JPMorgan Chase settles with victims of Jeffrey Epstein for $290 million

Kevin Reed

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., reached a tentative settlement on Monday with victims of deceased billionaire, sex trafficker and abuser of underage girls Jeffrey Epstein.

The bank and lawyers for the victims issued a statement saying JPMorgan agreed to pay $290 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that they considered, “is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse.” The settlement amounts to less than eight tenths of one percent of the bank’s $38 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2023.

The lawsuit was filed last November in Manhattan federal court by a woman identified as Jane Doe 1 on behalf of the teenage girls and young women who were abused by Epstein over a 15-year period.

Her lawsuit argued that JPMorgan facilitated Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking operation by allowing him to continue making large cash withdrawals even after his depraved activities were widely known. Epstein used some of this money to pay his victims.

In 2008, Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of procuring for prostitution a girl below the age of 18. He served 13 months of an 18-month prison sentence that included an unlocked cell door and “work release” of up to 12 hours per day, six days per week.

The sentence and location of his imprisonment in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade were part of an elaborate non-prosecution agreement negotiated by U.S. Justice Department officials that dismissed the complaints of as many as three dozen girls who said Epstein had abused them.

At least eight civil lawsuits were filed against Epstein in connection with his sex trafficking operation between his 2008 conviction and his death under suspicious circumstances on August 9, 2019. Many of these cases were either settled by Epstein out of court or remain unresolved.

Epstein held accounts with JPMorgan beginning in 1998 and became one of the bank’s largest revenue producers by referring clients to its “private wealth division.” Epstein exclusively managed the funds of individuals with a net worth of $1 billion or more. JPMorgan maintained its relationship with Epstein until 2013.

On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested in New Jersey on charges that he trafficked dozens of girls as young as 14 at his apartment in Manhattan, his mansion in Palm Beach and his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Less than one month after his arrest, Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell from injuries consistent with strangling. However, his death was found by the New York City medical examiner to have been suicide by hanging.

A central aspect of the lawsuit against JPMorgan was exposing the degree to which those at the multi-trillion-dollar bank—as well as other wealthy individuals in and around the bank—who knew and interacted with Epstein were aware of his criminal enterprise. With announcement of the settlement on Monday, the terms of which must still be approved by the court, many of the details about the relationship of Epstein with the U.S. financial elite will remain concealed.

Meanwhile, the settlement permits JPMorgan to avoid admission of liability and pretend that no one at the bank knew anything about Epstein’s corruption and abuse of underage girls. The actual number of women participating in the class-action lawsuit, which is estimated to be more than 100, is also being concealed.

A significant factor in JPMorgan’s settlement, which is considered “minuscule” by financial experts, was the fact that top executives of the bank including CEO Jamie Dimon were deposed and forced to testify under oath.

In his 416-page deposition, Dimon claimed that an email from Epstein’s office that suggested he was scheduled to meet with the sex offender along with senior bank executive Jes Staley at Epstein’s townhouse was not true. Dimon protested, “I have never had an appointment with Jeff Epstein. I’ve never met Jeff Epstein. I never knew Jeff Epstein. I never went to Jeff Epstein’s house. I never had a meal with Jeff Epstein. I have no idea what they’re referring to here.” Dimon added, “I don’t think Jeff Epstein ever arranged for me to meet with anybody, to my knowledge,” he added.

Others who were subpoenaed in the lawsuit included Tesla founder Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They faced extensive questioning about Epstein’s relationship with Microsoft founder Bill Gates for a charitable fund that never got off the ground.

Other disclosures from the case show that employees of the JPMorgan noted Epstein’s activity was suspicious, while other documents show Epstein’s easy access to top executives at the bank even after his 2008 guilty plea in Florida. A cache of emails and calendar entries reviewed by the New York Times showed that top bank executives were very close with Epstein. A spokesperson for JPMorgan dismissed these facts saying that personal contact between wealthy clients and bank executives is not uncommon.

In May, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit brought by women who accused Epstein of sexual abuse. The class-action lawsuit was filed late last year with the victims accusing the German bank of knowingly providing funds for the operation of a large sex-trafficking ring, made possible by cash disbursements supported by the bank. The lead plaintiff is described in court documents as “Jane Doe 1.”

Another lawsuit by the attorney-general of Virgin Islands against JPMorgan, based on information the territory had gathered during litigation with Epstein’s estate, is pending. The US territory said its investigation revealed that the financial services giant enabled Epstein's recruiters to pay victims and was “indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”

The Virgin Islands is seeking to recoup tens of millions in tax benefits it had awarded to Epstein’s businesses based in St. Thomas.

The Virgin Islands’ relationship with Epstein is itself revealing. The islands’ government awarded lucrative tax breaks to his businesses in 2012 and eased travel restrictions for the sex offender after a request from his lawyers. As a sex offender, Epstein was required by law to notify authorities of his travel plans, but the notice was cut to one day from three weeks by the Virgin Islands’ attorney general at the time, according to the documents reviewed by the Times.

Silvio Berlusconi (1936–2023): The fusion of wealth, criminality and government power

Peter Schwarz

Silvio Berlusconi, who died of leukemia in a Milan hospital on Monday at the age of 86, will go down in history as a symbol of the degeneration of bourgeois rule. He embodied the fusion of wealth and power, the criminal underworld and politics, and cultural backwardness within society’s elites. Above all, however, he gave the heirs of fascism renewed hope and paved the way for them to return to power.

Silvio Berlusconi [AP Photo/Matt Rourke]

Berlusconi anticipated similar political careers in other countries, some of which have striking parallels: Donald Trump in the US, Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic, Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine, to name a few. Comparisons with Rupert Murdoch, who uses his media empire to promote ultra-right-wing politics, are also emerging. Historically, he is reminiscent of Alfred Hugenberg, the German armaments entrepreneur and media tsar, who also went into politics and used his influence over the media to pave the way for Hitler to come to power. 

