Suited to lead and should be given a mandate to steer the country out of the coronavirus pandemic. The televised event in the midwestern state of ohio is if first of three debates leading up to the november 3rd election. The debate will focus on six main issues including the coronavirus, race and violence, the economy and trumps pick to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburgs seat on the supreme court. President ial debates are considered pivotal events. Experts say a single gaffe could shape the narrative leading up to election day. A New York Times story reports trump paid no federal income taxes in ten of the 15 years before becoming president. The death toll from three days of heavy fighting between azerbaijan and armenia has reached 100 inincluding 16 civilians. Russiaian president vladimir pun is urgrging a cease fire. The fighting between the t two former soviett republics ovevere region erupted on sunday. The area lies in western azerbaijan. Putin spoke with armenian Prime Minister b by telephone on tuesday, their second such talk since the crisis unfolded. Russia has Strong Influence in the region. Puputin expressed serious conces over the situatition and called forr an immediate halt to the hostilities. He claims turkish troops have been leading, willingness to fully support azerbaijan. But the azerbaijan president says turkey is not part of the conflict in any form and there is no need for its involvement. Japanese Prime MinisterSuga Yoshihide spoke to his russian counterpart by phone for the First Time Since taking office earlier this month. The two leaders spoke for about 20 minutes on tuesday. They reportedly discussed the economy, the coronavirus and efforts to reach a peace treaty. But after the talk, the two sides highlighted different parts of the conversation. Suga says he reaffifirmed that president putin and former Prime Minister abe shinzo agreed to accelerate associations based on a joint declaration. It states that two of four russianheld islands would be handed over to japan after a peace treaty is concluded. Japan claims the four islands, which it calls the northern territories. The japanese government inherents the islands are part of the territory. It says the island were ilillegally occupieied after wo war ii. Translator i propose resolving the issue in the northern territories with russia instead of leaving it to the next generation. Russia emphasized economic and Health Care Cooperation but did not specifically mention peace treaty negotiations. And prior to the phone call, russia revealed it had started annual military drills involving 1,500 soldiers on two of the islands. A senior official at japans Foreign Ministry told nhk they immediately launched a pro test with the Russian Embassy in tokyo. Nhk has learned the japanese government will l likely b boos economic aid for remote inhabited islands close to the maritime border. The government has designated 71 remote islands that should be kept inhabited to help protect japans territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. Transportation rates to the islands are said to be reduce. But those islands have been reeling from economic implications from coronavirus such as a decrease in tourists. In response, the government will boost subsidies to employment. The measures could include building accommodations so people can telework and enjoy the islands allure on days off and after work. The Cabinet Office plans to include more than 57 million for the programs in its budget request for the fiscal year starting next april. Japanese auto makers had another tough month in august. Their production at home and abroad was down 12 from a year earlier. The output from eight major firms totalled 1. 86 million units. New car sales worldwide remain sluggish because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the yearonyear production drop is easing. The output in china is leading the recovery trend, partly due to government subsidies for buyer of new cars. Officials at colleges andnd universities in the u. S. Are facing some tough choices. They must decide whether to keep their Classes Online or bring students back to campus in the middle of the pandemic. Nhk worlds sam suzuki has the story. Reporter in midaugust, administrators at Georgetown College in k kentucky reopened their campus for inperson classes. The school has an enrollment of 1,100 students. They had been attending onlineonly lessons since the start of the pandemic. Preston crump is a junior. He lives in a Residence Hall on campus. When were in the hallway and stairwells, we are required to wear our masks. Reporter crump says the school has implemented extensive Safety Measures including requiring students to wear masks in common areas. Hand sanitizers have been placed all around campus. The school has provided gloves. Okay. So, b basically reporteter adminisistrators also concerned about ventilation, so theyve arranged for many classes to be held outside. Crump says that despite the disruptions, hes glad to return to campus because he learns betttter with inperson teteach. It was rereally nice to get back into classeses. Online classes, professors seem toto care morere about gettingn content to us instead of actually knowing that we understand it. Reporter students in the u. S. Are quickly getting used to remote instruction. One survey found that 79 of colleges have moved to either full or partial online curriculums. But that shift raises other concerns. Tuition justice now reporter many students who learn online feel theyre not receiving the full education they paid for. Theyre demanding that schools slash or refund their tuition. Tuition justice now tuition justice now reporter Maggie Talbot minkin is a graduate student at Columbia University in new york. Shes studying to be a film director. The tuition is about 70,000 a year. But Distance Learning means she cant benefit from hands on instruction. She feels her opportunity for a meaningful education has been squandered. Some students are taking legal action. More than 70 colleges and universities have been hit with lawsuits demanding that they offefer tuition refunds. Not to mentntion the vast amount of resoururces we lost b not being able to o access camp. It certainly is not an education that warrants its original price tag. Reporter many colleges have responded by trying to make Remote Learning more rewarding for students. Administrators were gearing up for inperson classes in september. But a statewide spike in coronavirus cases forced them