They cla to haveealth proble linked exposurto wh is knowas black rain. Their petitionememandethat theyeceive ctificate recognizing thems survivs of expore to radioactiv materis that wld cause illness. Inome areas where the black rain fell, there is a system that allows people to receive relief equivalent to atomic bomb survivors, but the plaintiffs did not qualify. The decision to appeal by Hiroshima City and prefecture came afterer consultations with the central government. They were originally reluctant as they had urged tokyo to expand the scope of people eligible for Financial Support ovover health prproblems linked radiation exposure. But the government pushed for an appeal, saying the ruling lacks sufficient scientific basis. However, tokyo emphasized its willingness to listen to local voices. Translator hiroshima officials urged us to reconsider an expansion of the black rain areas. Wewe reached the conclusion tod that we would like to deal with the situatioion by doing so. The mayor of hiroshima stressed that any reconsideration needs to come with a sense of urgency. Translator it is painful to think of the feelings of the plaintiffs as they have already won the lawsuit. But the minister changed direction, leaving room to consider extenending them a helping hand. I hope the plalaintiffs can hav just a little more patience. Localal Officials Say t theyl urge the government to come up with a response by the end of this fiscal year. Relatives of the victims of japans Worst Airline disaster are remembering their loved ones on wednesday, the 35th anniversary of the accident. Finding ways to pass down the memories and safety lessons from the tragedy to future generations is presenting a challenge. A Japan Airlines jumbo jet crashed into a mountain in gunma prefecture north of tokyo on august 12th, 1985. 520 people on board were killed. Only a few survived. Nearly 300 people usually climb the mountain on the anniversary, but due to the coronavirus this year, family members and other mourners are being asked to take their annual hike up Osutaka Ridge on one of five scheduled days and only limited numbers are allowed to visit the crash site. Translator we originally planned to watch the event on tv this year due to the current situation. But my relatives said they want to make the climb, so i decided to come too. The participants will observe a moment of silence at 6 56 p. M. , the exact time of the crash. The annual Memorial Service at the foot of the mountain will be scaled bacack. Only a small number of people from the local community and Japan Airlines will attend the event. Turning now to hong kong where prominent prodemocracy activist agnes chow was released a day after Police Arrested her for violations of the new security law. I would say it is very obvious that the regime and the government is using the National Security law to suppress political dissidents and these kind of situations would n not only happen o on me, but would happen onore and more hong kong people in the future. Chow was a Founding Member of a Group SeekingInternational Support for democracy in hong kong. But it disbanded in june on the day the security legislation took effect. Jimmy li, the founder of an antibeijing newspaper was also released on bail. Police arrested him on monday saying he and other suspects colluded with Foreign Forces to harm National Security but they did not elaborate on the alleged violation. Hong kong police have arrested at least 20 people since the law took effect. A japanese expert says the latest arresests are part of beijings warning to prodemocracy forces. Translator the law is very ambiguous. I believe beijing wants it that way, so that it can be interpreted arbitrarily. They arrest people first, and find crimes later. Thats their usual method. And the phrase made in hong kong will soon be a thing of the past at least in the u. S. Officials in washington say goods imported from the territory will have to be labeled made in china. The decision is in line with the u. S. Policy to increase pressure on beijing. The u. S. Customs and Border Protection has published a notice saying the new labeling rules will take effect on september 25th. The announcement comes four weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end preferential trade treatment for hong kong. U. S. Imports include Electronic Devices and precious metals, but some u. S. Media say changing the labels will have limited impact because most of the goods exported from hong kong are actually produced in mainland china. The coronavirus pandemic has severely disrupted the education and employment of young people around the world. Thats the finding of a survey conducted by the u. N. S International labor organization. More than 12,000 people from 112 countries responded to the survey. They were aged between 18 and 29. 73 of the people who were studying at the start of the crisis said they have experienced school closures. 13 were left without any access to online education. Most of these people were in lower income countries. 65 said they have learned less since the pandemic began. 51 said they believe their education would be delayed. Among people who were employed before the outbreak, 17 stopped working all together. 42 said their income was reduced. The i. L. L. Says the Study Suggests 17 of young people have probably suffered from anxiety and depression. It calls for urgent investments in decent jobs for young people. And greater efforts to improve the quality of online learning. People in lebanon have gathered to pay tribute to the victims of a massive explosion that ripped through a port in beirut one week ago. A rally was held on tuesday near the site of the blast that killeded at least 171 people an injured more than 6,000 others. 