The exuberant praise with which politicians of all shades showered Berlusconi after his death shows that they are grateful to him for the rehabilitation of fascism and are headed in the same direction. Berlusconi’s rise to become one of Italy’s richest and most powerful men is not an individual phenomenon, but the result of fundamental social tendencies that are not confined to Italy. 

Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella praised Berlusconi as a “great political leader who has shaped the history of our republic.” Opposition leader Elly Schlein called him a “protagonist of the history of our country”. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Berlusconi had “led Italy in a time of political upheaval and continued to shape his beloved country ever since.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “deeply saddened” by “Silvio’s” death and called him a “great friend of Israel.” Russian President Vladimir Putin called Silvio “a dear person and a true friend” and said his death was an “irreplaceable loss and a deep misfortune.”

Silvio Berlusconi was born in Milan in 1936, the son of a salaried employee. He graduated with a law degree in 1961 and worked as a vacuum cleaner salesman as well as a singer and conférencier on cruise ships. How the destitute lawyer then became a billionaire building contractor within 10 years remains to this day shrouded in secrecy. What is certain is that he was a member of Propaganda Due (P2), a criminal anti-communist network disguised as a Masonic lodge that included hundreds of senior politicians, military and intelligence officials, judges, prosecutors, entrepreneurs and journalists.

P2 was involved in the terrorist attacks that rocked Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. It maintained ties to organized crime and the NATO underground army Gladio, which specialized in acts of sabotage. It was involved in numerous financial scandals, sometimes fatal to the protagonists. Their connections to the highest levels of the state and the judiciary ensured that the masterminds remained untouched.

There is much to suggest that the huge sums used by Berlusconi to build thousands of apartments in Milan in the 1960s came from the dubious sources of P2. There are even suspicions that Berlusconi was initially only a straw man for P2.

Berlusconi also owed the licenses for his residential projects, that enabled him to create an Italian media empire from a small local station, to a prominent member of P2: Bettino Craxi, the head of the Socialist Party, who was Italian Prime Minister from 1983 and 1987. Craxi’s party also dominated Milan’s local politics, which was invaluable to Berlusconi’s construction projects.

Berlusconi used his media power as a political weapon. In a country where one struggles to take a step without encountering evidence of millennia of high culture, he reduced the level of television entertainment to the lowest possible trash. He unscrupulously used his control over the country’s three largest private broadcasters—and as prime minister also over the public broadcasters —for political purposes.

For his political work, Berlusconi used his company empire, which now included Italy’s largest publishing house Mondadori, a bank and the top football club AC Milan. Two months before his election success in March 1994, he founded the Forza Italia party, named after the battle cry of football fans. It was an extended arm of his business.

Berlusconi’s economic and media power alone, however, cannot explain why he rose to the top of the government and led it for a total of nine years—longer than any other Italian politician since World War II. Much more important for his success was the political bankruptcy of the so-called “left”—the influential Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) and its successor organizations as well as their pseudo-left hangers-on. They paved the way for Berlusconi’s rise to power through their right-wing policies; crippled resistance, which involved millions at times, to his regime; and provided him and his fascist allies with the conditions for a comeback through their anti-worker policies when they were in government.

Two important events preceded Berlusconi’s political rise: the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the traditional Italian ruling parties, especially the Christian Democrats and the socialists, in the gigantic “Tangentopoli” corruption scandal. While well-known politicians were arrested and imprisoned as part of Operation Mani pulite, the PCI abandoned all left-wing symbols and turned into a right-wing bourgeois party modeled on the US Democrats.

The PCI, which had considerable influence in the working class because of its role in the Resistance, the armed resistance against Mussolini, had always served as a party of the state since the end of the Second World War. Their policies, apart from the rhetoric, hardly differed from those of the German SPD or the French socialists. But because of its ties to Moscow, the PCI was prevented from joining the government of a NATO country, especially due to pressure from the US.

Now that this obstacle had disappeared and the working class was pushing for a left-wing response to “Tangentopoli,” the successors to the PCI stabbed the workers in the back. They campaigned for a responsible fiscal policy and advocated harsh austerity measures. Berlusconi, supported by the old elites, used his populist demagogy to occupy the resulting political vacuum. It was precisely a man from the centre of the corruption swamp who benefited from its draining.

Forza Italia won the election in 1994, but was far from having a majority of its own with 21 percent of the vote. In addition to the Lega Nord, Berlusconi brought Mussolini’s heirs from the National Alliance/Social Movement of Italy (MSI) into his government for the first time. Until then, an alliance with the neo-fascists had been considered absolutely taboo. 

The Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, commented on this in the International Workers Bulletin (IWB) of 11 April 1994: “The Italian bourgeoisie sees the rehabilitation of fascism as a necessary step in solving the long-running crisis of the entire political and economic system. Corruption scandals that have virtually wiped out the former ruling parties—the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats—have been used to shake the political structures that have sustained the vast welfare state of Italy and its vast nationalized industrial sector. Now the ruling class is bringing forces forward to finish the job.”

The resurgence of fascism is “an organic expression of the disease of capitalist society,” warned the IWB. “Once again, as in the 1930s, democratic institutions are breaking apart under the pressure of class antagonisms and international tensions. The gap between rich and poor has become so deep that it can no longer be bridged by the play of parliamentary forces.”

“If the working class does not find a way to advance its independent political mobilization against the capitalist system, it will once again face a fascist catastrophe,” it concluded.

This warning has since been confirmed. It would be too ambitious within the framework of this obituary to follow all the twists and turns of Italian politics of the last 30 years, in which Berlusconi played an important role. However, one thing must be stressed. Rifondazione Comunista and other pseudo-left organizations, which posed as an alternative to the Democrats, played a decisive role in bringing him back to power again and again.