to continue with Remote Learning. So, they invested in High Resolution cameras and boosted internet speeds to enhance the online experience. Yep, awesome. Here we go. Reporter this dance instructor can use a large monitor to check her students performance. Additionally, administrators brought in consultants to train professors on the best practices of online tching. They spent over 9 millionon retooling their Remote Learning capabililities. We chose to invest t in significant training, doing everything we can to make sure we get those here okay. Reporter officials at colleges and universities are trying to keep their campuses safe while upholding the academic standards their students deserve. It is clear they have a tough task ahead of them. Sam suzuki, nhk world, new york. Commercial space travel is set for another giant leap. Nasa says the first operational flight of a spacex capsule will now launch on halloween. Japanese astronaut and three others from nasa will be on board. They will be flown to the International Space station for a sixmonth mission. Meanwhile, students in central japan have worked out a way to safely send portions of canned mackerel to the space station. Itit heavivily seasoned with so sauce because astronauts experience a diminished sense of taste. And its made with a sticky starch to keep the liquid from floating where it shouldnnt. The fish earned d certification from japanans space agency two years ago. They will travel in a separate spacecraft to the astronauts. Hopefully they will say, it tastes out of this world. Lets check out the World Weather with our meteorologist tsietsi monare. Tsietsi, people in the western United States have seen a Record Number of wild fires this year. They are still dealing with it. How much longer do you think they can survive this . Its going to be very difficult for them to move on further because of the damage thats caused in terms of the amount of money for the vine yards, the habitat laws for animals and peoples problemerty. We saw over 7,000 structures. That includes buildings and people homes getting burned out through these fires. It doesnt look like things are going to get better any time soon excxcept that the High Pressure system were seeing is getting a little bit weaker. There could be relief for Northern California but not so much for southern california. Were going to see hot weather dominanating the regions and mo fires developing over the next couple of days. So, people are urged to take all necessary precautions to stay safe at all times. On the opposite hand were seeing cooler weather towards the coast of the east. And heavy rainfall is expected going up north toward new england. Showers will spread into places down into florida, so do expect showers through washington, virginia and miami. Temperatures are hot towards the western side, l. A. , 36 degrees, sunny and dry weather continuing in toward wednesday evening. Make sure you are ready for whats coming your way there. Denver sunny and dry and a little bit of moisture developing towards the eastern side. Well go towards the far east. For asia, we see development of a lot of rainfall toward southeast asia, place such as laos, tielahailand, and even vietnam. We will be seeing a little bit of moisture and Rainy Weather developing in hong kong but dry weather for shanghai. Tokyo will reach 25 degrees. There is a dip for thursday at 21 and wet weather coming your way. Nice warm and dry weather is coming forwards fukuoka, upper 20s the next few days. Osaka will be rainy for wednesday but dry again by thursday. Thats all your weather. Have a great day. That is all for this edition of nhk newsline. Im Yamamoto Miki in tokyo. Please stay safe and healthy wherever you are. Welcome to newsline in depth. Starting in june, we began stepping out of our studio looking for space, light and new perspectives. And those just happen to be the big themes in our stories today. The pandemic is forcing us to reexamine many areas of our modern lives. Among them, architecture and the urban environment. One person in deep reflection right now is kuma kengo, a globally acclaimed architect many of our viewers know about. Kuma has been a driving force behind a project transforming the tokyo city scape. And his trademark use of wood as a material never fail to attract attention. Assembled to look like woven cloth. And surprisingly the woven timber is supporting this three story building. There are no Columns Holding it up. As a lead in light among architects, kuma has been working on a wide range of projects from Office Buildings to museums to collective Housing Developments and more. His work sets the framework for urban living. But the pandemic has forced a radical change in his ideas about architecture. So just exactly how kumas thinking shifting. Translator until now architects and the Construction Industry have survived by building boxes. I realized our methods probably didnt make people happy. The boxes. Airtight monoliths of reinforced concrete, steel and glass dominate cityscapes worldwide. Translator these boxes are exactly what we now view as congested, unsafe places. We used to feel that they allowed us to work efficiently, but it was actually creating a lot of stress. And today, with the advances in i. T. , its not necessary to pack people together in a box. In fact, this might even be less efficient than other ways of doing things. I sense that people were growing increasingly unhappy, while reassuring themselves that life was becoming increasingly convenient. As a child, kuma kengo lived in a single story wooden home, a point of reference he always returns to. When he started his first practice in tokyo, japan was in the throes of the bubble economy. Highrise buildings sprang up evererywhere, competing g for attention. But his Early Experiences left kuma unsatisfied. It didnt feel right designing concrete boxes. He decided to pursue his own form of expression. Architecture that invites the outside in and the inside out. This became the foundation of his sensibilility. Kumama is known for favoring natural materials to connect buildings to their landscapes, anand of couourse, for his innovative use of wood. This museum is fully enveloped in latticework of local cedar, allowing for unity with the site as well as a diverse play of light throughout the day. Working on projects like this, he eventually developed a new model for conceiving design. Calling his approach architecture of defeat, he creates structures that exist in harmony with the environment rather