The Caravel | Volume VIII, Issue II

VOL UM E 8 | ISSU E 2

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W A SH I N G TON , D.C. M A RCH 2019

British Parliament Votes to Delay Brexit

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Luke Sekowski

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018.

Netanyahu Faces Corruption Charges as Israeli Elections Approach With legislative elections less than a month away, significant political transformation is underway in Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allies with controversial candidates from the far-right in an attempt to survive unfolding criminal charges of corruption. Most recently, Israel’s Central Elections Committee approved several far-right candidates to participate in the elections scheduled for April 9, Reuters reports.

One candidate, Michael Ben-Ari, is a member of the Jewish Power Party and the other, Itamar Ben-Gvir, of the Jewish Home party.

According to the New York Times,

Ari and Gvir are the co-founders of Lehava, an organization opposed to Jewish-Arab relations and responsible for the 2014 attack in which a Jewish Arab school was torched and vandalized with racist messages. Gvir is an attorney known for defending radical Israeli settlers implicated in West Bank violence. Two leftist political parties, Meretz and Labor, have since stated their intention to appeal the election committee’s decision to the Supreme Court on account of the candidates being racist.

Meanwhile, the Central Elections Committee disqualified the Arab party Raam-Balad, Reuters reports.

Raam-Balad consists of Islamic and Arab nationalists and opposes

California Governor Halts Capital Punishment, p. 2

Parties in German Governing Coalition Stratify, p. 6

E. EUROPE & RUSSIA, 4-5 Court Reverses Barring of Two Romanian Parties, p. 5

Populist Parties Expected to Rise in Upcoming EU Parliamentary Elections, p. 7

Emma Morris

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2-3

W. EUROPE & CANADA, 6-7

Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Raam-Balad was charged with supporting the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in the 2006 Lebanon War between Hezbollah and Israel.

Israel’s right-wing Likud Party accused Raam-Balad of seeking to eliminate Israel’s identity as a Jewish state and supporting Palestinian and Lebanese militants.

Raam-Balad’s leader Mansour Abbas confidently expressed his plan to appeal the disqualification to the Supreme Court. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Supreme Court is likely to approve Abbas’s appeal prior to the April elections.

See NETANYAHU FACES on p. 13

LAT. AM. & THE CARIBBEAN, 8-9 Women Imprisoned on Abortion Charges in El Salvador Freed, p. 8 INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC, 10-11 Mosque Shooting Shocks New Zealand, p. 11

British MPs voted on March 14 by a margin of 413 to 202 for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond the current March 29 deadline, according to BBC. The vote reflects the overwhelming lack of consensus among MPs regarding how to leave the European Union.

Major concerns persist about how Brexit will affect issues including trade, immigration, energy, and security.

Parliament’s decision, which forces May to seek a delay that she previously resisted, demonstrates that she faces a potential mutiny from her own lawmakers.

Parliament’s disagreements over the details of Brexit have been a constant source of frustration for the embattled prime minister.

Parliament has now twice reject-

ed her proposed Brexit deal, first in mid-January and most recently in a vote on March 12, the New York Times reports.

May had vowed to continue with Brexit proceedings with or without a deal that would guide the U.K.’s departure.

However, MPs refuted her categorical position in a March 13 vote, passing a proposal that rejects a no-deal Brexit and stipulates that any exit from the EU must be accompanied by.

Although the vote was non-binding, it further undermines May’s strategy by depriving her of significant leverage in further negotiations.

Not only did lawmakers overwhelmingly vote to delay EU departure, but many suspect that May has lost control of her party.

See PARLIAMENT VOTES on p. 6

Georgetown Must Actually Take Action on the Admissions Scandal The Editorial Board The views expressed herein represent the views of a majority of members of the Caravel’s Editorial Board and are not reflective of the position of the newsroom staff or Georgetown University.

Affluent Americans are using their wealth and privilege to buy their children positions at elite universities around the country—shocking, right? The Caravel was not surprised when the FBI investigation Operation Varsity Blues was unveiled by the Department of Justice on March 12, exposing a multimillion-dollar cash-foradmissions bribery scheme. The criminal complaint confirmed something already widely known: preferential admissions processes upheld by admissions offices

around the country undercut the supposed egalitarianism that universities claim to ensure through holistic reviews.

William “Rick” Singer, the founder of a college prep business at the center of this scheme, gloated about his ability to create a “side door” for admissions. What he and Georgetown fail to recognize is that this “side door” always existed and universities themselves opened that door first and failed to close it. Consequently, missing from the statements released

by Georgetown and President DeGioia is a recognition that the Universities’ preferential admissions policies created the conditions that Gordon Ernst exploited.

See TAKE ACTION on p. 3

MIDDLE EAST & C. ASIA, 12-13

AFRICA, 14-15

Turkmenistan Seeks Deeper Ties With EU, p. 12

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Crashes, Killing 157, p. 14

Iranian President Rouhani Visits Iraq for the First Time, p. 13

Former Liberian President’s Son Charged With Corruption, p. 15

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Senate Votes To End U.S. Aid To Yemen The United States Senate voted on March 13 to end U.S. support of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen’s bloody civil war since 2015.

This vote is the second time the Senate has voted to end U.S. support, and the resolution will now move on to the House, where it is expected to pass.

The 54-46 vote to withdraw U.S. support comes in the aftermath of renewed skepticism over the country’s role in Yemen’s civil war, which, according to Associated Press, has led to the deaths of at least 50,000 people at the time of publication, the majority of whom were civilians.

Yemen’s civil war began in 2015 when Houthis loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh took control of the capital, Sana’a, and forced the internationally-recognized government to flee. Backed by U.S. intelligence and logistical support, Saudi Arabia and its allies began an airstrike campaign to restore Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the president-in-exile.

Along with the airstrike campaign, Saudi Arabia imposed a blockade on

Yemen, leading to what the UN called “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” with millions suffering from cholera and malnutrition caused by ongoing famine. Aid groups have not yet been able to reach refugees or civilians due to the continued fighting, which has led to an estimated 70,000 deaths from malnutrition.

Aid groups have not yet been able to reach refugees or civilians.

The Saudi airstrike campaign has also been accused of indiscriminate bombings. After a funeral hall was bombed in October 2016, the Obama administration stopped selling guided missiles to Saudi Arabia, according to the Guardian. Weapon sales were reinstated by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In 2017, CNN reported that President Trump signed a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

As conditions in Yemen worsened, senators voted in December to end U.S. support of the war in a bipartisan vote. The measure was not followed

up by former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. In January, the House passed a similar measure, limiting the President’s authority to use military force, according to Politico. But parliamentary rules prevented the Senate from taking it up, so this current version must be passed again by the House. Once it passes both chambers, the New York Times expects President Trump to veto the resolution.

Republican senators have been unsatisfied with the administration’s response following the Khashoggi murder. Despite intelligence reports

that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for, or at least complicit in, the killing, the administration has taken no action and did not comply with a deadline to report to Congress whether it believes the Prince was responsible, according to Politico. While senators like Marco Rubio (R-FL) have called for sanctions on Saudi Arabia, the President continues to argues that maintaining the relationship with Saudi Arabia to counter Iranian influence and curb terrorism remains more important.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Caleb Yip

Yemeni children stand in the aftermath of an airstrike in Sana’a in 2015.

General Calls for U.S. to Block F-35 Sales to Turkey Adrian Lopez Louisa Christen Felipe Lobo Koerich Jackson Gillette Harry He Sarah Bothner Natalie Bazata Claire Hazbun Sarah Mathys Eric Schichein Cristina Lopez Arin Chinnasathian James Gordy Catherine Liu April Artrip Jaime Moore-Carrillo Madison Stern Michael Abi-Habib Alejandra Rocha Ryan Nowaczyk

ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD Publisher Editor-in-Chief Director of Digital Operations Executive Director EDITORIAL STAFF Copy Chief Copy Chief Africa Editor Africa Editor Eastern Europe and Russia Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Indo-Asia-Pacific Editor Latin America and the Caribbean Editor Latin America and the Caribbean Editor Middle East and Central Asia Editor Middle East and Central Asia Editor United States of America Editor United States of America Editor Western Europe and Canada Editor Western Europe and Canada Editor

Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, called on the U.S. to block the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey on March 8, reports CNN. The request follows a bill signed by President Trump in February that would halt the transfer of the fifth-generation fighter jet to Turkey if it proceeded to buy a Russian missile defense system.

General Scaparrotti said his “best military advice” to the U.S. is to prevent Turkey from acquiring F-35 fighters, according to Defense News.

He fears that Ankara’s deal with Russia to purchase the S400 missile defense system would be inoperable with NATO systems. In an interview with Defense News, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs, Heidi Grant, said that “our policies do not allow us to be interoperable with that [the S400] system.”

However, Turkey has pushed back on Washington’s block on the F-35.

Turkey’s national defense minister, Hulusi Akar, expressed his concern that the U.S. would be acting illicitly if it refused to transfer F-35s to the Turkish Air Force. There is a growing concern within the NATO defense community regarding how the U.S. would block F-35s sales to Turkey due to their role in manufacturing the aircraft’s center fuselage.

Nonetheless, it is unlikely the U.S. will abandon their demands. Not only is Turkey’s acquisition of the F-35 compromised, but its plan to buy the Russian S400 missile defense system may also cost them a $3.5 billion Raytheon Patriot missile deal with the U.S., according to Reuters. As of the date of publication, CNN reports that Turkish Air Force pilots remain training with F-35s at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona alongside U.S. military personnel.

California Governor Halts Capital Punishment Zev Burton

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on capital punishment on March 13, temporarily rescuing the 737 California inmates on death row, reports the New York Times.

Governor Newsom, an opponent of capital punishment and the death penalty, cited concerns about the high cost of the death penalty, racial disparities in its application, and wrongful convictions. He began serving as California governor in 2019 following the midterm elections. In a video posted on the YouTube channel of the Mercury News, Newsom also questioned whether society has the right to take a life. “I know people think eye for eye, but if you rape, we don’t rape,” he said. “And I think if someone kills, we don’t kill. We’re better than that.”

He continued, “I cannot sign off on executing hundreds and hundreds of human beings, knowing—knowing —that among them will be innocent human beings.” A recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that the innocent conviction rate of defendants sentenced to death in the United States is at least 4.1 percent.

Citing this study in his speech, Newsom claimed, “If that’s the case, that means if we move forward executing 737 people in California, we will have executed roughly 30 people that are innocent. I don’t know about you. I can’t sign my name to that. I can’t be party to that.

I won’t be able to sleep at night.”

The announcement runs slightly against the desires of Californians who voted in a 2016 ballot in favor of speeding up executions and against a broad repeal of the death penalty. Both results were within five percentage points.

According to CNN, lawmakers are currently working on another ballot proposition regarding the death penalty that could go on California’s ballot in 2020.

M A R. 2019 | 3

Elizabeth Warren Pledges To Break Up Big Tech Steven Vo

FLICKR

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled a proposal on March 8 to break up Silicon Valley’s leading tech conglomerates, a move she argued would promote competition and prevent tech giants from crowding out competitors, reported Bloomberg.

“Today’s big tech companies have too much power—too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” stated the Senator in a Medium blog post. “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private

information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else.”

Warren, a vocal critic of Wall Street and an antitrust advocate, maintained that she would select regulators who will unwind “anti-competitive tech mergers” such as Amazon’s recent purchase of Whole Foods and Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. The 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful further claimed that although Microsoft was correctly sued for violating anti-monopoly laws in the 1990s, this event enabled companies such as Google and Facebook to

Elizabeth Warren made fighting big tech a part of her 2020 presidential campaign.

emerge and limit competition through proprietary marketplaces and mergers.

“Today’s big tech companies have too much power.”