Whenever a Democrat-led or backed government came into conflict with the working class, Rifondazione jumped aside. In 2006, the party even joined the government of former EU Commission President Romano Prodi, which proved politically fatal. As a result, Berlusconi returned to the head of the government for a fourth time between 2008 and 2011. 

The bankruptcy of the so-called left eventually created the conditions for the meteoric rise of comedian Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S), which won the election in 2018. It immediately showed its real character by forming a governing coalition with the ultra-right Lega led by Matteo Salvini.

The Five Star Movement subsequently switched coalition partners and allied with the Democrats, who paved the way for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to return to power once again in 2022. This time, however, Berlusconi’s party, which has shrunk to 8 percent, is not heading the government. It supports the neo-fascist Giorgia Meloni as a junior partner. 

Berlusconi had already promoted Meloni in 2008 by appointing the 31-year-old as Youth and Sports Minister in his government. Later, Meloni broke with her old party, the Alleanza Nazionale, because she did not want to distance herself from Mussolini. Nevertheless, the neo-fascist is being courted by all Western governments and welcomed with open arms.

Berlusconi’s project to rehabilitate the fascists has proven successful. The ruling elite needs the far-right to impose its rearmament and war policies against the resistance of the working class and youth and to suppress social protest.

UK mother cruelly jailed for late abortion

Thomas Scripps

The imprisonment of 44-year-old mother of three Carla Foster for inducing an abortion after the legal limit has exposed the UK’s archaic abortion legislation and highlighted the increasingly aggressive use of state power against society’s most vulnerable.

Sentenced to 28 months by Justice Edward Pepperall, Foster will serve half of it in custody and the rest on license. She pleaded guilty in March under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The UK's Royal Courts of Justice [Photo by Mike Peel / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0]

The law criminalises “Every woman, being with child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent.” The Abortion Act 1967 left the old law in place, but created a legal defence for abortion if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion that the pregnancy poses a:

• Risk to the life of the mother (this had been in place since 1929).
• Risk of grave injury to the physical or mental health of the mother.
• Substantial risk that the child would suffer from seriously handicapping “physical or mental abnormalities”.
• Up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, risk of “injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family.”

The vast majority of abortions are carried out on this last ground.

In other words, women in Britain do not have a right to abortion, only exemption from prosecution if certain conditions are met—the same as the legal status of strike action. The Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 allows abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy without conditions.

Foster terminated her pregnancy after 32-34 weeks using medication received through a “pills by post” scheme set up during the Covid pandemic, after lying to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) about how advanced her term was. She discovered she was pregnant in December 2019 and contacted BPAS in May 2022 after Googling, “How to hide a pregnancy bump”, “I need to have an abortion but I’m past 24 weeks.”

It is clear she received no support under immensely difficult personal circumstances and has suffered enormously for what happened. According to the BBC, “The court heard she had moved back in with her estranged partner at the start of lockdown while carrying another man’s baby.”

The judge’s decision acknowledged that she had been “in emotional turmoil” at the time, was now “racked by guilt” and had “suffered depression. I also accept that you had a very deep emotional attachment to your unborn child and that you are plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face.” After taking the medication, she had to be admitted to hospital.

Pepperall’s comment during sentencing that if Foster had plead guilty at her first opportunity, a custodial sentence could have been avoided is vindictive—especially given that the charges against her switched from “child destruction” to administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion after the legal limit.

The court’s decision received widespread professional condemnation. Chief executive of BPAS Clare Murphy said she was “shocked and appalled” by the verdict and called for abortion law reform.

A letter sent to Pepperall in April by organisations including the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists warned of the chilling impact of a custodial sentence. Both groups, and the British Medical Association, have called for abortion to be decriminalised.

Murphy pointed out, “Over the last three years, there has been an increase in the numbers of women and girls facing the trauma of lengthy police investigations and threatened with up to life imprisonment under our archaic abortion law.” These include a 15-year-old girl subjected to a year-long investigation after an early stillbirth. A mother of one served two years in prison after inducing a traumatic miscarriage in 2019 much later in her pregnancy than she realised under pressure from an abusive partner not to see a doctor.

Moves to imprison these individuals reflect an attitude of hardened indifference and callous cruelty in the legal system and the ruling class, akin to the Victorian elite who implemented the original 1860s law. Feeling the capitalist system they defend exposed, judges and politicians are less and less able to acknowledge the damning social causes and necessarily fundamental social solutions to personal tragedies, shifting the blame by branding individuals.

In the case of abortions carried out beyond the legal limit, women are crushed for actions only ever taken in extremis. Fully 89 percent of abortions in 2021 were performed within 10 weeks—up from 78 percent in 2011. Just 1 percent were performed at 20 weeks. Legal post-24-week abortions make up just 0.1 percent of the total.

Foster’s treatment cannot be separated from the reactionary trend in bourgeois politics expressed and advanced by the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States, effectively denying millions of American women any right to an abortion.

All manner of far-right and ultra-conservative religious elements are being mobilised by the ruling class to strengthen itself against a looming social explosion. Last summer, the UK government dropped commitments to abortion and sexual health rights from a statement on gender equality following a UK-hosted conference on freedom of religion and belief—to which co-chair of the parliamentary “pro-life” group Fiona Bruce MP was appointed the prime minister’s special envoy.

El-Sisi dictatorship plunges Egyptians into poverty, steps up repression

Jean Shaoul

More than one third of Egypt’s 106 million population are living in poverty, while another 30 percent were teetering around the poverty line in 2019, according to World Bank estimates. That number has risen dramatically under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the US-NATO led war against Russia in Ukraine that has sent the price of grain soaring.

