Time - USA (2020-02-03)

11

NEWS

TICKER

Africa’s richest

woman in

hot water

Authorities in Angola

are investigating Isabel

dos Santos, Africa’s

wealthiest woman and

a daughter of a former

Angolan President,

after media outlets

on Jan. 19 published

700,000 documents

purporting to show

that she misused

state resources to get

rich. She has denied

the claims.

U.S. court

dismisses

climate suit

A lawsuit brought by a

group of young people

intending to force

the U.S. government

to address climate

change, Juliana v. U.S.,

was dismissed on

Jan. 17 by a panel of

federal judges in the

Ninth Circuit, on the

grounds that the plain-

tiffs lacked legal stand-

ing. The litigants plan

to ask the full court to

review the decision.

China targets

single-use

plastics

China unveiled a

plan on Jan. 20 to

drastically reduce the

amount of single-use

plastics used by its

1.4 billion people. The

measures include a

ban on nondegradable

bags in big cities by

the end of 2020, in all

urban centers by 2022

and everywhere by

2025. Restaurants will
      have to scrap plastic
      straws this year.

aT a Jan. 19 summiT in Berlin, a dozen
countries promised to stem interference
in Libya, the North African nation that has
been a battleground for competing factions
and the foreign governments that back them.
Leaders from Russia, Turkey and 10 other
nations called for a cease-fire and agreed to
sanction those that break a U.N. arms em-
bargo. All agreed that “only a Libyan-led and
Libyan-owned political process can end the
conflict and bring lasting peace.”

PROXY WAR Libya has been wracked by
conflict since the 2011 uprising that ousted
dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Last April, war-
lord Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to
wrest Tripoli from the U.N.-backed Govern-
ment of National Accord (GNA), torpedoing a
planned U.N. conference to draft a road map
for Libya’s future. Since then, money, muni-
tions and mercenaries have flowed there from
foreign states with interests in the oil-rich na-
tion. Among others, Egypt and the UAE back
Haftar’s eastern alliance, while Turkey and
Qatar support Fayez Sarraj’s GNA.

DANGEROUS ESCALATION Turkey and

Russia have become key influences in the

conflict. In January, reports said Ankara

had dispatched 2,000 foreign militiamen

to shore up the GNA, which Turkey de-

nies. Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep

Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that 2,

personnel affiliated with a Russian security

firm are bolstering Haftar, who on Jan. 14

declined to sign a permanent truce in Mos-

cow. “He continues to be focused on a mili-

tary solution,” says Tim Eaton, a Libya ex-

pert at London’s Chatham House.

RIFTS REMAIN Libya’s factions have since

taken a “small step” toward peace, Rus-

sia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on

Jan. 19, but doubts remain over the interna-

tional community’s ability to ensure signa-

tories abide by its terms. Even as talks pro-

ceeded, fresh clashes broke out in Tripoli.

The world may well continue to interfere,

warns Galip Dalay of the Brookings Institu-

tion, “because both sides still think they can

win this war.” —Joseph hincks

THE BULLETIN

Countries fighting over

Libya pledge to stop

OPEN CARRY Thousands of gun-rights advocates descended on Richmond on Jan. 20 to protest
gun- control measures proposed in Virginia’s Democratic- controlled state legislature. Protesters
were banned from carrying weapons on capitol grounds, but many came armed to demonstrate
in the vicinity. Though interest in the event among white- nationalist groups had sparked fears of a
repeat of the violence that rocked nearby Charlottesville in 2017, the day proceeded peacefully.