Daily Mail cited the comments of PC Alex Collins who arrived on the scene to see that “The female [Yulia] was on the floor on her side. There was a member of the public, who turned out to be a doctor, helping her, maintaining her airway. I believe if that doctor hadn’t done that, she would have died.”
The Mail added, “The female doctor is believed to have placed Miss Skripal in the recovery position after discovering her vomiting and fitting on the bench and tended to her for almost 30 minutes.”
The fact is that the doctor/nurse was Colonel Alison McCourt, chief nursing officer in the British Army. This only emerged when her daughter, Abigail, was proposed by her mother for a “lifesaver award” at the local radio station for her actions in helping the pair, including helping administering CPR.
According to Spire FM’s report, “Abigail believed Sergei Skripal was having a heart attack. The teen, who was out celebrating her brother’s birthday quickly alerted her mum who is a nurse and together they gave first aid to the two Russians until paramedics arrived.
“Abby and her mum had to undergo hospital tests to make sure they weren’t contaminated with Novichok.”
According to an online biography, McCourt joined the Army in 1988 and became Chief Nursing Officer for the Army on February 1, 2018, just a month before the Skriprals’ poisoning. She received the OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) honour from the Queen in 2015. The biography, which includes a posed photo of McCourt outside the prime minister’s residence 10 Downing Street, notes, “Alison has deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Sierra Leone.” Subsequent assignments include Officer Instructor at the Defence Medical Services Training Centre and a deployment to Kosovo as the Senior Nursing Officer for 33 Field Hospital in 2001. During that operational tour she was the in-theatre lead for the establishment of the joint UK/US hospital facility at Camp Bondsteel.”
Camp Bondsteel is the main US army base in Kosovo and was set up as the largest “from scratch” foreign US military base since the Vietnam War.
According to the British government’s account, novichok is probably the most toxic and deadly substance ever invented. The Skripals’ poisoning was utilised by the May government to ratchet up tensions with Russia, with the prime minister stating in Parliament that the Putin regime had attempted to assassinate the pair using a “weapons-grade nerve agent in a British town” in “an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk.”
The BBC wrote, “Novichoks were designed to be more toxic than other chemical weapons, so some versions would begin to take effect rapidly—in the order of 30 seconds to two minutes. The main route of exposure is likely to be through inhalation or ingestion, though they could also be absorbed through the skin.”
What then are the chances of administering CPR to someone who has supposedly been attacked by this substance only minutes previously—and who was witnessed as frothing at the mouth—while being able to avoid contact with the nerve agent?
Only a single police officer, Nick Bailey, who had substantially less contact with the Skripals and supposedly only came into contact with the nerve agent while wearing gloves, after being sent to their home where it had been allegedly sprayed on the door handle, was affected during the initial incident. He was hospitalised for three weeks and only resumed his duties last week.
On June 30 in nearby Amesbury, nearly four months after the Skripal poisonings, Dawn Sturgess sprayed a substance said to be novichock onto her wrists, thinking it was a perfume. She died in hospital days later on July 8. Her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, has suffered ill-health ever since the incident.
The more information that emerges about the Skripals case, the less there is that can be said for certain.
Nothing has been heard from the Skripals since they were spirited out of hospital months ago in a military-type operation and taken to a secret location. One can only conclude that they are being prevented from speaking.
At present the roof of Sergei Skripal’s home is being demolished and replaced, on the basis that it could be contaminated.
It should be noted that one of the authors of the above-mentioned Times articles was Deborah Haynes, the newspaper’s defence editor. The Times has played a critical role in the anti-Russia hysteria and is a regular forum where senior British military and intelligence figures parade their views demanding an escalation of preparations for military conflict with Russia and for a vast increase in military spending.
A number of Murdoch press journalists, including Haynes, were exposed in a document detailing the UK “cluster” of the Integrity Initiative, set up by the London-based Institute of Statecraft to spread propaganda on behalf of British imperialism. The cluster includes at least nine journalists with four from Rupert Murdoch’s Times/Sunday Times  Haynes, David Aaronovitch, Dominic Kennedy and Edward Lucas. Also named are leading BBC, Guardian and Financial Times journalists.
The Integrity Initiative has been heavily involved in the Skripal affair. The WSWS noted earlier this month, based on documents from the IoS/II’s servers made public by the Anonymous group, “Just days after the poisoning of the Skripals, the IoS proposed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ‘study social media activity in respect of the events that took place, how news spread, and evaluate how the incident is being perceived’ in various countries. Within days, the II’s ‘Operation Iris’ swung into operation. As well as monitoring media coverage with its own team, it recruited the global investigative solutions firm Harod Associates to analyse social media activity related to the Skripals affair.”
With the government’s account of how the Skripals came to be poisoned shot through with inconsistencies, and the public’s scepticism in their ever-changing story growing, the II raised concerns just a week after the poisonings, that the government was “far too weak,” declaring, “[I]t’s essential the government makes a much stronger response this time.”