Inflation is raging at more than 30 percent as the Egyptian pound has fallen to half its value in the last year, with the black-market rate on which many depend even lower. Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent, with poultry, pasta, dairy and red meat rising faster. Many workers have been forced to seek second or even third jobs in order to put food on the table for their families.

President Joe Biden (left) speaks as Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi laughs during a meeting at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

The government plans to increase the price of basic commodities distributed through ration cards. More than 60 million of Egypt’s 110 million population use the cards to buy 32 types of goods, including pasta, flour, and fava beans, at subsidised prices. The price of a bottle of vegetable oil will increase from 25 to 30 pounds ($0.81 to $0.97) while kilogram sacks of sugar and rice will go up from 10.50 to 12.60 pounds ($0.34-$0.41).

Professional workers are leaving the country in droves, while some workers are even crossing the border to seek work in war-torn Libya, where there are around 144,543 Egyptian migrants who are “routinely at risk of arbitrary or collective expulsion,” according to a 2022 United Nations Institute of Migration report.

General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who overthrew the elected government of Muslim Brotherhood affiliated President Mohammed Morsi in a bloody coup in July 2013, has ruled the country with an iron fist ever since, using the country’s anti-terrorism laws to jail around 60,000 people, many without charge or trial.

In anticipation of social unrest and renewed opposition, the authorities have added 81 human rights defenders to the “terrorism list” as part of broader efforts to silence regime critics and dissidents. Among those designated as “terrorists” are 32 Egyptian journalists from Al Jazeera, Al Sharq, Mekameleen, Watan, the Rassd Network and other news websites critical of the government. Ayman Nour, a former presidential candidate previously subject to government surveillance, is on the list.

It is believed that all those named are living in exile. The government is refusing to provide or renew identity documents to dissidents, journalists and political activists living abroad, exposing them to the risk of deportation, to pressure them to return to Egypt. According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, dissidents based in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Kuwait and Malaysia have in recent years been extradited, with some later sentenced to years in prison. Some of those interviewed by HRW were considering attempting to “migrate irregularly” from Turkey to Europe to apply for political asylum.

Egypt, the second largest debtor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has received $13.5 billion in loans from the institution. In return, it has pledged to float the currency, implement a massive privatisation programme, rein in the military’s role in the economy, increase taxes and impose stringent austerity measures. The IMF has estimated that Cairo needs $17 billion over the next four years to cover its financing gap, largely to cover the cost of el-Sisi’s megaprojects that have benefited the military’s construction companies. Others believe the required figure is much larger. Oxford Economics Africa calculates that Egypt’s external financing gap may already be closer to $20 billion this year and $29 billion in 2024.

A rare lengthy article on the subject in the New York Times, “As Egypt Faces Crisis”, pointing to “rising discontent and a sinking economy”, expresses the deep worry in ruling circles at the situation, especially given Egypt’s history of mass working-class action.

Foreign currency has all but dried up, despite the central bank raising interest rates to 19 percent. The shortage means goods are piled up at Egypt’s ports, with ships waiting to be unloaded. Importers without access to foreign currency due to reduced allocations to non-governmental importers, the shortage of dollars, and the depletion of the central bank’s reserves are unable to get their goods released from customs. This and the soaring cost of loans has forced small businesses to fold.

In May, Moody’s, the credit ratings agency, warned that a prolonged conflict in neighbouring Sudan could pose a credit-negative risk for countries in the region, including Egypt. Should the armed conflict between two rival military factions—one backed by the US and the other by Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—now engulfing the country spill over the border it would trigger concerns by the banks that have lent to Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia. It would disrupt the flow of investments into Egypt, while the numbers of Sudanese fleeing the fighting would force down wages and increase the poverty rate.

So great is Egypt’s debt crisis—more than 100 percent of GDP—that more than half of the government’s budget for the 2023-34 fiscal year will go on debt servicing ($78.8 billion), after the Big Three credit ratings agencies downgraded the country’s credit worthiness. It means gutting what remains of public funding for health, education, and social welfare. Around half of government revenues ($69.2 billion) are set to come from loans.

El-Sisi has announced that the government will develop three other sources of capital inflows: foreign direct investments, exports and the private sector. He undoubtedly calculates that Egypt is “too big to fail,” but the butcher of Cairo’s plans have as yet come to nought.

Only a fraction of his promised privatisations have materialised, with the sale of the government’s Paint and Chemical Industries and its 9.5 percent stake in Telecom Egypt raising just $146 million—mostly in local currency not dollars—of the $2.5 billion target by June 2023.

Egyptian businesses, struggling with the high cost of financing their operations, including the cost of foreign currency to pay for raw materials, face falling demand in key export markets as a result of the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine.

The oil rich Gulf States that have shored up the el-Sisi regime in the past are taking a tougher line, insisting on buying only commercial investments and demanding the government curb the military’s economic role, which stretches from agriculture and food farms to construction and food factories. Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, said, “We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached, and we are changing that. We are taxing our people. We expect others to do the same.”

Riyadh’s Public Investment Fund, which had pledged $10 billion in investment funds, pulled out of negotiations to buy the state-owned United Bank after the plummeting Egyptian pound wiped hundreds of millions off its dollar value. The Qatar Investment Authority declined to take a stake in a military-owned biscuit manufacturer, saying it would only consider profitable ventures, while the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ has declined to buy Egypt’s state-owned and military-controlled companies. With most military-owned companies depending on the state for funding and their financial arrangements anything but transparent, Egypt’s privatisation programme has struggled to find buyers.

This has prompted Egypt to release Al Jazeera journalist Hisham Abdelaziz, who had been held in pretrial detention for nearly four years. The authorities had detained Abdelaziz, an Egyptian journalist working in Qatar for Al Jazeera’s Mubasher channel, at Cairo International Airport in June 2019 while traveling for a family visit. The state prosecutor ordered him detained on charges of “belonging to a terrorist group and spreading fake news”—commonly slapped on government critics. Egypt had targeted the network because of Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

So desperate is the Egyptian government to secure US dollars to pay for imports, it has eased its citizenship requirements for foreigners—typically those who have fled wars and violence in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. They can now obtain citizenship by investing $300,000, instead of $500,000 in real estate, including land and buildings owned by the government or Egyptian citizens, or by providing $350,000 to investment projects or depositing $500,000 in a local bank.

