Month: October 2019

Labor rights advocates are warning that an Oct. 1 U.S. ban on imports from a Malaysian rubber glove maker over evidence of forced labor won’t be the country’s last if employers fail to act quickly to mend conditions for long-suffering migrant workers.

Washington announced the ban on the Malaysian firm WRP Asia Pacific along with products from four other countries because of evidence that they were being made with forced labor. Other companies and commodities include a Chinese apparel maker and gems from Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamond Fields.

The importers hit with the U.S. “withhold release orders” can either re-export the shipments that have arrived or prove that they were not made with forced labor to get them through customs.

“Our message here is clear,” Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade, told reporters in Washington.

“If you are a trading partner that does not abide by and uphold your commitments to end child or forced labor, the U.S. will do what it takes to protect vulnerable workers from exploitation, safeguard American jobs and create a fair and level playing field for companies and countries that do play by the rules.”

Andy Hall, a migrant worker rights specialist, told VOA that forced labor remains “systemic” throughout Malaysia’s manufacturing sector. He said he helped with the U.S. probe of WRP and was told by U.S. authorities that several more Malaysian companies in the rubber glove industry and others, more than a dozen in all, were under investigation for possible withhold release orders.

“They’re investigating so many cases in Malaysia, and the pressure is on,” he said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told VOA it would respond to a request to confirm that it was investigating other companies in Malaysia but failed to do so by the time of publication.

Drawing on a large natural rubber industry, Malaysia has become the world’s top supplier of medical rubber gloves, meeting more than half of global demand, according to the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council. The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (MARGMA) says 65% of what its members make heads to the U.S.

WRP alone exported $79.5 million worth of gloves to the U.S. last year. It is the first company in Southeast Asia to face a withhold release order.

Like much of its manufacturing sector, Malaysia’s rubber glove industry draws heavily on workers from poorer neighboring countries willing to work for lower wages than most locals. The government claims the country hosts 1.7 million such workers, but the International Labor Organization says the true figure, including many in the country illegally, may reach 4 million — nearly a third of Malaysia’s workforce.

Reports of human trafficking and labor abuse among Malaysia’s migrant workers have been rife for years. The Guardian newspaper reported on forced labor-tainted rubber gloves made by WRP and another leading local manufacturer, Top Glove, filling the stockrooms of British public hospitals late last year.

Both companies have denied the allegations.

Hall said some factories have made improvements, returning confiscated passports to migrant workers and abiding by the legal limit on overtime hours. At the same time, the labor rights advocate said he has seen few if any curbs on debt bondage, through which migrants take on crippling loans to land a job — working through agencies, recruiters or others — and become all but enslaved to their employers to pay them off. He said workers from Bangladesh have been hit hardest, paying up to $5,000 for a job in Malaysia and sometimes committing suicide under the pressure.

Hall said the import ban on WRP was meant to put the rest of the industry on notice.

“What WRP will find now is when they negotiate with U.S. authorities to try to lift the ban, the U.S. authorities will be saying to them, ‘But all these workers are in debt bondage, and so the only way that you can get them out of debt bondage and hence out of forced labor is to pay back the money.’ And so once WRP realized that, the message will start going through the industry,” he said.

K. Veeriah, a secretary division secretary for the Malaysian Trade Union Congress in Malaysia’s Penang state, a hub for electronics manufacturers, agreed that debt bondage was still common in factories and that more local companies were at risk of having their exports to the U.S. blocked.

“If they don’t mend their ways, they continue on with this scheme of hiring employees who have to pay huge amounts of money to be recruited and then come here and be caught in this whole vicious circle of debt … I think more employers may have to face the same possibility of a ban,” he said.

WRP and Malaysia’s Human Resources Ministry did not reply to multiple requests for an interview.

In the wake of the U.S. ban, however, Human Resources Minister Murugeson Kulasegaran has proposed adding a chapter on forced labor to Malaysia’s Employment Act to better protect workers, and offered glove makers the government’s help in carrying out social compliance audits to international standards, according to local media.

In a statement reacting to the ban, MARGMA said it took international standards “very seriously” and had a plan to meet them, including a compliance committee and seminars for exporters.

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French carmaker Renault dismissed its chief executive officer on Friday, overhauling its leadership once again after the jailing of its previous chairman and CEO.

It came days after Nissan, with which Renault shares a deep alliance, named a new CEO, indicating the two companies were intent on cleaning house after a scandal over former chief Carlos Ghosn rattled their upper ranks.

The decision by the board to dismiss Thierry Bollore was effective immediately.

