Month: May 2019

The constant beat of rain upon the metal roof of Megan Dwyer’s barn on her rural Illinois farm is an all-too-familiar and unwelcome sound at this time of year.

“We picked up another 8/10ths (2 cm) last night,” she told VOA, competing to be heard over the noise created by the constant downpour on the barn. “We’ve probably picked up another 3 or 4 this morning.”

It has been one of the wettest planting seasons 30-year-old Dwyer has ever experienced.

“Ideally we’d like to be done planted with corn and have a good chunk of our beans in, and we’re maybe 5% planted in total right now,” she said.

And there’s no relief in sight.

​One of the wettest 12 months

Continued rainfall across the Midwest extended a trend resulting in one of the wettest 12-month cycles on record in the United States. Prime farmland across the country continues to struggle with flooding and poor conditions for planting, among other issues.

At the end of May, Illinois farmers had about 35% of their crops planted, a dramatic contrast to an average of 95% in past years at the same time.

Dwyer is among many nationwide who have to make a decision soon — plant very late and hope it grows in time. Or, says Dwyer, “You’ve got the prevented plant option, which is where you don’t put a crop in at all.”

The “prevented plant option” is a crop insurance claim payout meant to help farmers deal with the loss of income because of poor planting weather, an option that is rarely used.

​Stressful year gets more stressful

“People are trying to figure out how they’re going to make some money, how they’re going to pay the bills,” said Illinois Farm Bureau National Legislative Director Adam Nielsen. He added that the continued rainfall is creating a perfect economic storm for those already dealing with five consecutive years of negative farm income.

“It would be normally a very stressful year to begin with. But when you add the fact that we’re now entering year 2 of a trade war, and a lot of our markets are closed off to us, that adds a higher level anxiety right now. And that’s what our members are feeling,” he said.

The recent breakdown in trade negotiations between the United States and China has only added to Dwyer’s problems.

“Sixty percent of our soybeans get exported. For us, two-thirds of our soybeans, so more than that. And our end user is China, so there is a lot of uncertainty around where this product is going to go,” said Dwyer, who has been tending to the cattle on her farm in the time she has free because of the deluge that has left her farm soggy, muddy and bare.

“The rain on top of that, and the flooding, and not being able to get barges and river traffic through — nobody can even move the product, even if there was a buyer,” she said. “It’s pretty scary and uncertain times.”

​Trump offer a dilemma

President Donald Trump’s promise to compensate farmers through another proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture aid package estimated at $16 billion this year may provide some relief for farmers.

“For me, I don’t want it,” Dwyer explained. “I’d rather have markets and access to a real place for my product to go.”

But Dwyer, like most farmers, is realistically left with little choice but to accept the aid to help make ends meet to help the farm survive to plant another day. But with the aid, comes stigma, Dwyer said.

“I’ve seen several comments, ‘Farmers are just looking for welfare.’ We’re looking for a handout. We’re waiting for the government to pay for us to do this. And that’s not at all what happens. We’re doing it so we can put food on our table, and have a crop and product to share with the rest of the country and the world,” she said.

But before there can be a product to share, there needs to be clear skies and warmth to dry out Dwyer’s fields so she can plant.

At least in the short term, the weather forecast isn’t providing much hope.
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Continued rainfall across the Midwest this spring extended a trend resulting in the wettest year on record in the United States. Prime farmland across the country continues to struggle with flooding and poor conditions for planting, among other issues. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, farmers are running out of time, and options.
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One of South Korea’s most influential newspapers reported Friday that North Korea executed its top envoy to the United States following February’s failed summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump.

The reaction from some Korea watchers: a collective shrug.

It’s not that analysts doubt North Korea would carry out such a leadership purge; Pyongyang has in the past executed those it views as a threat to the ruling Kim family.

But South Korean newspapers have an inconsistent record of reporting such incidents. In some cases, North Korean figures reported to have been killed appeared in public weeks or months later.

The latest report came from the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s biggest newspaper.

Lead North Korea negotiator

The conservative paper reported Kim Hyok Chol, who led negotiations with the United States ahead of the February Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, was executed in March along with four other senior officials “on charges of spying for America.”

