 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. UK parliament passes story health and care bill. US jury implicates pharmacy chains in the opioid crisis. Australia designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and Chile's Congress passes marriage equality bill. In our first story, we go to the United Kingdom where the Tory government has passed the widely criticised health and social care bill. The legislation passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons on November 23rd with a majority of 294 to 244. The stated purpose of the bill was to undo reforms introduced in 2012 under the Cameron administration. However, it was dubbed the corporate takeover bill for its impact on public health care. The national health service is facing critical issues including funding shortages and millions of people in waitlist. The health and care bill will break up the NHS into 42 different independent integrated care systems or ICS. Rather than one central NHS body, individual ICS boards will have the authority to decide which services they want to offer in their area. Of particular concern is the fact that private health care companies will be members of these boards. The Labour Party tried to remove this provision in Parliament on Tuesday but it was blocked by Tory MPs. The NHS was already privatised by an estimated 7 to 22% between 2018 and 2019. Labour MPs were also blocked when they tried to remove parts of the bill which gave the health secretary broader powers to intervene in changes in NHS services. A crucial amendment calling for independent workforce projections to solve the staffing crisis was also voted down. Anti-privatisation campaigners like Unite the Union have warned that the bill will implement a US-type health care system. They have also pointed to consultations between the UK government and private companies on what to charge for operations. In our next story, three of the United States' biggest pharmacy chains have been implicated in fueling the country's opioid epidemic. A federal jury in the state of Ohio held Walmart Inc, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp, liable on November 23. Jurors backed Ohio's Turnbull and Lake Counties who said that these chains failed to create adequate systems to track illegitimate opioid prescriptions. 140 million pills were allegedly pushed into these counties over six years starting in 2006. The jury ruled that these pharmacies contributed to a so-called public nuisance by selling and dispensing huge amounts of prescription pain pills. Some of these ended up on the black market. A separate hearing to determine the compensation will be held in May 2022. By 2019, the public health crisis had led to almost 500,000 opioid overdose deaths over the past 20 years. The state of Ohio witnessed an increase of 26.6% in such deaths between April 2020 and 2021. Long synthetic opioids like fentanyl accounted for nearly two-thirds of these cases. At a national level, overdose deaths increased by 28.5% between May 2020 and April 2021. Tuesday's verdict sets a key precedent for the over 3,300 lawsuits filed against drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies across the United States. It is also important in light of the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling, which overturned a $465 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson based on a similar public nuisance argument. A judge in California also threw out a case against farmer companies brought by over four municipalities earlier this month. Next we go to Australia, where the government has designated Lebanon's Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. European Home Minister Karen Andrews announced the decision on November 24. The government had already banned the organization's armed wing in 2003. The move is being seen as an attempt to appease the United States and its close ally, Israel. Hezbollah is an anti-occupation and anti-imperialist resistance group which was formed in the 1980s. It successfully fought Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and rebuffed subsequent invasive attempts. It has also aided the Syrian government to regain its territories taken over by United States-backed so-called rebel groups in the war. It recently also defied U.S. sanctions to bring Iranian oil into crisis hit Lebanon via Syria. U.S. has long claimed that Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran. The group has denied these claims while maintaining that Iran is a close ally. The Biden administration blacklisted some Lebanese individuals in May over their alleged ties with Hezbollah. It also called for international action stating that the group posed a threat to the United States, its allies, and interests in the Middle East and globally. Some European countries and Saudi Arabia have taken action against the group since then. However, they avoided an outright ban given that Hezbollah is one of the largest political groups in Lebanon. Importantly, it is a part of the government raising concerns of a diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and Australia. And for our final story, we go to Chile, where the Congress has approved a Marriage Equality Bill. The Chamber of Deputies approved the legislation on November 23rd with 101 votes in favour, 30 against, and two abstentions. The bill will now head to the Senate where it was previously stalled for four years for another vote. The Congress has now introduced several changes into Chile's civil code. This includes the replacement of terms like husband, wife, mother, and father with gender neutral terms like spouse and parent. While Chile had accepted same-sex civil unions in 2015, this did not apply to adoptions. The bill passed on Tuesday guarantees non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in matters of child custody, parentage, and adoption. Parentage is also extended to people who had children with the assistance of reproductive technologies. Moreover, all articles that prevented married trans people from making changes to their birth certificates have been repealed from the Gender Identity Law. The Marriage Equality Bill, as amended by Congress, also regulates the pension system to include surviving spouses and guarantees family allowances. It also recognises same-sex marriages contracted abroad. If the amended legislation is passed by the Senate, it will go to the President to be signed. It will finally become law 90 days after being published in the official Gazette. And that's all for today. 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