 Hello and welcome to International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from across the world, our headlines, Trump administration notifies the decision to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, Indian authorities arrest 12 senior executives of LG Polymers over Gas League, U.S. Envoy arrives in Seoul for talks, North Korea are expected to be top priority, Ecuador's vice president Otto Sorenholzner resigns, and the United Kingdom announces the intent to sell arms to South Arabia. We begin today with an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today afternoon, the total reported cases have reached close to 12 million across the world, with over 200,000 new cases added yesterday. The spread continues to grow in major countries with over 547,000 fatalities and 4.5 million active cases recorded so far. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is admitted to growing evidence of airborne spread of the virus. Maria von Kerkow, the technical lead of COVID-19 response unit of the World Health Organization, said that the UN body is seriously considering the possibility of airborne transmission. The admission comes after new findings were made public by a group of over 200 scientists from around the world in an open letter published on Monday. The scientists and other health professionals have been calling for the WHO to review its pandemic advisory with the new findings. The fact that the virus can be airborne can drastically change counter-pandemic policies adopted by countries across the world. Meanwhile, amid growing infections in the U.S., the Donald Trump administration is set to withdraw from the World Health Organization. The move was notified by the administration on Tuesday to the U.S. Congress and the United Nations. The withdrawal will be done over the span of a year and the U.S. is expected to leave by July 6 next year. The opposition Democratic Party senator and head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, broke the news tweeting about the notification. Menendez added that the decision leaves America sick and America alone at the time of the crisis. It's not clear whether the president has the power to unilaterally withdraw from a global body without the approval of Congress. The move, while opposed by the Democrats, is part of the administration's efforts to escalate tensions with China. Trump and May accused the WHO of being biased towards China and mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic and has since taken measures to withdraw support to the World Health Organization. The WHO has denied such allegations. The U.S. is the single largest contributor in terms of funding to the WHO, providing close to 15% of its annual budget. In our next story, on Tuesday, Indian authorities arrested senior executives of LG Polymers for the involvement in the May 7th gas leak incident in the Vishakhapatnam plant in South India. The CEO of LG Polymers, two of its directors and nine other company officials have been arrested for the styrene vapor leak. The gas leak killed 12 people and cost illnesses to 585 others. In the meanwhile, the Central Pollution Control Board also suspended three of its regional officials for gross negligence. A recent investigation sanctioned by the state government of Andhra Pradesh where the incident took place outlined the history of the violation of regulations and environmental rules by LG Polymers and local authorities. The investigation conducted by a high-powered committee submitted a report to the state chief minister on Monday. The report stated that the pollution control authority sanctioned the expansion of the plant without a proper environmental study. It also stated that the company executives were well aware of the risks associated with the flouting of the rule, including possibilities of death. The gas leak occurred in the plant as operations resumed after a few months of inactivity due to the pandemic. The investigation found that inadequate emergency protocols were the cause of the leak. The Vishakapatnam police who made the arrest will continue its investigations and examine more witnesses and records. We now move on to a high-level meeting between the United States and South Korea, which is underway, as the US Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Beigun, has landed in Seoul earlier today. The meeting comes at a time when Indra-Korea relations have hit rocky waters. There were speculations that Beigun's arrival will work towards reviving the Korean peace process and talks between the US and North Korea. But both he and North Korea have denied any intention to pursue talks anytime soon. The US delegate, though, hinted that the Trump administration is open to talks. Beigun was earlier leading the Trump administration's side of negotiations in the US-North Korea talks. He now insists that he is in Seoul to discuss wide-ranging matters with South Korean officials. But reports have stated that officials in Seoul expect North Korea to figure prominently in the talks. Recently, North Korea had called out the South's inability to control the anti-North propaganda Blitzkrieg at the arms-ties border between the two countries. It also cut intergovernmental communication ties. The propaganda efforts were carried out by conservatives in the South Korean opposition, along with North Korean fugitives, who opposed the peace process. The breakdown of Indra-Korea relations was preceded by a breakdown in US-North Korea negotiations. North Korea withdrew from talks after the US-sponsored UN resolutions against the government and also conducted joint military exercises with the South. This was followed by reinforcement of US sanctions. In our next story, the vice president of Ecuador, Otto Sørenhalsner, designed from his position on Tuesday, making him the third person to do so since Lenin Moreno took over the presidency. Sørenhalsner did not make any antagonistic statements against Moreno in his resignation, but local media speculated that his disagreements with the president are behind the decision. There are rumors that Sørenhalsner is planning to run as a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections next year. According to the country's constitution, his resignation allows him to apply for such a candidacy. Such speculations were prompted by his emphasis on the importance of the upcoming elections in the history of Ecuador in his resignation speech. Recently, Sørenhalsner was seen to work against the government's efforts while dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in Guayaquil, the worst-hit city in Ecuador. He recently moved to the city accompanied by several ministers of a state and deployed a joint task force to deal with the outbreak virus. Moreno will be expected to look for candidates for his fourth vice president in his fourth year in power. The resignation adds to the deepening crisis in Ecuador ever since Moreno took office in 2017. His turning away from the Rafael Correa's administration's progressive and anti-imperialist policies has seen Ecuador accumulate a debt of $4.2 billion from the IMF in 2019. The loan was followed by significant cuts in public sector funding of key services like education, health and social programs. And finally, the United Kingdom announced on Tuesday that it will continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss made the announcement to the British Parliament claiming that the government assessment has not found that selling arms to Saudi Arabia will encourage any serious violation of international humanitarian laws. Interestingly, the announcement comes the very day after the UK imposed sanctions on Saudi Arabian nationals for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Truss also claimed that the government has found the arms export licenses to be in compliance with the court ruling last year that ruling blocked new arms sales to Saudi Arabia over its involvement in the war in Yemen. Liz Truss also stated that the UK government views incidents of humanitarian crisis in Yemen to be isolated incidents. The UK supplied Saudi Arabia with at least 5.3 billion British pounds that's close to 6.7 billion US dollars worth of arms and ammunitions since the Saudi intervention in Yemen in 2015. The war has resulted in the internal displacement over 3 million Yemenis and has precipitated one of the biggest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. That's all we have in this episode of the International Daily Roundup. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest news developments of the day. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.