The Caravel | Volume IX, Issue III

V O LU M E 9 | I S S U E 3

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Chilean Protesters Call For Constitutional Assembly

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Channing Lee

The Gambia accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Rohingya on November 11.

In response to protests, Chilean Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel announced on November 10 that the government will write a new constitution, subject to a public referendum.

This announcement did not satisfy the protesters, who have been demonstrating for more than four weeks. What began as a cry against growing inequality and alleged rights abuses has become a demand for greater freedoms not guaranteed by the current constitution.

Chile’s constitution dates back to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990.

The constitution, which has been hailed by opponents of the protests as a “pillar of the country’s economic and political stability,” created a market-driven economy that privatized pensions, healthcare, and education, according to Al

Jazeera. Although it has been amended several times, the document has been unchanged for the last thirty years.

Chileans are intent on participating in the rewrite. Many feel that the government is reluctant to enact real reform, as Congress is in charge of writing the new constitution without direct input from the people. Polls show that 87 percent of Chileans support drafting a new constitution, while President Sebastian Piñera’s approval rating is below 15 percent, Al Jazeera reports.

One protester, Yerko Salvador, who has been protesting with his family every day since the beginning, called the changes “superficial.” He does not believe there will be a major overhaul of the existing document, and that the “whole political class benefits from the constitution of the 80s.”

See CHILEAN CONSTITUTION on p. 8

The Gambia Accuses Myanmar of Genocide Romanian Presidential Election The Gambia announced on November 11 that it had charged Myanmar with committing genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority in a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Since 2017, Myanmar’s military has cracked down harshly on the country’s Rohingya ethnic minority, drawing fierce international criticism. The Gambia, a majority Muslim country, won support from the Organization for Islamic Corporation (OIC), an international organization composed of 53 Muslim-majority states, to move forward with its case.

“The aim is to get Myanmar to account for its action against its own people: the Rohingya,” said Gambian

Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou in a conference at the Hague to Reuters.

“It is a shame for our generation that we do nothing while genocide is unfolding right under our own eyes.”

In 2017, Myanmar’s military entered the northern Rakhine province, the native province of the majority of Rohingya in Myanmar, and began attacking civilians and burning villages. Myanmar has a long history of discrimination against the Rohingya, including denying them citizenship and denying their Myanma ethnic heritage. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar as refugees mainly towards neighboring Bangladesh, where they are confined to some of the world’s biggest refugee camps. The United

Nations has called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” despite official government denials of Rohingya persecution.

Despite international outcry, international legal bodies have issued no formal ruling against the actions of Myanmar’s security forces. At the ICJ, only countries can bring a case against another country. The Gambia has asked for the court to formally condemn Myanmar for violating the terms of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Both the Gambia and Myanmar are signatories to the Convention, which prohibits states from committing genocide and compels others to take action against states that are doing so.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2-3

W. EUROPE & CANADA, 6-7

LAT. AM. & THE CARIBBEAN, 8-9

Sandy Hook Families Allowed to Sue Remington, p. 2

EU Warns U.K. Voters of Potential Disinformation, p. 6

E. EUROPE & RUSSIA, 4-5 Russian Historian Found Carrying Severed Arms, p. 5

French Students Protest Financial Insecurity, p. 7

Jong Hak Won

See THE GAMBIA ACCUSATION on p. 14

Advances to Second Round Dennis Azvolinsky

Klaus Iohannis, Romania’s incumbent president, and Viorica Dăncilă, leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and former-prime minister, advanced to the second round of the Romanian 2019 presidential election on November 10.

Romania Insider reports that the runoff election was called after no candidate obtained a majority, with Iohannis receiving 37.8 percent of the votes, Dăncilă taking 22.3 percent and Dan Barna, the USR-Plus alliance’s candidate, acquiring 14.9 percent.

Even though Iohannis defeated Dăncilă by a solid margin, DW reports that

both candidates plan to campaign vigorously in the weeks leading up to the second round. “We have beaten the Social Democrats, but the war is not over, we have to take another step forward in two weeks,” Iohannis told his supporters after the results of the first round were finalized, Dăncilă also reacted optimistically to the results, according to DW: “We are present in the second round, I thank those who voted with their hearts.”

However, the former-prime minister has little to be optimistic about after Iohannis received the valuable endorsement of the USR-Plus Alliance.

See ROMANIAN ELECTION on p. 4

MIDDLE EAST & C. ASIA, 12-13

AFRICA, 14-15

An Interview With Congressman Cuellar on the USMCA, p. 9

Israeli Raids in Gaza Prompt Violent Exchange, p. 12

Mauritian Voters Reaffirm Mandate of Incumbent PM, p. 14

INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC, 10-11 New Zealand Passes Euthanasia Bill, p. 11

Iran Disregards Uranium Enrichment Limits, p. 13

Oil Week Conference Highlights Climate Conflict in Africa, p. 15

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Sandy Hook Families Allowed to Sue Remington Seven years after the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit brought forth by victims’ families against the gun manufacturer Remington to proceed on November 12. According to NPR, the families of nine victims are suing for wrongful death, based on provisions of a Connecticut state law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).

The law was intended to protect arms manufacturers from being sued by victims of gun violence. The suit, however, alleges that the PLCAA does not protect gunmakers from being sued for malicious advertising.

The victims believe that Remington should have never marketed militarygrade weapons to the public, and claim that the company purposefully targeted young adult males in their advertising.

In legal briefs, the plaintiffs argue that the AR-15 was, “designed as a military weapon” and “engineered to deliver maximum carnage.”

The AR-15 has been used in 7 of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in US history, and a study done at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that if an attacker uses a semiautomatic firearm like an AR15, it doubles the chances of a victim being wounded or killed.

The Sandy Hook families see the Supreme Court decision as a victory.

The suit has been shuffled around the judicial process several times. In 2014, the families of nine of the victims filed a class-action lawsuit against the gun manufacturer, BBC reports.

After a Connecticut judge dismissed the case, the families appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court in early 2019, New York Daily News says. Only by a narrow 4-3 vote did the appeal make it through the state Supreme Court, according to Slate, finding that the PLCAA does not stop liability for wrongful advertising. The court

Caleb Yip

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Samuel Hoag

NSA O’Brien Moves to Shrink NSC

A protester interrupts a press conference by NRA Vice President Wayne Lapierre.

wrote in the majority opinion that Connecticut law “does not permit advertisements that promote or encourage violent, criminal behavior,” according to NPR. Remington promptly appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, asking for a dismissal. NPR reports that the court denied the motion, kicking the suit back to a lower court in Connecticut.

The Sandy Hook families see the Supreme Court decision as a victory.

The New York Times reports that lawyer Josh Koskoff said, “Now we get to proceed with the case, which is what we were hoping to do almost five years ago.”

The case will soon enter into the discovery phase, where the plaintiffs requested documents and communications from Remington regarding their marketing procedures.

“I can’t say I’m excited by this ruling,” said one parent of a Sandy Hook Elementary victim. “I wish it was never here. But what we’ve said from the outset is all we want is our day in court, for the law to be upheld and for a jury to decide our case.”

According to the New York Times, more than two dozen cases around the country have been filed to challenge federal shield laws protecting gun makers and their advertising practices from lawsuits.

Earthquake Shifts CA Fault Line Saahithi Dantuluri

Christopher Stein Felipe Lobo Koerich Jackson Gillette Claire Hazbun

ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD Publisher Editor-in-Chief Director of Digital Operations Executive Director

Christopher Stein Rohan Sahu Kate Fin Paulina Song Morgan Smith Max Dunat Cristina Lopez Arin Chinnasathian Macy Uustal Juliana Albuquerque April Artrip Advait Arun Madison Stern Suzie Kim Ga Ram Lee Kyle Wang

EDITORIAL STAFF Copy Chief Copy Chief Africa Editor Africa Editor Eastern Europe & Russia Editor Eastern Europe & Russia Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Latin America & the Caribbean Editor Latin America & the Caribbean Editor Middle East & Central Asia Editor Middle East & Central Asia Editor United States of America Editor United States of America Editor Western Europe & Canada Editor Western Europe & Canada Editor

In a recent study, researchers used satellite imagery and seismic instruments to observe the effects of the Ridgecrest earthquakes that occurred on July 4, according to Science Daily. The Ridgecrest earthquakes were a series of earthquakes that began with a magnitude 6.4 foreshock in the Mojave Desert before a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the next day.

There were more than 100,000 aftershocks from those two earthquakes alone, Science Daily reports. This increased stress on the Garlock Fault, a major earthquake fault line that has been dormant for at least a century. Experts estimate that nearby naval facilities will require billions of dollars to repair, according to CNN. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) showed how the Ridgecrest earthquakes and aftershocks caused “a seismic creep” along a 12- to 16-mile section of the Garlock Fault, which runs east to west from the San Andreas Fault to Death

Valley, crossing the Ridgecrest area.

“The Garlock Fault has been quiet for a long time,” an assistant professor in the University of Iowa Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, says. “But there’s geologic evidence that there have been large earthquakes on it. It’s a major fault line.”

The Garlock Fault is considered a seismic risk, Science Daily finds.

The USGS says there is a 31 percent chance that a 7.5-magnitude earthquake will strike Los Angeles sometime in the next 30 years, CNN reports, possibly impacting more than 10 million people.

The southern San Andreas Fault typically sees large quakes every 150 years. The last one occurred in 1857, meaning that segment is considered a “likely location for an earthquake.”

The next big earthquake that will trigger the fault line is impossible to predict. The USGS urges California residents to stay prepared by checking and fortifying their home’s infrastructure, and keeping an adequate supply of food, water and fuel in case of an emergency.

As the new National Security Advisor, Ambassador Robert O’Brien has moved to reshape the National Security Council (NSC), which advises and assists the president on matters relating to national security and foreign policy. As this reorganization was proposed during the current impeachment inquiry, some fear that the White House is attempting to retaliate against NSC staffers who have testified in front of House impeachment hearings, according to CNN. The proposed changes will streamline the organization and restore the “NSC to its historical mission,” O’Brien explained in a Washington Post op-ed last month. “We will reduce the NSC staff, making it more effective by reaffirming its mission to coordinate policy and ensure policy implementation.”

At the heart of these new changes is an emphasis on directorates organized by geographic region, not topical issue. According to Politico, at least two directorates—strategic planning and emerging technologies—will be removed, and the international economic directorates will now only report to the National Economic Council.

For now, O’Brien plans to be more careful about bringing new staff into the NSC, aiming to halt hiring while sorting out the agency’s current needs and downfalls.

“Rightsizing the NSC staff reflects the president’s vision for a lean, efficient government that is focused on the core national interests of the United States,” O’Brien wrote in his Washington Post op-ed.

There have been concerns that the move is an effort to root out whistleblowers and leaks in the NSC. However, officials insist that O’Brien’s goal is to return the NSC to its role as an inter-agency coordinator.

The White House hopes to reduce the total staff from 174 people to around 120 people, which would be similar to the number of NSC staffers during the first term of President George W. Bush.

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Truckers Challenge Gig Economy Law The California Trucking Association filed a federal lawsuit on November 12 challenging California’s recent ordinance forcing businesses to treat contract workers as employees.

Under the ordinance, workers would be entitled to benefits, overtime pay and sick leave the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Commonly called the Gig Economy Law, California’s state Senate passed AB5 earlier this fall on September 10 by a vote of 29-11.

Eight days later, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed the bill. First introduced in December 2018, the bill aims to codify a ruling from Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v Superior Court of Los Angeles by requiring employers to apply the ABC test on potential independent contractors, according to Tech Crunch. To be classified as a contractor, the employer would have to prove that: the worker is free from the employer’s control in performing the work, the work takes place off the site of business and outside the usual course of business, and the worker is

The California Trucking Association argues new laws will hurt truckers economically.

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Chris Jang

engaged in an independent practice or occupation.

The bill’s author, Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), cited the estimated $8 billion a year from lost wages, taxes, and expenses as an example of how the Gig Economy Law could help boost California’s economy and workers. A study done by the Labor Center at UC Berkeley found that the Gig Economy Law would apply to up to nearly two-thirds of independent contractors, with most high-wage jobs being exempt.

The new law would deprive 70,000 independent truckers of their ability to work.

