System. And japans plan against the daily news how a Major Construction project has helped ease floodwaters. Im melissa chan welcome to news asia thank you for joining us prodemocracy protesters have again defied a Government Order aimed at preventing demonstrations 20000 people gathered in the streets of bangkok on sunday for a peaceful rally where they demanded political change it comes as thailands king returns to the country after months of on rest. 4 days of defiance tired prodemocracy protesters have been maintaining the momentum despite a ban on gatherings of over 4 people. We are here throughout. Says take a span of what we believe in. Their constitution. And also about the government of thailand and i think you find this to be a country for a while. But mostly student power would movement has been leading unrest in thailand since july for the last 4 days of same an escalation. On friday police used Water Cannons unsuccessfully dispersing the demonstrators many protesters were also arrested. By arresting the protest leaders and would be deterred somehow but instead we felt even more desperate wondering how dare they treat us like this should be a negotiation with us or other peaceful means because we have different views they now say 20 i later. They need how many white now are. The movement is demanding democratic reform of thai society where the government and monarchy have dominant powers. Theyve been calling for the resignation of Prime Minister preached. He took power in a 2014 military coup and went on to tighten his grip on power in elections last year. Well you can see that the government is trying its best to compromise were asking for a few things dont do anything wrong dont damage government or peoples property and the most important thing is to avoid conflict within the protestors. Channel she added that his government must protect the monarchy referencing the prodemocracy movements demands of change when it comes to how the royal family operates thats challenging it to do in thai society where criticizing the royal family can lead to hefty penalties. Or long corn is being criticised for his excessive lost style and for spending a lot of his time at a Luxury Resort in southern germany. Hes recently returned to thailand but as yet to comment on the protests. The protesters have vowed to continue their defiance with gatherings planned all over the country. North koreas weak legal system one thats more ruled by might and not rule of law means a pretrial detention and investigation system that is arbitrary and inhumane thats no surprise but the latest Human Rights Watch report documents this in detail including with interviews with North Koreans formally detained who talk about torture and rape. Joining us is Phil RobertsonDeputy Director of Human Rights Watch is Asia Division with more information phil tell us more about your findings. Well what we found is there is a real yawning gap between what the north korean government system in terms of laws and actual criminal procedure says and what actually happens the reality is that people can be arrested for almost any reason that pretrial detention is a system where there are systematic torture and abuse people or you know for instance forced to remain sitting in a in a fixed position a stress position for as many as 7 to 8 and sometimes 13 to 16 hours a day and if they move if they do anything to shift their weight they face beatings and abuse you have a situation where the. Authorities can arrest people without any sort of evidence and that they then can proceed through a process that is completely without access to lawyers without access to families that ultimately results in confessions and possible prosecutions the only good outcome about the situation is that because of the changes on the ground of the Economic System and north korea where there are people now with these are sort of shadow markets these gray markets that it is possible to bribe the police and prosecutors to get out of the worst that might be in store for people held in the system many people might be listening to this and wonder is there a legal system in north korea. Well there is actually a fairly detailed legal system i mean the laws themselves fail to meet International Human rights standards in a number of key areas you know for instance theres no judicial review for detention so once the police have you they can hold you for as long as theyd like but the reality is that there is also a process where youre supposed to have warrants to arrest youre supposed to have various different permissions to investigate there are procedures to be followed but the authorities including the former officials who we interviewed who have you know left the country told us that thats really never happens so for instance. Torture through beatings kicking hitting with sticks and other abuses is Standard Operating Procedure 1 against people who are being held in detention but the system itself says that any sort of admission any of of evidence that has been coerced is completely illegal and that evidence should not stand so again you know theres a its interesting to theres been very Little Research about what the actual formal process is so supposed to be in north korea and that is one of the contributions as reported is that there is a system its just not being followed so yes indeed north korea is a totalitarian state with probably the worlds worst human rights record and we know this so why is it important to document this and what can the world really do to hold anyone accountable. Well its important to fill in the gaps of our understanding about the Human Rights Violations that are happening in north korea its important to recognize that not everybody is determined to be an enemy of the state sent on a one way ticket to the mountains and the political