 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch where we bring you major news developments from across the world, our headlines. The World Health Organization will examine reports of airborne transmission of COVID-19, Uruguayan social movements, oppose, lackal powers, LUC law, 19th Saudi national sanctioned by the United Kingdom in the Khashoggi murder case, foreign students will have to leave the US if classes are entirely online, and US federal courts block Dakota access and Keystone XL pipelines. We begin today with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 11.8 million cases have been reported around the world as of today afternoon. The United States has crossed a 3 million mark with around 133,000 fatalities. In the meanwhile, the World Health Organization is reviewing reports of the airborne transmission of the virus. Recently, a group of 239 scientists from 32 countries had written an open letter to the World Health Organization calling for a review of its guidelines in light of what they claimed to be evidence of airborne infection. The scientists claim that smaller droplets exhaled by an infected person can become airborne in a room as opposed to what is currently understood. They pointed to findings from regions where the virus is making a comeback after it was deemed to have been eradicated. The WHO, on the other hand, has responded to the letter and stated that any solid evidence of airborne transmission is yet to be seen. The organization has nevertheless added that it does not deny the possibility of such transmission and will be reviewing the findings of the scientists cited in the open letter. In our infocus section, we spoke to Dr. Hani Serag from the United States and a member of the People's Health Movement on the rise in cases in the US. Yes, to begin with, so we did see a huge spike in cases a couple of months ago, especially there was Washington State, there was New York, where the numbers were in thousands every day. And at least in some of those states, the number seems to have decreased. Whereas in other states like, for instance, right now, Texas is reporting a huge number, Arizona, California continues to do so. So could you talk about how the center has kind of shifted to the United States and which are the epicenter, so to speak? Yeah, there are two issues here when we're talking about numbers. One of them is numbers are right now and it's not only for the US, it's all over the world, are concerning the positive cases from those who are tested. So the more you have testing, the more you will find cases. And this applies to the US and applies anywhere else. So when you increase the magnitude of testing like what happened in New York after the surge, you find lots of cases. And this has been happening in different states. So when they scale up the testing, the number of cases started to rise significantly. But also there is kind of a shift in the spread of COVID-19 in the US slowly from the east and the far west to the south somehow. So right now Texas, as you said correctly, Texas and Florida and Atlanta are on the rise right now. And to great extent I would say yes, the US is having the highest number of cases right now and the highest number of deaths. And unfortunately this is not surprising to me. Because the most important here is to look at what determines, what shapes the response to the pandemic. And here in the US it's basically the interest of corporates. So this is one of the major issues. So if you compare between the response in Europe for example, at least some of the European countries and the US, Europe had a complete lockdown. I'm not saying that this is the solution everywhere in the world because some countries cannot afford it. But Europe afforded it and they could do it. And this resulted in significant reduction in cases in quite a short time. And a good example for that was Italy, was Spain, was Germany, France and so on. And also they had very difficult measures that are somehow against the neoliberal notions. One of them like what happened in Spain is to put all private hospitals and facilities under the management of government. So in other words you say okay guys we're not going to take the hospitals from you from the private sector but we're going to borrow it for a while. You will unfortunately stop profiting at least for a while. This didn't happen and will not happen in the US in the very near future. Actually the reverse, actually the opposite happened. There is huge push to open and the politicians here are using the term of opening the economy. As if the economy, it has only one definition. So this is the economy, this is all what we know and we cannot think of any other way. So we need to open the restaurants and we need to open the markets. We need to open even the bars and beaches and so on. And the idea here when the government, because I strongly believe that there is a culture in the US that people, at least the majority, have lots of confidence in the administration. Even if they disagree on the general direction of administration still, when they say that it's time to open and let people go to work, let people go to restaurants and markets this gives a message to the public that we are on top of it. In our next story, on Monday, various social movements, trade unions and left-wing parties came out to reject the urgent consideration law or the LUC, which was approved by the Uruguayan legislature on July 5th. The LUC was condemned as an anti-worker and neoliberal