Although the bill aims to empower contract workers with guarantees of a minimum wage and workers compensation, the legislation has sparked controversy from ride-share apps, food delivery services, and now the trucking industry. Despite Uber and Lyft’s unsuccessful attempt to be exempted earlier in September, the California Trucking Association argues

that many truckers will be denied the opportunity to profit from their vehicle and set their schedules, according to the Sacramento Bee. In a statement on Fox Business, the association’s CEO, Shawn Yadon, estimated that the new law would deprive 70,000 independent truckers of their ability to work, claiming that it would illegally infringe on interstate commerce. Yadon later said that “we can protect workers from misclassification without infringing on independent truckers’ right to make a living in California.”

As Uber, Lyft, and Doordash pledges $90 million for a 2020 ballot measure opposing the law unless they can gain exemptions for their drivers, the trucking association’s lawsuit could pave a potential legal road towards gaining further exemptions for other industry workers such as construction workers and janitors.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, with the bill coming into effect on January 1, 2020, Gonzalez greeted the additional legal challenges, saying in a statement that she “expected big corporate interests… to take this fight to the place they know they can delay justice for workers: the courts.”

Impeachment Hearings Begin in D.C. Steele Schoeberl Diplomats William Taylor Jr. and George Kent appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on November 13, officially beginning the open House impeachment hearings on the Trump-Ukraine Scandal, the Washington Post reports.

Many politicians view the testimony as damning for President Donald Trump, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The impeachment case is focused on a July 26 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukrainians elected Zelensky, a former comedian who ran on an anti-corruption platform, on April 21, 2019, the Hill reports. Ukraine’s proximity to Russia has made it a key U.S. ally.

A whistleblower filed a complaint on August 12 to the House Intelligence Committee, saying that Trump “solicit[ed] interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”

After the complaint, the White House released a rough transcript of the phone call, in which he offered what many believe to be a quid pro quo to

Zelensky.

On September 24, Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump’s conduct, the New York Times reports. Democrats regard the phone call as a potentially criminal offense, while Republicans and the president argue the actions are not impeachable.

The diplomats’ testimony has revealed more evidence. Both diplomats confirmed the phone call took place. Democratic Congressman Eric Swaldwell questioned the diplomats on withholding military aid from the Ukraine. Taylor said it was inappropriate and “wrong.” When asked if Taylor had ever heard of aid being withheld for political gain, he replied, “No... I have not.”

These hearings add evidence against the president. CBS reports that Pelosi said in a televised address following the testimony, “What the president has admitted to and says ‘it’s perfect’—I said it’s perfectly wrong. It’s bribery.” Pelosi and fellow Democrats want the inquiry to shift public opinion, the Economist reports, opening up the opportunity for a Senate trial. Since Pelosi announced the inquiry, the president’s approval

rating has fallen by two points.

Republicans have taken a different approach. On the night of the hearings, hosts from conservative outlet Fox News launched a defense of the president, CNN reports.

Donald Trump Jr. called the hearings “insanity,” and White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “Today was a joke.”

“Witness intimidation in realtime by the president.”

—Adam Schiff (D-MA) The hearings may have a considerable effect on the Democratic primaries. Former-Vice President Joe Biden is at the center of the Ukraine scandal which does not bode well for his campaign. Even though he currently leads in the polls, the scrutiny of Biden’s political past as well as his son’s potential involvement might derail his performance.

On November 15, as formerAmbassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified before a House panel about the mistreatment

she experienced while serving as ambassador, Trump tweeted a disparaging statement about her, claiming that everything “turned bad” in the various places where Yovanovitch was posted as a diplomat, according to the Washington Post.

When this tweet was read aloud in the proceedings, Yovanovitch stated that she felt threatened by the message.

“What you saw today—witness intimidation in real-time by the president of the United States,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters when the proceedings, according to Politico. Some politicians are already speculating that this act of potential witness intimidation could be included in articles of impeachment requesting Trump’s removal from office.

Trump defended himself, according to the Washington Post, by saying that this tweet was “free speech.” He defended his “right to speak” at an event in the Oval Office later that afternoon.

The impeachment hearings are currently scheduled to continue, calling several officials from a range of offices with potential knowledge.

EDITOR’S COLUMN: Suzie Kim

A

16-year-old student shot five of his fellow students with a semiautomatic pistol at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, on 14 November. Two students died, and three are in critical condition.

The shooter died the next day after having shot himself in the head. The police did not disclose the shooter’s profile to the public because he is a minor and have not identified his motive.

In 2019 alone, there have been 265 mass shooting in the United States. Of the 84 incidents of gunfire on school campuses, 30 shooting attacks resulted in deaths or injuries.

The Gun Violence Archive classifies mass shootings as attacks that lead to deaths of four or more people with the use of firearms.

Despite having one of the strictest gun control regulations in the country, California witnessed a surge in mass shootings this year. After the San Bernardino shooting, Proposition 63 imposed background checks for both gun and ammunition sales, but it remains unable to keep firearms out of the wrong hands, including those of minors.

The Second Amendment guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” and is considered one of the most important yet contentious rights of Americans. The highly divisive issue of gun ownership continues to raise questions as to whether the amendment truly protects Americans as it was originally intended when written.

Schools are meant to be and should be safe for students.

Increasing numbers of shootings on school grounds have led to frequent lockdown drills that closely resemble a real incident.

These drills that are meant to prepare children for an actual shooting may traumatize and induce more stress for younger students.

Heightened security measures at schools and stricter enforcement of gun laws can lower the number of tragedies but do not ensure the safety of Americans from gun violence. Tackling the fundamental question of individual gun ownership is a challenge but is something that must be addressed.

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EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA Morgan Smith

T

hirty years ago this month, after the wall separating East Berlin from West Berlin fell—and communism fell shortly thereafter—a wave of optimism swept through the European continent.

Eastern Europeans were eager to adopt the institutions of the prosperous West; western Europeans envisioned a Europe that was more unified and cohesive.

The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall prompts us to consider whether this optimism was merited.

Eastern Europeans have largely embraced democracy and the market economy but disagree on whether liberal institutions have improved their quality of life.

Support for a fair judiciary, gender equality, and free speech top the chart of important democratic priorities, followed by regular elections and free media and internet access.

According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of Poles, Czechs, Lithuanians, Hungarians, and Slovaks feel they are better off than 30 years ago. However, more than half of Russians, Ukrainians, and Bulgarians feel that their lives have worsened.

According to the same study, most central and eastern Europeans believe that education, living standards, and national pride have advanced since the fall of communism, but they expressed concern about corruption, inequality, and the functioning of their political systems.

The past thirty years have revealed a deep cultural divide between eastern and western Europe that democracy and the market economy have failed to bridge.

A general social tolerance for xenophobia, homophobia, and racism in eastern Europe isolates it from the West. Corruption and restrictions on freedom of speech and press stymie meaningful political and economic reform.

Despite these challenges, the Pew Research Center study revealed optimism among eastern Europeans, who broadly believe their children will be better off than their parents. The same cannot be said for many western Europeans.

Albanian Gangs Traffic Children Into the U.K.

Jacob Cohen

Albanian teenagers and young adults have fallen victim to an unlikely human trafficking coalition.

The coalition is run between a cartel of drug-running street gangs looking to boost British markets and the children’s own parents, according to the Daily Telegraph. These gangs seduce the children’s families with promises of high profits and quick cash, the alleged rewards of participating in their international drug and human trafficking ring.

The Albanian gangs control significant shares in the British drug and cocaine markets, and BBC reports that the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is concerned by their “high-profile influence within U.K. organized crime.”

While the NCA warns of these groups’ increasing influence on the British cocaine supply, the Telegraph also stressed that Albania is the single largest source of human trafficking into the U.K., with a 50 percent increase in cases reported since 2015.

NCA Deputy Director Michael

Horne cautioned to BBC that these gangs are “small in number but big in impact,” due to their pervasiveness, and even popularity in Albania. In promising poor Albanian families huge financial benefits in return for the use of their sons as drug dealers and traffickers in the British market, these gangs have developed rapport with local communities despite their exploitation of them.

“The majority of Albanian boys and young men are trafficked with the complicity of their parents and the promise of financial remuneration,” international law enforcement expert Steve Harvey said to the Telegraph. “Families are approached by traffickers and engaged with on the basis of how they will profit financially from the deal.”

These gangs have ingrained themselves so deeply in poor Albanian communities that “in some cases family members were directly responsible for the recruitment and exploitation of male trafficking victims,” according to the British Home Office. In times of desperation and poverty, these teenage boys’ own

Romanian Election

From p.1 With the backing of the USR-Plus Alliance and the National Liberal Party (PNL), Iohannis is campaigning on his track-record of anti-corruption efforts in Romania’s government.

In the five years since Iohannis took office, he has led a popular national referendum seeking to end emergency decrees, advocated for a ban on amnesty for graft crimes and increased the amount of investigations and prosecutions into government officials, according to the State Department. Iohannis’s fight against corruption poses a major threat to Dăncilă, whose party has been at the center of multiple corruption scandals, including most recently when PSD’s former president, Liviu Dragnea, was imprisoned after participating in a graft crime, Ziare reports.

However, the one advantage Dăncilă has in the election is her party’s ability to bring its base to the polls, which won them a majority in the Romanian parliament in 2016, according to News.ro. As a result, Iohannis commented on the need for

his party to reach out to more voters: “The PSD is attempting to get attention through all sorts of maneuvers... I will focus on meeting the voters in the campaign for the second round.”

Despite this new tactic, Iohannis does not plan to attend a proposed debate with Dăncilă, News.ro reports.

The PNL campaign team considers that the debate “would bring nothing extra” since both candidates positions are already well known. Iohannis said to Romania Insider, “She is the representative of an undemocratic, non-reformed party that has ruled against Romanians and now, in the campaign, mimics a democratic candidate and expected to be treated with respect.”

Romania is also facing a decline in voter turnout which dropped to 49.02 percent in the first round of the election, which Romania Business Review notes is the lowest domestic turnout in 30 years. Despite this notable drop, a record 666,000 votes came from Romanian citizens living abroad, mainly in Italy, the UK and Germany.

parents trade their sons to the British cocaine market for the promise of eventual compensation.

These children, however, are thrust into the very indigence that their parents so desperately sought to avoid. Castaways in the cargo holds of internationally routed trucks, they endure the days-long journey just to end up on the streets of a foreign country or in the drug dens of these Albanian gangsters. Tasked with distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine to over one million Britons, these children are the manpower

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behind Europe’s largest drug market according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Rather than following through on promises of a better education and financial future for these children and their families, these gangs often leave those they exploit in prisons across the U.K., the Telegraph reports. For example, Endrit Vishaj will now serve over four years in British prison for crimes he committed as a minor. The same Albanian gangs that trafficked him will simply seek out his peers to fill his place.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says child trafficking is linked to the drug trade.

Brooke Tanner

The Serbian Orthodox Church baptized a transgender man under his chosen name in a landmark first on November 3. The man, Vu Adzic, was christened at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica, Montenegro.

Adzic is only 19 years old but told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that his faith was tested many times before the baptism, most recently when he was violently attacked at his family’s mountain cottage. The three men accused of committing this act are currently awaiting trial, reports Vijesti, a Montenegrin daily newspaper. Commenting on the attack, Adzic says: “I definitely feel that church is my only safe harbor.” Adzic is relying on a Podgorica non-profit for shelter after the attack.

The response from the Church to this event has been contradictory.

While Adzic praised the church for recognizing him as a man, RFE/RL reported that the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, Amfilohije Radovic, clarified that the

baptism was not a “justification of same-sex relationships, a mindless gender ideology that we have witnessed in recent decades and which are, without any doubt, a sin.”

Radovic previously stated in an interview for N1-TV that he is “no homophobe but rather a sin-phobe.”

He has been a vocal opponent of Podgorica’s LGBT parades, describing the LGBT community as “the selfdestruction of humanity.” Despite this, Adzic has defended Radovic, thanking him for “the blessing of being able to be baptized,” according to RFE/RL.

Vu Adzic was christened at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.

The board president of a prominent LGBT-rights organization in Montenegro told local news outlet, Dnevne Novine that this “symbolic step” could help change perceptions of “the retrograde and backwardness of religious institutions.”

According to LGBT advocacy

group ILGA-Europe, support for the LGBT community in Montenegro is higher than in other countries aspiring for EU membership. Rainbow Europe reports that Montenegro instated laws to punish hate crimes and prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.

However, these laws were only adopted after a violent clash during a pride parade in 2013.

