 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, our headlines. Donald Trump threatens to withdraw support from the World Health Organization, calls the UN Agency China-centric. Wuhan cautiously reopens after over 76 days of lockdown. Indian doctors protesting lack of protective gear threatened with legal action by authorities. Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is sentenced to eight years in prison, and Iraqi Prime Minister-designant Adnan Al-Zurfi proposes a new cabinet. The total number of cases of coronavirus has crossed 1.43 million as of 11am GMT on April 8th, with a number of deaths at 82,000. Over 300,000 people have recovered. The number may be steadily increasing and countries are struggling with lockdowns and equipment shortage, but for some, it's clearly politics as usual. US President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw support from the World Health Organization. While talking to the press, the president complained about the UN Agency being China-centric and effectively accused it of covering for the country. This is the latest accusation directed against China by the US government that has been consistently blaming the country for the outbreak. During a press briefing held earlier yesterday, the president raised questions about why the WHO did not want other countries, including the US, months in advance, asserting that they should know. This is despite the fact that the US, the WHO and Chinese authorities had communicated to the US early in January itself. He also criticized the WHO for supporting targeted travel bans in early stages, largely due to concerns of economic damage it could have done. In the earlier press briefing the president gave, he even said that the government was withholding all funds to the WHO, he later backtracked on that claim and said that the administration is looking into the option. The US contributed close to 16% of the total contributions to the WHO's budget last year. Meanwhile, health workers in India have been complaining about the shortage of personal protective equipment, including PPE, including N-95 masks, sorry, and other protective gear. The medical fatality in India has supported the health professionals, pointing out that the shortage of resources makes them extremely vulnerable to infections in their fight against the spread of COVID-19. A number of healthcare workers, including doctors and sanitary workers have threatened mass resignations over the shortage of PPE. Just last week in Delhi's Hindura Hospital, 12 doctors resigned. While several doctors in the hospital have stated that they do not intend to renew their contracts with the hospital with a severe shortage of protective gear. In response to these letters, the local authorities have threatened legal action against the medical professionals. Authorities have stated that no resignation of health workers will be accepted at a time when the entire country is fighting the pandemic. The matter was exacerbated after reports emerged of doctors getting infected by the disease in Mumbai's metropolitan region, which has over 700 reported cases, the largest in the country, over 50 doctors have been reported to have contracted the disease while treating patients according to government numbers. In today's infocus section, we take a look at Pakistan where just like India, health workers in the front line of the fight against COVID-19 were detained in Quetta after protesting about the lack of protective gear in hospitals. We talked to Dr. Aftar Basharab of the Red Workers Front. Here is what you have to say. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. And today we are going to be talking about the COVID-19 situation in Pakistan. And with us, we are Dr. Aftar Basharab from the Red Workers Front. Thank you so much, Dr. Aftar, for joining us. So first of all, what I wanted to ask was, currently, could you talk a bit about the increase in the number of cases? What are the areas where the disease is spreading the fastest in Pakistan? Yes, currently, according to the government statistics, there are more than 3,500 cases. Cases have been reported in every part of the country, but Punjab and Central Provinces are the most affected areas. And especially the main urban centers of these provinces are especially affected by the corona pandemic. But I think that the 3,500 cases are gross in their estimation because a very low number of tests has been carried out. There was recently a report published in Medical Journal that said that in a country like Pakistan, only 1,500 tests have been conducted in a population of 1 million. And it should be at least 15,000 tests conducted per million. I think that there is a gross underconducting of tests. And if proper quantity of tests are carried out, then a real number of people who are infected with corona virus will be a lot more greater than it. Right. And what has been the response of the government? Has it? Because in many countries, we have seen various models across the world. Some governments are being very proactive. But what is the response within Pakistan? The government response is very, very, very poor. And the Pakistani government had a lot of time because in December, in early January, the cases were, there was even cry about the corona epidemic in all over the world. And as you know that a lot of students and workers go to and fro from Pakistan and China. And there was, there were very clear warning signs that sooner or later, Pakistan is going to be affected with this corona pandemic. And actually the government had a lot of time. Almost it had a time of two and a half, more than two and a half months. But no preparations were carried out. No protective kits were arranged for the doctors and paramedics and nurses. No ventilators were arranged. No special funds were released for the healthcare sector. No, my years were taken that lockdown condition, how the government is going to feed the daily worker working class. The response was absolutely poor. It was absolutely pathetic. And even the panic situation started from the second week of March onwards. And it's almost more than three weeks now. But still the situation hasn't improved. And so has the government announced any special packages, any kind of economic relief measures for various sections who might be the most affected? Yes, the government has provided a relief package of 1.2 trillion rupees, 1200 billion Pakistani rupees. But it's a relief package for the rich. It's a relief package for the capitalist, large for the restless. 