Modi government angrily dismisses study showing COVID-19 has killed millions in India

Wasantha Rupasinghe

India’s far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has angrily dismissed a scientific study that demonstrates the country’s real death toll from COVID-19 is up to 10 times higher than the current official count of 419,000 fatalities.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Narendra Modi-led government angrily dismissed the US-based Center for Global Development study as “not based on facts” and “totally fallacious.”

In fact, in substantiating that India’s death toll is exponentially higher than the official figure, the study, released on July 20, only confirms the findings of multiple previous investigations carried out by epidemiologists, journalists and other researchers.

Based on a comprehensive review of multiple data sets, the study estimates that there were between 1.5 and 3.4 million “excess deaths” during the “first wave” of the pandemic between April 2020 and March 2021. During the second even more devastating wave from April to June—which was driven by the Delta variant, first identified in India last October—COVID-19 killed an estimated 1.4 to 2.4 million. In total, this means that in just 15 months, between 3.4 million and 4.7 million Indians have died from the virus.

“True deaths,” the study concludes, “are likely to be in the several millions not hundreds of thousands, making this arguably India’s worst human tragedy since partition and independence.”

COVID-19 is a natural pathogen, but the catastrophic loss of life in India is the product of state policy and constitutes a veritable crime against humanity. At the behest of India’s capitalist elite, the national and state governments, including those led by the ostensible opposition parties, have systematically placed protecting investor wealth and corporate profit ahead of saving human lives. They have refused to mobilize the resources needed to combat the virus and have kept nonessential businesses operating throughout virtually all of the past 15 months.

The only “lockdown” ever imposed by Modi was implemented haphazardly in late March 2020, with less than four hours’ notice, no plans for systematic mass testing and contact tracing, and no provision for the tens of millions of Indians left destitute overnight. Within a month the BJP government started dramatically scaling back restrictions on the operation of nonessential production facilities and by early June had declared India to be in “unlockdown,” even though COVID-19 cases were soaring and the daily rate of infections would be on a continuous sharp upward incline through mid-September.

Similarly, the authorities blithely ignored the emergence of the second wave, starting in mid-February of this year. Then in April, with India’s health care system collapsing due to an unprecedented tsunami of infections and deaths, Modi took to the airwaves to declare that the aim of his government was to “save India from lockdown,” not the virus.

The pandemic has laid bare the reality of India’s capitalist “rise,” so frequently celebrated in the Western media. While millions of Indians have died and tens of millions have been sickened by COVID-19 and a further 230 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty and are struggling to survive on less than 375 rupees (US $5) per day, India’s billionaires saw their combined wealth nearly double in 2020 to $597 billion.

If the Modi government has bitterly denounced the Center for Global Development study and the corporate media has given it scant coverage, it is because India’s craven elite fears a coming reckoning. It is keenly aware that there is palpable popular outrage over the authorities’ criminal mishandling of the pandemic. Autoworkers, transport workers, public sector workers, farmers and many others have waged strikes and protests in recent months to oppose the prioritization of corporate profits over the protection of human lives and to resist the government’s pro-big business austerity and deregulation agenda.

The Modi government and its defenders have resorted to clumsy attempts to discredit the Center for Global Development study, including telling outright lies.

“Given the robust and statute-based death registration system in India, missing out on the deaths is unlikely,” the government statement on the study asserted. Everyone knows this is nonsense. At the peak of the second wave, crematoriums across the country were processing corpses at a rate many multiples greater than the official death toll. Hundreds of bodies were found buried in makeshift graves on the banks of the Ganges and others floating in it.

Moreover, India has been notorious for years for underreporting fatalities. Even in “normal” times prior to the pandemic, only 22 percent of all deaths were registered. In some states, this rate fell below 10 percent. Citing findings from a report on medical certification of the cause of death (MCCD) in 2019, the Times of India noted that over the preceding 27 years, “progress in the implementation of medical certification of deaths has been slow, rising from 12.7 percent to 22 percent.”

According to data from the Civil Registration System from January to May this year, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh reported excess deaths 42 times and 34 times higher respectively compared to the same period last year. “In comparison, Tamil Nadu reported 6.2 times more deaths from April last year to May 2021 and Karnataka reported five times the reported deaths in 2021,” wrote the Hindu. The article continued, “The excess deaths in the four large States have exceeded 0.5 million in the first five months of 2021 as against around 46,000 reported COVID-19 deaths.”

Even if all of these deaths are not directly linked to COVID-19, they can legitimately be described as pandemic-related fatalities. As Chinmay Tumbe, assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad and author of the book The Age of Pandemics , explained, “(T)hey are pandemic-related (deaths), in the sense that we would not be seeing them if the pandemic was not around.” Calculating the underreporting factor for these four states (which comprise 21 percent of India’s population) is above 10, the professor estimated that the excess deaths for India as a whole was 1.5 million during the first five months of this year.

After a public outcry over the undercounting of deaths, several states were forced to update some COVID-19 death statistics last month. In one case, Bihar raised its death count by about 4,000 on a single day in early June after a court ordered an audit.

In one of its most grotesque lies, the Modi government sought this week to deny that oxygen shortages at India’s health care facilities led to COVID-19 fatalities during the pandemic’s second wave. In answer to a question about oxygen-related deaths, junior Health Minister Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar told parliament, “No deaths due to lack of oxygen has been specifically reported by states.” In reality, the world watched in horror during April and May as reports emerged almost daily of patients, sometimes by the dozens, suffocating to death because oxygen supplies had run out, including at major hospitals in the country’s two largest cities, Delhi and Mumbai.

