 Learned welcome to the International Daily Roundup with people is just past where we bring you some of the top stories from across the globe. Let's take a look at today's headlines. Presidential contender Bobby Wine faces continued threats ahead of elections. Rights Group, BXLM labels Israel an apartheid regime. Indian farmers reject Supreme Court's intervention, they will continue protest demanding repeal of laws. U.S. House to hold vote today for President Trump's impeachment. How our CEP and EU-China trade deals are transforming global economy. Uganda's leading opposition candidate for President Bobby Wine is continuing to face threats of safety ahead of the election scheduled for Jan. 14. Wine whose official name is Robert Q. Gulliani, Santamu is the leader of the National Unity Platform he is running against incumbent President Joveri Musouvini who has been in power since 1986. Wine announced yesterday that the private security hired to guard his house had been ordered to withdraw at midnight. His campaign has been marked by repeated violent attacks, the retention of the majority of his campaign staff in the alleged murder of his bodyguard. Wine himself has also been arrested multiple times for supposedly violating COVID-19 regulations by holding rallies. 54 people were killed in the protests following his arrest in November. Rights Groups including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have raised serious concerns regarding the brutal crackdown on the opposition by the Ugandan government and security forces. Bobby Wine has also filed an appeal in the International Criminal Court to investigate President Musouvini and top security officials for human rights abuses. The appeal was filed on Jan. 7 and cites the widespread use of shoot to kill, beatings and other forms of violence by security personnel. The Ugandan government has also banned all social media platforms until further notice. The ban was issued on Jan. 12 in response to Facebook suspending certain accounts linked to President Musouvini's party the National Resistance Movement. A prominent rights group in Israel, Batsalam, has labeled the country an apartheid regime. In a report released on Jan. 12, the group acknowledges the inadequacy of terms such as prolonged occupation or one state reality. It argues that Israel's control within its sovereign borders and over the occupied territories is unified under the single organizing principle of advancing Jewish supremacy over the Palestinian people. The report further states that the Israeli apartheid regime functions through the geographical, political and demographic engineering of space. Palestinians are afforded a differentiated and inferior set of rights across besieged Gaza, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and within Israel. The report cites a widespread range of Israeli policies which deny Palestinians the freedom of movement, sanction the seizing and occupying of Palestinian land, the withholding of citizenship and the exclusion of Palestinians from effective political participation. The culmination of the Israeli regime's Jewish supremacy ideology is seen in the Jewish nation state basic law passed in 2018. The report argues that the law sanctions institutional discrimination by legitimizing and treating as fundamental the distinctions between Jewish and non-Jewish people. The report rejects the argument that Israel's military regime in the occupied territories is temporary stating that the regime has persisted for more than 50 years. By explicitly labeling Israel's control over the region as apartheid, Jerusalem has reiterated what the Palestinian people and international human rights groups have been arguing for years. Farmers in India are continuing the protest after rejecting interventions made by the Supreme Court with regard to three contentious farm laws. The court issued a temporary stay on the implementation of the laws on January 12th in response to several petitions. The minimum support price system of produce procurement will also be maintained during this interim period. The court has also constituted a four-member committee to make recommendations to resolve the deadlock between the central government and the farmers' unions. However, farmers have denounced the committee as an attempt to divert pressure off of the government and have refused to participate in the consultation process. This is also due to the fact that all four committee members have been vocal supporters of the farm laws and three have also openly opposed the farmers' protest as being misguided. Farmers remain unwavered in their demand for a complete repeal of the laws. However, the central government has so far refused any possibility of repeal leading to eight rounds of failed talks. The three laws have been widely criticized for facilitating greater corporate control over agriculture while dismantling crucial state support mechanisms. Farmers have reiterated that they will negotiate with the government directly and they will continue the protest till the demands are met. A massive Kisan of farmers' parade has been scheduled for January 26th, which is India's Republic Day. Protesting farmers have stated that the plan to ride their tractors into Delhi coinciding with the official parade. The US House of Representatives will hold a vote today for the impeachment of President Trump a week after a violent mob of his followers stormed the Capitol building. The House will invoke the article of impeachment charging Trump with incitement of insurrection followed by a debate and a vote. The vote is expected to pass in a Democrat-led House. The House is now moving forward with impeachment after Vice President Mike Pence refused an official request to invoke the 25th Amendment on January 12th. The resolution was passed on the majority of 223 to 205 with one Republican lawmaker crossing party lines to vote in favor. Under the 25th Amendment, the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet would have had to declare Trump as being unable to carry out the duties of the presidency. This would lead to his removal from office a week before his term was officially set to end. The impeachment vote will require a simple majority in the House of Representatives to pass. Following