 Hello and welcome to today's episode of the International Daily Rounder 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. Indonesian code denies palm oil permits in West Papua. Chilean parliament approves marriage equality bill. Egyptian activist Patrick Zaki released pending trial. And the United States imposes new sanctions on Iran. An Indonesian code has rejected an appeal to reinstate permits for palm oil plantations in the West Papuan region. Surung district head Johnny Kamuru has cancelled permits which allowed companies to turn indigenous forests into plantations. Two companies, PT Papua Lestaria Badi and PT Surung Agro Savitindo, filed a case against Kamuru. Another case was filed by PT Intil Kebun Lestari which is ongoing. According to a Greenpeace Indonesia report, the three companies' health permits covering over 222,000 acres. The land belongs to the indigenous Maui people of Papua. Indigenous groups stated that they had not consented to the conversion of their lands into plantations. The permits were revoked following a review by the Surung government in February. The Jayapura Administrative Council upheld this decision on December 7th. Papua and West Papua are home to 40% of Indonesia's remaining primary forest. However, according to VICE, the area lost over 2.3 million acres of forest cover between 2001 and 2020. 70% of this was within the last decade with the spread of palm oil cultivation. Resistance to this destruction of indigenous lands has been part of the broader struggle for self-determination in the Papuan province. According to Greenpeace, 20% of Indonesia's palm oil plantations have been set up in areas where extraction is illegal. In 2019, President Joko Widodo issued a decree halting the development of new palm oil plantations. While the moratorium expired in September, it had already been overridden by the 2020 Job Creation Law. It allowed companies that had been operating illegally to retroactively secure permits. It also limited people's ability to challenge or be consulted on projects which may cause environmental harm. The law was declared invalid pending amendments by the Constitutional Court in November. In our next story, we go to Chile which has approved a landmark marriage equality bill. The legislation was approved in the Senate with a landslide majority of 21 to 8 on December 7th. It was then passed in the Chamber of Deputies with 82 votes in favour and 20 against. The marriage equality bill has legalized same-sex marriages and adoptions. It also guarantees non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in child custody and parental ties. It also includes the replacement of words like husband, wife, mother and father with gender-neutral terms like parent and spouse in the civil court. The bill also guarantees spousal benefits including pensions and family allowances. Tuesday's landmark vote was the result of decades of advocacy and a 2012 lawsuit filed by the MOVI LH Group in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The marriage equality bill was debated and voted upon in Parliament starting July 2021. Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera will now sign it into law and it will come into effect 90 days after being published in the Official Gazette. While this is a major victory for LGBT plus rights in Chile, concerns have grown around the presidential run-off elections on December 19th. Frontrunner and progressive candidate Gabriel Boric has supported same-sex marriage and adoptions and consistently voted for LGBT plus rights in office. Meanwhile, far-right contender Jose Cast has openly opposed and voted against expanding these rights. Boric secured 26% in the first round while Cast came in first with 28%. However, Boric has led in polls with a Pulso Ciduando survey placing him at a 15.9% lead over Cast. In our next story, an Egyptian court has ordered the provisional release of jail student and activist Patrick Jorzaki. He was detained at the Cairo airport in February 2020 when he arrived from Italy to visit his family. He is facing charges including spreading false news, inciting violence and terrorism and calling for protest without permission. These are related to an article he wrote on the condition of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority. He is a master student at the University of Bologna and was also a researcher at the Egyptian initiative for personal rights which now represents him. According to the organization, Zaki was subject to beatings, electric shocks and threats after his arrest. His persecutions sparked solidarity actions across Italy which had also been rocked by the 2016 murder of student researcher Giulio Regini by Egyptian forces. Zaki had also campaigned for Regini's case. His trial was scheduled to begin in September after he had already spent 19 months in jail. However, the hearings were postponed until December 7th. The emergency state security misdemeanor court adjourned Zaki's trial to 1st February in 2022 on Tuesday. While he has been cleared for release, it is not clear when he will actually leave jail. His detention was part of an escalating crackdown on activists and dissidents under President Abdel Fadal C.C. Egypt is estimated to have jailed over 60,000 political prisoners. This has taken place alongside an expansion of the definition of terrorism to target all forms of political dissent. And for our final story, the United States has imposed fresh sanctions on Iran amid ongoing talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The Treasury Department named 15 entities and individuals from Iran, Syria and Uganda in a statement on December 7th. It claimed the move was a part of the government's commitment to democracy and promoting accountability. Among those listed are special units of Iran's law enforcement forces and counter-terror special forces. Also included are Iran's Zahedan and Ishafan prisons and eight state officials over alleged rights abuses. Following the announcement, Iranian official Saeed Khadibzadeh stated that the doubling down on sanctions would not create leverage. Remaining signatories of the nuclear deal also criticised the action by the US. The seventh round of negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action concluded in Vienna last week. Iran presented two proposals to representatives from China, France, Germany and Russia. These were related to the original 2015 deal and mentioned the lifting of sanctions and Iran's nuclear actions. Iran's lead negotiator Ali Bagheri Khani told Al Jazeera that a third proposal would be presented once the first two were accepted. This would be related to necessary guarantees to non-withdrawal in the future. The US reimposed sanctions on Iran after unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear deal in 2017. Iran has maintained that all sanctions must be revoked for it to return to its commitments under the deal. And that's all for today. For most of the stories, visit our website at www.peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for watching.