 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Ronda by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines, renewed protests, second kidnapping continue as Haiti witnesses surgeon gang attacks, auto workers strike for fair contract and working conditions in the United States. Our next story will be about Colombian unions which have announced a strike as a government suspense protest. The US Navy announces that it has fired warning shots at Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf. In our video section, we take a look at the record surges in COVID-19 cases and fatalities in India's health system face a major crisis. In our first story, we go to Haiti which saw renewed protests against kidnapping and violence on April 27th. Students from the State University's Faculty for Medicine held protests in the capital Port-au-Prince. They set up barriers and burned tires to demand the release of a professor. According to local reports, Marie-Hosette Malvoisin was abducted on April 24th. Meanwhile, barricades were also set up by protesters in the Peridot commune of the Quest Department. People blocked National Road No. 2 to demand that kidnappers release a local leader. Wilkins deset was abducted on April 25th. Three unboys were also reportedly kidnapped by the 400 Mavazzo gang on Monday. The abductions reported in the past few days are the latest in the surge of similar incidents in Haiti, with at least 13 kidnappings reported just last week. According to the Center for Human Rights Research and Analysis, 157 kidnappings took place in Haiti in the first quarter of 2021. The country is also witnessing increasing armed gang attacks with at least 13 people killed in Bel-Air a few weeks prior. Activists have stated that the government has ordered police forces not to intervene in such attacks. Claims that the Jural Moises Regime's complexity in gang violence in Haiti is also the subject of a new report. Released on April 22nd, it argues that gang attacks over the past three years have been supported by the government and the police. This includes providing gangs with money, weapons and vehicles. In return, they guarantee electoral support for the government by coercing communities under their control. The UN has also noted that gangs target poor and working class neighbourhoods with large polling stations. Communities which have actively participated in the ongoing anti-government protests have been heavily targeted. These incidents, the report argues, may amount to crimes against humanity. In our next story, we go to the US where nearly 3,000 auto workers are on strike in the state of Virginia. Workers at the New River Valley plant of the Sweden-based Volvo company have been on strike since April 17th. The strike was announced after no resolution was reached despite months of negotiation with the company. The deadline for an offer previously been set for March 16th, however, no progress was made. The workers then extended their contract for another month. The demands include increasing wages, wage progression and job security. Other issues include health and safety pensions, health and safety pensions over time and healthcare and prescription of drug coverage. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the plant remained functional in 2020. However, workers have stated that adequate security measures were not put in place leading to a massive outbreak. Workers at the New River Valley plant are members of the United Auto Workers Union. As reported by WSWS, the strike is also aimed at winning back, pay and benefit concessions made by the UAW leadership in previous negotiations. Top officials implicated in corruption scandals in 2008, 11 and 16 for taking company bribes and embezzling union dues. Meanwhile, Volvo made $1 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2021. There was also a marked increase in truck deliveries and construction equipment sales. In the meantime, workers have stated that the company is replacing higher-paid veteran workers with new workers who are paid far less. This is because of a multi-tired wage system. While negotiations resumed on April 26, the strike is ongoing with people picketing in shifts. We now go to Colombia, where unions have stated that the national strike on April 28, that's today, will continue as scheduled. The announcement was made in response to government order suspending permission for protests. A court in Bogota issued in order suspending court public manifestations on April 27. This was in response to a directive by far-right President Ivan Duket to suspend permissions for the strike and celebration schedule for Mayday. Union social movements and citizens across Colombia will take to the streets today. As the country is witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, strike organizers have put bio-safety protocols in place. The national strike has been called to protest a new tax reform proposed by the government. The reform will increase taxes on staple food and fuel and freeze public sector wages among other measures. In our next story, the U.S. Navy announced on April 27 that it fired warning shots at Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf region. The Navy's fifth fleet claimed that Iranian vessels had come in close proximity to U.S. patrol ships unnecessarily and with unknown intent. The incident reportedly took place around 8 p.m. local time on Monday. According to an official statement, the U.S. Navy ships were conducting routine maritime security operations in international waters. The Navy has claimed that it gave multiple warning shots before firing at the Iranian vessels. Following this, the vessels moved away to a safe distance. Iranian Navy has not issued a statement on the incident as of yet. The U.S. Navy has also claimed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels had threatened a U.S. Coast Guard vessel on April 2. In the meantime, Iranian vessels have been facing several attacks in the broader West Asia region. U.S. officials admitted last month that Israel had carried out several attacks on Syria-bound