Taliban advance in Afghanistan, refugee crisis stagger Turkish ruling elite

Barış Demir

As the Taliban seize large parts of Afghanistan following the US military withdrawal, conflicts are erupting in the Turkish ruling elite over their presence in Afghanistan. Warning of a wave of immigration from Central Asia, the bourgeois opposition parties are attacking the government from the right, seeking to divide the working class along national lines.

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

The withdrawal of US forces announced by President Joe Biden in April is now 95 percent complete, according to the Pentagon, and will be completed by the end of August. Only some 650 troops are left in Afghanistan to guard the massive US embassy and the Kabul airport. According to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, the Taliban has seized about half of the country’s 419 district centers. Just last month, it held only 81 centers.

Many countries, including Russia and China, are signaling a compromise with the Taliban in anticipation of their likely military victory in Afghanistan. Officials from Turkey, the only NATO power with troops in the country apart from the US and Norway, which operates a field hospital, are stating that they see the Taliban as a potential Afghan government.

On July 20, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “There are some issues that the Taliban are uncomfortable with. By negotiating this process with the Taliban, just as the Taliban made some of the talks with the United States, the Taliban should hold these talks with Turkey much more comfortably…” He added: “I believe that we will negotiate better and agree on these issues. … We have nothing against their beliefs.”

While Erdoğan hypocritically criticizes “imperial powers” for their bloody 20-year war in Afghanistan, in which the Turkish ruling elites acted as accomplices, he aims to have a say in Afghan politics by moving closer to the same imperialist powers, especially Washington.

Erdoğan then described his government’s approach on Afghanistan: “We also stood by our Afghan brothers against all imperial powers. … Now there is a new era. Three main authorities are seen here: NATO, the United States and Turkey. The United States announced its decision to withdraw from the region, but Kabul airport has been operated by Turkey for 20 years. And the United States also wanted Kabul airport to be operated by Turkey after that.”

Then, he announced the conditions on which his government would serve as a lackey of imperialism, saying: “We are currently looking at this positively. But we have some conditions from the United States. … First, the United States will be on our side at the point of diplomacy, in diplomatic relations. Secondly, [the United States] will mobilize their means for us at the logistics point and will transfer whatever power they have to Turkey in terms of logistics. Also Turkey would need financial and administrative support during this process.”

However, the Taliban have already said that foreign troops, including Turkish forces, should be withdrawn from Afghanistan and that remaining foreign forces would be considered hostile. Against Turkey’s decision to remain in Afghanistan, the Taliban issued an 8-point statement titled “Statement of Islamic Emirate concerning extension of occupation by Turkish forces in Afghanistan” on July 13.

It concluded with this warning: “If Turkish officials fail to reconsider their decision and continue the occupation of our country, the Islamic Emirate and the Afghan nation—in line with their religious, conscientious and patriotic duty—will take a stand against them as they have stood against the two-decade occupation, in which case the responsibility for all consequences shall fall on shoulders of those who interfere in the affairs of others and make such ill-advised decisions.”

The government’s Afghan policy was tactically criticized by the bourgeois opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) despite the CHP’s strong orientation to NATO and the United States. In a July 16 statement, party’s spokesperson Faik Öztrak said: “Our Turkish soldiers are not a shield to be put in front of the Taliban, just because it makes possible a deal with Biden and America. ... Don’t do this. Otherwise, Erdoğan and his AK Party will be responsible for all damages that [are] suffered [by] our soldiers.”

The CHP made clear its nationalist and pro-imperialist orientation, however, by attacking refugees fleeing Afghanistan, with complete indifference for their plight. Öztrak continued: “Afghans fleeing the Taliban are transiting through Iran and flocking to Turkey. With whom did you agree to take these Afghans into our country? ... If the necessary measures are not taken, unfortunately, a new and great migration wave awaits Turkey.”

Through its long border with Iran, Turkey is a transit point to Europe for refugees fleeing war, persecution and poverty from Central Asian countries devastated by imperialist interventions. Many also seek asylum in Turkey.

Along this route, immigrants face many deadly dangers apart from human trafficking, fraud, ill treatment and racist attacks. Many lose their lives trying to reach the shores of Greece by crossing the Aegean Sea in makeshift boats or while entering Turkey from Iran from Lake Van. Last year, 61 Afghan and Pakistani immigrants lost their lives when their boat sank in Lake Van. The nearly 5 million refugees and immigrants in Turkey, including at least 3.5 million Syrian refugees, represent a significant fraction of the 80 million refugees fleeing war and poverty worldwide.

The Turkish government is moreover building a wall on its Iranian border, following the policies of Fortress Europe and the US in building of a border wall with Mexico.

