Biden exchange a week out from election day. Plexiglass barriers were going to separate the two rivals but were removed at the last minute as both tested negative for covid19. The coronavirus pandemic dominated the first part of the debate. Trump defended his handling of the crisis while biden criticized the president s response. This is a worldwide problem, but i have been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we have been able to do with the if you take a look at what we have done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and everything else. And in particular, ventilators. We are now making ventilators all over the world, thousands and thousands a month, distributing them all over the world. It will go away, and as i say, we are rounding the turn, we are rounding the corner, its going away. The expectation is that we will have another 200,000 americans dead by the time between now and the end of the year. If we just wore these masks, the president s own advisers have told him, we could save 100,000 lives. We are in a circumstance where the president thus far still has no plan. No comprehensive plan. What i would do is to make sure we have everyone encouraged to wear a mask all the time. North korea was also discussed with President Trump saying that he has made progress with its leader kim jongun. I have a very Good Relationship with him. Different kind of a guy, but he probably thinks the same thing about me. We have a different kind of a relationship. We have a very Good Relationship. And theres no war. What has he done . Hes legitimized north korea. He talked about his good buddy who is a thug. A thug. And he talks about how were better off. They have much more capable missiles able to reach u. S. Territory much more easily than they ever did before. Trump and biden touched on a wide range of issues during the debate which spanned more than 90 minutes. They discussed election interference by russia and iran, health care, justice reform, and trumps taxes. Trump also repeated unsubstantiated allegations about bidens son business dealings in ukraine. The first debate between the two was dominated by interruptions. This time both their microphones were muted at certain times to prevent them from speaking earli earliearover each other. How did the two candidates come across to you . It was quite a contrast from the last debate which was chaotic to say the least. This time both sides showed a decent amount of restraint and there were fewer interruptions. They also talked more about policies, although not in great detail. There are still a lot of personal attacks as the candidates try to a difference eight themselves in a bid to gain support. The contrast seemed most stark in the final question when the moderator asked what they would say to the people who did not vote for them on Inauguration Day if they win. Trump promised to revive the countrys economic fortunes while biden said h would try to unite the country and serve all americans regardless of which party they support. Voters will be choosing between these two different visions of the country. Now that the final debate is over, what will the campaigns focus on in the final stretch . This is the get out and vote period, if you will. The two camps will be making sure their supporters actually cast a ballot instead of trying to sway undecided voters. One thing we need to remember is that most people have already made up their mind. Nearly 50 Million People have cast their ballots in early voting. One poll suggests more than 90 of eligible voters have decided who they will support in this deeply divided society. While i have been traveling all over the country for the last three months, and i have hardly come across anyone who is undecided. But every vote matters in what is expected to be a close election with biden leading in national polls, trump is suggesting he might hold as many as five rallies a dwa as he tries to close the gap. The campaign is only expected to grow more fierce with just over ten days left until election day. One of the focal issues during this election is racial injustice. Protesters in the black lives Matter Movement have been pushing the cause but theyre facing a backlash from Trump Supporters. Nhk worlds sam suzuki reports. Black lives matter black lives matter reporter in may the Police Killing of a black man nam george floyd in minnesota outraged people around the country. Demonstrators took to the streets and have continued to protest calling for an end to systemic racism. Shiv vonn nah newsom is a cofounder of the black lives matter in new york. She and her fellow activists are enthusiastic about voting out trump. I cannot let black peoples struggles be ignored. We have to push for biden and Kamala Harris to be in the white house. Reporter however, the black lives Matter Movement seems to be losing favor with some. In june a poll found 54 of people in the u. S. Say they support the protests. By september that number had dropped to 39 . Support in the black community has slightly declined as well. Ironically the drop may be tied to another police shooting. In august officers in wisconsin fired seven bullets into the back of jacob