The corporate-controlled media has sprung to the Modi government’s aid by largely blacking out the Center for Global Development study. The Times of India, for its part, published an editorial that bemoaned the “politicization” of the debate over COVID-19 fatalities and made a matter-of-fact appeal for further study of the issue. The Times has been one of the leading voices railing against lockdowns and any restrictions on the operations of big business. Time and again, it has cynically invoked the desperate plight of the hundreds of millions of workers and toilers left to fend for themselves by the Indian ruling elite and its governments, to insist the economy remain “open.”

Although the Center for Global Development study is far from the first to provide evidence that India’s COVID-19 death toll runs into the millions. It is particularly significant and damning for two reasons.

First, because of its comprehensiveness. Second, because one of its three co-authors, Arvind Subramanian, was the Modi government’s Chief Economic Advisor from 2014-2018 and an unabashed proponent of its pro-investor policies.

The study used three different approaches to compile information on increased mortality during the pandemic. Firstly, it compared official deaths with information collected by journalists and other researchers of fatalities from crematoriums and burial grounds. Secondly, the authors compared numerous sero-prevalence studies in India with world data on infection fatality rates. Thirdly, researchers reviewed countrywide interviews done by the Center for the Monitoring of the Indian Economy, which included information on mortality. Significantly, all three approaches found evidence supporting the same essential conclusion: millions of uncounted COVID-19 deaths.

India’s official daily count of new COVID-19 cases has decreased to around 40,000 from more than 400,000 in early May. But experts point out that infection rates have plateaued at this level for several weeks. In an interview with The Wire, Professor Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, explained this is because India is “reopening again” and “things are unlocking.” This, he added, will “put pressure on spread,” laying the ground work for a “third wave.” Jha also pointed to the 10 percent positivity rate for COVID-19 testing in some districts as a sign that infections will further increase.

According to the latest countrywide sero survey data released on July 22, two-thirds of India’s population have antibodies against the coronavirus. Some government apologists are suggesting this indicates India is well on the way to “herd immunity.” This is a travesty, entirely in keeping with the government’s homicidal policies. Even if one accepts the survey as accurate and that the antibodies will prove effective in warding off the Delta and other more virulent and lethal variants—which are entirely unwarranted assumptions—this would mean more than 400 million of India’s 1.37 billion people, a population larger than that of the United States, remains at risk of being infected and dying from COVID-19.

To date, less than 7 percent of all Indians are fully inoculated against COVID-19.

US launches airstrikes against Taliban as Afghan forces crumble

Bill Van Auken

US warplanes carried out at least four sets of airstrikes in Afghanistan this week in support of Afghan government troops who have ceded ever-growing swathes of the country to the Taliban Islamist insurgency.

The Pentagon acknowledged the bombing raids, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday, but refused to provide any details as to the aircraft or munitions involved. The targets struck were in southern Kandahar province, the historic stronghold of the Taliban, and in Kunduz in the north. Among the targets were materiel captured by the Taliban from government forces, including at least one piece of artillery and armored vehicles, Pentagon officials said.

Map of Afghanistan's districts, July 23 [Credit: Long War Journal]

In both Kunduz and Kandahar, the security forces of Afghanistan’s puppet government are facing increasing pressure from Taliban on their respective provincial capitals.

In a Pentagon press conference on Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, provided a confirmation of the breadth and speed of the Taliban’s advances, acknowledging that the insurgency had seized about half of the country’s 419 district centers. Just last month, he told Congress that the Taliban held only 81 centers. This official count is no doubt a significant underestimate. And, in many cases, district centers still held by the government forces are islands surrounded by Taliban-controlled countryside.

“Strategic momentum appears to be sort of with the Taliban,” Milley said, in what constitutes one of the understatements of the year. Insisting that “a negative outcome, a Taliban automatic military takeover, is not a forgone conclusion,” Milley added, “We will continue to monitor the situation closely and make adjustments as necessary.” Spelling out what such “adjustments” would entail, the Joint Chiefs chairman stated that a “package of long-range bombers, additional fighter-bombers and troop formations are postured to quickly respond if necessary and directed.”

The withdrawal of US troops and military contractors announced by US President Joe Biden in April is now 95 percent complete, according to the Pentagon, and will be completed by the end of August. Some 650 troops are being left in Afghanistan to guard the massive US embassy as well as the Kabul airport.

The withdrawal and the escalating collapse of the Afghan security forces funded, trained and armed by Washington have exposed the depth of the debacle of US imperialism’s 20-year war in Afghanistan—the longest in US history. The trillions of dollars spent on this criminal and tragic adventure, including the $143 billion on Afghanistan’s “reconstruction,” have not sufficed to create either a legitimate government or effective security forces.

This week’s bombings, however, constitute a warning that Washington’s intervention in Afghanistan, one of the most impoverished and war-ravaged countries on the planet, is not over. They utilized what the Pentagon describes as “over the horizon capabilities,” which include US airpower based in the Persian Gulf region. The warplanes used in at least one of the raids were identified as Navy FA-18s, likely launched from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which together with its accompanying strike group entered the North Arabian Sea near the mouth of the Persian Gulf last month.

The scale of the rout of Afghan government forces was indicated on Friday, with the Taliban claiming control of 90 percent of the country’s borders. While the Kabul regime’s Defense Ministry denounced the claim as “an absolute lie,” there is no denying that the Islamist forces have taken over the principal border crossings with most of the country’s neighbors.