prison camps where very few people ever return from there is a low a lower level process of this criminal Justice System that is in fact anything but just and so its important that we fill in the gaps we give voice to what is happening to ordinary people in north korea you know people who for instance may have been caught trying to leave the country or or smuggling goods or caught with a chinese mobile phone or you know any of these day to day infractions that really lead lendu into a difficult situation but in terms of accountability this is really something that the International Community has to work on i mean we need more pressure from the u. N. We need action at the u. N. General assembly we need action the Human Rights Council we need action at the u. N. Security council and so far we have not been seeing that Phil Robertson thank you. Pakistani Customs Officials have seized 74. 00 falcons during raids against smugglers in the Southern City of karachi the birds all belonging to endangered species were illegally trafficked from afghanistan and were destined to be sold for high prices in arab countries. Dozens of endangered falcons their heads hidden under leather hoods smuggled for the status they can for police said these birds were being taken from afghanistan to arab states when pakistani Customs Officials got word they swooped down on an upscale neighborhood in the port city of karachi 2 people were arrested. Traffickers catch feltons in the mountainous area along pakistans border with afghanistan they sell them to rich buyers in the gulf states there the birds are trying to hunt prestige purchase for the privileged few. That there are 74. 00 birds in total we estimate their value at around 200000000. 00 rupees thats well over a 1000000. 00 after the paperwork is completed the birds are supposed to be released back into their natural habitat. In japan Climate Change has brought more frequent and damaging storms increasing the risk of flooding in response engineers have built the Worlds Largest flood water diversion facility just north of tokyo its so cavernous in some parts it could submerge the statue of liberty. It looks like a cathedral or an ancient temple but this majestic structure isnt a religious try and its an important defense against flooding in the greater tokyo area. In this region when we have to rental rains we often have bad flooding. Our streets and houses underwater even if it isnt a typhoon lets say the structure was filled with the aim of diverting floodwater. Of gadhafi must. Because okabe underground flood protection tank is the largest facility of its kind in the world supported by 500 ton pillars the Main Reservoir catches excess water from storms and typhoons which is eventually pumped into a nearby river. Its a true feat of engineering designed to save lives and livelihoods taking off here when we compare the situation before and after this reservoir was created if the number of houses damaged by floods has decreased by 90 percent. Japan is used to heavy rains especially during typhoon season which runs from may to october but experts say storms and floods are becoming more frequent and destructive because of Global Warming all over us in japan already has a climate which has a lot of rain and as prone to floods. Now we face the risk of even more flooding or because we are experiencing much heavier rains. The government is preparing more underground structures are being built to protect tokyo and a giant facility similar to this one is being constructed in osaka expected date of completion 2044. Just like cousin copy that play a crucial role in japans anti flooding strategy. But they wont protect everyone and with Climate Change accelerating japans impressive storm drains can only be considered one line of defense. Thats it for today we leave you now with more pictures from the protests in thailand with each of. Combating the corona pandemic. Where does research stand. What are scientists learning. Background information and. Our corona update. Covert 19 special next on d w. I was here when i arrived here i slept with 6 people in a room. It was hard i was for. I even got white hair. But if. This gets me. To interrupt lets say you want to know their story. Her fighting and reliable information for margaret. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the divisions in our societies. Time and again we see the economic background effects the likelihood of one catching cold 19 people from less wealthy communities are more likely to have jobs that put them in harms way. Working from home meanwhile is mostly the preserve of white collar employees who are members of society to the face more risk of exposure living in tight quarters and finding distance a luxury. Existing Health Problems also make the coronavirus more dangerous to the poorer parts of society. So what can be done to close the gap how can we ensure that everyone has the same chance of escaping the virus. Welcome to the edge of those coven 1000 special im Stephen Beardsley in berlin good to have you with us work housing preexisting Health Conditions all play a role in our exposure to the corona virus as well as our vulnerabilities in the illness that develops from it thats what experts say thats also the lived experience of many in the pandemic the hardest hit neighborhoods take a look. Test thats been watching his friend are looking for a crave the one that belongs to their friend danny he may have died of corona virus has doesnt know for certain but downey is one of 41 friends that hes lost in the past 6 months all except one are black. And this really makes for words. Because you know. Pesca is a popular figure in the north london borough of hiring the 62 year old pensioner worked as a lecturer at the nearby university and does volunteer work where he can for example at a food charity