 Heavy fighting continues in parts of Gaza, particularly to the southeast of Gaza City, as the besieged enclave was hit by another comms blackout and dozens more were killed in strikes overnight, both in Gaza as well as the West Bank. The Rafa border crossing was opened briefly to allow 500 or 600 foreigners, those with dual citizenship and those who are severely wounded or unwell to exit to Egypt. But again, very small numbers. Are we any closer today to relief for the millions still under the Israeli siege? And this week General Motors and the United Auto, automobile workers union reached a deal that mirrored agreements between the union and other major manufacturers including Ford and Stellantis, which is of course the parent company of brands like Ram, Jeep and Chrysler. These are the Detroit Big Three. We recap the historic deal. Will this make a difference to unionized automakers like Tesla next up? And our final story for the day, India's top court is hearing arguments on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of a government scheme to keep donations to political parties via electoral bonds, anonymous and outside the purview of India's Right to Information Act. Why is this legal battle important ahead of upcoming general elections? Salams, you're watching Daily Debrief coming to you from the People's Dispatch Studios here in New Delhi. I'm Siddharth Ani and before we go any further into the show, take a second and subscribe to our YouTube channel. As I was saying earlier overnight, refugee camps have been hit once again. Dozens of people have been killed. Communications blackout was experienced once again. We'll start as we have been with Abdul giving us an update on what reports are coming in from the ground in Gaza first and then move on to what's happening to mitigate the impact of Israel's continued onslaught. Day 26 of the total war against Gaza, 11,000 strikes have hit Gaza in that time according to the Israeli Defense Ministry. Abdul, what's the latest? It won't be that latest, but of course if you see what happened in Jabalia camp on basically on Tuesday evening which has led to the killing of some, there are different reports which are indicating somewhere between 200 to 400 people have been killed in the last in that bombing which was basically in the middle of a very densely populated refugee camp where around 600,000 people live and more people of course were living because of the displacement which has happened due to the bombing in different other parts of the Gaza Strip. So it has led to a massive number of people, massive number of casualties which of course also basically it is, you can say it has been multiplied with the attacks on in and around the hot hospitals, Indonesian hospitals, Al-Shifa hospitals with the ground offensive which is already ongoing particularly in the northern part of Gaza. As for the latest report, there are of course claims and counterclaims, Israeli security forces have accepted that more than a dozen of his soldiers have been basically killed in the fight with the Palestinian investor movement inside Gaza. So it seems that the war in Gaza there is no break in it, there is no kind of even the scaling down is not possible. In fact today the Palestinian telecommunication authority announced that there is another kind of blackout, there is no telecommunication, there is no internet in the region which if we see what happened during last such blackout it means there is going to be some kind of escalation in Israeli bombing in the next few hours and that basically means that Israel has not paid any attention to the concerns raised by all the regional, local and international countries and the groups asking to kind of some kind of break some kind of humanitarian pause in Gaza. If you see the number of people, overall number of people according to some estimates have crossed 9000 people being killed in Gaza alone and we are not talking about the occupied West Bank where again on Tuesday there was an escalation, Jenin has been repeatedly attacked and three more Palestinians were killed yesterday. And we have seen pictures which are of course not confirmed, not verified that how Palestinians arrested have been humiliated, tortured on camera by the Israeli forces. So all these things are basically creating a kind of situation which is basically showing that the war in Gaza at this time is unprecedented. The assault is unprecedented and it is going to be, it continues to be one of the biggest war in the history of the region. We as media have often been accused of reducing Palestinian deaths to mere numbers and statistics but it has to be noted that over eight and a half thousand people now have been killed and that number will continue to grow as the locations of some of these strikes are cleared up and rescue workers continue to reach those who are stuck under some of those destroyed buildings and other infrastructure. Many thousands of these I think over three and a half thousand or so children among them. Some diplomatic pressure of course is mounting on Israel, although even though it's not been enough to get anything to change on the ground despite the brief opening of the border crossing at Rafa, nothing substantial taking place. But Bolivia, the first nation to cut off diplomatic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza, a couple of other countries have asked Israel to recall its envoy, its ambassador to that country. Will this prove significant? Are we sort of adding up drops in to make a bucket in order to get some kind of change to happen or is it all coming too slow Abdul and there will be nothing left to save by the time the international community comes around to actually doing anything concrete? Well, I am not very hopeful when it comes to saying that whether these diplomatic initiatives and very welcomed diplomatic initiatives will have any impact on the Israeli strategy or the Israeli attempt to kind of create a kind of committed large massacre in the occupied Gaza. Primarily, because if you see the statements made after Bolivia announced the withdrawal of its ambassador and kind of cutting diplomatic ties. Of course, Chile, Colombia and other countries have also followed the example. They have not completely cut off the diplomatic relations, but at least