 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines, Donald Trump pardons far-right former aide Steve Bannon, China and Iran urge incoming Biden administration to rejoin the nuclear deal, McSteel plant workers continue strike against retrenchment in South Africa, and Venezuela sends oxygen supplies and doctors to Brazil. In our first story, US President Donald Trump pardons far-right former aide Steve Bannon hours before his term in office was set to expire. The White House released a statement late on January 19 detailing 143 pardons and commutations of sentences that were authorized by the outgoing president. This being among his last acts in office, Trump will now leave the White House becoming the first president in a long time to not attend his successor's inauguration ceremony. Approximately 25,000 military troops will guard the inauguration in light of the recent attack on the Capitol building by far-right pro-Trump supporters. President Trump will still face an upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate. The pardons of Steve Bannon is the latest in the series of pardons issued by Trump for people close to his campaign and his political associates. Bannon is the founder of the alt-right publication Breitbart and served as chief executive of the Trump campaign in 2016. He was also a member of the National Security Council, but was forced to step down for his role in the violent white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Bannon was then involved in the We Build the Wall campaign, which sourced donations to privately build a section of Trump's proposed US-Mexico border wall. In August 2020, federal prosecutors charged Bannon with fraud and money laundering in the wall campaign. Trump has also previously issued widely denounced pardons, including the recent pardoning of Blackwater Garth responsible for a massacre in Iraq. The Trump administration, however, did not heed repeated pleas from across the world for clemency for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. In our next story, China joined voices from across the world to urge the incoming Joe Biden administration to re-enter the US in the 2015 multi-party nuclear deal. President Trump had unilaterally withdrawn from the deal, which is known as a joint comprehensive plan of action in 2018. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also urged the US to lift the sanctions imposed against Iraq. She has also argued for political settlement to the Iranian nuclear issue. Here is People's Dispatch Abdul Rahman to discuss the recent developments around the deal. The US-Iran relationship has been in turmoil for the last four years, though it has a long history, but at least for the last four years since Trump assumed it, and particularly became even intense in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from JCPO or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saying that this is the worst deal ever, particularly the tensions further increased when in 2000, last year, basically in January, the US assassinated General Soleimani and General Mohandis in Iraq. Since then, the US has been trying to basically mobilize its troops and the world public opinion around the fact, they call it a fact, that Iran is basically intervening in the different regional conflicts and trying to basically threaten its allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel in particular. And therefore, it has become a kind of a menace for the reason, which Iranians have completely refused, particularly what is happening in Iraq. It has been used by the US basically to say that the attacks on its troops or its embassy in Iraq is basically carried out by the Iranians. Again, Iranians have refused it. Using this excuse, US basically deployed its B-52 bombers and has deployed also deployed basically its aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, which has led to kind of a rise in the tensions in the last few months particularly. In this situation, when the Biden administration promised that it will try to find ways to reswine the JCPO during the election campaign, it had revived the hope that the situation can go back to normal once Biden comes to power. But what we have seen in the last few days at least, and yesterday's Anthony Blinken's defense in the Senate Committee, basically confirmation requires hearing in the Senate. During that hearing, what he said has basically, he can say has dampened the hopes of normalcy of relationship or going back to at least 2015 situation between Iran and the United States of America because Blinken also thinks, and he is going to be the Secretary of State in the US, thinks that the normalization or US joining the deal is a difficult process. It may take time. Given that statement and given the fact that so far Biden has not committed anything officially on this, it looks like that the situation between Iran and United States of America will continue at least for a few more months. In this context, China asserting the fact that if you want normalization of relations and if you want normalization of condition in the West Asia region or the larger Middle East region, the US need to rejoin the deal as soon as possible without any condition, which is a very significant development in this regard because China is one of the signatories of the deal, and it has a weight, a weightage, its statement basically has a weightage, and it basically strengthens the Iranian position that the deal itself is quite okay. And if you need further discussion or expansion of the scope of the deal, you can only do it once you return to the deal and which is what the US is expected to do. In our next story, workers at the McSteel plant in Hotting, South Africa continued their strike for the second day on January 19th. The call to the strike was issued following the retrenchment of 99 employees on December 11th, just before the company closed for the holidays. Once the company reopened on January 4th, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, NUMSA, began to mobilize workers against the layoffs. NUMSA issued a 48-hour strike notice on January 16th, 1,400 of the 2,500 McSteel employees are members of NUMSA and have been on strike since January 18th. They have demanded an immediate reinstatement of the 99 employees. According to NUMSA spokesperson Fakamele Hilbima Jolla, McSteel has also been using the money saved to job cuts to boost the bonuses paid to company managers and executives. The union has argued that the company has employed a similar strategy by laying off the 99 employees, especially in the midst of a pandemic. The strike is expected to enter its third day today, given that no consensus was reached in the negotiations between McSteel and NUMSA yesterday. In our next story, trucks carrying oxygen tanks from Venezuela reached the state of Amazonas in Brazil on January 19th. The state has recorded over 233,000 COVID cases so far and continues to be among the worst hit as infections rise. The medical infrastructure in the capital city of Manaus is on the verge of collapse as cases far exceed the supply of essential medical facilities such as ICU beds and oxygen. The Venezuelan government had first announced its initiative to provide medical support to Amazonas on January 14th. 130,000 litres of oxygen accompanied by a cohort of 107 Brazilian and Venezuelan doctors known as the Simon Bolivar Brigade reached Manaus yesterday night. Brazil continues to be among the country's worst hit by the coronavirus and has the second highest debt toll in the world. The administration of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticized for its failure to effectively address the crisis. In Bolsonaro continued to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic as it devastated marginalized communities in the country. As Brazil struggles to cope with rising COVID-19 cases, the government has authorized the rollout of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the Chinese Coronavirus vaccine. These vaccines will be administered in simultaneous mass immunization program across the country. Here is a video feature on the rollout process. After the publication of the preliminary results of the third phase of the Chinese Coronavirus vaccine in Brazil, the health ministry announced that vaccinations using the product will occur simultaneously throughout the country. According to the ministry, 100 million doses will be purchased and incorporated into the national COVID-19 vaccination plan. Specialists seem optimistic with the results demonstrated so far. The data shows that the vaccine will decrease the number of deaths as it has shown to be 100% effective against serious cases of COVID-19. Even those who have been vaccinated may still develop milder forms of the disease. We know that it is rare to have a vaccine that is 100% effective. This goes for all vaccines and is no different with the coronavirus one. Another emergency approval request was filed for the British-made AstraZeneca vaccine. The health ministry has already agreed to buying 200 million doses. According to infectious disease experts, it's important to have as many doses of effective vaccines as available as possible. All COVID-19 vaccines are given in two separate shots. No healthcare authorities will allow for single doses. No studies with single doses have been undertaken, only with two. What may come to happen is what is being tried in Europe, where they will space out the application for the two doses in the hopes that the new vaccine that will reach the entire population are developed. However, here in Brazil, it will certainly have to be two doses. Despite the government's inefficacy in combating the pandemic, Raquel believes that Brazil is one of the country's best equipped to handle a mass immunization campaign. From the standpoint of operational capacities, I have no doubt that we will do a good job. Of course, this vaccine requires some adaptations. We need to expand the number of vaccination posts and extend vaccination hours, all because this time around, we cannot risk having large gatherings. Until that time, it's necessary to keep up with protective measures. Around three months from now, we will begin to see the effects of the vaccine or contagion levels. Probably, until April, we will still have high levels of infection, and the population cannot forget to continue using preventive measures. Otherwise, we will continue seeing the disease spreading. That's all your time for today. We will be back tomorrow with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.