than dominating it. But kuma says he has yet to fufully break free of the spellf the concrete box. Translator i was following the Old Convention that dictates architects should keep building boxes. And i started to feel i was limimiting myself. As an architect, i feel relieved people are becoming aware that what weve been doing is no longer viable. Kuma says it was the changes in his daily life resulting from the pandemic that inspired him to make such a dramatic turnaround in his philosophy. Kuma used to be a globetrotter, skipping from airport to airport, but now he often finds himself walking to work to avoid crowds. And hes also taking long strolls in his neighborhood to stay healthy. Well, all that roaming on foot has led to a discovery. Translator after i started walking regularly, my health quickly improved and i made lots of discoveries in my neighborhood. I discovered a park here, a street there, and realized how little value i had placed on my environment before. I felt that i had led a paltry existence, only seeing my commute between my office and my home. And the thought came to me that we must first consider the design of the space outside the box. Searching for this space, kuma chose kyotos traditional cityscape as an inspiration for his future architectural work. Translator here, there will be latticework and shoji. In a nod to the past, the future looks familiar. Machiya, the traditional row houses, stand along narrow alleys, side by side. Kuma believes the relationship between machiya and the space in the narrow alleys holds critical ideas for the architecture of tomorrow. Translator you see the alley space entersrs the structures. It looks a little cramped, but washi paper and latticework create flow. Its not oppressive. People lived with a sense of continuity between the inside and outside. I think its possible to use Current Technology to recreate this type of model. Ive started to feel that i want to consider metropolitan spaces and street spaces from the perspective of a person Walking Around on the ground. Kuma is not only reviewing the old architectural conventions that focused on stacked boxes. Hes also looking for ways to escape the high density of urban living. This idea sprang from the experiences of someone on his team who has been working in a remote rural area during the pandemic. Translator one of my staff was working onsite, deep in the mountains of toyama prefecture. And when the coronavirus started to spread, we thought it would be safer for him not to commute back and forth from tokyo. So he rented a little house, and now he seems to be really enjoying his work in the village. He also still works on his other tasks, besides checking on the work site in toyama right there in the village. My other staff are jealous that hes working from such a nurturing, homey place. It all made me feel that the changes were already starting. Kuma believes that change is possible now that working full time at an office is no longer the norm. Simply rejecting box architecture is not enough. He says the future lies in reviving the spaces in between existing buildings to better serve peoples needs. Next up, we have another example of people breathing new life into local communities by taking a fresh look at the environment. In this case, vacant buildings. As the population ages and shrinks and the city fills with vacant properties, local constructers are putting their skills to good use. Reporter spacious, bright and attractive. This rental accommodation looks as though its just been built. But, in fact, it was part of a Textile Factory that closed 30 years ago. The workers lodgings had been left untouched ever since. Translator we didnt want any outlay on n doing it up if couldnt find a tenant, so we just left it. Reporter this woman is the land lord. She changed her mind after hearing of a new service that doesnt require payment up front. Under this system, the owner is only required to pay for the renovation after a tenant is found. This plan is the brainchild of architect he realizes that cutting corners in the renovation work may not be to the land lords advantage. Translator owners want to fix places up as cheaply as possible. But from a builders point of view, its easier to find renters if you spend more money and do a thorough job of remodeling. Reporter the workmen are able to accept deferred payments because they can allocate their time effectively. For example, if outside construction work has a weather delay oror another project is working late, they can use that time on the renovation project. Because the builders work during their free time, the job takes longer to finish. But since they also have their regular income, they dont mind getting paid after the work is finished. The workers also have access to surplus materials. They keep their expenses down by making the most of whatever they have on hand. For this renovation, about 60 of the materials were procured this way. Translator this baseboard comes in packages of ten. So if you use three, you usually have seven left over. Reporter the work took ten months i in all, but fininally, was finished. New life has been breathed into these rooms that had been left abandoned for so long. Translator i heard it was made with surplus materials so i wasnt sure what to expect. But its much nicer than i imaginined. Translator i heard that reducing the number of empty houses will help revitalize our community. Reporter making use of surplus materials and workers free time to breathe new life ininto old propeperties. Its a new Business Model that benefits everyone involved. Ohashis next priority is boosting efficiency. He thinks that can be done by handling several renovations together, allowing workers to share surplus materials and save time. He also wants to diversify locations with some projects downtown and others on the riverfront and in the mountains. His aim is to give the prospective tenants a chance to discover by themselves charms of the city while traveling betwe the sites. Ohashi is now out scouting a property for the second project which is scheduled to get off the ground by the end of the year. Its exciting to imagine how all this architecture of tomorrow will redesign the way we live. Thinking outside the box seems like an obvious first step in transforming the places we live and work in because, after all, that magical space is where it all started for kuma, ohashi and their teams. Thats all for this edition of newsline in depth. Thank you for watching, and see you again next time