they have recalled their ambassadors for consultation which can be a process towards taking initiatives like cutting complete diplomatic ties with Israel. But what Israeli government's response was, it was that Netanyahu says that Bolivia has surrendered in front of terrorism and therefore this hardly makes any impact on what Israel is going to do or is doing in Gaza. So that is one. Even Turkey, for example, which has taken, which has a very old relationship with Israel and it has sustained despite all the up and downs in the Palestinian history in the last 70, 75 years. There has been strong statements given by Erdogan following the Gaza offensive, the war in Gaza. Israel is basically has kind of started saying that Erdogan's positions are problematic. It is very much anti-Semitism and we have to, in fact, Israel may take initiative to have some kind of diplomatic rapture with Turkey. So if you see this is the condition even the US officials saying some days back how that the reactions which are coming from different state officials whether it is from Saudi Arabia or whether it is from other Arab countries, Jordan and so forth, which have very close relationship with Israel even those reactions are categorized as anti-Semitism. So that basically shows that there is complete kind of an attempt to wash it all those criticisms as something anti-Semitism and continue with its quote unquote war on Gaza. If you see and that basically the more this is happening, the more there is a fear of regional escalation as well. So just to kind of say that what is happening in Rafa that opening of the border for 500 people who have a kind of dual citizenship, they have passports for two different countries can move out now is basically it happened after so much for last 20-25 days pressure. That happened but only for 500 to 600 people. It shows that the amount of diplomacy which is required to do all such things. So this level of hopelessness when it comes to the failures of international diplomacy to kind of put pressure on Israel to do something leads to a kind of a kind of sense of depression, kind of desperation among those who are who are feeling helpless and seeing children dying, helpless citizens dying, entire localities being kind of smashed to the ground and so and so forth. That creates a desperation and that's how we can see why Houthis for example had announced that they are at war with Israel. They had fired missiles in the last week also but they are saying that they have fired missiles and drones targeting the southern Gaza, sorry, southern Israel basically and that is one thing of course. Hezbollah is already engaged with the Israeli occupation in one way or another. There are attacks on increasing attacks despite U.S. targeting Syrian military installations inside Syria last week. There has been reports that today, sorry, on Wednesday for example, there had been at least three Tuesday and Wednesday within 24 hours, at least three different attacks on three different bases inside Syria and in other parts of the West Asia in the last 24 hours. And that basically shows that the level of desperation which is sinking in among the people who are basically feeling helpless in front of complete inability of diplomacy, international diplomacy to influence the behavior of Israel in Gaza. Alright Abul, thank you for updating us on a grim situation that gets worse actually every time we speak to you and we will of course ask you to hang in there and join us again tomorrow for another update on the situation. But we move on now to our next story for the day which comes from the United States. We're talking of course about the major strike by the United Auto Workers Union which has led to historic now tentative agreements with the three main auto manufacturers in Detroit that's General Motors, Ford as well as Stellantis. Anish has been covering this story from the start. We of course reported previously on the first agreement that came into force I guess. These agreements still have to be ratified but it's a major win for auto workers. 25% increase in base pay as well as cost of living adjustments. The biggest gains that auto workers have won after some serious struggle in more than two decades. Now all the auto majors are following suit. Anish will go across to Anish for more details on this historic deal. General Motors, the last of the three Detroit majors to kind of fall in line and sort of mirror the deals earlier agreed with Stellantis as well as Ford. Recap for us, we've covered of course the first of the tentative agreements in detail but recap it for us because it really is an important deal that auto workers have taken more than two decades to win back for them and also put into some context Anish because I've seen some reportage on what's been happening and many media outlets are kind of describing it as generosity. The most generous deal that has been offered to auto workers. Why is that? Why does that kind of might it trouble you a little bit? Yeah, let's begin with the deal that because I think these are some important victories that close to around 250,000 workers have won in the United States and it clearly shows this kind of resolve that these workers have gone through to actually get this deal as well. We're looking at the very minimum, you know, at the top incomes being raised by 25% over the next five years. It may not seem much but it is obviously a lot of and obviously it is lesser than the 40% that was promised but if you actually look at the cost of living adjustment that has been brought back and we have pointed this out and when we discussed the Ford deal as well with the cost of living adjustment it can actually go to more than 33% increase over the next five years and that can be actually a handsome wage hike that possibly auto workers in the US could actually think of right now. At the same time, we also have to look at some of the other factors with promises to save jobs or to retain workers and to not cost them their jobs for this move into electric vehicles that these companies are planning to do to actually make way for more jobs over the time and most importantly to actually also include unorganized or contract workers. Contract workers may not be unorganized but their contract workers are those who do not have