Kim Yong Chol, Kim Jong Un’s “right-hand man,” was sent to a labor and re-education camp, the paper reported. Kim Song Hye, one of North Korea’s only senior female diplomats, was sent to a political prison camp, while Kim Jong Un’s translator at the Hanoi summit was likely sent to a prison camp for an “interpreting error,” it said.

The Chosun Ilbo did not say how it got the information, citing only “a source.”

North Korea has not responded to the report, but on Thursday ran a state media editorial warning of punishment against “anti-revolutionary” acts.

Asked about the report, a spokesperson at South Korea’s presidential office cautioned against “hasty conclusions.” Seoul’s Unification Ministry also declined to comment. Officials at the White House and State Department have not responded to VOA requests for reaction.

North Korean purges

It is notoriously difficult to get reliable information from North Korea, a totalitarian country that restricts all civil and political liberties of its citizens. That’s especially true of actions surrounding the country’s secretive leadership.

Kim Jong Un is believed to have carried out several purges of both senior and lower-level officials since taking power in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.

Perhaps most notoriously, Kim ordered the execution of his uncle and mentor, Jang Song Thaek, in 2013.

But South Korean papers fairly frequently misreport those purges.

For instance, the Choson Ilbo reported in 2013 that Kim’s former girlfriend, the singer Hyon Song Wol, was publicly executed for violating North Korea’s pornography laws. She appeared in a public television performance a short time later.

“According to Chosun Ilbo, Hyon Song Wol has been dead since 2013. Even though she appeared at the Hanoi summit this year,” tweeted Chad O’Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which produces the influential NK News website.

O’Carroll, who is based in Seoul but travels to North Korea, also says he was told by a source that Kim Hyok Chol, the North Korean envoy, “had been seen at the foreign ministry recently in Pyongyang.”

​Kim vulnerable?

But the latest execution story is plausible to some analysts, especially since the Hanoi summit failure left Kim in a tricky position.

The summit ended abruptly at the end of February after Trump walked out and declared Kim was not ready to make a serious nuclear deal.

Kim wanted Trump to remove nearly all sanctions against North Korea, in exchange for partial dismantlement of his nuclear program. Trump insisted he would not remove any sanctions until Kim agreed to give up all his nuclear weapons.

Like his father and grandfather, Kim is treated in North Korean state propaganda as a flawless near-deity, not exactly the kind of person who comes back from a summit empty-handed.

“In North Korea when something like that happens it’s a different order of problem because the leader is infallible and nothing can ever go wrong,” says Aidan Foster-Carter, a veteran, British-based Korea watcher.

How to react

There are signs North Korean state organs didn’t know how to react to Kim’s failed summit.

Immediately after Kim returned from Hanoi, North Korean state media reported the meeting was a success. Only days later did they acknowledge the summit was fruitless, blaming the United States for making unreasonable demands.

In the weeks that followed, at least one report suggested North Korea executed some members of the Hanoi negotiating team, though those reports were vague and never corroborated.

“These rumors have been floating around for a while,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea watcher at the Middlebury Institute, on Twitter. “I am still not sure I believe them, but they are getting awfully specific.”

Foster-Carter, the British academic, agrees that the Choson Ilbo report is more detailed than other similar reports.

“I will stick my neck out and say I think it has the ring of truth,” he says. “It has quite a lot of incidental detail … in other words, it sounds like an informed source.”

“Of course, you know this game. We have to be cautious. Commentators have gotten egg on their faces before by saying this Kim or that Kim had been executed and then back they come from the dead.”

If true, the executions would help explain why U.S. negotiators haven’t been able to meet with their North Korean counterparts in recent weeks.

It could also mean that Kim is feeling increasing domestic pressure, says Kim Seok-hyang, who focuses on North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“His own people are his biggest threat,” Kim says.

While North Korean elites largely express public support for Kim now, that could change if they see him failing on an international stage, she says.

Another hint: on Thursday, the Rodong Sinmun, the official paper of North Korea’s ruling party, carried an opinion piece railing against “anti-party, anti-revolutionary acts” against the country’s supreme leader.