black, a blake man who was seriously wounded. Outraged protesters again took to the streets, and a small number of them caused Property Damage and looting. Some people watched the chaos with alarm. They threw their support back to trump and his law and order message. The declining enthusiasm for the demonstrations has made Trump Supporters more vocal. Usa reporter people at this counterprotest in new jersey are speaking out against black lives matter and calls to reform police. Every weekend dozens of drivers form a motorcade flying flags of support for the president and Law Enforcement. Amy snurl is the organizer of the counterprotest. She say it is rioting spawned by the black lives Matter Movement is a threat to public order. Our voices are getting louder and louder and louder. The more support of the police is showing up for our Law Enforcement, for our country, for our president. Now is the time reporter the backlash has only strengthened the resolve of newsom and her allies. They know eroding support threatens to drown out calls for racial equality. Thats why theyre concentrating efforts on registering people to vote so their voices can be heard in the election. Ive been handregistering voters to vote. Im using my social media platform. Im sure in every country arond the world, everyone is talking about Donald Trumps deplorable behavior. Its my duty as an american to get him out of office. Reporter to work towards eliminating racist policing practicing through reform or suppress protests and emphasize law and order, adds the general election approaches, the debate over Law Enforcement intensifies. Sam suzuki, nhk world, new york. The United States has approved remdesivir as a treatment for covid19. That makes it the first drug to be approved for the disease in the country. The Food Drug Administration announced on thursday remdesivir had been approved for use in hospitalized patients 12 years of age or older and weighing at least 40 kilograms. Remdesivir was developed by a u. S. Drugmaker to treat people infected with ebola. In may the fda authorized the emergency use of the drug to treat coronavirus patients in may. Japan followed suit, granting fasttrack approval. A group led by researchers at the u. S. National institutes of health conducted Clinical Trials and reported remdesivir can shorten recovery time. The drug was administered to President Trump after he contracted the virus. However, the World Health Organization said its Clinical Trial found remdesivir appears to have little or no effect on the survival rate or length of hospital stay of covid19 patients. A Japanese Research team says some covid19 survivors discharged from hospital months ago are suffering aftereffects such as hair loss and shortness of breath. The team is from the National Center for Global Health and medicine. The researchers interviewed 63 people. The average age of the interviewees was 48 years old. They were treated for covid19 in hospitals and discharged between february and june. Seven people complained about shortness of breath about four months after the onset of the disease. Six complained about fatigue or loss of smell. Four people said they had cough. And one had lost the sense of taste. 58 respondents agreed to participate in an additional study. 14 said they had experienced hair loss about two months after the onset of covid19. Hair loss has also been reported among survivors of ebola and dengue fever. Dr. More coichiro is a member of the research team. He says the loss of hair may also be attributable to psychological stress from prolonged treatment. A japanese Government Task force is examining opinions from residents over how to dispose of massive volumes of radioactive wastewater. It is currently stored at the crippled Fukushima DaiichiNuclear Power plant. The waste water was used to cool molten nuclear fuel from the march 2011 meltdowns and contains radioactive substances like tritium. The volume has topped 1. 2 million tons. In february a Ministry Panel proposed releasing the wastewater into the ocean or vaporizing it into the atmosphere after diluting it to a level that meets environmental and other standards. On friday the task force looked into residents views on the disposal plan expressed at seven past hearings or submitted in writing. About 2,700 written submissions expressed concern or safety. About 1,400 pointed out the plan has not secured public approval. Economy, trade and industry minister Kajiyama Hiroshi said the task force should discuss what can be done in resonse to the feedback. Translator to prevent delay in the decommissioning work, it is necessary to decide on a policy on how to handle the waste water that is increasing day by day as soon as possible. Many participants express concern voiced worries about what they called harmful rumors about the impact of releasing the treated water into the sea and called for measures to address them. The minister in charge of the Science Council of japan and the head of the council have discussed possible reforms to the academic body. The meeting comes amid controversy over the governments rejection of six nominees for council membership. Translator the Science Council