30 to 40 people are still missing. The names of those who died were read aloud as Church Bells Rang and mosque loudspeakers recited a call to prayer. A lot of geger, sadnessss, words. I think i cacan kill. I feelel for all mfrfriends who have beeeethrough itit, who los pepeople ty y love. Its a disaster. Citizens also took to the streets in the central part of the capital for another day of protests. Their anger at what they see as a corrupt ruling class has apparently not been placated despite mondays resignation of Prime Minister hassan diabs government. The destruction of the countrys main port is expected to add a burden to the lives of the lebanese people, who have been struggling with an economic crisis since last year. Now concerns have also been mounting about the countrys food supply. The International Community is now stepping up to send emergency shipments of wheat flour, thats a staple in the countrys diet. And that is after the blast destroyed one of the countrys biggest wheat silos. Private stockpiles elsewhere are expected to run out in about six weeks. And the government doesnt have any reserves. The World Food Program says it is sending 50,000 tons of flour. Farmers in france are also preparing to send another 25,000 tons. The country normally consumes around 40,000 tons of wheat a month. Most of that is imported. Fears are rising that a shortfall could send prices skyrocketing. The presumptive u. S. Democratic president ial nominee, joe biden has picked california senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. The former u. S. Vice president made the announcement on tuesday. Harris is the first black woman to run for Vice President in the United States on a major party ticket. Harris is expected to be confirmed as bidens running mate at the Democratic National convention that begins next monday. They will compete against republican President Donald Trump and Vice President mike pence. For more insight on bidens vp choice, we spoke with professor nakayama toshihiro. Hes an expert on american politics at keio unirsrsity. Profesessor nakayama says bided chchoice of senatotor harris as running mate is a reasonable one. I think it was a very sound choice on the part of biden, and she was the top runner from the beginning. And she basically had almost what biden wanted in a Vice President ial candidate. You know, genderer is a factor. The e fact that shes a major r africanamerican politician is a factor as wellll. Youth, shes 20 years younger than the Vice President biden. He adds that she will be able to fully compete with incumbent Vice President pence. He thinks the Vice President ial candidate this time is more significant than usual. Biden himself and even his supporters see bidens candidacy and potential presidency as being transitional in nature. So a Vice President ial candidate may mamatter more e than previo cases in senatoror harris casa. So in that respect, you know, harris pick makes sense. On the other hand, he predicts that the trump camp will attack harris as a radical but addsds that it is highly likely this will fail. Trump team is going to try to portray her as being an extremist and a radical. And though she has veered to the leftft during the primaries, i think its going to be a bit of an overreach to sort of paint her as being a radical. And i do know that many of sort of the centrists within the Democratic Party did support her during the primaries. How will harris emergence affect the outcome of the election . People around the world are watching closely. Now heres a look at the threeday forecast for cities around the world. youve been watching nhk newsline. We are back at the top of the hour. Join us again then. From all of us in the newsroom, thanks for watching. Welcome to newsline indepth. Im yanaka marie. Today ive stepped outside the nhk building in tokyo to talk about the weather. As you can see, its somewhat cloudy now, but earlier we saw a ray of sunshine which made a refreshing change from the gloomy weather weve had for more than a month. Japan always has a rainy season in june and july followed by a scorching summer and then a string of typhoons. But in recent years, weather conditions havee become increasingly volatile. So far this year is no exception with unusually heavy rains across the country. The kyushu region in southern japan has been hit especially hard. In early july, torrential downpours dumped a months worth of rain in a 24hour period. This triggered floods along a major river leaving more than 60 people dead. There is also r record rainfalln other parts of japan. Many people have been affected by floods and landslides. Today we look at efforts to deal with Natural Disasters in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak and ways to improve those responses. Our first report looks at the challenges faced by rescue teams in kumamoto. While the relief work there was underway in unrelenting rain, nhk spoke with a doctor who is coordinating operations. Translator it is still raining heaeavily today. Things have yet to settle down. Reporter its a race against time for tanaka and his team. Their goal is to develop medical support and supplies to the hardesthit areas. But as extreme weather continues to pound the region, they are being forced to exercise patience. Traranslator even if we receive information that there are people in need, its difficult to get to them. So its been very stressful. Reporter inaba is used to challenging circumstances, but this time is different. The doctor says its the first Natural Disaster since the coronavirus which has made it difficult to recruit enough volunteers. Translator people who wantt to helpp would beeoming f from areas where the numumber of cas is high. They would be worried about infecting those theyre trying to support. Locals may be hesitant to accept help for the same reasons. Reporter as a result, inaba says p people are trying to com up with their own Solutions Including evacuating by car. He says during such a chaotic time, its essential that people look after their physical and mental health. Translator by trying to prevent infections, people are making sacrifices in other areas. Im very worried about how residents are dealing with separation a and isolation. Its very important that they try to strike a balance. Reporter some have found refuge at emergency shelters while others havee no choice bu to wait to be rescued. For those like inaba,a, its an unprecedented situation with no clear path forward. Nhk world. Inaba and his team spent 11 days