—Elizabeth Warren Warren’s far-reaching legislative proposal targets tech giants that earn a global annual revenue of $25 billion or more, forcing Google and Amazon to relinquish their current dominance in online commerce. The break up would also prevent Amazon from controlling which products to feature or advertise more prominently.

President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, expressed skepticism about the proposal in a press release on March 8. “The idea of breaking up some of our most successful American technology companies—who lead the world—and regulating them like public utilities would take us back to the stone age, hurt consumers, and stifle innovation,” says Donohue. “This is not a vision for the future, but an archaic idea that

should be dumped in your computer trash can.”

Carl Szabo, Vice President of the e-commerce trade group NetChoice, contends that Warren is wrong to claim that tech markets lack competition, reports Reuters. “Never before have consumers and workers had more access to goods, services and opportunities online,” he argues.

Senator Warren’s decision to use $25 billion in annual revenue as a baseline is noteworthy, given how current antitrust laws primarily depend on ambiguous indicators such as market share and evidence of price gouging.

“I want a government that makes sure everybody—even the biggest and most powerful companies in America—plays by the rules. And I want to make sure that the next generation of great American tech companies can flourish,” stressed the Massachusetts senator. “To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor.”

Georgetown Must Actually Take Action on the Admissions Scandal From pg.1

Ernst, Georgetown’s head tennis coach at the time, promoted students to the admissions office as recruits despite failing to meet the standard, the Washington Post reports. In return for the label, which increased chances of acceptance, parents paid Ernst more than $2.7 million, AP reports. Only the rich could afford this illegal shortcut.

Admissions preferential treatment does not end with athletes. Applicants with a “legacy status” receive undue advantages. According to the Century Foundation, 75 of U.S. News & World Report’s top 100 universities give a boost in admissions to the relatives of alumni.

Specialized sports, such as the ones named in Operation Varsity Blues, also have a high economic barrier for entry.

The result is that 65 percent of college athletes nationwide are white. These admissions preferences—both for legacy students and athletes—place non-white applicants at a disadvantage.

The FBI investigation highlighted the fact that the universities are not liable for the scandal. Since the fallout, Georgetown and others have painted themselves as the victims of criminal actions. Given the common nature of these admissions practices, it is hard to feel sympathy for the universities affected

or to see them as victims.

Seemingly, Georgetown has taken action by complying with the DOJ and FBI. The Department of Athletics and Office of Undergraduate Admissions also now perform audits to determine whether student-athletes are on the roster for their recruited sport.

Significant questions remain, however. How will the University use this new auditing policy to ensure that student-athletes are playing sports, and what action will it take against those who falsified application materials and benefited from the scheme?

The University’s response has thus far been disingenuous. In identifying as a victim, Georgetown removes its culpability in creating the conditions necessary for the success of this bribery scheme. The University can hide behind minor policy shifts and argue that it has acted when the policy shifts announced are minimal at best and insulting at worst. The announced changes are logical and should have been in place all along.

In identifying as a victim, Georgetown denies its ability to take steps to reverse preferential policies and move towards increased egalitarianism. As such, the University response has been insufficient and insincere.

The University owes its applicants

and its students more. Firstly, it must take a definitive stance on actions against those involved. The University of Southern California set the precedent when it announced that it would deny admission to all applicants connected to the fraud. The University should follow suit and state that it will deny and rescind admission to any applicant connected to this scandal.

The University must also decide on a course of action for those enrolled who gained admission to Georgetown through bribery and fraud. It is the opinion of this Editorial Board that the University should remove those currently enrolled who cheated their way in. They violated the Honor Code and the University’s core values and have not earned their spot on campus. Nonetheless, they should still be credited for work completed and allowed to transfer those credits to another institution. They should not be allowed to complete their degrees at Georgetown, however, as that would degrade the value of the Georgetown degree and demonstrate that if you are wealthy and powerful (and most likely white), the rules do not apply.

The University should also change its preferential policies. The admissions office should not know whether an applicant is a potential recruit as this

fabricates an incentive to accept.

It is not the opinion of the Editorial Board that athletes on campus are undeserving of their positions here.

Athletes across the board have worked hard in both their athletic and academic capacities to earn their spot at Georgetown and throughout the year to continue playing their sport. Those who abused the athletic system should be doubly ashamed for leeching off the hard work of actual student-athletes. Our proposed reforms are not meant to hurt student-athletes but to prevent further abuse of the system and to ensure a more equitable admission process.

The University, in light of its Jesuit values, must reassess its commitment to its students and alumni as well as its mission. Universities are changemakers: they pave the path for social mobility.

Preferential policies can be damaging and act in opposition to these goals. The only way for the University to fulfill its purpose and its Jesuit values is to remove outside influences on acceptance, like flagging applications as athletic recruits or legacy applicants, which allow for abuses of the system and the perpetuation of racial and socioeconomic inequalities.

A full version of this editorial is available on our website.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Michael Abi-Habib

T

welve Senate Republicans aided Senate Democrats in rejecting President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border in a 59-41 Senate decision, according to the New York Times.

The House had previously passed the resolution of disapproval.

With both chambers of Congress voting against the President’s proclamation, Trump now has to use his first presidential veto.

Having framed the vote as a signal of support for the border wall, the congressional vote against the emergency declaration is an embarrassment for Trump.

With some Republicans voting against Trump, political pundits have raised concerns as to whether there is a potential rift developing within the party, reports USA Today. The House override vote scheduled for March 26 will force Republicans to choose between their party and their country.

With Trump using his first veto as president, House and Senate Democrats will have to work with their Republican counterparts to obtain the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

Taking into account the House and Senate votes against Trump’s national emergency declaration, the two-thirds majority needed for a veto override is unlikely. Therefore, we will likely see the issue brought to the Supreme Court. In this situation, the Supreme Court is likely to override Trump’s veto. With both chambers of Congress voting against Trump’s proclamation, the legislative branch has signaled to the judicial branch that the executive branch is attempting to circumvent Congress to achieve its goals. Since Congress is constitutionally in charge of federal spending, Trump’s national emergency declaration could be seen as an unconstitutional bypass of Congress.

With both chambers of Congress rejecting his national emergency declaration, Trump faces the strongest resistance to his executive power thus far. To make matters worse for the president, the Republican-controlled Senate went against him and approved a resolution to halt U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, according to the Wall Street Journal. Facing consecutive defeats in the Senate, the coming weeks could represent a turning point for Trump’s presidency as we may see a split within the Republican party.

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EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA Eric Schichlein

T

he Caravel’s Trends of 2019: Eastern Europe and Russia argued that illiberalism in the Eastern European states of the European Union has been largely contained to the oftreported Poland and Hungary, though other Eastern European EU members remain negligent on combating corruption.

In particular, Slovakia ranks 57 out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. I identified the Slovak presidential election, the first round of which the country held on March 16 and the second of which the country will hold on March 30, as one of the first tests of my argument.

Polls from immediately before the Mach 2 moratorium on polling before the election show political neophyte, left-leaning anticorruption campaigner Zuzana Caputova winning 53 percent of the vote in the first round, reports Reuters. Caputova appears poised to win both rounds of the Presidential election, catapulting her into a largely ceremonial office, though she would have veto power over the appointment of judges and prosecutors.

A win for Caputova represents a win for continuing the struggle against corruption in Slovakia and a break with the corruption of the establishment. She gained initial attention for leading the fight against an illegal dump-site in her hometown built by a businessman whom special prosecutors indicted on March 14 for ordering the assassination of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova.

Their deaths sparked weeks of protests that brought down the Smer government of Robert Fico, although he was replaced by Peter Pellegrini, another Smer member.

A victory for Caputova puts Smer on notice for their weak response to Kuciak’s assassination and deals a blow against illiberalism among Eastern European EU member states.

Russian Libertarians Protest Censorship Bill Max Dunat Thousands of protesters rallied in Russian cities, including Moscow, on March 10 in opposition to Russia’s proposed “sovereign internet” law.

Activists first raised concerns over the policy in February when Russia outlined its experiment to disconnect from the internet. NPR reports that the draft bill requires Internet providers to ensure continuity of internet access if foreign cyber-attackers cut the Russian internet off from the rest of the world.

In practice, however, the Moscow Times explains that this would create “an internet that can be cut off from the rest of the world,” as all internet communication would need to be routed within the country as opposed to servers abroad.

This is not the first large internet protest Russia has seen recently. The Moscow Times writes that in April 2018, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator, attempted to crack down on the messenger app Telegram, through which users can send encrypted messages. In response, Russia’s Libertarian Party organized a rally in Moscow which drew over 12,000 people, making for the largest protest of that year.

Wired explains that Russia’s prior attempts to ban Telegram failed because the company circumvented ISP censorship. However, as reported by the Moscow Times, critics worry that this bill could definitively block Telegram and other non grata services.

The Independent adds that VPNs, which many Russians use to access blocked information, would become totally inaccessible.

Like last year’s Telegram protests, the most recent marches were organized by the Libertarian Party.

According to Meduza, the crowd in Moscow may have numbered as high as 15,200, with 28 protesters detained by police.

While most sources attribute the protests to the sovereign Internet bill, Meduza notes two other active bills, which outlaw “fake news” and “insults against state officials.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reports that these bills passed through the Federation Council and State Duma on March 13.

Organizers realize that their action was, for now, only symbolic.

According to Meduza, Libertarian leader Vladimir Osenin concluded the rally by proclaiming that the protesters “haven’t achieved anything yet.”

Bosnia To Repatriate and Bring Islamic State Fighters to Trial Nick Okerlund Bosnia is organizing the return and prosecution of two Bosnian nationals suspected of fighting for Islamic State (ISIS) forces in Syria, according to a March 11 statement by the BosniaHerzegovinian Security Minister Dragan Mektic, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The fighters were identified while detained in a U.S.-backed, Kurdishrun detention center in northern Syria following their capture last year, and since then have received Interpol warrants.

This process aligns with the U.S. administration’s wishes; in a series of February tweets from his personal Twitter account, President Trump expressly requested the repatriation and trial of the estimated 800 ISIS fighters of European descent captured and detained in Syria. If not tried, warned the president, the U.S. will release them back into Syria.

The administration’s request came in the past months’ disintegration of the Islamic State’s territory and its anticipated defeat, Al Jazeera reports.

Many European nationals have traveled to Syria to fight for ISIS. According to Reuters, 241 Bosnian adults left Bosnia or the Bosnian diaspora for Syria and/or Iraq between 2012 and 2016. Since then, 150 children have been born to these Bosnians without official documentation.

The process of joining Islamic State forces, however long ago, poses a specific problem to repatriation. One must renounce their previous state to join the Islamic State, turning in their ID card to ISIS authorities and destroying their birth certificate.

Top U.S. General in Iraq Lieutenant General Paul LaCamara explained the difficulty of repatriation to CNN reporters: “The real question is, it’s not just the prisoners, the detainees, it’s what are we going to do with these stateless people?”

Whether or not the protests will impact legislative proceedings will be determined when the draft bill is debated for the second time by legislators later in March, reports the Independent. Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov assured NPR that the bill “will surely be approved.” He adds that Yandex and Mail.ru, two prominent Russian web companies, support the bill.

However, whether the most drastic provisions remain by the time it becomes law is an open question. Political analyst Yekaterina Schulmann, predicted to the Moscow Times that the legislature will make

THE KREMLIN

EDITOR’S NOTE:

careful corrections to the law if enough people protest. Chief analyst of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, Karen Kazaryan, claims that it is unlikely Moscow could execute a project of such scale.

An activist and opponent of the sovereign internet law, Mikhail Svetov, counters that Russians “carry out infrastructural projects perfectly when they realize that their power depends on it,” citing the Kerch Bridge and the Sochi Olympics.

