 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. Arms imports by many countries in West Asia have increased, says the report. Thousands march in Australia against sexual assault and violence on women. UK imposes fresh sanctions on Syria. And in a video section, we take a look at one year later what has happened to justice for Bryona Taylor. We begin with a report from the International Arms Watch Dogs Stockholm International Peace Research Institute of Cypri, that was released on Monday. The report says that countries in West Asia and the wider Middle East North Africa region, which includes several rich and rapidly militarizing Gulf states, have recorded an increase of 25% in their arms imports in the period from 2016 to 2020. This is when compared to the first half of the decade, that's 2011 to 15. This is even as global arms sales remain stable between the two periods. The report however cautions that even though arms sales leveled out, they still remain close to the highest level since the end of the Cold War in 1991. In West Asia, key regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Qatar significantly increased the level of their arms imports. Saudi Arabia's arms imports grew by 61% while Qatar's increased by a whopping 361%. The North African countries of Algeria and Egypt also recorded an increase of 64% and 136% respectively. According to Cypri, the report's data reflects the regional strategic competition among the several states in the Gulf region. Saudi Arabia since 2015 has been spearheading a deadly military intervention in neighbouring Yemen with the aim of defeating the Houthi militia. Meanwhile, Egypt is a key member of the Saudi-led military coalition in the Yemeni Civil War and is also involved in Libya. Qatar was until very recently under a land, air and sea blockade imposed by the fellow Arab states of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. Complimenting this increase in arms imports, the United States, France and Germany saw a substantial increase in their respective weapons exports. This is even as the US continues as the world's largest arms exporter with an increased global market share of 37%. And this is compared to 32% in 2011-15. The report also reveals that close to 50% of US arms exports went to the MENA region alone. In our next story, thousands of women across Australia marched against the sexual assault and violence on women on Monday, March 15. According to reports, tens of thousands of women hit the streets in every major city and even smaller towns demanding justice and an intersexual violence in workplace harassment. The protest came in response to two recently revealed claims of sexual assault, holding senior officials to the ruling conservative liberal national coalition government responsible. In both cases, feminists and grassroots activists have accused the government of gross insensitivity towards the victims. They've also called for accountability. Activists and victims of sexual assault have called for independent enquiries into the allegations of rape and the complicity against officials. Protesters in Canberra had demanded that the Prime Minister Scott Morrison meet them at the demonstration, which he refused, instead offering a private meeting with representatives of the movement that never happened. On the day of the march, the Prime Minister Morrison also remarked in parliament that it was to quote him a triumph of democracy that the protesters were not met with bullets. This statement was widely criticized and condemned by activists and opposition leaders. On the 10th anniversary of the Syrian war, the United Kingdom announced sanctions against six Syrian individuals, including the foreign minister Faisal Mehta. This was on Monday. The other five individuals are commander of the Republican Guards, Malik Aliya, Army Major Zayed Zala, Presidential Advisor Luna Al-Shibal and two private businessmen. The sanctions, the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that these individuals are responsible for assaults on the Syrian people. The sanctions would mean that assets belonging to these individuals would be frozen and the travel to the UK would be banned. These sanctions are the first imposed by the UK after it came out of the European Union. Statement issued by the UK government claims that these new sanctions would be in addition to 353 EU sanctions which the UK will continue to implement. Faisal Mehta was appointed Syria's foreign minister in November last year after the death of long-term foreign minister Walid el-Mualim. Most of the other persons named to the UK list are already sanctioned by the US. The war in Syria has devastated the country, killing around 500,000 people. Over half of Syria's 23 million pre-war population is displaced, half of the external. And now finally in our video section we take a look at the developments in the US one year after the brutal murder of Breonna Taylor. Saturday, March 13th marked one year of the murder of Breonna Taylor. In the wake of demonstrations, seeking justice for Breonna were held in major cities of the United States, including in Louisville where she was shot dead by police. In New York City, a dying protest was organized at Times Square. In Washington DC, a candlelit vigil was organized. Justice has not been served because Breonna Taylor has billboards, she has signs named after her, she has foundations, but she has no justice. She was murdered in her sleep and no one convicted nobody for her slaughter. Justice will be to surrender and give all those people that murdered her, those three men, those three police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, they need to be in jail and justice will not be served because it doesn't stop with Breonna Taylor. She is one of many, of millions that are being murdered by the federal government. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was shot dead by police in her apartment on March 13, 2020 in an alleged drug raid. Her murder sparked an immediate backlash and mobilizations that were further strengthened after the murder of George Floyd on May 25. Last September, another round of protests broke out when a jury in the U.S. state of Kentucky refused to charge the three officers involved in the fatal shooting of Taylor. Instead of a murder indictment, as was requested by Taylor's family and supporters in a lawsuit claiming wrongful death, the jury only sanctioned indictment against one of the officers for supposedly endangering the lives of the victim's neighbors with police firing. The pigs battered her door and ambushed her home. Believing there was an intruder in the apartment because no announcement was made, Kenneth Walker awoke and fired one round entering an officer. In response, Breonna was shot eight times. On March 12, Taylor's partner Kenneth Walker filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department, as well as the officers involved in the execution of the no-knock warrant that resulted in Taylor's death. It was during this raid that Walker fired at the cops in self-defense, thinking them to be intruders. The cops fired back, which ended up in Taylor's murder. Though he was charged with attempt to murder, it was finally dropped last month. There have also been accusations that a biased jury handled the case. The jury was impaneled by Kentucky State Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who was from the Republican Party. The family's lawsuit was rejected by the jury, despite the fact that forensics had found six bullets on Taylor's body. The jury also decided to let off Jonathan Mattingly and Miles Cosgrove, who had shot 20 rounds at Taylor and her partner inside her apartment. It was also established that Cosgrove's bullet had killed Taylor. Hankinson, on the other hand, was not even present inside the apartment when the killing took place. However, he is the only one of the three accused officers to have faced termination from his job. When I think about Breonna Taylor, it's more than just police brutality. This mask with her name on it represents multiple pandemics that we're in. The pandemic that we're in against black women as we're murdered every time we go to a doctor. As we're murdered if we're pulled over by a police officer, even if they knock or don't knock on our doors. This mask represents the struggle that black women go through all the time. Social movements and progressive organizations have reiterated that justice was not served in Taylor's case, and they will keep fighting till all their demands are met. 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.