Still, observers are optimistic as recent pride events passed without incidents. Montenegro still does not protect same-sex relationships and only protects transgender people who have undergone expensive reassignment surgery. Without having undergone transitional surgery, Adzic is categorized as a female on governmental documents – one reason why his baptism as a man is all the more significant. Although there has been progress, Adzic stated that LGBT people in Montenegro “are second class citizens, trapped, invisible to the system when it comes to education and health, for example.” Although discrimination is still a problem, “there is progress.”

Russian Historian Found Carrying Severed Arms Sarah Weber Oleg Sokolov, a prominent Russian historian and Napoleon reenactor, confessed on November 11 to the murder of his girlfriend and former student, Anastasia Yeshchenko, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Law enforcement agencies accused Sokolov of murdering Yeshchenko after they discovered two severed arms in his backpack upon rescuing him, drunk, from a river late on the night of November 9.

Police pulled Sokolov from the Moika River in St. Petersburg after hearing cries for help; upon extracting him, they discovered two severed arms in his backpack. While Sokolov recovered from mild hypothermia in the hospital, police searched his apartment, where they found the headless, limbless body of Yeshchenko, as well as a bloodied saw. Yeshchenko appeared to have died of gunshot wounds, according to CNN. While Sokolov initially denied involvement in the murder, he eventually confessed to killing his protégé-turned-lover in a fit of rage.

At first, he maintained that she had attempted to attack him with a knife and he had shot her in self-defense,

according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Friends and relatives of Yeshchenko claimed that Sokolov was frequently verbally and physically abusive with Yeshchenko, according to BBC.

He eventually confessed to killing his protégé-turned-lover in a fit of rage.

Prior to the crime, Sokolov reached widespread acclaim for his work as Russia’s leading Napoleonic reenactor: RFE/RL reports that he created the Soviet Union’s first reenactment troupe in 1975 and was a prominent scholar of Franco-Russian history. In 2003, French President Jacques Chirac awarded Sokolov France’s highest decoration, the Legion of Honor, for his contribution to the popularization of French history in Russia, CNN reports.

This severity of Sokolov’s crime illustrates a bigger trend of rampant domestic abuse in Russia. In 2017, the Russian government decriminalized forms of domestic abuse, resulting in a 45 percent decrease in domestic

abuse reports, according to the Guardian. Reported cases rarely gain traction, and women acting in selfdefense against their abusers have faced charges resulting in years in jail, according to RFE/RL. Just this year, Russian teenager Darya Ageny faced trial for stabbing a man who sexually assaulted her in an alley, and authorities kept three sisters who stabbed their father to death after years of sexual, physical, and verbal abuse under house arrest for over a year before their trial, according to RFE/RL. In July, Valeriya Volodina took her case to the European Court of Human Rights after Russian law enforcement dismissed charges against her exboyfriend for stalking, harassment, and kidnapping. Because she had not been harmed physically, Russian officials argued that she had not experienced domestic abuse under the Russian legal definition. The court ruled in her favor, reports the New York Times, awarding her 20,000 euros ($22,117).

Sokolov’s high-profile crime shines a spotlight on Russia’s domestic abuse epidemic, according to RFE/RL. Sokolov will remain in custody until the case against him reaches trial.

Russia Bolsters Its Northern Fleet With Siberian Husky Squad Sarah Keisler On November 13, the Moscow Times gave readers a glimpse of the Siberian husky sled dog team recently added to the Russian Armed Forces’ Arctic brigade. The piece, which features images of the blue-eyed “puppies and several fully grown Siberian huskies,” explains how the Northern Fleet, the Russian Navy’s Arctic strategic association, is training Huskies and soldiers to use sleds in their operations.

The dogs and soldiers are stationed in the Arctic in order to “safeguard Russian interests,” which include sizable reserves of natural resources such as oil and gas. Although the addition of sled dogs to the fleet is a light-hearted homage to the traditional use of huskies in the Russian military, the article assures readers that the soldiers are “outfitted with modern military equipment.”

Russian promotion of the Northern Fleet’s recent modernization is timely, especially as the Arctic brigade has added more than dogs to their arsenal.

The Russian Navy is actively investing in the Northern Fleet’s development.

It has recently gained advanced surface ships dedicated to traversing the Arctic’s frozen waters, National Interest reports. It is also modernizing its submarine forces with enhanced target acquisition and communication abilities.

The modernization of Russia’s Arctic forces is part of a larger effort to strengthen the country’s presence in the area. Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized this prioritization in his Arctic Strategy statements in 2008 and 2013.

In recent years, the Moscow Times reports that Russia has “heavily bolstered” its presence in the region, building new bases and increasing arctic training for the air force and

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Serbian Orthodox Church Baptizes First Transgender Man

N O V. 2019 | 5

navy. Russia’s prioritization of the Arctic stems from the growing prominence of the region as a strategic location.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Arctic’s strategic importance has increased due to the effects of climate change.

Melting Arctic waterways will create more navigable paths for ships, making the Arctic a viable region for commerce, transportation, and resource extraction.

Access to the Arctic seas shortens shipping routes between Asia and Europe. Whomever commands the Northern Sea Route will “capitalize on increased traffic in the Arctic,” Maritime Executive explains. The Arctic also holds large oil and gas reserves that can be exploited as the ice melts. Within the Arctic’s economic potential lies the rationale for Russian naval interests in the region.

Russia’s growing military strength in the Arctic challenges the status quo in the region set by NATO and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The current precedent maintains that all nations get a piece of the pie: among the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Iceland, the Arctic is a “global commons.”

However, Maritime Executive argues that Putin’s Arctic naval efforts signal that Russia wants “more than it receives under UNCLOS.” The efforts also suggest Putin will push to extend Russian control over larger portions of the Arctic, undermining the “global commons.”

Even though many experts have dismissed the likelihood of armed aggression in the Arctic as far-fetched, CFR reports that tension over Arctic resources and military buildup between Russia and the NATO alliance could potentially prime the Arctic for a new Cold War.

The Russian Armed Forces recently added Siberian huskies to their Arctic brigade.

6 | N O V. 2019

WESTERN EUROPE & CANADA

U.K. Prepares For General Election

The United Kingdom will hold its 2019 General Election on December 12 across 650 constituencies in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, according to the Daily Telegraph. The election is the result of an October 29 parliamentary vote on whether or not to hold the election.

Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has called for the election in the hopes of increasing the number of seats held by the Conservative Party in Parliament to a large enough majority in order to advance the vote for Brexit. The Conservatives have held a plurality in the U.K. Parliament since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

The main opposition to the Conservatives is the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn. The Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (SNP), and other regional parties also hold small minorities in Parliament.

The latest poll aggregation by the Financial Times on November

14 shows Boris Johnson and the Conservatives at 40 percent, followed

by Labour’s 29 percent, and the Liberal Democrats at 16 percent.

According to polling expert John Curtice, if the Conservatives are able to hold on to a ten-point lead in the polls, it is more than likely that a Conservative majority will be large enough to allow Johnson’s Brexit deal to pass through Parliament.

Despite this, as Members of Parliament are elected individually in first-past-the-post constituencies, general polling does not necessarily determine the eventual makeup of Parliament, since tactical voting is also a possibility.

New polling data on November 15 suggests that Johnson cannot rely on the Democratic Union Party in Northern Ireland to form a majority coalition with the Conservatives, as many voters are concerned by a Brexit deal that can threaten peace along the border. Meanwhile, Scotland is also now no longer considered to be a Labour stronghold as it had been

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Matthew Lee

EU Warns U.K. Voters of Potential Disinformation Madeline Hart

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at a campaign event.

for many years, with the SNP gaining strength at the expense of Labour.

Conservatives are targeting Labour constituencies in Northern England and Wales, termed the “red wall,” where many voters chose “Leave” in the Brexit referendum.

The Conservatives are the obvious frontrunners to push for a Brexit deal, though Labour under Jeremy Corbyn has also committed to renegotiate a Brexit deal with the EU in six months and to hold a new referendum. Both the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are staunch on reversing the Brexit process.

According to Bloomberg, both the Conservatives and Labour

have economic policies focused on investing in infrastructure, with Labour also seeking to increase taxes on the highest earners. The Liberal Democrats and the SNP have policies geared towards raising taxes to promote education and schools. The Conservatives also plan on investing billions in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) by 2023, while Labour supports the creation of a state-owned drug company to keep medicine prices low, in addition to also increasing spending on the NHS. If no party reaches a majority and no coalitions can be agreed upon, the U.K. may face another election in 2020, according to Bloomberg.

Venice Under Water Elisabeth Cajurao

Eighty-five percent of Venice, Italy’s famous low-lying city, is under water as of November 13, following what is recorded as the second-highest flood level in the city’s history.

On November 13, flood levels peaked at 1.87 meters (six feet), which is only slightly below the highest level reported in 1966, when flood levels rose to 1.94 meters (6.3 feet).

According to the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, the city is “currently facing an exceptionally high tide.

Everyone has been mobilized to cope with the emergency.”

The mayor attributed the cause of this disaster to climate change. Venice has always lived with periods of “acqua alta” (high waters) as it is located in a shallow lagoon, but according to the Washington Post, the sea level has been rising rapidly in Venice which is faster than in other parts of the world.

In addition, tectonic plate movement occurring beneath the Italian coast also contribute to the city’s slow sinking.

Paolo Canestrelli, the founder and former head of Venice’s Tide Monitoring and Forecast Centre has said that “the increased flooding is a trend that jibes with the extremization of climate.” In fact, climate scientists predict Venice to be completely underwater by the end of the century.

The Veneto regional council, dominated by right wing parties, rejected amendments to fight the climate crisis in a 2020 budget plan on November 12, according to the Guardian. The council is located in the Palazzo Ferro Fini in Venice.

Minutes after the vote, the chamber was flooded, forcing the representatives to flee, said Andrea Zanoni, the deputy chairman of the council’s environment committee and member of the centerleft Democratic Party, which proposed the amendments.

Italy has tried to combat these climate threats. Since 2003, efforts have been made to build floodgates in Venice. However these efforts have continually been thwarted by issues relating to cost overruns, scandals, and delays.

The European Union is warning potential voters in the upcoming United Kingdom elections that social media sites may be spreading disinformation.

The EU alleges that sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow disinformation on their sites, and that these companies should take steps to stop the spread of misleading information, according to the Independent.

The upcoming U.K. general election has increased concern among EU leaders that false information will spread online during the election. The leaders say that “serious further steps” must be taken to combat the spread of such disinformation.

The EU acknowledges that work is being done within these companies, but it stresses that more action must be taken to increase transparency and educate users.

EU leaders said there is still an urgent need for online platforms to “establish a meaningful cooperation with a wider range of trusted and independent organizations,” even if fact-checkers and the online platforms themselves may reduce the harmful spread of misinformation.

Several non-governmental groups in Europe are also concerned about the spread of false information via social media. Some have called for the EU to impose regulations on social media companies, the Independent reports.

This information comes in the wake of the European Commission’s firstever self-assessment forms. The new Code of Practice on Disinformation had several companies, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, begin to put out annual self-assessment forms. The EU’s executive stated that although transparency has improved overall in the past year, steps taken by different companies “varied significantly.”

With all of this taken into consideration, the hope is that tech conglomerates will take further action to prevent the spread of disinformation during the U.K. general election.

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French Students Protest Financial Insecurity Talin Antarkar

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A French student known as Anas K. attempted to commit suicide in Lyon, France by setting himself on fire on November 8.

In a Facebook post, Anas detailed the financial difficulties he faced as a student and how his governmentprovided financial aid was insufficient compensation for his cost of living.

Anas attempted suicide by selfimmolation outside of the Crous de Lyon, the regional public authority building that manages university

services, such as student housing, grants, and disability accommodation, at the University of Lyon.

According to his Facebook post, he did so because he viewed the building as a “political target” that represented “the higher education ministry and, by extension, the whole government.”

In the same post, he accused three of France’s most recent presidents, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, and Emmanuel Macron, as well as the European Union, for creating his financial woes.

In response to Anas’ actions,

Student protests against financial insecurity began at the University of Lyon.

student unions all across France made public statements of support and even staged rallies to bring attention to both Anas and his cause. On November 12, hundreds of students in Lyon and across France voiced their anger and offered their support by staging protests. The hashtag #LaPecariteTue (financial insecurity kills) also trended on Twitter.

“Back-to-school costs go up every year, the cost of living, too.”

