Rents and subsidies to improve benefits for employees affected by the pandemic. Translator the government is creating plans to stimulate tourism demand. I hope the second budget will help regional economies recover. Prime minister abe said the government is also considering support for the arts and culture sector. There have been more than 17,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus Infections across japan. Nearly a third have occurred in tokyo. The nationwide death toll stands above 900. The tokyo governor has announced shell seek a second term in next months gubernatorial election. The campaign is expected to focus on the coronavirus outbreak and postponed olympic games. At a News Conference announcing her reelection bid on friday, koike said the most urgent i ise for tokyo is the coronavirus, and she noted her government lifted a c coronavirus alert fo ththe city just a day e earlier. Traranslator our fight agait the coronavirus is far from over. I think this is just the beginning. We must prepare for a possible second wave. We cant paint a pictuture of wt tokyo will be like in the post coronavirus era unless we win that battle first. The 6767yearold vetereran politician was elected eight times to the lower hououse and served as defense and environment mininister. Koike became the capitals first female governor after funding scandals forced her two predecessors to quit. More than a dozen people are expected to run in the race which officially kicks off on june 18th. People in tokyo will go to the polls on july 5th. Now we turn to the latest on the paralympics which have been postponed by a year to next summer due to the coronavirus. Nhk has learned that some companies that have sponsored Para Sport Federation in japan are reducing or ending support in the face of the pandemic. Nhk recently surveyed para organizations in japan. Sponsors have cut money or completely ended funding due to the impact of the virus on their businesses. Jajapan para agethletics booste spornn sore numbers to 24 from just two before the games were awarded in tokyo. In fiscacal 2018, its sponsorsh reached about 470,000, but it expects that to drop b by moror than 10 inn fiscal 2020. Its worried about returning to a time when it was notoriously tough for para s sports to attrt sponsors. Translator w we cant affff to c cover personnel costs and cost of events without the funding. Para sports may return to what they used to be, so we want to avoid that. Repororter uncerertainty ov whether regegular domesticc par sports eventss willl go aheaeads year couldld be another blow. An expert says federations must convince companies of the special value of supportining pa sports. Translator offering funds to parasports isnt just about supporting athletes. The money could help achieve coexistence. The sponsor should publicize the fact that their contributions will make society a better place for everyone. Reporter fallout from the pandemic has hit sporting havent around the world. Time will tell its full impact on the tokyo games. Para sport federations in japan are hoping their organizations wont be knocked too far off track. U. S. Videoconference provider zoom has acknowledged that it ended meetings marking the anniversary of Tiananmen Square anniversary at the request of chinese authorities. The move prompted criticism that zoom was freedom of speech. Four large Public Meetings set for june 4th. Officials reportedly told zoom that the meetings were illegal in china and demanded the meetings and host accounts be terminated. Zoom said it needed to comply with local laws and ended three of the meetings after confirming many participants were from mainland china. The company said it left a Fourth Meeting undisturbed because there were no participantsrorom thmaininla. The company admitt it was mistake to suspe t the aount the hos in the ited states and honkong andhey have since been instated zoom has surged p populity as a result of the conanaviru paemic, but critics s have raised pricy conces about its use. The company says it is trying to increase transparency and promises a Global Policy by the end of the month. U. S. President donald trump has signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against International Criminal court officials. The white house released a statement on thursday in reaction to a decision reached by the tribunal in march to probe alleged war crimes in afghanistan. The u. S. Accused the icc of threatening to infringe upon its national sovereignty. The order authorizes blocking assets held inn the u. S. By employees of the court. Thats if they are deemed to have participated in any prosecution of personnel of the u. S. Or allies without the consent of their government. The order also allows banning entry to the u. S. Of those individuals and their family members. We cannot and will not stand by as our people are threatened by a kangaroo court. The iccs assembly of states party says it deeply regrets the measures taken by the court calling g them unprecedented. It is a matter of serious concern, as you can understand, because we, as european union, we are steadfast supporters of the International Criminal court. He said the court must be respected and supported by all nations. As protesters in the u. S. Continue to rally against Racial Injustice and police brutality, more