 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world, our headlines. In India, the BJP-led right-wing alliance clinches victory in a major state. The left bag 16 seats. Another journalist killed in the Philippines is the 18th such murder under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. French teachers take out a protest demands safe working conditions amid COVID-19 spike. The US expedites arms deals with the UAE worth 25 billion US dollars. The deadlock over election results continues in the US as Trump refuses to concede. In our first story, the elections in the Indian state of Bihar saw the right-wing achieve a narrow victory. The results were announced late in the night on Tuesday. In the 243-member state assembly, the right-wing alliance, which includes the Bharati Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, won 125 seats. The opposition grand alliance, which includes the left 110 seats. This is the first major election held in India after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bihar is a population of over 120 million. The grand alliance comprises the Rashtri Janata Dal, the Indian National Congress, which is the main opposition party nationally, and the three communist parties. These are the Communist Party of India of the CPI, the Communist Party of India Marxist of the CPIM, and the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist Liberation of the CPIML. The turnout hovered between 55-56 percent. Exit polls ahead of the elections had predicted that the grand alliance would win. While the alliance did not manage to form the government, the RJD emerged as the single largest party, both in terms of vote share and the number of seats. A key highlight was the strong performance of the communist parties, winning 16 out of the 29 seats they contested. This marks the revival of the left movement in the state, which was marginalized over the past two decades. This has been attributed to the consistent groundwork by the left parties, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bihar had a huge migrant population, and the issues faced by them were a key factor during the elections. We now go to the Philippines, where veteran journalist Virgilio Maganis was shot dead on Tuesday. Assailants were yet to be identified, shot him six times outside his home in the Pangasinan province. Maganis had survived a similar attempt on his life in 2016. The attackers of the previous incident are yet to be identified, and investigation continues to this day. According to reports, the attackers left a note near the murder scene, which read, I am a drug pusher, don't emulate me. Notes like these are common on victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Rights groups have previously stated that the war on drugs under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte also gave cover for such killings carried out by groups who were associated with security forces. The presence of the note on the body has raised concerns that the killing is another politically motivated attack over his reporting. The news of Maganis' killing was received with outrage by journalists in the Philippines. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, of which Maganis was a member, strongly condemned the murder. In their statement, the NUJP said that the attack will be the 18th such murder of a journalist ever since Rodrigo Duterte became president. The group also criticized the inaction of the authorities in the previous murder attempt. The NUJP argued that the authorities had done very little to ensure his protection or that of other journalists killed in similar circumstances. We now go to France where on Tuesday school teachers organized a national strike demanding effective safety protocol. This is in the wake of a resurgence of COVID-19. The call for the strike was given by several unions including major trade unions like the General Confederation of Labor or the CGT. Teachers have complained of inadequate protective gear for them and often having to arrange it on their own. The Ministry of National Education decided to conduct the classes in equal division between in-person and distance learning which teachers argue places in additional workload on them. The unions have also demanded urgent hiring of more staff in order to divide classes with more than 30 pupils to ensure social distancing. The strike came barely a week after high school students organized intense protests demanding safe conditions in their schools. At many places, the protests were met with police crackdown leading to widespread outrage across the country. We now go to the United States where the outgoing Trump administration has expedited over 23 billion U.S. dollars worth of arms sales to the UAE. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. State Department notified Congress about the deal. The proposed sale includes 50 F-35 fighter aircraft along with MQ-9B unmanned aerial systems and drones. The arms sales to the United Arab Emirates is seen as part of the U.S. sponsored normalization deal with Israel. The UAE was the first Arab country to announce such a deal in August. Later Bahrain and Sudan followed suit. The Trump administration has tried to justify the sale of these weapons to the UAE on the basis of a perceived threat from Iran. Several human rights groups, democratic party leaders and activists have opposed the sale of weapons to the UAE. They have argued that the move will only expand the arms race in the Middle East. Many have also pointed out that such deals only contribute to war crimes committed by the states in ongoing conflict such as in Lebanon, in Libya and Yemen. And finally, the deadlock in the United States over the presidential elections is yet to be settled. President Donald Trump is yet to concede his defeat in the general elections and continues to block the transition towards a Biden presidency. Officials in the Trump administration and the Republican party have followed suit. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to recognize the defeat. When asked by journalists if the administration is planning to work with the Biden transition team, Pompeo responded that there would be a smooth transition to a second Trump term. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell also supported Trump's legal challenge against the counting process and he followed several others in his party. This is despite the fact that most of the lawsuits filed by both Trump and his supporters calling for a recount were dropped by different state courts with the rest deemed meritless by legal experts. Counting continues in several states for Senate and House elections, but pollsters have called the overall House elections in favor of the Democratic Party. The Associated Press predicted that the party has secured the required 218 seats for a majority even after losing several to the Republicans. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.