is funded by the national budget. It should fulfill the role its supposed to play more appropriately and gain public understanding. We want to maintain close communication with the council and think about how the council should function in a futureoriented manner. The council is tasked with advising the government on sciencerelated matters as well as promoting and enhancing the field of science. Half of its members are appointed every three years based on internal recommendations from the council itself. Prime minister Suga Yoshihide recently broke with precedent by rejecting six nominees. They were known to be critical of government policies, including national security. The government is accused of hindering academic independence. Translator the council is currently struggling over the rejection of our nominees. I think resolving this issue is very important for our frank dialogue in the future. Kajita said the council is required to support the state and society from the viewpoint of academia. He said he will boost that role through dialogue with the people. After the meeting, kajita said the council will discuss how it will make proposals, release information, and conduct International Activities based on thirdparty assessment he says the group hopes to report results to the government by the end of the year. The six scholars held a News Conference on friday to express their views. They called their rejection illegal. Translator the signs council act guarantees the organization of the council to ensure political power maintains distance from academia. If politicians decide who is qualified for membership and who is not, the independence of the Science Council will b destroyed. Another researcher criticized the government for citing an article of the constitution. It stipulates the people have the right to choose their Public Officials and dismiss them. Translator the government claims that the Prime Minister can freely decide to choose a Civil Servant or not to choose any person because he represents the people, and it cites article 15 of the constitution. This could be interpreted as if the Prime Minister were trying to become a dictator. Thats really horrible. The researchers are urging the government to explain how the decision was made and reverse it. Shifting now to a check on the weather with our meteorologist jonathan oh. Weve had several wet weekends in tokyo. It would be nice to see a dry one soon. How are saturday and sunday looking . By the time we go into saturday and sunday, most of japan should be seeing a dry weekend, and it should be close to average for this time of year. But we have to go through a little more in terms of rain for the evening hours on friday as we have the system moving to the north and east. Take a look this video coming out of hokkaido where we had sme windy and wet weather, gusts of 96 Kilometers Per Hour reported in northeastern hokkaido. Other parts of the eye land with alltime record high winds. Typhoonlike powerful winds are in the forecast for saturday due to a potential weather bomb, a rapid intensification of a low pressure system that will be departing to the north and east. Elsewhere, toward the south and west well be talking about the rain lifting and eventually drying out by saturday. So that should be a nice transition. Change over High Pressure will be coming in. Thats going to help to dry out the skies here. Tokyo looking at a high of 22 for saturday and sunday with partly cloudy skies, and thats even extending into monday as well. Osaka and few fukuoka has a drier pattern. Typhoon saudel is moving the the west, expected to impact the island of high none as we go into saturday. The real concern is in vietnam because of the tropical storm, it will bring lots of wet weather into places already saturated with moisture. More flooding concerns will be in place. Mean while, were talking about a big winter blast taking place across the northern portions of the United States. Cold air coming in from the north and talking about strong thunderstorms ahead of that due to a front. N now, we still have concerns of wildfires. In fact, one town near the Rocky MountainNational Park had people that needed to be evacuated from there because of this fire thats now expanded to more than 50,000 hectares that started on wednesday. We are expecting wintery weather to come into colorado and hopefully that will help out with the situation. Talking real serious cold air coming down and staying in place for the next couple days, going into the weekend. So be prepared for wintery weather in places like denver and kansas city as we go through the next few days. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. And that wraps up this edition of nhk newsline. Im raja pradhan in tokyo. Coming up next is newsline biz with ramin mellegard. So, please, do stay with us. Wine connoisseurs in jpan are gearing up for an annual ritual. Cases of buch low knew vo are arriving from france ready to go on sale next month. The wine is sold in the same year the grapes are harvested. The coronavirus has impacted this years shipments with volumes down by an expected 30 or 3. 