–– Orlane Francois According to France 24, a lecture

by François Hollande at the University of Lille was canceled due to student demonstrations that were linked to the outcry.

France 24 also reports that, on the same day, the main gate to the Higher Education Ministry in Paris was torn down and the phrase “financial insecurity kills” was written on a nearby wall.

According to France 24, the French government is allegedly closely

monitoring these protests for fear of them escalating to the level of the Yellow Vest movement protests that began a year ago.

Orlane François, a member of the National Federation of Students’ Associations (La FAGE), told France 24, “Today, 20 percent of students live under the poverty line, one in two students admit to skipping meals because they have to make financial choices and a third do without medical care.”

He also added, “Student financial insecurity is something concrete that we see on the ground and it continues to rise.”

Studying for a basic university degree in France is free. However, the cost of living and attending university is not fully subsidized.

Orlane François told France 24 that “back-to-school costs go up every year, the cost of living, too, and rents in particular, but social assistance is not up to the task.”

France’s Higher Education Ministry says that it devotes €5.7 billion ($6.3 billion) per year to financial aid for students—more money than the budget of the foreign ministry.

Italian Soccer Player Target of Racist Abuse on Field Ayushman Ghosh Italian soccer player Mario Balotelli was subjected to racist abuse from supporters of the opposition team on November 3, according to the Independent. Balotelli was born to Ghanaian parents in Palermo, Italy, and has made 36 appearances for the Italian national soccer team.

Balotelli’s team, Brescia Calcio, was playing an away game against the Hellas Verona team at Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi in Verona, Italy.

In the 55th minute of the game, Balotelli kicked the ball towards a section of the stands and threatened to walk out because he said some fans were making monkey chants at him, before being consoled by the other players on the field.

The stadium PA system made an announcement reiterating the Union of European Football Associations’ policies on racism and said that the match would be canceled if the racist chants continued.

As a result of the crowd’s jeers, the referee halted play for several minutes, and Balotelli came out of the incident

with a yellow card for his complaints to the referee He went on to score later in the game, although his team Brescia lost the match.

After the game, Balotelli published a scathing indictment of the crowd’s behavior on his Instagram story, writing, “The ‘people’ of this curva who made the monkey chants. [sic] Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you. In front of your children, wives, relatives, parents, friends and acquaintances... shame,” according to the Guardian.

The stadium said that the match would be canceled if the racist chants continued.

A “curva” is an Italian term referring to the curved stands in sports stadiums.

Balotelli also thanked the people who stood by his side during the incidence. “Thanks to all the colleagues on the field and off for the solidarity I had with me, and all the messages

received from you fans. Thank you very much. You have proven to be true men not like those who deny the evidence. #notoracism,” he wrote.

The Hellas Verona team’s manager Ivan Juric said after the game that he did not think that Balotelli had been targeted with racist abuse.

“I am not afraid to say there were no racist chants today. They might’ve jeered and mocked the great player, but there was nothing there. Nothing,” Juric said, according to Sky Sports Italia.

Team president Maurizio Setti and the mayor of Verona also disagreed that Balotelli was subjected to racist abuse.

The Serie A Disciplinary Commission responded to the incident by closing a section of Verona’s stadium for a game, according to BBC. A head of Hellas Verona’s ultras fan club—fans renowned for fanatical support—Luca Castellini, was given an 11-year ban by the team for comments he made about Balotelli after the game.

“Balotelli’s Italian because he has Italian citizenship, but he can never be completely Italian,” Castellini said, according to the Washington Post.

Some supporters of Balotelli’s team

criticized him too, according to Yahoo News. They wrote in a statement that “if Balotelli was not ready psychologically to face the Verona fanbase, then he should’ve said so and left his place to someone less... irritable than him. None of us would’ve been upset if he had, quite the contrary.”

They defended Castellini and said that the entire Verona fanbase could not be considered racist.

The Balotelli incident is the latest in a series of similar events. In April, Juventus player Moise Kean was racially abused by Cagliari fans after scoring against them. Later, his teammate Leonardo Bonucci said that Kean was equally to blame, as he provoked them with his celebration.

Inter Milan and Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku was also targeted with racist chants by Cagliari fans after scoring against them.

The Balotelli incident reflects similar racist incidents not uncommon in the sport. Soccer players, referees, and staff from across Europe, notably soccer-heavy countries like the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain, have recounted experiences with racism in the sport, CNN reports.

EDITOR’S COLUMN: Ga Ram Lee

T

he European Investment Bank (EIB), the financing department of the European Union, announced on November 14 that it will cease funding fossil fuel projects, including the traditional use of natural gas, starting in 2021. This is a landmark decision considering the proportion of fossil fuel projects EIB has funded in previous years.

Since 2013, the EIB funded €13.4 billion euros ($14.8 billion) of fossil fuel projects and just in 2018, funded €2 billion ($2.2 billion) of such projects.

Energy projects that apply for EIB funding must demonstrate that they can produce “one kilowatt hour of energy while emitting less than 250 grams of carbon dioxide,” which sets limits on traditional gasburning power plants, according to BBC. Gas projects will still be possible but will have to incorporate alternative methods such as carbon capture or mixing with renewable gases to restrict emissions.

With the implementation of this new energy policy, the European Union is taking more tangible steps to combat climate change. Andrew McDowell, the EIB’s vice president said, “this is an important first step—this is not the last step,” according to Deutsche Welle. There had been divisions on the continuation of gas projects, which caused the delay in the implementation of an environment-friendly yet ambitious plan. Germany, for example, was one of the countries that resisted EIB’s decision due to their desire to continue utilizing natural gas infrastructure.

However, EIB’s decision came after EU finance ministers supported the plan to phase out funding for fossil fuel project unanimously. Having met a compromise to push the date of implementation to 2021, German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass said that, “Europe must lead because only then other countries such as China or India will stay the course too,” according to Deutsche Welle.

As Europe takes collective action to maintain the goals of the Paris Agreement, questions remain as to what extent the plan will be successful in Europe and how much it will encourage other heavily polluting countries to take feasible steps to stop climate change.

8 | N O V. 2019

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN Juliana Albuquerque

A

fter nearly 14 years in power, Bolivian President Evo Morales abandoned his position in what he has called a “coup-d’etat” by the armed forces, according to the Economist. In what the Washington Post has called a "self-imposed exile", Morales has fled to Mexico following accusations of election fraud.

However, despite perhaps being the host of the most dramatic turn of events in the region, Bolivia is far from being the only country in Latin America involved in political turmoil as the end of the year approaches.

Their Chilean neighbors have also taken to the streets for the past two months, leading to 2,500 injured and at least 20 dead in weeks of unrest, reports the Washington Post. In Ecuador, two weeks of protests paralyzed the country and left seven dead, according to the Guardian; and in Brazil, citizens have taken to both protesting President Jair Bolsonaro’s family’s supposed involvement with the murder of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco, as well as both celebrating and lamenting the fact that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been released from jail and eyes a possible 2022 electoral campaign.

The Washington Post has mentioned that some experts have begun to call this growing discontent a “Latin Spring”, following the trend set by Arab countries nearly a decade ago.

However, it also notes that the reasons behind the Latin America uprisings are “as varied as the countries themselves.”

Conflicts are still developing, and it remains unclear whether solutions will be delivered in a timely manner. With concerns rising about the region’s possible leanings into populism, with hyperpolarized leftist and rightist administrations in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively, Latin America is set against a bleak backdrop.

In a continent in which the majority of democracies are still relatively new and unsteady following the wave of intensely violent authoritarian military regimes that swept the region in the 1970s to 1990s, any sort of instability generates warning flags.

Former-President Lula Freed From Prison

Julio-Salmeron Perla

After being sentenced to 12 years in jail for money laundering, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was freed on November 8 by the Brazilian Supreme Court after spending a year and a half in prison, according to the New York Times. A founding member of the Workers’ Party, which remained in power for fourteen years, Lula Da Silva was Brazil’s 35th president and governed the country from 2002 until 2010.

The New York Times names Lula as "one of the most popular presidents in Brazilian history," and notes that the former president remains one of the only opposition figures who is currently able to "mobilize the masses."

Lula had been condemned due to his involvement in several corruption scandals, including a wide-ranging money laundering investigation into Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras, dubbed "Operation Car Wash." The same operation has been responsible for the conviction and arrests of several other important

political and economic figures in Brazil. Accusations against Lula were first brought to light in 2011, after he had left the presidency, CNN reports, but Lula was only tried for the crimes and found guilty of the charges in July 2017.

Lula has always insisted he was innocent, and his defense branded his verdict a case of "political persecution," according to CNN. This November, however, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that “a person can only be imprisoned once all appropriate avenues of appeal are exhausted.” This allowed Lula, who has a pending appeal on multiple charges of corruption, to be set free while they continue processing these allegations.

Moments after stepping out of prison, Lula gathered thousands of his supporters for a speech announcing his return to the country’s politics and promising to “save the country from ultra-right President Jair Bolsonaro,” the Financial Times reports. In addition, Lula also attacked the press and vowed to help " liberate Brazil from the madness that is happening

Chilean Constitution From p.1 In addition, a hashtag on Twitter, “constitutional assembly or nothing,” began trending following the growing discontent.

The Communist Party (PCC), in opposition to the current government and in support of a constitutional assembly, called Chile’s current constitution “an illegitimate text and source of the concentration of economic power and abuse."

It further warned that citizens would not “validate a constitution emanating from Congress,” aligning with previous demands for citizen input.

Recent protests have also caused a drop in Chile’s stock market. Financial Times reports that Chile’s S&P Ipsa benchmark index closed 1.5 percent lower the day after the government’s new constitution announcement.

According to Bloomberg, the value of the Chilean peso also then plunged to a record low two days after the Sunday announcement, which forced the central bank to offer $4 billion of

30-day and 90-day currency swaps to “ease liquidity in both the peso and the dollar."

This new measure will continue until January 9. However, despite the 6 percent peso slump, the current tradeweighted index of 85 is still much stronger than the country’s levels in 2009 and 2002.

Meanwhile, protests show no signs of stopping in Chile. More than 200,000 citizens have rallied in cities across the country, according to the Newcastle Herald. Approximately 100 unions and social organizations represented by teachers, students, miners, doctors, and flight crews have joined the fight for the cause by calling for strikes and marches.

More than 20 people have died since the start of the unrest, which has also caused property damage and an increase in crime.

Protesters have also accused police of using excessive force while businesses have suffered billions of dollars in losses due to looting, vandalism, and arson.

in our country", according to the Guardian. It is expected that Lula will run for president again.

In a country plagued by corruption, many consider the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the previous ruling unconstitutional.

Lula’s return to the political arena is causing divisions as the population becomes more polarized; Bolsonaro responded to Lula's release by calling him a "scoundrel" on his Twitter account.

In recent audio leaks, it appears that the judge who convicted Lula

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EDITOR’S COLUMN:

did so in a partial manner, according to the Guardian. The judge now serves as Bolsonaro’s Minister of Justice. Lula responded, saying “They tried to criminalize the left.” He later added, “They didn’t lock up a man, they tried to kill an idea. But an idea can’t be destroyed.”

The Supreme Court is now investigating potential conflicts of interest with the ruling of Lula’s case, according to the New Yorker.

In the meantime, Lula continues to gather supporters for an anticipated presidential run.

Former-President Lula was released after spending a year and a half in prison.

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Outrage Over New Mexican Human Rights Official An Interview With Mexico's new human rights commissioner, Rosario Piedra Ibarra, was sworn in to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) amid chaos on November 13. She has elicited considerable fury after asking whether journalists are killed in Mexico, despite the country being named the most dangerous Latin American country for journalists, according to Expansion Politica.

As Ibarra was sworn into office, mayhem ensued. Minutes before the disruption, a large banner that read “PAN [National Action Party] Lies” was displayed across the senate.

Protesters led the commotion, accusing the new commissioner of a rigged vote and of being a government puppet.

According to CNN, Piedra was sworn in amid senators screaming and shoving each other as protesters held up signs with the message “No to Fraud in the CNDH” and shouted at the new commissioner, “It’s fraud!”

Intense fights among senators also broke out. La Tarde reported that Gustavo Madero Muñoz, a National Action Party senator, was seen attempting to push through the

crowds as he tried to stop Piedra Ibarra from being sworn in. This was to no avail as Citlalli Hernández, a National Regeneration Movement senator, pulled him away before he could get to the new chief.

