 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup with people just back where we bring you some of the top stories from across the globe. Let's take a look at today's headlines. Atlanta should have charged with murder while police refused to confirm racist motive. Egyptian activists on our safe sentenced to 18 months in prison. Rights groups urged Canadian government to cancel drone drill with Israeli company. And in our video section we take a look at the policies of Kerala's left government in pursuit of an alternative model of development. In the first day we go to the United States where eight people were shot and killed in the state of Georgia on March 16. Shooting incidents were reported at three massage parlours in the Atlantis area and near Akworth. Four people were killed at Young's Asian massage near Akworth. The bodies of three women were discovered at the Gold Spa and one at the Aroma Therapy Spa in Atlanta. Authorities have since then confirmed that six out of the eight victims were Asian women. A 21-year-old white man, Robert Aaron Long was arrested by authorities on Tuesday and was considered a likely suspect in all three attacks. Police authorities announced on March 17 that Long was officially charged with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. The deaths, of course, widespread outrage across the U.S., which has been witnessing an upsurge in anti-Asian violence and discrimination. Many have also condemned authorities for refusing to confirm that the motive behind the crimes was racist. A police captain was filmed during a press conference saying that Long had had a code really bad day. Authorities also stated that Long had claimed that he had his sexual addiction and saw the locations as a temptation he wanted to eliminate. Investigators have said that it is too early to confirm a racist motive. These remarks have been denounced as many have highlighted the links between sexism, racism and violence. The increase in violent attacks against Asian people has also been attributed to the long history of anti-communist and racist rhetoric in the U.S. The existing xenophobic sentiments were further boosted under the COVID pandemic. When President Trump repeatedly called it the China virus, 3,795 hate incidents were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate Coalition between March 1920 and February 28, 2021. Women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more than men. Prominent Egyptian activist Sana Saif has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. A criminal court in the capital of Cairo announced the verdict on March 17. Saif has been convicted on charges related to spreading fake news and inserting a police officer. She has also been charged with disturbing security and peace and disrupting the work of state institutions. Saif was arrested outside the Prosecutor General's office on June 23, 2020. She was trying to file a complaint about an attack against them which had occurred outside the Torah prison the previous day. She was accompanied by her mother Leila Swip and her sister Mona Saif at the time. The family had been visiting the Torah prison daily to demand that they be allowed to meet and communicate with Saif's brother who was imprisoned there. Ala Abdel Fata is also an activist who has been in prison since 2019 for participating in anti-government protests. While waiting to receive a letter from Fata, Saif and her family were assaulted by an armed group of unknown and plain clothed women. Saif was abducted by plain clothed men the next day and she was presented in front of a criminal court on September 12, two months after she had been detained. Prosecutors also charged her with spreading false information about the COVID-19 situation in Egypt, especially in the prisons. She ended up spending nine months in pretrial detention throughout the trial proceedings. Her lawyer Hisham Ramadha has stated that they will appeal the criminal court's verdict in a higher court. Saif's arrest has drawn widespread condemnation as many point to the continuing persecution of activists and dissidents by the government of President Abdel Fata El Tzisi. Human rights groups are urging the Canadian government to cancel a $36 million deal to purchase surveillance drones from an Israeli company. The government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced a deal last December to purchase home's 900-star-liner unmanned aircraft systems. The system is manufactured by Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems. As reported by the Middle East, monitor the company produces surveillance drones for the Israeli occupation forces in Palestine. It reportedly also produces the engines used in 85% of Israeli military drones. The Canadian government has claimed that the drones will be used to monitor oil spills and other changes in the Arctic region and not for military purposes. According to the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East group, the arms 900 being purchased by the government was first tested in Gaza. Israeli attacks on Gaza between 2008-9 and 2014 are reported to have killed 2,200 Palestinians including 551 children. The group has launched an online campaign urging citizens to demand that the Canadian government cancel the deal. The group has reported that the campaign has over 4,000 signatures as of March 17th. Other pro-Palestinian groups including Labor for Peace have also extended their solidarity to the campaign. The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has also been leading an international campaign against Elbit. The Palestinian Action Group and Extinction Rebellion in the UK have also been leading direct action protests against Elbit factories. The campaigns intensified after the British Defence Ministry signed a £102 million contract to purchase Elbit's sensor-to-shoot systems. For a final story, we go to India where the state of Kerala is set to hold its legislative elections since 1980. Power has alternated between two major coalitions in the state. These are the left-wing-left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front. With the elections scheduled in April, early polls have indicated that the ruling LDF is poised for a victory. Here is Kerala's Finance Minister Thomas Isaac to talk about the Alternative Development Plan being formulated by the left government. One of the things that people have been saying is that the government has been very efficient to deal with the floods 2018-2019, the Nipah virus, the advent of COVID-19 and so on. Let's recognize underneath all that are the developments you've put in place. You just said that we're going to have 10 years to chart out an alternative. You've done some incredible things on housing, even on basic infrastructure. I suppose that's what you mean when you say chart an alternative. Tell us a little bit about what that alternative would look like. Okay, it's a kind of hop step and jump. The hope, the first stage is redistributive politics. Kerala has been very knotted for that. Our trillion movement has succeeded having significant redistribution of income. Kerala has the highest wage rates in the country. Our peasant movement has been able to redistribute the land and assets through a very successful land reform program. And powerful social movements predates even the left movement in Kerala, whose traditions the left has carried forward, has pressurized access to governments which have been powering Kerala to provide education, healthcare, basic needs of family work. And therefore, Kerala has an ordinary person enjoys a quality of life which is much superior to us. Now, this is the situation. But the problem with this process, because we have to spend on social sector so much there won't be sufficient money for resources for building infrastructure. So a program of social development spread over more than a half a century. There's serious infrastructure deficit in Kerala. So we have a body corporate Kerala infrastructure investment fund board which utilized new instruments, financial instruments which have been designed under neoliberal rules for the corporates to mobilize money from national, from the country and outside the country. And we mobilized this money. Therefore, we gave permission for construction of this huge amount of infrastructure. See, in India, the paradigm of development, there are three models. One is Gujarat, I would say, who are very rapidly interstellating. But there's little welfare and social security. They have fairly high poverty, illiteracy, ill will, and so on. Then there is this Kerala. Well, there's very little industry, but we have ensured everybody welfare. And of course, then there is whole Bimaru states, whether it's neither industry nor welfare. Now, this is the situation. Now we want to create a Kerala which will assure every individual dignity of life and the security and welfare. At the same time, we will challenge Gujarat and other states. We will be growing even faster than them. And that will be very different. We are going to say, yes, it is possible to have redistribution, yet ensure the growth. And that's the matter. Within this framework, we are not a socialist country. We are part of Indian capitalism. But in this part, within the limitations, we shall design a society which will inspire the whole progressive thinking people in India. Yes, it is possible to build something different. That's the idea of Kerala. And that's all the time we have for this episode of the International Day. Round up for most of the stories and videos. 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