Day: October 4, 2019

A U.N. human rights expert has expressed concern over the working conditions of North Korean workers abroad in response to VOA’s report that uncovered North Korea’s illicit labor activities in Senegal.

“It’s quite revealing about this situation of the system that exists in North Korea regarding workers abroad,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said during an interview with VOA Korean Service Thursday.

Quintana said the VOA report reflects that “the system remains as it was conceived since the outset.” 

Human rights groups have often accused North Korea of sending its citizens to foreign countries for forced labor to sustain its economy since the inception of the regime.  The country is known to violate international labor practices when sending workers abroad, putting them to work under harsh conditions.

The VOA report revealed that approximately 30 North Korean workers were laboring under poor conditions at various construction sites in the Senegalese capital of Dakar in September. The North Koreans were doing construction work for private Senegalese companies such as Patisen in violation of international sanctions.

The workers were paid about $120 a month after having to remit a significant portion of their salary to the North Korean government, according to documents reviewed by VOA.  Typically, North Korean government takes approximately 70% of workers’ salaries.

The workers were subject to heavy surveillance by North Korean authorities while working and off duty.  They had limited communications with locals, internet access, and ability to travel, according to the VOA report.

Quintana said poor labor conditions of overseas North Korean workers are “the responsibility of North Korean government.” 

Quintana continued, “The best way to address this issue is to engage with those countries who hosted these workers and to engage those private actors and companies who also have a responsibility.”

The U.N. expert said he recognizes the importance of international sanctions placed on North Korea in an attempt to prevent the country from sending its workers abroad to earn hard currency that could be used for its nuclear weapons program.

At the same time, Quintana believes it is equally important to find ways to protect the rights of North Korean workers who want to work abroad and to create acceptable labor conditions.

Acknowledging that the North Korean system of overseas workers has shortcomings, Quintana said, “We also know that the families of these North Korean workers benefit a lot from the income, even the low income that they receive working abroad.

“So this is something we need to bear in mind when we address the issue of overseas workers,” he continued.

Quintana said he plans to reach out to Senegalese authorities and urge them to comply with basic labor standards.
   
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution in August 2017 banning member states from forming joint entities with North Korea in their territories and hiring North Korean workers, in an effort to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons program 

A month later, the Security Council passed another resolution asking members to close any existing North Korean entities in their territories.  Then in December of that year, the council urged members to return all North Korean workers home by December 2019. 

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The flu season has started in the Northern Hemisphere. Although it’s still very early in the season, two deaths have been reported. One was a child, the other an adult with a chronic illness, but seemingly healthy people can also die from the flu.

Those most likely to die from the flu are the very young and the very old. But seemingly healthy people die as well.

Jen Ludwin was one of those seemingly healthy people when she caught the virus. She was young — 23 years old with no underlying conditions.

“I figured, ‘You know what, I’ll spend seven days in bed and just fight it off and I’d be OK.’ But I was totally wrong,” she said.

Ludwin’s organs to begin to fail.

“I was already in septic shock, and that my organs were starting to fail,” she said. “On top of that I had ARDS, which is a respiratory distress syndrome, and then DIC, which caused me to bleed internally and clot in my extremities. And all of those complications together led to gangrene in my limbs, and so I became an amputee.”

Researchers Think They Know Why Some Flu Patients Get Heart Problems video player.

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Dr. Eric Adkins at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center says when a virus attacks the body, it’s like an all-out war.

“The body’s response to infection is basically a big inflammatory response that can cause all kinds of problems in the various organs,” he said.

A clue in a protein

It’s a mystery why otherwise healthy people have severe complications from the flu. But researchers at Ohio State University College of Medicine uncovered a clue. Jacob Yount specializes in the study of microbial infection at Ohio State. He says the researchers found a link between a heart complication as a result of getting the flu and a protein that’s critical to fighting it.

“We make this protein and it inhibits viruses from entering our cells,” he said.

But, Yount says, some people have a genetic mutation that blocks the production of that protein, and without it, the flu is more likely to infect the heart and lead to heart failure.

“It can actually block the electrical current that’s traveling through the heart,” he said.

The study found that the mice without this gene were more likely to have heart complications after being infected with the flu virus. Adkins says this finding may help doctors care for flu patients in the future.

“If you know that they’re missing the gene ahead of time, then you may tailor your medical therapy differently,” he said.

Millions affected

The researchers say that millions of people worldwide are likely to have this genetic mutation, including about one-fifth of those of Chinese descent.