Turkish Deputy Minister of Interior İsmail Çataklı recently announced that “with a budget of 108 million euros, which envisages the establishment of 141 surveillance and 109 communication towers, 85 command control centers and 329 wireless sensor sets on the eastern borders of our country, we will have opportunity of uninterrupted and effective surveillance thanks to the observation and communication towers and command control centers to be established on the 560-kilometer Iranian border.”

CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu reacted to these reactionary anti-refugee policies by blaming Syrian refugees for their economic difficulties and threatening to deport them. He said: “There are serious complaints. People who can’t make ends meet and are unemployed complain about Syrians, and we may face much more serious dilemmas in the coming period as a society. We have to solve this problem.”

In reality, the CHP itself bears direct responsibility for the horrific conditions facing Syrian refugees, as it supported NATO operations and Turkish cross-border military operations into Syria that have devastated the country over the last decade.

Recently, a far-right campaign has unfolded against refugees in Turkey, both in corporate and social media, aiming to disorient growing working-class opposition as anger builds at the ruling elites’ criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This xenophobic lynch-mob atmosphere, especially incited by pro-bourgeois opposition parties and media, paves the way for fascistic attacks not only against refugees but against the entire working class.

CHP’s right-wing nationalism against defenseless refugees also exposes pseudo-left groups, who have supported it against the Erdoğan government as a “progressive” alternative in last elections.

UK teachers’ pay freeze meets no opposition from unions

Tania Kent

The Conservative government has announced a pay freeze for teachers in England along with that proposed for all public sector workers, excluding the paltry 3 percent offered to some National Health Service (NHS) staff.

A reception class teacher (left) leads the class at the Holy Family Catholic Primary School in Greenwich, London, Monday, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

The announcement has angered many teachers who will be confronted with a real term loss of income following inflation of over 3 percent for this year alone.

The government has utilised the massive bailout of the financial elite and major corporations during the pandemic as a justification to impose the real term cuts on wages and conditions, insisting on the need for “restraint”. A government spokesman said, “The pause to most public sector workforce pay rises ensures we can get the public finances back onto a sustainable path after unprecedented government spending on the response to Covid-19.”

This is meeting no opposition from the Labour Party or the education unions. While many educators have labelled the announcement as a “slap in the face”, no action is being called by unions that have subordinated all opposition to the terrible impact of the pandemic on the safety and well-being of staff to the need to protect profits. They played the key role in the repeated reopening of unsafe schools, resulting in an explosion of Covid infections in the wider community.

According to the Times Educational Supplement (TES), next year’s pay freeze will result in a real-terms pay cut for experienced teachers of around 8 percent, taking teacher pay back to levels of 15 years ago. The calculation by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), shows the drop in real-term pay for less experienced teachers is also about 4-5 percent lower than in 2007, just before the global financial crisis.

Luke Sibieta, IFS research fellow, said, “It is astounding that teacher pay levels remain so far below what they were before the financial crisis in 2007.” The crash precipitated a decade of slash and burn of working conditions and social devastation for the working class internationally through the programme of austerity. The financial impact of the pandemic by the bourgeoisie and its defenders in the corporatist trade unions is meeting the same response.

The pay freeze will further hit teacher recruitment, which has been in crisis for well over a decade. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) issued a statement noting that its own survey research “has found that nearly half of school leaders are considering leaving the profession sooner than originally planned.”

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said, “This pay cut risks further eroding leadership supply, and risks prompting an exodus of leaders when the pandemic finally lifts. A slap in the face doesn’t begin to describe it.”

The government announced its plans last November after chancellor Rishi Sunak warned in his spending review that public sector pay rises would have to be paused in 2021-22 for all but NHS staff. Nothing was done by the unions to mobilise against it. They were busy imposing the reopening of schools, leading to a catastrophic rise in infections and deaths that necessitated a further lockdown in January.

In an unintended indictment of the unions’ role, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, declared, “Following a year in which teachers and leaders have worked flat out on managing a battery of Covid control measures as well as assessing students following the government’s decision to cancel public exams, the decision to implement a pay freeze is an absolute insult.”

The unions were the mechanism used to ensure that already overworked teachers worked “flat out” in order impose the government’s deadly agenda. Teachers were vilified and attacked repeatedly by the government and its lap dogs in the media for their opposition to unsafe schools, denounced as “lazy” and “selfish” for daring to protect themselves and children in their care as schools became a key vector for the transmission of the virus.

The unions appealed to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which advises the government on salaries, to reject the pay freeze. The STRB responded to these pathetic appeals by lining up with the government and agreeing with the “need for restraint”. Referring to a pay rise last year of up to 5 percent, the STRB claimed that teacher wages had become “more competitive” in recent years. The reality is that this offer was only for some new recruits, to be funded by schools’ own budgets, and then only implemented in 51 percent of cases.

Conscious of the escalation in those leaving the profession, the government utilised the pandemic and handouts to big businesses to implement a recruitment campaign. Although there has been a 23 percent increase in teacher training recruitment in the context of the pandemic, the STRB said that more than a quarter of young teachers (27 percent) quit within three years and raised concerns about teacher wellbeing.