There are major implications in the government’s loss of these border crossings. According to a report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network (ANA), a Kabul-based think tank, the customs duties on goods crossing the borders account for more than $438 million in government revenues annually, which are now going largely to the Taliban.

Russia’s envoy for Afghanistan acknowledged the Taliban’s takeover of border areas, describing it as “positive” for regional security, the Moscow Times reported. It was one of a series of statements from Moscow indicating a rapprochement with the Taliban, even as the Kremlin announced plans for joint military maneuvers with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in response to the Afghanistan developments.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented following a recent visit to Moscow by a Taliban delegation that it had promised not to threaten the Central Asian former Soviet republics on Afghanistan’s border and had expressed its willingness to negotiate the future political setup “despite accusations that they want to create an Islamic emirate based on Sharia law.”

Lavrov said that the statement issued by the Taliban in Moscow showed that they were “sane people,” and the Russian foreign minister called upon the US-backed regime in Kabul to seriously negotiate and not “maintain uncertainty as long as possible.”

The Taliban declared Friday that a ceasefire and political settlement could be reached only with the ouster of US-backed President Ashraf Ghani and the creation of a new transitional government. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the Associated Press that the movement was not seeking a “monopoly of power,” but that a new government had to be established “acceptable to us and to other Afghans.”

The Taliban has justifiably described Ghani as an illegitimate president and a puppet of the US. He won the presidency in an election in which barely 20 percent of the Afghan electorate participated and which was denounced as fraudulent by his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, a dispute that was settled only by the intervention of Washington. Last weekend, Abdullah conducted his own talks with the Taliban in Qatar.

The US bombings in Afghanistan occurred in the same week that the US military launched its first airstrikes in Somalia since Biden took office, and carried out a helicopter attack on a house in northeastern Syria, killing three and wounding many others.

US militarism in the Middle East and Africa continues uninterrupted, even as Washington seeks to focus its military power on its “great power” confrontations with Russia and, particularly China.

Exponential rise in Germany of new coronavirus infections

Gregor Link

The number of reported new coronavirus infections is again rising dramatically in Germany. On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)—the German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention—reported almost 2,000 new cases and the nationwide seven-day incidence rate rose to over 12 per 100,000. The reproductive number (R) is 1.19, which means a strong exponential increase.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel [Credit: Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via AP]

The development reflects the perilous dynamics of the highly contagious delta variant. According to the RKI figures, active cases nationwide have increased by more than 42 percent compared to the previous week. The seven-day average of new infections was already around 67 percent higher on Tuesday than the previous week—the relative increase is thus higher than at any time during the so-called “third wave.”

As an analysis by the newspaper Die Welt shows, the doubling period of active coronavirus cases, averaging 12 days, is only one-fifth of the previous week’s figure.

It is thus only a matter of time before the infection rates in this country will also be at the level of the most affected countries in Europe currently. In Britain, Spain and France, tens of thousands are being infected with the virus every day. On Thursday, there were 43,907 new infections in the UK, 30,587 in Spain, 21,539 in France. The seven-day incidence rate rose to 496 in Britain, 378 in Spain and 122 in France.

On Thursday, at her annual summer press conference in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) warned that Germany was on its way to a fourth coronavirus wave. Earlier, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) told the press that 400 new weekly infections per 100,000 inhabitants could be exceeded as early as September, followed by a seven-day incidence of 800 in October.

German governments at federal and state levels are pursuing a deliberate herd immunity policy that puts profits before lives. In order not to curtail the orgy of enrichment on the stock exchanges, representatives of all the establishment parties fervently declare that there must be no more lockdown measures and that one must “live with the virus.” By doing so, as happened last autumn, they are helping to produce a massive new coronavirus wave with hundreds of thousands of infected and dead.

According to a report by the group around mobility researcher Kai Nagel, presented to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, “an exponential increase in hospital numbers will start in October,” which, at the current rate of development, “will start even earlier and then intensify again in October.” The high relative increase in the number of cases is considered “worrying” by the researchers, reports Der Spiegel.

“Under all conditions that currently appear realistic,” the model results in “a fourth wave among adults, which will be intensified with the shift of activities indoors in autumn.” Such a wave of infection among adults will in turn result in contagions among students, the report says. “If schools were to open after the summer holidays without protective measures,” there would then be “a wave of infection among students,” which would “lead to a wave among adults,” a vicious circle.

The current “two rapid tests per week” were, in any case, “far from sufficient” to reduce the infection dynamic, the scientists conclude.

As the World Socialist Web Site has reported, according to federal education minister Anja Karliczek, children and their parents are to be screened after the end of the summer holidays on the basis of a “phased plan.” Such a plan means abusing children as human laboratories for breeding new, even more dangerous viral strains while exposing hundreds of thousands of working class families in Germany and Europe to deadly risk.

“Classroom attendance at any price means accepting the contamination of schools,” Heinz-Peter Meidinger, president of the Teachers’ Association, told Die Welt on Wednesday. According to random surveys, the willingness to be vaccinated among teachers is 85 to 90 percent and is also relatively high among the over-16s, Meidinger said. However, since hardly any vaccine was being made available to these groups, the delta variant “can spread unhindered among the largely unvaccinated pupils.”

Adolescents and young adults are already particularly affected by infections. On Monday, the proportion of 15–34-year-olds among the newly infected reached 56 per cent, the highest level so far in the entire course of the pandemic, although this age group only comprises 23 percent of the total population.

Social Democratic (SPD) member of parliament Karl Lauterbach warned on Tuesday of the consequences of the aggressive herd immunity policy his own party is pursuing in government. “It may yet prove to be a huge mistake if we now let the case numbers explode among children and young people. Because then, variants can emerge that can make those already vaccinated much more severely ill than delta,” he wrote on Twitter.

