The milestone comes as officials caution there may be a possible shortage of hospital beds for covid19 patients. The Health Ministry released data on wednesday showing that tokyo and the prefectures of aomori, fukushima and okinawa hit stage three on hospital bed availability. That is the second most serious stage. It means major problems could arise in the medical system. The numbers were current as of october 20th. Officials in fukushima said later they had enough beds as of tuesday. In another troubling sign, the Positivity Rate for pcr tests in aomori hit 10. 7 pour the week through october 18th. Translator the situation is different prefture to prefecture, but it appears the number of new cases is steadily increasing in some areas, so we have to be on our toes. The pad is also affected myanmars general election. Citizens aged 60 and over can vote early to reduce the risk of infection. One w did that is the countrys de facto leader awning sung suu kyi who is 75. She went thursday to a polling station in the capital. Shes registered as a resident of yang gong, but may not be able to go there on election day because peoples movements are being restricted to contain the coronavirus. Election day is november 8th. Myanmar has seen a sharp rise in Coronavirus Infections since mid august. More than 1,000 new cases have been reported almost every day this month. More than 20 opposition and newly formed parties want the election postponed. The government says it will be held as planned. The focus is whether the National League for democracy can keep its majority in parliament. The party is led by suukyi. Its vtory in 2015 brought an end to decades of militaryled rule. The government has come under International Criticism for its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority. Camps where rohingya people are held are squalid and abusive. In south korea the Supreme Court upheld a 17year prison sentence for a former president convicted of a series of charges including bribery. On thursday, the court rejected the appeal of former president lee myungbak. It also rejected appeals for a harsher sentence. Lee was accused of granting a pardon to the chairman of Samsung Electronics in return for the firm paying expenses for an Auto Parts Company he effectively owns. In february a lower court handed down a 17year sentence and ordered lee to spend nearly 16 million. Lees been out on bail since february but is expected to return to prison soon. Survivors of the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki are pushing the japanese government to ratify a u. N. Treaty banning nuclear weapons. The survivors held a rally in tokyo on thursday. The representative of the group of survivors called for expanding the campaign to make the government change its nuclear policy. Translator japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war. The government must spearhead efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. The u. N. Treaty has been ratified by the minimum 50 member streets needed to come into force. It will go into effect next january. But the five Major Nuclear powers as well as countries such as japan that fall under the u. S. Nuclear umbrella have not joined the treaty. The survivors plan to collect signatures nationwide and via an online petition. The heads of three u. S. Tech giants rebuff accusations theisen sore conservatives on thursday. The ceos were remotely testifying at the hearing which is examining laws surrounding so, r theme for th evenings chance how you see your story for tonigh in relion to that the . I think,s immigrts, the fit generaon that comes over takes a huge chae, takes a huge risk, but its not the last risk that they ta. There are series of them ashey live their lives, and my story kind of addresses one of them, especially one that i kind of disagreed with with my parents. And what happens when, within yr family, it causes this misunderstanding and a lot of tension. Hazard please give a huge, storiesfromthestage round of applause for eson kim. cheers and applause kim its the 80s. Im 12 years old. And im sitting in the Korean Church parking lot with my friend andy. And he is ranting about his parents because he doesnt get along with them. And suddenly, he blurts out, you know. Korean parents dont love their children as muchs American Parents do. Our parents just use us as workers. Im completely offended, so i push back and i say, thats not true. And he points his finger at me and he says, youll see. And it comes at me like a curse. A few weeks later, im at the Family Hardware store with my father and two customers walk in. And in just a matter of seconds, they whip out these guns one pointed at my father, one pointed at me. Now my father has endured armed robberies before, but this is my first time. So, they drag us to the cash register, where they order my father to fill a brn paper bag with all the cash in the register. But the problem is there isnt enough. And the robbers are angry. And so, they keep repeating, thats it . Wheres the rest . Wheres the rest . And my father keeps repeating, there is no more. You have all. Theres no more. No more. And, every time they go back and forth, i