Shopko retail chain files for bankruptcy, 105 stores across US to close

Jacob Crosse

General merchandise retail chain Shopko, with 367 stores across 26 states and over 14,000 employees, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Nebraska courthouse on January 15, becoming the latest in a string of retailers to enter or consider such a move in recent years.
Shopko, which had an operating revenue of over $3 billion dollars in 2017 and its parent company Speciality Reality Shop Holdings Corp, along with 11 other subsidies, including Shopko Hometown, cited excessive debt and “changes in consumers shopping patterns” in court documents as the reason for the bankruptcy.
McKesson, a pharmaceutical medicine supplier to the retailer had sought a restraining order against Shopko earlier this month, in response to unpaid debts. The order would have barred Shopko from selling medicinal goods already delivered to the company. Lawyers for McKesson stated that the company was owed $67 million dollars for unpaid inventory from November 2018.
Shopko lawyer Stephen Hackney in arguing against the restraining order cited the risk to public health if Shopko was barred from selling medications over the counter or through the pharmacies located inside the stores. Brown County, Wisconsin Judge William Atkinson agreed with Hackney’s argument, denying the restraining order, “I do not believe it is safe for citizens, residents ... and patients if I grant your order,” Atkinson told McKesson's attorneys. “There would be significant public health effects. The public harm, I don't think it can be understated.”
A week later Shopko lawyers were back in court filing for bankruptcy and agreeing to shut down 105 stores, many of them in rural locations. Shopko pharmacies accept Medicaid and Medicare and in many small communities in the Pacific and Midwest regions of the US it is the sole drug store.
Apparently the “significant public health effects,” were not taken into consideration during the bankruptcy hearing. Shopko has until March 14 to, “secure a reorganization plan sponsor or show the company can finance operations post-bankruptcy.” If this is deadline is not met the bankruptcy process will end and all of Shopko stores will be liquidated.
Shopko has yet to announce how many employees will be laid off, but it’s safe to assume thousands will be searching for new jobs beginning in February. On average a single Shopko store will employ 10 to 25 people. Several stores previously identified for closure began selling off inventory in November.
Of Shopko's over 14,000 employees, 5,000 reside in Wisconsin. In total, 16 stores will be closing in the Midwestern state, including the original Green Bay store founded by pharmacist James Ruben in 1962. Following Wisconsin, Utah will have the second most store closing with 13 locations slated for liquidation, 11 more stores will be closed in Iowa, 8 in Kansas, 3 in Michigan, and 7 in Nebraska.
The pending loss of the Shopko store in Kimball, Nebraska, (population 2,400), prompted concerned residents to file a petition on change.org hoping to save their store. The petition has garnered over 1,700 signatures and was delivered to Shopko’s co-CEO’s Rodger Krause and Marc Leder.
Nicole Sanneh, the author of the petition noted in her plea, “Without this retail store, Kimball and surrounding area residents will have to drive 35-plus miles for basic household items. So much more than just the retail sales will be lost. Jobs will be lost as well as the economy.”
Shopko corporate public relations responded to the petition on January 7, stating, “The decision to close a store is not an easy one for us and is only made after a careful study of the market and various economic factors. The right decision for Shopko, although extremely difficult, is to close this store. We have some great Customers, great teammates, and will miss operating in the community.”
The WSWS recently spoke to a Shopko employee of more than two decades, whose Madison store will close this April. “Twenty-three years of showing up to work on time and in the end I get a two week severance “package” for my loyalty,” they noted bitterly.
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, cited the acquisition of Shopko by Sun Capital Partners in 2005 as a turning point for the company: “After they sold the land, it was only a matter of time.”
Sun Capital Partners purchased Shopko for approximately $1.1 billion dollars in 2005, the next year it sold most of the real estate to Spirit Reality for $815 million. Spirit in turn began charging rent on the land that had previously been Shopko owned, exacerbating a tenuous fiscal situation that only worsened after the 2008 financial crash. As Shopko was spiraling into debt Spirit granted a $35 million dollar loan to Shopko in 2018. The loan carried with a 12 percent interest rate, resulting in $600,000 quarterly payments.
Sun Capital was founded in 1995 by two former Lehman Brothers investors, Marc Leder and Rodger Krause. Leder is also a co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team and the New Jersey Devils hockey team.
Dubbed by tabloids as, “the Hugh Hefner of the Hamptons,” Leder is known for hosting extravagant parties for his wealthy friends and embarking on yachting expeditions. The inspiration for Sun Capital, Leder recalled to the New York Times, followed a visit to Mitt Romney’s private-equity firm, Bain Capital, in 1995. During this visit, Leder recalled a conversation he had overheard between Bain executives complaining over an investment in which they only “doubled” their initial investment.
This epiphany prompted Leder and Krause to get into the parasitic practice of buying businesses, stripping them of any meaningful assets and selling off the carcass for a profit. This destructive process can be extremely profitable for executives at private equity firms such as Sun Capital. In a rush to extract as much profit before discarding the husk, private equity firms often neglect or purposefully shortchange employee pension funds while selling off company assets before declaring bankruptcy.
Before Shopko this year, five other recent purchases by Sun Capital, including the Marsh Supermarket grocery chain have filed for bankruptcy, leaving employees empty handed, while executives collect millions in “consulting fees.”
In the case of Marsh Supermarkets, after Sun Capital bought the grocery chain 11 years ago, the firm restructured the employee retirement plans. There were now three separate plans, one for the the top five executives at Marsh, one for warehouse employees and one for store employees.
However, only the executives plan has been fully funded since the sales agreement, with $14 million dollars siphoned from workers to executives including $7 million dollars for CEO Don Marsh. Meanwhile, the pension for store employees, has been underfunded by $32 million and the pension plan for warehouse employees was $55 million underfunded at the time of the bankruptcy. This shortfall will likely leave pensioners with nothing barring a government intervention.
Despite filing for bankruptcy, Shopko still achieved a profit of $45.2 million on $2.7 billion in sales in 2017, and $35.6 million in profit in 2018. While thousands of employees will be left jobless, the company has sought approval for “retention payments” to employees who are “key to the future success” of Shopko. An undisclosed payment was made on November 9 to a small group of “corporate” employees. Additionally, 22 more employees will be paid $280,000, on April 12 as long as the bankruptcy process continues.
As with the leveraged buyout at Sears, Toys R Us and other big box retailers, the “retail apocalypse” is a catastrophe for workers who have toiled in miserable low-wage retail conditions, often neglecting family and friends over the holidays to ensure a “profitable quarter” for the company. In return, after decades of loyal service, they are to be laid off and their pensions raided so that already wealthy executives can reap millions of dollars in stolen bonuses and fees.