The Department for Education has continued to warn that the increase is expected to be a “short-term gain” for the sector, based on recruitment trajectories from previous recessions.

The department’s report to the STRB notes that there are still “significant gaps remaining in key subjects, despite the uplift in recruitment”. It continues, “The supply context remains challenging, particularly in secondary schools where pupil numbers are projected to grow by 15 percent between 2018 and 2025.”

The government has offered a minimal one off payment of £250 for teachers below £24,000 annual income. This is set to be available only to unqualified teachers as start-up pay is over £25,000 for qualified teachers. Some 6,400 teachers may benefit from it.

With the pay freeze, the government has ditched its 2019 general election manifesto pledge for the salaries of new teachers to rise to £30,000 by 2022-23. In his July 21 “Teachers Update” statement to parliament, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson repeated the government’s position that “The pause ensures we can get the public finances back onto a sustainable path after unprecedented government spending on the response to Covid-19.” Only sometime in the unspecified future, and then with strings attached, will the government supposedly implement a £30,000 start-up salary for new teachers.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union said, “Teachers and other education staff are key workers—all of whom have contributed hugely to the country’s pandemic response. All education staff deserve a significant pay increase, not another real-terms pay cut.”

That is where the NEU’s protest starts and ends. There is no proposal for a ballot for industrial action of its nearly 450,000 strong membership, nor from any other union, let alone a joint campaign of all educators and public sector workers. Courtney’s “opposition” is more of the hot air he specialises in, with the unions committed to the restructuring demanded by big business.

A decade of underfunding has seen school funding cut by 8 percent in real terms in the last decade, and sixth form funding by 21 percent. In the last three years alone, £5.4 billion has been lost from school budgets, affecting 91 percent of schools in England.

In September 2019, £7.1 billion was promised to schools over three years. The government has also promised a £1 billion catch-up plan for children affected by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just £650 million will be shared across all state primary and secondary schools and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme is being set up. This is nothing compared to the hundreds of billions in bailout funds handed to big business.

The pandemic is massively intensifying the attacks of the last decade. The billions handed out by Sunak to big business are being systematically clawed back from the working class through cuts in pay, terms and conditions, and speed ups across the public and private sectors.

On far-right Vox party’s appeal, Spanish court rules lockdowns unconstitutional

Alice Summers

In a deeply reactionary decision, Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled this month that COVID-19 lockdown measures imposed from March to June 2020 were unconstitutional. The legal challenge to the health restrictions was brought by the far-right Vox party. The Court ruled by six votes to five that restrictions implemented to halt the spread of the coronavirus exceeded the remit of the state of alarm, the juridical mechanism used to impose social distancing measures such as lockdowns.

Far right Vox party leader Santiago Abascal speaks during a session at Parliament in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday June 30, 2021. (Susana Vera/Pool via AP)

Vox is expected to shortly win a second victory in the Constitutional Court, this time in its challenge to the six-month extension to the second state of alarm passed by Congress in October. Right-wing Magistrate Antonio Narváez has drafted a judgment declaring this extension unconstitutional, which will be voted on by the Court on September 14.

The ruling in Spain represents an escalation of the “herd immunity” policy pursued by the entire European bourgeoisie. This policy of keeping non-essential workers at work, letting the virus spread so as to avoid any slowdown in the flow of corporate profits, will lead to thousands more COVID-19 deaths. This was most crudely expressed by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who allegedly demanded last year in a leaked private cabinet meeting: “No more f…ing lockdowns—let the bodies pile high in their thousands.”

This comes as coronavirus cases in Spain surge to levels not seen since the start of February. Despite the clear and growing threat posed by the Delta variant, the PSOE-Podemos government has rejected any significant measures to contain the virus and instead threw Spain open to tourism, allowing bars, restaurants and other businesses to operate with no restrictions. As a result, the seven-day rolling average for infections is currently at more than 25,000 a day, as over 200 people died of the virus last week. Hospitalisations rose by 33 percent over the same period.

The ruling, Vox’s first major victory at the Constitutional Court, must serve as a warning to the working class on the growing threat of the far right in Spain and internationally. Vox has been promoted and emboldened by the right-wing and conciliatory policies of all the bourgeois parties, above all, the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) and the pseudo-left Podemos party. Though Vox has only a small minority of the vote, it holds immense sway over the state machine.

The PSOE-Podemos regime has repeatedly bowed to Vox, capitulating to its calls to end COVID-19 restrictions and for violent anti-migrant policies. Its response to the Constitutional Court illustrates its contempt for the democratic rights and its indifference to the dangers posed by COVID-19 and fascistic politics in Spain. Refusing to criticise the ruling, it instead issued meek statements emphasising its “respect” for the Court’s decision.

