 Hello and welcome to International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines Iran condemns fresh U.S. sanctions and banking sector. Protests raised in Indonesia against sweeping omnibus law. Hundreds are arrested by the police. World commemorates the 53rd March of the day of Che Guevara. An Algerian court sent them to Firaq protest the Yasin Mubarakis for 10 years in prison. In our first story on Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced fresh financial sanctions on Iran's banking sector. Reacting strongly to the move, Iran's Foreign Minister Jawahar Zarif called the announcement of these sanctions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. regime's attempt to blow up remaining channels to pay for food and medicine. He claimed that the conspiracy by the U.S. in his words to starve a population is a crime against humanity. The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it is blacklisting 18 major Iranian banks calling the entire financial sector of the country an additional avenue that funds the government so-called malign activity. The U.S. has alleged that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and supporting terrorist groups in the region. Both these allegations have been denied by the Iranian government. Iran claims that the aggression against the country is an attempt to thwart its independence and its regional and foreign policy. The U.S. sees rising Iranian influence in West Asia as a threat to its domination. Fearing that their banks will be impacted, the Trump administration's latest move has been criticized by European countries. Meanwhile, activists have said that these sanctions will hamper humanitarian supplies to Iran which are necessary to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. Some activists even called it a crime against Iranian people. The U.S. has refused to listen to official U.N. appeals to desist from imposing sanctions during the pandemic. It has announced new sanctions on Iran during the past few months. The Trump administration has also tried to bring back international sanctions on Iran which were withdrawn by the United Nations after a nuclear deal was signed in 2015. After 13 out of the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council refused to consider the U.S. demand for these sanctions, it went ahead and unilaterally announced the imposition of sanctions. In our next story, thousands of Indonesians have taken to the streets of Jakarta, Bandung and other cities in protest against the government's push to enact the omnibus law. As a 30 or 400 protesters were arrested in police crackdowns across the country. This exhaustive job creation law which is passed by the lower house of parliament, which is the people's representative council, has prompted a countrywide backlash from trade unions and student movements. A coalition of trade unions, student groups and environmental activists are holding countrywide protests to oppose this law that the Joko Virodo government claims will create millions of jobs. The law which is called the omnibus law brings together changes over 79 existing laws concerning neighbour environments, private investment and many more. It alters labour laws taking out major protections for minimum wages, paid leave and severance pay. Workers can expect to see their severance paid to be cut by 40% weekly, weekly holidays to be reduced to one day and even their paid annual leave at risk. Most importantly, workers will lose federal protection to their minimum wages. The law completely does away with sectoral minimum wages in favour of localised minimum wage standards set by government. The law also takes out significant environmental regulations and limits on polluting industries and brings down the number of sectors barred from private investments from 300 to a mere six. Trade unions have been opposing the law after it was proposed in February this year. Multiple demonstrations by unions prompted the government block in the DPR to push the debate and vote several times. Various trade union movements have called for public deliberations over the law, but the Virodo government ignored these calls and pushed it between the two debates on Monday. In our next story marking the 53rd Martheorem Day of Revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, 20 left publishers are all set to bring out the e-book titled Che in almost 20 languages. The texts in Che are the letters to triconsonential and man and socialism in Cuba. Two iconic works by Che Guevara that explain is the internationalist perspective and the process of socialist construction within Cuba. The texts come with a preface by Maria del Carmen Argyet Garcia and an introduction by MN Marxist Intellectual Ejaz Ahmed. The book was released on Friday marking the anniversary of Che's assassination by the CIA led contingent of the Bolivian Army. October 9th is now being observed as the international day for the abolition of CIA. The book release is also part of the observance of the international recap anti-imperialist struggle from October 5th to 10th. To discuss this further, Vijay Prashat, talk to Eja Rehm. As I said, today is the anniversary of the murder, assassination, death of Che Guevara. Che is generally understood in a sort of legendary way, you know, outside the real Che. He is lifted up to legend. In your introduction, you actually bring us back to Earth and give us some of the central themes of Che Guevara's life, very brief life, but a life filled with action and accomplishment. Could you walk us through a little bit about the context of Che's life and the things that he did in that life? Yes, he has been raised to the level of a legend, rightly so. But I think what happens with raising of him to the level of a legend is that a figure is romanticized out of his actual existence. Romanticized and romanticized both as this brilliant guerrilla fighter and as martyr to the revolutionary cause. Fearless and so on, which is I think somewhat reductive. Che, I think from the very beginning of his, from the time of his youth, had first of all an immense curiosity about the world that he lived in. For example, while he was still a medical student, he went on a tour of all of Latin America to actually know his continent. Secondly, he was, I think from the very beginning, a very voracious leader on the one hand trained medical doctor. And at the same time, a great voracious leader of revolutionary literature and revolutionary history. And it's significantly, and you know, the amazing thing about Che is that he, his entire life, actual texture of his life, is that of profound internationalism so that it's, he happens to be in Guatemala. At the time when there is an American intervention in America sponsored coup d'etat against the government of Arbenz. And as a young man there, that is the first time he immediately commits himself to fight with arms in the defense of that revolution. So something that he said much later or variations of which he kept saying was like is that when you are talking about the revolution and revolutionaries, it is not enough to support, it has, you have to join the struggle and either win or lose. Die or you go to death or victory as a part as an element of proletarian element in this great revolutionary way of apartheid. And he always saw himself as that. At the same time, for him, the ultimate arena of revolution was actually the world. And it's dialectically thought out that imperialism, you no longer have national, you know, capitalism in this country, in that country, in that country. The very fact that that capitalism has entered what, as he put it, the last stages of capitalism is imperialism. And finally, on Thursday, Algeria stepped up its persecution of anti-government Iraq protesters and independent journalists. A court in Algeria sentenced well-known Iraq movement member Yasi Nubarki to 10 years in prison along with a steep fine of US$77,000. Nubarki was sentenced after being accused of various charges such as inciting atheism, offending or denigrating dogma and preceptor Islam and undermining national unity. Along with Nubarki, journalists activists for the Al-Bomala also faced the prospect of being sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of US$700 after prosecutors' office in Algeria appealed for the same. Another journalist, Elqadi Isan, was also summoned by the authorities for preliminary investigations to speak. Isan has been accused by the Algerian authorities of defamation, insults and offences against the president of Algeria. These kinds of charges point to a clear assent by the Algerian government to intimidate and silence critics and opposition figures, especially members of the Hirag protest. The movement had demanded the removal of all corrupt and inefficient politicians and businessmen belonging to the era of former President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika who was deported. Bouteflika was forced out of power in April 2019 after ruling for more than 20 years. The massive Hirag protest continued as they wanted those associated with this regime to also leave power. That's all we have time for today. We will be back tomorrow with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch. Thank you very much.