In April, the government decided to charge foreign yachts and tourist ships anchoring in Egyptian ports in US dollars instead of the Egyptian pound.

Study finds that COVID-19 could cause brain cells to fuse, leading to permanent damage

Philip Guelpa & Evan Blake

A new study published last week in Science Advances develops the understanding of the effects of COVID-19 and other viruses on the brain. The findings are believed to help explain “brain fog”—one of the most common Long COVID symptoms which can involve headaches, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness and other symptoms—as well as other neurological manifestations, such as the loss of taste or smell, and potentially death.

Long COVID advocates often note that “brain fog” is simply a euphemism for brain damage, and the findings of this study underscore this point. Published shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Biden administration in the US formally ended their declarations of public health emergency due to COVID-19, the study reaffirms that these decisions were premature and unscientific. The coronavirus continues to spread unchecked throughout the world, killing thousands and damaging the brains and other organs of an untold number of people each day.

Conducted by a collaborative of researchers at Macquarie University, Sydney, and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, both in Australia, along with the University of Helsinki, Finland, the study found that when brain cells (neurons and glia) are infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the cell membrane is altered, causing the cells to fuse together. The result is that the fused neurons, which transmit information by generating electrical impulses, either cease to fire or fire simultaneously, likely with unintended consequences.

The lead author of the study, Massimo Hilliard, draws an analogy with the effect of fusing household circuitry controlling lights in different rooms. The messages that these neurons normally transmit become either scrambled or cut off, potentially wreaking havoc with a whole range of bodily functions.

The research involved the use of brain organoids, which are accumulations of brain cells grown in vitro (i.e., artificially in the lab from human stem cells). These provide a simulation of conditions in the brain.

The study examined the process by which specialized molecules, known as fusogens, which are associated with the viral spike (S) protein, are used by the virus to penetrate cells, enabling the virus to hijack the cell’s machinery to produce more viruses which then spread to adjacent cells.

Representative fused neurons (arrowheads) transfected with either spike S and GFP or hACE2 and mCherry before being cocultured. Fusion is observed at the somas (top left) and the neurites (top right and bottom), with neuronal bridges (asterisks) of variable lengths. Immunocytochemistry for nuclei (blue), MAP2 (magenta), GFP (green), and mCherry (red). [Photo by Ramón Martínez-Mármol et al. / CC BY 4.0]

Understanding of that basic mechanism of viral infection was already known. What is new is the observation that in infected cells the fusogens alter the cell’s membrane, which then causes separate cells, both neurons and non-neurons known as glia, which provide structural support to the neurons, to fuse together. They also found that dendrites and axons, components of neurons involved in cell-cell communication, can be sites of cellular fusion.

The study found that 90 percent of the fused cells do not die but “resulted in synchronized neuronal activity,” while in the remaining 10 percent of fused cells, “neuronal activity completely stopped.”

The authors write, “Our results indicate that viral infections, driving the expression of viral fusogens, can initiate the irreversible fusion of brain cells, causing alteration in neuronal communication and revealing a possible pathomechanism of neuronal malfunction caused by infection.” They add, “The impact on neuronal fusion will depend on the viral load in the brain and the specific areas infected.”

The study authors further propose that the intracellular environments created by masses of fused cells might allow viral replication in an environment shielded from a body’s immune system. In effect, this could produce a reservoir for repeated bouts of disease as the replicating viruses periodically emerge from their sanctuaries, even without exposure to an external source of infection. This has implications for the course of other neurological diseases as well, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

An article on the study published in Science reports that similar fused cell masses, known as syncytia, have previously been observed in other organs of patients with COVID-19, such as the lungs. Examination of the brains of human patients who have died of COVID-19 for the presence of syncytia, has yet to be reported.

The real-world implications of this study and many others done on the neurological impacts of COVID-19 are staggering. The damage to brain cells shown in the study is irreversible. Repeated bouts of COVID-19 are likely to compound the effect, leading to progressive neurological decline in individuals who are repeatedly reinfected, not to mention effects on other organ systems.

The horrifying results of this study were shared widely by scientists and anti-COVID advocates on Twitter. Dr. Eric Topol of the Scripps Institute, who has done important research on Long COVID, shared an image from the study with the comment, “Not a pretty picture.”

Another widely shared post from anti-COVID activist @1goodtern embedded a video interview with study co-author Dr. Yazi Ke of Macquarie University. Commenting on the fact that COVID-19 has caused millions of individuals to lose the sense of taste and smell, Dr. Ke states, “I would imagine that the virus is causing, wreaking havoc in these brain areas.”

Asked whether she believes that the neurological damage caused by COVID-19 is permanent, Dr. Ke replies, “Knowing what I know, I would say that it’s quite permanent. And over time, I can imagine that these large structures of cells actually eventually might die because they don’t get to do what they’re supposed to do.”

In the interview, Dr. Ke also notes that the study’s findings indicate a potential source of neurological symptoms associated with many other viruses. In the study, the authors write:

Our results also imply that other viral infections can potentially cause neuronal fusion. Several viruses can cause severe neurological symptoms and/or death, such as HIV, rabies virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, poliovirus, measles virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, Zika virus, cytomegalovirus, dengue virus, Nipah virus, and chikungunya virus, among others. Cell-to-cell contact has been shown to be involved in the spreading of HIV, measles, and SARS-CoV-2, but viral-mediated neuronal fusion remained poorly understood.