Bollore replaced Ghosn after the former CEO was jailed in Tokyo in last November on charges of falsifying financial reports in under-reporting compensation and breach of trust. Ghosn, who led the Nissan-Renault alliance, is currently awaiting trial and denies wrongdoing.

The company said Bollore will be replaced on an interim basis by current Chief Financial Officer Clotilde Delbos.

Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard will become president during the interim period.

Renault owns 43% of Nissan but their alliance came under strain after Ghosn’s jailing. Renault considered a merger offer from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that would have created the world’s third-largest automaker, but the talks fell apart due to concern over Nissan’s role.

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Sudan’s ruling council has appointed the country’s first woman chief justice. The appointment is seen as another step forward for female representation in the new transitional government. 

The Sovereign Council has officially confirmed the pick of Neemat Abdullah as chief justice of the country’s judiciary, a first in Sudan and the entire Arab world.

Many in Sudan see the appointment as a major step forward for Sudanese women.

Researcher and politican Nahid Jabrallah, the founder of the Sima center for children, said the appointment of Judge Neemat Abdullah is a victory for Sudanese women and very symbolic of Sudanese women’s participation in the 30-year fight [against Bashir].  It also shows a commitment to women and women’s issues.

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Sudan’s Copts See Hope in Appointment of First Christian

Sudanese Copts who fled Bashir era begin returning with new hopes for equal rights

Abdullah was initially appointed chief justice soon after military leaders and the opposition signed a power-sharing agreement in August.  She was quickly replaced, only to be re-appointed after huge street protests.

The demonstrators demanded an unbiased judiciary, which they think Abdullah can provide based on her background.

She has been a judge in the High Court for years, and has never been a part of a political party, unlike most judges at her level, the majority of whom were loyalists to ousted president Omar al-Bashir.

At the recent U.N. General Assembly, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Amok praised women’s role in the protests that toppled Bashir and ensured there would be civilian representation in the transitional government.  

Four women have been appointed to cabinet positions in the new government, including the country’s first female minister of foreign affairs, Asma Mohamed Abdalla.

Former president Bashir is now on trial for money corruption charges, but many Sudanese believe there will be no real punishment for him or his allies unless Sudan’s judiciary is completely restructured.

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The Swedish Academy’s decision to bestow the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature on Polish author Olga Tokarczuk has given a rare morale boost to liberal Poles only three days before a national election that is likely to be won by the country’s right-wing populist party.

Tokarczuk, 57, is a literary celebrity in Poland, whose reputation has risen fast in the English-speaking world, particularly after she won the Man Booker International prize in 2018 for her novel “Flights.” She won the Nobel for what the prize committee said was “a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”

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Polish Author Tokarczuk and Austria’s Handke Win Nobel Literature Prize

The Swedish Academy did not name a winner for the prize last year following accusation of sexual abuse and other wrongdoing by people connected to the academy

But she is not loved by all in her native land.

She has been criticized by Polish conservatives _ and received death threats _ for criticizing aspects of the country’s past, including its episodes of anti-Semitism. Some of her works have celebrated the rich ethnic heritage of Poland, which was a cultural and religious melting pot before the Nazi German genocide during World War II and the postwar resettlement of ethnic populations.

Her very appearance, with a dreadlock style known as a “plica Polonica” or Polish tangle, which has roots in Polish history, makes her stand out as a progressive icon as the country’s leadership seeks to put its conservative mark on the nation.
 
She was photographed recently at a gay pride parade in her hometown of Wroclaw holding small rainbow flags at a time when the ruling Law and Justice party has been depicting the gay rights movement as a mortal threat to Poland’s culture.

Just this week, Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski lashed out during a campaign stop at filmmakers and other cultural elites who he claims have tried to “destroy Poland’s reputation” with their explorations of Polish crimes, including the participation of some in killing Jews during the war. He said under his party, cultural elites will be “no longer working for our enemies.”

“Those who work (for the enemy) are being stigmatized and will be stigmatized further,” Kaczynski said.

Those remarks sparked sharp criticism by some opposition politicians, while others found poetic justice in the world’s most prestigious literary award going to Tokarczuk.

“Olga Tokarczuk is an outstanding representative of the elites hated by Kaczynski,’” said Tomasz Lis, the editor of Newsweek Polska.
 
On Thursday, however, the country’s conservative authorities had only words of praise for Tokarczurk, with Polish President Andrzej Duda calling it a “great day for Polish literature.”

Culture Minister Piotr Glinski, who said recently that he had tried to read her books but just couldn’t finish them, said he would try harder now. And he was happy to claim her accomplishment as one for the Polish nation.