Washington engineers right-wing coup in Venezuela

Bill Van Auken

The US recognition of Juan Guaidó as the self-proclaimed and unelected “interim president” of Venezuela marks the initiation of a right-wing coup engineered in Washington.
Guaidó swore himself in Wednesday before a mass anti-government rally in Caracas. Virtually simultaneously, Donald Trump tweeted: “The citizens of Venezuela have suffered for too long at the hands of the illegitimate Maduro regime. Today, I have officially recognized the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela.”
This attempt at regime change by tweet has been supported by a number of right-wing governments in Latin America, including that of the fascistic former army officer, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was inaugurated at the beginning of the year. Canada also quickly fell into line behind Washington’s conspiracy, while the Macron government in France has reportedly begun discussions within the European Union aimed at drumming up support for Washington’s puppet.
Russia, Turkey and Mexico reiterated their recognition of Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela’s constitutionally elected president, as did Cuba and Bolivia.
Washington’s recognition of Guaidó as president constitutes a naked intervention by US imperialism with the aim of achieving its own predatory aims in Venezuela, which boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves. At the same time, it is aimed at rolling back the influence in the hemisphere of Russia and China, which have both established close economic and political ties with Caracas.
This regime change operation has been two decades in the making, from the abortive 2002 CIA-orchestrated coup against Maduro’s late predecessor, Hugo Chávez, under George W. Bush, through the imposition of sanctions by the Obama administration and its designation of Venezuela as an “extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
By in effect throwing US support to a rival government, the Trump administration is seeking to create the conditions for a military coup or even civil war within Venezuela as well as a US military intervention from without.
Venezuelan President Maduro responded to the US intervention by breaking off diplomatic relations with Washington and ordering all US diplomatic personnel to leave the country within 72 hours. Guaidó, no doubt operating in close consultation with the State Department, countermanded Maduro’s decree, declaring that he, as “interim president,” was asking US officials in the country to remain in place. The State Department has responded that it will ignore Maduro’s order, setting the stage for a confrontation that can be used as the pretext for US intervention.
In statements to reporters on Wednesday, Trump made it clear that military intervention is under active consideration. Asked by reporters whether he was contemplating sending US troops to Venezuela, he responded that “all options are on the table.”
A US official speaking not for attribution told reporters that if the Maduro government acted against Guaidó and his supporters, their “days will be numbered,” while media reports indicated that Washington is considering a naval blockade of Venezuela to stop its oil exports and the seizure of Venezuelan assets in the US on the supposed behalf of the “interim president.”
Maduro, for all of the rhetoric about “Bolivarian Socialism,” heads a capitalist government that defends private property in Venezuela and has imposed the full burden of the country’s deep-going economic crisis onto the backs of the Venezuelan working class, whose strikes and protests have been brutally repressed. Under Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, private control of the country’s economy actually grew and the profits of the financial sector soared, as the government diverted vast social wealth to meet debt payments to Wall Street and the international banks.
Nonetheless, the claims from the Trump administration that this government is “illegitimate” and that Washington is standing for “democracy” are nothing short of obscene. This same administration, it should be noted, has no problem with the legitimacy of the murderous police state monarchy of Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, the dictatorship of Gen. Sisi in Egypt or the various similar regimes that constitute Washington’s principal allies in the Middle East.
On less specious grounds than Washington is using to declare Maduro an “usurper,” any government in the world could claim that Trump’s own government—elected with less popular votes than those of his opponent and opposed by the majority of the American people—is “illegitimate” and should be overthrown.
Moreover, any regime that emerges from the US-backed operation in Venezuela will be a right-wing dictatorship of the banks, big business and foreign capital that will organize a bloodbath against the Venezuelan working class that will far eclipse the massacre carried out in 1989 against the Caracazo, the popular revolt of the country’s workers and poor against IMF austerity.
The principal pillar of the bourgeois nationalist government headed by Chávez and Maduro has been the military, with senior officers controlling key sectors of the government and the national economy. Washington is hoping that this will become the government’s Achilles’ Heel, with senior commanders persuaded to change sides and carry out a coup.