footage of police using force is coming to light. We need to warn you that you may find some of the video disturbing. Demonstrators marched peacefully in new york and other cities, demanding change. Their calls come as videos of apparent Police Violence continue to emerge almost two weeks after george floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed while in police custody. Earlier this week Police Released body cam video of another mans arrest of 2019 that echoed floyds. Officers repeatedly fire stun guns at the man as he says, i cant breathe. They were being filmed by the pop lart Reality Tv Show live pd. Paramount network dropped a similar long running show called cops. Meanwhile the u. S. President is dismissing calls to defund the police which would involve divestingoney from police and reinvestst i reinvestingg in community suppot and Mental Health seservices. At an event in dallas, donald trump said he would instead push Police Reform through training progograms. We must invest more energy and resources in Police Training and recruiting and community engagement. We have to respect our police, take care of our police. Theyre presenting us. Trump also said he was finalizing an executive order they have to meet professional standards for the use of force. Much of japan, including tokyo, is in the rainy season which seems to have ended in the south. Our meteorologist sayaka mori joins us with the details. Yes, yoshi, the rainy season ended in okinawa 11 days earlier than normal. The period of the rainy season was much shorter this year in okinawa, but the amount was a lot. Weve got nearly one meeting of rainfall in just 30 days or so. Thats four times the average. So lots of heavy rainfall have hit okinawa. Now the seasonal rain band has shifted to the north, especially hoke queue reek queue will experience the heaviest rainfall into the weekend, maybe 150 meters of rainfall that could lead to flooding and landslides. The rain will spread to the north. Lets go to europe. We can see clouds spipinning ne france. This stormrm system has cold ai in the upperer atmosphere. This is going to cause h heavy snowfall in the alpine region. One water spout in italy and also flooding rainfall in corsica. Take a look at this footage. Thunderstorms and flash flooding have battered the capital city of corsica. People posted videos on social media showing cars stuck in water. Almost 120 millimeters of rain fell on wednesday night. Thats six times the june monthly rainfall. No fatalities have been reported. We will continue to see very unstable weather conditions across europe. This will continue to spin near france. Lots of rain along with thunderstorms are possible. Not just that, we might see large hail and some isolated tornadoes. The temperatures are going to be cooling down to the teens in moscow. The area saw nearly 30 degrees on thursday, but cooling down as we go into saturday and lots of warm air is busting parts of berlin. Vienna, a high of 28 with a chance of thunderstorms. Thats it for me. Have a nice weekend. One last story. Shuri castle in japans southern prefecture of okinawa has reopened to the public for the First Time Since a fire destroyed its structures last october. On friday, visitors were allowed to see where the main hall used to stand and survey the damage up close. A temporary structure allows visitors to view the underground ruins of the original castle built about 500 years ago. The ruins are listed as a World Heritage site. The fire broke out early on october 31st. It raged for 11 hours before it was extinguished. By then, it had destroyed several buildings. Translator i want the castle to be restored so it can be majestic and good looking again. Translator i think people hope it will be rebuilt and that it will be even better than before. Japans government has drawn up a p plan to reconststruct th castle by 2026 with work set to begin in 2022. And thats all for this edition of nhk newsline. Im Yoshi Ogasawara in tokyo. Thank you very much for joining us. Do stay with us fofor more. Welcome to newline in depth. Im marieian naka. Well show you about breaking stereotypes through performing arts and music. Dealing with a widening wealth gap, a school in the citys largest slum is tackling the negative image of the district. Its giving the children there some options for the future by teaching them music. Its not a sound track youd expect to hear, and these arent your typical musicians either. They are children from the slum, home to the emanuel music school. The school offers free lessons for about 60 kids from the area. Its operating expenses and instruments are funded by domestic and international donations. Tran tran i like to come here because i can learn music and play with friends. The school has its own visible success story. The only fulltime teacher was once one of its first students. He went on to study music at college and become a professional musician performing in thailands bestknown orchestra. Four years ago he decided to come back to the school that shaped him. This time as a teacher. Translator i wanted to widen the perspective of the kids in the community. I wanted them to know about the outside world so they canan mak better choices. Vari is now preparing to open a Second School and looking for new teachers. One of his students is a