“The Government respects but does not share the judgment on Vox’s appeal,” Justice Minister Pilar Llop declared, arguing that lockdown measures imposed under the state of alarm “allowed us to save hundreds of thousands of lives.”

“The Government’s duty was to take immediate, urgent and proportional measures in the face of the spread of an unknown virus,” Llop continued. She cited “various international studies” showing that lockdown measures “prevented the deaths of more than 3 million people from COVID-19.”

While lockdowns undoubtedly saved millions of lives, the PSOE-Podemos government’s account of its pandemic policy rings hollow. Its decision to implement lockdown measures last spring did not stem from a desire to save lives but was forced upon the European bourgeoisie by a continent-wide wave of wildcat strikes in March and April. The PSOE-Podemos government was hostile to these strikes, sending police to assault Sidenor steelworkers striking in the Basque country to demand the right to shelter at home.

Since then, all the European governments have worked might and main to roll back restrictions and force the population into a “new normal” of coexistence with the virus. Due to this criminal refusal to carry out a scientifically-guided pandemic response, over 1.1 million people across Europe and over 100,000 in Spain have died. Millions more have lost family members and friends or suffer from debilitating long-term illness.

Constitutional Court Judge Cándido Conde-Pumpido, a member of the five-judge minority, denounced the ruling for blocking a scientific policy against the virus. “It does not resolve but creates a serious political problem, disarming the state before the pandemic,” he said, adding that the ruling “does not fulfill genuine legal criteria.”

Vox’s lawsuit represents a continuation of its policy of using the pandemic to press for police-state rule. It responded to the ruling by calling for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to resign and issuing a virulent tirade against lockdowns as the “biggest infringement on rights in history.” Its leader, Santiago Abascal, falsely claimed on Twitter: “Only Vox voted against it.” In fact, Vox deputies demanded the imposition of a state of alarm in March 2020 and voted for its extension when it was put to the Spanish Congress.

Once the strike wave had subsided, Vox ferociously opposed any measures to contain the pandemic, denouncing lockdowns as a “social-communist” attack on Spanish freedom. In October, it organised protests across Spain against a shelter-at-home policy, denouncing health restrictions as “totalitarian and absurd.”

The Spanish courts are politically complicit in Vox’s campaign for dictatorship. The judgment on the March state of alarm does not rule on whether lockdown measures were an appropriate response to the pandemic, instead basing itself on a legal technicality. According to the Court, the state of alarm did not grant the government sufficient powers to impose far-reaching restrictions. Instead, it argued, social distancing can only be imposed under the far more stringent state of exception.

A state of exception has never been imposed since Spain’s transition to parliamentary democracy in 1978. It would grant the government dictatorial powers. Under this mechanism, the government could detain individuals and search private homes without a warrant; prohibit strikes; close down media and communication networks; and tap private phones without the permission of a judge. It would also enable the authorities to expel foreigners from Spain, evict Spanish citizens from their homes and cities, seize weapons and set up armed stations in the streets.

The court’s argument that only a fascistic police state can enact scientific public health policies is a political lie, through which the ruling elite is laying out plans for dictatorship. It is clear that the spread of the Delta variant threatens to swamp Spanish hospitals and lead to a new surge in deaths. The court ruling must serve as a warning for workers in Spain and internationally.

Should the ruling class find itself again compelled to adopt measures to contain the virus, most likely due to a new upsurge of the class struggle, powerful forces in the capitalist establishment will respond by seeking to impose a fascistic police state. They would be acting from a position not of strength but of immense weakness, having been discredited by the political criminality of their pandemic policies. However, workers cannot oppose this drive towards fascistic rule by supporting Podemos and its various political and trade union satellites.

Fatal explosion at Chempark Leverkusen in Germany

Elisabeth Zimmermann

On Tuesday morning at about 9:40 a.m., a serious explosion occurred at the Currenta site located at Chempark Leverkusen. At least two workers were killed—one from Currenta and one from an outside company; 31 other workers were injured, some seriously, and five workers were still missing at the time of writing.

“Unfortunately, we have to assume that we will not find the five other missing people alive,” Currenta CEO Frank Hyldmar told a news conference Wednesday.

If confirmed, the death toll will rise to seven. At least one of those seriously injured is also still in danger of losing his life. According to the Kölner Stadtanzeiger, the second fatality is a worker who was flown to the hospital in Cologne-Merheim with severe burns.

Chempark, with locations in Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen, is one of the largest chemical park operators in Europe. At the end of 2016, around 48,000 people were employed in some 70 companies and service providers at the various locations.

Aerial view of the explosion site (2016, view from the southwest) (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Raimond Spekking)

This includes chemicals corporation Bayer and many of its spin-off companies. Currenta, the operating company of Chempark, belonged to Bayer as part of its Industry Services division until 2007. Bayer still held a majority stake in Currenta until two years ago when the Australian financial investor Macquarie took over the majority of the company.