100 billion rupees have been given as a tax subsidy to the exporting industries. 200 billion rupees will be pocketed by the capitalists in the name of giving wages to the workers, which they will not give. We're pretty sure about that, that money will be pocketed by the business themselves. And then a lot of other tax concessions for the industrialists and bankers, and a lot of other tax breaks, a lot of other subsidies, etc., etc. Recently, the government has announced a relief package for the construction industry. And the government has announced that anybody who invests in the construction sector will not ask about the source of income. So it's basically asking for a whitening of the black money, a whitening of that huge black economy. So the relief package has got almost nothing, has got almost nothing for the poor. So it's just peanuts for the poor. Right. And from what reports you're getting, what has been the situation of, say, the working class, the poorer sections in some of the big cities especially and in the villages also? Well, you see that in a class society, every natural disaster, every natural calamity, it doesn't affect all the classes in the same way. So obviously, the working masses of Pakistan are the most similarly and most hardly hit sections of society because of this pandemic and the lockdowns and the economic crisis that has ensued. And well, almost 70 to 80% of the Pakistani working class are daily wages. And they are actually reduced to 100 in the past two to three weeks. In actual sense of the world, they do not have any food to eat anymore. And food riots are also starting to occur in various parts of the country. And the workers who are working, who are part of the organized labor, the industrial workers, their situation is also not good. And a lot of many of them have been downsized immediately. And even their two to three months' salaries were bit held. And they were not paid for, they were not paid when they were kicked out, they were literally kicked out of the factories by the owners. And so the overall conditions of both the urban working masses and the rural working masses are very poor and there's a lot of hunger, there are hunger riots, there are bread riots happening in the country. China has lifted the lockdown in Wuhan city after 76 days. Wuhan in Hubei province had reported the first coronavirus outbreak last December and had been under lockdown since January 23rd. After the number of cases surged in January, officials decided to impose a strict lockdown in order to curb the spread of the virus. All commercial activities were halted, public transport was suspended and except for essential services, people were not allowed to go out. Later, even the essential services were provided at the doorstep in order to minimize the movement of people. Of China's more than 81,000 infections, Wuhan alone had 50,000 cases. Around 95% of those who were infected in the city have since recovered and were discharged. The restrictions on the movement of people inside the city are being gradually lifted after China declared victory over the pandemic in the past few days. However, precautions are still being taken. Officials are disinfected most of the public spaces including the insides of trains and all passengers in and out of the stations are being checked before the travel. Health checkups are also being conducted at checkpoints and in public places. In our next story, the National Court of Justice of Ecuador sentenced former President Rafael Correa to eight years in prison on bribery and corruption charges. Following the verdict, Correa has been banned from electoral politics for 25 years. The court convicted Correa, former Vice President Jorge Glass, and 18 other former ministers and government officials on charges of accepting $8 million from private companies as bribes in exchange for public contracts and using the funds for the electoral campaigns of their party, the Paris Alliance, between 2012 and 2016. Correa rejected the charges and denounced his sentences in the form of political persecution intended to prevent him and his allies from running in the presidential election schedule next year. Correa, who is currently residing in Brussels, Belgium, along with his family, is likely to appeal the conviction. Correa has strong popular support in Ecuador and has been a constant victim of persecution under the current President Lenin Moreno. In July 2018, the court had ordered a preventative detention of Correa, accusing him of being complicit in the failed kidnapping of right-wing opposition leader Fernando Balda. In August 2019, another preventative detention was ordered against him in regard to the current corruption case. Several political leaders from across Latin America have condemned the judicial decision motivated by the right-wing and imperialist politics of Moreno and have expressed solidarity with the progressive leader. Iraq's new prime minister-designate Adnan Al-Zurfi announced the formation of a new cabinet. Al-Zurfi has also presented his proposed government to the Iraqi Parliament and is now waiting for its notification. He was nominated for the post of Prime Minister by President Barham Saleh on March 17th, a fortnight after the resignation of the previous Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Taufi Qalawi. Qalawi had failed to win the Iraqi Parliament's approval within the stipulated 30 days. Al-Zurfi was previously the governor of the Najaf province. He is a part of the Nasser or victory alliance led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Both Al-Zurfi and Al-Abadi are perceived to be pro-US figures and are accused of being involved in multiple corruption scandals in Najaf. Major Shia blocs in the parliament including the Fateh block and the Sairoun block have already rejected Al-Zurfi's nomination, calling him the American intelligence candidate. Other pro-Sunni and Kurdish political parties are yet to make a call and their support will decide the future of the Zulfi cabinet. That's all we have in this episode of the International Lady Roundup. To know more about these stories visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for watching.