 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. The US takes to aggressive measures to procure medical supplies at the cost of other nations in the midst of the pandemic. Morocco begins releasing prisoners as a preventive measure to avoid a coronavirus outbreak in prisons. Palestinian prisoners are on an indefinite hunger strike against auxiliary negligence and blocking of essential sanitation and medical supplies. Hope you are a member, Helen Bollack, dies after 288 days of hunger strike. We begin with a novel coronavirus update. The number of cases in the world continues to increase with over 1.28 million infections reported so far. Of these, over 940,000 cases are still active and close to 70,000 people have died. The United States continues to add the most number of cases. Since the beginning of April, the US is added upwards of 25,000 cases every day, meeting a record high on April 4th with over 34,000 cases in a single day. It currently has over 336,000 cases reported with more than 300,000 active cases. Spain has replaced Italy in terms of the total number of cases with over 131,000 infections so far. As the US grapples with the exponential rise in cases, Barbados accused it of withholding medical equipment yesterday. According to the government of Barbados, the US has withheld an aid shipment of 1.4 million dollars meant for the Caribbean nation. The aid shipment included 20 ventilators donated to the government by various philanthropists and celebrities in the US, including the US-based Barbadian musician, Rihanna. This is not the first case of the US blocking medical aid in supplies to other countries. Over the past few days, US allies France, Germany and Canada have all accused the US of diverting essential medical supplies ordered and paid for by them. Germany alleged that the US intercepted a shipment of medical supplies by a company en route from Thailand and diverted it to the country. The company 3M was apparently directed by the Trump administration to divert the export to the US. President Donald Trump had recently invoked the Defense Production Act of the DPA to push US companies into prioritizing production for the US and to give the government the ability to halt all export of essential supplies. 3M stated that it is also prevented from exporting to Canada and Latin American countries under the DPA, for whom the country's company is a major source of several key bits of equipment such as respirators, 995 masks. In the case of France, the accusation was that the US intercepted a shipment from Shanghai from a private firm by outbidding France at an exorbitant price. This indicated that the US is aggressively pushing out other countries, even the global flow of medical commodities. Meanwhile, South Sudan is reported in its first case. The young country, which had barely gotten out of a six-year-long civil war, was one of the last in the world to be affected by the global pandemic. The infected person is reported to have come back from Ethiopia recently and exhibited symptoms from April 2. Authorities are yet to provide direct information about whether the patient was in contact with others and if so what measures will be taken to contain the spread. South Sudan is anyway facing a crisis because of the lingering effects of the civil war. It is reeling from steep hyperinflation, a severe shortage of food that has pushed several parts of the country into famine and millions of people facing displacement and awaiting rehabilitation. A COVID-19 outbreak would prove to be an even bigger disaster as the public healthcare system stands devastated by decades of conflict. The Moroccan government ordered the release of 5,654 prisoners from different prisons across the country on Sunday. The move was to reduce the number of inmates in the country's overcrowded jail to avoid the spread of coronavirus infection. Prisoners were selected on the basis of age and the number of years spent in prison among other criteria. The Justice Ministry issued a statement according to which the release of the prisoners was due to exceptional circumstances linked to the emergency health situation. Morocco has recorded more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 infections and 70 deaths. Several human rights groups and organizations had earlier appealed to the king to release all political prisoners and detainees. A large number of political prisoners are still in prison for their participation in the Hirak Reef movement of 2016 and 17. Morocco has more than 85,000 prisoners, which includes under trials. According to the World Prison Brief, most of the Moroccan prisons are overcrowded with an average occupancy rate of more than 136, much beyond the recommended 100. In our In-Focus section, we look at the assault on Shaq dwellers in South Africa. Shaq dwellers have been evicted from many of the settlements they have built on their own with the aid of the movement Abhar Ali Bassa despite the fact that there is a national moratorium on such evictions. Despite a government directive prohibiting evictions during the COVID-19 lockdown, illegal demolitions have become commonplace in South Africa. The Azamiya informal Shaq dwellers settlement of Katho Mainur in Durban was attacked by agents hired by the earthquake-queen municipality authorities on April 2nd. 15 Shaqs were demolished, leaving several people homeless at a time when the country is under lockdown and people have been ordered to stay home. Many Shaq dwellers were also injured in the attack. A private security agency, Calvin Security, was used by the municipality for the demolitions on Thursday. The army and the police ordered to assist in the implementation of the lockdown were also involved in the illegal evictions. This is not the first eviction reported during the lockdown period. The South African government had ordered a moratorium on evictions during the lockdown under enormous pressure from social justice organizations and the country's largest Shaq dwellers movement, Abhashlali Basem Jondolo or the ABM. This moratorium was first mentioned by Justice Minister Ronald Ramola in his address ahead of the lockdown. It was then reiterated in the written directive issued by the ministry under the Disaster Management Act on March 26th, a day before the lockdown began. However, the next afternoon on March 27th, four vehicles of Calvin Security attacked the Ikhupu Mulebi settlement in Durban. Acting at the behest of the earthquake-warning municipality authorities, the private security guards demolished eight Shaqs built by members of the ABM with no support from the government. Another 17 Shaqs were marked ABM for further demolitions. Representing ABM, lawyers from Social Economic Rights Institute of South Africa wrote a letter to the municipality on March 28th, demanding a written undertaking from them and Calvin Security, ensuring they will not evict our clients with or without an order of court, in line with directions issued by the minister of justice and correctional services. No court order was produced for the demolitions on Thursday, making the exercise illegal even without the lockdown in place. However, in a brazen move, Calvin Security was sent by the municipality again the very next day, on March 29th, to demolish five more homes. Arguing that these attacks on informal settlements are part of a broader and systematic assault by the ANC government against the South African working class in the interests of large capitalists, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, or NAMSA, has called for class. The next story, Palestinian prisoners in at least two Israeli prisons have launched hunger strikes to protest the inadequate and negligent treatment by prison authorities. The strikes are in response to fears of a possible coronavirus outbreak among the population. Prisoners in Shata and Ofer prisons may soon be joined by those in other jails as well. According to the prison inmates, the Israeli prison service is deliberately withholding supplies of essential medical items and protection equipment such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizers. They have also been complaining of not being provided with supplies to maintain basic hygiene. To add to that, the Israeli prison authorities are reportedly not taking adequate testing measures for prisoners or taking up quarantine measures for those who have come into contact with infected persons. And finally, after 288 days of a hunger strike, Helen Bolik of Group Yoram, a leftist Turkish musical group, died on April 3rd at the age of 28. Helen Bolik, along with her comrades Mustafa Koksak and Ibrahim Gokik of the group to the band Group Yoram, had been on hunger strike, demanding that the government lift the band imposed on their band. The band, formed in 1985, has released 23 albums, but was banned in 2016. After the Turkish authorities accused the members of being affiliated to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front or DHKPC, a band-communist organization operating in Turkey. To know more about these stories, visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for watching.