 More than 600,000 medical collaborators from Cuba have worked in 165 countries over 6 decades. On May 24, Cuba marked the 60th anniversary of its unique medical brigades. Next story, we discuss China's two-month investigation of U.S. chip company Micron Technologies, which has ended in a ban. And finally, a hectic week in Brazil's Congress, fault lines between far-right and center that controls Congress and President Luis Ignacio Lulada Silva's supporters came to the fore on Wednesday night. More than 600,000 medical collaborators from Cuba have worked in 165 countries for 6 decades. On May 24, Cuba marked the 60th anniversary of a unique international collaboration that began in 1963 in Algeria and has provided healthcare and health services around the world since then. China from the People's Health Movement discusses why this has been an important work by Cuba. I'm not great to have you on the show and it's an important sort of anniversary being marked by Cuba. Now the international outreach of Cuban doctors has actually meant a lot to global health movements. It's meant a lot to people's health movements. Can you tell us why it is so significant? I think it's significant for many, many reasons. So just a couple of days ago, the Cuban Minister of Public Health was at the World Health Assembly and he was giving a speech where he mentioned that Cuba, despite all the problems, was actually able to achieve health for all. Health for all is an ideal that the WHO boasts for decades now that it strives to achieve but very, very few members of the WHO can actually say that they made significant progress towards this goal. And one of the reasons why Cuba was able to do that is because of this very specific understanding of health, of what health should be and how it should be achieved. So it's not just a technical part, it's also the revolutionary impact that the right to health should have and that the role of the health workers is actually to help people to achieve the best health that they can. The way that they approach this is, again, very different from what the Global North sees and for what the Global North pushes on a global scale. It's based in the community on primary health care. So actually on collecting the experience and addressing the problems of the poorest of people and making sure that the poorest of people have adequate access to quality health care and that quality health care isn't only available in cities as it is in many, many other parts of the world. And inside this whole story, the specific story of the Cuban Medical Brigade is very specific because it kind of undermines the whole narrative about the health worker migration and it undermines the approach that the world has had to how we can support other countries in times of crisis but also at times where just the health system doesn't work because of lack of funds or something like that. Right, Anna. So a very local approach to solving the immediate health problems so that they do not snowball into giant crises which we see in many parts of the world as well as an international outreach. Why did Cuba decide to go with both these approaches and how has it made a difference? Well, the community part, it's actually something that's recognized at least formally as having a good impact. So, you know, if you talk to a very mainstream group of health policymakers, they will say, oh, of course, you know, primary health care community outreach, that's the way to go. But we haven't seen that implemented in many places. Also because it's the community-based, the primary health care-based approach, it actually reduces the amount of space that you have for the private sector or at least it reduces for a bit the profit-driven logic that's behind many, many health systems in the world. So that's on the one hand. But the international part is something very particular, I would say, because it really draws from how Cuba approached other countries very, very short after the revolution. So one of the first mission that was sent was to Algeria in 1963. And this was, you know, it was something that was a bit unplanned. So if you read the interviews from the people who went there to Algeria, they said that it was mostly unknown. So they didn't know what to expect. They didn't know what they would find when they arrived to Algeria. But this drive to actually go and help and build a health system in a country where it needs, it's something that comes from the revolution. I think that one more thing that's important to underline is that, you know, when we say, when we usually talk about medical aid, international medical aid or international humanitarian actions that approach health also in a way, it's something that's very, it's something that comes from the outside. And then when it leaves, it just leaves health systems as devastated as they were before. This is not the case with the Cuban international health brigades. So their role is actually to come there to help build the health system. So it's a health system that stays there. They're also not there to stay forever. They're there to stop the health system until the country in question has trained its own health workforce, which can then drive the health system further. And it goes a step beyond that because Cuba actually offers medical training for people from the global south, for countries from the global south who cannot afford that. So for any country who doesn't have the money to support public training of its own health works, the Latin America School of Medicine is there free of charge to train hundreds and thousands of health workers who then go back and actually stop the health system. So it's a very particular, it's a very positive story in global health, a bit unusual, unfortunately, but it's really, it's really an important anniversary that we have marked this week. Right, it's not just unique, but also unusual, which is a sad part that it hasn't spread as widely as perhaps people like you in various health movements would really want it to. Yeah, I mean, it's, we can say that it has spread so over the years, over the past 60 years, it has the Cuban health workers have reached, I think, somewhere around 165 countries in the world. This is, you know, it's an enormous reach. And let's remember also that among these countries, we should also count some global north countries like Italy, who weren't able to cope with some health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning. So it's, in this way, the Cuban health brigades have reached a tremendous, you know, part of the world. The problem is that they're often not talked about as much as they should have. There was the initiative to, of course, award them the Nobel Peace Prize because of the work that they did during the pandemic. But then