Now that scientists understand what might be causing the problem, they are searching for treatments that might prevent or reverse these heart complications in the future. Right now, though, the best protection is getting a flu shot
 

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Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi promised to listen to people’s grievances in a televised address after three days of deadly protest in Baghdad and several other cities. Hundreds of protesters rallied in the capital for a third consecutive day Thursday, defying a curfew, to call for jobs, improved services and an end to widespread corruption. About 30 people have been killed so far and hundreds others have been injured in clashes between the police and protesters. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the authorities authorities have extended a curfew in several southern cities as the death toll rises.
 

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When considering what lies ahead in the impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump, a famous movie line comes to mind. “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

That line was uttered by legendary Hollywood actress Bette Davis in the 1950 film, “All About Eve.” But it would seem to fit the times when it comes to where the president and opposition Democrats are headed in the weeks to come.

Emotions and tensions are running high in Washington as the impeachment inquiry targeting Trump gains momentum. And many political experts believe this latest battle over the Trump presidency is likely to sharpen the longstanding political divide within the country just as the 2020 presidential campaign gets underway in earnest.

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Combative stance

Trump has appeared to be in battle mode in recent days as the prospect of impeachment looms. On Thursday, in front of reporters outside the White House, he openly urged Ukraine and China to start investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2019

It was a phone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25, however, that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry being pushed by congressional Democrats. In a summary of the call released by the president, Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens, even though neither Trump nor his allies have produced any public evidence of wrongdoing.

Trump’s mood has grown increasingly combative in recent days as more details emerge about the call.

“People have said to me, how does he handle it?” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “Because it is all a fraud, and because of that, and because I know that I am right and because I am doing a great job for the American people, I am very, very happy living the way I am living.”

Trump has also ramped up his attacks on the news media. 

“Much of it is corrupt. You have corrupt media in this country and it truly is the enemy of the people,” he said.

Democratic pressure

Congressional Democrats remain focused on Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader and his appeal for help in trying to find political dirt on Democratic rival Joe Biden. For months, Biden has consistently beaten Trump in head-to-head matchups in polls.

Democrat Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has become the face of the impeachment inquiry and told reporters Wednesday that Democrats were determined to quickly move ahead with their inquiry.

“To try to effectively coerce a foreign leader that is completely dependent on our country for military, economic, diplomatic and other support to intervene in our election to help his campaign. It is hard to imagine a more corrupt course of conduct,” Schiff said.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and described the phone exchange as a “perfect call.”

But legal expert Paul Schiff Berman of the George Washington University Law School said the allegations are serious.

“The entire purpose and content of the call as released by the White House is only to further the president’s personal, political efforts to hurt one of his political opponents, and that is an abuse of power and authority that goes beyond anything I think we have ever seen,” Schiff Berman told VOA.

Impeachable conduct?

As the House moves ahead with its inquiry, Vanderbilt University expert Thomas Schwarz said lawmakers will eventually have to consider whether Trump’s behavior is serious enough to warrant removal from office.

“I think the real question will be whether it rises to the level of an impeachable offense. It might be helpful in the investigation if they can find a pattern of this type of behavior in his other interactions with foreign leaders.”

Even if Democrats eventually move to impeach Trump in the House, they would face long odds on actually removing him from office because Republicans control the Senate. In a Senate impeachment trial, 67 of the 100 senators would have to find the president guilty in order to remove him from office.

Pushing polarization

The impeachment battle is already hardening feelings about Trump among both supporters and opponents.

Even as polls indicate growing support for impeachment, many of the same surveys show Trump’s base rallying to his support even more strongly than before.

And the longer the inquiry goes on, the more likely it is that it will further fray a nation already politically fractured, according to veteran analyst William Galston at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“So the polarization is both increasing and deepening and there is no getting around the fact that we are in for months of conflict around this issue,” Galston told VOA. “It will pour gasoline on an already raging fire, I am afraid.”

On the campaign trail

The impeachment inquiry is also dominating the Democrat’s presidential primary race. On the campaign trail in Nevada, Joe Biden had a direct message for the president. You are not going to destroy me and you are not going to destroy my family.”

What happens with the impeachment effort will have a big impact on the 2020 campaign.

“The next five to eight weeks is probably going to tell us a lot more about the 2020 presidential election than the last three years have,” Brookings analyst John Hudak told a panel discussion on impeachment earlier in the week.

Trump is no stranger to political battles, and the one coming up over impeachment could be the defining moment of his presidency.

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Adam Schiff, the erudite and dogged chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is prosecuting the case of his life on Capitol Hill this fall.

The 59-year old former federal attorney and Harvard Law graduate is leading the impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives and has incurred the wrath of U.S. President Donald Trump on Twitter and television.