Although public outcry failed to stop Russia’s earlier assault on Telegram, the Kremlin has since lost significant support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured in 2017 after meeting with the Moldovan president.

M A R. 2019 | 5

Court Reverses Barring of Two Romanian Parties Moldovan Constitutional The Romanian government sent shockwaves throughout Europe on March 7 by banning two anticorruption opposition parties from running jointly in the European parliamentary election in May, reported Politico. This is the first time since the fall of Constatin Dăscălescu’s Communist regime in 1989 that the government has banned parties from running, Euractiv noted.

Romania has been an integral member of the European Union since its ascension in January of 2007, with 32 nationals serving as members of the European Parliament.

The dawn of 2019 marked the Balkan country’s first time occupying the rotating presidency of the European Union, precisely at a moment wherein the national government in Bucharest has come to butting heads with the European Commission in Brussels.

Operating as a coalition, Union Save Romania (USR) and the PLUS party, aimed to “capture the votes of most of the educated youth and entrepreneurs” of urban

Romania, writes Dan Alexe of EUelectionsRomania. The parties are expected to net close to 20 percent of the parliamentary electorate, Dan Alexe of EUelectionsRomania reports.

According to RomaniaInsider, the Central Election Bureau (BEC) banned the parties because the presidents of the two parties, Dan Barna for USR and Dacian Ciolos for PLUS, had not been officially registered within their parties’ bursars.

The parties in question argued that the verdict was abusive.

The parties in question argued that the verdict “was abusive and taken under pressure from political power in Bucharest,” RomaniaInsider reports. Per ActMedia, Dacian Ciolos, the former Romanian prime minister, called the judgment, “an insult to the voters and a totally undemocratic action.”

This view was shared by Member of the European Parliament (MEP)

and leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Europe, Guy Verhofstadt, who tweeted “Romanian authorities must not constrain democracy by creating absurd obstacles for the registration of an opposition alliance.” He concluded the message with a warning: “Should this obstruction continue, Romania will further slide away from Europe’s democratic core.”

As of March 11, the High Court of Cassation and Justice reversed the BEC’s decision, with both parties retaining their electoral rights in the upcoming European Parliament election, RomaniaInsider accounts.

The political pressures were abated when the “official presidents of both parties” made clear their willingness to comply with the BEC’s requests to normalize filing of party leadership.

This new decision by the High Court is final, per RomaniaInsider.

The performance of the coalition parties in the upcoming elections will play a critical role in Romanian politics and influence Bucharest’s reaction to growing opposition support amid recent anti-corruption protests directed at the government.

Hungarian Government Interference With Academic Freedom Worries Scientists Sienna Siu

The Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology László Palkovics announced a reduction in funding for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), angering scientists and leaving many worried about academic freedom under the Orbán government, according to Reuters and Nature. The incident is one in a series of clashes between Hungarian academics and their populist government, reports the Scientist.

Palkovics plans to withhold 17 billion Hungarian Forints ($61.2 million) of funding from the MTA’s operational costs to help finance his ministry’s call for research proposals that extends to all universities and government-run research institutes in Hungary, according to Nature. He cites the very low number of patents filed by research institutes against the huge amount of money the state provides in grants as the reason, Emerging Europe reports.

In late January, Palkovics created the National Office for Research, Development and Innovation, which is under the ministry’s direct control.

The recent changes he made would now require MTA’s research institutes

to apply for funding to cover basic costs such as salaries and maintenance under the excellence program launched by the new office, according to Emerging Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed on his website that his government’s aim is to “channel resources toward research that spurs innovation and add economic value, without infringing on academic freedom.”

“This was unacceptable.” - MTA President Lázló Lovász The move, considered by activists and academics to be a blatant money grab and an interference with research independence by the Orbán government, sparked massive outrage, according to Nature. Academics worry that the increasing uncertainty about the future of scientific research in the nation will drive young talent away, Nature reports.

“This was unacceptable,” says László Lovász, mathematician and MTA president, the Hungarian Free Press reports. “We would be competing for our own running

costs—we wouldn’t be able to propose spectacular science, and spectacular science is what we need to be doing.”

MTA has since received support from scientists across the world, according to Chemistry World.

Thousands of protesters also formed a human chain around the academy’s building last month.

The Central European University, which recently moved to Vienna after a longstanding confrontation with the Orbán government, released an open letter calling the move “a further step in a process that aims at curtailing academic freedom of Hungarian institutions of research and higher education,” Chemistry World reports.

In an attempt to resolve the conflict, Minister Palkovics and MTA President Lovász signed a deal on March 14, which will put the academy’s research institutes under a new governing body chaired by an appointee of the prime minister, according to Science Business. Academics have given a guarded welcome to this deal.

“The [memorandum] is better than expected, and actually acceptable, but the future horizon is rather black,” said András Báldi, director of MTA’s Centre for Ecological Research, reported Science Business.

Court Rules Elections for Parliament Valid Brandon Duran

The Constitutional Court of Moldova confirmed on March 9 the outcome of the country’s parliamentary elections from February 24. The confirmation comes after opposition parties appealed to the court to invalidate the election results in several constituencies, an appeal which the court has now struck down.

Days before the parliamentary election, Moldovan opposition leaders Andrei Nastase and Maia Sandu claimed that authorities had poisoned them. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Nastase stated that the “authorities want our deaths.” A spokesman for the then-ruling Democratic Party denied the allegations, Reuters reports.

Medical records provided to RFE/ RL’s Moldovan Service show both opposition leaders demonstrated abnormal, elevated levels of mercury in their blood. A Moldovan toxicology expert told RFE/RL that the levels were not life-threatening.

Nastase and Sandu are part of the parliament’s pro-Western ACUM bloc, which opposes both the then-ruling Democratic Party and the Socialists, which prefers closer ties with Russia.

While the Democratic Party leans towards the West, it remains marred by consistent allegations of corruption.

According to RFE/RL, the Central Election Commission asserted that the elections transpired without “major incidents,” but pro-Russian and proEuropean supporters accused the Democratic Party of fraud and votebuying. The government reported a turnout of just over 49 percent.

Sandu went as far as to say that

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Cooper Vardy

“these were the least democratic elections in the history of Moldova,” reports RFE/RL. Russia’s decision to announce that it was opening an investigation into a suspected money-laundering scheme involving the Democratic Party’s leader just two days before the election led critics to decry Russian influence.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitors stated that Moldova’s elections were “competitive and fundamental rights were respected.”

However, they added that there were “strong indications of vote buying.”

Weaknesses of the electoral system included a lack of mechanisms to reduce the influence of the wealthy and poor supervision of party and candidate funding.

The State Department released its own statement on February 27 echoing the OSCE’s assessment and expressing concerns over the alleged violations.

Reuters reports that the Socialists won 35 out of 101 seats; the Democrats, 30; ACUM, 26; and the conservative Shor Party, 7. The ACUM bloc pledged not to coalition with either party. If no coalition forms within 45 days, President Igor Dodon will dissolve the legislature and order new elections.

Although the court affirmed the validity of the election results, Moldovan politics are no more stable. With no parties pleased with the results, cooperating to form a government may be difficult.

Corruption, mismanagement, and the slow pace of reforms have led the EU to express growing frustration at Moldova’s direction, and the country remains at the center of an EU-Russia tug-o-war.

Opposition leader Andrei Nastase accused the government of poisoning him.

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WESTERN EUROPE & CANADA Alejandra Rocha

C

anadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced a steep plunge in popularity.

Former-Attorney General and Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould accused Trudeau of pressuring her to negotiate a deal with SNCLavalin, a Canadian company charged with corruption, and of punishing her refusal by transferring her to a less influential ministry, Foreign Policy reports.

Trudeau denied applying pressure and stressed that he simply suggested looking for alternatives to taking the company to trial. “SNCLavalin is a company that employs nine thousand Canadians across this country […] but they are also a company facing serious criminal charges,” he stated. “The context is a tough one, with potential job losses in the thousands.”

The question remains, how much will the scandal affect Trudeau’s prospects for re-election in the October general election?

Given that Trudeau ran on a platform of transparency, the scandal has likely weakened his electoral position, prompting voters to see his opponents as alternatives. According to City News, 41 percent of Canadians had a positive view of Trudeau while 39 percent had a negative view before the scandal broke. Afterwards, the numbers flipped to 33 percent positive and 47 percent negative.

However, Trudeau’s brand and the erosion of trust between him and his constituents may not be beyond repair, and it is impossible to argue with certainty that the scandal will cost him the election.

According to the CEO of Abacus Data, David Coletto, the scandal might not invalidate Trudeau’s political future. Most Canadians know about the controversy, but not many continue to follow closely. Coletto argues that “this whole affair has perhaps now brought Mr. Trudeau back to earth. He is now a mere mortal in terms of a politician’s perspective.”

Trudeau’s future is threatened, but not doomed. He might have lost his halo, but not necessarily his re-election.

Parties in German Governing Coalition Stratify Vincent Doehr German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s grand coalition government, consisting of her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the centerleft Social Democratic Party (SPD), is entering a year fraught with political challenges.

The main problem the coalition faces is a lack of differentiation between the policies of the center-right and center-left, according to Politico. Many observers of German politics believe that the indistinguishability of the SPD, an ostensibly social-democratic party, from the CDU, a conservative party, is the cause of the decline in support for the current grand coalition, which has governed Germany from 2013 to the present.

The lack of contrast is partly a symptom of the relatively liberal Merkel helming the CDU, and of a series of moderates leading the SPD. However, following the 2017 federal election, the CDU and SPD both elected new party leaders, as Taz notes.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the

new head of the CDU, was Merkel’s favored successor, but is seen as slightly more conservative, particularly on social issues. The SPD is now headed

by Andrea Nahles, who has criticized her party’s neoliberal past as well as its current coalition agreement with the CDU and CSU. Nahles faces the immediate problem of declining support for the SPD, a problem partially attributed to compromises the party has made on core issues in order to maintain the grand coalition. Both Nahles and Kramp-Karrenbauer seek to win back voters who shifted to more radical parties by offering policies more in line with their parties’ roots: leftwing proposals from the SPD and conservative planks from the CDU. The rest of the year will test the enthusiasm for the SPD’s new leadership.

Besides upcoming elections for the European Parliament in May, there are also upcoming state elections in Bremen, Brandenburg, and Saxony, according to the website of the Federal Council. All three states have leftist coalitions either led or supported by the SPD. The SPD has controlled Bremen since World War II,

British Parliament Votes To Delay Brexit From pg.1 Although a majority (61 percent) of Conservatives still voted against the Brexit delay, 112 of 310 Conservatives backed the vote against May, BBC reports. Ten other Conservatives did not vote and declined to oppose it, including several members of her cabinet.

In a separate vote, Parliament narrowly rejected legislation 314-312 that would have seized control of the Brexit process from Prime Minister May. While the vote was the strongest attempt yet to subordinate May, it still represents a small but valuable legislative victory for the prime minister.

Following the delayed vote, the Prime Minister will request a postponement on March 21 during meetings with European leaders in Brussels. A Brexit postponement would require all 27 member states to approve her request.

According to the New York Times, many experts think that the EU will likely allow an extension for the exit process, but it is uncertain how long such an extension would last.

For now, May remains in power, but her position has been seriously weakened. It is still technically possible that the U.K. leaves the European Union on the March 29 deadline; however, the most recent vote has put the matter politically out of reach.

Now, the EU must decide whether it will allow an extension. If the British Parliament cannot reach a Brexit agreement before May’s meetings, then she might be forced to request a longer extension lasting until the end of 2020.

Jean-Paul Juncker, President of the European Commission, has already designated May 24 as the deadline for any Brexit extension.

but current polling indicates that the CDU could win the state for the first time, according to Welt.