feel the gun dig deeper into the back of my skull so that i have to tip forward. And finally, the gun moves from the back of my head to the side, as if to give my father a better view. And the voice behind me says, iean it, man. Get the rest now. And what follows is a steely silence so tense that i have to close my eyes. And, in that time, i imagine what its going to feel like to have a bullet course through my brain. Because im certain thats whats about to happen. And im also certain that my father is bluffing. Because there is a stash of cash in the back. And im about to lose my life for it. And i dont know how much time passes, but eventually, the robbers give up, they push us in the back room, and they leave. Bufor the days anweeks after, i completely freeze out my father. I cant forgive him for taking that kind of chance with my life. And i begin to wonder if maybe andy was right. Maybe korean parents have a lesser capacity for love. Maybe my classmates were right and that my parents were alien and abnmal. And my fhers not helping here, because he too is distant and silent this whole time, and all he does isot down these numbers on a notepad, and i keep thinking its because hes worried about the money weve lost because thats what he really cares about. And we carry on like this until thanksgiving. Thats when my father wakes up early, and he gathers us up and takes us to the Hardware Store on a day where its usually supposed to be closed. And he ushers us inside, locks the door behind us, and flips on the lights. And there, leaning against one of the side walls, are six long countertop slabs wrapped in brown craft paper. And he goes up to the first one and he rips a corner off, revealing a oneinchthick piece of glass. And he taps on it, and he says, bullet not go through. Each piece, 1,000. Now the math is not hard here. And im amazed at where my father was able to find 6,000. And im even more amazed about where he was able to find bulletproof glass. But theres no time to ask him, because he immediately gets to work. He whips out that notepad with all the figures on it, takes out a circular saw, pulls out a measuring tape, and he measures and cu and measures and cuts for 36 hours straight. And, at the end of it, he stretches his stiff back, sweat pouring down his neck, drenching his tshirt, and we all look at what hes made. And it is a wonder. It is a wall, floor to ceiling, and countertop and cabinetry made entirely of bulletproof, clear glass. And its so pristine and new that it looks like spring water, compressed. And he turns to me and he says, go inside. So, i push open this door that hes made and framed, and i step inside and i feel like im enterin this scifi world. And close and lock the door behind me and i step back. And i see my father and the rest of my family, and really the rest of the world behind and beyond the storefront, through this clear, bulletproof glass. And, honestly, my 12yearold self kept thinking, my father has made a piece of wonder womans invisible jet. laughter it is the most cool thing that i have ever imagined that he would ever be able to do. And as im kind of wrapped in the awe of all of this, he finds this little opening that hes made so that we can interact with the customers, and he sneaks his hand through and he tickles me, and i jump back and its the first time we laugh in weeks. And he goes in for another, but this time, im too far back, and he cant reach, so hes justrasping air. And he leans into the little opening,o his lips are the, and he says, see . Nobody can touch. And that line is like a spell that makes everything clear. And i realize it didnt matter what andy said, didnt matter what my classmates said. And it didnt matter why my father took that chance with my life. But what matters is what i know now. And at this very time, i know what love looks like. I know what love feels like. And its unmistakable. And so, i step forward unlatch the locks, and open the door wide and i bring my father and the rest of my family inside with me. Thank you. cheers and applause hazard chance, for a lot of people, conjures up ideas of risk and uncertainty and danger. For other people, sowstimes in the same story, its all about luck and opportunity and seizing the day. Our next storyteller was born in the democratic republic of the congo. The son of a human rights lawyer, he was forced, at age ten, to flee with his mother and nine siblings. He made his way to lowell, massachusetts, and currently in school studying to be a social worker. Please, huge, warm welcome for rodrigue kalbayi. cheers and applause how did you get involved in storytelling . cheers and applause hazard tonight,e have heard about life and death and all the things in between. And right now, youre going to hear from a storyteller that im very happy to be bringing to the stage. Please make some noise for chriine gentry. cheers and applause what got you into storytelling . Gentry im from the sou. Hazard texas, right . Gentry yeah, storytelling is in our bones. Its in our marrow. My father is an incredible raconteur. And i never really thought of it as a thing that you could do on stage. Its just somethinwe do on porches with