 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. Doctors in Kenya to call a strike over non-payment of wages, COVID-19 cases crossed 22 million, second activists killed in a week in Negros in the Philippines, 10-year-old rape victim in Brazil manages to access abortion after feminists expel religious extremists, civilians and military targets are attacked in fresh Israeli offensive on Gaza, and new report points to Facebook favouring ruling party in India. We begin with a COVID-19 update where the total number of reported cases globally has crossed 22 million, with the total number of deaths crossing 778,000. Several schools in the United States were closed after the virus was directed to be spreading among teachers and students. The schools were opened earlier this month, despite opposition from parents, teachers and educators unions. Last week the American Pediatrics Association had published a report which said that 97,000 children contracted the virus in the last two weeks of July. This added up to 338,000 cases reported of children in the US, testing COVID positive by the end of June. South Korea has also reported a spike in cases that could lead to another wave of the epidemic in the country. This was following 400 cases of infections that were found linked to a church in Seoul. With 246 new cases reported on Tuesday, the total number of cases reported in South Korea has risen to over 15,000. In June, protests held by far-right activists in Seoul had received condemnation from the government for its violation of lockdown measures. In our next story, doctors in public healthcare facilities in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, are set to go on a strike on August 21. The strike was called against unpaid salaries, lack of medical cover, PPEs and isolation facilities dedicated to healthcare workers. As many as 15 doctors in the city are set to have contracted COVID-19 since April. Across the country, at least 768 healthcare workers tested positive of whom 14 have died. This includes some senior doctors leading the national effort to contain the pandemic. Healthcare workers in the country's public hospitals have also been demanding proper salaries. Wages for the month of June were paid in July, while the salaries for July and August remain unpaid. The Health Ministry's Chief Administrative Secretary has underplayed the issue and said that it was only a slight delay in transfer of payroll. In the meantime, COVID billionaires have emerged overnight as the government has been giving overpriced tenders for procurement. According to a report by Daily Nation, a company called Kiglimited was offered Kenyan Shillings 4 billion, which is around $36 million to supply PPEs. The tender was called for 450,000 PPEs at Kenyan Shillings 9,000 each, at a time when the market price was only 4,500. In our next story, Filipina social activists and rights advocate Zara Alvarez was killed on Monday by an unidentified gunman in Baccalaureate City. Alvarez was a prominent activist associated with the Negroes Island Health Integrated Program and the Human Rights Coalition, Karapatan. She was largely active in the agricultural belt of the island. The island has witnessed some of the most violent attacks on trade unionists and farmers ever since Rosdigo Duterte became the president in 2017. She was also among the more than 600 people named in official terrorist by the Duterte administration in 2018. The list was widely condemned as an act of vilifying activists. The murder took place on the same day as the funeral and burial of peace activists, Randall Acanis. Acanis was murdered a week ago under similar circumstances near the national capital. He was a peace consultant with the National Democratic Fund front, the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Peace consultants and representatives of the communists in the peace talks with the government of Duterte. We now go to Brazil where our Monday religious fundamentalists attempted to invade a health center in the city of Recife in Brazil to stop a 10-year-old child from carrying out an abortion. The child became pregnant after she was raped by her uncle. The victim was earlier denied her legal right at the University Hospital Casiano António Morez in the Espírito Santo State. Due to this, due to this, the victim had to be taken to Recife, the capital of the Pernambuco State, which is over 1,800 km away, to access the procedure. The religious fundamentalists who had gathered outside the health center in Recife were confronted and expelled by a group of feminists. The feminists had mobilized to protect the life of the child and her legal right. Following the expulsion, the procedure was carried out safely and the child is recovering. In Brazil, abortion is only permitted in case of rape or when there is a risk to the health of the mother or if the fetus is anencephaly. In this case, the procedure had even been authorized by a court in the child's home state of Espírito Santo. Throughout the day, members of conservative groups remained outside the health center in Recife, condemning the procedure and organizing prayer circles. Several anti-abortion parliamentarians were also present. In fact, far-right Bolsonaro supporter Sara Winter called on the networks to oppose the abortion, even called a child an assassin. Winter also revealed the name of the victim in complete violation of the child's right to privacy. In our next story, several military and civilian targets in the Gaza Strip came under attack from Israel on Monday. The attacks were a continuation of Israeli forces' airstrikes on Sunday. They also fired at fishing ships near the Gaza coast. A woman and a three-year-old child were wounded in Gaza in one such Israeli attack on Friday. Israeli forces claimed that the attacks were in response to escalation near its security fence on Saturday. It also claimed that Hamas released some incendiary balloons, which supposedly threatened Israeli security. Israelis closed the Kareem Abu Saleem, goods crossing point and shut down its coastal fishing zones on Sunday. On Thursday, it also stopped fuel shipments inside the occupied territory. And finally, we go to India where The Wall Street Journal recently published a report detailing what it called Facebook's close ties with the ruling Bharati Janata Party. The report, quoting Facebook insiders, says that the company failed to take action against ruling party members and those associated with it, despite them peddling hate speech. The company was worried about the financial impact such a decision would have. After The Wall Street Journal raised the issue with Facebook, several of these posts were taken down. Many of these posts had violated Facebook's own standards, but nothing was done. We talked to journalist Paranjay Gohar Thakurtha on what options governments across the world have when confronted with such issues. Facebook has always taken the shelter that this is our technology, this is end-to-end encryption. It has even invoked the provisions of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, the right to free speech. It's used provisions relating to individual privacy to be completely unaccountable for what is put up. So what has happened is it was about time this escalated and This Wall Street Journal has escalated the whole issue. When we bought out the book, yes, we had a full house at the launch. We had a lot of people coming. We had some people buying. But when you have a reputed newspaper in the United States who splashes it on the front page, you must remember another thing. All those who are claiming, including Mr. Rajiv Chandrasekhar, the member of parliament, and who's of course an investor in Republic TV, which is a right-wing television channel. Mr. Chandrasekhar is suggesting there was some sort of internal left-wing, you know, sort of hatchet job within Facebook. Now, how come they choose a platform like the Wall Street Journal? Wall Street Journal is really part of Mr. Rupert Murdoch's media empire. And whatever that you can accuse Mr. Rupert Murdoch, you certainly can't accuse him of being sympathetic to leftist or the left liberal courses. So essentially, the article by Wall Street Journal, which was published on the 15th of August, has escalated and made more people aware of how these giant sort of digital monopolies, how these social media platforms are being abused and misused for political purposes. One last point is that across the world, there have been a number of complaints against Facebook. United Nations official had accused Facebook because WhatsApp had been used, misused in Myanmar, resulting in deaths of Rohingya Muslims, and these were all messages on Facebook. We've seen in New Zealand, Facebook broadcast live, a person who had gunned down people outside a mosque. We've seen criticism of Facebook in Brazil and of course, within the United States itself. And therefore, as the opposition to its unwillingness to adhere to certain ethical standards has resulted in this big queue and cry. 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.