If the SPD founders in the European elections, loses both Brandenburg and Saxony, or suffers a historic loss in Bremen, the SPD would likely exit the grand coalition, leaving the CDU and CSU to pick up the pieces.

As Politico explains, Merkel signaled that she may not even serve out her full term as Chancellor if the coalition falls apart, leaving KrampKarrenbauer to either form a new coalition or lead the CDU in fresh

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elections. With the SPD unavailable as a potential coalition partner, Kramp-Karrenbauer could attempt to form a Jamaica coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic Party and the environmentalist Greens.

This strategy failed in the aftermath of the 2017 federal election, and it may be impossible to reconcile the beliefs of parties with such a diverse range of views. Germany would then likely hold new elections, which could possibly lead to increased support for the far-right and further decline for the center-right and center-left.

CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer speaks at CSU Party Conference, 2019.

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German Sentenced for Contaminating Co-Workers’ Meals Populist Parties Expected A German factory worker, who can only be identified as Klaus O. due to privacy laws, was found guilty of poisoning his co-workers’ food and drinks with heavy metals at a metal-fitting factory in Schloss HolteStukenbrock. He was sentenced to life in prison on March 7 following the verdict, reports the New York Times.

A 57-year old German man who had worked as a machinist at the factory for thirty eight years, Klaus O. was found guilty of sprinkling toxic metals into his coworkers’ meals.

According to his coworkers, Klaus O. was generally timid and kept to himself. He had no friends, rarely spoke, and often wore headphones around the plant. He was suspected of attempted murder in at least three cases.

Klaus O. was detained last May after a fellow employee found highly toxic lead acetate on his lunch. At first, the employee assumed that the white powder on his sandwich was some sort of dirt, but grew suspicious after the same powder appeared the next day on his lunch. He alerted ARI Armaturen, the metal-fitting company, which

secretly installed a security camera in the break room and recorded Klaus O. purposely contaminating his co-worker’s food, according to the Ladders. Klaus O. would calmly take the lunches out of their containers, taint them, and return them to their containers, arranging them exactly as before.

He was suspected of attempted murder in at least three cases.

Co-workers still did not suspect that Klaus O. was purposefully poisoning them until German police later searched the suspect’s home, finding a makeshift laboratory in which he mixed highly toxic substances such as lead acetate, mercury, and cadmium.

He was also found to be carrying around a bottle of highly toxic lead acetate pills.

A 23-year-old colleague of the poisoner went into a vegetative state and is not expected to recover.

Another went to a doctor at least five

times following mysterious symptoms and was found to have severe kidney damage. Yet another colleague was also discovered to have been suffering from serious kidney damage.

In addition to being charged with aggravated attempted murder, Klaus O. faces nine more charges related to his co-workers’ severely deteriorated health conditions. Though no proof has been obtained, he is also suspected to be the cause of a string of 23 deaths of former employees in ARI Armaturen’s plant. Officials have yet to determine whether or not any of these individuals were poisoned.

In Germany, prisoners given life sentences are eligible for potential parole after serving 15 years. However, the sentence in this case included preventive security custody, which indicates that Klaus O. is likely to stay in prison indefinitely. Such a sentence is rare in the German legal system, which highlights the seriousness of the crime.

Neither the victims nor the investigators have any idea why Klaus O. targeted them for poisoning, DW reports. During his case, the perpetrator was silent and never revealed a motive.

CDU Leader Denies German-French Tensions Peyton Rhodes Following her criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal for a “European renaissance,” Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, denied any fallout between the two countries on March 9, the Guardian reports. KrampKarrenbauer’s written response, titled “Getting Europe Right,” reaffirmed many of Macron’s proposals regarding industrial policy and defense.

According to the New York Times, points of consensus included the call for continued coordinated European defense policy with the United Kingdom following Brexit and for the construction of a joint European aircraft carrier. Of the latter project, Ulrich Speck of the German Marshall Fund in Berlin commented that “AKK’s call for a joint European aircraft carrier signals her readiness to invest in joint European power projection.”

Most of Kramp-Karrenbauer’s agreements with Macron’s policies concerned security issues and increased European power. However, Kramp-Karrenbauer’s article harshly

criticized Macron’s social policy proposals. A section of her piece reads, “the communitarisation of debts, the Europeanization of social systems, and the minimum wage would be the wrong approach.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer also issued two proposals which France has opposed in the past, increasing speculation of a rift between the two countries, the Guardian reports.

The CDU leader suggested that the EU take a seat on the UN Security Council, which could rob France of its seat. She also proposed abolishing the European Parliament’s headquarters in Strasbourg, calling it an “anachronism.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer’s article harshly criticized Macron’s social policy proposals.

Despite disagreement over policy, both governments deny any tensions between them. The Guardian reports that Kramp-Karrenbauer told Welt, “There is no rift. The fact that the CDU has a different political view on the

issue of redistribution, on the issue of completely uniform social standards… than the French is nothing new.”

The French seem to agree.

According to the New York Times, a French government official maintained that the CDU and KrampKarrenbauer took issue with only three of the French government’s positions: the Security Council seat, the Strasbourg headquarters, and the European minimum wage.

Aside from underscoring the issues of Franco-German disagreement, “Getting Europe Right” intrigued Europe because of its author. While Kramp-Karrenbauer is the leader of the CDU, she does not have a post in the German government. According to the Guardian, the French media would have interpreted the article as a stronger statement if it had come from Chancellor Angela Merkel herself.

Despite the policy disagreements and Kramp-Karrenbauer’s authorship, the two visions “share much common ground.… What is at any rate clear is that a desire to advance the debate on Europe’s future has now been expressed, on both sides of the Rhine,” as reported by Le Monde.

to Rise in Upcoming EU Parliamentary Elections William Greer In the upcoming May elections to the European Parliament, populist and eurosceptic parties are expected to gain seats at the expense of centrist parties.

Experts predict the current European Commission, in office since the last elections in 2014, composed of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the Party of European Socialists (PES), and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) to experience losses. However, the risk of a populist and eurosceptic commission is highly unlikely, according to the Guardian.

New findings predict the Grand Coalition of EPP and PES, the two largest European parliamentary groups, losing their majority for the first time, the Guardian reports. These two groups have together governed the EU for forty years and currently hold 53 percent of seats. Current projections estimate them to receive only 45 percent of seats following the May 2019 elections. Pro-EU groups will continue to maintain a majority when the liberal and green groups are included. The three eurosceptic groups, which range from moderate conservatives to far-right, are expected to take around 21.5 percent of seats, far from a governable majority.

The tension between pro-EU centrists and eurosceptic populists has dominated international political discourse in the lead up to the election.

Notably, the French president and leader of centrist The Republic on the Move! (LREM) party, Emmanuel Macron, has faced large-scale Gilet Jaunes protests since late 2018. In the upcoming elections, he will confront an effective referendum on his administration. On March 4, he released an editorial titled “For a

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Carl Tulevech

European Renaissance” in newspapers across Europe, reports Le Monde. The open lette urged European citizens to respond to the urgent threats to the EU, namely populism, through fundamental reform of the Union.

According to Reuters, Macron appealed to voters across Europe, writing, “In a few weeks, the European elections will be decisive for the future of our continent. Europe has never been as necessary since World War Two as it is now and yet never has Europe been in such danger.

Nationalism offers nothing. It is a project of rejection.”

Among its policy recommendations for EU reform, reports Reuters, the letter proposes a common border police for the Schengen Area to protect Europe’s frontiers; a continental agreement on free movement threatened by the European migrant crisis; a European agency to prevent electoral manipulation; a European climate bank to facilitate Europe’s ecological transitions; a ban on foreign financing of European parties; a European minimum wage; and a conference for Europe to review European institutions and treaties.

“In this Europe, the people will have truly taken back control of their destiny; in this Europe, Britain, I am sure, will find its place,” Macron wrote, as reported by Reuters.

The UK currently holds 73 seats out of the total 751 seats in the European Parliament. If the EU grants the UK a Brexit extension, the British government is legally obligated to hold elections and the body will maintain the current 751-seat arrangement, reports the Guardian. If the EU does not grant the UK an extension, the parliament will lose 46 seats and the remaining seats will be redistributed to under-represented countries.

The European Parliament will hold elections from May 23 to May 26.

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LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN Catherine Liu

E

lectricity returned to most of Venezuela on March 14 after a nationwide blackout afflicted the country for nearly a week, the Guardian reports.

However, many people still remain without power, and experts say it could a while before it fully returns.

The blackout highlights how the citizens of Venezuela often suffer the worst consequences of the country’s deteriorating situation but are frequently overlooked as international attention focuses on government-level developments.

The blackout started on March 7 and impacted 70 percent of the country, including Caracas. The blackout compromised power, water, and communication services. At least 20 people died.

As citizens struggled to live their day to day lives, the infrastructure crisis was seized upon as a political opportunity. Vox reports that opposition leader Juan Guaidó stated that the Maduro regime is responsible for “murder,” pointing towards power failures at hospitals that resulted in deaths. In contrast, President Maduro pinned blame on the U.S., suggesting the outage was a cyberattack. In the meantime, the U.S. has pulled all diplomats out of the country, according to NPR. A recent report from the Central University of Venezuela identified the true cause of the power outage.

It found that a bushfire near a power substation in eastern Venezuela compromised an essential part of the country’s power grid. Potential solutions, however, are unclear. The report finds it could take anywhere from 60 days to three years to fix compromised parts of the grid.

The people are once again bearing the brunt of the country’s shortcomings, but are unlikely to receive much help as various forces, including the government, continue to stall aid shipments.

The blackout has further destabilized a country that has undergone severe political and economic crises for years. Although some hope the presidential crisis might resolve itself soon, civilian life is unlikely to see much improvement in the near future.

Women Imprisoned on Abortion Charges in El Salvador Freed Adam Tahyar Three women originally jailed for violating El Salvador’s stringent anti-abortion laws— Alba Rodríguez, María del Tránsito Orellana, and Cinthia Rodríguez—had their sentences commuted by El Salvador’s Supreme Court on March 7, one day before International Women’s Day. According to BBC News, the three women were convicted in the late 2000s and sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment on charges of aggravated murder for allegedly having abortions, which all three women contend were miscarriages.

The court commuted their sentences after finding they were victims of their socioeconomic circumstances and, thus, the original sentences were overly harsh. The women had already spent 10 years in jail, and while they were freed, over 20 other women are still serving jail time in El Salvador on similar charges.

Abortion in El Salvador remains illegal, despite many people fighting to reform a system often considered too extreme. The Washington Post reports that in 1998, El Salvador joined

the ranks of 26 other countries that banned abortion in all circumstances, including rape, incest, and possible injury or death to the mother. As International Woman’s Day was celebrated around the world, protesters gathered in El Salvador to demand changes to anti-abortion legislation.

The effectiveness of this legislation is unclear. A report written by Guernica found that the law has not been successful in decreasing abortion rates, meaning that clandestine—and often dangerous—abortion procedures conducted outside of hospitals are on the rise. The report also found that the number of women wrongfully convicted of abortion-related crimes has risen as well.

Amidst mounting international pressure and domestic protests, El Salvador’s abortion laws are being questioned. On March 8, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted, “Women’s reproductive rights are human rights that are universal and indivisible. Governments do not get to pick and choose whose rights and which rights will be respected.”

While the country’s constitution emphasizes a right to life beginning

Chilean President Offers Legislation Against the Cyber Exploitation of Women Natalia Lopez

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera proposed anti-cyber exploitation legislation on March 8. The legislation is aimed at protecting women from blackmail or manipulation through the dissemination of their private information or pictures online.

According to Sputnik News, this policy enactment follows the controversial case of Nido.org, an internet forum used to exploit and share private information about women and girls.