if you look at how they're painted usually, especially in the corporate media, it goes in a very different direction. So it's even tried to use as a way to discredit Cuba and the work that it does internationally. But what we know is that it's a program that has tremendous potential that, you know, it makes an incredible difference. So Cuban doctors and nurses and dentists, other health workers, they have treated millions of people. In the last 60 years, they helped deliver 2 million babies, over 2 million babies were delivered by Cuban health workers working abroad. So it's something that's, you know, really building towards strengthening international solidarity and showing that socialist health systems actually work. They work better than the ones that we have in capitalism. Right, Anna. Thanks a lot for joining us with that. Thanks. Late at night on Sunday, China announced it is banning micron technologies a U.S. company. Chinese companies won't be able to buy the company's chips. And China has cited relatively serious cybersecurity problems as the reason. According to reports, these problems were identified after a two-month investigation in China. It's important to remember at this point the Joe Biden administration's banning of numerous Chinese companies throughout last year. Vapa Sena joins us in the studio with some possible outcomes of China's steps. So Vapa, it's been a while since we discussed the chip wars between the United States and China. What's also different this time is that it's China which has barred a U.S. company. How did this come about? Why does it matter? Yeah, so just I think this week China banned micron from providing chips to Chinese infrastructure providers. Right, so it's not a full-fledged blanket ban. It's meant for only that target segment which is the so-called infrastructure providers. Micron is one of the leading manufacturers of memory chips and NAND chips which go into SSDs. So this is clearly seen as a retaliation for the various chip sanctions which U.S. has done against China. U.S. has been ratcheting up the so-called chip wars against China for a while now. It started during the Trump administration in 2018-19. It first targeted Huawei which is a leading manufacturer of telecom equipment and smartphones in the U.S. So they banned Huawei from getting access to high-end chips. Like cell phones have fairly high-end chips. So if you want to be competitive in the cell phone market, you're competing with the likes of let's say Apple or Samsung, you need the latest chips, right? And so Huawei was banned. But then when the Bush administration, sorry, when the Biden administration came, there were much more blanket bans which were not targeted at particular companies but the latest of these bans, of these sanctions happened in I think last year when basically the Bush, I keep on saying Bush, basically the Biden administration said limited Chinese access to all high-end chips and manufacturing equipment for high-end chips. So they are effectively trying to starve China from access to any high-end chip. They're defining it as 16 nanometer and less. See the most advanced chips today, the chips which Apple uses in its, let's say, computers and cell phones, they are at 5 nanometers. So 16 nanometers is really two, three generations behind the highest-end chips and US is cloaking in this in language of they want to deny Chinese military access to the chips. But really these high-end chips are meant for everything, right? I mean, a very small fraction of the chips actually get used by the military. So this is really an action by the US to try to cripple Chinese access to high technology. And eventually, I mean, in the world we are today where it's very dependent on digital and tech products, effectively trying to cripple Chinese economy. So this has been going on for a while. Now, for the first time, we are seeing China-Italian. That's right. Now, this is actually China saying that, look, we have the companies that use chips and we can deny you access to our market. But there was also, you know, Bappa, there was a two-month probe. What made the probe necessary into the activities of Micron? What did they really find? What do we know so far? See, apparently they did a security review and they're claiming that Micron did not pass the security review. And this is exactly what the United States says about say Huawei. They accept that consistency. About, this is the exact language US uses to ban access to Chinese companies or China access to Chinese companies access to these chips. So, see, China holds, it's not that US holds all the cards. So, US sanctions are defined in such a way that not only US products, but any product anywhere in the world, which touches US in some way, right? So, if you see these are complex products, they require design equipment, manufacturing equipment, testing equipment. So, any place in the supply chain, if your product touches some US technology, then it gets covered by the US sanctions, right? Okay. So, if the chip part of it is made or designed in say any country in Europe, so China can't access it. Right. For example, see, some of the most advanced chip manufacturing equipment comes from a company called ASML in Holland. Right. Now, some, so this is a very complex product and it uses different technologies from all over the world. Some of the technologies are patented in the US and so then US says that you can't sell the product to China, right? Okay. So, US does hold a fairly strong hand in this thing, but the Chinese retaliation comes from the fact that 40% of all semiconductors manufactured worldwide, the end market is China. So, by denying access to that market, China can really cripple the chip providers. And so now, this is the first step, this kind of Chinese thread that if you continue to do this, then we will, I guess, escalate the retaliation. So, micron is 11% of microns revenues come from China. Now, they've carefully chosen micron because the chips which micron produces, they are produced by other companies around, micron is not the sole supplier of this, right? Okay. So, for example, the Korean companies, both Samsung and SKIONX, produce memory chips which are as good as whatever micron produces. So, they can easily source it from them. Also, Chinese companies, like there is a company called by MTC, which has technology on the NAND chips, which go into SSDs, SSD drives, their NAND technology is at par or better than microns. So, this is also going to basically promote their own companies, right? And so, like, for example, US has now asked Korea, like Samsung and SKIONX, to not replace the micron, the amount of chips they are going to lose, like the vacuum that is created because that 11% of microns revenues, chips worth 11% of microns revenues, we