 Hello and welcome to today's episode of the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch where we bring you some of the top stories from around the world. Let's take a look at today's headlines. Arms manufacturer, Elbit, forced to shut down factory in Oldham, Egyptian human rights organization, suspense, activities due to government pressure, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologizes for attending party during COVID restrictions. In our first story, Palestinian Solidarity activists in Britain scored a crucial victory with the closure of Israel's Elbit Systems Arm Manufacturing Facility in Oldham, Greater Manchester. The news was announced on Monday, January 10 by Palestine Action, a Palestinian Solidarity and Direct Action Group that had been waging a campaign against the factory since August 2020. Elbit Systems announced earlier on January 10 that it was selling its Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham to UK-based TT electronics for a sum of approximately $12 million. Elbit is infamous for manufacturing parts for Israeli drones and other pilotless aircrafts. These aircrafts are used by the Israeli military in attacks against Palestinians including in Israeli airstrikes against Gaza. Apart from Oldham, Elbit has nine other manufacturing sites still operating within the country. The campaign against Elbit's Oldham factory made headlines for the Creative Direct Action measures taken to draw attention to Elbit's participation in Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Over the last 18 months, activists occupied the facility, organized a human blockade by locking themselves onto the front gates to prevent workers from going inside and blocked off roads using vehicles leading up to the factory. They also regularly broke the glass windows and inflicted other damage to parts of the factories such as the air vents and roof. The action taken by Palestine Action, often in collaboration with other solidarity and peace groups such as XR North, Oldham Peace and Justice Group and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign resulted in massive financial losses to the company estimated to be more than 650,000 UK pounds. They also regularly forced factory closures for weeks on end disrupting production. As early as now with 2021, the factory was already issuing mass redundancy notices and making preparations to leave the site. The 10 Elbit sites that still remain inside the UK employ about 500 people producing high-tech and specialist manufacturing activities for military and civilian uses. Several of these sites have also been targeted with actions by Palestine Action Group such as the Shenzhen facility in Straffordshire. Palestine Action has worked to continue its campaigns against the other facilities until they also meet the same fate as the one in Oldham. In our next story, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information or the ANHRI for the last remaining civil society organizations in Egypt announced an indefinite suspension of its activities in the country in a statement released on Monday, January 10. The human rights organization cited constant state persecution and harassment as a reason for its decision. The statement, ANHRI claimed that with the increasing disregard for rule of law, growing violations of human rights which did not exclude institutions and independent defenders of human rights and increase in police persecutions as the reason for its inability to carry on with its activities. ANHRI was established in 2004 by lawyers and activists working in the field of human rights. Its activities included primarily recording human rights violations against citizens, political prisoners and journalists across the country and highlighting cases of victims of state persecution. It also documented protests against such violations and worked to defend human rights in Egyptian courts. In its statement, ANHRI accused the government of constant harassment of its staff and even attempts to recruit some of them to spy on the organization's activities. These included actions like illegal seizure of its publications, blocking of its website within hours of its launch and seizure of its office furniture and other materials from time to time. Its Deputy Executive Director, Radha Ahmed was arrested and Executive Director, Gamal Eid was defamed, prevented from travelling abroad and had his property attached since 2016. And finally, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized in parliament on Wednesday after a national uproar over his attending a party in violation of his own government's COVID-19 restrictions. The party took place in May 2020 at No. 10 Downing Street, even as harsh restrictions had been imposed across the country. Around 40 staff members took part in the party which was called by a senior aide of Johnson. Opposition leaders have demanded he resign and even members of his own conservative party has said his position is increasingly untenable. This is the latest scandal to hit the Prime Minister after revelations of earlier parties forced a spokesperson to resign recently. An inquiry was set up to look into such incidents and is likely to submit a report soon. Boris Johnson has faced widespread criticism for his government's handling of the pandemic, especially due to the pressure on the National Health Service. Trade unions and opposition have attacked the government for seeking to privatize the service instead of providing it adequate funding. In parliament on Wednesday, Johnson refused to accept calls to resign. Labour Party leader Kair Stammer said Johnson's statement was the pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road and offensive to the British public. The ruling conservative party is also lagging the polls and the press too has widely criticized the recent revelations of possible misconduct by the Prime Minister and his staff. And that's all for today's episode. For more such stories, visit our website at www.peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for watching. Thank you very much.