Piñera’s project, the Cyber Harassment Law, seeks to “punish all forms of harassment through electronic means,” according to the Santiago Times. Piñera specifically referenced the Nido.org case in his remarks, saying it was “discovered that the practice of divulging intimate photos of women was unpunished” and that he is “committed to generating a zero-tolerance behavior

against all types of harassment or violence.”

Chile has not always promoted women’s rights. According to Agencia EFE, in the past year, thousands of people attended peaceful protests.

There were 11 deaths attributed to gender-related violence this year, and 42 deaths in 2018, according to Chile Today.

Piñera detailed the pro-women agenda he has in store for the rest of his term, announcing that he will submit a bill that reforms the health forecasting system to make it more attuned to the needs of women.

Piñera also proposed the creation of a monitoring unit to secure the safety of domestic violence victims from their aggressors and a gender equality report that comments on the working conditions of women.

Piñera’s proposed policies are essential steps in advancing women’s rights in Chile and the whole region.

at conception, organizations like the Citizens Group for the Decriminalization of Ethical Abortion are fighting to change the law. The organization argues that anti-abortion laws serve only to deny women proper healthcare, deny them their reproductive rights, and deny them the presumption of innocence. In an effort to amend the law, El País reports that both of El Salvador’s major political parties, FMLN and ARENA, have proposed reforms decriminalizing abortion in circumstances where pregnancy is the result of rape or

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threatens the life of the mother. It is unclear where the recently elected president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, stands on abortion.

Human Rights Watch holds that the law in El Salvador “undermines women’s rights under international law to life,” yet there seems to be no lasting resolution in sight. Although the release of these women may seem like a step in the right direction, similar gestures were undertaken in 2018 in response to international pressure, but ultimately failed to bring lasting change.

The IACHR is responsible for upholding human rights across the Americas.

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Sean Fulmer Brazilian federal prosecutors held a hearing on the Waimiri-Atroari Reserve on March 3 regarding accusations of acts of genocide committed by the Brazilian military against the Waimiri-Atroari tribe, according to MSN. The alleged crimes occurred during the construction of a national highway through protected tribal lands between 1968 and 1977.

A military dictatorship ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, and during that time the government severely repressed indigenous rights as it attempted to expand through indigenous lands. D24am reports that in 1968, the government began work on the highway BR-174, which connected the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Amazonas, and Roraima with Venezuela. This road runs directly through the protected lands of the Waimiri-Atroari tribe.

During the construction of BR174, indigenous people within the reservation allegedly faced constant attacks by the military, while others died from illnesses caused by the construction. A 2014 commission evidences the murder of over 8,000

indigenous people by the military dictatorship, according to Globo.

The Waimiri-Atroari people do not measure time in months and years, so the actual timeline is unknown.

However, federal prosecutors believe that the violence described by indigenous witnesses intensified after 1974. They estimate that the military murdered between 600 and 3,000 Waimiri-Atroari.

Indigenous people in Brazil have long faced attacks on their rights.

Military officials attended the hearing, all of whom refused to accept responsibility for the deaths.

In contrast, all six of the indigenous individuals present at the hearing stated that the military was responsible for the massacres. The Waimiri-Atroari tribe only allowed the Associated Press and Globo to attend the hearing. It is believed this was the first time a federal judge has been allowed on that tribe’s lands. SFGate states that indigenous people tend to underreport accusations of violence and abuse at

the hands of the government due to a distrust in the Brazilian legal system.

Indigenous people in Brazil have long faced attacks on their rights.

Reuters reports that President Jair Bolsonaro currently plans to accelerate the construction of an electric power line to Roraima, which is currently disconnected from the rest of Brazil’s power grid. This construction would directly cut through Waimiri-Atroari lands, with little to no input from the indigenous people that live there.

Bolsonaro plans to declare the project to be a matter of “national interest,” which will allow him to speed up, or even skip, the required consultation with the indigenous community, says CNBC. Although Brazil’s indigenous community faces intense fights over their current status within the country, they continue to fight for the memories of those lost during the brutal military dictatorship. The main goals of the Waimiri-Atroari, according to Al Jazeera, are for the military to admit their responsibility in the tragedy of the BR-174 construction, and for the national government to ensure that indigenous history is taught in Brazilian schools.

Tensions High in Colombia Over New Film Juliana Albuquerque Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude is set to become a Netflix original series in the near future, according to the Guardian. It will be the first screen adaptation of the novel, known as a landmark of Colombian culture.

Credited as the pioneering work in magical realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude follows a vast cast of characters living in a small Colombian town, most notably the Buendía dynasty, founders of the rural and isolated town of Macondo.

Critics praised the book for its multidimensional portrayal of Colombians. Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia and recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, lauded Marquez as “the greatest Colombian that ever lived.”

García’s sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo García, who will executive produce the project, explained why the author hesitated to sell the rights to a movie production company: “He believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film, or

that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice.”

However, under the premise of a series, they have allowed production to go forward, according to the Guardian.

The adaptation of such an influential novel, making García’s work more accessible to the international community, would seem to merit excitement.

Many Colombians, however, met the news with a curious amount of trepidation and anxiety.

Critics praised the book for its multidimensional portrayal of Colombians.

The main problem, says bookstore owner Andrés Camilo Ramírez, is the fact that most media either from or set in Colombia focuses on the country’s troubled past concerning drug trafficking and terrorism.

Recent examples of this include recent Netflix series Narcos, which was accused of glamorizing Pablo Escobar’s life and personality. Narcos was also

criticized for not hiring Colombian actors.

However, Colombia is eager to show the world new facets of its society following the historic 2016 peace treaty between FARC and the government, which led to 7,000 rebels laying down their weapons after the signing. The accord was described as “the start of the construction of peace,” according to the Guardian.

This hopeful new image is what makes the adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude a tentative step in the right direction for Colombia, and many await the screen version of the fictional town of Macondo with bated breath.

“Macondo is much more real than many real life towns, and Colonel Aureliano Buendía – who never existed – is more real than almost all colonels,” Colombian author Héctor Abad told the Guardian.

While Colombians may still worry that a large, foreign company like Netflix will not do the novel justice, the fact that García’s sons will have some control over the finished product may help ensure that their father’s memory is honored.

Central American Migrants Kidnapped In Tamaulipas Oscar Avila While traveling by bus through the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, 19 men were kidnapped at gunpoint on March 10. According to Mexico Daily News, the Mexican government suspects the men to be Central American migrants attempting to reach the U.S. border. Central American migrants were kidnapped on the same highway in the 2010 San Fernando massacre.

According to the Associated Press, the Mexican federal government launched a formal search into the incident.

Tamaulipas has long been rife with violence targeting migrants traveling through the state. Much of the violence is the result of an active conflict between the Los Zetas cartel and the Gulf Cartel, which frequently kidnap travelers to integrate into their ranks. In 2010, 72 migrants – mostly of Central American origin – were shot point-blank at an abandoned ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, beaten in a fashion El País found comparable to that perpetrated by ISIS fighters. A year later in the same municipality, the Mexican Attorney General accused the local police forces of being involved in the massacre of 193 Central American migrants found in mass graves. Because of this pervasive violence, migrants have been wary of traveling through Tamaulipas, despite the state’s status as the shortest route to the U.S. According to reports by La Jornada, the men were among a group of 41 passengers traveling to Reynosa aboard a bus. Secretary of Public Security Alfonso Durazo Montaño stated that after blocking the road with four vehicles, the abductors boarded

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the bus with a list of the names of the passengers. After the driver reached Reynosa, he reported the incident, and the federal police conducted a sweep of the highway, but were unable to find the perpetrators. Durazo also contradicted Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, saying that at no point did the Federal Police escort the bus.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador released a statement on March 12, stating the government suspected the victims to be of Central American origin, but was hesitant to name the incident a kidnapping.“We are investigating for sure… [but] there is a theory… this is a method to get into the United States,” President Obrador said, noting the commonplace practice of “disappearing” to gain easier access across the border. The following day, a combination of federal police, army, and Tamaulipas state police forces began a formal search for the migrants, which has been informally named “Operation to Find Them Alive.”

Late on March 13, the investigative forces saved 34 migrants in Altamira, Tamaulipas. However, the Mexican government has stated that the 19 men from the bus incident were not among them. In reference to the still missing individuals, Secretary Durazo has stated that while the search will continue, the Ministry of Public Safety had been weighing the possibility of the incident being part of an elaborate migrant smuggling scheme as much as possible cartel violence, reiterating AMLO’s position. According to El Sol de Mexico though, AMLO is most worried about preventing “any repetition of the 2010 and 2011 massacres.”

A cross memorial for migrants who have lost their lives stands by the Rio Grande.

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INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC

North Korea Threatens To Resume Nuclear Tests According to AP, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister, Choe Sonhui, announced on March 15 that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, “will soon decide whether to continue diplomatic talks and maintain his moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests.” This remark came two weeks after the summit between North Korea and the United States held in Hanoi, Vietnam concluded without agreement.

In the briefing, Choe alleged that the United States is “being too demanding and inflexible” in its negotiations. She criticized the United States’ demand that North Korea denuclearize before any sanctions against it are eased.

Choe claimed that North Korea was only seeking to lift the sanctions directed at its civilian economy, not all sanctions. This opposes President Donald Trump’s description of the North Korean position as wanting “the sanctions lifted in their entirety” in a news conference following the abrupt end of the Hanoi summit, reports the Washington Post.

Officials at the State Department

Lifting sanctions would “essentially subsidize... continued nuclear activity.”

The New York Times reports that Kim Jong-un announced the moratorium in April 2018, only days prior to the historic first summit meeting between him and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom. The moratorium came a year after North Korea conducted a series of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests that at the time aggravated tensions with its neighbors, particularly South Korea and Japan, as well as the United States.

Following the Hanoi summit’s

breakdown, South Korean intelligence indicated that North Korea appears to be rebuilding its Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, reported the New York Times. North Korea previously began dismantling the complex after the first Singapore summit meeting between the two leaders in June 2018, and Kim offered to destroy the missile-test facilities in the presence of American experts while at a meeting with Moon in September 2018.

According to the Washington Post, North Korea has depicted the

Tongchang-ri site as a space launch center and has used its facilities to launch rockets carrying satellites.

However, it is also North Korea’s largest missile engine test site, and satellite launches using the site have been controversial. A 2012 agreement between North Korea and the United States, where North Korea promised a moratorium on nuclear and missile testing in exchange for food aid, broke down after the United States accused a North Korean satellite launch as having used ballistic missile technology, and thus breaching UN sanctions.

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Kyle Wang

have clarified North Korea’s request but said that lifting such sanctions would “essentially subsidize the North’s continued nuclear activity.”

In addition, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed Choe’s remarks hours after the briefing, noting that he expects Kim to keep his promise by maintaining the moratorium, according to the Hill.

President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi.

Satellite Images Show Indian Airstrike Target Intact Rohan Sahu New high-resolution imagery published on March 4 by Planet Labs Inc. shows several structures intact at the location in northeastern Pakistan that India claimed had been subject to airstrikes. The pictures display the location of a madrasa (an Islamic religious school) run by militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) near the town of Balakot. The images emerged six days after the Indian military announced the airstrike.

The pictures, reviewed by Reuters, display details as small as 28 inches.

Reuters states that the imagery is virtually unchanged from an earlier April 2018 satellite photograph. It shows no discernible scorching or damage to the roofs of buildings.

These developments cast doubt on the earlier statements by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reported in the Hindustan Times, that the raids on February 26 had largely destroyed their targets and killed hundreds of

militants. Pakistan disputed this claim.

India initially launched the air raids as retaliatory strike after a suicide bomb attack. The attack, launched by Jaish-e-Mohammad, killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in the Kashmir region on February 14. Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale published an official statement saying that “a very large number of Jaish-eMohammed terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were being trained for Fidayeen action (suicide bombings) were eliminated.”

