 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, the Trump administration to take over COVID-19 data collection, politicization of data fear, a major outbreak suspected in India's Nagpur jail, says prison inmate Jee and Sai Baba, who is also a political prisoner. Tunisian Prime Minister resigns after Nahada withdraws support over allegations of conflict of interest, neoliberal discourse on land harming livelihoods and environments, and new rescue plan approved by unions and creditors for South Africa's flag carrier South African Airways. We begin with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of infections around the world has touched 13.7 million, with over 586,000 fatalities as of today afternoon. Yesterday, over 234,000 cases were added. The biggest contributors to the daily increase of the United States, Brazil and India, which together accounted for more than half the new cases yesterday. As the number of cases rises in the US, the Donald Trump administration will be taking control of COVID-19 data collection. The government will be taking over the task from the Center for Centers for Disease Control or the CDC, which has been the reporting body for the pandemic so far. The new data will be reported directly to a central database under the supervision of the US Department of Health and Human Services or the HHS. The move has raised concerns of possible politicization of COVID-19 data by the Trump administration. Though the CDC was administered by the HHS, it held a great deal of autonomy from the administration. The new move happened after the CDC came under fire for its late reporting, with at least a week-long lag in hospitalization rates according to some reports. Nevertheless, the ruling Republican Party in the US has been criticized for tampering with the data in the states it controls to justify that push for an early reopening of the economy. Many fear the new move will have the same risk. We now go to India where the number of reported cases has come close to a million. In central India, the state of Maharashtra, an outbreak has been reported from Nagpur's central jail. The virus has reportedly infected hundreds, including inmates and guards. The jail also houses some prominent political prisoners. One of these political prisoners is Jeanne Sai Baba, a former professor at the Delhi University. He was arrested for allegedly being a member of the Ban Communist Party of India Maoist. His wife, A.S. Vasanthakumari, on Wednesday explained that Sai Baba told her last week over the phone about the alarming spread in the prison. According to her, all 20 prisoners of the undersell or the solitary confinement ward where he is lodged underwent swap tests and one prisoner was found positive. Condemning the insensitive manner in which he is held, the national platform for the rights of the disabled has demanded that the government release him on bail for treatment. Apart from the dangers of the outbreak, the wheelchair-bound Sai Baba is 90% disabled with 19 serious health conditions. In a statement released on Thursday, the NPRD said his immune system is compromised and he has high blood pressure as well. The organization also argued that the conditions of custody is in violation of several national and international laws and prisoners' rights. Another prominent political prisoner, the poet Varawar Rao, who is in the Taloja jail in the same state that is in Maharashtra, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. The 79-year-old Rao is also accused of links with the Maoists in a controversial case known as the Elgar Parishad case. Many prominent critics of the government have been jailed in this case. Last week, Rao's family had revealed that his health had deteriorated very badly and that he was hallucinating. Following this, he was shifted to a hospital in Mumbai. Now, next story, Tunisian Prime Minister Elias Fakfak resigned from his post on Wednesday after less than five months in office. The decision to resign came after his meeting with President Kai Said. Resignation took place after more than 105 lawmakers filed no-confidence motion against him in the parliament earlier in the day. Nihada, the largest party in the parliament and part of the coalition supporting him, asked the Prime Minister to resign citing loss of confidence. This was prompted after an independent legislator published documents indicating that the Prime Minister owned shares in some companies which won government contracts of $15 million. Now, the president has a week's time to designate a new Prime Minister who will have two months to prove majority. There are two 17 seats in the parliament of which the Nihada-led coalition has a support of 106 MPs. The Prime Minister was appointed his post in January this year. Parliament approved him on February 28, making him the eighth Prime Minister in the past nine years since the Tunisian Revolution. Successive governments in the country have failed to improve its economic condition and the country is now struggling due to the pandemic. The country has also seen several protests in the recent past, especially in the southern regions against its government's failure to deal with the spiralling crisis. Earlier this week, a report on global disposition published by the Oakland Institute seeks to debunk several myths of advocates of neoliberalism. The report argues that the push to privatize communally held land not only disperses millions from their source of livelihood, but also endangers environmental stability. It also questions widely accepted notions about private ownership of land being the solution for development. The report highlights how large US corporations along with international financial institutions like the World Bank use their clout on the global south and force them to adopt their model of development. The report studied the laws and policies adopted by the governments in Ukraine, Zambia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and Brazil. However, it argues that this is a global trend. Under this model, countries offer privatization of land in order to increase production. The report notes that as much as 65% of all land in the world is stewarded and managed communally with billions of people relying on these lands for livelihood. Neoliberal land privatization policies lead to large scale dispossession of local producers and indigenous people. In many countries, communal lands are marked as unused and vacant by governments to be handed over to private corporations in the name of development. This trend is also seen in countries such as the US. And finally, earlier this week, the stakeholders of the Leadership Consultative Forum or the LCF, comprising trade unions, creditors, trade unions and creditors, approved a revised business plan for the South African Airways. The plan was passed with 86% of the votes in favor. The number needed for the passing of the plan was 75%. If the plan was not approved, a liquidation process would have been triggered, resulting in the loss of all jobs with meager and conditional severance packages. The possibility was avoided much to the relief of the unions which have for long struggled against various interests to keep the carrier afloat. The plan was approved on Tuesday and it was presented by the BRPs on July 9th after majority unions reached an agreement with the Department of Public Enterprises. As per this plan, a thousand of the 4,700 employees of the airline will be retained. In addition, another 1,000 employees will be put under a temporary training layoff scheme for a year. The airline will pay up to 4,650 RANDs, which is around 280 US dollars a month towards pensions and medical insurance of these employees. The implementation will cause the equivalent of 1.6 billion US dollars, which the DP has promised, despite the same government's treasury departments reluctance earlier. The unions are not entirely satisfied as the Department of Public Enterprises has appointed the current C financial officer Philip Saunders as the Interim CEO of the airline. Unions have argued that the previous management is responsible for the current crisis in the SAA and this includes Saunders. That's all we have in this episode of the International Daily Roundup. To know more about these stories, visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for watching.