In an effort to connect with current events off the Hill — locally, domestically, and abroad —

The Spectator

will periodically publish a news recap that seeks to inform the Hamilton community on the basics of contemporary issues.

Ivanka Trump defends emails

Ivanka Trump, who serves in the Trump administration as an official Advisor to the President, recently came under fire after

The Washington Post

reported earlier this month that Ivanka had sent “hundreds of emails” concerning government business from a personal email account last year to White House aides, Cabinet members, and her assistant.

The Post

added that many of these emails were sent in violation of public records rules. Ivanka defended her actions on Nov. 28 after an

ABC News

reporter asked if the chant “Lock her up!” which her father’s supporters often used in response to Hillary Clinton’s inappropriate email accusations, applied to her. “All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions,” Ivanka said.

Kidnapped girl’s body identified

The body of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar, who was kidnapped on Nov. 5, was found outside of her home in North Carolina on Nov. 27, investigators reported on Wednesday. This news ends the three-week search for Aguilar, which had involved hundreds of investigators. Lumberton Police Chief Michael McNeill revealed at a news conference that state crime lab tests point to the body being Aguilar’s. Dental records have not been referenced yet, but investigators believe the body is hers. Aguilar’s cause of death has not been released, pending an autopsy, and investigators would reveal neither the condition of her body nor whether she was killed elsewhere and then brought to the location at which the body was found. Police say that a man dressed in black with a yellow bandana forced Hania into a green Ford Expedition when she was walking to the bus stop for school and drove away; the SUV was found several miles south of the mobile home park in which she lived. Her kidnapper has not yet been identified. “This is the outcome that we all feared,” McNeill said. “We did not want to hear this. We wanted to bring Hania back home and bring her back home alive to our community. It hurts.”

Longest solo dance record broken

Nepal teenager Bandana Nepal danced her way to a Guinness World Record by continuously performing a solo dance routine for 126 straight hours. The dancing queen, who was only 17, began her record attempt

Friday, Nov. 23, and stopped dancing during the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 28. Upon completing her dance routine, she was awarded the record by a Guinness World records adjudicator. Nepal’s dance, which she performed at the Big Foodland restaurant in Kathmandu, beat previous record holder Kalamandalam Hemlatha’s record. Hemlatha, a citizen of India, danced for 123 hours and 15 minutes in 2011.