While governments in Germany and countless other countries are intent on systematically spreading the coronavirus and its increasingly dangerous variants into the population, new studies are appearing almost daily on the long-term consequences of COVID-19, which can deeply scar patients for years and decades.

For example, in a recent research project, Ulm University Hospital found organ damage in one in five of its long COVID patients. Dominik Buckert, a senior physician in charge of the hospital’s special outpatient clinics for the late effects of COVID-19, told Der Spiegel that his patients suffer from heart muscle inflammation and consequences such as cardiac insufficiency and arrhythmia, as well as shortness of breath due to an altered lung structure. Most of the remaining patients felt less able to work than before the disease, Buckert said. In June, a survey by the Barmer health insurance company among its clients showed that about 17 percent of COVID-19 cases were on sick leave for more than four weeks.

In Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as in neighbouring Belgium and the Netherlands, the spread of the Delta variant coincides with the devastating floods that have killed more than 200 people and uprooted countless others in recent weeks.

Professor Uwe Janssens, speaking to broadcaster n-tv from the site of his flooded university clinic, warned that masks and other hygiene supplies were not available in sufficient quantities in emergency shelters. “We have many [medical] practices in the area that are no longer operational,” the intensive care physician stressed, speaking of a “bitter blow to the vaccination campaign,” given the destruction of public infrastructure in western Germany.

Only 60.2 percent of the population have received at least one vaccination dose, and a total of 47.3 percent have so far been vaccinated twice. While the number of daily vaccinations has dropped rapidly over the last six weeks, the risk of vaccine-resistant variants and so-called “breakthrough infections” is growing at the same time, even among fully vaccinated people.

According to a new study from Israel published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection, such vaccine breakthroughs occur “especially in people with pre-existing conditions.” In the country of 9 million inhabitants, a total of 397 fully vaccinated had to be hospitalised with COVID-19 by the end of April, of whom 234 became “severely” ill and 90 died.

The researchers at the Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital examined 152 patients who had been double immunised with Biontech, most of whom suffered from hypertension, diabetes, cancer, dementia or chronic organ diseases in various constellations, or were immunosuppressed. Overall, the prognosis of these patients was similar to that of the unvaccinated: 61 percent developed a severe course of the disease, 22 percent died from the infection, according to the doctors.

Protests against the Tokyo Olympics erupt across Japan as COVID-19 cases continue to surge

Emily Ochiai

The Olympic Games began yesterday as COVID-19 continued to surge in Japan and in particular the host city Tokyo, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Japan’s seven day average for new cases surpassed 3,500 on Thursday. The bulk of new cases were in Tokyo which had nearly 2,000 confirmed cases just one day before the opening of the Olympic Games. Currently, 2,544 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Tokyo alone.

Experts warn that the daily number of cases in Tokyo might exceed 3,000, but the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has repeatedly declared that it will not cancel the Games. A government official, whose identity has been kept anonymous by the media, was quoted as saying, that “[the number of projected daily cases] is just fine. There is no reason to cancel the Olympics” referring to a previously calculated projected daily infection number of over 2,400.

Though the ruling class of Japan has no intention of hiding its indifference to human life, the working class of Japan has been fighting back. Demonstrations erupted all over Japan this week. Hundreds, particularly youth, have been protesting in Tokyo in the weeks leading up to the Games that began yesterday.

During the opening ceremonies on the evening of July 23rd, around 700 people marched from Harajuku station and gathered outside of Tokyo’s National Stadium in opposition. The demonstrators demanded immediate shutdown of the event and an effective ‘lockdown’ of all non-essential activities in order to prevent a super spreader event.

Confronted with excessive police force, at least two protesters were arrested as crowds denounced the immense health dangers that are being buried to prop up the geo-political position of the Japanese government and to stoke nationalism.

A nurse at Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital stressed the real dangers of the situation and its implications stating “Tokyo saw more than 1,300 cases today. What this means is that in the following week, we will have at least 30 people in the ICU.” He continued “we don’t have a cure for COVID-19 and the vaccines are not perfect. So clearly, preventing infection must be the first priority. What is needed urgently in order to save lives is to stop the Olympics.” A banner held up by multiple people read “OLYMPICS KILL THE POOR,” an expression of how the decade-long Olympics preparation has affected the working class. Thousands were displaced and billions have been siphoned from public funds to cover the enormous costs of construction.

Anti-Olympic protestors demonstrate near the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan where the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics took place, Friday, July 23, 2021 [Credit: AP Photo/Kantaro Komiya]

Over the past week numerous marches have taken place. Hundreds marched near the Olympics Village Plaza in Chuo City Tokyo last weekend. The demonstrators demanded “Limiting the spread of COVID-19 must be the priority, not the Olympics.” Banners were held up stating “Protect lives! We Oppose the forced hosting of the Olympics.”

On the same day 120 people also marched from Tsukiji to the headquarters of the Tokyo Olympics Committee. Protesters denounced the gutting of social services and indifference to loss of human life chanting, “Cancel it! We refuse the Olympics-induced-disaster,” “Olympics are killing us,” “Put effort in welfare programs, not the Olympics.”

A doctor who attended the demonstration told the Asahi Shimbun, “In the past week, we had 6 airport employees visiting our hospital per day. At least one person tests positive for PCR every day. It’s definitely increasing.” She continued, “It was after the marathon test tournament in Sapporo on May 5th. I was dispatched for 5 days and the conditions were terrible. But I feel that this was one of the better cases of the government employing medical institutes. Considering this, it is scary how things will turn out in such a big city like Tokyo. The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to cancel the Olympics Games.”

