Time - USA (2020-11-30)

15

NEWS

TICKER

Trump okays

drilling in

Arctic wildlife

refuge

On Nov. 16, the

Trump Administration

announced it would

begin the process

of selling leases for

roughly 1.5 million

acres of Alaska’s

Arctic National Wildlife

Refuge to oil and gas

companies for drilling,

though it’s unclear if

sales can be completed

before President-elect

Joe Biden takes office.

Ethiopia faces

humanitarian

crisis

At least 27,000 people

have fled Ethiopia

for Sudan, the U.N.

said on Nov. 17, after

the Ethiopian army

attacked the restive

Tigray region. Some

analysts fear the

crisis in Ethiopia, with

112 million people

belonging to many

ethnic groups, could

cause balkanization or

a civil war.

Amazon

launches

pharmacy

E-commerce giant

Amazon debuted its

online pharmacy on

Nov. 17 in what could

be a major disruption

to the pharmaceutical

sales industry. Cus-

tomers can now order

and refill medications

online, although they

still need prescriptions,

and have orders deliv-

ered directly to their

home within days.

For Central ameriCa, this year’s

storm season has been relentless. Already

struggling under the economic toll of

COVID-19, the developing region was bat-

tered by Hurricane Eta in early Novem-

ber and had little time to regroup before

Hurricane Iota—the 30th named storm

in a record- breaking hurricane season

in the Atlantic—made landfall in Nica-

ragua on Nov. 16. “We in Central Amer-

ica aren’t the ones who caused climate

change,” Honduran President Juan Orlando

Hernández said as Iota hit. “But we are

[among] the most affected.

DEVASTATION Eta killed some 150 people

and forced 300,000 to flee their homes as

floods and mudslides swallowed up entire

towns across Guatemala, Honduras and be-

yond. The devastated communities faced

strong winds and up to 30 in. of rain, and

relief agencies say crowding in shelters, and

cuts to water and power supplies, could

trigger spikes in COVID-19 cases.

RECORD STORMS Neither Eta nor Iota has

been as devastating as Central America’s

Hurricane Mitch, which killed 11,000 peo-

ple in 1998. But we may now be entering an

era when very deadly storms are no longer

once-in-a- generation events. Meteorologists

tracked more hurricanes in the Atlantic this

season than ever before, and though no one

storm can be blamed on climate change, sci-

entists agree that a warming planet makes

weather patterns more destructive.

CLIMATE AID The region’s Presidents said

they would work together to pressure richer

countries to quickly release aid via regional

development banks. “Countries that have

recognized they are the main drivers of cli-

mate change have the money available,”

Hernández said, “but it’s extremely difficult

for us to access it.” With the U.N.’s climate

fund for developing countries drastically

underfunded and extreme weather becom-

ing more common, it’s an argument we’ll be

hearing a lot. —Ciara nugent

THE BULLETIN

Hurricane season is the latest

climate threat facing Central America

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER PRESIDENT Peru’s Congress voted on Nov. 9 to impeach President
Martín Vizcarra over corruption allegations. His replacement resigned after five days, following
deaths among demonstrators who accused lawmakers—half of whom are themselves under
investigation for graft—of a “parliamentary coup.” The week’s third President, Francisco Sagasti,
took office on Nov. 17. Elections are slated for spring.