“These are traitors and turncoats who only memorize words of loyalty toward the leader and even change according to the trend of time,” the paper said.

“Such people,” the paper said, “will not avoid the stern judgment of the revolution.”
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Mosques around the world have stepped-up security during Ramadan following recent attacks on places of worship. Phil Dierking visited some Washington-area mosques to find out what they are doing.
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange missed a court session Thursday, apparently due to health problems. He had been expected to appear from prison via video link at a brief extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Lawyer Gareth Peirce told the court Assange was “not very well.”

Assange, 47, is in Belmarsh Prison serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in Britain while fighting extradition to the United States, which accuses him of violating the Espionage Act by publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources.

Sweden also seeks him for questioning about an alleged rape, which Assange has denied.

It is not clear which claim would take precedence. The decision would likely be made by Britain’s home secretary.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot said a more substantive extradition hearing set for June 12 may be moved to a court next to Belmarsh Prison for convenience.

Roughly two dozen supporters chanted “Free Assange” outside the courthouse. His case has attracted fresh support from free press advocates in the week since the U.S. filed serious espionage charges against him.

He had earlier been held on suspicion of conspiracy to break into classified computer systems, a less serious charge.

WikiLeaks said in a statement it has “grave concerns” about Assange’s health. The anti-secrecy group says he has been moved to the prison health ward.

The group says Assange has “dramatically lost weight” and recently “it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him.”

The complicated extradition process, which involves both Sweden and the United States and deals with press freedom and national security issues, is expected to last for months or years.

Assange was arrested by British police in April after Ecuadorian officials withdrew his asylum status. He had sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 when Sweden was trying to question him about sexual misconduct allegations.

 
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The highly-anticipated showdown on Wednesday night between Trish Regan of Fox Business and Liu Xin of China Global Television Network (CGTN) — the overseas arm of state-controlled China Central Television (CCTV) — turned out to be a tame question-and-answer session with little exchange of barbs.

Some observers say that, as both are neither policymakers nor experts on trade, their “disappointing” talks contributed nothing of substance, but stoked up emotions of national pride in China.

Others, however, welcome such dialogues that allow free exchange of differing views to continue and set an example for U.S. and Chinese officials to resume their trade negotiations.

The media hype has not only shed light on the increasingly sharp divide between the two countries over trade but also press freedom in China as well, they add.

Face-off

The buildup for the debate started last week when Liu released a commentary, accusing Regan of “economic warmongering,” which led to Regan’s invitation via Twitter for an “honest” debate and Wednesday’s face-off between them.

Liu appeared as a guest, via satellite from Beijing, on Regan’s U.S. based show.

Citing rights issues, CGTN wasn’t allowed to live-stream the segment, but many Chinese appeared to watch it on the internet.

As expected, during the 16-minute-long segment, Liu stuck closely to China’s talking points on every question Regan raised, be it China’s intellectual property (IP) theft, state capitalism or tariffs.

When asked by Regan to respond to a hypothetical question if the United States “forces” China’s Huawei to share its technological developments, Liu replied: “if it is through cooperation, if it is through mutual learning… if you pay for the use of this IP or this high-tech knowledge, I think it’s absolutely fine. Why not? We all prosper because we learn from each other.”

Liu, however, admitted that cases of IP theft do exist, but that doesn’t mean all Chinese people are stealing. And IP protection has been a consensus in China, she added.

Analysts, in general, believe Liu is on a mission to defend China’s trade stance although Liu insisted she is neither a member of the Communist Party of China, nor speaks for the party, which controls her station.

State mouthpiece?

“They [state media broadcasters including Liu] all come on the debate or shows with a mission. Many won’t show their true color as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, but in fact, deep in their mind and thoughts, they have long joined the party,” Lu Nan, an outspoken Chinese dissident, who now lives in the United States, said during a Mingjin TV discussion.

Lu added that he gave Liu credit for having skillfully argued her way out in a language that is not her mother tongue although truth beat many of her arguments.

David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, an independent research program in partnership with the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, also noted “the seemingly ever-present hand of the Chinese party-state,” saying that Liu can’t afford to act as she pleases in a country, where media professionals are asked to pledge loyalty to the party-state.