a set contract or permanent workers like the other ones and do not have access to say healthcare or any kind of contributions for pensions and retirement plans by the companies. So this is definitely a major victory for them as well. In the Ford deal at least there was an expected 150% increase that would be expected over the next five years. In the case of the other ones you actually have 75, at the very least 75% increase it was the next five years. So that's a massive victory that cannot be toned down. Exactly and that is something that we see with the media report as well. Most of them are surprised that this actually became possible because most of them expected the companies to stand their ground to be set in their contracts that they had offered earlier but obviously they all of them relented and that clearly shows that workers' mobilizations are the reason why these contracts were there. So the attempt is now to downplay the fact that the mobilization happened or the effect of the mobilization on these deals and to turn it into some kind of generosity. Obviously that is an attempt but nevertheless it is something that they cannot overlook. They cannot overlook the kind of victory that has been taken by the workers. Something that is rightfully there, something that they earned it because they made sacrifices as well. Most of the fact that workers in their previous contracts had given up on cost of living adjustment so that these companies could become profitable really speaks for itself and the fact that they are actually taking it back shows that their needs are something that they are not going to forgo no matter what the companies would think of them. In many cases for the companies to survive and continue to be competitive in the face of Japanese and Korean automakers and such and now being portrayed as a magnanimous management that is giving out these handsome wage hikes to the workers. Anish, two important questions. One, and we will try to keep it as brief as possible. But one, the Biden kind of threw his hat in the ring on the side of the striking workers which some political commentators called a risk. Why is it still risky for a democratic sitting president to be associated with a strong labor movement ahead of an election that too? And then we can maybe talk a little bit about the impact this will have on non-unionized workers in the auto industry for working like company at some of those big let's say Japanese companies or companies like Tesla which of course is owned by Elon Musk. In the case of Biden participating in the picket line obviously it was a calculated risk if it's a risk to begin with. But there is something that was made clear over the past few elections that the working class will not stand by and keep voting democratic. The democratic party every time they actually betray the workers every chance they can get. So the fact that somebody like Biden who has always been this establishment Democrat who has always been pro-corporate and if you look at his entire career as a lawmaker, as a politician, his stand has always been quite clear. It has never been for the workers or for supporting them for their unionization, for their mobilization. But the fact that somebody like him was pushed to actually come out in support even if it was for a photo of clearly speaks for the kind of mobilization that we're seeing. And we have spoken about this quite a bit on the show that working class mobilization in the U.S. is something that is now effectively irreversible to the point where you're actually seeing as we would talk about unorganized labor, people across different sectors, sectors that never really had trade union movements to begin with or any kind of traditional labor movement to begin with. And even them coming up to actually mobilize calling for unionization, calling for wage high, calling for a high federal minimum wage law, which is something that is yet to be achieved. All those things are something that the fact that working class are now mobilizing as working class is something that cannot be undone at this point because that sort of militancy is not going anywhere. And obviously UAW victory is one we saw with Hollywood workers, similar kind of strikes happening in different kind of sectors including Amazon where unionization is now happening. So it is definitely an attempt to boost, at least by the trade unions to boost working class morale to actually keep fighting and to keep winning. Even if they do not win battles, they can still keep unionizing and that mobilization is going to actually pay results over time. And this, you know, the precedent coming into stand in the packet line is something that just is the cherry on top like because it actually has become common place where you see workers striking workers unionizing and mobilizing in the manner that it never happened in the last two, three decades or four decades even. And that is something that clearly shows. And just to end this segment, we actually also need to talk about how the contracts, all three contracts will be expiring on April 30, 2028, because the UAW wants the workers to go on strike on Labor Day on May 1. So this actually is and actually exerting all trade unions and workers movement to do the same. So then workers can actually have the, you know, have the chance to go on a strike on a nationwide strike on Labor Day. Playlist shows that there is this, you know, very working class solidarity that is coming back in a big way in the United States. I'm going to take back some of the world's largest economy by those who are, of course, building it. Thanks very much, Anish, for an update on these quite major developments in the labor movement in the U.S. And with that, we'll move on to our final story for the day, which is from India where the top court, the Supreme Court as it's known, is hearing arguments on a batch of petitions. India has a system called public interest litigation whereby anyone can approach the top court on a matter that is deemed of significant impact to a large number of people in the country. In this case, the hearings are on the issue of funding of political parties, particularly the scheme relating to electoral bonds, which allow anonymous donations and also keep donations to political parties outside of the