 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news to elements from around the world. Our headlines. UN calls for humanitarian access to Tigray region, citing possible war crimes. Workers call for boycott of Amazon in solidarity with union efforts in Alabama and the United States. Cuba's Soberana 02 COVID vaccine enters phase 3 of clinical trials. And China declares end to absolute poverty almost a decade ahead of UN's head target. In our first story, the United Nations is called for an investigation into the violent conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region. Human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has urged the Ethiopian government to allow humanitarian access to the region. She has cited reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings and destruction and looting of property. A preliminary analysis has indicated violations of international law by all parties, possibly amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is also urging troops from neighboring Eritrea to withdraw from the region. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia have denied the presence of Eritrean troops in the region. The war in Tigray began on November 4, 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops into the region. He claimed that this was a response to attacks on a federal military base by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, or TPLF, which rules the government in the region. By the end of the month, TPLF had been dislodged from the government. Amnesty International published a report in February 26, detailing the extent of violence. Hundreds of people were killed in the town of Aksum between November 19th and 20th. Eritrean Ethiopian forces entered the town together and extensive and indiscriminate shelling was done. The UN has also verified reports of shelling in Mekele, Humera and Adigrat. The Amnesty report further states that Eritrean forces deliberately shot civilians in the street on November 28th and 29th. During this time, forces also conducted house-to-house searches, carrying out extrajudicial execution of men and boys. The UN has also received reports of 136 cases of rape in hospitals across the region east of Tigray. Over 50,000 people from Tigray have fled to neighboring Sudan. Approximately 222,000 have been internally displaced. Eyewitness accounts have claimed widespread looting and burning of crops by troops. Millions are in need of urgent aid and are at risk of starvation and disease. In our next story, workers across the US have called for a week-long boycott of Amazon. The boycott has been announced in solidarity with the unionization efforts of workers in the state of Alabama and the United States. As reported by UCOM, a week-long boycott from 7th to 13th of March has been planned. People have been asked not to shop on Amazon or use its streaming services. Thousands of workers at the Bessemer Warehouse facility in Alabama are currently voting to decide if they want to join the union. 5,800 ballots have been made out since February 8th and workers had to march 29th to decide. If the vote passes, workers will join the retail, wholesale and department store union. This will make the Bessemer Warehouse the first Amazon facility in the US to have a union. Given the significance of this decision, Amazon has resorted to a series of suppression tactics. Workers are received brochures from the company instructing them to vote no. Amazon has also sent out text messages telling workers to vote no by march 1st. This is almost a month earlier than the official date of the end of voting. Anti-union literature has also been put up in bathroom stalls in the warehouse. Reports have also indicated that Amazon is working with local officials to change the timing of traffic lights outside the warehouse. Red stop lights give union organizers more time to talk to workers as they wait in their vehicles. As reported by Vice, a mailbox has also been installed outside the exit gates. This has been denounced by many as an attempt to monitor the process and surveil the workers. We now go to Cuba where the COVID vaccine candidate Soberana02 entered its third phase of clinical trials on March 4th. The vaccine has been developed by Finlay Vaccine Institute. The Center for State Control and Medications Medical Equipment and Devices authorized the trials on March 3rd, stating that the vaccine had showed an adequate safety profile. The phase 3 trials will now evaluate the immunogenicity, safety and efficacy of the vaccine. The Health Ministry has stated that the trials will be held in 50 vaccination centers across eight municipalities, 44,110 volunteers between the ages of 1980 will participate in the study. They will receive two doses of Soberana02 and one booster dose of Soberana01. The Fine Finlay Institute has also announced a third vaccine candidate, the Soberana01A. This is meant to reduce risks for people who have already recovered from COVID. The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology is also developing the Abdullah and Mambisa vaccines. If the trials are successful, Cuba will become the first country in Latin America and Caribbean region to develop its own vaccine. Cuba is aiming to produce 100 million doses by the end of this year. This will not only cover the entire population of 11 million, but also exports to other countries. Cuba is also committed to contributing doses to the vaccine bank being set up by the ALBA TCP. For a final story, we go to China, where President Xi Jinping has declared the end of absolute poverty in the country. This implies that everyone in China has an income above the poverty level and has access to basic necessities. China has achieved the UN target of eradicating the world's absolute, eradicating absolute poverty by 2030, almost a decade early. Here is a video feature on China's current scenario. On February 25th, President Xi Jinping declared end of absolute poverty in China. He stated that all remaining regions that had been afflicted with absolute poverty have now successfully defeated it. All remaining 832 counties and over 128,000 villages in the country have been delisted from poor regions list. Over the last eight years, China has lifted a total of 98.99 million poor people out of poverty. All people in China now have an income above the national poverty line of 4,000 yuan or over 600 US dollars. In 2010, China set the poverty line at 2,300 yuan or 2.3 US dollars per chasing power parity per person per day. This value was higher than the World Bank's poverty line at 1.9 US dollars per person per day. In 2020, this value was recalculated. Now anyone making less than 4,000 yuan per year would be considered impoverished. China has achieved the UN target of eradicating world's absolute poverty by the year 2030, a decade ahead of the schedule and before any other country. President Xi hailed this achievement as a result of the work done by the Communist Party of China government in the last 40 years since the beginning of the economic reforms in 1979. He recognized the contributions made by the thousands of carders, civilians and collectives in achieving this goal. The removal of poverty in China has meant the provision of all basic necessities to all its citizens. Besides the numerical target of eliminating poverty, the CPC has given two assurances of adequate food and adequate clothing and three guarantees of access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing to all Chinese citizens. To achieve this goal, CPC set more than 3 million of its carder into poverty stricken areas of the country to help in the efforts of poverty reduction. Since 2012, the government has given the efforts of poverty reduction an extra push. China built over 1.1 million kilometers of new rural roads and provided 4G internet coverage to almost 98% of its world villages in just eight years. The government has also built new houses for over 25.68 million people since 2012. This includes new houses for 7.9 million in poverty households and moving over 9.6 million people to places which are more hospitable. The result was that China was able to lift around 770 million people out of poverty in the last 40 years since 1979. The number of people lifted above poverty by China is almost 70% of the total number of poor lifted out of poverty in the world in the same period. With this, President Xi said the party has achieved the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in China before the first centenary of its foundation. The Communist Party of China was formed in July 1921 and the first centenary of its foundation will be celebrated this year. The CPC has set the goal of achieving a modern socialist society in China by the year 2049, the first centenary of its rule in the country. That's all we have time for today. We are back on Monday with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.