ships since 2019. And for our final story, we returned to a courage of COVID-19 in India. The country saw another record daily surge with over 360,000 cases reported after 24 hours preceding 8 a.m. today morning. The Union Ministry also reported 3,293 deaths within one day as of the morning of April 28. As the Indian's healthcare faces a major crisis, several countries have sent medical assistance and supplies. Here is a video feature on the current situation in the country. The COVID-19 crisis in India has surpassed all previous records of any country. India is reporting the highest number of cases and casualties than any other country has reported at any point in the pandemic. The number of cases being reported daily has remained above 300,000 for about a week now. A total of around 200,000 deaths have been reported so far in the country. Even this is almost definitely an underestimate. Meanwhile, the healthcare system has collapsed amid this deluge of infections. Reports are coming from different states all over the country of oxygen running out in hospitals, no hospital beds, no medicines, and bodies piling up as families wait for their turn outside crematoriums which are operating 24-7 to cremate the rising number of deaths. In capital city Delhi, the situation remains grim. Most hospitals are full to capacity and many have been refusing admission to patients amid depleting oxygen supplies. The situation is similar in Gujarat which was under Narendra Modi's governance for nearly 13 years before he became the prime minister. Currently as well, Abharti Janta Party government is in power. The oft-cited neoliberal Gujarat model which was one of the main planks of Modi's electoral campaign has been an utter failure in face of this crisis. The number of cases and deaths being officially reported in Gujarat is much less than what crematoriums are stating. The state of Uttar Pradesh as well continues to undercount cases. It is also administered by a BJP government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. While patients and their families crumble everywhere in search of oxygen and hospital beds, Adityanath has been falsely claiming in the media that all is well in the state. He went so far as to call for the National Security Act to be invoked against anyone contradicting this and for their property to be seized. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, the number of cases are steadily rising. A long, eight-phased election is still proceeding in the state until just a few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were leading massive public rallies in the state without any kind of precautionary measures against the virus. Even then, the number of cases being reported in the country was breaking new records every day. Now, an army of dead volunteers belonging to left organizations have been on the streets assisting people as the state and central governments have again failed to respond to the fast-spreading disease in an adequate manner. How did India land up in this situation? It is now widely accepted that most deaths taking place today are not simply due to the virus, but due to the lack of healthcare being made available on time and lack of government preparedness. Most of these deaths are preventable. The BJP government at the centre led by Prime Minister Modi had in the beginning of this year started posting about defeating COVID-19. In his speech to the World Economic Forum's TAWOs agenda on January 29, Modi said, by managing COVID-19, India has saved the world from disaster. Because of this premature declaration of success, the health authorities led down their guard and so did the country's people. This was despite multiple warnings to the government of an inevitable second wave of the virus, which went completely ignored. A massive Hindu religious festival, the Kumbh Mela, was held amid a sharp rise in cases. No physical distancing or protective measures were practiced, as hundreds of thousands of people congregated together, closely huddled with no room to move. A very small proportion of those who attended this festival were tested and little to no efforts were made to trace and isolate these people as they went back to their homes, carrying the virus with them. Even as the number of cases steadily increased, the central government made no efforts to scale up oxygen production and workout mechanisms for efficient distribution to hospitals. It was only eight months after the pandemic began that the central government started the process of building oxygen plants. Of the 162 plants that were commissioned, only 33 are functional today. Most state governments also did not install additional oxygen plants. In all of this, the response by the southern state of Kerala under the government of the Communist Party of India, Marxist, stands out. Kerala increased its oxygen production capacity so much so that it not only has enough oxygen for its own needs, it is also supplying oxygen to neighboring states. The well-developed public health system in the state has been treating people effectively and at no cost. Despite the high number of infections in the state, casualties remain low. Even now, the primary response of the BJP government has not been about containing the virus, but about containing the damage caused to its image. At least 52 tweets which criticized the government's response to the crisis were censored after the government asked Twitter to take them down. Next, the government's Ministry of External Affairs went after the newspaper, The Australian, who criticized Modi and stating that he led India into a viral apocalypse. I can't breathe. The words that have come to represent the brutally racist state and police system in the United States are today being used across India in a different context as the virus continues to spread. The decline of this outbreak will not be as sharp as its rise and this wave is far from over. As state and central governments cramble to respond, there is no telling how many dead will be left behind. That's all for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.