A Deeper Look

Rangila 2018: Once upon a Time, the largest cultural showcase on Georgetown’s campus, aims to bring philanthropy to the forefront this year. Every year, Rangila supports an organization and donates all profits to it. This year, Rangila is supporting Prerana, an organization that works to end intergenerational prostitution and protect women and children from the threat of human trafficking. The board members of the South Asian Society, Rangila’s host, hope that the showcase will not only “raise money for a worthy cause but also ignite passion and empower board members, the dancers, and the larger Georgetown community to work toward prosocial change.”

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Latin America & the Caribbean

Dr. Snitch
A Salvadoran woman is facing trial for attempted murder after she gave birth to her rapist’s baby in a latrine. In April 2017, Imelda Cortez was rushed to the hospital by her mother because of profuse bleeding after bearing the child, and the doctor proceeded to call the police to notify them of a suspected abortion, which is illegal under all circumstances in El Salvador. The baby survived, but despite Cortez’s history of abuse by her own stepfather since the age of 12 and her claims that she did not know of her own pregnancy, she was denied bail and has been in jail for 18 months. Since El Salvador banned abortion altogether 21 years ago, there has been much criticism from human rights activists and the international community. As a two-year-old parliamentary bill hoping to relax abortion laws, sits stagnant at the committee level, women like Imelda Cortez continue to be denied the protection such a law might give.

Indo-Asia-Pacific

Single & Ready to Shop
Alibaba’s online sales on Singles Day, an unofficial holiday celebrated in China on November 11, has posted record sales once again, bringing in about $30.8 billion in revenue for the company, including $1 billion in sales within 85 seconds of the event’s official launch. Singles Day, which was only celebrated in Chinese universities in the 90s, was a small anti-Valentine’s Day event that Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma capitalized on in 2009 to create a day of nationwide shopping spurred by the growing middle class and the huge online presence of Chinese citizens. Despite Alibaba’s share price sputtering due to the slowing economy, the ongoing trade war with the U.S., and the emergence of new rivals like Tencent-backed Pinduoduo, Singles Day sales grew 27 percent from last year and surpassed the total sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, establishing Singles Day as the single biggest online sales event in the world.

Middle East & Central Asia

Iron Dome, Iron Fist
After a bungled Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in Gaza left a Hamas commander and an Israeli soldier dead, Hamas launched a barrage of more than 300 missiles into Israel on November 12, wounding 11. The IDF retaliated with airstrikes and a ground attack. Israel’s government said its Iron Dome aerospace defense system intercepted 60 of the missiles aimed at populated places, and most others landed in open areas. The IDF destroyed the main offices of Al-Aqsa, a Hamas-affiliated television network; it remains unclear whether anyone was killed or injured in the Al-Aqsa attack, but the network was back on air within hours from a different location.

Eastern Europe & Russia

Fair is free, and free is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air
The Separatist Party made gains in eastern Ukraine as its leaders won various local elections throughout the region. Russian-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces in the region since 2014. As of November 2018, the conflict has claimed over 10,000 lives. Ukrainian officials have made statements claiming that the elections were illegitimate because they occurred in regions of the state where the Ukrainian government lacks full direct control. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussed the elections with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both of whom later made statements condemning the the elections as illegitimate. Ukrainian separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik has denied these allegations of illegitimacy, claiming that Ukraine is “a free republic, a free country.”

Africa

Separated from Law and Justice
South Africa’s Western Cape High Court handed down three life sentences on November 12 to the convicted rapists that murdered Stellenbosch University student Hannah Cornelius and attacked her friend, Cheslin Marsh. Judge Rosheni Allie ruled that none of the accused showed genuine remorse. Cornelius and Marsh were kidnapped and beaten severely, and Cornelius was raped, stabbed, and then stoned to death. Cornelius’s mother drowned herself less than a year after her daughter’s death, and the victim’s father asked the court for a ruling that would "at the very least prevent other parents from going through what we have gone through."

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Western Europe & Canada

Regulation Nation
According to French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech at the Internet Governance Forum, Facebook will begin to allow French regulators to examine how the company combats hate speech online. In January, Macron’s administration will send a team of senior civil servants to Facebook headquarters for six months to analyze how the company manages racist, sexist, and hate-fuelled speech on its website. Macron said that he hopes that this will mark the beginning of an era of “smart regulation,” and that it will extend to other global tech companies, such as Google and Twitter. This announcement comes six months after Macron met with various tech company CEOs, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, in May, where he urged them to use their companies to benefit the “common good.”