 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from across the world, our headlines. Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte reimposes containment measures after call from medical professionals. Israeli occupation court extends detention of Mahmood Nawaja. Syrian government condemns STF oil deal with U.S. company calls it illegal and Ecuador's Electoral Dispute Tribunal reverses the suspension of Rafael Correa's party. We begin with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today afternoon, the number of infections has reached around 18.3 million cases globally. The number of fatalities has come close to 700,000 with over 6 million active cases. In the meanwhile, the Philippines has witnessed a surge in cases being in the 25th country to cross the 100,000 mark. The administration of Rodrigo Duterte has had to reimpose the counter-pandemic lockdown in the national capital and nearby provinces. The lockdown will be in effect at logger 18th and that will also require strict travel restrictions requiring passes. The government's move to bring back the community quarantines came after letter by 80 organizations across the country representing a million nurses and 80,000 doctors. The letter warned that the Philippines is losing the battle against the pandemic and urgently requires comprehensive containment measures to bring it under control. Duterte's reaction to the letter was initially hostile. In his address to the country on Sunday, he insinuated that the medical professionals wanted quote-unquote a revolution. Despite the attempted red tagging of the letter, he eventually agreed to quarantine measures by Monday morning. The government has been widely criticized by the opposition and social movements for its failure to contain the outbreak. The earlier containment measures were also criticized for being ill-planted, with the poor of Filipinos being cut from access to basic necessities. In our next story, an Israeli military court has extended the detention of prominent BDS activist Mahmood Nawazah by the occupation forces by 15 days. The court, located near Jenin, approved Israeli intelligence agency Shin Beth's request to hold Nawazah for longer on Sunday. No specific reasons were provided, with activists claiming the due process of law was not followed. Nawazah was taken from his home near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank in the late hours of July 30. Nawazah had been serving as the general coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee for the past several years. According to the BDS official website, he was forcibly handcuffed and blindfolded in front of his family in a nighttime raid conducted by Israeli forces. Renouncing the arrest and the court order against Nawazah, BDS co-founder Omar Bargutti urged the international community to exert pressure on Israel for its release. In a statement published on the website, Bargutti compared the Shin Beth tactics employed to detain him with that of apartheid South Africa. We now go to Syria where the government has condemned the recent agreement signed between the Kurdish-led rebel group the Syrian Democratic Forces and the United States. The STF signed a deal with a little-known US-based oil company last week. The Syrian foreign ministry called the deal illegal and deemed it an attempt at stealing national resources with the sponsorship and support of the US. The ministry also added that the deal is void and has no legal basis. Reports have suggested that the deal was done at the behest of the Donald Trump administration that has backed the Kurdish rebels against the Syrian government. The SDF controls are highly oil-rich northeastern parts of Syria. The new deal will allow a Delaware-based company Delta Crescent Energy LLC to operate and extract oil from the region under SDF control to supposedly modernize the oil fields. The deal was revealed in a US Senate hearing held on Thursday, where US State Secretary Mike Pompeo and Senator Lindsey Graham spoke about. The Syrian government is consistently upholding any attempts that will allow the US or its companies to operate out of Syria. And finally, Ecuador's electoral dispute tribunal on Sunday nullified the suspension of four political parties, including one headed by former President Rafael Correa. The tribunal's judge, Fernando Munoz, overturned the July 19th resolution by the National Electoral Council of the CNE, suspending these parties over a technicality. The judge maintained that the resolution did not have much base in law, and violated the right to organize of thousands of citizens who supported these parties. The Social Commitment Force, or the FCS, headed by Correa, had its registration suspended along with Libertad's Pueblo, Justicia Social, and Podemos. The resolution would have effectively barred them from the 2021 general election. The decision was taken in response to a request from the state comptroller's office, which alleged irregularities in the registration process. Suspended parties challenged the allegations calling it illegal and politically motivated. Correa and other members of the party celebrated the resolution. Ecuador's general elections are scheduled for February 7, 2021. Between August 9th and 23rd, the country's political parties will hold their primary elections to nominate the candidates who will participate in these elections. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with major news developments from across the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.