 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. Workers across 58 UK universities go on strike. US re-imposers remain in Mexico migrant policy. Hunger rises by 30% in Latin America and the Caribbean. And report links major brands to Amazon deforestation. In our first story, we go to the United Kingdom where workers across 58 universities went on strike this week. The three-day action was organised by the university and college union or the UCU over what it calls the four fights. These include pay, workload, casualisation of contracts and equality. Among the key issues is cuts to pensions under the university's superannuation scheme. According to the UCU, average lecturers would see a 35% decline in their defined and guaranteed benefits. Meanwhile, the union has also pointed to an almost 20% fall in salaries against inflation since 2009. The pay is also unequal with 15.1% gap between men and women and 17% gap between black and white staff. Union has also noted a 9% gap for people with disabilities. UCU members are also protesting job insecurity wherein 67% of researchers and 49% of teaching only staff are employed under fixed term casualised contracts. Over 6,500 academic staff are employed under zero hour contracts where the employer is not obliged to provide minimum working hours. The UCU held two separate strike ballots with one for pensions and another for pay. Workers at 33 universities walked out for both issues including the London School of Economics and the universities of Cambridge, Sussex, Edinburgh, Leeds, Ulster, Dundee and Glasgow, among others. Strikes only for pay were held in 21 institutions and for pension only in four. A poll by the National Union of Students found that 73% of students also supported the UCU strike. Fresh ballots over strikes will also be held in 42 universities between December 6th and January 14th. The United States is re-implementing the widely condemned Remain in Mexico policy. Known as the migrant protection protocols, it was introduced under the Trump administration in 2019. The policy forces migrants to return to Mexico while they await asylum hearings in US courts. The Mexican government was forced to accept the protocols under threat of sanctions. At least 71,000 people were pushed back under the protocols and forced to live in border towns without access to care. While President Biden had scrapped this policy, a Texas district judge and then the Supreme Court overturned this order. The policy was subject to approval by Mexico, which was finalized this week with some changes. The US will have to try and complete asylum cases within 180 days. Officials will also ask if people fear being returned to Mexico. If they do, they will be screed and have only 24 hours to find a representative. Mexico is also pushing for exemptions for vulnerable groups. Both countries are also working on a joint plan to address the causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. However, the US is retaining the discriminatory Title 42 provision, which allows deportations without giving people a chance to apply for asylum. Border agents had already detained a record 1.7 million migrants by the end of September. Meanwhile, Mexico has reached agreements with thousands of migrants which would transfer them to other states and grant them work permits. Migrants often end up being stranded for months without proper food, housing and work in the southern town of Tapachula. Thousands of Haitian asylum seekers camped outside a processing center this week to seek urgent help and relocation. In our next story, the Latin America and Caribbean region has experienced a 30% increase in hunger with over 59 million people lacking proper access to food. An additional 13.8 million people face hunger in 2020 as compared to 2019. These findings are part of a recent joint report by five UN agencies, including the World Food Program. The level of hunger in the region has reached 9.1%, which is the highest in 15 years. Moreover, 267 million people were affected by moderate to severe food insecurity and an increase of 74% since 2014. In Brazil alone, 19 million people were pushed into hunger in 2020. The UN report also noted gender differences in food insecurity with 41.8% women facing hunger as compared to 32.3% men. It reiterated the need to transform how food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed. The report's findings are also indicative of the broader insecurity faced across the region during the COVID-19 pandemic. The gross domestic product of Latin America and the Caribbean region also declined by 7.7% in 2020. An estimated 34 million people lost their jobs. The region's annual inflation rate is also expected to reach over 10% this year. And for our final story, we look at a report linking over 400 brands to deforestation in the Amazon. Major companies like Nike, Adidas and Zara have multiple connections to tanneries and other companies making leather goods. A report by the Stand Earth Organization found that over 50 companies had supply chain links to JBS. The Brazilian company is the world's largest meat processor. It has been repeatedly linked to cattle farms in parts of the Amazon which have been illegally destroyed. The cattle industry has been found to be the single biggest driver of deforestation in the area. JBS is reportedly responsible for deforestation in 3 million hectares of the forest. As reported by Brasil de Fato, 81% of this would have been done illegally. The Stand Earth report focuses on how garments and goods being produced by brands are coming from cattle ranching in the Amazon. The findings are based on satellite images tracking deforestation, customs documents and cattle purchase data. The report analyzed 84 companies, 23 of which had clear policies on deforestation. Based on the data, researchers argue that these companies are likely violating their own policies. These findings have emerged at a time when deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has reached a 15-year high. According to Brasil's INPE, destruction increased by 22% in one year to over 13,200 square kilometres. President Jair Bolsonaro is working to expand agribusiness and mining in these areas while attacking the territorial rights of indigenous communities. And that's all for today. For more such stories, visit our website at www.peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you.