The same day, the controversy surrounding Ibarra grew after she responded to questions about violence against journalists in Mexico.

According to the Guardian, Ibarra responded to reporters’ questions about the murder of journalists in the country with, “They’ve killed journalists?” She further insisted that the attacks “happened in past administrations and it’s something terrible."

Piedra was sworn in amid senators screaming and shoving each other.

Her response was met with outrage when reports identified Mexico as the most dangerous location for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that Mexico is currently the “deadliest country” for those in the profession,

and its impunity rating has worsened over time. Periodistas Desplazados (Displaced Journalists), a Mexican NGO, voiced complaints against Ibarra. They stated that her response was inappropriate for murdered journalists’ families, and her response elicits a “feeling of vulnerability upon the ignorance of such a cruel reality.”

Also facing accusations of a rigged election, Rosario Piedra Ibarra reiterated that her election was “legitimate and legal.” She went on to state that she is not underqualified, and “there are thousands of citizens who are happy with [her] election.”

In an interview with El Pais, Ibarra also responded to claims that she would be a puppet for López Obrador’s presidency. She stated, “they have the right to believe what they want, I will act according to my conscience, what can I say, I won’t convince you all with speeches, I will convince you with facts."

She has also declared that her priority will be to build a team “with a commitment to serve” and bettering the country that’s currently “in pieces” regarding human rights violations, and that a “hope for justice” will transpire in her leadership of the CNDH for the next five years.

Colombian Unions Unite Against Government Catalina Llorente

Several unions in Colombia have announced a nationwide strike on November 21 to protest against economic and social decisions made by the Colombian national government.

Labor unions plan on marching against the supposed pension and labor reforms the government aims to implement.

According to Semana, the current president, Ivan Duque, contested these claims by stating that his government has not presented labor or pension reforms, and that they would not do so without union involvement.

During a workshop on nation building in Barichara Santander, Duque affirmed that it worries him that "they try to inflame the fire and chaos of society with lies," Semana has reported.

At the same event, Duque also highlighted his government’s record for the most significant minimum wage increase in the last 25 years, contradicting the unions’ suggestion

that his administration plans to lower it.

Public school teachers will also be joining the strike to condemn the assassinations.

According to El Tiempo, 153 trade unions have mobilized in favor of peaceful protests in Bogotá. Also following El Tiempo reports, in a press conference, union leaders have established four meeting points for the strike in the capital city, noting that the exact routes of mobilization have yet to be determined.

At the same press conference the leaders reiterated the idea of respecting the constitutional right to pacific protests, and noted that they "flatly reject the use of violence and violent incitement as a mechanism for protesting.

Public school teachers will also be joining the strike to condemn the assassinations of many union leaders around the country, the deaths of

the 18 minors at the hands of the government, and the more than 850 threats teachers have received during 2019.

Students are another concentrated group joining the movement, with a spokesperson for the Colombian Association of Student Representatives of Higher Education (Acrees) stating: "the student movement has always called for the mobilizations in peace." According to El Tiempo, they will protest against the national government’s failure to fulfill the terms of the agreement made in December 2018, which promised increased resources for public schools around Colombia.

All three unions have pledged to reject all use of violence: the president of the Central Union of Workers (CUT), Diogenes Orjuela, stated, “our strike committees all over the country have been speaking to the respective authorities to guarantee as best we can that this will be a peaceful protest. Whoever decides to act violently must know that they have the absolute rejection of the strike organizers.”

Congressman Cuellar on the USMCA & Replacing NAFTA Eduardo Torres “We have to do this trade agreement”, declared the “USMCA whisperer” Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) as he was asked about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), according to Politico.

I sat down with Representative Cuellar on October 29 to hear more about his perspective on USMCA, which he refers to as NAFTA 2.0.

Cuellar was quick to admit that the USMCA is “about 95 percent the same” as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Cuellar noted that the USMCA is simply a modernized version of NAFTA adapted to the 21st century.

“I support this because every day there is more than $1.7 billion in trade between the U.S. and Mexico. That is over $1 billion every single day, creating over five million jobs in the U.S.,” Cuellar continued. “I’m hoping we can get this done before the year is over.”

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump threatened tariffs against Mexico if the country did not reduce the migrant flow going into the United States from the southern border as well as from Mexico’s border with Guatemala, according to Reuters.

Cuellar responded to Trump in regard to the tariff threats proposed by the president: “If there is a trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, we are to respect that trade agreement. With all due respect, the president doesn’t do that.”

The congressman fears that if “the new NAFTA” is successful, the president will threaten Mexico again.“That is not the way you treat

EDUARDO TORRES (SFS '23)

Adriana Salem

a country,” Cuellar continued. “The president does this all the time."

Cuellar stressed that a tense relationship with Mexico produces uncertainty, which then threatens jobs on both sides of the border. “There are issues with migration, but the best way to deal with this is not with threats but really with cooperation with Mexico and Central America, addressing the root problems there.”

But, why the USMCA has yet to be ratified is the question many Americans still have, especially those with jobs dependent on international trade.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been negotiating the details with Democrats since the summer, according to Reuters. The CSIS has further reported several claims made against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for delaying USMCA as a political move while the impeachment inquiry looms. However, according to the Epoch Times, she confirmed in September that “they have nothing to do with each other.” On November 14, Politico reported Pelosi as saying a deal for the USMCA was imminent.

Cuellar said Congress is currently sorting out some details concerning the agreement in the House.“We want to make sure that we have certain language there to make sure we protect the workers, the environment, that there is enforcement of any labor reform in the legislation.”

The USMCA must first pass the House, then the Senate to become law and take effect. However, congressman Cuellar is confident that the ratification of the agreement should come by the end of this year or by 2020.

Read the full interview with Rep. Cuellar (D-TX) on our website.

Caravel writer Eduardo Torres meets with Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX).

1 0 | N O V. 2019

INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC

Arin Chinnasathian

T

he 35th ASEAN Summit closed in an unprecedented manner when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed the country from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations on November 4.

A free trade deal of this size has long been coveted. Launched in 2012 to replace the East Asia Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations, RCEP is on course to become the world’s largest free trade agreement, covering one-third of global GDP and almost half of the world’s population.

Eurasia Group analysts note that RCEP has lighter regulatory requirements for services and market access in comparison to the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), initiated in 2015 (and left by President Donald Trump in early 2017). This has led other critics to see RCEP as China’s opportunity to increase economic influence over Asian countries.

The U.S. withdrawal from the TPP and the ongoing ChinaU.S. trade war have accelerated negotiations, but progress has been sluggish since 2013 due to India’s concerns. India has trade deficits with other RCEP stakeholders and has the highest average applied tariff rate for most favored nations.

Obliged by RCEP to get rid of over 90 percent of its existing tariffs, India wants an extension to the tariff-reduction time frame, especially toward China.

Most importantly, India is afraid of potential dumping of imported produce in its agricultural sector.

Farmers have formed a strong domestic opposition, holding multiple protests leading up to the ASEAN summit.

Modi’s decision to suspend negotiations is not unreasonable given the political logic, and in terms of its readiness to open up vis-a-vis China. India will ultimately have to get rid of its tariff regime, but its present reluctance reflects the fact that its economic reform has been too slow for this opportunity-of-the-century. The suspension is not a withdrawal.

However, it will put India behind in trade negotiation, a gap that China is eager to fill.

Japan’s Emperor Performs First Harvest Rites Frank Kim

Japanese Emperor Naruhito performed the Daijosai, a centuriesold Shinto ritual, starting on the evening of November 14, according to Kyodo News. The secretive tradition that occurs once in an emperor’s reign involves giving thanks for a good harvest and prayers for national peace and prosperity. The ritual is the last of a series of traditions that the emperor has performed since his enthronement in May, though the Jiji Press stresses that this ritual is the most important. Historians say harvest rites stem from Japan’s rice-growing culture around the 7th century.

Daijosai also marks the emperor’s first communion with the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu, from whom the imperial family claims descent, Associated Press says. Officials say that the ritual involves the emperor communing with Amaterasu and other deities in an enormous palace complex constructed specifically for the ritual. After the Daijosai ends early on November 14, 30

buildings on a 6,500 square-meter area of Imperial Palace lands will be removed.

Secluded from the public, the emperor and two maidservants entered an inner sanctum and placed salmon, rice, chestnuts, and more as food offerings for the sun goddess, spreading the food over 30 oak leaves. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Empress Masako, and more than 500 other governmental individuals witnessed the first part of the ritual, emphasizing the national significance of the event.

However, not everyone is content with the old and royal tradition.

Some criticized the ceremony’s connections to Japan’s authoritarian past due to its emphasis on the royal family.

The cost of the short, two-part ritual and the taxpayer revenue used to pay for it drew about 150 people to a rally nearby to protest what they called “wrong” use of tax money. A participant stresses that “[t]here are so many people affected by [recent] typhoons… we’re only halfway done rebuilding.”

Bangladesh’s Capital Plans to Ban Cycle Rickshaws Genevieve Domenico

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, plans to have the city be “rickshawfree,” the Economist reports.

Rickshaws, also known as pedicabs, are an extremely popular form of transportation in Bangladesh.

The motivation behind the ban is traffic. According to the World Bank, the average traffic speed in Bangladesh fell in 2018 to 7 kilometers per hour.

This traffic is both inconvenient and wasteful. The World Bank also estimated that 3.2 million working hours are lost every day due to traffic.

Mohammed Atiqul Islam, the mayor of northern Dhaka, argues that rickshaws, due to their small size, “create chaos.” This is because they are able to change lanes and make U-turns very quickly. Moreover, Alam points out that most rickshaws in Dhaka are illegal, as no new rickshaw licenses have been granted since 1986. The Economist reports

that there are an estimated 520,000 to 920,000 rickshaws that are currently unlicensed in the city.

However, due to the fact that rickshaws are widely used, the ban proves to be a great inconvenience to many Bangladeshi citizens. The Economist reports Abdul Mubin, a rickshaw driver, as saying, “What am I supposed to do? I have mouths to feed.” This aligns with the sentiment of other drivers who, earlier in the year, went on strike.

Moreover, millions of people are worried about commuting. Dhaka has a population of around 18 million people but only has 8,000 public buses.

Alam has claimed that buses will soon be centralized under one authority.

There are also plans for a metro system to be built in Dhaka.

However, the system won’t initially be able to compensate for all those needing a new form of transportation after the rickshaw ban is put into effect.

According to Associated Press, the whole ritual costs ¥2.7 billion ($25 million), of which the main shrine complex itself costs ¥2 billion ($18 million).

The scope of the ritual was expanded prior to World War II, when government officials attempted to bolster the image of the emperor as a symbol and status for “Japanese aggression.” Even after the end of WWII, the level of government funding spent on the Daijosai has remained the same.

Japanese citizens criticized this

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fact when more than 200 people filed a lawsuit last year against what they saw as a severe violation of separation of church and state.

Government officials had objected by pointing to the emperor’s constitutional obligation to successfully perform all his enthronement-related rituals, even when the emperor’s own younger brother, Crown Prince Akishino, said, “It’s a royal family event, and it is highly religious… I think the Daijosai should be held ... by making it an affordable ceremony.”

The harvest rite marks the last of a series of rituals that a new emperor must perform.

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Max Zhang

The parliament of New Zealand passed legislation to legalize voluntary euthanasia on Wednesday, November 13, reports BBC. Under the new End of Life Choice Bill, patients diagnosed with a terminal illness and who have fewer than six months left to live will be able to initiate assisted dying procedures, upon the approval of two doctors. The bill contains a provision that it must first pass a national referendum in order to come into effect.

First proposed in 2017, the End of Life Choice Bill passed with a vote of 69-51, ending a series of eight parliamentary debates. Since its original form, Parliament has added the referendum requirement and narrowed the bill’s scope to patients projected to have fewer than six months to live. Previous versions of the bill provided for assisted dying options for individuals with severe and incurable, but not immediately terminal, conditions.

The legislation put a number of restrictions on the process of euthanization. According to the Guardian, physicians cannot suggest euthanasia to their patients and must

stop the process if they feel as if the patient has been coerced. Patients also may be refused euthanasia for reasons of age, disability, or mental illness.

In addition to intense legislative debate over the bill, the New Zealand public also made nearly 40,000 submissions to the Parliament’s justice committee on the bill, setting a record for the most comments ever on a piece of proposed legislation in New Zealand’s history.

The public submitted a record-breaking number of comments.

