 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. UN Investigators Report finds Soleimani's assassination illegal under international law. Another bloated Lenin Moreno as Ecuador's foreign minister quits. Filipino Congress wraps up hearing on broadcaster ABS CBN franchise. We begin today with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today afternoon, the total reported cases have crossed 12 billion. The number of infections continues to grow at around 200,000 cases per day with over 550,000 fatalities so far. In the meanwhile, the number of recoveries has crossed 7 million. A UN investigator has concluded that the Baghdad Airstrike conducted by the United States stands in violation of international law. Agnes Kalamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extraditial Summary or Arbitrary Executions, is due to present her findings to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday. In her report, Kalamard stated that the US had failed to provide sufficient evidence of an ongoing or imminent attack against its interests to justify the strike. The January drone strike at the Baghdad airport assassinated Iranian General and Chief of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mehdi al-Mohandis, among others. While speaking to the press earlier this week, Kalamard called out the international community and the UN Security Council's inaction on the continued airstrikes, which he argued is provoking greater destabilization. Agnes Kalamard has also urged the UN to ensure accountability for targeted killings using armed drones and stricter regulation of those weapons. Her report will be presented to the UNHRC on Thursday, which will decide a course of action on the assassination. The US is not a member of the Council. It withdrew in 2018, citing the Council's alleged bias against Israel. Iran has already issued arrest warrants for US President Donald Trump and 35 others for Soleimani's assassination. In our next story, in Ecuador, the presidency of Lenin Moreno faces another resignation. On Wednesday, the nation's foreign minister, Jose Valencia, announced his resignation. In a virtual press conference, Valencia explained that his resignation is due to an entirely personal reason. Valencia is a third member of the Moreno government to resign in the past two days. On July 7th, Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner had filed his resignation. According to the local media, he had disagreements with various government officials and let him predict the decision. Sonnenholzner was Moreno's third vice president. He assumed office in December 2018 after two former vice presidents resigned for the alleged involvement in corruption scandals. The same day in the afternoon, the president's communication secretary, Gustavo Ayesh, also designed from his post which he had held only for two months. He was appointed communication secretary on April 23rd. He was the fifth person in that post since Moreno came to power. Valencia classified that his resignation had no connection with that of Sonnenholzner when he was asked about the possible cabinet crisis. And finally, the Filipino Congress is wrapping up the franchise renewal hearings for the broadcaster ABS-CBN. The hearing is conducted by a House Committee supervising franchises to grant a fresh broadcasting franchise for the channel and is expected to finish today. The House is yet to decide on a date for the vote on the franchise. ABS-CBN is one of the largest media houses in the country and held a legislative 25-year franchise earlier. The franchise expired in May after the House of Representatives failed to renew it in time. Attempts to grant a provisional franchise have been blocked by the pro-presidential block under various allegations of violations. Critics of the Rodriko Duterte government have argued that the franchise was allowed to expire over the channels reporting of human rights violations in the government anti-drug campaign and counter-insurgency programs. In the final day of the hearing, majority legislators in the House questioned ABS-CBN of financial irregularities and have come out strongly against the renewal. Minority legislators have argued that none of the accusations were proven by the federal investigations. In the meanwhile, dozens of workers from ABS-CBN have been demonstrating outside the Congress since Monday in support of the franchise. The workers were organized by the National Alliance of Broadcast Unions and called for a pro-worker franchise to protect workers. In our in-focus section, we bring you part of an interview with Palestinian lawyer activist Daira Butu. In this interview, she talks about the role of the Palestinian Authority and its relations with Israel in the context of the annexation plan. To begin with, could you first talk about, since July 1st, what has exactly been happening on the ground? Because the government does not exactly seem to have released details about whether it has started the plan, whether it is going ahead with the plan or whether it has put it on the back burner for some time. I think it's important to first keep in mind that there was nothing sacred or special about July the 1st. That was listed as the first date that they could begin annexation. The way that they were going to begin annexation was through one of two methods. One was to either put forward a law into the Knesset, the parliament, or through a cabinet bill doing the same. The reason that July 1st was the date that was specified was that this was the date that was spelled out in the agreement between Netanyahu and his once rival, who then became his ally, Benny Gantz, as being the first date that such legislation could be introduced. We don't know if things are on hold. We don't know what the shape of annexation looks like. What we do know is that it hasn't been called off. There hasn't been a statement by Netanyahu backing off of it. We haven't heard Gantz back down from it either. In fact, all that we've been hearing is that they haven't yet put forward the details of it in large part because we are now here experiencing a second wave when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus. This particular government was a government that was enacted only to address the coronavirus with one exception, and that is annexation. I don't suspect that things are going to be canceled. In fact, I just suspect that it's going to be somewhat delayed until a little bit of a later time, but certainly no later than when the US elections take place. That's what I predict. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with major news developments from across the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch. Thank you very much.