Thirty-seven organizations opposing the Olympics released a joint statement addressed to the International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach declaring, “Our anger has reached a boiling point.”

On July 17 hundreds gathered in Sapporo in Hokkaido Prefecture, site of the Olympics marathon. Cases in Hokkaido are on the rise with two consecutive days with case number over 100. The prefecture is quickly approaching the limit for a state of emergency.

A protester declared “People’s lives are at risk because of the pandemic. Why should we prioritize the Olympics?” Another stated: “All the money spent on the games should be used for those affected by COVID-19 and for a better healthcare system infrastructure.”

Denouncing the enormous amount of money spent on the Games—now well over $15 billion dollars, a graduate student told the Asahi Shimbun, “There are too many issues with the Olympics, even without the pandemic, such as the soaring operating costs, expulsion of residents for redevelopment, and unclear flow of money. How can they justify holding the Games while leaving all these problems unresolved?”

Further exposing the criminality of the ruling class, it was revealed that the Tokyo Government is refusing to vaccinate the estimated 8,000 Olympics and Paralympics staff and workers. The Tokyo government previously claimed that all personnel at the Games would be completely vaccinated. However, they notified the workers that they will receive their second round of shots after the Games.

The government stated this decision was made due to the possibility that “vaccine side effects during the Games have the risk of interfering with the operation.” Outraged by this irrational decision, a staff member told the media “I was completely astounded to know that they are prioritizing the Games over vaccination. I am infuriated with the decision to force workers to operate with only one dose of vaccine. Since each staff members’ timeframe of work is different, they could have shifted the time of vaccination accordingly.”

The public outrage against the Games has become the central focus of anger against the Japanese ruling class and social inequality in Japan. In a desperate attempt to appear as though their hands were tied, the Suga government has promoted the notion that Japan was only given the option to postpone by one year, and have been forced by the IOC to host the Games to avoid losing their hosting status, emphasizing that taxpayers would suffer if the billions of dollars pumped into the grand infrastructure remained unused, having been paid for with tax dollars.

However, this has been proven to be a lie. In reality the Japanese government has actively pursued hosting the Olympics this year, despite being given the option to postpone until 2022. Yasuhiro Sakaue, sociology professor at Hitotsubashi University specializing in sports told Jiji Press, “... Former Prime Minister Abe requested to postpone it by 1 year, instead of 2 years which was proposed by the IOC. The IOC emphasized that the insurance that the Japanese Government would be eligible for would not be effective if they decide to postpone it instead of cancelling. It was a conscious decision of Abe to take this risk.”

ECB set to open the financial spigots wider

Nick Beams

The European Central Bank has made it clear that it will continue to pump money into the financial system through its deeply negative interest rate setting and its purchases of financial assets.

The meeting of the governing council in Frankfurt on Thursday demonstrated the continued support for the ultra-easy monetary policy favoured by its president Christine Lagarde against a pushback from some northern European members who want to see the rate of bond purchasing eased.

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank [Credit: Bernd Hartung/European Central Bank]

It was the first meeting of the governing council since the ECB adopted a new strategy earlier this month—the first change in two decades—that lifted its inflation target to 2 percent, dropping a previous commitment to keep price rises below that level.

As with the Federal Reserve, its counterpart in the US, ECB policy announcements are always somewhat clouded because, while they are couched in terms of inflation, their real goal is to ensure the continued flow of ultra-cheap money into the financial system.

In its press release the ECB said it expected its key interest rates to remain “at their present or lower levels” until it judged that underlying inflation was sufficiently advanced to ensure that it stabilised at 2 percent over the medium term. And in line with its strategy change it added: “This may also imply a transitory period in which inflation is moderately above target.”

The ECB statement said its new policy guidance would “underline its commitment to maintain a persistently accommodative monetary policy to meet its inflation target.”

Net asset purchases under an earlier program will continue at the rate of €20 billion per month while purchases under its €1,850 billion pandemic emergency program (PEPP) will continue “at least until the end of March 2022” or until the governing council judges that “the coronavirus crisis phase is over.”

The ECB will decide at a meeting in September whether to change the pace of its purchases under the PEPP. In March it lifted the rate of buying to €80 billion a month because of rises in some euro zone bond yields—a sign of tightening in financial markets.

The September meeting could see a widening of divisions on the governing council as northern European representatives, led by the German central bank, push for the purchases to be wound back, if not altogether eliminated, in line with their assertion that the crisis they were aimed at countering has now passed.

There was an indication of those divisions at the latest meeting. The Financial Times (FT) reported that “according to people familiar with the discussions” the wording of the new policy stance “drew criticism from the leaders of the German and Belgian central banks.”

During the debate, the FT said, “Jens Weidmann, president of Germany’s Bundesbank complained that the new conditions set by the ECB were too aggressive and increased the risk of inflation surging above its target.”

Weidmann has been a long-time critic of ECB policies in line with the views of sections of German finance capital who consider that they are too heavily weighted in favour of Italy and other highly indebted southern European countries.

The head of the Dutch central bank Klaas Knot was reported to have called for the ECB to separate the timing of when it will stop buying bonds from the issue of interest policy but this issue was dropped until there is a discussion of asset purchase plans in September.

The opposition may grow in the coming period but at present Lagarde has majority support on the governing council. Speaking at a press conference following the meeting, she said there had been a “minor divergence” on the policy statement and it had won the support of “an overwhelming majority.”