The New Zealand Herald noted that more than 90 percent of public comments on the bill were raised in opposition to legalization, with just 8 percent in favor. The vast majority of these submissions were original, and fewer than 10 percent employed religious arguments, according to the Care Alliance’s analysis.

Despite this, a 1 News Colmar Brunton poll found roughly 72 percent of the 1,000 New Zealanders surveyed were in favor of legalizing euthanasia.

The 1 News poll highlighted recent

substantial increase in opposition; those against legalization, now 20 percent, increased by five percent between 2018 and 2019.

Demanded by the populist party New Zealand First (NZ First), the referendum will task the public with casting the binding vote, according to Newsweek. NZ First MP Tracey Martin said, “This is an important moment for the New Zealand public. They have never had a power like this, I believe, in their lifetime.”

Radio New Zealand reported that opponents to the referendum, including National Party MP Chris Penk, cited a lack of public knowledge about the bill’s contents, indicating that a substantial amount of the public believed the bill regarded orders not to resuscitate. New Zealand’s euthanasia bill refers to active assisted dying, and orders not to resuscitate are already legal in New Zealand’s system.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has supported the End of Life Choice bill throughout the legislative process, reported the Catholic Herald. Ardern harbored reservations about the referendum provision of the bill, but prioritized the bill’s passage over any lasting concerns about public misinformation.

Sri Lanka Holds Presidential Elections Neha Malik The 21 million people of Sri Lanka, after a year plagued with terrorism, growing polarization, and a spiraling economic crisis, elected Gotabata Rajapaksa of the Sri Lankan People’s Front Party (SLPP) president on November 16.

The election came at a time of heightened concern surrounding national security. Six major bombings

by ISIS killed 269 civilians and injured 500 in the last year. The bombings took place on Easter Day, targeting Christian worshipers at churches and luxury hotels. The violent attacks devastated a country still recovering from a civil war that ended only ten years ago and resulted in discrimination against the Muslim minority.

The issue of religion in the Buddhist-majority country has contributed to increasing polarization in the election, and nationalist sentiment has been on the rise.

Voters have also focused their attention on economic reform. Sri Lankans live in an economy crippled by an outstanding debt of $34.4 billion—about 38 percent of the country’s GDP. Economic growth is sluggish at 2.7 percent, made worse by

significant drops in tourism as a result of the Easter bombings.

Hoping to address these issues, the ballot had 35 candidates, of which two had risen to the forefront of the race.

Rajapaksa of the SLPP, brother of

The ballot has 35 candidates, of which two stand out. former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa previously served as Sri Lanka’s defense secretary and now acts as the leader of the SLPP, according to Al Jazeera.

Though his platform ran on principles of national security and economic reform, Rajapaksa is plagued with controversy. The president-elect has been accused of various human rights abuses against the Tamil rebels during his time as defense secretary.

He has been noted as a strong Sinhala Buddhist nationalist, causing concern minority populations. The SLPP party has a large base of support within the country’s Sinhala Buddhist nationalists and Rajapaksa loyalists, which helped contribute to his victory.

President-elect Rajapaksa’s main

opponent came from the current ruling party of Sri Lanka: the United National Party. Sajith Premadasa is a cabinet minister under current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the son of former-President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated by Tamil rebels, Al Jazeera reports. Premadasa ran on a platform of economic reform, national security, and minority inclusion. Though he is also reported to be a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist, he hoped to appeal to Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil and Muslim populations to combat the stronghold that the uber-nationalist Rajapaksa candidacy has throughout the rest of Sri Lanka. Ultimately, his efforts fell short and he conceded defeat on November 17.

This outcome of the election will decide the future path of the country’s economy, as well as legislation regarding Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Muslim minorities, the Washington Times reports. Under the Sri Lankan system, a candidate needs a majority of the vote to become president. If either candidate fails to do so, voters’ second marked choices will be tallied up in order to determine a winner.

Rajapaksa won with 52.25 percent of the vote.

Catastrophic Bushfires Kill Four, Intensify Division Over Climate Change Alex Lin Nearly 150 fires are burning in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW), which have killed four people and destroyed more than 200 homes as of November 13, according to NPR. In NSW, Australia’s most populous state, the bushfires have scorched at least one million hectares, coming as close as nine miles to Sydney’s city center.

The sheer scale of the fires has required the deployment of around 3,000 firefighters. The Insurance Council of Australia reports that the ongoing disaster has incurred at least $34 million in losses thus far.

NSW Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons fears that the hard fight against bushfires may drag on into the coming months. “We’ve really got a long way to go. You can guarantee we’re not going to be able to get around all of these fires before the next wave of bad weather,” he told BBC reporters. “Unfortunately there’s no meaningful reprieve. There’s no rainfall in this change and we’re going to continue to have warm dry conditions dominating in the days and weeks ahead.”

Scientists point out that climate change has likely exacerbated the scale of the seasonal fires. According to the Bureau of Meteorology’s State of the Climate report in 2018, there is an observable “long-term increase” in extreme heat events. Moreover, temperatures in Australia are now hovering around 1°C above average.

“It’s not every weather event that is the direct result of climate change,” said ecologist Glenda Wardle from the University of Sydney. “But when you

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New Zealand Passes Euthanasia Bill

see trends... it becomes undeniably linked to global climate change.”

The ongoing catastrophe has intensified political divisions over climate change, stoking a debate that has landed many politicians in controversy. When asked about the implications of global warming, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack told ABC National Radio that bushfire victims are in need of “real assistance” rather than “the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies.”

Former-Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce added to the outrage by commenting to Sky News that two of the four people killed were probably Green Party voters. He further labeled the link between the fires and climate change as “spurious.”

As a signatory of the Paris Climate Accords, Australia has promised to reduce its emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2030. However, the UN Emissions Gap Report in 2018 claimed that Australia is falling short of this goal.

“Every time [the government] has had the chance to take on the big issue of climate change and do something,” she said, “they choose not to and blame other things like land management,” said Wardle, according to BBC. According to the New York Times, Damien Cave said that coal is the primary culprit for the government’s inaction, and Australia—the world’s largest coal exporter—is often swayed by the mining industry’s powerful lobby. However, according to Cave, as natural disasters intensify, public pressure for the government to take meaningful action will only “grow with the flames.”

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology noted a long-term increase in extreme fire events.

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MIDDLE EAST & CENTRAL ASIA Islamic State Strikes Tajikistan Outpost

Israeli Raids in Gaza Prompt Violent Exchange Following an Israeli airstrike targeting a militant in the Gaza Strip, violence between the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a militant group operating in Gaza, and Israel has erupted. PIJ responded to the assassination of its commander by launching rockets into Israel, provoking Israel to conduct further airstrikes and raids.

The attack that prompted the recent outbreak in violence was an Israeli Defense Force-led (IDF) airstrike on the house of PIJ field commander Baha Abu al-Ata. Al Jazeera reports that on the morning of November 12, an IDF missile hit his home, killing him, his wife, and injuring their children and neighbors. Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF claimed the attack was routine, it was the first targeted assassination carried out by the IDF in six months.

Netanyahu’s security cabinet had been divided over the policy, according to the Jerusalem Post. Palestinian militants saw the attack as an overstep

and proceeded to launch retaliatory rockets aimed at Israel.

Since this initial violent exchange, the IDF has carried out dozens of airstrikes and raids in Gaza, and PIJ militants have fired nearly 450 rockets toward Israel, according to the Associated Press. The Iron Dome, an air defense system used by Israel, has intercepted most rockets. BBC reports that this week’s death toll has reached 34, all Palestinian, including 16 civilians.

This week’s death toll has reached 34, all Palestinian, including 16 civilians.

Both sides’ tactics have drawn harsh criticism, but especially those of the Israeli military, which claims to be targeting militants and weapons stashes but has increasingly focused on hitting the residences of suspected militants, according to the Associated Press. Israel has since begun investigating a strike that killed

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The IDF has carried out dozens of airstrikes and raids in Gaza since November 12.

8 civilians, including 5 children, now doubting that its intelligence on the location of the target was correct.

In response to growing international criticism, Israel and the PIJ agreed to UN-mediated talks in Egypt where they eventually drafted a ceasefire to take effect at 5:30 a.m. on November 14. According to BBC, PIJ spokespeople have claimed the truce comes with the agreement by Israel to stop “assassination operations” and the use of live fire on protesters in the Gaza Strip. In addition, both sides agreed to begin the process of ending the blockade of Gaza which has been in place for nearly 12 years since Hamas’ takeover of the territory.

BBC notes, however, that Israel has not confirmed the cease-fire and has chosen instead to declare, “quiet will be met with quiet.” Haaretz reports, however, that rocket fire and airstrikes have resumed from both sides despite the ceasefire. Hamas has stayed on the sidelines of the conflict. Although it denounced Israel’s actions, Hamas canceled its weekly border protests in an effort to preserve the ceasefire.

The New York Times reports that the timing of this attack was strategic for Netanyahu, who faces a difficult and uncertain bid for reelection. The targeted assassination refutes claims

by Netanyahu’s opponents that he is soft on Gaza.

Afghan Election Scrutinized Madiha Sohani Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah called for a halt to the vote recount in the recent presidential elections on November 11, Central Asia News reports.

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) was due to release the results of their latest election on October 19 but cited “capacity issues and efforts aimed at ensuring transparency of the process” for their delayed-release.

This election marks the fourth Afghan presidential election characterized by a record-low turnout as well as allegations of fraud and corruption, the Diplomat reports. The initial turnout was around 25 percent, as only around 1.9 million of 9.6 million registered voters cast ballots.

Abdullah demanded a halt to the recount process three days before the announcement of the preliminary results were scheduled to have come out and a day after withdrawing his team’s recount observers.

However, incumbent President

Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah’s lead challenger, has not withdrawn from the process.

Many presidential candidates have accused Ghani of embezzling state resources for his campaign, according to Central Asia News. He has also been accused of attempting to manipulate the outcome in his favor.

The president’s campaign leaders have denied these allegations.

After review, the IEC discarded nearly a million votes for irregularities.

However, Abdullah claims that the IEC has “legitimize[d] fraud” by including votes that were cast outside of the official ballot timeframe.

Previous Afghani elections since the downfall of the Taliban government have been tainted by allegations of corruption. The IEC has incorporated biometric devices in its most recent presidential polls as a result.

Both Ghani and Abdullah have claimed victory. This result resembles the 2014 election when conflict over the victory led to a U.S. brokered power-sharing agreement, but neither side seems to want to accept one today.

Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry has blamed the Islamic State (ISIS) for a November 6 attack that left 17 dead at a Tajikistan-Uzbekistan border checkpoint, the New York Times reports. Among the casualties were a Tajik border guard and an Interior Ministry official, in addition to fifteen alleged ISIS militants.

ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the recent attack, though Tajik officials alleged its involvement after interrogating the surviving attackers.

“These attackers are probably our own citizens,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Umarjon Emomali.

Following the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, New York Times analysts speculate that Central Asia is becoming a staging ground for terrorist cells and crime. Al Jazeera estimates that the illicit drug trade accounts for one-third of the nation’s economy.

Central Asia’s neighbors, such as China and Russia, have doubled down on combating crime and terrorism in recent months. The Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have both convened this month. China hopes that a more stable Tajikistan-Afghanistan border will prevent terrorists from entering China through Tajikistan—a border Russia calls the “CIS southern border” and thus monitors with great care.

According to Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, the most recent attack’s perpetrators entered Tajikistan through Afghanistan on November 3.

As Central Asia continues to attract foreign investment, its global trade partners will tread carefully in unstable border regions. Furthermore, any Central Asian country that fails to secure its border will fall behind in region-wide integration and become less attractive to foreign investors. ISIS still poses a major threat to Central Asia’s prosperity, but competitive international trade has incentivized regime leaders to combat terrorism more than ever.

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Iran Disregards Uranium Enrichment Limits Iran began pouring concrete for the second nuclear reactor at its Bushehr power plant on November 13, the Hartford Courant reports. The plant runs on uranium produced by Russia, a signatory to the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. However, Iran has begun to exceed the deal’s uranium enrichment limits. Iran’s current enrichment level stands around only a percentage point over the 3.67 percent limit; while weaponsgrade enrichment levels must exceed

90 percent, the increase still worries nonproliferation experts who believe that it expedites Iran’s atomic weapon development timeline should Iran pursue one. Iran maintains that the enrichment program is solely for peaceful purposes such as energy but agreed to curtail the program in 2015 in exchange for sanctions relief.