“A Nobel Prize is a clear sign that Polish culture is well appreciated in the world,” Glinski tweeted. “Congratulations!”

European Union leader Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who is also a critic of the current government, said on Twitter: “What joy and pride!”
 
Speaking Thursday before readers in Bielefeld, Germany, Tokarczuk described her surprise at winning, and had a message for people back in Poland: ‘let’s vote in a right way for democracy,” she said.

Law and Justice is leading opinion polls ahead of the country’s parliamentary election on Sunday, its popularity boosted by generous state spending and an assertive Poland-first foreign policy.

Two Nobel Prizes in literature, one for 2019 and one for last year, were announced Thursday after the 2018 literature award was postponed following sex abuse allegations that had rocked the Swedish Academy. The recipient of this year’s Nobel award for literature was Austrian writer Peter Handke.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has denied that his American counterpart, Donald Trump, tried to blackmail him. Claims that Trump requested a corruption investigation into Hunter Biden, son of Democrat Joe Biden – in return for military aid – are the subject of an impeachment inquiry in the United States. Henry Ridgwell has more from Kyiv.

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A woman who worked at NBC News claimed that Matt Lauer raped her at a hotel while on assignment for the Sochi Olympics, an encounter the former “Today” show host claimed was consensual.

The claim outlined by Brooke Nevils in Ronan Farrow’s book, “Catch and Kill,” puts a name and details behind the event that led to Lauer’s firing by NBC in 2017. It also provoked the first public response from Lauer, who said in a defiant and graphic letter made public by his lawyer that “my silence was a mistake.”

Variety first reported Nevils’ charges after obtaining a copy of Farrow’s book. The Associated Press typically does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, unless they step forward publicly as Nevils has done.

Nevils, who was working for Meredith Vieira in Sochi, met her for drinks one night and Lauer joined them. Nevils said she had six shots of vodka and wound up going to Lauer’s room.

“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” Nevils told Farrow, according to Variety. 

In his letter, Lauer admitted to his extramarital affair with Nevils. He said on that night in Sochi that they consensually performed a variety of sexual acts.

“She was a fully enthusiastic and willing partner,” he wrote. “At no time did she behave in a way that made it appear she was incapable of consent. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do.”

Lauer’s defense of his behavior extends beyond his relationship with Nevils. He said he has “never assaulted anyone or forced anyone to have sex. Period.”

He also acknowledges other extramarital encounters, and criticized the women involved for having “abandoned shared responsibility” for the affairs to shield themselves from blame behind false allegations.

“They have avoided having to look at a boyfriend, a husband or a child in the eye and say, `I cheated,”‘ Lauer said. “And I will no longer provide them the shelter of my silence.”

Lauer said the night in Sochi was the first of several sexual encounters he had with Nevils over several months, including one in his dressing room at NBC, which “showed terrible judgment on my part.”

Nevils’ lawyer did not immediately return a message for comment on Lauer’s letter Wednesday.

Eleanor McManus, who co-founded the group Press Forward to support victims of sexual abuse in the news industry, said Lauer’s letter was “unbelievable.

“Lauer’s statement demonstrates not only his lack of remorse, but his lack of understanding of sexual harassment and the (hash)MeToo movement,” said McManus, who said she was harassed by journalist Mark Halperin (who lost jobs at NBC and elsewhere because of these and other accusations). “Nowhere in his letter does Lauer acknowledge the power he yielded as a celebrity and the star of NBC’s highest-rated show. The two people in that hotel room in Sochi did not have equal power.”

Farrow’s publisher, Little, Brown & Co., said that the book has been fact-checked and incorporates the responses of individuals and institutions that were included. When it is published, “readers will understand the full context and impact of Farrow’s work, and the bravery of the sources who entrusted him with their stories.”

NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack sent a memo to his staff on Wednesday, saying that any suggestion that NBC knew of Lauer’s conduct prior to the night before he was fired for “inappropriate sexual conduct” was wrong. There were no claims or allegations of improper conduct by Lauer prior to that, he said, although settlements were reached with two women regarding Lauer after he was fired.

“Matt Lauer’s conduct was appalling, horrific and reprehensible, as we said at the time,” NBC News said in a statement Wednesday.

“That’s why he was fired within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague.”

Nevils’ story was reported Wednesday on the show Lauer hosted for two decades. His former co-host, Savannah Guthrie, called it shocking and appalling.

“We’re disturbed to our core,” Guthrie said.

Lauer said in his letter that he ended the affair poorly and understands how that must have made Nevils feel.

He said that he hadn’t responded publicly before to allegations in order to spare his family pain, but that now he has their support to address them publicly.

“Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a very private person,” Lauer wrote. “I had no desire to write this, but I had no choice.”

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The United States has taken custody of two Islamic State prisoners accused of taking part in beheading American journalists in 2014, The Washington Post reports.

The two men were taken from a Kurdish-run prison in northern Syria, where Kurdish forces can no longer guarantee they can keep detaining the prisoners after the Turkish military incursion.

The Post said the two are Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. They were allegedly part of a quartet of British-born Islamic militants who their hostages dubbed “The Beatles.”

One U.S. official told the Post the two have been taken to Iraq, while another simply said they are in U.S. military custody but would not say where they are.

“The Beatles” were led by an IS militant named Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed “Jihadi John.”

Emwazi beheaded American journalist James Foley, Israeli American journalist Steven Sotloff and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig before a TV camera in 2014.

“The Beatles” are also suspected of murdering other Western hostages.

Emwazi was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2015. A fourth “Beatle” is in a Turkish prison.

Kurdish forces captured Kotey and Elsheikh, who have dened taking part in the executions. They told The Washington Post in a prison interview last year that their role was to carry out ransom negotiations.

If the two are brought to the United States for trial, they could be charged as conspirators in hostage-taking resulting in death — a charge that carries a possible death sentence, according to the Post.

President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday the United States has moved what he calls some of the “most dangerous” IS prisoners from Kurdish custody to “different locations where it’s secure.”

But some critics of Trump’s decision to pull U.S. forces out of northern Syria, which has led to a Turkish offensive against the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), could allow thousands of imprisoned IS fighters to flee

“This is like a victory for the ISIS fighters. I think it’s just appalling,” James Foley’s mother, Diane, said, using an acronym for the militant group. “It’s an abdication of our responsibility to ensure safety for our own citizens and allies.”

Trump said the U.S. has tried but failed to convince such European countries as Britain, France and Germany to take back their citizens who joined IS as foreign fighters and have since been captured.

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Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Wednesday announced a cabinet reshuffle, declared three days of national mourning and said those who shot protesters would be punished as he sought to quell anti-government unrest that has roiled Iraq for days.

Authorities fear that violence, which has killed more than 110 people, mostly protesters angry at government corruption, could spiral, leading war-weary Iraq towards more civil strife.

Protests erupted in Baghdad last week and soon spread to southern cities. Abdul Mahdi’s government has sought to address demonstrators’ grievances.

However, a package of reforms announced by the government — including more job opportunities, subsidies and housing — is unlikely to satisfy Iraqis; nor is a cabinet reshuffle, likely to feature many of the same faces despised by protesters as an out-of-touch political elite.

“We will ask parliament to vote tomorrow on changes to ministries,” Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference, adding that the government would be referring the names of hundreds of corrupt officials to the judiciary for investigation.

Abdul Mahdi’s government will seek to weather the storm, however, backed by powerful Iran-aligned armed groups and political factions determined to preserve the status quo.

Internet blackout

Authorities have used an internet blackout, arrests of protesters and targeting of reporters to try to stem further unrest.

At least 110 people have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded in the capital and the south, since the security forces started cracking down on demonstrators. Reuters journalists have witnessed protesters killed and wounded by shots fired by snipers from rooftops into the crowd.

Abdul Mahdi said that the government did not give orders to shoot.

“We gave clear orders not to use live fire but there were still victims of shooting,” Abdul Mahdi said, adding that it was wrong to damage the country.

Crackdown continues 

Much of the unrest has been at night, but on Wednesday morning there were no reports of serious violence overnight.

Authorities on Wednesday reopened the road leading to Baghdad’s Tayaran Square, scene of bloody protests in recent days.

However, the security forces pressed on with their crackdown, arresting protesters after nightfall on Tuesday in eastern and northwestern parts of Baghdad, police sources told Reuters.

Police carried recent photographs of protesters to identify and arrest them, the sources said.

Iraq’s semi-official High Commission for Human Rights also said about 500 people had been released from the 800 detained last week.

Intermittent access to internet returned on Wednesday morning, and protesters continued to upload video and photos from the demonstrations. The government shut down coverage almost immediately as protests began, according to an order by the prime minister seen by Reuters.

Media offices attacked

The offices of local and international media were attacked last week, and journalists have said they were warned not to cover the protests. With the internet down, there was little coverage of the protests on television.

Ministers met provincial governors, to address grievances across the country, which include crumbling infrastructure, toxic water and high unemployment. But proposed reforms, some of which have been recycled from a package of proposed reforms after protests in 2015, are unlikely to ease public anger.