for those in need he says hes seen how the black asian minority ethnic or being community has been especially affected by the pandemic. Community. Disproportionately in terms of numbers and thats why this. Report in june by Britains Department of Health Reasons for the many deaths among ethnic minorities as in the sponsible workers in hospitals food markets are. There more exposed to the virus also Housing Conditions are often crowned risk factors such as diabetes or being overweight are also more widespread the chairman of the council of the British Medical Association is familiar with what has kept his experiencing and warns that the deaths will continue with the 2nd wave. It is that. In any nation to protect its population protect those that work lack of any action plan the lack of any implementation of clear recommendations that were made in june is extremely concerning. Cant find his friends grave only close family members were allowed to attend his funeral pesca hasnt been able to say goodbye to any of his 41 friends whove died. The report mentions some of the risk factors facing poor communities during the pandemic tighter quarters preexisting Health Conditions and front line jobs lets take a closer look at that last factor jobs fiza breakdown of job categories by the percentage of employees who can work remotely based on a study from the o. E. C. D. At the top. Business administration with a whopping 3 quarters of workers able to stay home roughly in the middle teaching professionals and down at the very bottom mostly jobs that are considered low skilled like sanitation and cleaning now there are a mere one percent of workers able to do it from home and even thats hard to imagine. And im joined now by Ricardo Espinosa hes a policy analyst at the o. E. C. D. Center for skills and peris ricardos good to have you with us is it fair to say that the better educated you are the more likely you are to be off the front lines you know absolutely so where we found that theres a lot of evidence showing you that when it comes to tell you reach. Those who are this is a higher level of skills say for example those who have a Tertiary Education degree tomorrow much more likely to be able to work from home so. You know we see decent Risk Research about these issues and not only that we also try to how kind of trees to. There are part of the skills divide between those who can afford to stay home those who can perhaps theres already a skills divide before the pandemic wasnt there. Absolutely so weve been hearing about the risk of automation or long time right so people are going to gradually be machines now the problem is that this pandemic might even accelerate this trend so you think of companies up to this and then try to automate as many jobs in order to protect themselves. Against prices like this or a potential out there and then in the future so any but context it is very likely that those jobs or are currently performed by people who as a lower level skills are likely to be automated 1st so in that sense i think that you have to map it and then it most people will probably. Occur even much more than those this is highlighting the skills so widening the gap between hire and. What is the potential for retraining those who might be replaced by automated workers as you said. Yeah absolutely so i think this is going to be a center if they didnt so i think you have to distinguish between the long term and the short term i think the short term there is the scope of governance or colonies to implement certain policies 1st of all to retain as many jobs as possible but also. To promote example. In managerial practices to share in i dont so Management Practices you know to allow workers to work from problem but it is so in the long term this will not be possible without thinking of this charity to abseil and resteal the opposition so thats why in strengthening our learning system in general will be at the center of the debate and countries are working on in passing these large recovery bills right now have you seen any effort to already begin this conversation or at least even the funding for some of this retraining or is it too early. Simply countries are reaching out to each personal to help to help i think the 1st episode help identify those were theirs and i think i will research once in that direction its important for us to add it to other workers. High risk in the west were able to identify its a church to target the right incentives right measures were those. So you know this is actually a trend that weve seen over the past month or so countries are wary about this question of very short term theyre looking at retaining as many jobs as possible but once the pandemic sort of the next i mean well see countries doing more and more to strengthen their out of the system and theyre really worried about this and this is something that should do in the coming years can we say that people will always be needed for those frontline jobs those those working with their hands kind of jobs that cant really be automated or tele worked out of. That they will be many jobs will not be automated right so i think it will be a transitional say which can take and 1520 years to move here which we will need a lot of many of this sort of management but the question is what do we do with this so i think we have to guarantee that these people are able to return safely to earth places but also we need to be able to believe youre able to move to a situation where the kind were evil so thats why its killing and risk killing iron crane skills to move to different positions example will be at the center of the debate and press up in 3 countries to to achieve all right a crisis thats still developing right now of course some long term questions were correspond with o. E. C. D. Breaking down for us thank you very m