The “forever COVID” policy adopted by governments around the world—i.e. allowing the pandemic to rage on without any effective control—means that the vast majority of the world’s population will suffer repeated bouts of COVID-19 annually, with potentially increasingly severe impacts and a growing section of the population developing Long COVID. The result, as the WSWS has stated, will be a deepening “mass debilitating event,” which will reverberate for generations to come.

Neurologists and care providers are already reporting upticks in patients suffering from early-onset dementia and other neurological disorders, and many are deeply concerned that recurring waves of COVID-19 will produce a deluge of patients suffering from these afflictions in the years ahead. How many children growing up today, whose parents were misled into believing that COVID-19 is essentially harmless to them, will have their lives or well-being cut drastically short?

Political uncertainty continues after Thai election

Robert Campion

In the month since Thailand’s May 14 general election, who will form the next government remains uncertain. The Move Forward Party (MFP), which took the most seats, faces multiple barriers to assuming office from the military and state apparatus. At present, the Election Commission (EC) will certify the results by July 13, and a vote for prime minister could be conducted on August 3.

Leader of Move Forward Party Pita Limjaroenrat, answer to a reporter with other seven party leaders, during a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, May 18, 2023. [AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit]

The MFP, led by wealthy businessman and prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat, won 151 seats, ahead of the previous main oppositional party, the Pheu Thai Party (PTP), which took 141 seats. The MFP currently leads a coalition with a majority in the lower parliamentary house with Pheu Thai and six minor parties, giving them 312 seats out of 500. It is noteworthy that a record 75.2 percent turned out to vote while MFP won 32 of 33 constituency seats in the capital of Bangkok.

The military has effectively held power since the 2014 coup in which it ousted the Pheu Thai led government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The armed forces are closely aligned with the monarchy and state bureaucracy, including the courts, that have long dominated Thai politics. The military-backed parties won a total of just 76 seats in last month’s elections.

The election results reflect a growing political radicalisation and deep hostility to the military and monarchy’s longstanding domination over Thai politics. By pledging to reform both institutions, and address social inequality, the MFP attracted a great deal of support from students and young people, though it has already begun to shed these pretensions.

At the same time, behind the backs of the working class, sections of the ruling class are manoeuvring to try to maintain stability and to avoid a repeat of the mass protests that rocked the country following the last rigged election in 2019.

There is a great deal of concern over the potential economic impact of any political uncertainty or unrest. Sanan Angubolku, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, recently stated: “The private sector would like a new government to be formed quickly. Any delays could slow down the economy.” According to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, the economy could grow 3.6 to 4 percent if a government can be formed in August, but only 3 percent if it takes until September or October.

The ultimate arbiter of political affairs in Thailand remains the military, which holds sway over the EC and the 250 seats in parliament’s upper house, or Senate. In order to form a government, a party requires a majority from the combined houses, or 376 seats, leaving the MFP-led coalition short. While some senators have indicated support, it is still unclear if the country’s traditional elites close to the military will support an MFP-led government by providing the necessary senate votes.

Currently, the EC is investigating MFP leader Pita over accusations of owning shares in a media company while running as a parliamentary candidate, which is prohibited. Pita had previously disclosed the ownership of shares in iTV, which ceased media operations in 2007, and the EC accepted his candidacy. Now, however, the EC claims that if Pita was aware that owning the shares could impact his eligibility, this would violate the law.

MFP like Pheu Thai in no way challenges capitalist rule, but rather represents sections of the Thai ruling class who regard the domination of the military and monarchy as an intolerable restraint on their business interests. It rests on sections of the upper middle class and appeals to youth and workers on the basis of empty promises of addressing democratic rights and the worsening social crisis facing working people.

The MFP formed its coalition based on compromises with a number of small parties, excluding those typically associated with the military. As well as Pheu Thai, the coalition includes the Prachachat Party (9 seats), Thai Sang Thai (6 seats), Pheu Thai Ruam Phalang (2 seats), the Thai Liberal Party (1 seat), the Fair Party (1 seat), and Palang Sangkhom Mai (1 seat).

The coalition released a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a vague and highly conditional platform seeking to garner the support of military-appointed senators. It states that the coalition will “not affect the country’s status as a unitary state, the country’s status as a democracy under a constitutional monarchy framework, and the inviolable status of the monarch.”

The document makes no mention of the draconian lèse-majesté law, which in very broad terms makes it illegal to criticize or insult the king with penalties of up to 15 years prison. Hundreds of youth are currently in jail or facing charges under the law from the 2020–2021 pro-democracy protests. The MFP has claimed it will reform the law, but has not made the issue a feature of the coalition so as not to alienate other parties or military-aligned senators.

The Thai monarchy, as well as having extensive business interests, has proven to be the linchpin of the capitalist state in times of political crisis. The political establishment as a whole is determined to maintain the monarchy and parties like the MFP at most seek very limited reforms.

Deputy MFP leader Sirikanya Tansakun stated in an interview earlier this month with the Bangkok Post that it is seeking merely to “improve the relationship between the monarchy institution and the people.”

The coalition also claims it will create a “comprehensive welfare system” and improve “the rights of workers” while taking “fiscal sustainability” and “economic growth” into consideration. However, under conditions of economic crisis in Thailand and globally, these pledges will be quickly junked.

The MoU also pledges to “maintain balanced international relations between Thailand and major powers.” The ruling class is deeply concerned over the economic and political instability in the world produced by the US-NATO war in Ukraine, as well as the intensifying US-led confrontation with China. According to the Department of International Trade, exports to Russia fell 43.3 percent to $585.44 million in 2022. Thailand’s top exporting destinations are the US and China, representing 15.9 percent and 13.2 percent respectively.

