 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. WHO chief wants a return to normal is not possible if governments fail to contain the spread of COVID-19. Taliban's violence continues, latest attack kills 23. Israeli court rejects petition against the development of Pegasus spyware by NSO Group. Provincial elections in Spain see regionalist parties make significant gains and Palestinians continue protests against Israeli annexation plan. We begin today with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today afternoon, the number of cases had reached 13.2 million across the world. The World Health Organization estimated over 215,000 new cases were added on Monday. WHO director General Tendro Sadenom Gabrielsius has warned that failures to contain the pandemic by certain countries could have a lasting impact on the world. In his address to the press on Monday, the WHO chief said that too many countries are heading in the wrong direction. Tendro has pointed out that maybe nearly 10 countries today account for over 80% of the new cases added daily with two in particular accounting for more than half. He also added that mixed messages by leaders of countries which does not reflect the gravity of the situation is behind the eroding trust in efforts to contain the outbreak. In the meanwhile, the Donald Trump administration in the US is pushing through its anti-immigration policy by reopening immigration codes. At least three major immigration codes were reopened despite opposition from the Judges Association. The three codes that were reopened on Monday in full capacity are in Maryland, New Jersey and Michigan which have been witnessing a major spike in new infections. The administration cited a backlog of over 1.2 million immigration related cases as the reason behind reopening the codes. This stands in stark contrast to some sweeping immigration controls imposed by the same administration halting several major work and student visas recently. The recent decision of halting visas was done under the guise of containing the virus. At the same time, reopening immigration codes to speed up deportation is done with virtually no assurances to maintain physical distancing and safe courtrooms. In our next story, the insurgent Taliban has rejected pleas to renounce violence ahead of the intra-Afghan peace talks scheduled to take place soon in Qatar. At least 21 security personnel and two civilians were killed in Taliban attacks in North and Kunduz province on Monday. 50 civilians were also reportedly wounded in a heavy explosion carried out by the Taliban outside the National Directorate of Security Compound in the Aibak city in the Samangan province. The attack was followed by bomb blasts and four gunmen were killed by the Afghan forces. In a statement, the National Security Council claimed that an estimated 284 attacks have been carried out by the Taliban in the past week. These attacks have taken place in 16 provinces. On Sunday evening, an attack on government forces in the Shanwari district in the North led to the death of four security personnel and three others reportedly went missing. Last week, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said that the Taliban needs to reduce violence ahead of the talks as per the Commission, over 86,000 civilians have become casualties in the conflict over the last year. On Monday, an Israeli court rejected a petition to revoke the export license of the NSO group technologies to make the Pegasus software. NSO is Israel's largest surveillance company and its software has been used by several governments across the world, allegedly to snoop on dissidents and human rights activists. The judge said that the petitioners had failed to provide enough evidence in support of the claim that the company tracked its employees. The petition was filed by Amnesty International and 30 other human rights activists in January 2020. Diana Engelton, acting coordinator of Amnesty Tech, tweeted that the decision is a cruel blow to the people put at risk by NSO. According to the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Pegasus was used to track Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was killed in 2018 in Istanbul. According to Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, NSO's Pegasus has been used to target activists and journalists globally, including by countries such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the UAE, and India. The NSO group defends itself with the claim that it helps governments fight terrorism and other crimes, and that the company is not liable for any misuse. In our next story, the recent Spanish regional elections held on Sunday saw regionalist parties making significant gains. The leftist Galician nationalist bloc, or the BNG, made a strong comeback in the Galician parliament. The Galician nationalist coalition increased its previous tally of 6 seats to 19 in the 75 seat regional parliament by securing nearly 24% of the vote. Meanwhile, the incumbent conservative people's party retained their 41 seats in parliament and will continue to be in power. The Galician branch of the Spanish worker socialist party, or the PSOE, was pushed to the third position with only 15 seats, while the Spanish left coalition Podemos lost almost all its previously held seats. The BNG is a coalition of the communists, Galician peoples union, the Galician democratic left, the Galician movement for socialism and the Galician workers front. Meanwhile, in the election cell for the 75 seat BASC parliament, BASC nationalist party topped with 31 seats. The leftist BASC nationalist coalition, EHBILDU, secured 22 seats and the BASC affiliates with the PSOE won 10 seats. The BASC wings, the Podemos and PP, suffered setbacks and were confined to 6 and 5 seats respectively. And finally, Palestinians are continuing protests against the Israeli annexation plan. A rally was scheduled in Ramallah today, the fourth in a series of popular demonstrations against Israel. Last week, the Palestinian Higher National Committee for confronting the annexation had dis-erquired that the rally would be held in Ramallah. The first three rallies were held in Jericho and in the Jordan Valley, both territories that Israel intends to annex as part of its plan. The Jerusalem Post reported that the PA had called off the rally due to the recent COVID-19 containment measures, although the report is yet to be confirmed. Regular weekly protests have been continuing across the occupied West Bank, taking forward a momentum and similar to the Great March of Return weekly protests. These protests were carried out successfully every Friday for more than a year. That is all we have time for today. We will be back tomorrow with major news developments from across the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.