 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the major news developments from across the world, our headlines. WHO urges caution as countries plan to ease counter-pandemic measures. In India, trade unions and leftist political parties condemn bid by state governments to attack labour laws, Tesla to reopen its Fremont plant, flouting local containment rules, and Colombian social movements denounce evictions in Bogota amid the pandemic. We begin with our daily COVID-19 update. Close to 4.27 million infections have been reported around the world as of today afternoon. 287,000 people have died so far and there are around 2.45 million active cases. The WHO has expressed caution over attempts to reopen the economy by different governments. In a statement, WHO chief Thedros Gebreusius urged governments to maintain caution about a second wave of infections. Multiple countries that had very effectively contained the virus spread have reported new clusters. These include South Korea, Germany and China. Each of them witnessed a new growth in spread after they lifted restrictions in social distancing policies in a limited manner. China's national health authority is already calling for extending containment measures. South Korea had to close down bars, restaurants and other such services barely a week after reopening them. These infection clusters have already caused major concerns among other countries that are planning to reopen their economy very soon, including the United States and India. Meanwhile, in India, state governments are used to lock down to attack labour laws. Governments of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, all of which are ruled by the right-wing Bharati Janta Party or the BJP, have taken steps to this effect. These states have been passing ordinances, accepting employers from following the labour protections. Industry labour groups and employers' associations have been pressurizing the BJP, which is in power at the centre too, to extend such ordinances across the country. These ordinances include, among other things, the extension of the 8-hour work day to 12 hours, relaxation and protection against retrenchments, licensing norms and even wage and compensation protection. The western Indian state of Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from, went a step ahead and exempted new factories from minimum wage protections and workplace safety rules. The BJP governments have argued that it will attract investment to the country and help revive the economy from the lockdown in the fallout of the pandemic. Several experts however have rubbish such claims, pointing out that industrial capacity utilization has reached a record low, not because of the lockdown, but the plummeting of overall demand caused by declining purchasing power. Trade unions and left-wing political parties in India have denounced these moves and are planning protests on the issue. In our in-focus section, we bring you a part of an interview with CPIM General Secretary Sitaram Yachary from India on the approach of the government. Today we're joined by Sitaram Yachary, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India Marxist and we're going to talk about the situation of the lockdown in India, how the Indian government is dealing with COVID-19 and the state of the workers as well as the issues faced by states. Thank you so much for joining us. So I want to first ask about the situation of COVID-19 in India itself. So the government has been subtly and in not so subtle ways praising its own performance, the numbers are not that high compared to maybe Europe or the US, same with the number of deaths. So how do you evaluate India's response when you compare it to some of the other countries? Well, you see, if you want to compare it with other countries, you have to have this be at a similar level playing field. Now, one of the reasons why I say we are not at the level playing field is that you have something like we are testing something close to 600 per million of people. Whereas Spain and countries like that are testing something like 42,000 per million. So you see, we are not on a level playing field. If you don't test, you don't find out who's positive who's negative. So a lockdown per se is another point that needs to be understood. We have been saying that from day one. Yes, a lockdown may be inevitable, but the question is the lockdown is not in cure. Lockdown is we are buying time to ensure that we are able to defeat the pandemic and we have to utilize that time. Unfortunately, that time was not utilized properly in my opinion because we have not done large scale testing. We still are not doing large scale testing. So therefore, the number of positives you have and the number of deaths you have and the number of cases that are reporting are still on the basis of on a weak base that is of a low level of testing. What needed to have been done is aggressive testing. Aggressively equip our hospital facilities, commandeer, private facilities that are required to be used for public use. Remember, recollect, Spain has nationalized all its private health facilities. Now all this should have been done and protective equipment for our doctors and health workers. On each one of these fields, there's been a short fall. Now that is where I think the lockdown, more you prolong, it'll disrupt the other activity and we cannot have non-COVID deaths being more than that of COVID deaths. Already because of this lockdown and 45 days nearly, like you said, because of this lockdown, you have more than three lakh patients, severe patients, severe diabetes who have not had their proper medical attention. More than one lakh cancer patients have not got treatment including chemotherapy, etc. Kids have not got their vaccination. Babies, more than three lakh of them. Pregnant women have not got their vaccinations, which