The ability of Thailand to maintain “balanced international relations” is becoming increasingly fraught as the US ramps up its military preparations for war against China. Thailand is a formal military ally of the US and played a critical role in support of the American military during the Vietnam War. However, it is dependent on China for trade and also military supplies.

With a month to go, political manoeuvring in Bangkok is certain to intensify. It is possible that Pheu Thai may desert the MFP-coalition and make its own bid for office. It could seek support from the Bhumjaithai Party, which won 71 seats but has rejected a coalition with any party that suggests a reform of the lèse-majesté law. Moreover, the military could just step in as it did after the last election, and, with the support of the courts, install its own regime.

Whatever finally emerges, the next government will be a party of big business determined to impose the burden of the developing economic crisis onto working people and to suppress any opposition to its policies.

“Spring offensive” produces bloodbath for Ukraine

Andre Damon

This still image from a video published by the Russian armed forces showed destroyed Leopard 2 battle tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles that were used as part of Urkaine's offensive operations.

When the Ukrainian “counteroffensive” began last week, it was hailed in the American media as a decisive turning point in the US-NATO war against Russia.

“An Endgame for Ukraine,” proclaimed Bret Stephens in the New York Times, which would produce a “crushing and unmistakable defeat” for Russia. Washington Post columnist Max Boot quoted General David Petraeus as stating that he expects “the Ukrainians to achieve significant breakthroughs and accomplish much more than most analysts are predicting.”

All of these statements have proven both delusional and self-deluded.

Ten days in, the offensive has turned into a bloodbath for Ukrainian soldiers, many of them new recruits with little or no training. The Ukrainian government claims to have captured a mere 40 square miles of territory over the past week, at the cost of thousands of lives. It has gotten to the point where the US media describes as a massive triumph the ability of Ukrainian forces to capture, and hold for a few hours, a tiny nondescript village.

The current state of the war recalls the slaughter of World War I, in horrendous bloodbaths such as the battle of the Somme, the first day of which produced as many as 60,000 casualties. While the death toll in Ukraine has not reached this level, there is no doubt that Ukrainian soldiers are being killed in great numbers, in the modern-day equivalent of the slaughter of trench warfare.

In figures that have not been contradicted by Ukraine, Russian officials state that over 1,000 Ukrainians are dying per day during the offensive, which would put the total Ukrainian death toll at a minimum of 10,000 so far.

While the horror of the war is generally covered up in the media, some acknowledgement of the reality has emerged. The Guardian quoted a US official as saying there will be “grinding costly warfare likely for many months to come.” The officials said that the casualties inflicted on Russian forces “are not significant,” adding, “The idea that the Russians were just going to melt away and the Ukrainians were going to drive straight through their defensive line was in people’s wildest dreams.”

An article in the New York Times, written by Helene Cooper, asks coldly, “Will Ukraine suffer a lot of casualties in the counteroffensive?” The answer: “That is already happening. US officials have confirmed that Ukrainian troops have suffered casualties and equipment losses in the early fighting. Little information is available on Russian losses, but the officials pointed out that attackers typically suffer heavier initial casualties than dug-in defenders, for the reasons outlined earlier.”

The Times then asks, “Does that mean the counteroffensive is failing?” The answer: “No. Two U.S. officials said on Monday that the main thrust of the counteroffensive had probably not begun.”

In other words, the death toll is only a down payment. With complete indifference, the US and NATO powers, along with their media spokespeople, treat the lives of Ukrainians as so much cannon fodder. The fascist slogan, “Slava Ukraini” has morphed into the reality of “Slaughter Ukrainians.”

And for what end? From the start, the real aim of the Ukrainian offensive was to create the political conditions for further involvement in the war by NATO. 

As the New York Times wrote on Saturday:

Some battlefield success, whether by decimating Russia’s army, claiming some territory, or both ... would build more support in Europe for some sort of long-term security guarantee for Kyiv.

Both Ukraine and Western allies have invested in the counteroffensive because, regardless of the specific outcome, it will set the stage for the next phase of the war. The American and British plan to help secure Ukraine involves building support for robust security guarantees from the United States and NATO countries...

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley will host a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base. This will be followed by a summit of NATO defense ministers on June 16.

These meetings will set the stage for the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in which the NATO powers are expected to announce some form of formal military alliance with Ukraine, which would set the stage for the direct involvement of NATO troops in the conflict.

The Vilnius meeting was conceived as a victors’ summit, against the backdrop of a victorious offensive intended to issue ultimatums to a Russia on its back foot. But an altogether different scenario is emerging: Faced with a military debacle, the United States is escalating its involvement in the war.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration has decided to send depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine, which are known to cause cancer, and is actively discussing the deployment of cluster munitions.

On Friday, the American Enterprise Institute published an op-ed by one of its senior fellows, Michael Rubin, advocating the deployment of US nuclear weapons to Ukraine. The op-ed is titled “Can Biden Deter a Russia Nuclear Attack on Ukraine? Yes, If He Gives Ukraine Tactical Nukes.”

Rubin called on the White House to threaten to provide Ukraine with nuclear weapons “without any controls on where and how Ukraine might use them.” Finally, the NATO powers are moving rapidly toward the admission of Ukraine to NATO or some form of formal military alliance, which would set the stage for a direct NATO involvement in the conflict.

The war in Ukraine has become an existential issue for the Biden administration and NATO. Having bled Ukraine white, the imperialists will need to find more bodies to throw at the Russian cannons.

The Biden administration is repeating the United States’ long pattern of responding to military debacles with escalation. Unless this war is stopped, it will spiral into a massive catastrophe for all of humanity.

Mass protests against anti-Russian law in Warsaw as Poland moves towards open war with Russia

Martin Nowak & Clara Weiss

On Sunday, June 4, one of the largest mass demonstrations against the Polish government since the collapse of Stalinism and the restoration of capitalism in 1989 took place in Warsaw. Observers spoke of up to half a million demonstrators in Warsaw, which has a population of 1.76 million. Many travelled to the capital from all over Poland to participate in the demonstration.

