 Hello and welcome to International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the major news developments from across the globe, our headlines. 1.5 million recover from COVID-19. Brazil and India add a record number of cases. U.S. depots, Haitians, Amit Bhatni. Anti-government protests resume in Iraq after formation of the government. Six months after the coup in Bolivia, right-wing atrocities continue. And South African Labour Court strikes on retrenchment consultations for national airline. We begin our daily update on the COVID-19 pandemic. Close to 4.2 million infections have been reported around the world as of today afternoon. 284,000 people have died so far and there are around 2.4 million active cases. Nevertheless, the number of recoveries has risen to 1.5 million as of today. The U.S. continues to add the largest number of new cases with over 20,000 reported yesterday. It is followed by Russia, Brazil and India. In the case of Russia, which is seeing more than 10,000 new cases reported daily, the surge has to do with its aggressive expansion of testing capabilities. In the case of Brazil and India, experts accuse their governments of failing to effectively contain the spread. Meanwhile, the U.S. is also planning to deport over 100 undocumented Haitians on May 11th. At least five of these people have tested positive. The deportation is to be done despite requests from Haiti to wait until the spread subsides. The fact was pointed out by a Boston-based rights group Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti or IJDH on May 10th. Responding to the news, the Haitian government panel, assigned to direct the nation's pandemic response, wrote to the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or ICE. The panel emphasized the risk that the uninfected passengers and crew members face when they are placed alongside those who are likely to be infected. The letter also pointed out the stress such deportations would place on Haiti's already strained public health system. ICE detention facilities from where such deportees are held have so far reported 788 infections. Previously, the Guatemalan government had also accused the U.S. of deliberately deporting infected patients without informing them. After over 100 of those returning were found infected. In our infocus section, we talk to playwright V, the author of the vagina monologues, on the pandemic, racism in the U.S. and the attacks on workers. Rebellion is on the streets and you are quite correct to say this touchless future is the fantasy of the fascists in a way. And yet in the United States, where you are based, it's the far right that's on the streets saying end the lockdown Give us a sense of the context of Trump, this disease, the lockdown, the fact that there are people on the streets saying please let us go out and infect each other. It's just so hard to even try to articulate what is going on in the madness of America right now because it's mad. But again, if you even look, they even the crazy right wingers know that the way to have power is to be in the present with your body on the steps of the Michigan State House, right? With your AK-47s, by the way, amassed. I mean, just imagine if any person of color or a black person showed up with that, what would happen? I mean, it's astounding what world of racism and inequality we are living in right now. I mean, Michael Flynn got free today, just his case got dropped today. I mean, it's every moment we see these extreme, extreme inequalities of power and justice. But I think what's happening in this country is on one hand, it just utterly terrifying. I think the kind of manifestation of white supremacy, which is of course been here forever, but now has a special agent at the top boiling it and cooking it and catalyzing it and inviting it and celebrating it as far as I can tell. He's unleashed all these forces that have been here. I think what's really disturbing me is to see the way we are killing off black people, brown people and poor people, and our essential workers, and they are often one in the same, right? And I've been doing a lot of work with women workers and nurses and restaurant workers and farmers and just we're doing this regular show, really trying to look at what is happening to women workers in this country. And I think what I'm very, very disturbed by is to see this kind of invisible genocide that is operating right now. What we call preexisting conditions, right? Which are kind of synonymous with systematic oppressions. So that you look at what are what are preexisting conditions that are killing people? Well, environmental degradation where people live in the neighborhoods where they are more susceptible to asthma. And so this disease is hurting them. Diabetes where people don't have the right kind of foods to eat. What's a preexisting condition? Like as all this is going on, the right wing is busily eroding women's rights and desecrating abortion rights all over the place. What's another preexisting condition is like their desire to destroy and extract the earth to death. So we're seeing the complete deregulation of lands and parks and places that should be preserved. And I think what I am hoping is happening is that people are waking up to understand that we are living in a country where capitalism and the kind of racist patriarchal capitalism has reached a peak. I hope it's a peak because if it goes beyond this we'll all be dead. Where we have to now make a decision that whatever door this is opening, whatever world this is opening cannot be a world governed by profits over people, commodity over care. Where we have to start saying who is actually saving our lives right now? Who are the people who are keeping us able, those of us who are privileged enough to shelter in place? You know, it's the workers, it's the farmers, it's the grocery people, it's the janitors, it's the nurses, it's the aides, it's the doctors. It's the people who, if you eat meat, who are working in the poultry plants and the meat plants. And those are the people who in my opinion have always been holding this country together and have been the least appreciated, the most underpaid, the most undervalued, the most under cherished and the most unseen. And what I hope is that this is the time where that's all going to change. Where we are now going to understand that the people who are most essential have to be the most valued and the most paid and the most cherished and the most protected. Because what we're doing to nurses, I don't know if you saw the demonstration today at the White House where the nurses went and put their all the shoes of the 88 nurses who have already died in this country who didn't need to die. All those women were sent into slaughter or mainly women were sent into slaughter without PPEs, without any protective gear, without masks. There was no reason for that to happen in a country as rich as the United States. Absolutely no reason except for lack of forethought, lack of care, lack of consideration and lack of love and respect for the people who are keeping us alive. I mean, I think that's very beautifully said. And I know that on social media, I've