 Hello and welcome to International Daily Order by People's Dispatch where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines. Filipino activists mobilise ahead of Supreme Court hearings on anti-terrorism law. UN Secretary-General calls for withdrawal of foreign troops from Libya. Progressive candidate Andres Arauz leads opinion polls ahead of Ecuador in presidential elections. And we continue with Ecuador and indigenous groups still await justice in the dismissed Chevron toxic base case. In our first tour, the activists held a demonstration of the University of Philippines dilemma on campus today in preparation for Supreme Court hearings against anti-terrorism law. The demonstration was organised by the movement against tyranny as a grand send off for the legal team fighting to have the contentious law repealed. The law was passed in July 2020 by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. It has been widely denounced for restricting civil liberties while removing previous protections afforded in cases relating to wrong flurists, insurgencies and terrorism. Lawyers representing the petitions against the laws were the latest targets of the government practice of red tagging. Decentres in the country have increasingly been red tagged as supporters and members of the band Communist Party of Philippines New People's Army. Instrumental in this process is the national task force to end local communist armed conflict. A spokesperson of this task force Antonio Peralade issued indirect threats to the petitioners and grassroots organisers of the left wing Macabayan legislative block in a Facebook post. Peralade recently also red tagged 18 universities across the Philippines, alleging them of serving the recruitment and serving as recruitment grounds for the New People's Army. The government also withdrew from a 1989 accord with the University of Philippines which barred security forces from entering its campuses except in case of an emergency. The government subsequently deployed police forces to certain campuses. The Supreme Court has appointed a retired associate justice as an advisor for the upcoming hearings that begin on February 2nd. In our next story UN Secretary General Antonio Gutres has called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Libya. Gutres issued a statement on January 28th after a meeting on the UN Security Council. The acting special representative and head of the UN support mission in Libya, Stephanie Williams stated during the meeting that internal dialogues within Libya had produced tangible results. Williams reported that the warring factions were honouring the ceasefire agreement signed on October 23rd. The factions have also agreed on a plan for an interim executive authority ahead of the December 24th elections as well as on economic reform. The presence of foreign troops has remained a critical issue which is also led to the Security Council to issue a statement demanding the withdrawal of these troops and to start rebuilding efforts in Libya. According to the UN, there are an estimated 220,000 foreign troops including the Muslim Greece in Libya at the moment. We now go to Ecuador where progressive candidates for the upcoming presidential elections, Andres Arauz, has emerged as the frontrunner with a significant lead in opinion polls. A record 16 candidates have filed their nominations for the presidency in the general election scheduled for February 7th. Arauz is a member of the Progressive Union for Hope alliance led by former President Rafael Correa. As per a report published by analyst Omar Malouk on January 26th, Andres Arauz currently has a lead of 17.4% over his immediate competitor, Jilerno Lasso. Lasso is a member of the right wing creating opportunities party and social-Christian party coalition. The report also states that Arauz is the only 0.8% away from victory in the first round. These results are consistent with other polls which also place him in the lead. Andres Arauz is an economist and held various portfolios under the Korea administration. He is running on a platform of social protection that seeks to undo the neoliberal policies assured in by the Lenin-Morino administration, which is currently in power. His campaign promises to include the expansion of employment opportunities and assistance to families struggling under the recession brought about by the pandemic. For a final story today, we again go to the Amazon region in Ecuador, where indigenous communities are still awaiting justice in the now closed Chevron Toxic waste case. Residents of the Lago Agrio region had first filed a case against Chevron. This Chevron acquired Texaco Company in 1993 on the grounds that it had dumped toxic waste in the region's water bodies. Ecuador Supreme Court had ruled in 2011 that Chevron would have to pay $9.5 billion in compensation to the affected residents. However, an international court acquitted Chevron of the charges in 2018, accusing the Ecuadorian court of fraud and bribery. US attorney Stephen Donziger, who has fought for the Ecuadorian people, was later disbarred in his currently under house arrest, awaiting trial and charges of criminal content. Here's an excerpt of a conversation between Vijay Prashad and musician Roger Waters on the issue. Chevron, obviously, the reason they won't pay up the 10, 12, it's probably $12 million now with interest and whatever, billion dollars, why they won't pay up is because they understand that this could be opening the floodgate. Imagine how many billions in reparations Chevron Corporation must owe to people in countries all over the world. It won't just be Ecuador, it will be all over South America, it will be all over West Africa, it's all over Australia. And once one case goes against them and they pay up. Do you know BP? Because it was in Louisiana, where the Gulf Spell was, which they took the blame for, even though it was that company that was owned by Bloody Cheney, Halibut, and the drilling rig that exploded and had that oil spill. It was a relatively minor oil spill and it was accidental. They paid up, BP paid up without being asked. I think it was $158 billion to clean up the coast, $158. Chevron are only being asked to pay up $10 and it wasn't accidental. They did it criminally and on purpose. So imagine how much they would have to pay if the same kind of rules that were applied to BP in the Gulf were applied to Chevron all over the world. Because they've been doing this routinely to indigenous people all over the globe. But how far does this extrapolate? Imagine how much the British and the Belgians and the Germans and the Dutch and all the other colonial settler nations from Europe would have to start paying out to the indigenous people in all the millions and millions and millions of acres and countries all over the world that we settled and attempted to clean out. So I don't know, this is a long unfolding story. I just hope it gets a chance to unfold. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back on Monday with more news from around the world. Until then keep watching People's Dispatch.