Since President Donald Trump’s May 2018 departure from the deal and the resulting U.S. sanctions, Iran has slowly been increasing its uranium enrichment levels. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported

Iran has begun building a second nuclear reactor at the Bushehr power plant.

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on November 11 that Iran’s current capacity to enrich uranium is 25 times more than what it was when Trump pulled out of the deal, according to Bloomberg. In the last quarter, Iran’s nuclear stockpile has increased by almost two-thirds, and Iran now enriches 100kg (220lbs) of uranium a month, compared to just 4kg (8.8lbs) in June 2019, when Iran was still abiding by the conditions of the deal.

In the last quarter, Iran’s nuclear stockpile has increased by almost two-thirds.

Before July, Iran adhered to the nuclear deal, hoping that European aid would help soften the blow of U.S. sanctions, according to Bloomberg.

When such aid never appeared, Iran began breaking their earlier promises.

When asked about the deal, Ali Akbat Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said, “it was not us who started breaking commitments, it was them who did not keep to their commitments and cannot accept the

nuclear deal as a one-way roadmap,” according to the Hartford Courant.

Iran’s recent activities have drawn mixed responses from different countries, as they mark the latest in a series of hostile Iranian actions that began with the destruction of an American drone. BBC reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of having a “secret atomic warehouse,” but the Iranian government has denied the allegations, claiming that the facility in question was simply a carpet cleaning factory. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have all said that they were “extremely concerned” with Iran’s actions, but President Hassan Rouhani has insisted that the enrichment is not meant for any weaponry. The European Union (EU) remains dedicated to the deal; EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, “Full commitment to the agreement remains crucial for our security, even if it is increasingly difficult to preserve it.”

Rouhani asserted that he would have reached a compromise in his September visit to New York if “someone other than Trump” were president, according to Al-Monitor.

After 25 Years, Jordan Reclaims Borderlands From Israel Janet Younan Jordan reclaimed the two parcels of land it had allowed Israel to use on November 10, 25 years after they signed their landmark peace treaty, the New York Times reports.

Under the terms of the 1994 JordanIsrael deal, the enclaves of al-Baqoura and al-Ghumar remained under Jordanian sovereignty but with special provisions allowing Israeli farmers to work the land without visas. However, because of increasing public pressure against renewing the arrangement, Jordan’s King Abdullah II presented a one-year notice of termination to Israel in 2018, according to Al Jazeera.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still hoped for a negotiated extension to the agreement, according to BBC. Jordan is one of only two Arab states to have signed a peace accord with Israel; however, among most Jordanians—many of whom are of Palestinian origin—there is limited support for the treaty. Many civilians saw the arrangement as a humiliation that actively perpetuated what they regarded as the Israeli occupation of

Jordanian territory. The Jordanian government has strongly advocated for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and its relations with Israel have been tense since the deal was signed.

Jordan has said that it still remains committed to its peace treaty with Israel.

In October, Jordan temporarily recalled its ambassador from Israel due to the detention of two Jordanians, Hiba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Miri, without charge or trial, according to the New York Times. In 2017, an Israeli embassy security guard killed two Jordanians in Amman.

Jordan and Israel maintain a long and turbulent relationship, having fought two wars in historic Palestine.

The first, erupting in 1948, led to the establishment of the state of Israel in the western part of Palestine, while Jordan took control of the eastern side—also known as the West Bank— and formally annexed it.

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Jordan

aligned itself with Egypt, resulting in its withdrawal from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were subsequently occupied by Israel, though Amman maintained its claim to sovereignty there.

Israel seized the northern Jordanian territory of al-Baqoura in 1948 and al-Ghumar in the south after the Six-Day War. These enclaves have been used largely for agricultural and tourism purposes.

While the two countries did not sign a peace treaty until 1994, the late King Hussein ceded the nation’s claims to sovereignty over the West Bank in 1988 in an effort to extract Jordan from the conflict. The move, however, led Palestinian residents of the West Bank to lose their status as Jordanian nationals.

This move was intended to give the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which had been in conflict with Jordan and expelled from the country, the mandate it had long desired to be the singular representative of the Palestinian population. It also allowed Israel the opportunity to reframe the status of the West Bank to that of a “disputed territory” and to gradually

build illegal settlements with the possibility of future annexation to the Israeli state.

In 1994, Jordanian political leaders assumed that the 1993 Israel-Palestine Oslo Accords would eventually foster peace between the two sides. However, minimal progress has been made in reaching a deal since then, ultimately leaving Palestinians stateless.

Adnan Abu Odeh, a former key advisor to King Abdullah II and his predecessor, King Hussein, told Al Jazeera that in allowing Israel to keep the territories in 1994, Jordan was too “lenient,” indicating that Jordanians and Palestinians have prioritized peace over their rights in negotiations with Israel. He further said that in 1994, he, along with most Jordanians and Palestinians, believed that “the Palestinian state was around the corner.”

Despite now having ended the 25year deal, Jordan has said that it still remains committed to its peace treaty with Israel. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that the country acted in accordance with the treaty in not renewing the deal over the two territories, according to Reuters.

EDITOR’S COLUMN: Advait Arun

P

etrostates such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq use their considerable oil revenues to fund their states and government services. Yet the relatively low price of crude oil worldwide, noted by Macrotrends, has put such petrostates on notice. Saudi Arabia, for example, is scrambling to diversify the sources of their wealth.

Using oil-backed government investment portfolios, they have attempted to invest in enterprises that promise profits independent of “black gold.” The Gulf Kingdom requires oil prices to stay high— their diversification plans founder at any inability to reap adequate rents from their primary resource.

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan touts a developed, less petroleumdependent state, its significant wealth invested in diverse businesses. With ten years to go, however, Saudi Arabian investment in small- and medium-sized enterprises, the intended backbone of their desired economy, remains low, according to the Financial Times.

As the de facto leader of the multinational oil supply cartel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Kingdom has a vested interest in making sure oil prices stabilize️ at profit-turning prices.

Unexpectedly, Saudi Arabia must now also worry about an OPEC partner, Iraq, whose oil production threatens to further depress the profits so essential to their new economic plan.

Even as protests rock the nation, Iraq has begun pumping oil in record quantities, defying OPEC quotas and claiming significant market share, according to both the Financial Tribune and CNBC. When Iraqi youth unemployment sits above 25 percent, according to the Atlantic Council, the benefits of oil extraction clearly do not reach the dispossessed. Despite the boom, a better future is objectively difficult to achieve.

While Iraq is a thorn in a cashstrapped Saudi Arabia’s side, both countries face a similar challenge: the inability, so far, to translate oil wealth into meaningful economic and societal change. Neither country seems ready or able to commit its wealth toward longterm economic improvements.

Both their economic futures hinge on oil—yet, with Iraq defying OPEC, neither country’s future is secure.

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AFRICA Mauritian Voters Reaffirm Mandate of Incumbent PM younger Jugnauth the parliamentary

On November 7, Mauritius held its first election since incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth assumed office in 2017, according to Al Jazeera.

The election results favored Jugnauth and his coalition, the Morisian Alliance, with his coalition winning forty-two out of seventy available seats.

Mauritius had previously been ruled by a coalition led by Pravind Jugnauth’s father, Anerood Jugnauth, according to Reuters. However, the elder Jugnauth unexpectedly stepped down in 2017, naming his son as his hand-picked successor.

The current PM assumed office shortly after, despite the absence of a popular vote. His rise to power was accompanied by widespread criticism, with many arguing that the move was a subversion of the popular will.

According to Al Jazeera, his opponents campaigned heavily on this, arguing that his appointment was an example of nepotism.

Mauritian voters seemed to have been largely unmoved by these arguments, however, granting the

seats necessary for his coalition to form a government without the support of any other parties. The prime minister implored voters throughout the election to judge him based off of his short time in office, rather than how he assumed power, pointing to the strong economic growth during his tenure.

His rise to power was accompanied by widespread criticism.

Reuters reports that Jugnauth has also campaigned heavily on the social reforms achieved in the past two years, including the introduction of a monthly $240 minimum wage and an increase in pensions, two proposals that proved popular as Mauritius deals with rising income inequality.

Jugnauth’s tactics seem to have been quite successful as other coalitions in Parliament performed markedly worse, according to Al Jazeera. The center-left National Alliance party led by former Prime Minister Navin

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Congolese Warlord Sentenced to 30 Years Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth attends an OECD conference in 2018.

Ramgoolam won seventeen seats and the Mauritian Military Movement (MMM), led by Paul Berenger, won nine seats. The regional Organization of the People of Rodrigues won two seats, according to Reuters.

Under Mauritius’ unique electoral system, only 62 out of 70 members of Parliament are directly elected. The remaining eight are chosen by the electoral commission as a means of rebalancing power between Mauritius’ four main islands. Al Jazeera reports that the Morisian Alliance won an additional four seats under this system, the National Alliance won an additional three, and the MMM gained one seat.

Despite the reforms achieved

by Jugnauth during his first two years as prime minister, there is still considerable work to be done in his first five year term. Al Jazeera reports that the strong economic growth Mauritius has enjoyed over the past several years has been distributed unevenly, leading to income inequality and a youth unemployment rate of 22 percent. Mauritius has also earned a reputation as a tax haven for foreign companies. Although this has allowed the nation to develop a strong financial sector, it has also earned it the ire of the European Union which has been critical of the small nation’s tax policies.

The Gambia Accusation From p.1 “It is clear that Myanmar has no intention of ending these genocidal acts and continues to pursue the destruction of the group within its territory,” the Gambian lawsuit read.

The Gambia has also requested a temporary injunction from the court, demanding that Myanmar security forces cease their activities in the affected regions until the ICJ case is formally resolved.

Paul Reichler, the Gambia’s lead lawyer, is optimistic about the chances for an injunction, saying, “We are confident that genocide has been committed in this case, and we are very confident in the fairness of the court.”

Although the ICJ resolves disputes between states, it rarely handles genocide. Rather, it typically adjudicates disagreements over international agreements or borders.

While there is precedent to bring a case based on the Genocide Convention as the court found Serbia responsible for the attempted extermination of the Bosniak community in 2007, the

Gambian case is unprecedented as neither party is officially at war with the other, reports the New York Times.

While the International Criminal Court (ICC) adjudicates crimes against humanity, Myanmar has not signed onto the treaty granting the ICC jurisdiction.

Until now, Myanmar’s only defense has been to deny that its security forces are engaging in ethnic cleansing.

John Packer, professor of law at the University of Ottawa, told the New York Times that “Myanmar’s simple denials will not stand up to scrutiny.’’

Although an ICJ ruling cannot compel compliance with the Genocide Convention, human rights groups have still shown support for the Gambia’s case. “Gambia has found a way to turn the international community’s hand-wringing over the Rohingya into action,” said Param-Preet Singh of Human Rights Watch, according to Reuters.

Foley Hoag, a law firm assisting the Gambia, said that it expects hearings on this case to begin in December in the Hague.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) unanimously sentenced rebel general Bosco Ntaganda to 30 years in prison on November 7. According to BBC, Ntaganda’s sentence marks the longest ever sentence in the history of the ICC. This sentence follows Ntaganda’s conviction in July 2019, which found the former warlord and rebel general guilty on 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity, according to an ICC statement.

These offenses occurred from 2002 to 2003 in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Ntaganda led rebel forces in an intense ethnic conflict. During this time, Ntaganda earned the nickname “The Terminator” for his brutality. In one incident, he ordered the slaughter of an entire village, including infants, reports the New York Times.

Ntaganda’s crimes include murder, rape, enlisting child soldiers, sexual slavery, intentional attacks on civilians, and more. This case is notable for its conviction of sexual slavery as it marks the first conviction for the crime in the ICC’s history, according to CNN. Ntaganda has already appealed his sentence, according to Al Jazeera.

His lawyers claimed in an official statement that the court’s decision “contains many errors of law and fact.”

The defense’s statement also notes that Ntaganda believes the sentence reflects “neither the truth nor the reality,” and he maintains that his character was misrepresented in the case.

Human rights experts view Ntaganda’s sentence as a victory in the field as critics of the court have frequently questioned the court’s effectiveness and , according to the New York Times. Kathryn Sikkink, a professor of human rights at Harvard University, believes that this case reaffirms the ICC’s power to deliver justice even when its member states fail to do so. Similarly, Amal Nassar, a representative for the International Federation for Human Rights, stated that Ntaganda’s sentencing “restores hope and confidence in the court.”

