 The world is staring at a crisis today. And it's not only because of a virus. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen people across the world display inspiring solidarity, but it has also laid bare the contradictions of capitalism. World over, we see health systems unprepared to handle the situation after decades of austerity. We see governments wear it to big capital, refusing to respond in time. We see the workers of the world, those in precarious jobs, those in the care sector, migrants and refugees, women in the LGBTQ community, wear the brunt of the pandemic, even as a rich plot to escape to elite bunkers. If this crisis teaches us anything, it is that capitalism cannot ensure our survival and in fact actually threatens it. In this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes, we take a look at the continuing struggles of people across the world against the system designed to benefit only the top 1%. In our first story, we go to the belly of the beast, the United States, and look at a company that epitomizes the broken nature of capitalism. Workers at the multinational restaurant chain McDonald's have slammed the company's limited paid leaves policy in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. McDonald's so far has offered only extra paid sick leaves to workers, either quarantined or in locations with high incidence of infections. This policy covers less than 5% of the stores according to the Fight for Dollar 15 campaign that is currently leading a struggle of fast food workers for paid leaves in the US. McDonald's workers in the state of Florida have been on strike by refusing to turn up for work since March 12th. They have demanded an extension of their paid leaves to include a quarantine period or any kind of outbreak related work disruption for anyone who wears the uniform. The demands have included that the leaves be extended if a worker or anyone in their household were to show signs of an infection. The demands also include wages for hours missed due to any kind of closures that might be required during the outbreak. Workers have also demanded that the company come up with a comprehensive prevention policy and train the managers and workers alike to limit the possibility of infections. The coronavirus is affecting everybody around the world but more so it's going to affect minimum wage workers and tipped workers like myself. It's important to realize that we need $15 an hour and a union as this spreads, a pandemic spread to protect the workers and the rights for everybody as we continue to go through this struggle. In California, even as gig economy corporations like Uber and Lyft were forced to agree to compensate their workers for lost wages due to quarantine or sickness, workers demanded more be done to mitigate risks. They have recently petitioned the Californian government to step in and protect the workers during the epidemic and also their livelihoods. Multiple unions have identified fast food workers and gig economy workers to be among the most risk-prone groups in the outbreak in the US as they are more likely to be in contact with the general public. Even though the US has reported more than 1,200 infections and 36 deaths from COVID-19, restaurant chains have been reluctant to support their workers. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, hourly wage workers in the fast food sector and the gig economy have been denied sick leaves that are legally mandated to them. According to the Federal Labor Statistics Bureau, over 69% of hourly wage or low-income workers in the US do not receive any paid sick leaves. As the coronavirus pandemic is raging in the country, only 15% of fast food workers have paid leaves left, leaving over 32 million workers without any. The gravity of the matter can be seen from the fact that President Donald Trump, who showered over a trillion dollars in stimulus for banks earlier this week, had to admit that the government was working on a compensation package for wages lost for hourly wage workers during the outbreak. Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has also come out in support of the struggling workers. In a recent tweet, he admonished Whole Foods and Amazon subsidiary for asking workers to share their paid leaves during the outbreak. Most hourly wage workers in the US live from paycheck to paycheck. A disruption can set them back on their rent, basic utilities and even healthcare for their family. The outbreak has in many ways unmasked the issues affecting millions of US citizens. Paid sick leaves for hourly wage workers is said to be a nationally relevant issue even after the threat of the pandemic is contained. We now go to another victim of the US system, someone who has fought an epic battle in defense of our principles against the imperialist state. Whistleblower Chelsea Manning is said to be free after nearly a year in jail following an order from a federal judge on March 12th. Judge Anthony Trenga of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia passed the order stating that Manning is no longer required to testify before the grand jury. The reason given for the release was that the term of the grand jury before whom she was subpoenaed to testify expired on Thursday. The order comes on the same day that Manning was moved to a hospital by prison authorities after an attempted suicide. But neither the prison officials who insist on calling it an incident nor the judge who passed the order have acknowledged this fact. Manning is currently recovering at a hospital in Alexandria Virginia. Chelsea Manning has been in prison since March 8, 2019 except for a two-week gap after she twice refused to cooperate with federal prosecutors in a secretive indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. She was held at the Alexandria County Jail. The first time she refused to testify before a grand jury, Manning faced incarceration as part of judicial sanctions against her. The sanctions, which were meant to force her to cooperate with the prosecutors, became more coercive after she refused to testify the second time on May 16th. Judge Trenga, who was a presiding judge in both cases, imposed a hefty fine of US dollars 1000 per day along with imprisonment. Manning has accumulated US dollars 246,000 in fines because of the sanctions. Despite the release order, Judge Trenga insisted that a fine has to be paid in full by Manning. It is not clear how she will be able to do so considering that she had to close down her private business and vacate a house because of the sanctions. An international fundraiser and a global campaign has been launched to help Manning pay off this unjust fine. The link to the fundraiser is in the description of this video. Chelsea Manning's battle has been for the entire world, for all of us, and as the US establishment's persecution of her continues, international solidarity is her greatest defence. In our final story, we go to the occupied Palestinian territories, where the Israeli Defence Ministry has approved the construction of a separate road to separate Israeli and Palestinian motor traffic. This was announced by Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett on March 9th. The new road, which will connect the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, will also facilitate the construction of roughly 3,500 more illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli settlement project had been put on hold for the last eight years due to criticism and opposition from the international community. Dubbed the Sovereignty Road and claimed to be for Palestinians by Israel, this new road will connect the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Anata, Izayim, Hezma and Aram, which lie north of the illegal Israeli settlement, Malay-Adumim. The Palestinian neighbourhoods will be linked to one another without having to enter the Malay-Adumim settlement area. It will also allow Israel to continue expanding its illegal settlements in the highly contentious East One or E1 area of the occupied East Jerusalem. This would lead to effectively cutting off parts of the northern West Bank from the southern areas, and further putting in peril the establishment of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state. Just before the Israeli general elections of March 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approved the restarting of the E1 settlement projects, drawing criticism from Human Rights Group as well as the international community. The planned new construction will also connect the settlements of Kaffar-Adumim and Malay-Adumim with one another in area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control. The settlement monitoring group Peace Now has condemned the approval for the construction of the new road in a statement saying that there is no desire here to improve Palestinian transports only to expand settlements. It is also claimed that the planned road would allow Israel to cut the West Bank in half, build up E1 and the West Bank barrier, and shut down the possibility of developing a viable Palestinian state. Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu-Rudine also denounced the approval for the apartheid road, deeming it another blow to Palestinian hopes for an independent state. That's all we have for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. To know more about these stories, visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for watching.