 Hello and welcome to the International Daily, round up by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the major news developments from across the world. Our headlines. COVID-19 Infection Spike as Government's East Counter-Pandemic Restrictions. Donald Trump plans to designate antifa as terrorists, protests intensify across the US. Over nearly 100 US settlers invade Al-Aqsa Mosque with police cover. Over 80 migrants have died in Indian trains while being transported back home, says report. We begin with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of cases reported so far stands close to 6.3 million worldwide. The United States alone has over 1.8 million cases, while Brazil has crossed the half a million mark over the weekend. Fatalities currently stand at over 374,000 cases as of today afternoon. Despite the growing number, several countries are easing counter-pandemic restrictions or are in the process of doing so. India, which recently became the country with the highest number of infections in Asia, is set to gradually lift its country-wide lockdown in a few days. India saw the highest increase in new cases on May 31, with over 8,400 reported and single day. Its neighbor Bangladesh also saw its biggest single day increase as it opened up its economy after nearly two months. Bangladesh is reported close to 50,000 cases so far. As the Bangladeshi authorities announced the reopening of offices and transport service after two months of lockdown, the country registered over 2,500 new cases yesterday. On the same day, it also reported the highest number of deaths in a single day, which is around 40. Nevertheless, the country has also increased its testing numbers, bringing it close to 12,000 a day. The opening of the economy and normalizing of activities have raised the concern that the outbreak may get worse in the coming days in these countries. Public health experts have repeatedly raised concerns about resuming public movement. Similar spikes in daily infections were witnessed in different parts of the world. South Korea's reopening, for instance, has led to the biggest spike in over two months. On May 31, US President Donald Trump declared over social media that his administration plans to declare Antifa as a terrorist organization. It is still unclear how the move is to be enacted. Trump's tweet comes at a time when the US has been swept by protests against the police killings after the murder of George Floyd on May 25. Politicians and senior officials have been repeatedly blaming Antifa and so-called outside agitators for the protests. This includes officials from the Trump administration like US Attorney General William Barr and Democrats like the head of Minnesota's Department of Public Safety, John Harrington. Many of these serious concerns about the implications of labeling Antifa as a terrorist. While the US Patriot Act of 2001 allows for designating certain organizations as terrorists, there is no precedent in the US of designating a domestic organization such. Short for the anti-fascist movement, Antifa is a grassroots movement that has come up in response to the growth of the far-right in the US. Inspired by the Antifa protests in Germany and other parts of Europe, the movement has no organizational structure in place. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have also raised concerns about designating a movement like this as a terrorist and its implications on civil liberties. Many have also questioned if the move is an attempt to silence dissent in general. In the meanwhile, protests have intensified across the US and have brought around 30 major cities to stand still. 26 state governors have called in the National Guard, which is a reserve force, in order to suppress these protests. In the capital city of Washington DC, protesters have surrounded the presidential residents of the White House. There have been reports of clashes with the police trying to suppress the protesters. Reports have said that the president was moved to an underground bunker by secret service agents. Police repression against the protesters has only gotten more brutal. According to reports, an estimated 4,000 people have been arrested across the US. However, protesters have also received support from across the world, from progressive and anti-fascist groups. Solidarity protests were held in different parts of the world including London, Tehran, Canada and more. In our infocus section, we bring you an interview with Claudia de la Cruz of the People's Forum in New York about the protests that are happening right now. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. Protests and demonstrations have broken out across the United States, following the murder of George Floyd on May 25th. George Floyd was killed by police officers, with one of them actually placing his knee on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. In the aftermath, these protests have demanded justice, they have demanded systemic change, they have demanded an end to police racism. To talk more about this, we have with us Claudia de la Cruz of the Popular Education Project and the People's Forum in New York. Thank you so much Claudia for talking to us. And thank you so much Prasad and the People's Dispatch for inviting me. So to begin with, one of the key things many people are mentioning on the streets as well as people who have been raising these issues and movements for a long time is the fact that this is definitely not just one isolated incident. This is not a case of a couple of, I think you yourself have