are going to come into China and now most likely go to Korea. And so, US is trying to stop that. But the Koreans are hesitating. Clearly, it's a market share. They want, it's a very hyper competitive market and the margins are very low. And you really can't afford to let go of these opportunities. Papa, thanks a lot for joining us with that update. Indigenous movements and environmentalists in Brazil have declared strong opposition to legislative proposals by the conservative, dominated Congress in the country. Congress is pushing for an early vote on some proposals, including one to annul Indigenous claims on land older than 1988. It is also pushing for a draft law that would allow the Justice Ministry to delimit Indigenous territories. A commission of inquiry into the MST or landless workers movement has also started in Brazil amid accusations of political motivations. Zoe from People's Dispatch discussed the heated debates parked in the country by these moves. Well, it has been a tumultuous week in Brazil, in the Congress. There's been many different investigations, many different votes that have happened that is really bringing to light this kind of battle between the far right and the center, which controls Congress. And of course, Lula, who's in the executive and many of his supporters, which are in Congress, which are the minority. So one of the key areas and the kind of attacks that happened this week was about different regulations regarding access to land, regarding what is considered as Indigenous land. So to talk specifically about this, there has been a bill on the table for several years. That's the bill 490. This bill essentially, it's called the time framework about Indigenous demarcation. Indigenous demarcation is essentially the reference point, which says what counts as Indigenous land and what does not. So essentially this demarcation, this bill that far right and centrist are trying to pass in Brazil, it essentially says that what was considered Indigenous land and where Indigenous people were inhabiting in 1988 is the only land that counts as Indigenous land. And this has been opposed very, very strongly from Indigenous movements, from environmentalists. Essentially, this has been a bill that's promoted by large landowning class, the, as they call it in Brazil, the ruralist caucus in the Congress. Many Indigenous organizations say that in 1988, that's not really when Indigenous history starts. And of course, this is discounting 400 years of dispossession, of displacement of Indigenous people that occurred during colonialism. So essentially this week, it was, this bill wasn't passed, but it was on the night of Wednesday, May 24th, the Chamber of Deputies ruled to have an urgency motion and say that this should be voted on next week. And essentially, they're trying to have the vote on this bill 490 before it gets seen in the Supreme Court, which will happen on June 7th. They essentially are probably guessing that it will be ruled unconstitutional and that this time framework regarding Indigenous demarcation of land will not pass. And so they're trying to pass it in the legislature where they have control, where they have a majority in order to pass this. And it's really bringing to light, as I said, this major dispute between the legislative body and the executive and the judiciary. Again, this is promoted by the ruralist caucus, the large landowning class, that essentially sees the Indigenous demarcation as protection over land that they should have access to in their eyes. They want it for illegal mining. They want it for logging and all of the other activities which are attacking the environment. And so this again has been met with widespread rejection. Even the Minister of Environment, Martina Silva, made a very, very strong statement in the Chamber of Deputies while this was happening and saying that this is an attack on those who defend the environment. It's erasing the history of Indigenous people. So this is going to be a very, very hot issue. The voting again is going to happen next week. Of course, there's many stages that it needs to pass there before it becomes a law. But Indigenous movements have raised the alarm. They're saying that this is a direct attack on their rights. They have called for mobilization in the capital of Brasilia. So this will be a very important story to follow. And we'll definitely be containing it to follow as people dispatch. So just to briefly review some of the other major developments that have been happening this week in Brazilian Congress. As we've been covering the Commission of Parliamentary Inquiry against the Landless World Workers Movement, MST began this week, very, very intense debates about less about the kind of subject of the inquiry, which is essentially or says that it's trying to get to the bottom of who funds the MST, what's its motive, etc. Again, this is, as the MST has pointed out, this is very easily accessible public information. It's not something they hide. They're funded by the people who are part of the movement, etc. But there has been a lot of debate within this Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry more about the nature of the movement itself. And so a lot of the left-wing groups in Congress who are participating in this, in this sepe, have been questioning the validity of the inquiry, have been questioning the motives, specifically the political motives of the far right that is actually promoting this. And several members of this inquiry commission have even been implicated in the other major development just happening in Congress this week, which is the beginning of the investigation into the acts that happened in Brasilia on January 8th, where hundreds and hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters invaded the capital and destroyed several government buildings and wreaking a lot of havoc there. So an extremely active week we'll be following then on, you can check out on our website and also on our partners website, Brasil de Fato, who's covering this very meticulously. Very important to follow. We're really seeing this clash between the far right and the center that has been able to be empowered under Bolsonaro, under Michel Temer. And now they're being threatened, of course, by Lula's presidency, who's threatening their interests, threatening many of the things that they were doing very happily under Bolsonaro, destroying the environment, having access to more land, engaging in environmentally unsound activities. And so this is all coming to a head and it will continue to develop over the coming weeks. And that's all we have for today. Thank you for watching Daily Debrief. Do come back to us tomorrow and do follow us on our social media channels and keep watching. Thank you very much.