Countering claims the crisis was over, Lagarde said there was “still some way to go before the fallout from the pandemic on inflation is eliminated” in a sign that the ECB is not likely to taper its bond-buying program any time soon.

The response of financial market operators was favourable. Martin Wolburg, the senior economist at Generali Investments, told the FT that the shift by the ECB meant “there is now leeway for it to push the first rate rise beyond 2024.” If that is the case it would mean that a decade had passed since the ECB cut its rate to below zero in 2014.

The head of macro research at BlackRock Investment Institute, Elgar Bartsch, told the newspaper the ECB had delivered a “dovish surprise” and there could be an “upward adjustment” of its asset purchases later this year.

Bloomberg commented that the new forward guidance reflects a commitment to “more vigorous action” and “the next step will be an increase in asset purchases at the September meeting.”

There is a growing belief that the ECB’s policies mean it is becoming locked into providing support for government debt in the euro zone. A survey of 250 German financiers and economists earlier this month found that eight out of 10 believed it was “increasingly difficult to depart from the ECB’s low interest rate policy as governments become increasingly dependent on purchases of their bonds.”

Since the start of 2020 and the onset of the pandemic, the ECB has bought almost all the new issues of euro zone government bonds and its total holdings of sovereign debt in the bloc now stands at 42 percent.

This means the situation in the euro zone is rapidly approaching that which already exists in Japan where one arm of the state, the government, issues new debt while another arm, the central bank, buys it up.

Such a situation has never existed in any capitalist economy apart from times of war. It is an expression of the total breakdown of the so-called “free market” system, regularly touted by the ideologists of the ruling classes as the only viable and only possible form of economic organisation, and its replacement by the direct intervention of the capitalist state, on a daily basis, in order to try to stave off the development of a crisis.

Senate Democrats endorse Republican proposal for increased military budget

Kevin Reed

Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee have endorsed a Republican plan for an additional $25 billion in military spending above the amount proposed by the Biden administration for 2022 in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The 23–3 bipartisan committee vote for a $778 billion defense budget—a direct repudiation of President Biden’s $753 billion proposal—was announced by Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, during a call with news media on Thursday.

According to a report by the Hill, “The funding boost would go entirely to the Pentagon, giving the department $740.3 billion compared to the Biden administration’s request for $715 billion. The remainder of the budget goes to non-Pentagon defense programs, such as the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons programs.”

While the Democrats are in the White House and have a majority in both houses of Congress, the new spending proposed for the US war machine is greater than that enacted during the Trump administration which stood at $741 billion, with $704 billion for the Pentagon, and the highest spending since World War II.

The new increase was proposed by Republicans as an amendment to the NDAA and then endorsed by Democrats during a closed-door session of the Armed Services Committee on Wednesday evening.

During his call with reporters, Kaine welcomed the budget increase and called it “very positive,” although he said military housing “remains a problem.” He also said that the NDDA will likely be voted on by the full Senate when the annual legislation is decided on in September.

Committee Chairman Jack Reed, Democratic Senator from Rhode Island, followed Kaine’s announcement with a statement that got down to the real military matters at hand. Reed said that Congress “must work on a bipartisan basis” to ensure “the policies and resources to deter America’s adversaries,” and reassure US allies that American military forces “have the right tools and capabilities to combat threats around the globe.”

Although Democrats have said very little about where the additional $25 billion will be spent, it has been reported that much of the extra resources will go toward programs that top generals and admirals had identified as priorities and were left out of Biden’s original budget request.

According to the Military Times, the Army’s unfunded priorities include, “$1.1 billion for tactical training, soldier quality of life and strategic power projection capabilities, and another $1.9 billion for aviation platforms, wheeled and tracked combat vehicles and cyber security upgrades.” The Navy request includes, “$1.7 billion for a second DDG [missile guided destroyer] and $280 million for additional flying hours for Navy pilots,” and the Air Force wants to spend “$1.4 billion on 12 additional F-15EXs and $825 million for weapon system sustainment efforts.” Marine Corps leaders demanded “more than $150 million additional Naval Strike Missiles and Tactical Tomahawk missiles.”

In policy terms, the vote by the bipartisan Senate committee is for a continued guarantee that the Pentagon will maintain overwhelming military superiority over every other country on the planet such that it can invade and launch wars against enemies and adversaries as it sees fit. Meanwhile, the committee is making a clear statement that Biden’s proposal was unacceptable and that the so-called “progressive” Congressional Democrats will have absolutely no say-so over the hegemonic global military strategy of US imperialism.

As pointed out by Stars and Stripes, Republicans have “argued for months at congressional hearings and recent news conferences that Biden’s budget is insufficient to counter the rising threat of China and Russia. They have repeatedly called for a 3-5% increase in funding and criticized Biden for his effectively flat budget.”

With their support for the Republican plan, Senate Democrats are making it clear that they agree with the foreign policy of the party of Donald Trump. Among the Democrats to vote for the Republican proposal were Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Kelly of Arizona and so-called progressive Kirsten Gillibrand of New York voting in favor.

The only Democrat on the committee who opposed the increase was Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Significantly, the other two votes against the proposal came from extreme right-wing Republicans Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri who opposed the provision in the bill that will require women to register for the draft for the first time. Other Republicans who voted for the bipartisan plan also criticized it for being not substantial enough, such as Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska who said during a press conference, “We are not prioritizing the military at all with this budget. We’re gonna continue to press to make this much stronger budget for our military.”

