 Hello and welcome to today's episode of the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch where we bring you some of the top stories from around the world. Let's take a look at today's headlines. Thousands participated in 2022 People's Rally in Seoul. Vigils held across Ireland after murder of Ashling Murphy. Over 8,000 Kroger workers on strike in the United States. And Brazil records drastic rise in deforestation. In our first story, we go to South Korea where a mass rally was held on January 15th. 15,000 people gathered for the Surprise 2022 People's Rally in Seoul's Yooi-do Park. It was organised by the National People's Action Movement which includes progressive workers and farmers groups. Among them is the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions or the KCTU which has been mobilising workers in a broad front. These groups have argued that inequalities have been aggravated recently. Saturday's rally raised slogans against growing income inequality and a vested two-party political system. It also followed months of strike protests and sit-ins by workers across different sectors. Most recently, delivery workers at CJ Logistics went on strike. Outrage grew following reports that at least 16 workers had died due to overwork in 2020. Over 40% of South Korean workers are considered irregular with little to no labour protections. Labour organisers are also facing threats in the country with several having been arrested under the pretext of COVID-19 rules. The National People's Action Movement has passed a resolution with a set of demands. These include the application of the Labour Standards Act to all workers and abolition of irregular work. The movement has also demanded the strengthening of public housing, medical care, education and transport. Other key demands include an end to joint military training with the United States and the suspension of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. National People's Action has also urged for an anti-discrimination law and a repeal of the National Security Law. In our next story, vigils were held across Ireland on January 14th following the murder of Ashling Murphy. The 23-year-old teacher was killed on January 12th while she was going for a run in the town of Tullamore. While the police have released limited details, they have said that she sustained serious injuries consistent with assault. Her murder has sparked outrage and calls to action to address misogynistic and gender-based forms of violence in Ireland. Thousands of people gathered in Tullamore's town park on Friday to pledge solidarity and support to Murphy's family. Gatherings were also organised in Northern Ireland in cities including Belfast, London Dairy and Neury. One of the biggest demonstrations took place in Dublin as people gathered outside the Irish Parliament. According to frontline organisation Women's Aid, 244 women have been victims of violent deaths in Ireland since 1996. Out of the resolved cases, 87% were perpetrated by a man known to the victim, 13% of the killings were by strangers. Women also formed over 30% of victims of homicide in Ireland in 2021. Women's Aid CEO Sarah Benson has said that killing of women is the extreme end of a spectrum of abuse that is experienced every day. The group has called for a zero tolerance to all forms of male violence and measures like investments in education to change attitudes. Ashlyn Murphy's murder follows months after the killings of 36-year-old Sabina Nessa and 33-year-old Sarah Everard in the UK. We now go to the United States, where workers across 80 Kroger-owned King Soopers grocery stores are on strike in the state of Colorado. Organised by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, over 8,000 workers walked out on January 12th. A pre-strike vote was passed almost unanimously after the UCFW filed an unfair labour practices suit against Kroger. The charges included the prohibition of union activity and attempting to bargain with workers directly. Kroger has also hired temporary outside workers. The strike is pushing for a $6.00 an hour wage increase for all employees. Meanwhile, in its quote-unquote last best and final offer, the company offered a hike of $4.50 to limited workers. The deal also included a $16.00 an hour floor, which is only 13 cents above the local minimum wage. It contained other concessions including a shorter leave period and the use of non-union gig workers. Kroger is among the largest grocery store chains in the United States, making over $2.5 billion in profit in 2020 alone. Meanwhile, an economic roundtable survey of over 10,000 Kroger workers found that nearly 80% were food insecure. 29% of the workers were either at or below the federal poverty line. 45% of workers said that they could not afford rent and 14% were currently or had experience homelessness. The strike launched this week is going to last until February 2nd. And for our final story, we bring you a video feature by Brasil de Fato on increasing deforestation in Brazil. In the third year of Bolsonaro's term, the Amazon rainforest suffered like never before. According to data from the Climate Observatory, since the current president ascended to power, Brazil's Amazon deforestation surged to 76%. Between August 2020 and July 2021, there were 13,000 square kilometers of destruction in the world's largest rainforest. 2021 was also marked by the advance of illegal mining in indigenous peoples lands and the dismantling of the environmental agencies. If we look back, the Bolsonaro government fulfilled all its campaign promises which were to end the so-called finance industry. But nobody imagined that the promise of ending the so-called finance industry would cause all this destruction of the environment. And all this is mainly of the institutions that have the power to control and combat it. 2021 was also a year to debate actions to reframe the advance of climate change. However, at COP26, summit dedicated to this issue and hosted in Glasgow, Scotland, the positive points to Brazil were the delegations, debates and the strength of the young indigenous people. This group of countries showed themselves at the summit, and it was a positive point of Brazil's participation. The government, in its turn, got the negative points as expected. But expectations the world had on Brazil's government were low too. People actually thought, if Brazilian government didn't disturb, that's quite good enough. He signed some papers with commitments as the methane, pledge and zero deforestation, which we know that under no circumstances the government will fulfill. The current government prevents us from accomplishing the potential of Brazil's climate agenda. It's precisely because of so many dismantling and expectations that it will take a time to rebuild what was destroyed, especially in the environmental area. To the environmental area, what we need is to show the world that the new government will perform a bootleg turn. It will change 100% of its environmental policies. It isn't a circumstantial change. They must change absolutely everything because we are in 2022, after three years of Bolsonaro's term, and there is nothing. I repeat, there is not a single positive act from this government to protect Brazil's environment, to protect our forests and to build a healthy image of Brazil on this agenda around the world.