However, on the morning of February 26, a spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces, Major General Asif Ghafoor, tweeted images of an uninhabited wooded hillside that he alleged to be the impact area. In a further press conference, Gen Ghafoor claimed that the payload was dropped in a hurry and that it resulted in no infrastructure damage or casualties.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan later branded India’s claim as “self-

serving, reckless and fictitious.”

An unnamed Indian official told the Indian Express that the lack of visible damage to the structures was a result of India using Israeli-made Smart, Precise Impact, Cost Effective (SPICE) smart bombs as part of its payload. According to the official, these are not meant to destroy but only to cause damage after they enter a building.

The pictures posted to Twitter by Maj Gen Ghafoor appear to confirm that the payload contained SPICE bombs. The most identifiable photo was of the fins, which closely resemble those of the Israeli-made smart weapon. However, the photographs do not appear to have been taken at the madrasa, leaving open the possibility that while the payload contained SPICE weapons, they were dropped prematurely and did not hit the intended facilities.

The dispute over the airstrikes comes as the latest in a series of incidents in the past months across

Indo-Pakistani border. In February, Pakistan captured and released an Indian Air Force pilot downed during a dogfight. More recently, on March 12, Pakistan placed the Air Force and Army on full operational alert, with an entire squadron of F-16 fighters deployed along its eastern border, as the DB Post reported.

The New York Times, among others, have suggested that tactical failures like missed airstrikes and lost dogfights should give New Delhi pause over the state of its armed forces. Defense policy theorists have speculated that India’s army is a paper tiger. The last successful conflict India participated in was the 1971 war with Pakistan that ended with Bangladesh’s independence. If full-scale war broke out, it is unlikely that India would be able to sustain itself. Government estimates indicate that ammunition supplies would last only 10 days, and 68 percent of the army’s equipment is so outdated that it has been officially deemed “vintage.”

Suspect Freed in Kim Jong Nam Trial Serena Lu In a surprise move, Malaysian prosecutors withdrew murder charges on March 11 against Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, one of two suspects in the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The murder trial will proceed against Vietnamese national Doan Thi Hoang, the second defendant.

According to BBC, the two women approached Kim Jong-nam at the Kuala Lumpur airport and smeared lethal doses of the nerve agent VX on his face. Both women claim they were unaware of the assassination plot and thought they were participating in an elaborate prank for a television show, BBC reports.

According to Channel NewsAsia, the women’s lawyers claim that they are being used as legal scapegoats for four North Koreans who were also charged for murder by Malaysia but fled the country before arrest.

According to the Straits Times, the trials have proceeded slowly, lasting over a year, complicated by the number of witnesses and infrequent hearings.

Aisyah’s trial was abruptly put on hold last December, and the status of both trials was uncertain until the March 11 announcement.

The Guardian reports that pressure from Indonesia, which will be holding a presidential election in April, played a significant role in charges against Aisyah being dropped. The Vietnamese government has unsuccessfully called for Hoang’s release, and her lawyer Hisham Teh Poh Teik has labeled the decision to continue her trial “discrimination.”

Hoang has since been deemed “mentally and physically” unfit to stand trial, which has delayed the trial until April 1.

According to Channel NewsAsia, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad defended his decision to release Aisyah: “There is a law that allows charges to be withdrawn. That was what happened. I do not know in detail the reasons.”

M A R. 2019 | 11

Mosque Shootings Shock New Zealand Arin Chinnasathian

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A gunman opened fire in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15. The attacks took place during the Friday prayer time at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Masjid. 49 people died during the attack on Friday afternoon and more than 40 others were injured according to BBC. Witnesses reported that over 300 people were present in the Al Noor Mosque area at the time the shooting took place.

The New Zealand Police put

schools in lockdown and warned against attending mosque service in the immediate aftermath. The New Zealand police commissioner asked “anyone that was thinking of going to a mosque anywhere in New Zealand today not to go.” Four suspects are in police custody. BBC reports that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed in a press conference that the suspects include one Australian citizen and “an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist.”

World leaders condemned the attack and expressed condolences to

49 people died in mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

the victims. Ardern condemned the massacre as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days” and called the shootings “a terrorist attack.” Queen Elizabeth II of England, New Zealand’s head of state, was “deeply saddened” by the horrific attack and added that “at this tragic time, [her] thoughts and prayers are with all New Zealanders.” Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji also expressed that “Fijian hearts are breaking for our brothers and sisters in New Zealand.”

The shooting reignited the debate about gun laws in New Zealand.

Other world leaders attributed Islamophobia as the main motive of the massacre. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Islamophobia “has rapidly started to take over Western communities like a cancer.” The Australian prime minister remarked that “there is absolutely no place in either of our countries for hatred

and intolerance that has bred this extremist, terrorist violence and we condemn it.” President Donald Trump, however, disagreed with the motive of Islamophobia, pointing out that he thought, “it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess,” while calling the attack a “terrible thing.”

Graphic footage of the attack circulated on the internet after the attack. New Zealand police tweeted, “Police are aware there is extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online. We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.” However, footage continued to be reuploaded.

The shooting resparked debate about gun laws in New Zealand.

According to BBC, “once a license has been issued, gun-owners can buy as many weapons as they want,” and citizens can own semi-automatic weapons once they turn 18. In response to the shooting, the prime minister vowed to toughen gun laws, saying that she would consider banning semiautomatic firearms altogether, reports the Guardian.

Thai Court Dissolves Opposition Party on Controversial Nomination Cristina Lopez Responding to the Electoral Commission’s request for disciplinary action, the Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled in favor of dissolving the Thai Save the Nation Party (TRC) on March 7 due to the party’s contentious decision to nominate Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, the king’s older sister, as its candidate for prime minister, Reuters reported.

The princess’ nomination on February 8 roused great shock and controversy, as no senior royal has ever run for election in Thailand.

According to Reuters, Princess Ubolratana formally gave up her title in 1972 to marry an American classmate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following the couple’s 1998 divorce, however, the princess returned to Thailand and reassumed some royal duties.

Traditionally, the Thai monarchy is expected to be “above politics” and “politically neutral,” AP notes.

Hours after the announcement of Princess Ubolratana’s unprecedented candidacy, King Maha Vajiralongkorn issued a royal statement that indirectly

reprimanded his sister’s political involvement as unconventional and “most inappropriate,” as well as a violation of the “spirit of the Constitution.”

The Straits Times reported that the TRC promised to “compl[y] with the royal command” and “carry out its duty in accordance with the regulations of the Election Commission, the election law and the Constitution” in a public statement made on February 9, effectively withdrawing the nomination.

According to the Bangkok Post, Princess Ubolratana did not explicitly bring up her brother’s royal statement or her own short-lived political campaign, but she posted on Instagram later on February 9 to thank people for their “love and kindness toward each other” as well as to express gratitude for gestures of support toward her.

On February 11, the Electoral Commission made the princess’s disqualification official, reports the Voice of America.

According to the Bangkok Post, the pro-military People Reform Party, led by Paiboon Nititawan, pressed the Electoral Commission on February 9

to “take steps to dissolve the [TRC].”

Nititawan argued that the TRC directly violated the 2018 Political Party Act, which requires the Electoral Commission to ask the Constitutional Court to disband any parties whose actions have been “hostile to the constitutional monarchy rule.”

The court prohibited executive board members from politics for ten years.

Seconding Nititawan’s claims, Srisuwan Chanya asserted that Princess Ubolratana’s nomination broke campaign law in a Facebook post on February 10.

The next day, Chanya delivered a letter calling for the TRC’s dissolution to the Electoral Commission. In addition to being a prominent Thai environmental and political activist, Chanya is the secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, on whose behalf he submitted the petition, said the Bangkok Post.

When Judge Taweekiet Meenakanit announced the Constitutional Court’s final ruling on March 7, the Nation reported that the court also prohibited the TRC’s 14 executive board members from participating in politics for 10 years.

Ahead of the ruling, police deployed 1,200 officers, installed closed-circuit security cameras, and set up checkpoints in and around the courthouse to curb disorder.

Founded by relatives and political allies of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai Save the Nation Party was one of several proThaksin opposition parties that had hoped to challenge pro-establishment and pro-military candidates, especially incumbent prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, notes Reuters.

A Thai political scientist, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, remarked, “It was plausible... that the Thaksin-aligned parties even had a shot at a simple majority had [Princess Ubolratana’s] nomination not been nullified.”

The general election will be held on March 24 and will be the first to take place since Chan-ocha’s military junta took power in a 2014 coup.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cristina Lopez

N

anaia Mahuta, New Zealand’s minister for Māori development, visited Chile’s capital, Santiago, to give the keynote speech at an indigenous women’s conference on March 14, Scoop reported.

According to the Diario Financiero, Chile’s Ministry of Social Development, led by Minister Alfredo Moreno, invited Mahuta to the conference, at which 100 women representing Chile’s nine officially recognized indigenous groups gathered.

In her speech, Mahuta discussed recent Māori socioeconomic development and the crucial leadership of wāhine— Māori women—in championing indigenous rights and interests in New Zealand, said Waatea News.

Scoop called Mahuta’s trip to Chile an “important follow up” to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera’s first state visit to New Zealand in November 2018.

Mahuta herself emphasized the potential for the indigenous communities to work together on business- and trade-related issues, telling Māori Television, “There are trade platform opportunities for Māori and the indigenous people there to collaborate and build great outcomes.”

Both Mahuta and Piñera’s visits also anticipate Chile’s hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2019, an annual gathering of 21 Asia-Pacific nations that will be held in Santiago from November 11 to 17.

Going beyond token gestures of transnational indigenous unity, should the partnership between Māori and Chilean indigenous groups continue and perhaps even come to flourish, future visits and exchanges such as this will likely be mutually beneficial.

Each exchange is not just an opportunity to share lobbying strategies and learn from each other’s experiences. By actively coordinating their political power, the communities would be able to give greater visibility to indigenous issues on the national and international stage, particularly at the upcoming APEC. As Mahuta points out to Scoop, through her visit, she can underscore the “value that indigenous perspectives can bring to policy development.”

12 |MA R. 2 0 1 9

MIDDLE EAST & CENTRAL ASIA Saudi-American Nuclear Cooperation Draws Scrutiny In February, Congress’s House Oversight Committee reported that members of the Trump administration discussed the potential sale and transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia as recently as February 12. According to the Washington Post, the discussions brought together America’s nuclear power chief executives, National Security Council representatives, and State and Energy Department officials.

American relations with Saudi Arabia have worsened since Saudi agents murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi last fall. While Congress has pushed for a reevaluation of the relationship, the White House has muted its criticism of Saudi Arabia and has continued selling arms to the country. The administration’s alleged flirtation with the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia would underscore its support for Saudi Arabia’s regional interests.

Saudi Arabia has expressed a

desire to diversify its economy and energy sources away from oil, partly through nuclear power. The Riyadh Daily reported in November that Saudi Arabia, which already has some civilian nuclear facilities, is pursuing a “research nuclear plant.” But the road is fraught with obstacles: Bloomberg Politics reported that monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that “without reaching a new understanding [for inspections] with monitors, Saudi plans for 3.2 gigawatts of atomic power by the end next decade could flounder.”

“If Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.” — Mohammed bin Salman Bloomberg Politics wrote that “Saudi officials have said any nuclear energy program would be for peaceful purposes,” but their rhetoric is suspect.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Advait Arun

Jordanian Youth Protest Unemployment Ali Taha Brown

American-Saudi military cooperation spans decades but has come under fire in recent years.

According to the New York Times, Saudi officials insisted on being able to produce their own nuclear fuel during negotiations with the U.S. Even though Saudi Arabia could buy nuclear fuel more cheaply abroad, domestic nuclear fuel production allows for its covert diversion to weapons projects.