Also revealing the pro-war stance of the Democrats as a whole, Senator Kelly said that the bipartisan increase, “was necessary to support a number of unfunded requirements from the military branches and combatant commanders critical to getting our servicemembers the tools, training, and resources they need,” and that it also funds “the development of new technologies to maintain our competitive edge, while also addressing a broader scope of national security priorities.”

The bipartisan increase in military funding by the Senate Armed Services Committee stands in stark contrast to the cutbacks in federal dollars to assist working class families who face unemployment, homelessness and poverty arising from the criminal policies of the government in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the Democrats have no problem whatsoever voting for Pentagon funding alongside Republicans who opposed the certification of Biden as President following the assault on the Capitol by a mob of right-wing and fascist elements on January 6. Among the major Trump backers in the Senate Armed Services Committee are Republicans Tommy Tuberville from Alabama and Rick Scott of Florida.

While the two parties are unable to move forward on an infrastructure spending plan and claim that “fiscal responsibility” prevents the government from providing desperately-needed resources to impoverished cities and rural areas of the country, they set aside their bickering and stage managed disagreements to provide massive funding for the US military-intelligence state.

Significantly, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post published a report on the vote by the Senate committee, with the endorsement of the leading Democrats, to increase the 2022 military budget.

The Olympics open in the shadow of mass death

Bryan Dyne

The summer Olympics opened Thursday against the backdrop of a massive surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the 1936 Berlin Olympics that preceded the outbreak of World War II and its attendant horrors, this year’s games have the aura of a looming human tragedy.

The 2020 Olympics were not held last year amid the first wave of the pandemic. The games are now being held under the pretense that the pandemic is under control, and the mass gathering of athletes and their support staffs is safe.

But this illusion is being punctured by the massive surge of COVID-19 cases—inside the Olympic Village and around the world.

People protest on June 23 against the July opening of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Tokyo [Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko]

“In the time it takes me to make these remarks, more than 100 people will lose their lives to COVID-19,” noted World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in remarks to the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday. “And by the time the Olympic flame is extinguished on the 8th of August, more than 100,000 more people will perish.”

Around the world, daily new COVID-19 cases have surged by 47 percent over the past month to more than 523,000 cases a day, with daily deaths standing at 7,900.

Cases among the tens of thousands of Olympic athletes and staff are also spreading. One hundred and ten people directly working for or participating in the Olympics have so far been infected, about two-thirds of whom are Japanese citizens working at the games and the rest are athletes or staff of the national teams traveling from overseas. At least four of the cases have occurred in municipalities outside Tokyo where athletes are training, indicating the extent of the spread, and dozens of others were in close contact with the infected.

That so many have been infected makes clear that the nominal measures to isolate athletes from the broader population and vice versa have failed. A running tally from Forbes shows that infections have occurred both before and after athletes arrived in Japan, as well as among several who are fully vaccinated and “took every precaution” against the virus.

Hans Westerbeek, a professor at the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University, Australia warned in an interview with Newsweek that, “The athlete COVID cases reported in Tokyo are most likely the start of a superspreading event.” He continued, “Given the close proximity of athletes and their teams, and the constant moving and interacting in living quarters, dining halls and training and competition venues, the virus is likely to spread rapidly.”

In other words, every athlete is competing in two different contests: athletic pursuit and pushing the boundaries of human physical achievement, while at the same time in a horrifying race to escape infection.

Japan, the host of the Olympics, is recording more than 3,500 new COVID-19 cases a day and climbing, including nearly 1,400 in Tokyo alone. In total, Japan has suffered more than 852,000 cases of the disease and 15,000 recorded deaths, of which the vast majority have occurred since the beginning of this year.

Polls show that up to 83 percent of Japan’s population opposes holding the Olympics this year. Protesters gathered outside National Stadium during the opening ceremony chanting “Cancel the Olympics! Stop them immediately! Stop the Opening Ceremony now!”

An online petition on change.org, “Cancel the Tokyo Olympics to protect our lives,” has so far gained more than 458,000 signatures, and asks the pointed question “Is hosting the Olympics worth risking our lives?”

Despite the mortal threats to the lives of the athletes, their trainers, stadium staff and the broader population, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has maintained that the Olympics remain “safe and secure” and will continue through August 8.

Contained within these statements are ignorance and cruelty on one hand, particularly towards the athletes themselves, and naked class interests on the other.

There is, of course, an immense amount of money invested in the games, some $15 billion. The IOC also has broadcasting and sponsorship contracts that it is seeking to protect, which are worth an estimated $5.7 billion.

But there is an even more sinister motive at work. Among the world’s ruling classes, the Olympics are seen as a great experiment on whether it is possible, citing the games’ motto, to “move forward” with resuming economic activity even as cases, hospitalizations, and deaths soar.

The world is, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, carrying out a “test case” for whether it is possible to “enjoy something approaching pre-pandemic life in the face of fast transmitting versions of the virus.”

“The experiment should give a strong signal of whether Covid-19 can be relegated to the status of a manageable, seasonal menace such as influenza and whether lockdowns and social distancing can be consigned to the past.”

The Olympics, too, are such a cruel experiment, in which the athletes, staff, and the population of Japan are to be test subjects for “whether lockdowns and social distancing can be consigned to the past.”

The logic of such an “experiment” is turning the entire planet into a Petri dish for the coronavirus, almost inevitably producing a variant that goes “faster, higher, stronger” than even the virulent Delta variant responsible for the most recent global surge, placing the lives of every person on the planet in the balance.

