 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the major news developments from across the world. COVID-19 cases across the world cross the half a million mark. Boris Johnson tests positive. India announces relief measures amid lockdown while reports of police harassment of delivery workers make headlines. When Israel and government condemns the U.S. indictment of Nicholas Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism. In Israel, many gans breaks away from blue and white and joins hands with the Daniyah. And finally, U.S. federal judge strikes on permit for the Dakota access pipeline. We begin with our daily coronavirus update as the number of reported cases have already crossed half a million worldwide. As we speak, the cases have come to about 533,000 of which nearly 385,000 are active cases and 24,000 deaths have been reported. The number of very critical cases around the world has reached close to 20,000. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the latest high-profile personality to test positive for the disease. A number of countries are facing the brunt of the crisis. The number of cases in the United States has crossed that of China, with fears that a crisis might worsen in the coming days. Spain recorded its single highest death toll in a day with 769 deaths between Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, French authorities have warned that hospitals in Paris will reach peak capacity in 48 hours. The number of cases is also rising in many countries in Africa. The worst hit have been South Africa, Egypt and Algeria. Many experts have expressed the apprehension that Egypt under the dictatorship of Abdul Fateh LCC is hiding the extent of the problem. The leaders of the G20 countries met yesterday via video conferencing to address the crisis, but did not seem to have agreed on much. The leaders said that they were injecting over $5 trillion in stimulus, even as criticism arose over the lack of a coordinated response. We talked to Chris Caruso, the education director of the People's Forum of New York, on the extent of the issue in the United States and the relief package that the Senate passed day before yesterday. In our next tour, Venezuela has harshly condemned the U.S. indictment of its President Nicolas Maduro and top officials in the country. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr had announced that Maduro and other officials would be indicted for narco-terrorism and money laundering. Responding to the allegations, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Ariaza called them miserable, vulgar and unfounded. He also said that the allegations were part of a new coup d'etat attempt against the constitutional government. The U.S. has also announced a reward of $50 million for anybody who aides in the arrest of Maduro. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Attorney General Tarek Williamsab, President of the Venezuelan Supreme Court Michael Moreno and 11 other current and former Venezuelan officials have been indicted. The indictment claims that Maduro and other government officials in Venezuela worked with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, which is now demobilized, to traffic cocaine from Colombia to Central America and the United States, using government institutions. We spoke to Vijay Prashad of Tricontental, the Institute of Social Research, on these charges and their implications. Here is what he had to say. So, as we've talked about, there's been a huge debate about the fact that the sanctions are causing so much problem to the people of Venezuela. It's criminal. It's almost a war crime. And at this point, we have the top officials, the U.S. Justice Department, coming out with a story which seems straight out to the pages of fiction. It's so fantastical. And so, what's your response to this? I mean, look, let's say, let's be frank that this is a global pandemic that the world is dealing with of COVID-19. There are cases now inside Venezuela. Of course, Iran has been hit very hard by COVID-19. The International Court of Justice has asked the United States to suspend sanctions on Iran. There is indeed a global campaign against the sanctions regime by the United States, unilateral sanctions against both Iran, Venezuela, of course Cuba, and 48 other countries. In the middle of this, of course, comes this very bizarre indictment of Mr. Maduro and some leaders in the Venezuelan government. But let's take a broader look at it. I mean, this Trump administration has actually tried to, in material terms, destabilize the government of Nicolas Maduro from January of 2019. They put up the pretender president, Mr. Guaido. They've made moves to further prevent Venezuela from doing business. They've essentially blockaded Venezuela from accessing shipping. They've worked with the Colombian government to amass troops on the Colombia-Venezuela border and threaten Venezuela. The government of Canada has led a group called the Lima Group, which has again tried to destabilize and isolate Venezuela diplomatically in the region and so on. So they've been doing all these things and yet haven't succeeded in overthrowing the government of Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution. They haven't succeeded. On the contrary, in fact, it seems strengthened the political legitimacy of Mr. Maduro and his government inside Venezuela. So out of all this failure in the midst of an international humanitarian tragedy, and I'm talking now of a