4 million bottles. Thats largely due to reduced restaurant orders. This is newsline biz. Im ramin mellegard. Huawei is reporting nearly 10 Revenue Growth as the Company Comes under sanctions pressure from the United States. Sales from january to September Rose 9. 9 in yuan terms to about 100 billion kpaerd with the same period laugh year. Full earnings details are unavailable as the company is not listed. Analysts believe huawei saw an increase in shipments in 5g base stations in china. But sales are slowing. The u. S. Imposed further trade restrictions last month, blocking microchip exports. Huaweis Earnings Release explains amid the coronavirus pandemic, the companys Global Supply chain is being put under intense pressure and its production and operations face significant challenges. Tokyo and london have agreed the u. K. s first big post brexit trade deal as britain pushes to keep its economy on track after leaving the european union. Japanese foreign minister motegi toimitsu and British Trade secretary Elizabeth Truss signed the agreement in tokyo on friday. It follows oer four months of negotiations often carried out by Video Conference due to the coronavirus pandemic. How fitting it is to be in the land of a rising sun to welcome in the dawn of a new era of free trade. This is the first new free trade deal to be agreed since the u. K. Once again became an independent trading nation. Translator we intend to use this agreement as an important base to promote bilateral trade and investment between japan and the u. K. And to further strengthen and develop japans relationship with the uk as a Strategic Global partner. The pact is similar to an eu deal that kicked in last year. Both removed tariffs on Japanese Cars by 2026. The government expects to get early approval from the diet so the u. K. Deal can start january 1st. Britain is due to finish its transition from the eu at the end of this year. The cruises industry has been a highprofile casualty of the pandemic. Some big liners in japan are taking steps to head back to the high seas as soon as next month. Major cruise operators in japan have come up with a manual of ways to prevent infections as they look to get sailing after months at port. That comes after some ships around the world became notorious coronavirus hot spots including the diamond princess whiz was moored in yokohama. Cruise on osaka 2 practiced responding to a similar outbreak. The drill involved testing people who had been in close contact with a passenger simulated to be infected. Th disinfecting was another priority. Some areas were off 4ri789s to all but crew wearing protective gear. An independent group must certify companies before they can restart operations. Translator well make a steady effort one step at a time to restore safety and a sense of security. Meanwhile japans Foreign Ministry plans to launch a research project. It aims to spent 40 million yen on the initiative in the next financial year. Thats nearly 400,000. Japans first passenger jet project will face a further squeeze on its finances. Sources say Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has decided to cut the budget for space jet clouding prospects of the planes first deliveries. The move would affect spending from the next Business Year onward, mhi, subsidiary mitsubishi aircraft is developing the jet. They were scheduled for as early as fiscal 2021. The cut would after fact downsizing for the current fiscal year with Development Costs slashed by more than half. Flight tests in the United States were suspended as part of the accounts. Demand for passenger aircraft is sluggish as the coronavirus pandemic continues to force airlines to ground flights. Mhi is expected to announce details of the budget next week when it will release a mid and Longterm Management plan. Japans Consumer Prices continued to fall last month, a hint that deflationary pressure is growing as the pandemic drags on. Officials at the internal Affairs Ministry say the cpi excluding fresh food was down 0. 3 year on year. That marks a second consecutive month of decline. The index hasnt written since april. Hotel charges fell 30 despite the governments campaign to stimulate domestic tourism. Crude oil prices have been heading lower making gasoline and other fuel costs cheaper. Not all industries are struggling in the wake of the pandemic. Shipments of Laptop Computers in japan hit a record for the april to september period as more people work from home. An Industry Group says shipments jumped 15 from the year before to about 4. 3 million units. It expressed fresh demand from schools to support sales even as the initial surge in teleworking fades. Okay. Lets get a check on the markets. Thats it fo woman we love food. We all eat food. Food is yummy. However, do we think about the relationship we have to food or the relationship of food to the world at large and our society . Current la food was a public art triennial that looked at art and looked at food, and it was an opportunity to look at the multiple dimensions of food through the perspective of artists. Artists are really good at stepping back and looking at whats happening and then representing these ideas in new ways. The artists were given the theme of the