mentioned, this is not a case of a couple of rotten apples in a police force in one city in the country. This is really a systemic issue. There have been a number of such murders, such executions in the past and the trend nonetheless keeps continuing. And there have been a number of movements also, people in power have expressed words of sympathy, they've made calls of vague slogans for change but nothing has happened. So could you talk a bit about the systemic factors and how they play into this, especially when it comes to law enforcement? I mean, I think it's important to understand and you bring up the point of it being systemic. I mean, historically, when we think about surveillance, when we think about policing and militarization, we're thinking about what's at the core and at the roots of the development of the United States of America. To think about it as an individual case is a complete loss, not only for our movements but in general for our people. It creates disadvantage in us understanding how evil, how brutal, how demonic the system can be to protect capital and protect property and protect the elite. Historically we've seen the murder of black and brown bodies of poor people, including poor whites throughout the years and state sanctioned violence. It's important to understand that this is as American as apple pie. It continues to happen. I think the difference now is that it is something that's being documented and is something that is being put out for the world to see. And this particular case of George Floyd brought up a lot of indignation. Because he's not the first one to have been killed in the middle of a pandemic. He's one of many folks who have been killed, some of which we know and some of which we don't know. Not only by police, but also by vigilantes that have been in many ways supported by the state that have been given a slap in the wrist. And very, very soft measures, if anything, have been taken to pacify the people. And the people are fed up, even the judgment of how people choose to express and rebel themselves. And the narrative, when you have the president of the United States talk about black and brown and poor people as thugs and calls the mayor of Minnesota a loose lefty on Twitter. And says, I'm going to send the National Guard to take care of this in the right way. Like you see that, why supremacist, classist way of approaching people's pain and people's mourning. There's more concern for the burning of buildings and the killing of people. And so it's clear that the people of the United States, the people that are in the streets, that are making the streets burn right now, are fed up, and that they understand that it's not a matter of the nine minutes that it took for that cop for Shavin to put his knee on George Floyd's neck. It's beyond that. It's beyond those nine minutes. It's the 400 years plus of this type of state-sanctioned violence. On May 31, dozens of ultra-Zionist Israeli settlers invaded the al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem with the protection of the Israeli police. This was within hours of the mosque opening after a 70-day lockdown just before Muslim worshipers could enter to offer prayers. The director of the al-Aqsa mosque, Omar Kiswani, told reporters that some 105 settlers entered the compound along with several police officers who not only protected the settlers but also arrested three young Palestinians. The al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem was closed due to the COVID-19 threat for the past 70 days. It was reported that the worshipers were entering the compound on Sunday with celebratory chants but were met with police brutality. Last week, Israeli forces raided the home of the president to the Supreme Islamic Council and cleric of the al-Aqsa mosque, Sheikh Akrima Sabri, and arrested him. He has been accused of encouraging Palestinian citizens to pray in the mosque while it was closed. On the other hand, all the cleric had done was to call our fellow Palestinians to prepare themselves to defend al-Aqsa in the coming days. Israeli extremist settlers claim that the site of the al-Aqsa Mount is actually the site of the Jewish temple and they call it the Temple Mount. Some sections have even advocated destruction of the mosque and demanded that a Jewish temple be built in its place. And finally, at least 80 migrant workers in India have died in special trains for stranded workers between May 9th and May 27th, says the report. The special trains were scheduled to transport them back to the native towns and villages from the cities in which they had been stranded during the lockdown. These numbers were reported on Saturday, May 30th by the newspaper The Hindustan Times, which has reportedly accessed it from the railway protection force. Quoting one of its officials anonymously, the report further clarified that this is an initial list and the final list will soon be issued after coordinating with the states. Also, data has not yet been made available about the reasons for the deaths, as well as the deaths that would have occurred in the first eight days since May 1st when this service began. The service began following a massive public outcry about the plight of the workers under the lockdown. The railway ministry maintains that in most cases pre-existing medical ailments were the reason behind the deaths. However, numerous reports quoting the family members of the victims who were on the train have pointed to the shortage of food and water as possible reasons. 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.