Positive so far more than 4,300 were tested. This is the largest figure ever for tokyo. The rise wasnt completely unexpected as daily case numbers have reached triple digits in recent days. Last week cases topped 200 for four Straight Days before dipping back to the 100s, koik kay said whats different this time arod compared to cases in the spring are the demographics and severity of infection. Translator recent trends show the number of people who tested positive are overwhelming in their 20s and 30s. Most of them have mild symptoms or no 1i78 toms. Currently there are eight people who we know of who are in serious conditition out of tokys total population of 14 million. She discussed the next steps of tokyos 23 wards. Translator the tokyo metropolitan government has issued a warning about the spread of the disease in the form of an alert. Each ward has its own regional characteristics. For example, in cooperation with ward mayors,s, the ward will cay out inspections in a way suitable for each area. The ward will also take thorough measures against stores and businesses that have become clusters. The new numbers have thrown the scope of the Central Governments Goto Campaign launch scheduled for next week into question. The program would promote domestic tourism, dining out and other i Industries Hit hard by e virus. Koike took a cautious view. Translator the Coronavirus Infection had subsided, but now its spreading in various parts of japan. It is necessary for the Central Government to think carefully about the timing and how to do it. Despite the growing cases, koike remains committed to hosting the olympic and pararalympic games. They were postponed to next summer due to the pandemic. Translator first of all, tokyo wants to host the olympic and Paralympic Games next year. We hope that the coronavirus will be contained and that vaccines and drugs will be developed during that time. In that sense, it will be proof that we won the battle between humanity and this coronavirus. I hope we can hold the games. The Central Governments panel of experts are meeting to analyze the rapidly developing situation in tokyo and other major cities. The minister in charge of the governments Coronavirus Response and the Health Minister are also in attendce. The panel is expected to discuss whether its necessary to ask businesses to close to curb the spread. Theyre expected to talk about the planned travel promotion campaign. Earlier in the day, the head o the panel commented on the Goto Campaign. Translator in my personal opinion, if it is clear that infection is spreading a at a certain pace, it is not a good time to launch a nationwide campaign to encourage travel. The Tourism Ministry is suggesting launching the campaign as planned but excluding trips to and from tokyo. Now, one part of tokyo where covid19 cases are rising is shinjuku ward. Its home to popular nightlife districts. Officials in the area have stepped up coronavirus tests and theyve seen a growing proportion come back positive. Now theyre concerned more infections could overwhelm their testing capacity. Officials in shinjuku set up a pcr testing site in april. They say it has 25 staff and a daily capacity of 200 tests. Last month they were doing around 50 tests per day. This month theyre doing an average of more than 120 and sometimes over 150. The proportion of people testing positive was about 5 in april and may. It grew to 18 last month. Now its 33. Health care workers in one of the largest u. S. States say a surge in coronavirus cases is putting critical pressure on the system. U. S. Media says texas confirmed another 10,000 new infections and 110 more deaths on wednesday, both recordbreaking counts. Translator the number of hospitalized patients has doubled or tripled in the past three or four weeks. Now there are over 100 patients. If the number continues to increase, things will become difficult. Hospitals in the state had postponed many nonemergency surgeries. Some hospitals are still running out of beds. The u. S. Army has deployedorore than 500edicicalersonnnnel t the ste e to hp prprevt a collapap of the health ce syemem. Thu. S. Leaea the world in conavirus ses. Johns hopkins univerty s say the cotry is nring 3. 5 million infections. More than 137,000 people have died. The United States is pledging support for any countries that say china has made illegal claims on their territory. I think youre seeing countries all throughout asia and indeed in southeast asia, and in the pacific recognizing that the United States is prepared to do the things necessary to assist them in protecting their valid legal claims. The statement expands on pompeos earlier comments that chinas vast Maritime Claims are completely unlawful. A state Department Spokesperson told nhk the u. S. Recognizes japans administrative control of the senkaku islands. Under article five of the bilateral security treaty both countries are obligated to respond against an armed attack against such territories. Japan controls the islands, china and taiwan claim them. The japanese government maintains the islands are an inherent part of japans territory. In terms of history and international law. It says there is no issue of sovereignty to be resolved over them. South korean media say the late mayor of seoul may have been tipped off about a Sexual Harassment complaint against him before apparently taking his own life. Park wonsoon reportedly might have learned about the complaint wednesday last week when police briefed the president ial office on it. His body was found in the early hours of friday. Police believe the case was a suicide. In the complaint, lawyers say his former secretary accused him of Sexual Harassment over at least fofour years calling for probe into the case. This week, seoul officials said they plan to investigate the allegations against park with outside experts. Some civic groups have filed complaints against the president ial office and police for allegedly leaking classified information. The New York Times says it will relocate its Hong Kongbased digital news office to seoul. It cited china enacted at the end of last month. The newspaper revealed the plan in an article on tuesday. It quotes a memo written to staff saying the new law has created a lot of uncertainty about what the new rules will mean to our operation and our journalism. The memo adds, we feel its prudent to macon ten genesee plans and begin to diversify our editing staff around the region. The new law for hong kong