are necessary for the for the kid is going to be born, for the child who's going to be born. Now, I mean, this is where I think there has been a very, very severe shortcoming and this comes on top of what? On top of at least two months, we have been forewarned India. The first case appears in the world in December. The first case appears in Kerala on the 30th of January. The Kerala government had in anticipation started preparations for 25th of January, but till the 22nd of March or the 20th of March when you had this Janta curfew announcement, till then, this entire time of nearly two months should have been the time to convert the forewarning into being forearmed, forearming ourselves. That was not done. On the contrary, we did things which shouldn't have been done. Namaste, Trump, toppling of the state government and mass swearing in. You have it, the Tabligi congregation which was given permissions and visa were given to people to come in. And these sort of things, I mean, should not have been done. And that is why we lost out on the preparation time that was there before the lockdown began. During the lockdown, we have really lost out. And even today, the states which are on the frontline, on the battlefront, they today do not have the resources in order to do the, I mean, carry forward this fight in a more effective manner. So you raised a very key point about the states itself. And this is actually not something new because especially since Modi came to power, there has been a very concerted attempt to reduce the flexibility states get regarding finances, regarding administration. So what we are seeing now with the COVID-19 response is also again, once again, the states have been more or less paralyzed when it comes to maintaining an effective response, mounting an effective response. That's right. In fact, the state should have been more aggressively supported financially. The last two quarters of the last financial year, they have not been paid their GST dues. Now, on top of that, they're not allowing any relaxation of the FRMD act so that the states can borrow. No, you're leaving the states with no resources and you take a decision after a national lockdown here without consulting the states. And when the migrant workers problem comes up, you turn around and tell the states, now it's your responsibility to take care of them. They don't have finances, they don't have equipment, instead of helping them. And then you have a private fund in the name of the Prime Minister, which is collecting some thousands of crores of rupees. Now, what is that going to do? Why is that not being sent to the states and dispersed among the states? So because if we strengthen them and then we strengthen the battle against the pandemic. Now, that is why the center state relations and there is danger now of the virtual, what is called a financial emergency. That is coming up and this is something that will be disastrous for the country and our economy. After all, that provides livelihood to the people. You can watch the full interview at People's Dispatch's YouTube channel. In our next story, car manufacturer Tesla's chief executive Elon Musk announced the reopening of the company's plant in Fremont in California in the United States on May 12th. This announcement is in defiance of COVID-19 containment measures imposed by the local administration. Musk has always been skeptical of the threat posed by the novel coronavirus. In April, he called the containment measures fascistic. The company is also accused of resorting to union busting and even flouting state and federal labor laws. Musk had even threatened to leave California and shift to another state if he was not allowed to open the factory. He announced the reopening of the plant over a treat, acknowledging that he is going against the rules of the Alameda country where the plant is located. He even volunteered to be arrested for his action. Tesla had filed a lawsuit against the Alameda country on Saturday, May 9th at a federal court, alleging the county of violating the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution that deals with provisions equality before law. The Fremont plant employs over 10,000 workers who will have to travel miles to the plant with the reopening. Despite the promise of safety norms being followed, it is highly suspected physical distancing will be possible. The company has also not assured PPEs for the workers and even asked them to procure their own safety gear. In the plant drawn up by Tesla, the responsibility of ensuring safety is left completely with the workers. On May 11th, several social activists and organizations in Colombia denounce the mass evictions in the capital city Bogota. Families in the Altos de la Estancia neighborhood in the Ciudad Bolivar district are being evicted even as the pandemic rages. Social leader and ex-councillor of Bogota, Holman Morris, through his Twitter account denounced the evictions and condemned the mayor Claudia Lopez for leaving several vulnerable families on the street during the health emergency. These evictions have been ongoing under the orders of the mayor's office since May 2nd. The eviction happened at a 46,000 square meter property deemed unstable. A large number of people evicted from the property are poor and they claim that they have no place to live and have not received any assistance from the local government. Several people also said that they were attacked by Esmad, Colombia's notorious police force who have been helping authorities in vacating the land. The media outlet Colombia Informer which has been closely following these evictions also said that their correspondence were prevented from covering the evictions and removed from the area by the police. That's all we have in this episode of the International Daily Roundup. 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