 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. Volcanic eruption causes significant damage in Tonga. Israel renews detention of critically ill Palestinian teen. Argentine activists demand release of Milagros Salah. And Philippines election body rejects petition against Marcos Jr. We begin with Tonga, where communication lines remain disrupted after a major volcanic eruption on January 15th. The explosion of Hunga Tonga-Hunga-Hapai triggered a 1.2 meter tsunami on the shores of the capital city. The Pacific Island country has since then been blanketed in 1 to 2 centimeters of volcanic ash. While monitoring remains difficult, it is estimated that 80,000 people could be affected. Coastal areas are still largely cut off and significant damage has been reported along the western coast of Tonga Tapu. There have been no confirmed reports of deaths or injuries. The single underwater fiber optic cable which connects Tonga to the rest of the world has been damaged. Repairs could take weeks. The volcanic eruption which took place on Saturday is said to be the biggest in Tonga in the last 30 years. The underwater explosion sent a 5 kilometer wide plume of ash, steam and gas 20 kilometers above the volcano. It triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific including in Samoa, Hawaii, Chile, Australia and Japan. Two people also drowned off a beach in northern Peru due to abnormally high waves following the eruption. Tongan officials have called for immediate aid with an urgent need for food and fresh water. However, deliveries could be complicated given the threat of COVID-19 as Tonga has not witnessed any outbreaks yet. New Zealand and Australia also deployed surveillance planes to assess the damage on January 17. In our next story, Israel has extended the administrative detention of a critically ill Palestinian teenager. 17-year-old Amal Nakle was first arrested by occupation forces in the West Bank in November 2020. He is a refugee living in the Jala Zone camp. He was detained for 40 days based on claims that he had thrown stones at soldiers. Nakle was recovering from cancer surgery at the time. He was arrested again in January 2021 and placed under administrative detention. The illegal and arbitrary measure allows Israel to detain someone indefinitely without trial or charge. Nakle's detention has been renewed four times with the last hearing held just last week. His family is still not aware of the charges against him. Nakle suffers from a severe autoimmune disease called miastinia gravis. Due to his health condition, he cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 which has put him at further risk. His family also observed during his court hearing that Nakle was having difficulty breathing and talking. Meanwhile, concerns have also grown about the health of another Palestinian political prisoner, Nasir Abu Hamid. The 49-year-old from the Amari refugee camp has been in a coma for over 12 days. According to the Palestinian prisoners and ex-prisoners commission, Hamid is suffering from acute pneumonia. Nakle was severe inflammation in his lungs as a result of a bacterial infection. He has been placed on an artificial respirator at the Barzilai Hospital in Israel. The prisoner's commission has stated that Hamid was returned to prison by Israel without having fully recovered from a cancer surgery last year. In our next story, rights groups and activists in Argentina have renewed their demands for the release of milagrosala. The indigenous activist and leader of the Tupac Amaru movement completed six years in preventive detention on January 16. She was arrested in 2016 while leading a protest in the Jujui province. The action was related to 20,000 housing cooperative jobs. Protesters were demanding a formal hearing on the matter by right-wing governor Jeraldo Morales. He belonged to the ruling Cambiemos Alliance of President Mauricio Macri. Sala was arrested after being accused of instigation to commit crimes and disturbances. Despite Argentinian law limiting preventive detention to two years, she was not released. Instead, the Macri administration periodically introduced new charges against her. Sala is currently under house arrest facing 16 cases. One such case of alleged extortion and fraud has been pending in the Supreme Court since March 2020. Sala's arrest was declared as arbitrary by the UN working group on arbitrary detention. Thousands of union and social leaders, lawyers and politicians released an open letter on January 16 demanding her release. The letter argues that she was a victim of judicial warfare and the criminalization of protest and democracy. Activists also added that there could be no full democracy with political prisoners. And now for our final story, we look at the latest on the upcoming presidential elections in the Philippines. The country's election commission has rejected a petition seeking to bar the candidature of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The appeal has been filed by the campaign against the return of the Marcosas and Marshal Law or CARMA. It was based on a 1995 case in which Marcos Jr. was convicted for failing to file his income tax returns. Commonly known as Bong Bong, Marcos Jr. is the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. His 20-year rule was characterized by nearly a decade of martial law with 35,000 instances of torture and 70,000 political imprisonments. Marcos Jr.'s bid for precedent was condemned as a brazen disregard for these abuses. Moreover, his conviction in the tax case disqualifies him from election under Philippine's law. Despite this, he has held public office numerous times. CARMA has announced that it will appeal the election commission's decision. There are at least two other standing petitions against Bong Bong's candidacy. He is a front-runner in the upcoming election in May and has announced an alliance with the daughter of incumbent far-right president Rodrigo Duterte. Bong Bong has supported Duterte's policies including the brutal war on drugs campaign. He has also promised that if elected president, he will grant Duterte immunity from prosecution.