global pandemic, the United States government decides on a very bizarre indictment. You know, I just want to say that it's on the one side, as you quite rightly said, bizarre and so on. On the other side is chilling because the script for this was written in 1989, when the United States government started against Manuel Noriega of Panama by saying that he was involved in NACO terrorism and so on. And essentially by putting a bounty on the head of elected leader of a government, you're essentially calling for assassination. You're calling for gangsters to go out there and attempt to kill somebody. This is essentially a public call for assassination. And I hope very much that countries around the world take cognizance of the fact that today, in March 2020, when the world is struggling with COVID-19, the United States government essentially put out a hit against the head of a government. After weeks of calls for government intervention in India from the left and social movements, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced a relief package of more than 22 billion US dollars on Thursday. Sitaraman claimed that the package will benefit more than 800 million people as they will be provided free food grains, gas and direct cash transfers for the next three months. The plan also includes a hefty medical insurance of 5 million rupees or nearly 67 thousand dollars for frontline medical workers. Coming a day after the half-sardly declared nationwide lockdown, the relief package has received mixed reactions. While some have appreciated it as a start, others, including leaders on the left, have criticized the measures as too little and too late. This is especially since the nitty-gritty of the lockdown is yet to be clarified. The Indian government imposed the sudden and drastic measure of a lockdown for 21 days, which began Wednesday. During the lockdown, police forces in different parts of the country have been harassing and even beating up delivery workers, while out on their rounds, medical health workers and even average citizens doing grocery rounds. Several delivery companies have halted their services, while others have complained of thousands of kilos of food items being dumped by the police, especially in and around the national capital of Delhi. Social media in the country is full of videos and reports about mistreatment at the hands of people when people venture out on the street even for buying essential services. One such person has succumbed to his injuries in Hawra in the eastern state of West Bengal. He was reportedly beaten up by the police when he stepped out to buy some milk on Wednesday. In our next story, in a surprise development in Israel, Benny Gantz, the leader of the opposition Blue and White Coalition, was elected as the speaker of the Israeli parliament yesterday. This is probably a sign of an agreement between him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Out of the 92 members of parliament present, 74 voted in favour of his candidacy while 18 voted against it. Some members did not attend the vote. Gantz, who heads the Israel Resilience Party, had earlier denied Benjamin Netanyahu's call for a national unity government and was successful in getting the support of 61 legislators with the help of the Arab joint list. Israel better knew led by Avigdor Lieberman and left parties, extending their support. However, Thursday's development means that Gantz is no longer interested in forming a government. Though no details are out yet, it is most likely that there is an agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz to form a unity government with the rotation of the post of Prime Minister between them. Gantz's political u-turn and his joining hand with religious orthodox parties in the liquid-led alliance at a time when the corruption cases against Netanyahu were still on, which was his main objection earlier, is probably a reflection of his reluctance to form any government with the support of the Arab joint list. The Arab joint list is anti-Zionist and in favor of the two-state solution for Palestine. And finally, some good news from the U.S. today. In a major victory in the struggle to protect the Standing Rock, a U.S. federal court has stuck down the permit for the Decota Access Pipeline. Judge James Bosberg of the Washington D.C. District Court has rejected the existing permit granted to the controversial pipeline as it is in violation of the National Environment Protection Act or NEPA. The struggle of Native American activists of the Standing Rock's U.S. tribe, along with environmentalists, against a multi-billion-dollar oil corporation, Energy Transfers Pipeline Project, began in April 2016. The nearly 1,900-kilometer-long pipeline passing through the Standing Rock Reservation and Native American Land Reservation, thousands of people from across the world participated in protests against the pipeline. The widespread opposition to the pipeline prompted then-President Barack Obama to withhold permission for the project. However, this was not followed through by incumbent President Donald Trump, who not only granted permission to this project, but brutally dismantled and evicted hundreds of protesters from the pathway of the pipeline. The pipeline began operation by June 2017, where hundreds of Native Americans and environmental activists were charged with obstruction and other accusations by the police. 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, Instagram. Thanks for watching.