Zack, Jenn, and Alex talk about the recent violence in Libya — where a militia led by strongman Khalifa Haftar is threatening to topple the internationally recognized government. They explain how we got to this point, and the depressing role President Donald Trump is playing in all of this. On Elsewhere, they talk about a major dustup between the Philippines and Canada over (literal) garbage. Zack has trouble defending Canada, Jenn breaks down the word “warlord,” and Alex refers to Muammar Qaddafi as a “sunglasses icon.”

References:

Here’s some background on the 2011 Libya intervention and why it went poorly.

ISIS took over a city in Libya.

As Jenn pointed out, the fighting over Tripoli has led to at least 220 deaths.

Here’s the evidence that Haftar is implicated in atrocities and war crimes.

This Council on Foreign Relations backgrounder highlights Haftar’s supporters.

According to the White House, Trump spoke with Hafter. Bloomberg reports that Trump gave Haftar a green light to attack Tripoli (the White House denies this).

The US has a long history of allying with rights-abusing governments.

The US-Saudi alliance, explained.

More on Canada’s trash.

The HuffPost has a great longread on why the US and wealthy nations send their recycling to Southeast Asia. And here’s a good primer on the problems with waste shipping to East and Southeast Asia.

Listen to more of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s press conference.

Duterte’s drug war has killed thousands.

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