been watching you lifting up the stories of people who are, you know, the workers who hold things together, particularly people in the health field. But you know, there's a way in which every time there's a tragedy or an emergency, we call people in these fields essential workers and then a kind of amnesia sets in. When things go back to normal, there's a real forgetting. I know that you're trying to make the forgetting impossible. But how is this going to be fought in the realm of culture to make people not forget? It's such a good question. You know, we've been working for years on this thing in One Billion Rising called Women Workers Rising where we've been doing lots of work trying to build coalitions with women workers across various sectors. And I think, like you said, there's moments where people will rise up and they'll care. And then of course, but I think now, actually, there's what I hope and I, you know, I'm endlessly optimistic. I'm one of those beckoned people. I can't go on. I will go on. I must go on. But I feel like I do believe something has kind of shattered people's denial in this moment. Even these beautiful things that are happening every night in New York, where people are banging their pots and pans and appreciating workers every day. Something's going into the consciousness that has to be altering the way people see things. And you know, I was reading the story the other day of this beautiful woman who works on the MTA. She's a conductor on the trains. And I don't know, her story just really devastated me how she was going to work every day. And of course, they had no protective gear and they gave them these shoddy masks that didn't work. And there were no bathrooms that had water to wash her hands. And of course, she got sick and she got sick for two weeks. And when she came back, beautiful workers who she had loved were missing. And she said, you know, like, we do our jobs. We like our jobs. We don't hate our jobs. We actually like the work we do. But we want to be respected for the work we do. We want to be honored for the work we do. And we want to be cared for like everybody else. And she wasn't saying like, I hate my job. I don't want to be doing this. I think part of what we have to do is start asking ourselves, do we want to live in a culture, in a society where we respect each other equally, where we honor the work that people do and we pay for that work and we value that work, or do we want to keep in this awfully hierarchical capitalist structure where people are, they're basically, are seen as kind of slaves to the ruling class who will just do their bidding, be sacrificed at the altar. You know, they're not essential workers. They're sacrificial workers. And they'll just be thrown out there. And for the very, very, very small, you know, 1% or even 0.1% who is willing to sacrifice everybody for their pleasures and for their advancement. And I don't know, I don't think I've ever felt more strongly in this moment that we have to turn our reality away from this very, very, very small section of people owning the world at the expense of the majority of people. May 10th marks six months since the coup in Bolivia. On November 10th, the democratically elected government of Evo Morales was overthrown and right-wing leader, Jeanine Anez, was replaced. He was orchestrated by far-right groups in the military against the government or the movement toward socialism party. The situation in the country has been precarious ever since the coup. The coup regime is backed by the US and the organization of American states. It has been widely condemned for grave human rights violations, brutal political repression, and blatant racism and misogyny. Over the past six months, President Evo Morales, who's currently in exile in Argentina, has called out these setbacks suffered by the country under the coup government. Over several tweets, Morales criticized the de facto government for its anti-people, fascist, neoliberal, and racist tendencies. Under the right-wing government, there has been widespread persecution of members and supporters of the movement toward socialism. The coup government has also sought to reverse the policies of Morales' government and introduce neoliberal reforms. Elections were scheduled for the month of March but had now been pushed to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Minister Luis Arce is the candidate of the MAS and polls show him leading over right-wing candidates. In our next story, Iraq witnessed a new round of anti-government protests on May 10th. This was just days after the formation of the new government under Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadimi. The demonstrations took place in multiple cities in the south, such as Baghdad, Babel, Vasid, and Nasiriya. In Baghdad, protesters gathered at Tehrir Square despite the pandemic-related lockdown. There were some violent confrontations between the security forces and the protesters at the adjacent Al Jammuria Bridge, which connects the city to the high-security green zone. Protesters accused the new government of being part of the same old corrupt and incompetent elite. They said this elite was responsible for the severe economic crisis and the widespread poverty. Many of the demands of the previous phase of protests were reiterated. These include early elections, large-scale reforms in the electoral and political system of the country, as well as voting rights. Demands were also raised to investigate the killing of over 600 protesters by security forces during the protests. The al-Kadimi government has taken a conciliatory stand, agreeing to push for several of the demands by the protesters. However, there is little indication that the demonstrations will subside anytime soon. In a recent judgment, the Labour Court in Johannesburg in South Africa struck down retrenchment notices issued by South African airways. The court read down the notices, served under Section 189 by Business Rescue Practitioners, or BRPs. These BRPs are charged with the management of the airline. The court called these notices procedurally unfair. The notices were served to begin the consultation process to retrench over 4,700 employees. The BRPs proposed a package for the employees who would accept the retrenchment. This package included one month's wage in the form of a notice pay. This was in addition to payments for outstanding leaves and a week's pay for each year of service. The money for this was to be raised by selling the assets of the state-owned enterprise. The National Unit of Metalworkers of South Africa had strongly opposed the dismantling of the company. The BRPs also did not engage with the unions while framing the proposals. The South African Cabin Crew Association, or SACA, representing the workers, has in fact proposed an alternative plan to revive the airlines without laying off the entire workforce. Refusing to bow to such pressure, NUMSA and SACA approached the Labour Court, filing an urgent petition on May 7th to stop the retrenchments. Following this, the Court delivered its order. 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. We'll see you in the next episode.