It was revealed last year that US officials repeatedly met between the fall of 2017 and the beginning of last year with a group of Venezuelan military officers seeking US support for the overthrow of Maduro. These contacts failed to reach fruition because Washington believed that the conspiracy was insufficiently prepared.
These calculations may now have changed. An isolated uprising by a group of national guardsmen who seized arms and police stations on Monday has been followed yesterday with a video statement from division Gen. Jesús Alberto Milano Mendoza, appearing together with other officers, declaring that the army should revolt against Maduro and that the high command should not serve as “the armed branch of the government for its personal benefit.” Milano Mendoza had previously served as the chief of Chávez’s presidential guard.
It is not just Trump and the CIA supporting the Venezuelan coup and the sharp lurch to the right in Latin America. This was made abundantly clear at the World Economic Forum which opened this week in the exclusive Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, bringing together global billionaire CEOs, bankers, hedge fund managers, celebrities and government leaders and officials.
Davos rolled out the red carpet for Jair Bolsonaro, the fascistic ex-army officer who was inaugurated as Brazil’s president at the beginning of the year. Bolsonaro delivered a bizarre and stunningly short keynote speech to open the forum. Investors present were described as “excited” by the prospect of increased profits under a new government headed by an individual who has voiced his support for the former Brazilian military dictatorship and its murder and torture of left-wing opponents, and who has packed his government with generals and right-wing ideologues.
Bolsonaro cast himself as part of a continent-wide crusade for political reaction, declaring, “The left will not prevail in this region, which is good, I think, not only for South America, but also for the world.” He received a positive response from the representatives of financial oligarchies and their respective governments that all feel themselves besieged by intensifying economic crisis and a resurgence of the struggle of the working class on an international scale. All of them are looking towards methods of dictatorship, authoritarianism, repression, censorship and outright fascism as a means of defending their wealth and rule.
Within the United States itself, despite the internecine political warfare in Washington, there are no disagreements about the unfolding Venezuelan coup. US Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durban issued a statement Wednesday hailing the State Department stooge Guaidó and his supporters as “brave patriots who see a more hopeful and democratic future for the Venezuelan people.”
And, on the day that Guaidó declared himself president, the New York Times published a glowing tribute to the right-wing political operative under the headline “As Venezuela crumbles, a new voice of dissent emerges.” It did not bother to inform its readership that this “new voice” is a paid mouthpiece for the US State Department.
The same newspaper, the erstwhile voice of bourgeois establishment liberalism in the US, praised the abortive CIA coup against Chávez in 2002, declaring that “Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened” after an elected president had been dragged from his office and arrested and a military-backed business association leader had been proclaimed president.
The unfolding coup in Venezuela has implications for the whole of Latin America and the entire planet. It is part of the shipwreck of the so-called “left turn” that began at the beginning of the millennium, the advent of a number of bourgeois nationalist governments that diverted a share of booming commodity revenues into modest social welfare programs and utilized a rising China to offset US influence in the region. Promoted by Pabloite and other pseudo-left tendencies internationally as a new form of socialism, this “Pink Tide” only served to politically disarm the working class in the face of the inevitable turn to reaction and repression.
Moreover, it is inseparable from a turn by the international bourgeoisie toward reaction and dictatorial forms of rule, from Trump’s threat to impose a state of emergency, to Macron’s embrace of Pétain, the emergence of the fascistic AfD as the main opposition party in Germany and the consolidation of the extreme right’s grip over the government in Italy. Everywhere, the domination of a narrow financial oligarchy is incompatible with democratic forms of rule.
The political crisis in Venezuela can only be resolved in a progressive manner by the independent intervention of the working class. What is required is not the intervention of the military, but rather the arming of the masses. The resolution of the country’s underlying economic crisis is possible only through the seizure of bourgeois property and the placing of Venezuela’s vast oil wealth under popular control. Popular assemblies must be established to carry out such a program, while appealing to the workers and oppressed throughout the Americas for support.
The working class in the United States must oppose the reactionary intervention of the Trump administration and fight to unite its struggles with those of the workers in Venezuela and throughout Latin America against the common enemy, the capitalist system.