Stoking nationalistic emotions

“Their debate, so-called… could play a substantial role in stoking emotions of national pride in China, regardless of the outcome. Liu is already being portrayed on social media as a national champion,” Bandurski told VOA in an email, adding the show has little substance.

The show has indeed attracted so much attention in China that, right after it ended, the top-trending sentence on Weibo — a Twitter-like microblogging platform in China — was “Liu was interrupted by Trish three times in the first 30 seconds of the show.”

Many Chinese netizens cheered for Liu’s success.

One Weibo user praised Liu to be “neither overbearing nor servile and have showed good demeanor from a big country” while another wrote that Liu “stands to reason and has done a good job.”

There were, however, others who said they were disappointed with the show because it came nowhere near a heated debate.

Set an example

Nevertheless, Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, said the conversation between Regan and Liu could set an example for both the United States and China to follow and reach a final resolution for the trade dispute.

“As these two super anchors can come to together and held a very civilized conversation on very difficult issues, I think, as two nations, we should be able to sit down at the table and resolve the issues,” Seyedin told a CGTN show right after the Regan-Liu talk.

Xu Huiming, an associate professor of journalism at Guangzhou University, agreed, saying talks are better than no talks.

“Shall there be no exchange of views, you won’t know what’s on the mind of the others. Any exchange of views, even if they differ from one another, raises attention to those who are interested in the matter,” the professor said.
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U.S. authorities and other personnel dealing with the influx of migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico are seeing more people from indigenous regions in Central America who only speak Mayan. That’s creating a communications problem between the migrants and border agents, medical staff and immigration officials who work with them. Celia Mendoza reports from Tucson, Arizona.
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Chinese telecom giant Huawei has asked a U.S. federal court to rule, without going to trial, that a law prohibiting government agencies, contractors and grant recipients from buying or using Huawei products is unconstitutional.

Huawei lawyers filed a motion for summary judgment Tuesday seeking an accelerated end to the lawsuit the company originally filed in March.

The motion says the provision in the National Defense Authorization Act violates due process and amount to Congress judging the company guilty without a trial and without any way for Huawei to challenge the result. It asks a judge to decide there is no disputing the facts of the case and to rule in Huawei’s favor.

U.S. lawmakers included the provision in the defense funding bill last year because of what they allege are ties between Huawei and the Chinese government, and security concerns that arise from that relationship.

Huawei has denied that is under control of any Chinese government entity.

The company says the U.S. ban has stigmatized the company and its employees, disrupted existing contracts and “seriously threatens Huawei’s continued ability to do business in the United States.”
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Roberta Boltz keeps her doors unlocked at night. The former coal mine worker says it is just one perk of living in the small Pennsylvania town of Hegins.

But last Christmas morning, she had her first epileptic seizure, and her only worry about rural life took center stage: access to health care. There is no hospital in her community of 812 residents, and she says she does not trust the one closest to her.

“I’ve heard people say they wouldn’t send their dog to that hospital,” Boltz said. “They’re so understaffed.”

Seated upright in a platinum nightgown, with gauze covering her thin forehead, Boltz recently made the one-hour commute to Danville, Pennsylvania’s, eight-story, 559-bed Geisinger Medical Center to receive care, as she has done during several critical life moments. Geisinger treated her son’s Crohn’s disease when he was a child, and more recently, after her husband suffered a heart attack. 

Located beside a 300-acre forest, Danville is not much more urban than Hegins. With a population of 4,631, it could not by itself support a hospital this size that serves all of central Pennsylvania and has grappled with its own issue of filling medical staff positions.

Geisinger has tried to solve its own staffing problem by hiring immigrants from Jamaica, India, the Philippines, South Korea, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and others — many of whom have come to live in a borough (town) that is 94% white. 

In interviews with VOA, Geisinger staff referred to the nursing shortage crisis as one of its biggest supply-and-demand challenges. Despite being the region’s “employer of choice,” they say local talent recruitment alone has fallen short of their needs.

Big shortage

The entire United States faces a massive shortage of health care professionals over the next decade, including up to 120,000 physicians by 2030. One-third of currently active doctors in the country will reach retirement age during that span.