whiskey. Yeah. Gentry and fireflies. But its actually such value for e person telling the story, right . Laying out your life in a way, capturing your experience in narrative allows you to better understand it. Sure. Actually, theres a lot of resear around the power of capturing even a traumatic experience in narrative and how that kind of takes its power away from you, because when you dont capture it that way, thats when its scary. Hazard its therapeutic both ways. I mean, you say somethg, it helps you. And then the audience hears it and like, thats my life as well. Gentry totally. Hazard yeah, so i could not be more excited to hear your story this evening. So, facebook has this really interesting algorithm that decides what you see and what you dont. And one day, in 2012, i was scrolling through facebook. And the facebookods decided that i would see this post from an old friend of mine nad julia. And we hadnt seen each other in years. We had drifted off to social media acquaintances. And this post of hers started, im dying. Im dying from kidney failure. All of my loved ones, my friends and family, have already tried to donatto me and theyve been rejected, so this is literally my last resort. Im posting on facebook to see if anyone im connected to on here would be willing to donate a kidney to me. I dropped everything. I messaged julia. I said, im so sorry that we lost touch. I didnt even know you were sick. Absolutely, im willing to look into this for you. And thus began this really intense process of testing. So, i dont know if you guys know this, but its really difficult to be approved to donate a kidney. They basically run every test you could possibly run on a human being, including really intense psychological exams. And if they find one thing wrong with you, they say no. Which is why over 100 of julias friends and family had already been rejected. But i was lucky, and i got approved. But julia and i, as a pair, were not as lucky. So, we were not compatible, and i could not directly give my kidney to her. So, we entered into this really cool thing called the National Kidney swap registry. And its filled with these incompatible donor recipient pairs, like me and julia, right . So, somebody who wants to give their kidney to their loved one, but cant, and so they enter into this computer algorithm that tries to figure out, like, who could you give your kidney to that further down this swap chain, your friend could get one. So, the computers sitting there, trying to figure out, how can we do this . And at the very last minute, julias mother, who had been rejected originally for a small medical issue, had gotten cleared for donation, anthe computer loved julias mother. It was like, excellent. As soon as she entered with julia, into the Computer System, it figured out immediately this chain thawould work out with she and her. So, my kidney wasnt needed. And so, i got to step back and watch my friend julia. She got to get this kidney transplant and her life totally changed. Every time i saw her, she was newer, happier person, and then a year passed, and she got pregnant. She had a baby. And, i swear to god, the moment i saw a picture of this child, it was such a nobrainer for me. I was like, this life, right, this new life, it only exists because someone was willing to donate their kidney to my friend julia. And every life that that baby grs up to touch, right, only exists because of this one choice. And i had already done this mental and emotional gymnastics when i had prepared to donate to her, right . And now that i knew how difficult it was, how long the waitlist was, and that i could do it, i just couldnt justify not doing it for someone else. So, i called the hospital, and i said, this time, i want to donate to a stranger. And so, they entered me into that same Computer System, but, this time they called me a nondirected or good samatan donor. And, as you can imagine, this Computer System is very complex. Its very difficult for what they call a closed loop to happen so that every pair in the loop somehow perfectly matches with someone else in the loop, right . Most times, they need an outside person, a Good Samaritan person whos like, ill give my kidney to anybody kidney for you kidney for you like oprah, right . And so, like, it was amazing for the computer, for me to enter in as a nondirected donor because it was like, awesome, we get to take you. You can give your kidney to this person in ohio. And their incompatible donor can give their kidney to this person in san diego, and their incompatible donor can give their kidney to this person in charleston. And so forth and so on. So, after my testing, it was done. Within six weeks, i was going to have this surgery and i was going to kick off a chain of 16 surgers that would pull eight people. applause . Off of the waitlist. What an honor, right . Germany is imposing a partial lockdown to try and stop the record rise in Coronavirus Infections. Proposed restrictions include closing cafes, bars, theaters and restaurants as well as limiting social contact. France is expected to make a similar announcement in the coming hours. Azerbaijan has accused civilians its the deadliest attack on