purview of the country's Right to Information Act. So therefore, people, the media and other organizations that keep tabs on scrutiny do not actually know how political parties and who funds political parties, how they receive their funding, how much funding they receive. India, of course, is also going in for an important general election in 2024. So these hearings have a great deal of immediate also context and not just in terms of larger constitutional or political structure issues. Pragya will be joining us. Let's go over to her now to get the details on what five judges of the Indian Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice of India, are hearing from a number of opposition parties, of course, who are represented in these public hearings. Pragya, good to have you with us on Daily DB. For those of us who might not be that familiar with what's going on in India, tell us first what the scheme is all about and why this litigation at the Supreme Court to question its constitutional validity. So that absolutely, you know, 2018, not long before the 2019 national elections, the Indian government introduced a scheme. The scheme was basically to allow anonymous donors to give money as they wish to political parties of their choice. Now, this was questioned from the get go by those who watch the election process in India. You know, they basically said that the anonymity of the scheme, which is supposedly meant to protect the identity of the person who's giving money to a political party of his choice, is actually a sort of selective anonymity. You know, it is anonymous to the opposition parties and the public, but it's not so anonymous for the government in power and the political party in power. And so, you know, this litigation actually started with the Association for Democratic Reforms, which is a very well known, you know, non-government organization in India, which pursues as its name suggests freedom of expression, transparency, those are the kind of issues that they raise. And they joined forces with a bunch of other people to basically approach the Supreme Court. The case has sort of languished for five years, but now it's come to the stage where it's being heard this week. So interestingly, the Supreme Court has made some initial observations. I don't know whether these, you know, these will refer, these it will refer to again in the final judgment of what the court will decide. But it has essentially said that when this is selective transparency and selective, you know, anonymity and it is leaning towards the to benefit the party in power. Right. And why is that fundamentally problematic? Pragya, let's say you're a political party that happens to be in power. I'm a person that has money to spare and perhaps wants, you know, some something from the government. And so I can give you money and you know that I'm giving you money, but nobody else does. Why does that create problems in an electoral democracy such as India? It does immediately just at first look just the very idea that people will not know who is funding which party means that they will not know who is influencing which government and in what way. That's the basic precept here, but there are other issues. India's had a concern with black money, you know, money, which is, you know, for which taxes are not being paid, whose sources of income have not been disclosed properly. And so because the electoral bond scheme functions through the banking system, one bank, the National Bank has been designated to accept a electoral bond. So the impression is created that there's transparency and that there is also white money, money in the packing channel. Right. But it may not be money which is from earned from legitimate sources. And then of course the influence on policy has become more and more of a problem because of the lack of transparency in general governance. There are laws which are passed suddenly leaving people wondering why laws with far reaching consequences for citizens. So, so therefore they're, you know, one of the basic precepts of Indian democracy is the voting process. Now that's free and fair, largely and broadly, people go, they cast their vote and they're happy about the outcome or not happy, whatever, but they know that they voted for the party they choose. What is happening behind the veil, behind the system of the who are the leaders is close to the dislike and how does it influence policies. That's what we don't know and that's where the electoral bond system comes in. And ultimately, there is a bit of a concern that there's a slight climate of fear created by, you know, the lack of transparency. If you give X political party money and Y political party does not like it, what happens this power to know lies with the government so there are a series of issues, which electoral bonds, secret electoral bonds raise and it's going to play a critical role in defining which party gets how much money as we run up as we as we are already in the run up to several crucial state elections and the national another national election next year. The thing is that initially the electoral bonds scheme was clear just for the looks about the national election, but over the moment has been opened up, you know, sort of selected me for other smaller state elections etc. So even in how the government is planning out rolling out the scheme, there is a lack of transparency. Is it is it that they need money or more money or extra money and or they're, you know, so they just open up a window and take money. It's all very easy and so it makes the entire functioning of Indian democracy also equally hazy. All right, very much forget day two of these hearings at India Supreme Court on Wednesday and we'll hopefully have Pragya back for an update if and when that court delivers any kind of substantial verdict on the subject. That's all we have on the show today from Pragya, myself and the entire team at People's Dispatch as always. Thanks very much for watching. If you want details on these stories and all of the other work we do, all you have to do is head to our website peoplesdispatch.org. And don't also forget to give us a follow on the social media platform of your choice. We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, thank you for watching. Stay safe. Goodbye.