this, the case will lead to the Senate where a trial will be held to decide if the president is guilty of the charges. A conviction will require a two-thirds majority in the hundred-member Senate. It is only after this vote that the president will be removed from office several Republican lawmakers have reportedly stated that they will vote to impeach President Trump. If the article of impeachment is passed with the majority in the House, Donald Trump will become the first president in US history to be impeached twice. He remained in office following his acquittal in a trial held in the Senate for charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in 2020. In our media section today, we bring an excerpt from a conversation between Vijay Prasad and economist John Ross on ASAP and China-EU trade deals. Take a look. So, recently in the last month or so, the Chinese government has signed or been part of two major trade agreements. The first is known as ASAP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. 30% of global GDP has come together in this particular economic union. And the second one was just before the new US President comes to office, Joe Biden, was the EU, European Union, Chinese Investment Deal. These are two very significant developments. I'd like you to walk us through them. John, could you first tell us a little bit of the significance of the ASAP deal and then we'll move forward. Well, there's two significances really to ASAP. The first is the economic one. The second is what it shows about the present state of world politics, right? So, to take the first one, the economic one, this is extremely big. In fact, it's the world's largest largest trading agreement. As you mentioned, it takes in 30% of world GDP, 15 countries, and it's expected to have a major effect on the world economy, raising world GDP by about $250 billion, depending on the estimates which is made. It's also got certain very specific important features because it's very unusual that it includes not only developed, but also developing countries. Most trade agreements, not absolute yaw, but most trade agreements are either between developed countries or they're between developing countries. Certainly, if you take the scale of ASAP, it's crucial because it contains both. Also, a very important feature of it is that it was actually, so to speak, brought together by developing countries. It so happened that Vietnam was the rotating chair of ASEAN during the final stages of negotiation of ASAP. So, actually, Vietnam would have been in an excellent position to block it or obstruct the signing of ASAP, if you wanted to. On the contrary, all the reports in China are that Vietnam greatly facilitated the bringing together of this trade agreement. So, it's going to be important, therefore, because first it contains already China's largest trading area, which ASEAN, a very, very crucial feature of the present COVID effect, is now that ASEAN has replaced both the United States and the European Union as China's largest trading partner. This is in line with the processes which are taking place in the world economy. If you take the projections for the next five years made by the IMF, I'm not taking these because they're going to be exactly right. They're not going to be, but they, the numbers are so clear that there can be a huge margin of error and it won't alter the difference. Developing economies going to contribute about twice as much to world economic growth in the next five years as advanced economies. So, therefore, what you've done here is you put together not merely very large trading area, but you put together a very dynamic trading area. The Wall Street Journal, for example, noted this. It said, you know, this is not merely a very, very large trading agreement. It's the most dynamic sector in the world economy, or Gideon Rachman, for example, said, you know, new facts are being established on the ground. So, this is going to aid this country, particularly developing countries in Asia, of course, which are the main signatories. The second thing is what it shows about the state of the world, because, of course, the United States wanted to try to block this agreement, and it completely failed to do so. And it completely failed to do so, even with some of its closest allies. Japan, for example, is a signatory, and of course, it's a very close ally of the United States. So, why was Japan and other advanced countries prepared to go against the United States? Because it linked them into such a dynamic trading area. Then if you look at the politics of it, in addition to what you might call the economic diplomacy, it was also the question that the United States has been trying to create bad relations between China and Vietnam. Well, this obviously completely failed, because the Vietnam played a key role in allowing the agreement to come into existence. Secondly, the United States has been trying to create a big crisis in the South China Sea, sending ships through there and trying to carry out actions which will stir up tension. And all the major signatories are in all the major countries in the South China Sea are signatories of ASAP. So, this totally failed. What it showed was that the countries there, they want to get on with peaceful, quiet economic development. Doubtless, various countries will register protests about this or that boundary dispute and this type of thing. But what they really want to do is get on, they want to get on with economic development. They don't want to get on with having a big crisis. So, for ASAP is therefore extremely important first because it's a very big trading agreement, including developed and developing countries. It doesn't include the United States. And of course, it completely refutes the myth which the United States tries to put around that China is isolated because even the United States' closest allies were prepared in Asia, were prepared to sign the agreement. So, this is a real big deal, this agreement. And this is all we have for this episode of The International Daily Roundup. For more such stories and videos, follow our website, www.refusespatch.org, subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out our pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for watching.