applies to both local and foreign media. It enables chinese authorities to require news organizations to delete information or hand over documents if the authorities judge a report as harming National Security. A recent survey out of hong kong shows more than 80 of japanese firms doing business there are concerned about chininas new law w r ththe territo territory. The Hong Kong Japanese Chamber of commerce and industry and the Japan External Trade Organization contacted about 600 firms earlier this month and nearly half responded. Among their biggest worries are possible limits on access to information. Around 14 say theyre reevaluating their precedence and may down size or withdraw their operations. U. S. Firms are also anxious. The American Chamber of commerce in hong kong says 76 of businesses it surveyed expressed concern with 36 considering moving their offices or assets out ofof the territory. Keeping children safe from sexual predators has been in the headlines in japan after a male babysitter was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a young girl in his care. These kinds of incidents are on the rise in the country. There were 185 arrests for child sexual abuse in 2018. Thats nearly double the number from a year earlier. As nhk worlds yamamoto soughtity reports, advocates are calling for better safeguards. Translator what hit me hardest is that we, the parents, can be so blind, even when our own child is being sexually abused. Reporter the mother of the 5yearold victim spoke out at the News Conference on wednesday. She hired the 30yearold suspect eight times between april and may. The abuse allegedly took place on at least two occasions. According to police, the suspect has admitted to the crime. Translator i was under the impression that babysitters who registered on the companys app were very caring. It never occurred to me that they could be sex offenders. Reporter the Placement Agency called kids line, has had the situation before with anotheher male sititter. It has now banned all men from the office for the time being, and its using the new test to gauge things like an applplicans sense of responsibility and propensityty to violence this psychiatrist says these kind of screening measures are important. Translator even though they may not intend to abuse children, if they work with them long enough, they could d do something criminal. So i think we need a screening system for these kinds of jobs. Reporter in nagasaki frequent, Public School teachers fill out a c ccklist t to see i they are at risk of offending. If they are, they are asked to seek professional help. But some others say employers need better tools. Translator the rate at which sexual offenders reoffend is high at 84. 6 , but they can still get jobs at nurseries or educational institutions after enough time has passed. Employers have no effective way to check the applicants criminal record. Reporter his group wants the government to allow criminal background checks like in the United Kingdom or the United States. They say that would lead to safer practices for people who work with vulnerable groups. Education for children is also important. Translator whats the difference between boys and girls . Reporter at this kindergarten in tokyo, students are told about the importance of physical boundaries. The mother of the 5yearold victim says a lack of Sex Education may have stopped her daughthter from speaking up sooner. Translalator its very important to teach kids that their body is their own. We also want them to be able to speak up when they feel uncomfortable. Reporter for now, the government says parents should check in with babysitters by phone or email while theyre on the job or even install cameras so they can monitor their children. Its also promising to consult with experts about how to make child care safer for families across the country. Yamamoto saori, nhk world, tokyo. Switching gears to the weather with meteorologist jonathan oh. People along with animals in parts of india are being forced to flee to safer locations as intense floodwaters continue to ravage their region. Jonathan, how will the weather impact the situation going into friday . Were going to still be seeing a lot of rain across india due to the monsoon. Because of that were still concerned about major flooding including the northeastern areas of india where we saw major rain. Here is a look at some video to give you an idea of how things look on the ground as these monsoonal rains triggered severe flooding in the rain with many animals struggling to survive as a large area of this park has been inundated. Over 60 animals have died and as many as 170 have been rescued including a female rhino calf separated from her mother. The National Park is home to the Worlds Largest concentration of onehorned rhinos. We are still talking about the rain. It will continue to be the story that well be seeing the heavy rainfall as we go throughout the next 24 hours. Now, also over into the central and southern areas of india, especially the coastal areas, weve been talking intense rainfall with some locations seeing close to 120 millimeters of rain as we go through the rest of the week and into the weekend. Be on the look out as some of the mountainous areas may also be dealing with heavier rain. Wall to wall rain as we look at the forecast to friday. From the north to the south, west to the east looking at rain and thunderstorms as we go through the day. Meanwhile across east asia, were talking about heavy rain along this front down over into the central and southern areas of china. The front has moved a little bit south, and so the pacific side of japan may be dealing with some rain as we go into friday. Some locations maybe dealing with heavier amounts of rainfall into the southern areas of kyushu and the islands. Once we see this front rolling through, well see the rain still sparking up in places across japan. Be on the look out for that. Tokyos high 22, a lot cooler than what we typically see for this time of year. Looking at rain and thunderstorms. Quick note across north america. We do have this area of low pressure that is really firing up some strong thunderstorms. We may be dealing with severe thunderstorms with Straight Line winds being the main concern along this front. The rain and thunderstorms will be along the eastern seaboard with heat building down toward the deep south with highs in the low to mid 30s. 34 in denver. Over to the west dealing with heat as well. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. And we have some breaking news before we go. Teenage prodigy soto has become the youngest male player to clinch a game in japanese chess. He won the title, one of the eight major titles. He broke a 30yearold record previously set by a player who was 18 years and six months. Once again, breaking news, teenage prodigy fujii soto has become the youngest player to clinch a game known as japanese chess. He won one of the eight major titles. The first time in 30 years. The previous record held by a playerer who was 18 years and s months. That concludes this edition of nhk newsline. Chinas economy grew in the april to june quarter after a sharp decline in the previous quarter. The National Bureau of statistics says the figure came in at 3. 2 year on year. It beat market expectations, although it was lower than before the pandemic. The gdp shrank nearly 7 january to march. Since april, chinas economic planners have been aiming for a return to normal claiming the country had successfully contained the spread of the coronavirus. In may, the National Peoples congress laid out massive stimulus measures, while investment poured into infrastructure and real estate. All contributed to lifting gdp growth well into positive territory. This is newsline biz, im ramin mellegard. We spoke to an expert from Tokyo Foundation for policy research. He says it may be difficult for china to maintain the moment for this economy. The government enforced a few economic stimulation policy and also a demonstration announced, for example, a few investment projects to support economic development. But i have to say, it is not a chinese really fundamental Economic Performance and activity. Reporter chinas heavy reliance on external demand will come into question as the spread of the coronavirus slows economies around the world. He also points to diplomatic tensions including reaction to beijings National Security law for hong kong as a further negative. Actually, it is not a relationship with the United States but also, for example, the relationship with japan and the european countries. The International Environment for chinese economy just turned to very bad now. Ke says the only hope to restart the economy is stoking investing demand but that this wont be easy. Actually in china, the private companies, especially thousands of small companies, they play very, very Important Role to contribute increasing employment opportunities. But under the recession and under the coronavirus crisis, most of the small companies, they are facing the shortage of the liquidities, the Chinese Government did nothing to help the households and the private companies. Reporter he says deep structural reform is needed to achieve sustainable growth. I think Xi Administration need to do more to decentralize the economy, but unfortunately they are just choosing to recentralize the economy. That damage the chinese economic structure. If the falling demand cannot be strengthened, then Xi Administration needs to reaffirm chinese domestic Economic System to do more effort. Officials at twitter say theyve restricted some functions of users accounts including ones targeted in a massive hacking attack. Someone hijacked the twitter accounts of high profile people as well as official accounts of major corporations on wednesday. The company says it has limited the ability of users to tweet and reset their passwords while it investigates the security breach. The Officials Say the hackers successfully targeted some employees with access to internal systems. They describe the method as a social engineering attack. Crucial passwords were stolen from employees while they let down their guard. People targeted include democratic president ial candidate joe biden, microsoft cofounder bill gates and amazon ceo jeff bezos. Apple, uber and other corporate clients also had their official accounts hijacked. Fake tweets requested requested people send bitcoin with a promise they receive double the amount. Business leaders in japan are putting their Heads Together to tackle one of the biggest crises in tedecades. They are debating ways to simultaneously kick start the economy and rein in the coronavirus. Members of the Japan Business federation say they want to expand testing for the virus. At the same time they want to streamline immigration procedures to help revive Global Economic activity. They also say its crucial that japan accelerates its shift to digital Work Arrangements especially in the public and education sectors. Omi shigaru is an expert appointed to a Government Subcommittee on the coronavirus. He told the meeting that new and improved testing is necessary to contain the virus. He says it will make the process easier if people are put into one of three categories, those with symptoms, those without but who are at high risk of getting infected and asymptomatic people who are at low risk. The u. S. Federal reserve says a wave of Coronavirus Infections has slammed the breaks of the countrys nascent economic recovery. The fed released the latest beige book assessment on wednesday. The report says Economic Activity has ticked up through out the country let mainly by a rebound in vehicle sales but remains well below prepandemic levels. Recovery is dampened by a wave of infections in midwestern and western states which is forcing many businesses to lower wages or close. The pace of recovery will be much slower than expected. Turning to oil markets, most of the worlds Top Producers will step up crude out put from next month. They expect demand to grow as the Global Economy gets back on track in the wake of the pandemic. The origination of Petroleum Exporting countries and nations including russia have been slashing production by 9. 7 Million Barrels a day to support prices. Thats about 10 of the worlds total supply. But now producers have agreed to ease those cuts by about 2 Million Barrels a day starting in august. In august, futures fell below zero. Prices have since recovered to around 40 a barrel. Now lets get a check of the markets. And thats it for newsline biz from our tokyo studios, im ramin mellegard. Thank you very much for joining us. Highest Court Strikes down a data sharing deal between the United States and european union. It could have huge consnsequencs for the biggest tech firms. We will speaeak to our Business Editor for the latest. Masks are set to be made mandndory enclosed public spaces in france. The Prime Minister john