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UN Finds States Violated Libyan Arms Embargo Marianna Aslund

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A recent draft of a report by the United Nations reveals that various member states, including the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Turkey, and Jordan, have violated the years-long arms embargo on Libya.

Experts suggest that this widespread international involvement undermines UN efforts to contain the conflict, according to the Washington Post.

The UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Libya in February

2011 in order to try to contain the conflict and protect civilians, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. However, the UN found that various countries have been violating the embargo by giving several factions military and financial assistance, which some experts argue has turned the conflict into a proxy war. The ongoing violence has opened up the country to “an ideal breeding ground for ISIS,” according to Frederic Wehrey. Experts on Libya believe the continued foreign

A Libyan rebel shoots toward a burning pro-Qaddafi fighting vehicle.

interference undermines UN policies and exacerbates the conflict.

The crisis in Libya stems from a series of violent clashes between armed militias that began after the NATO-backed overthrow of former Libyan Prime Minister Muammar alQaddafi in October 2011. The UN has backed the Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, since it was established in 2012.

According to Al Jazeera, the GNA maintains the support of most Western countries, as well as Turkey and Qatar.

General Khalifa Haftar, a former Qaddafi loyalist, heads the opposition militia, the Libyan National Army (LNA). The LNA, backed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Sudan, and the U.A.E., has its own rival government in Tobruk. The rival Libyan governments have created their own central banks and consolidated control over various oil fields, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

While the rivaling militias have agreed to a number of ceasefires, the agreements have crumbled quickly, according to Al Jazeera. Most recently, Haftar’s army has been fighting

for control of Tripoli since April.

According to UN data, the clashes this year have killed more than 1,100 people, wounded more than 6,000, and displaced more than 120,000, Al Jazeera reports.

The crisis in Libya stems from a series of violent clashes between armed militias.

According to Al Jazeera, the two sides have been growing stronger and more resolute, and each seems to be backing away from the possibility of a compromise. “We want the government to provide us with an air defense system and advanced weapons and demand [the] United Nations to impose a no-fly zone. If that happens, we can defeat Haftar's forces in a matter of days,” said a pro-GNA fighter. Similarly, Haftar has said that he is only willing to seek a political solution once the Tripoli government has relinquished its military power.

Oil Week Conference Highlights Climate Conflict in Africa Mark Agard Protesters adorned in red garb went largely ignored as they poured a trail of fake blood on the floor of the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the venue for the Africa Oil Week (AOW) conference, an international meeting about fossil fuels, according to reporting by GroundUp. The conference brought more than 1,800 oil and gas professionals to Cape Town from November 4-8, according to the Africa Report. Members of the climate awareness group, Extinction Rebellion, interrupted the yearly conference twice as they sought to bring attention to the disastrous environmental consequences of fossil fuel use.

Concerns about Africa’s energy consumption have been on the rise as Africa’s population growth, while varying wildly by country, is nevertheless projected to increase exponentially in the coming century.

Data by the United Nations Population Division predicts that Africa’s population will exceed 2.5 billion by 2050, nearly doubling over the next three decades. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects that over the same period, African

energy consumption will increase by 110 percent.

Given low government revenues and the abundance of natural resources in Africa relative to the rest of the world, African governments have largely relied on fossil fuels to meet energy demands and bolster state revenue for a variety of projects, much to the frustration of activists and the international community. Noël Mboumba, the Gabonese minister of petroleum, noted that fossil fuels make up more than half of the government’s revenue, according to the Africa Report.

Africa’s population will exceed 2.5 billion by 2050, nearly doubling over the next three decades.

African government officials at AOW generally ignored environmental concerns. Gabriel Lima, energy minister of Equatorial Guinea, rejected calls to limit fossil fuel use, saying that “under no circumstances are we going to be apologizing,” according to the New York Times. “No

one is going to force us not to use our fossil resources.” Lima is not alone.

A South African official dismissed environmental concerns, supposedly joking, “if we stop coal too quickly, we will certainly breathe fresh air, but it will be in complete darkness without electricity!”

South African Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe called attention to the energy sector’s need to “evolve gradually” as he expressed concerns about economic development and inequality, according to the Africa Report.

Extinction Rebellion protesters denounced the dealings of oil executives and heads of state. As quoted in a report by GroundUp, protester Andrew Park criticized government officials for “making deals that perhaps they think is good for the economy.” However, he continued, “at the end of the day, it’s harming the world’s most vulnerable people.”

GroundUp further reports that Extinction Rebellion’s Cape Town chapter released a public statement demanding that elected officials declare a climate emergency and halt further oil developments to help “in our global fight to avert a climate catastrophe.”

The group also denounced inattention

to the “floods, droughts, typhoons, pollution, crop failures, refugees and misery” caused by further use of fossil fuels.

Despite the logistical difficulties of navigating increasing energy demands, some experts view Africa’s path to modernization with more optimism.

International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol noted that Africa holds 40 percent of the world’s potential solar power, despite only having one percent of the world’s solar panels, according to the New York Times.

An AllAfrica report highlighted the results of a recent survey which found that 70 percent of Kenyan energy comes from renewable energy. The Inter Press Service similarly reported on efforts by the African Development Bank to prepare Africa for a rapidly changing landscape and to fund renewable energy projects across the continent.

The conference and its reception on both sides of the issue speak to the difficulty of reconciling poverty and inequality reduction with increased green energy use. Developing countries in Africa and beyond will have to face similar dilemmas as they seek to establish more stable governments in unstable times.

EDITOR’S COLUMN: Kate Fin

E

vo Morales stepped down as president of Bolivia on November 10 after facing pressure from protesters and the military. Some political commentators have deemed the dizzying chain of events a coup due to the military’s involvement in ushering Morales out of office.

Right-leaning governments around the world have lauded Morales’ reluctant decision to step down. President Donald Trump called the resignation a “significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere,” even applauding the military for its role.

Part of U.S. hostility toward Morales originates from his leftwing politics, but the official narrative aims at the leader’s constitutionally questionable extension of term limits and consolidation of power. While these are valid concerns, there are countless countries across the world governed by brutal, power-hungry tyrants. On the African continent, leaders from Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza merit U.S. condemnation. Yet, it is Morales— under whose leadership Bolivia has seen its middle class grow, average wages increase, and life expectancy and education improve markedly— who has earned U.S. ire. Some U.S. politicians have even hinted that the CIA had a hand in expediting Morales’ abrupt exit from power.

Meanwhile, African presidents who are guilty of the same power consolidation as Morales, including leaders in Togo, Chad, Uganda, and Eritrea, remain safely seated in their halls of power, often overseeing brutal human rights violations.

Under el-Sisi, for example, human rights activists have experienced extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention, and restrictions of freedom. Meanwhile, Trump referred to the Egyptian president as a “great leader.”

This is U.S. policy toward dictators in Africa. Despite the high-minded democratic rhetoric on the Bolivian crisis, U.S. leaders would do best to remember that when democracy and rights are under siege by non-leftist leaders, the U.S. is in no hurry to take action.

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EDITORIAL BOARD Inside Washington’s Influence Machine For Autocrats

TURKEY

U.S.-Turkey relations were recently thrown into the spotlight after the United States suddenly removed its troops from northern Syria on October 6 and Turkish forces launched military operations in Kurdish-held territory. As a political rebuke for the attacks on the Kurds, who are traditionally close allies of the U.S., the House

President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Erdogan meet in the Oval Office.

of Representatives passed a sweeping sanctions bill, as well as a bill formally recognizing the mass killing of Armenian citizens in 1915-1916 as a genocide.

The Trump administration has held a positive view of the Turkish government since entering office, as the money that Turkey spent on lobbying progressively increased.

In 2018 alone, the Turkish government and non-government Turkish actors spent nearly $9 million. Fourteen different lobbying firms have registered on behalf of Turkish actors.

The lobbying firms agree to propose and support legislation and U.S. government action that “promotes Turkey’s interests and provides a positive image” of Turkey. Articles in major newspapers, including a Washington Post article, aim to promote a positive image of Turkey to the American public.

It recently came out that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, also urged the president in 2017 to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a U.S. permanent resident accused of organizing a 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Giuliani, currently caught up in the Ukraine scandal for allegedly running a “shadow foreign policy,” historically pushed other proErdogan agenda items. Giuliani is not currently registered as a

foreign lobbyist. Other members of the Trump administration, notably former-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and his associates, have dubious ties to Turkey.

Turkey, a NATO ally, had the support of the United States prior to the events of October 9, when Turkish forces first moved against the Kurds. But, divisions in the U.S. government show how foreign lobbyists can influence U.S. policymaking. Despite the resolutions passed to rebuke Turkey and Erdogan in the House, Trump ordered the lifting of economic sanctions against Turkey and declared the Syrian maneuver a success on October 23.

CAMEROON

Last week marked 37 years as president for Paul Biya, the longest-ruling non-royal leader in the world. Biya has amassed a large personal fortune while Cameroonians have suffered under his misrule. The past three years in particular have been fraught for Cameroon: an armed separatist conflict and a consequent humanitarian crisis erupted in the country’s Anglophone regions. Biya’s response—to crack down on peaceful protests and refuse to recognize the legitimate grievances held by the Anglophone population—directly escalated the crisis, which has displaced more than 600,000 people.

Over the years, Cameroon

has cycled through several Washington, D.C., firms, including Squire Patton Boggs, Mercury Public Affairs, GPG, and Clout Public Affairs, to smooth over its image in the nation’s capital. These contracts come at a hefty price: for several years, Squire Patton Boggs charged Cameroon $400,000 a year.

Cameroon’s most recent firm turnover was in June 2019 when GPG and Cameroon’s contract was terminated. The country wasted no time hiring a new PR firm, Clout Public Affairs, a division of Axiom Strategies, a Republican political consulting firm. For $55,000 a month, Cameroon tasked Clout with “promoting the positive and favorable image [of Cameroon] through earned media, digital and research campaign services,” including “placing targeted op eds in conservative-oriented outlets.”

Despite these PR efforts, Cameroon’s image in the U.S. government is declining. In 2019, the president, Congress, and the State Department have all taken numerous actions in response to Cameroon’s human rights abuses and malfeasance, including passing Congressional resolutions and imposing targeted sanctions on certain Cameroonians.

Most recently, Trump revoked Cameroon’s status as an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) country. Of course,

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A glance over the website of Glover Park Group (GPG), a strategic communications consultancy based in Washington, D.C., reveals little about the firm claiming to provide “solutions, not services.” There is an inspirational quote from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotamayor below one employee’s bio on the Team page: “None of us can afford to be bystanders in life.”

GPG is something much worse than a bystander. It is an enabler of global human rights abuses. It is deeply involved in one of D.C.’s more niche industries: providing public relations expertise to foreign tyrants with a need to influence Congress and the White House.

According to the terms of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, “any person who acts as an agent” of a foreign government or political party is required to file notice with the Attorney General within ten days.

FARA is an imperfect system.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in 2008 that the Department of Justice’s FARA division had insufficient resources to maintain accountability for registrants.

Many of the companies that register under FARA put profit over country every day. Even worse, they put profit over humanity.

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The views expressed herein represent the views of a majority of the members of the Caravel’s Editorial Board and are not reflective of the position of the newsroom staff or Georgetown University.

some speculate that in the coming weeks, Cameroon’s lobbyists will try to reverse this decision.

CONCLUSION

One GPG senior associate chose the quote, “Go Forth and set the world on fire,” to accompany her biographical information. St. Ignatius’ statement is, of course, one of Georgetown’s favorite quotes to throw around. It comes as no surprise, then, that this GPG employee is an alumna of Georgetown University.

Glover Park Group—named for a park just steps from campus— is not the only firm working for despots that employs Hoyas. A quick scroll through any of these firm’s websites yields staff pages littered with countless Georgetown graduates.

As the Cameroonian military burns civilians’ homes to the ground and the Saudi military drops American bombs over Yemen, Georgetown alumni and employees are indeed setting the world on fire—by enabling these atrocities to be whitewashed in Washington, D.C. We urge our classmates to refuse to work for these firms and pursue a path that does not aid autocrats in oppressing people around the world.

Read the full, expanded piece covering Turkey, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Equatorial Guinea in depth on our website.

The Cameroonian military has been accused of many human rights abuses.