Unless the health care workforce gap is addressed, rural areas are likely to bear the brunt of its effects, says Andrew Lim, director of quantitative research at New American Economy, a bipartisan research organization.

“If you look at urban areas, there are over 200 doctors per 100,000 people. But if you look at rural counties, the number of doctors to go around is much less — something like 82 for every 100,000,” Lim told VOA.

The population of Danville more than doubles when Geisinger — with its 6,200 employees — is fully staffed. Among the workers: 415 internationally trained physicians and 57 foreign-born registered nurses.

“Not only is Geisinger trying to recruit (international nurses), many other health systems are,” Julene Campion, vice president of human resources at Geisinger, told VOA. “We could probably use another 100 easily (across the Geisinger network), but there aren’t enough available.”

“We’ve outgrown our ability to supply,” added Crystal Muthler, Geisinger’s vice president of nursing — a 30-year veteran. 

The community’s needs, combined with an aging workforce, she says, are ultimately what led Geisinger to reevaluate its staffing model and implement an international nurse initiative in 2018.

“We have to look at how we attract people to the area,” Muthler said. 

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, health care is projected to be the largest-growing sector of new job creation over the next decade, accounting for more than 1.3 million new jobs, roughly one-third of them for registered nurses.

But for those looking to find opportunity in the United States, while helping fill a critical shortage, obstacles remain.

Doctors have been impacted by the Trump administration’s travel ban, while some health aides and nursing assistants could be barred from getting a green card.

It is unclear whether Trump’s new immigration plan, announced on May 16, will help health care staffing. The merit-based system would favor immigrants who fall into broad “high-skill” categories, including “professional and specialized vocations,” at the cost of family-based and humanitarian immigrant visas.

‘Kindness is my language’

Even now, foreign-born health care professionals represent more than their share of the overall U.S. population; 14.7% of nurses and 22.7% of health aides are immigrants, according to NAE, compared to 13.7% of the population as a whole.

Thirty-five-year-old Hemoy Drummond, a recent Geisinger hire from Jamaica, has an EB-3 employment-based immigrant visa. She has 13 years of experience as a registered nurse.

“I was very nervous. It was a new setting, new expectations,” Drummond said. “But when I got here, I realized that people are kind. … I said, ‘That’s my language.'”

Danville, with its lush hillsides and nearby cornfields, reminds her of the sugar cane fields her father harvested in her native Clarkstown, Jamaica. Her community is safe. The mother of two can walk home alone after a late shift.

The nursing work is easier in Danville than in a short-staffed Montego Bay hospital.

“It’s easier to care for four to six (patients at Geisinger) than 18 (in Jamaica),” Drummond said. “I love to talk with (patients) that extra minute.”

Willing to stay

In town, locals generally welcome — or at least tolerate — their new international neighbors. 

“They’re magnificent!” remarked one woman on Danville’s Mill Street. “We’d be stupid not to let them into our country.”

Two hours southeast of Danville, along the Susquehanna River in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, views are more mixed. A foreign-born doctor described Chambersburg as “where blue meets red.” 

Yet Chambersburg Hospital, too, has been trying to solve its health care staffing problems with immigrants.

In Chambersburg, population 20,878, VOA spoke with 10 foreign-born doctors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Poland and Hungary. Nine of them expressed a willingness to remain in rural Pennsylvania long term, including Indian physicians affected by a per-country green card backlog that has placed their families’ future in limbo. 

​U.S.-born physicians do not want to go to Chambersburg, much less stay, explained Dr. Golam Mostofa, chairman of the department of hospital medicine at Chambersburg Hospital.

“Fifty percent of our hospital medicine physicians are foreign graduates,” Mostofa said. “If we interview 10 American graduates, maybe one shows up.”

Dr. Muhammad Khokhar, a gastroenterologist from Lahore, Pakistan, has been in Chambersburg for 16 years. He remains committed to the town, even after his sixth grade daughter’s classmates at a Montessori school accused her of making bombs.

“(When) you have invested so much in the community, and you have built up relationships with your partners and the practice, it’s difficult,” Khokhar said. 

“I’m here,” he added. “This is my retirement place.”

 
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