law promoted by the right-wing government of President Louis Lacal Popau. The left-wing opposition, the broad front denounced the bill and said that they would continue to fight against it. Proposals are being made within the front to collect signatures for referendum. The proposal has the support of the Inter-Union Plenary of Workers, the National Convention of Workers or the PITCNT and the Uruguayan Communist Party. The LUC got a general approval from both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate last month despite massive protests. It was then debated and passed by the Chamber of Deputies on July 5th. The bill is now awaiting a vote in the Senate. The LUC proposes neoliberal reforms that would introduce budget cuts in public services, support the privatization of public companies, increase powers for law enforcement forces and restrict the right to strike of workers, among other clauses. In our next story, on Monday, the United Kingdom announced sanctions on 19 Saudi Arabian nationals accused in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The sanctions will impose a UK visa ban as well as a freeze on their financial and other assets inside the country. Khashoggi, a Saudi national, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. Among the prominent Saudis sanctioned are Saudil Khatani, the former political advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ahmed al-Asiri, deputy head of the Saudi intelligence services and Salah Mohammed al-Tubayji, the forensic doctor in Saudi Arabia's interior ministry. All three are believed to have direct and close involvement in the planning and execution of Khashoggi's murder. al-Asiri is suspected to have commissioned the 15 members of the death squad that was sent to Turkey to carry out the killing. Khatani was reportedly part of the command structure of the death squad and was one of the individuals responsible for the guidance and supervision of the squad. al-Tubayji was reportedly present inside the consulate on the day of the murder and helped destroy the evidence and dismember and dispose of Khashoggi's body. The UK has announced new sanctions following Brexit as it is no longer part of the existing EU sanctions regime that is currently followed by all the countries of the EU. In our next story, the United States has announced that foreign students whose classes have been shifted entirely online will be asked to leave the country. The announcement was issued in a statement by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE on Monday. The move will affect thousands of foreign students who are enrolled in universities that have recently turned their classes entirely online for the upcoming academic term because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move will affect students who are in the US as non-immigrants in F1 and M1 visas. Students will be made to choose between either shifting to a course or a school where in-person attendance would be required or leaving the US altogether. The ICE statement also added that the US will not allow re-enfraiter students who are back in their home countries while attending these online classes. Higher education institutions and students will be given 10 days to update any changes to their status. The fall semester classes are about to begin in many universities and colleges across the US. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, nearly 8% of the institutions have announced moves to go entirely online. Around 23% are to adopt hybrid models and 8-5.5% are yet to decide on their options. The move has been criticized by immigration advocates who see it as yet another one of the attempts by the Trump administration to deport non-citizens. The administration had recently issued bans on a range of visas to supposedly combat the pandemic and extended the ban till the end of the year. And finally, in more news from the US, on Monday, two judgments by the US federal courts handed victory to Indigenous protesters and environmentalists on controversial pipeline projects. In a judgment on the Dakota Access Pipeline Project, the US District Judge for Washington DC, James Bosberg, has ruled in favor of the Standing Rocks U-Tribe and ordered the shutting down of operations in a key oil link. The order called for the shutting down of operations within 30 days and a more extensive environmental impact assessment to be conducted on the pipeline. The order comes after three years of pipeline being in operation. Even while welcoming the judgment, the leaders of the tribe pointed out that the pipeline should not have been constructed in the first place. In a separate but similar judgment by the US Supreme Court, the Keystone XL Pipeline was blocked from getting a fast-tracked presidential clearance. The judges ruled that the pipeline project requires an extensive environmental impact study before it can move ahead with construction. The court was ruling in a petition against a nationwide permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers to fast-track clearance under the Clear Water Act. The court ruled, much like in the Dakota Access case, that the court conducts impact assessments of major infrastructural projects, but did not conduct an adequate study for the Keystone Access XL. It nevertheless, upped clearance for other projects. That's all we have time for today. We will be back tomorrow with major news developments from the country. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch. Thank you very much.