The unrest shattered nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, since the defeat of Islamic State in 2017.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the recent violence and urged Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to exercise maximum restraint and address protesters’ grievances, the U.S. State Department said.  

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A U.S. Secret Service dog that prevented a potential attack on President Barack Obama in the White House in 2014 has been given the rare honor of an Order of Merit from a British charity, the first foreign animal to receive the award.

Hurricane, a Belgian Malinois, was a highly trained member of the Secret Service and had previously been part of a victorious U.S. Canine Olympic team.

In October 2014, when Obama and his family were home at the White House, an intruder scaled the fence and managed to fight off the first canine team deployed to intercept him. Hurricane and his handler, Special Operations Officer Marshall Mirarchi, were the backup team that night.

“The second he got target lock, I sent him,” Mirarchi said. “He weaved through our teammates and took the individual down. Your normal scenario is that’s it, and you go up and get them. This was obviously different.”

The intruder punched, kicked and swung Hurricane through the air.

“You’re not expecting someone to fight a dog back for that long with that much violence,” Mirarchi recalled. “The individual wasn’t responding to any pain for whatever reason. So, I had to sit back and kind of watch Hurricane go to war. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

Hurricane’s jaws locked on the suspect’s arm, and he eventually forced the man to the ground where he was detained by armed officers. Hurricane was badly injured.

“To see him afterward after that happened, bring him back to the car and have him look at me, like, you can read his mind. It’s like ‘Dad, did I do a good job?’ He doesn’t know he’s protecting the White House. He doesn’t know the president and his family are inside. He’s doing that for me.”

Hurricane received the Order of Merit last week by British animal charity PDSA. Director General Jan McLoughlin said the award is the animal equivalent of royal recognition.

“It’s given for animals who show distinguished service for society, who go above and beyond that level of human and animal companionship — devotion to duty.”

British Airways gave Hurricane VIP treatment during the trip to London, with a limousine ride to the airport and a flat-bed seat next to Mirarchi.

The 10-year-old dog left active duty in 2016 with health problems caused by the attack. He now lives with Mirarchi in first class retirement. 

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has condemned deadly violence during protests in Iraq and called on the country’s government to “exercise maximum restraint,” the State Department said Tuesday.

In a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi, Pompeo “condemned the recent violence in Iraq and noted that those who violated human rights should be held accountable,” the department said in a statement.

“The secretary lamented the tragic loss of life over the past few days and urged the Iraqi government to exercise maximum restraint.

“Pompeo reiterated that peaceful public demonstrations are a fundamental element of all democracies, and emphasized that there is no place for violence in demonstrations, either by security forces or protestors.”

Demonstrations in Iraq began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic unemployment but escalated with calls for a complete overhaul of the political system.

They were unprecedented because of their apparent spontaneity and independence in a deeply politicized society, and have also been bloody — with more than 100 people killed and 6,000 wounded in one week. 

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A Philadelphia jury on Tuesday awarded $8 billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and one if its subsidiaries over a drug the companies made that the plaintiff’s attorneys say is linked to the abnormal growth of female breast tissue in boys.

Johnson and Johnson immediately denounced the award after the jury’s decision in the Court of Common pleas, saying it’s “excessive and unfounded” and vowing immediate action to overturn it.

The antipsychotic drug Risperdal is at the center of the lawsuit, with the plaintiff’s attorneys arguing it’s linked to abnormal growth of female breast tissue in boys, an incurable condition known as gynecomastia.

Johnson & Johnson used an organized scheme to make billions of dollars while illegally marketing and promoting the drug, attorneys Tom Kline and Jason Itkin said in a statement.

Kline and Itkin said that Johnson & Johnson was “a corporation that valued profits over safety and profits over patients.” Thousands of lawsuits have been filed over the drug, but the attorneys said this was the first in which a jury decided whether to award punitive damages and came up with an amount.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement on its website it was confident that the award would be overturned, calling it “grossly disproportionate” with the initial compensatory damage award and “a clear violation of due process.”

Johnson & Johnson said the court’s exclusion of key evidence left it unable to present a meaningful defense, including what they said was a drug label that “clearly and appropriately outlined the risks associated with the medicine” or Risperdal’s benefits for patients with serious mental illness. They also said the plaintiff’s attorneys failed to present any evidence of actual harm.

“This decision is inconsistent with multiple determinations outside of Philadelphia regarding the adequacy of the Risperdal labeling, the medicine’s efficacy, and findings in support of the company,” Johnson & Johnson said. “We will be immediately moving to set aside this excessive and unfounded verdict.”

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