In 1936, the Berlin Olympics were used by the fascist Nazi party to advance its ideological conceptions of racial supremacy and antisemitism. So, too, the 2020 Olympics are designed to send an ideological message from the capitalist class to the world’s population: No measures will be taken to save human lives, no matter the cost.

Africa Data Science Intensive (DSI) Program 2022

Application Deadline: 30th September 2021.

About the Award: Big Data, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence are driving a revolution around the world as companies rush to take advantage of their data and turn it into a competitive advantage. However there is a shortage of skilled data scientists and managers worldwide and this shortage is much worse in Africa.
In this program, participants will master the data science process, from statistics and data wrangling, to advanced topics like machine learning and data storytelling, by working on real projects.

Type: Training

Eligibility: Honours, Master’s or PhD in Science, Engineering or Mathematics or equivalent industry experience.

Eligible Countries: African countries

To be Taken at (Country): Cape Town, SA

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Full awards covering course tuition and travel and living expenses to attend the 2-week workshop are available for qualifying African students. Also,

• Exposure to the latest algorithms and techniques in data science: covering topics in Big Data (BD), Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• Under the expert guidance of our team of PhDs and MBAs: as lecturers and tutors, you will receive a mix of lectures and tutorials covering the core aspects of data science.
• Team work: the majority of your time will be spent working in small teams to solve real-world problems, giving you deep, hands-on experience with cutting edge algorithms while equipping you with the skills to contribute effectively as part of a dynamic, agile team.
• Emphasis on real-world skills: including management of data science projects; cleaning of data; and business problem solving skills.
• The solutions you generate: will be presented to industry experts who will give real feedback, helping further sharpen your readiness for the real world.
• Networking events: giving you the opportunity to network with potential employers.

Duration of Award:

• January to May 2022 (Exact dates TBC)
• 11 weeks (3 x 3-week online modules and 1 x 2-week workshop in Cape Town)

How to Apply: Applications are now OPEN. Click to apply

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Czech Government Scholarships 2022/2023

Application Deadline: 30th September 2021

Eligible Countries: Developing Countries. See list below

To be taken at (country): Public Universities in Czech Republic

Eligible Fields of Study: Students who are applying for study in Economics, Agriculture, Informatics, Environment and Energetics at public universities in the Czech Republic.

About the Award: Thanks to a generous contribution from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, the Faculty of Social Sciences is able to offer a limited number of partial scholarships for students of all fee based programs.. A total of __scholarships are available, ear-marked for students from developing countries and/or countries going through a process of political and economic transition.

Upon a Decision of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, scholarships of the Government of the Czech Republic are granted to promote specific Bachelor’s, Master’s, follow-up Master’s and/or Doctoral study programmes in the full-time mode of study of a specific study programme pursued by a university (or its Faculty) for a period that equals the regular duration of studies. Scholarships are not transferable to other persons or other academic years. Once a scholarship is granted, neither the university nor the study programme and/or field of study may be changed.

Type: Doctoral, Undergraduate and Masters

Selection Criteria and Eligibility

• The scholarships are intended solely to promote the studies of adults who are foreign nationals from developing third countries in need. Neither a citizen of the Czech Republic, nor a citizen of a member state of the European Union, nor any other foreign national with a permit to permanent residence on the territory of the Czech Republic may, therefore, be granted this type of scholarship. Furthermore, the scholarships may not be granted to persons under 18 years of age. (The applicants have to turn 18 as of 1 September of the year when they commence studies in the Czech Republic at the latest.)
• In Bachelor/ Master/ Doctoral Study Programmes plus one-year Preparatory Course of the English language (Which is combined with other field-specific training): Government scholarships of this category are awarded to graduates from upper secondary schools, or Bachelor’s / Master’s degree courses, as applicable, Who can Enroll only in Study Programmes in which instruction is given in the English language. Depending on the subject area, Applicants are normally required to sit entrance Examinations at the higher education institution Concerned. Successful passing of Entrance examination constitutes a precondition for the scholarship award; or
• In follow-up study Programmes Master or Doctoral Study Programmes: Government scholarships of this category are awarded to graduates of Bachelor or Master Study Programmes, respectively, Enroll in the WHO study Programmes with instruction in the English language.

In addition, the Scholarship Review Board will take into consideration applicants’ results from their earlier studies. Priority will be given to students who have not previously had the opportunity to study abroad.

Number of Scholarships: TBC

Duration of Scholarships: These Government Scholarships are designed to cover the standard length of study plus one-year preparatory course of the Czech language(which is combined with other field-specific training).

Value of Scholarships: 

• The scholarship covers the necessary costs related to staying and studying in the Czech Republic. The scholarship amount is regularly amended.
• Currently the amount paid to students on a Bachelor’s, Master’s or follow-up Master’s study programme stands at CZK 14,000 per month
• Whereas the amount paid to students of a Doctoral study programme stands at CZK 15,000 per month.

The above scholarship amounts include an amount designated for the payment of accommodation costs. Costs of accommodation, food and public transport are covered by scholarship holders from the scholarship under the same conditions that apply to students who are citizens of the Czech Republic. Should health services exceeding standard care be required by the student, s/he shall cover them at his/her own cost.

Eligible Countries:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina,
• Cambodia,
• Ethiopia,
• Georgia,
• Moldova,
• Ukraine,
• and Zambia.

How to Apply: All applicants shall fill in the electronic application form available on the website and successfully register (i.e., obtain an application identification number by sending a completed application form to the pertinent authority electronically). The applicant shall send the completed application form to the Mission in electronic form, i.e., by completing online registration.

Visit Award Webpage for Details