The explosion occurred in the tank farm of the Chempark waste disposal centre in Leverkusen-Bürrig. This is where chemical waste from all other Chempark companies is recycled and disposed of. Three tanks containing organic solvents exploded, causing a fire in the tank farm. Each of the tanks contained about 200,000 to 300,000 litres and were all “completely or partially destroyed,” explained Chempark head Lars Friedrich.

For many hours, an even greater disaster loomed. Firefighters who had rushed to the scene had to wait until a damaged power line could be disconnected from the grid. The fire was brought under control by midday and prevented from spreading to another tank farm.

The explosion could be felt and heard for miles around. The Geological Survey of North Rhine-Westphalia had registered the explosion at several of its stations, a seismologist reported. The tremor was also registered at a station in the Hespertal valley, about forty kilometres north of Leverkusen.

A huge, grey-black cloud of smoke rose above the site, which is close to one of Europe’s largest toxic waste dumps. It was also visible for many kilometres and passed over Leverkusen, Leichlingen, Solingen, Remscheid, Mettmann, Wuppertal, Wülfrath, Heiligenhaus, Hattingen, Bochum and Essen. Unpleasant odours were reported even in Dortmund, seventy kilometres away.

Initially, the Leverkusen fire department issued an “extreme danger” warning. Residents were instructed to stay indoors, keep windows and doors closed and not to eat any fruit or vegetables from gardens. Playgrounds were closed as black soot particles rained down over the city and nearby areas.

As of this writing, the exact cause of the explosion remains unclear. So far, the company has not provided any information, saying it had to wait for the police investigation, which began on Thursday. Currenta has also not yet provided any information on the substances released into the atmosphere, which are most likely toxic.

“Smoke is always toxic,” notes Wilhelm Deitermann, press spokesman for the State Office for the Environment, Nature and Consumer Protection (LANUV). The office assumes that “dioxin, PCB and furan compounds were carried into surrounding residential areas” via the smoke cloud. These substances are highly carcinogenic.

The explosion at Chempark Leverkusen is one of the most serious industrial accidents in the chemicals industry in recent years. The last time a worker was killed in an explosion in Leverkusen was in 1980.

The disaster directly raises the question of political and corporate responsibility for workers’ safety.

The police and the Cologne public prosecutor's office have opened an investigation into the “initial suspicion of negligently causing an explosion and negligent homicide.” The proceedings are directed against persons unknown. “Human error” could “not be ruled out,” senior public prosecutor Ulrich Bremer, who is investigating the case, told the Kölner Stadtanzeiger .

The thrust of this argument is well known. “Human error” is usually cited to blame the workers themselves for such dramatic accidents. At the same time, the aim is to deflect attention from political issues and the people who are responsible in the companies and the trade unions and works councils that cooperate closely with them.

There is much to suggest that the safety measures at the site were either inadequate or non-existent. The myriad corporate spin-offs present at Chempark suggests responsibility for safe production and disposal was also outsourced to countless subcontractors. This was accompanied by increased levels of exploitation and the endangerment of workers to increase profits for the shareholders of the various companies.

“Wind turbines must comply with gigantic distance rules, but Bayer and Co. are allowed to do whatever they want near major cities,” criticized Simon Ernst, a board member of Coordination Against Bayer Dangers (CBG), founded in 1978. Yet, “this is one of the largest trans-shipment points for chemical poisons in the region!” Bayer and Currenta must “inform the public what exploded there in the first place and how they intend to prevent it in the future.”

CBG managing director Marius Stelzmann added, “Bayer/Currenta are playing with fire. This near-catastrophe shows once again the danger posed by the production and disposal of chemical substances when they serve to maximize profits.”

The disaster at Chempark Leverkusen is further evidence of the increasingly deadly consequences of the capitalist economic system. The safety and lives of workers are outweighed by economic interests and increasing the fortunes of shareholders and the super-rich.

In the coronavirus pandemic, capitalist policies putting “profits before lives” have so far brought death to over 91,500 people in Germany alone. Over 200 people also died in massive flooding in Germany, mainly because the necessary warning systems, climate and flood protection measures, and disaster protection structures had not been funded.

New US coronavirus surge is growing faster than the spring and summer waves of 2020

Kevin Reed

A horrific new surge of COVID-19 cases is sweeping across the US, driven by the highly contagious and deadly Delta variant of the virus as well as the reactionary response of the government at the federal and state levels.

In this April 21, 2021 file photo, a registered medical worker dons protective gear before entering a room at a hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. In 2021. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

The count of daily cases in the US reached 92,405 on Thursday, approximately the same peak number during the surge in spring when vaccinations stood at just 20 percent of the population. Meanwhile, both hospitalizations and deaths are rising again.