in kumamoto. They began by rescuing people who were cut off along with their pet animals. The team also helped add Evacuation Centers delivering relief supplies and setting up partitions to prevent the spread of infections. Since leaving kumamoto, theyve stayed in touch with local volunteers and are supporting the recovery effort by keeping people connected. But the coronavirus remains a major concern for the evacuees. So far no one on inabas team has been confirmed to have it. However, another relief worker from outside the prefecture later tested positive. Operations of this kind depend on the help of many people from medical workers to volunteeeers. Just like Everything Else in the coronavirus era. A new normal will be needed for relief work too. The coronavirus is also requiring Evacuation Centers to change. In the past, they were often extremely crowded. Now officials are implementing social distancing, but more still needs to be done as we see in our next report. Reporter nhk conducted an experiment. When a person sneezes in a room with no air movement, droplets travel over a concentrated area for about 1. 5 meters. The risk of inhaling the virus would be greater for anyone lying or sitting on the floor. The professor at the university of kochi has compiled various antiinfection measures in a manual for emergency shelters. Her chief aim is to prevent evacuees from inhaling droplets containing the virus. One practical way to do this is for people to surround themselves with partitions made from cardboard boxes while keeping a two meter distance from others. Evacuees can also slooep eep on elevated cardboard beds. This reduces the risk of touching the floor which may be contaminated. Translator you should stay away from the floor as much as possible to avoid exposing yourself to any virus that may be there. Reporter antivirus measures can also mean good planning. Officials in adachi city tokyo evacuated 30,000 people from hagabis last year. They are now creating ways to evacuation to cars and tents. This will help them maintain social distancing. City officials have also sought agreement from local businesses to use their office space for emergency measures. Translator our normal evacacuation procedures are useleus useless during the coronavirus. We hope this will keep people safe. Reporter Natural Disasters can strike at any time. By creating safe conditions, we can avoid facing multiple emergencies at once. Its reassuring to hear that officials are planning ahead as the typhoon season will soon start to japan and earthquakes are always a concern. Some municipalities are holding disaster drills showing people how to build partitions or how to use their car as an emergency shelelter. Others are offering online consultation on which areas are at risk and where people can find emergency shelters. But local authorities arent the only ones making preparations. The private sector is also starting to play its part by offering alternatives to Evacuation Centers. A hotel that recently opened in kanagawa prefecture has made sure it will be ready in the event of widespread blackouts often caused by earthquakes or typhoons. Reporter this hotel which opened in march has the capacity to use power from electric vehicles in the event of a blackout. The hotel is now able to harness three evs which store about 285 kilowatts of electricity. Translator lets test the system as if theres a power outage. Ill flip off the scircuit breaker now. Reporter the vehicles automaticalllly supplyy electriy to the beginning. That is enough to keep the front desk running as usual. Each ev stores enough electricity to charge over 6,000 smartphones. They can also power small appliances. During a disaster, the hotel plans to open to residents so they can tap into the temporary grid along with hotel guests. The prefectural government says this is the first hotel in japan that has created a system that feeds the energy stored in ev batteries directly into its building during power outages. The hotel is also offering an incentive of about 930 to employees who buy evs to further boost capacity. So far three have already taken advantage of the subsidy. Translator we plan to keep introducing electricity vehicles to give our customers and also local residents peace of mind in the event of a disaster and power outage. We hope our efforts will make our cocommunity safer and more secure. Reporter in recent years, japan has experienced a spate of Natural Disasters leading to power outages. By turning to evs as Energy Stores devices, the hotel is hoping to position itself as a Community Emergency hub. For evacuees, a hotel with electricity will be very reassuring and there will be less concern about contracting covid19. It could also be a lifesaver for people with special medical needs. The potential of using power from evs is starting to be widely recognized. The Economy Ministry issssued a manual on rerouting vehicles during a blackout. Automakers are also looking at ways to provide support for local municipalities by supplying evs during an emergency. And a major Japanese TelecommunicationsCompany Plans to replace its whole fleet of 8,000 cars with evs by 2030. So far it has 150 and intends to speed up this program in light of recent Natural Disasters. Now, while its good to know there are programs in place by both the public and private sectors, its also essential for people to make their own preparations. We made a short video on what we should keep ready in t the casef emergency during the coronavirus epidem epidemic. Japan has a long history of dealing w with Natural Disaster so people tend to be well prepared. But the cororonavirus pandemimi makes it even more important that were ready just in case. And thats all for todays newsline indepth. Thank you for watching our program and see you next time. Joe biden pleas places places Kamala Harris, the first black american and asian woman to be nominated for the secondhighest job in the United States. Antigovernment protests in the streets of belarus for the third night in a row. The the u. K. s economy officially slips into a recession. Official data shows a contraction of over 20