Bloomberg Politics quoted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as stating that, “Without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”

The New York Times reported that Saudi “negotiators stirred more worries by telling the Trump administration that Saudi Arabia would refuse to sign an agreement that would allow United

Nations inspectors to look anywhere in the country for signs that the Saudis might be working on a bomb.”

American nuclear energy executives and national security officials seem undeterred by the security risks of transferring nuclear technology. Seth Grae, president of nuclear energy firm Lightbridge Corp, met with President Trump to discuss nuclear technology exports.

Bloomberg Politics quoted Grae as saying, “There was a notion in the room that this is very much a competition with Russia and China and there are strategic benefits to the U.S. being involved in overseas nuclear programs.”

Turkmenistan Seeks Deeper Ties With EU Jack Resnick Azerbaijan, Romania, Georgia, and Turkmenistan agreed on March 4 to establish the Black Sea-Caspian Sea (BSCS) Transportation Corridor, an international transportation pathway that will link the two waterways.

Georgian Foreign Ministry services released a statement saying that “the new route line will contribute to the further active participation of the EU in this transport route,” reports Interfax. A similar statement from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes note of the intended cooperation between BSCS projects and those of the European Union.

Romania, the only member of the alliance that is part of the EU, links the other countries to the EU. While BSCS projects promise quick revenues, there are obstacles that may hinder successful implementation of the plan.

According to a report on March 11

by Radio Free Europe, Turkmenistan

will be at the crossroads of the competing interests of China’s BeltRoad Initiative and the Asian Development Bank’s Lapis Lazuli corridor (an international transit route linking Afghanistan to Turkey via Turkmenistan) and the interests of the BSCS. Furthermore, the dire economic situation of Turkmenistan over the past four years means that they will likely welcome any new market opportunity. Projects like the Trans-Caspian Pipeline will require EU support, as Turkmenistan hopes to export billions of tons of natural gas to Europe.

In an effort to strengthen ties with the EU, Azernews reports, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting with the head of the EU delegation to Turkmenistan on March 5 to discuss opening an EU office in Ashgabat. Talks, delegates hoped, would further positive economic and political cooperation between the two parties.

The Jordanian government made concessions in February and March to protesters who were marching to express their frustration over poor employment opportunities in Jordan.

According to Trading Economics, the latest unemployment rate stands at 18.7 percent.

A group of young Jordanian protesters, angry with unemployment, marched over 200 miles from Aqaba to the Royal Court in Amman on February 14. The original group, estimated around 40 people, attracted followers along the way, finishing the march with at least 350 demonstrators, according to Middle East Eye. The protests ramped up pressure on Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz, who already faces heavy scrutiny. In early 2019, he tried to increase taxes on the middle and lower classes to alleviate the national debt, which stands at $39 billion, according to Middle East Eye. That the Razzaz administration has attracted an abundance of criticism since coming to power last year may explain why the arduous efforts of the jobless demonstrators appear to have succeeded, at least in the short-term.

On February 21, Jordan’s Minister of Labor stated that the government would create 3,300 jobs in sectors such as tourism, health, and agriculture.

This, however, set a dangerous precedent. Upon reading the ministry’s decision, a group of unemployed people from the city of Maan began to march to the Royal Court with hopes of finding employment. The group caused great consternation within the Jordanian government, as reported

by Al-Monitor, as they refused to stop until their demands were met. Razzaz eventually caved on March 3, reports Ammon News, and sent government officials to meet with the group.

The success of the marches may have a significant impact on the Razzaz administration. Razzaz feels pressured to improve his standing among the Jordanian public. He will be wary of the plight of his predecessor Hani Mulki, who resigned in June 2018 following massive countrywide protests against IMF-backed austerity policies.

M A R. 2019 | 13

Iranian President Rouhani Visits Iraq for the First Time Noah Clarke

THE KREMLIN

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani landed in Iraq on March 11 in his first visit to the country. He hopes to expand Iraqi-Iranian ties and to circumvent U.S. sanctions that have damaged the Iranian economy, according to AlMonitor. During his three-day trip to Iraq, President Rouhani met with Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Before leaving to Iraq, President Rouhani stated that “[Iran’s ties with Iraq] cannot be compared to Iraq’s

relations with an occupying country like America, which is hated in the region,” as reported by Al-Monitor.

However, Iran’s ties with Iraq have been conflicted over the past forty years. An article in the Times of Israel discusses how from 1980 to 1988, the two states fought a brutal war that ended in a stalemate. The newspaper further explains that during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Iran operated and supported a number of Shi’a militias within Iraq. These same Shi’a militias have been invaluable in combating ISIS forces over the past five years.

Rouhani’s visit to Iraq this week is the first time the Iranian president has visited the country.

Economic ties between Iran and Iraq have since markedly improved in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War.

From 1980 to 1988, the two states fought a brutal war that ended in a stalemate.

Those economic ties were the main focus of Rouhani’s visit. Al Jazeera reported that both countries agreed to increase their annual trade to $20 billion from its current level of $12 billion, with a large portion coming from increased oil and natural gas exports from Iran to Iraq. President Rouhani and his Iraqi counterparts also signed agreements on topics such as health, agriculture, industry, energy, and transport, along with promises to create a railway connecting the two countries and a jointly owned bank, according to Al-Monitor.

A further motivating factor for the deepening of economic ties between Iraq and Iran may be the U.S. sanctions placed on the Iranian government under the Trump

administration. According to the Washington Post, when the United States withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018, President Trump and his administration gradually began the process of reinstating crippling sanctions against critical Iranian economic sectors and key political and business figures. As a result of this stranglehold, Iranian officials have increasingly looked to their neighbor to the west to receive the money and resources that it needs.

President Trump’s combative rhetoric regarding Iran has endeared the country to some Iraqi politicians, some of whom have called for their government to ban the 5,200 U.S. troops within its borders. The Trump administration has granted waivers to Iraqi companies to allow them to continue doing business with Iranian companies, in particular energy and natural gas companies. Meanwhile, the United States has been encouraging the Iraqis to either become energy independent or to satisfy its energy needs through the United States, a level of meddling in Iraqi affairs that Iraqi politicians have not taken to lightly, according to Arab News.

Netanyahu Faces Corruption Charges as Israeli Elections Approach From pg.1

Party disqualifications by the Central Elections Committee must be confirmed by the Supreme Court on the basis of one of the following: rejecting Israel’s existence as a Jewish democratic state, supporting armed struggles against Israel, or racism. Only once before has the Supreme Court supported a party disqualification.

The approval of Jewish Power and Jewish Home candidates as well as the barring of Arab opposition are victories for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Looking to create a strong religious nationalist bloc for the upcoming elections, Netanyahu recently forged a political alliance with Jewish Power and Jewish Home.

However, the alliance has come under harsh criticism for promoting racism. Jewish Power is known to support violence against Palestinians and the banning of intermarriage and sex between Arabs and Jews. It identifies itself as the successor of the Kahanist

movement, which sought to transform the state into a Jewish theocracy.

The movement was outlawed in Israel in 1985 and named a terrorist organization by the U.S. New political alliances are also emerging among opposition parties seeking to prevent the rise of nationalist right-wing power in the upcoming elections.

Only once before has the Supreme Court supported a party disqualification.

The nation’s two leading centrist candidates, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, forged a pact called the Blue and White Party and vowed to share the Prime Ministership if elected.

According to the New York Times, the two have advocated for social policies to address overburdened infrastructure and hospitals as well as cautious peacemaking with

Palestinians.

In response to the consolidation of centrist opposition, Netanyahu claimed that the Blue and White Party would allow for the creation of a Palestinian state, threatening the existence of Israel.

The recent developments concerning political parties come amidst an unfolding criminal case implicating Prime Minister Netanyahu.

In February, Israel’s attorneygeneral announced plans to indict Netanyahu on three cases of corruption. Marking the end of a two-year investigation, the corruption charges consist of one count bribery and three counts of breach of trust.

NBC reports that the most prominent allegation involves the Prime Minister’s relationship with Bezeq, Israel’s telecom giant. Bezeq supposedly received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of regulatory changes in exchange for positive press coverage of Netanyahu on its popular news site,

Walla.

Further charges include the Prime Minister accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts in champagne and cigars from billionaire friends.

According to NBC News, the prime minister denounced the charges as an “outrageous” and an “unprecedented witch hunt” led by left-wing opponents seeking to defeat him on April 9. Netanyahu’s attorneys successfully requested that the hearings for the charges be postponed until July, after the elections.

Nevertheless, the watchdog group Movement for Quality Government evaluated that the charges, especially that of bribery, appear to be solid. Pressure on Netanyahu to step down is expected to rise once hearings begin in July.

If he refuses to resign, it would be the nation’s first time with a sitting Prime Minister so close to criminal charges.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jaime Moore-Carrillo

A

lgeria’s leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika declared that he would not seek a fifth term as president on March 11.

The president’s announcement follows weeks of widespread demonstrations throughout Algeria protesting Bouteflika’s intention to seek re-election.

Millions of protesters took to the streets in an unprecedented display of public defiance towards the regime, reported Al Jazeera.

Bouteflika’s revolutionary track record fueled a successful political career after Algeria achieved independence in 1962, propelling him to the presidency in 1999, Reuters reports. He has ruled for 20 years. With Bouteflika’s deteriorating physical condition, many Algerians feared the longtime president’s fifth bid for re-election was merely a ploy orchestrated

by Algeria’s political and military elites seeking to use Bouteflika as a puppet, according to Al Jazeera.

Bouteflika delayed the election scheduled for April 18, calling for a constitutional reform conference to be held before a new president is picked, Al Jazeera reports. The president’s declaration was met with jubilant celebration; nevertheless, many Algerians remain skeptical.

Critics fear Bouteflika’s concession is an empty gesture and that, once public pressure abates, the ancien regime will persist under new, handpicked leadership. Without specifics about new election dates or procedures, Algeria’s political future remains uncertain.

Demonstrators will continue protests until the government provides more concrete details, according to Al Jazeera.

Algerians are right to remain prudent. An entrenched cabal of business and political leaders, the pillars of Bouteflika’s regime, remain in power and they will not readily give up their authority.

Unless this clique of powerbrokers is uprooted, we likely cannot expect meaningful political reform to take hold in Algeria.

The outcome of demonstrations rests largely with the Algerian military, the country’s ultimate arbitrators. So far, the military has permitted protests, but as Bouteflika retreats from power, this policy may change. All the demonstrators can do now is simply keep up the pressure.

14 | MA R. 2 0 1 9

AFRICA Algerian Protesters Challenge President Bouteflika’s Regime Since late February, hundreds of thousands of Algerians have protested against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term in office. Although Bouteflika withdrew his bid on March 11, the protests have not ceased. In a country with rampant corruption and unemployment, Algerians are calling for major political and economic reforms.

Now 82 years old, Bouteflika has been president since 1999 and is not in good health. After suffering a debilitating stroke in 2013, Bouteflika was confined to a wheelchair. He leaves the country regularly for medical reasons, and addresses the public rarely (his last public address was in 2014, according to BBC). Al Jazeera reports that critics speculate that Bouteflika may be a puppet president controlled by others in the party.

In 2008, Bouteflika changed the constitution to allow him to run for a third term. By 2012, though, Bouteflika appeared ready to step down, stating, “My generation is finished. Our time is over.” After Bouteflika won a fourth term in 2014, public sentiment shifted

negatively; Algerians began to feel that he had overstayed his welcome. The 2018 elections were set to take place on April 18, and when Bouteflika officially announced his candidacy on February 10, mass protests broke out across the country.

People worry that Bouteflika is illegally extending his fourth term by postponing the elections.

Bouteflika has managed to maintain peace until recently, which Al Jazeera attributes to high oil prices.