candida candidate. She goes to a prestigious Music College on a scholarship. Her grandmother who runs a food store is the sole provider for the family. She played along in inspiring her to pursue music. Translator i always encourage her, be strong to obstacles. Translator music is the opportunity that i have received and it is something i want to pass on to the kids. Theyre hoping to change the stereotypes of slums for outsiders. Translator i want to show them the slum is not a place of drugs and gangsters. It can be a place that produces good musicians. As the popularity grows, they are now asked to perform at bigger venues. Sounds from the slum, provividi a track for children who can now see and hear a brighter future. Takashi koga, nhk world, bangkok. Now our second story is also about music. The sound youre hearing is an example of minyo or traditional japanese folk tunes. We meet a band putting a new twist into the mix. Here is their take on it. Reporter in 2019 the minyo crew saiders embarked on a european tour. Minyo crerew saiders fuse traditional songs to create an exotic new sound. Minyo crew saiders, we love you. We love you. U. Come back verery soon. Reporter the banand toured eight cities and six countries over ten days. Reporter the crusaders brand of music transcends music and has won the hearts of audiences in europe. The band has ten members. All of them work regular jobs, but they meet once a week to reverse. Freddy is a lead vocalist. He has been a professional minyo singer for 30 years. Minyo was once sung everywhere. In the first four years, its popularity declined. He says it is now usually only performed for competitions. Minyo has become so removed from the people translator these days minyo is something people learn from teachers to perform in competitions and get rated by judges. I see little fun in it. I felt the need to do something about it. Reporter minyo is derived from folkloric stories. The readings take up everyday life. Everyone sings minyo and the songs have been passed down through generations. His aspiration to revive the music led to the crusaders. His guitarist has been an inspiring collaborator. Minyo and other sounds are different, but their subject matter overlap. Every day life, love and loss. Tanaka thought they could be fused to create a new foling style. He noticed that the rhythm of the folk songs from wakayama prefecture is similar to the music from colombia. Translator the melody can easily be matched with the beat with no need to change the way of singing the song. Reporter by looking through the aspects of minyo, tanaka and ska mocha are creating music people can sing, dance to and enjoy around the world. Minyo music was always about providing simple joy. Reporter the crusaders say they hope to continue to bring the joy of minyo to todays audiences. Nhk world. The minyo crusaders are to play in new zealand and australia next month. We end with another form of japanese folk culture known as awa ningyo. Performances have attracted international acclaim. The puppets took the stage at unesco last autumn. Its drawing en musists to its home of toke shima fre fek tour in japans southwest. A woman from america who specializes in theater stayed there for a season to study it while a professor of jap nieces literature founded a puppet group in the u. S. And even moved to japan. Reporter their performance, an expressive far ration. It carries a lot of this is last may. She gave a performance in august before she left. We hope that you enjoy the show. Reporter the puppeteers need to perfect their skills to expresss emotions. In many european shows a Single Person controls each puppet. But here the same people work together. The audience seemed to lovee th show. What ive been working on for three months here in japan, so it was a really special experience. Reporter an expert on japanese literature two years ago moved to japan to work at the university. He set up the theater to perform shows in the u. S. , the only one of its kind there. Theyve already performed 200 times acrosss north america. Translator i love it and hope to perform with other people who are studying the art in toke shima. Reporter he also set up a troupe in japan. Their first performance in october talked of ebisu, good fortune. They threw halloween sweets to the audience, bringing the foreign culture to that particular art. Translator its completely sifrpt from the puppet shows i usually watch. I want to see another new performance. Reporter he says he wants to introduce the art to other parts of the world. Nhk world, toke shima. The idea to combine it with halloween is unique. His troupe is looking for new members from around the world. As we saw in our three stories today, art can inspire people to revitalize traditions and communities. The british economy shrinks by 20 in just one month because of the coronavirus lockdown. The oecd has warned that the downturn in the u. K. Will be steeper than in any other european country. Donald trump told to get back in his bunker as a row erupts in seattle. Protesters have seseized contro of parts of the north we were city. Officials warn the president not to intervenene. And syrian president assad sacked his Prime Minister ahead of elections, following protests in areas usually loyal to his government. The country is still fighting