23 Jan 2019

Professional Fellows Program (PFP) for Economic Empowerment, Middle East and North Africa – Fall 2019

Application Deadlines:
  • Morocco & Tunisia:Application: CLOSED
  • Algeria, Egypt, Libya & Lebanon: Application: OPEN
Deadline for Libya & Lebanon: 15th February, 2019
Deadline for Egypt & Algeria: 22nd February, 2019


Eligible Countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia

To be taken at (country): USA

About the Award: The Professional Fellows Program (PFP) for Economic Empowerment, Middle East and North Africa is a two-way exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and designed to promote mutual understanding, enhance leadership and professional skills, and build lasting, sustainable partnerships between mid-level emerging leaders committed to strengthening their communities through social entrepreneurship and workforce development.
PFP Fellows are placed in intensive fellowships in non-profit organizations, private sector businesses, and government offices for an individually tailored professional development experience.  They build a broad network with American and other program participant colleagues as they develop a deeper understanding of U.S. society, enhance their professional skills.  American participants who have hosted foreign fellows travel overseas for participant-driven reciprocal programs.

Type: Fellowship, Short course

Eligibility:
Who Should Apply?
  • Entrepreneurs, and Social Innovators.
  • Small & medium business Owners and Managers who are investing in innovative socially conscious products and programs.
  • Individuals working in Civil Society/NGOs working on youth workforce training and development, increasing the role of marginalized populations in the economy, building financial literacy, training in technology use and IT development, and other efforts around economic empowerment.
  • Individuals working in  University incubators, accelerators, and job-readiness programs, and programs focusing on business development, financial literacy, sustainable tourism, or economic development.
  • Individuals working in Government Agencies/Ministries, national policy offices, think-tanks, and offices working to increase the presence of underrepresented citizens in the economy.
Eligible candidates must be:
  • 25-40 years old
  • A current citizen and resident of: Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, or Lebanon
  • Speak fluent to English (enough to work full-time in a US fellowship)
  • Have at least two years‘ work experience in their field 
  • Currently employed
  • Interest in hosting reciprocal program for Americans in your country
  • Able to convene 25 or more colleagues for post-trip briefings
  • Have demonstrated strong leadership skills and commitment to community
  • Demonstrates initiative, teamwork, and openness 
  • Preference will be given to those who have not previously traveled on a U.S. government funded program.
Number of Awards: 38 

Duration and Value of Programme: 
  • Spring Delegation (Tunisia & Morocco):  April 20 – June 1, 2019.
  • Fall Delegation: (Egypt, Algeria, Libya & Lebanon):  October 12 – November 23,  2019.
Fellows will participate in a  6-week program, (Spring and Fall, 2019) each with:
  • A one-week host family stay
  • A one-week business development and social entrepreneurship intensive with University Partner
  • A one-month fellowship placement in individual businesses and/or offices in Washington, D.C.
  • 4- days Participation in the Professional Fellows Congress
  • Design and development of a complete proposal for a follow-on projects to be carried out by PFP fellows, supported by mini-grants
How to Apply:  Apply Here

  • It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage see link below) before applying
Visit Programme Webpage for Details