But as oil prices have fallen over the past several years, the government has cut state subsidies, sending youth unemployment soaring to around 30 percent. According to the Telegraph, protesters are fed up with high unemployment, as well as corruption among the ruling elderly elite.

Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, led by the National Liberation Front (FLN), which became the official national military and dominant political party. The FLN faced public protests during a

recession in 1987, resulting in both a deadly government crackdown and, ultimately, Algeria’s first democratic elections. But in 1991, when the Islamic Salvation Front gained popularity, the military canceled the elections, and a civil war ensued for ten years. Bouteflika ran for president during the war in 1999 and won despite accusations of rigged elections.

Many Algerians describe the powerful generals and businessmen who run the country as “le pouvoir” (the power).

Even after March 11, when Bouteflika withdrew his bid for a fifth term and postponed the elections, the

protests have continued, according to the Guardian. People worry that Bouteflika is illegally extending his fourth term by postponing the elections. Algerian protesters have a lot of momentum, but, according to the New York Times, they lack a clear goal and strong leadership. It is hard to predict what will happen next in Algeria, because protesters are demanding real reform, not just another representative of le pouvoir.

“The people have a determination to fight it out with the system,” said opposition figure Mohcine Belabbas.

FLICKR

Marianna Aslund

Algerians have protested President Bouteflika’s regime and called for reforms.

Israel Looks to Extend Influence in Africa Abigail Adams-Spiers Israel hosted a state visit for Liberian President George Weah last month to fortify relations with its historic ally and expand its diplomatic reach in Africa, the Jerusalem Post reported. The opening of the first embassy in Rwanda and resumption of diplomatic ties with Chad after over 45 years represent the most striking recent breakthroughs, with indications that Mali could be next.

Israel has a historically difficult position in Africa. Israel’s support of U.S. policy during the Cold War alienated Soviet-leaning and nonaligned states, and following the 1967 Six Day War, multiple nations severed ties in solidarity with Egypt. Most notably, after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, only three African nations maintained diplomatic relations with Israel, according to the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Netanyahu declared his intention to re-establish Israel’s presence on the continent in February 2016. That summer, he embarked on a tour of East Africa. Netanyahu explained his new strategy as “good for Africa, and good for Israel,” according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Indeed, closer ties with Israel means greater access to Israeli technology and security capabilities. Israel is one of the ten highest arms exporting countries in the world, and, as Israeli Channel 13 reports, Israeli Defense Forces provide military training in 13 African states.

For Israel, likewise, recent diplomatic efforts have broader geostrategic aims. The Africa Union states traditionally vote as a bloc in the United Nations, giving them greater weight in the General Assembly and motivating Israel to court their support; Israel Hayom even identified this as one of the goals of recent diplomatic advancements.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Crashes, Killing 157 Jong-Hak Wong Minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa on March 10, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 bound for Nairobi, Kenya crashed, killing all 157 people on board. The crash occurred approximately six minutes after the flight took off, close to the village of Tulu Fara in Ethiopia, as reports BBC. This incident is the second fatal crash of the Boeing 737 Max model in the last six months, says Al Jazeera.

Last October, a Lion Air flight of the same model crashed ten minutes into its flight in Indonesia, killing 189 people. The Lion Air crash is still under investigation and the cause of the Ethiopian crash remains undetermined. However, BBC reports that the United States Federal Aviation Administration—working with the Ethiopian National Transportation Safety Board—concluded from site and satellite data that the two flights behaved “very similarly.”

So far, Ethiopia, citing lack of domestic facilities capable of analyzing the flight’s records, has transferred the recovered black boxes from the plane to France where they will be analyzed to determine the exact cause of the crash. The Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder were sent to France rather than the United States due to a likely conflict of interest, according to Al Jazeera. Awo Allo, a lecturer in law at Keele University in England, told Al Jazeera, “To send the data recorders to the U.S.A. would be to allow a party with a vested interest to be a judge in its own case.”

Following the crash, over 50 countries, including the United States, China, and the countries of the European Union, have grounded all flights of the 737 Max model.

As reported by CNN, Boeing has publicly recommended the temporary grounding of all such planes “out of an abundance of caution.”

Ethiopian Airlines had become a symbol of national pride for Ethiopia.

The rapid growth of its fleet had turned Addis Ababa, the capital city, into an aviation hub, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Former Liberian President’s Son Charged With Corruption Paulina Song

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Liberian National Police charged Charles Sirleaf, former Deputy Governor for Operations of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) and son of former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, with “economic sabotage, misuse of public funds, [and] criminal facilitation” on March 4, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI). This follows the disappearance of over two billion Liberian Dollars ($12 million), from the bank, according to RFI.

Police charged four others with the crime, including Milton Weeks, former Central Bank Governor; Dorbor Hargba, Director of Banking; and two other CBL officials, Joseph Dennis and Richard Walker. The government arrested the former two, along with Sirleaf, and sent them to the Monrovia Central Prison where they await trial.

The latter two remain at large.

These charges follow an investigation launched in August 2018

by Liberia’s Ministry of Justice after an alleged 15 to 16 billion Liberian Dollars ($100 million) supposedly

The Ministry of Justice received information about money at Monrovia’s airport.

went missing, according to the Liberia Broadcasting System and Al Jazeera.

The missing money sparked mass protests in September 2018.

Initial investigations began when the Ministry of Justice received information about the arrival of containers of money at the port and airport of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital.

The investigation revealed that the cash could have arrived as early as November 2017, under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ’s administration.

Supposedly, the containers, destined for the Central Bank, were taken by CBL officials in March 2018 for transport but never arrived at their destination.

FrontPageAfrica reported that the missing money sparked mass protests in September 2018 as Liberians demonstrated under the slogan “Bring Back Our Money.” In October 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Liberia commissioned Kroll Associates Inc., a U.S. investigative firm, to investigate under the direction of the Liberian

government, according to CNN. Kroll’s final report, released at the end of February 2019, found that the money successfully arrived at the Central Bank. However, Kroll noted that the Central Bank unlawfully printed three times the number of bank notes than the legislature had approved, the Washington Post reports.

AllAfrica reported that during police interrogation, Sirleaf admitted to contracting Swedish firm Crane Currency in 2016 for the consignment of new bank notes. These new notes are believed to have been put into circulation without removing old notes. Following these findings, the government charged Sirleaf and his accomplices for mishandling funds and pocketing some of the proceeds, as billions of Liberian dollars currently cannot be accounted for, according to Al Jazeera. The Washington Post reports that Sirleaf has denied any wrongdoing.

While uncertainty remains over the missing money, Liberian President George Weah stated: “When everything is done, I hope Liberia will be in peace and people will not take to the streets again.”

Sudanese Parliament Shortens State of Emergency Kate Fin In response to continued widespread protests, the Sudanese Parliament resolved to shorten the nation-wide state of emergency from one year to six months in a vote on March 11.

The protests pose a serious threat to Omar al-Bashir, the country’s embattled president, who declared the state of emergency on February 22. The last time in his three-decadelong rule that al-Bashir declared a state of emergency was in 1999, when the country’s “internal problems” prompted him to dissolve Parliament, according to the Guardian. Many consider the current state of unrest to be the most formidable challenge his regime has ever faced.

At the same time, al-Bashir appointed a new prime minister, dissolved the country’s central and state governments, and appointed military officers as new state governors the Guardian reports.

According to the New York Times, the state of emergency grants security services broad powers, including the ability to search buildings, restrict

movement, arrest suspects, and seize assets during investigations. Though Parliament shortened al-Bashir’s proposed year-long declaration, the legislature retains the right to extend the term after it ends.

The protests pose a serious threat to Omar al-Bashir, the country’s president.

The state of emergency is one in a long list of tactics that the al-Bashir government has adopted to contend with widespread opposition in the country. Human Rights Watch has estimated that 51 people have died as a result of state violence towards protesters. Security forces have also used tear gas, stun grenades and mass arrests to deter opponents, Reuters reports.

Protests started in December in the state of Atbara after al-Bashir’s elimination of wheat and food subsidies had caused sharp price increases. The movement quickly spread to other parts of the country,

and calls for economic assistance transformed into demands that alBashir step down.

Critics blame the long-time president for the sustained period of economic downturn and rising poverty in Sudan. Fuel and cash shortages made for a tense economic situation in the months leading up to the protests. Meanwhile, al-Bashir blames foreign intervention, especially Western infiltration and former sanctions, for the crisis.

Though Sudan has experienced other bouts of popular unrest before, notably in 2013 and 2016, the current situation is distinctive.

First, demonstrations have spread to regions in the country which have historically been pro-regime. Second, the movement’s leaders are atypical; whereas the intelligentsia and urban elite have generally led resistance in Sudan, young people and women are in the driver’s seat this time around.

Women in particular have much to gain from reform. They need the permission of a male guardian to travel or work, and ‘public morality’ laws facilitate gender harassment for infractions such as wearing pants,

according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Though al-Bashir called for the release of all female prisoners who were arrested at demonstrations, the government sentenced nine women protesters just a day later, according to the Washington Post.

The opposition movement, headed by the National Umma party, has used a number of non-violent tactics since December, including hunger strikes by detained protesters, a nation-wide, day-long strike, peaceful marches and demonstrations, a refusal to pay taxes, and boycotts of state-owned services.

The United Nations and other international actors have called for an acknowledgment of the “legitimate grievances of the Sudanese people.”

“Dissent must be tolerated and not restrained with excessive force which can lead to loss of life,” Aristide Nononsi, UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Sudan, said in a statement. “I strongly urge the Sudanese security forces to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid the escalation of violence.”

Whether al-Bashir will heed that cry remains to be seen.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Claire Hazbun

O

n March 10, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed only six minutes after takeoff.

Unsurprisingly, the Western media handled the reporting of the accident poorly.

For example, as Hannah Giorgis explained in the Atlantic, the media emphasized unsubstantiated fears about the airline and focused on the deaths of the non-Africans on board. The Wall Street Journal ran a headline titled, “Jet Crash in Africa Kills 157,” not bothering to specify the country in question: Ethiopia.

The news coverage of the crash reminds us of the seemingly endless list of ways the Western media struggles to accurately and ethically recount African news stories. A recent report by the University of Southern California’s African Narratives project highlights these issues. The authors analyzed around 700,000 hours of U.S. television news and entertainment from March 2018, broadly finding that “Africa and Africans barely register on U.S. television and depictions of Africa are broadly negative.”

In television, only 14 percent of references to Africa were positive, and viewers were seven times more likely to see references to Europe. Furthermore, only five countries received the majority of television attention: Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Seychelles, and Congo account for almost half—49 percent—of all mentions of African countries. Which Congo, you ask? According to the report, the media rarely distinguish between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo, so “Congo” refers to both. Why Seychelles, the continent’s least populous country? News coverage of Robert Mueller’s investigation into a meeting between Trump’s and Putin’s associates in Seychelles sufficed to launch the island country into the top five.

The media wield significant power to shape how people understand the world. Western journalists should take care to better understand the narratives about Africa—and beyond—that are deeply embedded in society and how to responsibly treat them.

Not only is the accuracy of their news at stake, but so is the dignity of the Africans they report on.

16 | MA R. 2 0 1 9

TRAVEL

Water flows along the Swallows’ Grotto at Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan.

ISABELLE LAHAUSSOIS (COL ‘19)

CHRISTOPHER STEIN (SFS ‘20)

The average temperature on the glaciers of the Chugach Mountains of Alaska is 15ºF in March.

BRYCE COUCH (SFS ‘19)

LAURA RATLIFF (COL ‘21)

Check out the photos below to follow fellow Hoyas on their adventures!

A plant grows near the Temple of Kukulcan in the Chichen Itza site in Mexico.

Napoleon commissioned the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile after the French victory at Austerlitz.