The seven-day averages of all three metrics show a precipitous increase across the US as the Delta variant is targeting unvaccinated sections of the population. According to the health sciences news website STAT, the month of July has seen the fastest increase in cases in the US since last winter. In an analysis published on Monday, STAT said a new analysis of COVID-19 case data “reveals this new wave is already outpacing the spring and summer waves of 2020.”

STAT’s analysis brings together data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data, along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data to calculate the rate of weekly case acceleration. The new method measures the rate at which the daily number of cases is speeding up nationally and by each state.

STAT points to the alarming situation, “This view of the data reveals that the United States is currently in the midst of a fifth wave of cases and that this new wave is growing faster than the first and second waves ... ”

In response to the surge, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new, thoroughly inadequate recommendations on Tuesday, calling for mask wearing, including by vaccinated individuals. The CDC itself was responsible for many states completely removing any mask requirements in May when it said that vaccinated people did not need to wear masks.

The policy of the CDC was in direct defiance of the warnings being made by leading epidemiologists who said that another catastrophic wave was imminent. For example, on March 7, Michael Osterholm said on NBC’s Meet the Press, “Let me just say we are in the eye of the hurricane right now... So right now, we do have to keep America as safe as we can from this virus, by not letting up on any of the public health measures we've taken, and we need to get people vaccinated as quickly as we can.”

The STAT analysis shows that states with the fastest expansion of the pandemic—such as Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas—have vaccination rates below the national average.

Of the situation in Louisiana, where only 36 percent of the population has been vaccinated, the STAT report showed the highest rate of case acceleration of any state. Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas have case acceleration rates that are many multiples of the rates of three-quarters of the other states.

A report in the Texas Tribune on Thursday said that hospital officials worry that the “staggering and frightening” hospitalization rates are pushing facilities to capacity while “staffing is short and workers are exhausted.” Some hospitals in rural Texas are reaching capacity and are on high alert. The Tribune report said, “hospitalizations in Bexar County rose by nearly 8 percent” in one night as “almost 100 people were admitted with severe COVID to local facilities on Tuesday alone.”

Meanwhile, the report went on, “In Dallas County, COVID hospitalizations have increased by 99 percent over the past two weeks, reaching 376 earlier this week. The local numbers are expected to hit between 800 and 1,000 by mid-August, according to forecasters at UT-Southwestern Medical Center,” and, “the rising hospitalizations rates have spread outside of the heavily populated metro areas that first began to report increases a few weeks ago. Now they are being seen in all corners of the state, triggering pleas from hospitals for state-backed staffing help to handle the increasing pressure.”

As July 27, 43.4 percent of Texans had been vaccinated. Texas was one of the first states to remove all restrictions, including its mask mandate, last March. Republican Governor Greg Abbott said at the time, “With this executive order, we are ensuring that all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny.”

In Arkansas, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson declared a public health emergency on Thursday as the state recorded 2,843 new cases and one of the largest single day increases since the beginning of the pandemic. Hutchinson said that the White House was sending federal assistance to help bring health care workers into the state to staff medical facilities handling the surge.

Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the US at approximately 35 percent. While the governor is calling for a special legislative session to overturn a law that he signed himself in April that prohibits state and local mask mandates, he also said there would not be another statewide mask rule or new restrictions on business.

In Missouri, statewide hospitalizations for COVID-19 have more than doubled and the number of ICU patients has more than tripled since the beginning of June. A report in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Wednesday said that there is alarming increase in the number of cases among children under the age of 12 in Southwest Missouri.

The Post-Dispatch report quoted Springfield-Greene County Health Director Katie Towns who said, “We’ve seen a rise in cases in that 0-11 age group, and we’ve also seen outbreaks in settings like day cares and camps. We’ve moved to prioritize those types of cases so we can hopefully control disease spread among those who are most vulnerable.” The vaccination rate in Missouri is 41.1 percent.

Projections by the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub predict that the nationwide surge will accelerate throughout the remainder of the summer and into the fall before peaking in mid-October. The hub’s “ensemble” projection combines ten different models from academic institutions and outlines four scenarios based on the Delta variant's spread and US vaccination rates.

The model predicts approximately 60,000 cases and 850 deaths each day in the US. The model forecasts that the death rate will drop to approximately 300 per day, the current death level in the US. This means that somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000 Americans will die from the coronavirus between now and the end of the year.

Justin Lessler, PhD, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who is on the scenario consortium, responded to the severity of these projections. “What’s going on in the country with the virus is matching our most pessimistic scenarios. We might be seeing synergistic effects of people becoming less cautious in addition to the impacts of the Delta variant.”

The present surge—along with the previous waves of the pandemic that have now killed more than 600,000 people in the US and more than 4 million internationally—is the responsibility of the capitalist ruling elites and their political representatives in the Democratic and Republican parties who have, from the beginning, placed the accumulation of wealth above the health of the public.