The two men have never had a civil relationship. Trump in the past has belittled Schiff as a “pencil neck” and “Liddle Schiff,” while Schiff frequently compared Trump to a mob boss.

Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week the launching of an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s high-handed dealings with Ukraine’s president and put Schiff in charge of the overall investigation, Trump has gone on a rampage in attacking Schiff.

Trump used a joint appearance with the Finnish leader at the White House Wednesday to denounce Schiff as a “low life” and a “shifty, dishonest guy” and demanded that he resign. Schiff appears unfazed by the presidential attacks, and warned Trump that the Democrats would be turning up the heat.

First Nadler, now Schiff

For months, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler was the face of Democrats’ investigations into a wide range of concerns about Trump’s conduct in office and during the 2016 campaign. But that all changed following the revelation that Trump withheld military aid from the embattled Ukraine as leverage in pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to assist him in digging up political dirt on former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter to undermine Biden’s bid to challenge Trump in the 2020 election.

The disclosure that Trump was trying to enlist foreign assistance in his re-election campaign abruptly shifted responsibility for the impeachment probe from the Judiciary Committee to the Intelligence Committee, where Schiff has control over investigations into national security and intelligence matters. He has served in that role since Democrats assumed the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives in January. What’s more, Schiff has proved to be far more media savvy and telegenic than Nadler, which has enabled him to become the face of the impeachment inquiry.

On Wednesday, Schiff and the House Democrats vowed to subpoena the White House by week’s end if administration officials refused to turn over documents related to the president’s July 25 call to the Ukrainian president. Schiff warned Trump not to ignore his committee’s attempts to obtain information for the investigation or try to tie up the investigation in court.

“We are concerned that the White House will attempt to stonewall our investigation much as they have stonewalled other committees in the past,” Schiff said. “We’re not fooling around here, though.”

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Rare mistake

Schiff often compares the president’s actions to that of a mob boss who uses intimidation to extract money and promises. His parody mocking the president’s call with the Ukrainian president at the opening of a key congressional hearing last week struck many as out of step with the seriousness of the investigation. Trump quickly seized on Schiff’s summary as yet another example of so-called “fake news.”

“He made it up,” Trump said in a press conference Wednesday. “He went up to a microphone and in front of the American people and in Congress. He went out and he gave a whole presentation of words that the president of the United States never said. It has to be a criminal act. It has to be. And he should resign.”

It was a rare misstep for Schiff, a highly respected veteran House member from California, said Steven Billet, director of the Legislative Affairs program at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.

“It was a horrible mistake in my estimation. I would not have advised him to do that,” Billet told VOA. “This is not something where people appreciate cleverness. I think they appreciate a straightforward reading of the issues and a straightforward presentation of what it is they’re all about.”

Trump called for Schiff’s resignation via tweet Thursday morning.

‘Methodical, no-nonsense’

Schiff faces an intense media environment that simply did not exist during previous impeachment inquiries. Billet notes that House Republicans did not conduct an investigation of similar scope for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998. But he said Schiff shares many qualities with Peter Rodino, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during the process that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

Billet said Schiff is “very, very methodical, straightforward, no-nonsense, really hardworking.” Early in his career, the California congressman prosecuted a high-profile case involving a former FBI agent accused of passing secrets to the Soviet Union. Schiff’s approach as a prosecutor was on display earlier this week as he pushed back against Trump’s threats to unmask and retaliate against the whistleblower.

“The president wants to make this all about the whistleblower, and suggest people that come forward with evidence of his wrongdoing are somehow treasonous and should be treated as traitors and spies. This is a blatant effort to intimidate witnesses. It’s an incitement to violence,” Schiff said.

Trump and his congressional Republican allies falsely accused Schiff of orchestrating a conspiracy following New York Times reports that the whistleblower approached the House Intelligence Committee with information about the allegations after filing the report with the inspector general. Trump charged without proof that Schiff had helped the whistleblower prepare his complaint against the president.

“Like other whistleblowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistleblower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community,” Patrick Boland, a spokesperson for Schiff, said in a statement.

It is the latest, but certainly not the last, confrontation between Trump and Schiff — two men with contrasting temperaments whose conflict will only increase given House Democrats’ accelerated timeline for an impeachment investigation. Democrats aim to finish the investigation that will likely end in a House floor vote on impeachment by the end of the year.

Watergate investigators had eight months to prepare their case against Nixon. Schiff and House Democrats want to wrap up the Trump impeachment probe within the next two months. It’s a task Billet said the chairman is up to handling.

“He brings a sense of dignity and civility to the work that he does in the committee,” Billet said.

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