The main reason for the protests was a recent law by the ruling far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS), establishing a Special Commission against Russian Influence. Standing outside parliamentary control, this “quasi-court” is to investigate the country’s politicians retroactively from 2007 to 2022. In the style of the anti-Communist and anti-Soviet McCarthyite hearings of the early 1950s, the “Special Commission against Russian Influence” would hold public hearings. If “influence” is found, defendants can be fined and banned from holding political office for up to 10 years.

Coming on the heels of the de facto abolition of an independent judiciary, the scrapping of the powers of parliament, and a large-scale assault on democratic rights such as abortion and free speech, the law represents a further escalation of the efforts by PiS to establish dictatorial rule.

It comes amid advanced discussions that Poland might openly intervene in the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine. The PiS has justified the law as essential to safeguarding “national security.”

The protest was organised above all by the largest opposition party “Platforma Obywatelska” (PO, Civic Platform) under party leader Donald Tusk. It views the law as an attack on the PO and Tusk, in particular, ahead of the national elections this fall.

The protesters predominantly came from urban middle class layers and footage of the demo showed a sea of Polish national flags, as well as EU and Ukrainian flags. The protests also included many young people, however, and some placards raised social issues, such as the high inflation of over 18 percent. Others demanded the right to free abortion.

There is undoubtedly growing social discontent among the Polish population and anger at the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) government and its attacks on democratic rights. This social and political discontent is however directed by the PO opposition into right-wing, militarist channels.

The PO timed the protest to coincide with the 34th anniversary of the 1989 elections. Lech Wałęsa, ex-leader of the Solidarność movement and Poland’s first president after 1989, spoke at the rally.

The 1989 elections were immediately followed by the smashing of the Stalinist-ruled Polish People’s Republic and the restoration of capitalism, which led to a social catastrophe for the working class in Poland and throughout Europe. Both the PO and the ultra-right PiS ruling party emerged from the restoration. They fully support the NATO war offensive against Russia in Ukraine and outdo each other in their anti-communist and anti-Russia agitation.

Poland, along with the Baltic states, is NATO’s main frontline state against Russia. Earlier this month, former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen declared the alliance could intervene directly in the conflict militarily, naming Poland and the Baltic states in particular. In March, Polish Ambassador to France Jan Emeryk Rościszewski threatened that Poland would have “no choice but to enter the conflict” if Ukraine alone could not successfully wage war against Russia.

Warsaw is also preparing a massive expansion of the Polish army to 250,000 soldiers, which would make it one of the largest armies in Europe. In addition, the Polish army wants to acquire 1,500 battle tanks, which would make Poland’s army the third largest tank army within NATO. Both factions of the Polish bourgeoisie are ramming through these rearmament and war plans behind the backs of the working class.

The far-right PiS accuses Tusk, who was Polish prime minister in 2007-2014, and EU Council president from 2014 to 2019, of having “Russia-friendly” and “Germany-friendly” policies. In reality, like all Polish governments, Tusk worked closely with Washington as head of state. The Tusk government also played a central role when the US and the EU financed and co-organised a right-wing coup in Kiev against the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

There are longstanding conflicts in the Polish bourgeoisie over its foreign policy and, in particular, Poland’s relationship with Germany. Both parties are vehemently anti-Russian and work closely with Washington. In contrast to the PiS, which is often vehemently anti-German, however, the PO favours close cooperation with the EU—above all Germany, with whose economy Poland is closely intertwined. Tusk was considered a close ally of then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, especially during his term as EU Council president, and was denounced as a “German candidate” by the PiS.

While the two parties have bitter conflicts about the allies and methods with which to wage war, both are on a war-footing against Russia. Indeed, in both the choice of means and the right-wing nationalist and anti-Russia rhetoric, there is little difference between PO and PiS.

As recently as autumn 2022, the PO itself suggested a parliamentary commission of inquiry into PiS energy policy, claiming that it had been “Russia-friendly.” PO also blames its electoral defeat of 2015, due to its anti-social policies, on a wiretapping scandal for which the PiS had allegedly allied itself with the Russian secret service. During the parliamentary vote on the special commission, angry anti-Russian outbursts against the PiS came from the opposition ranks, including accusations that “this law bears Putin's spirit.”

The factional fighting within the Polish bourgeoisie and the hysterical agitation against Russia reflect deep social tensions and far-advanced preparations for direct Polish intervention against Russia.

While the law is part of an increasing factional struggle within the Polish bourgeoisie, its primary target will be opponents of the war against Russia and opposition within the working class. Indeed, a central motivation for the anti-Russia hysteria and warmongering of both parties is the attempt to divert attention from explosive class tensions in Poland.

Poland borders directly on Ukraine and has been particularly affected by the social and economic consequences of the war. Millions of Ukrainians fled to Poland after the war began, where they were taken in by hundreds of thousands of Polish families, mostly at their own expense. In some cities, the population increased by a quarter, a third or even a half, practically overnight. The inflation rate in the country is among the highest in Europe, still exceeding 13 percent.

The war has already deeply destabilized one of the most socially unequal societies in Europe. As a result of capitalist restoration, the top 1 percent has more than quadrupled its income since 1989, and new statistics show a further increase in the number of millionaires during the pandemic.

By contrast, in 2020, almost 2 million Poles were living below the subsistence level of 640 zloty per month (about €144), 1.7 million of whom were working. More than 400,000 children lived in abject poverty. In total, according to official figures, over 41 percent of the total population (15.5 million) lived in poverty that year. Under these conditions, exacerbated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, inflation has devastated millions of Polish workers and their families.

The massive military expenditures now prepared by the Polish bourgeoisie will be accompanied by further attacks on workers’ living standards.