Government of Italy Bachelors, Masters, PhD Scholarships 2021/2022

Application Deadline: 30th July 2021

To be taken at (country): Italy

 Type: Bachelors, Masters, PhD

Eligibility: The scholarship annuities are reserved for students of the following types:

• Winners of the previous calls in the A.Y. 2017/18, A.Y. 2018/2019, A.Y. 2019/2020 and A.Y. 2020/2021 who are entitled to obtain the  scholarship in A.Y. 2020/2021 if they obtain the minimum number of CFUs indicated in art.4.
• Students with international protection by 30 July 2021 obtained in Italy, enrolled for the first time in the Italian University system, in a bachelor (corso di laurea triennale), master degree (corso di laurea magistrale o magistrale a ciclo unico), or a PhD program (corso di dottorato) – A.Y. 2021/2022.

Number of Awards: 100

Value of Program: The scholarships are awarded by the University, possibly in cooperation with the Regional Authorities for the Right to Study, and entitle students to exemption from taxes and university contributions, accommodation services (house and meal), access to university facilities (centers, libraries). Any additional services may be offered by third parties.

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of Program

How to Apply: Both categories of candidates must apply from the web site http://borsespi.laziodisco.it, by July 30, 2021, midnight, Rome local time

Applicants are also required to attach the following documents:
1. Copy of an Italian identity document (ID);
2. Copy of the document certifying the international protection;
3. – Students referred to in art. 2, lett. a: list of exams taken;
– Students referred to in art. 2, lett. b: short CV (in Italian or English).

* Candidates are kindly requested to contact the University they wish to enroll BEFORE submitting their application, in order to verify the feasibility of enrollment. For information on University contact details, please write to refugees@crui.it

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Slovak Government National Scholarship Programme 2021/2022

Application Deadline: 31st October 2021 (16:00 CET)

Eligible Countries: International

To Be Taken At (Country): Slovakia

About the Award: The National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic supports mobility of international students, PhD students, university teachers, researchers and artists for scholarship stays at higher education institutions and research organisations in Slovakia.

Type: Short Courses/Training

Eligibility: Eligible applicants for a scholarship in the framework of the NSP:

A) students who:

• are university students at universities outside Slovakia;
• are students of the second level of higher education (master’s students), or are students who at the time of application deadline have already completed at least 2.5 years of their university studies in the same study programme;
• will be on a study stay in Slovakia during their higher education outside Slovakia and who will be accepted by a public, private or state university in Slovakia for an academic mobility1 to study in Slovakia.

All 3 conditions must be met. This category does not apply to doctoral (PhD) studies (or their equivalent).

B) PhD students whose higher education or scientific training takes place outside Slovakia and who are accepted by a public, private or state university or a research institution in Slovakia eligible to carry out a doctoral study programme2 (e.g. the Slovak Academy of Sciences) for an academic mobility1 to study/conduct research in Slovakia.

C) international university teachers, researchers and artists who are invited to a teaching/research/artistic stay in Slovakia by an institution with a valid certificate of eligibility to carry out research and development, which is not a business company and it has its headquarters in Slovakia.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The scholarship is intended to cover international scholarship holders’ living costs, i.e. the costs related to staying in Slovakia (food, accommodation, etc.), during their study, research/artistic or teaching stay at universities and in research organisations in Slovakia. The scholarship holder can ask for assistance concerning accommodation and formalities related to entering and staying in the territory of the Slovak Republic either his/her host institution, or he/she can handle all the necessities him-/herself.

In addition, students and PhD students (eligible applicants under the category A) and B) can be awarded a travel allowance, if they apply for it along with their scholarship application.

Duration of Program: 

• Duration of a scholarship stay (students): 1 – 2 semesters (i.e. 4 – 5 or 9 – 10 months) or 1 – 3 trimesters, in case the academic year is divided into trimesters (i.e. 3 – 4 or 6 – 7 or 9 – 10 months).
• Duration of a scholarship stay (PhD students): 1 – 10 months.
• Duration of a scholarship stay (university teachers, researchers or artists): 1 – 10 months.

How to Apply: Scholarship applications are submitted online at www.scholarships.sk. Online application system is opened at least 6 weeks prior to the application deadline. Applications can be filled in only in case that the online application system has already been opened.

Applicants must fill in their online applications and upload all the required attachments in required format to their online application. It is necessary to go through the Application Procedure in the Program Webpage (Link below) before applying.

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Important Notes: Applicants are recommended not to submit their applications at the last moment. Number of operations executed within the last minutes prior to the application deadline may have an influence on the reaction time of the application system. Please, keep that in mind, in order not to miss the application deadline

Royal Society University Research Fellowship 2022

Application Deadline: 7th September 2021 at 3pm.

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Country): UK

About the Award: The scheme offers you the opportunity to:

• build an independent research career
• focus on your own research, with a limit on administrative and teaching duties
• hold your fellowship on a part-time basis to suit personal circumstances

This scheme is highly flexible to accommodate for part-time working, sabbaticals and secondments. There is also provision for maternity, paternity, adoptive or extended sick leave (PDF).

Type: Research

Eligibility: Research must be within the Royal Society’s remit of natural sciences, which includes but is not limited to biological research, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. For a full list, please see the breakdown of subject groups and areas supported by the Royal Society.

Researchers addressing a direct biomedical research question should apply for a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship. Those applying from Ireland (ROI) are funded by Science Foundation Ireland and will need to read the eligibility requirements in the specific scheme notes.

You can apply for this scheme if you:

• have between three to eight years of research experience since your PhD by the closing date of the round. Career breaks are taken into account, please refer to the scheme notes for further detail
• do not hold a permanent post in a university or not for profit research organisation
• do not hold, or have not previously held, an equivalent fellowship that provides an opportunity to establish an independent research group and therefore independent researcher status

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The scheme provides:

• Research Fellows salary: 80% of the basic salary costs up to £40,681.46 in the first year, estates costs and indirect costs
• Research expenses: 
  – Contribution to research expenses of £13,000 in year one and £11,000 per year thereafter
  – Additional research expenses of up to £40,000 in 2021/22 will also be awarded
• Research assistance: 
  – Contribution to a postdoctoral research assistant and/or a four-year PhD studentship
  – Equipment costs
  – Support for public engagement activities
  – Funding for training and professional development for the Research Fellow and any staff or students supported by the grant

Read the scheme notes for full value of award information.

Duration of Award: Funding is initially provided for five years with the opportunity to apply for an extension of an additional three years.

How to Apply: Applications should be submitted through the Society’s grant management system Flexi-Grant®.

Your application will go through the process detailed on the Making a grant application page overseen by the one of four research appointment panels based on your research area:

• Ai: Astronomy, cosmology, physics, earth sciences, environmental physical sciences & geosciences 
• Aii: Chemistry and engineering
• Aiii: Pure and applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, communications and computer engineering; the mathematical aspects of astronomy, physics, cosmology, gravitation, theoretical physics
• B: Molecular and cellular biology, zoology, plant sciences and physiology

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

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Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Fellowships 2022

Application Deadline: 1st February 2022

About the Award: The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Fellowships are being offered to PhD students from around the world, who are completing the writing of their dissertations in the fields of violence and aggression in relation to social change, intergroup conflict, war, terrorism, crime, and family relationships, or related fields.

This fellowship is not for support of doctoral research. Applications are evaluated in comparison with each other and not in competition with the postdoctoral research grant proposals.

Eligible Field(s): PhD dissertation written by students in their final year, on violence and aggression in relation to social change, intergroup conflict, war, terrorism, crime, and family relationships, etc.

Type: PhD Degree

Eligibility:

• These fellowships of $20,000 each are designed to contribute to the support of the doctoral candidate to enable him or her to complete the thesis in a timely manner and are only appropriate for students approaching the final year of their Ph.D. work.
• This fellowship is not for support of doctoral research. Applications are evaluated in comparison with each other and not in competition with the postdoctoral research grant proposals.
• Applicants may be citizens of any country and studying at colleges or universities in any country.
• These grants are made to Ph.D. candidates who are entering the dissertation stage of graduate school. Usually, this means that fieldwork or other research is complete and writing has begun. If analysis and writing are not far enough along for an applicant to be confident that he will complete the dissertation within the year, he should not apply, as the application will not be competitive with those that comply with this timetable. In some disciplines, particularly experimental fields, research and writing can reasonably be expected to be completed within the same year, and in those cases it is appropriate to apply.

Eligible Countries: Any

To be Taken at (Country): Colleges and universities in any country

Number of Awards: Ten or more

Value of Award: US$20,000 each

Duration of Award:

• Timing: Applications for dissertation fellowships must be received by February 1, for a decision in June. Applications are reviewed during the spring and final decisions are made by the Board of Directors at its meeting in June. Applicants will be informed promptly by e-mail as well as letter of the Board’s decision. Awards ordinarily commence on September 1, but other starting dates (after July 1) may be requested if the nature of the project makes this appropriate.
• Final Report: Recipients of the dissertation fellowship must submit a copy of the dissertation, approved and accepted by their institution, within six months after the end of the award year. Any papers, books, articles, or other publications based on the research should also be sent to the foundation.

How to Apply: Applications are submitted online–the application will be available beginning October 1st. (However, we will still accept a mailed application using our previous application method, a printable PDF form, provided it arrives at the foundation’s office no later than February 1, or the following Monday if February 1 falls on a weekend.)

Applicants will first create a login account and will then be able to access detailed guidelines and the online application.

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details