Saturday. Of those nearly 500 were confirmed in the capital. The metropolitan government plans to raise the coronavirus alert to its highest level on thursday, but its unclear how that will directly affect residents. Translator im a little scare d but i have no choice bu to go out. There are things i need to do. Im worried. Translator im trying to stay home as much as possible. I especlly avoid crowded places. The northern prefecture has also seen numbers soar reporting around 20 cases over the past ten days. Residents are being urged to avoid travel to or from the capital. Officials are also asking residents to avoid nonessential outings. Translator its inevitable but strict measures are being tak taken. Translator i also think each of us needs to Pay Attention to necessary preventive measures. Experts are concerned about the spread of cluster infections outside of entertainment districts and workplaces. They say grouped infections are being identified in rural areas, medical institutions and elderly care homes. Translator in the second wave the targets were clear so officials could respond with more ease. Now that the cluster infections are diversifying its becoming more difficult to take action. The recent spike comes a the government trying to boost the economy through subsidies on dining, lodging and transportation. Theres no immediate plans to halt the campaign but is asking local governments to consider placing restrictions on restaurant coupons to limit group dine iing. The head of the Central Government expart panel is calling for tougher preventive measures. Translator we are object the verge of a situation where we will be forced to more strictly limit economic and social activities. To avoid that we need to raise our guard once again. Experts are warning that the virus could be more easily transmitted in the dry and cold Winter Weather especially if people stay in closed heated rooms. Amid these concerns olympic organizers are looking at how to ensure the postponed tokyo summer games is safe for athletes and spectators. Nhk worlds ichikawa chiaki has more on why the Olympic Committee is optimistic. Reporter the ioc is determined to win a gold medal in preparations and its president was in tokyo to make that clear. Everybody wants to see filled with spectators and full capacity. Whether this will be possible nine months from now we have to see. Reporter a heartening sight was the recent International Gymnastics competition held in tokyo. Gymnasts from the u. S. , japan, russia and china took part. An important signal for the world of sports. The gymnasts underwent a twoweek isolation before arriving and took daily pcr tests in tokyo. Translator im impressed with the Safety Measures at a very high level. Were feeling relieved. Those measures are very important for us all. Reporter when it comes to spectators official recently held a prior run. Researchers analyzed the flow of people and air stagnation. But theres a numbers game at play here, too. 33 sports in total more than 15,000 olympic and interolimpic athletes and tens of thousands of coaches, judges and officials. Its a scale thats currently unthinkable during this global pandemic. But hes optimistic about Vaccine Development adding that a vaccine will be mandatory for all. An expert says communication with the public is crucial. Translator what im most worried about is athletes themselves may decline to take part in the games due to the risk of coronavirus. I think the organizing committee needs to give due consideration to avoid that situation. Reporter as close to normal as in the past. But rising coronavirus cases in the europe and u. S. As well as the recent spike in japan is a reminder that the best laid plans arent always guaranteed. Nhk world, tokyo. Two people from myanmar are coming to japan u a work veto sass sa. It addressed man power shorta s shortages. The Japanese Embassy says they are the first from the country to enter japan under a visa category for those with specific skills. The pair will work at a resort hotel in the southern prefecture of okinawa they passed a skills evaluation plan for the Hospitality Industry in october last year, but their departure was postponed because of the pandemic. Translator im very glad to work with japanese people. Im so excited. Sglt translator its a great opportunity for me and my family is since they lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The visa category allows them to stay in japan part five ye s years. Their wage will be equal to or more than that of local employees. He will enter a twoweek quarantine before heading to okina okinawa. The head of the United Nations is calling on the leaders of the worlds richest economies to step up the fight against coronavirus. He says they need to spend more money on it. Secretarygeneral Antonio Gutierrez made the request to the group of 20 economies in a letter released tuesday. He said about 28 billion is still needed to setup a global system under the world health organization. Such a system would aim to ensure equitable access to covid19 vaccines and treatment. He said it was up to the g20 economies to come up with the money. Gutierrez welcomed their recent agreement to extend debt relief for poor countries by six months until the end of june next year. But he said more relief will be needed and asked for a further extension. The g20 plans to hold an online summit this saturday and sunday. U. S. President elect joe biden has chosen more close confidants to round out his incoming staff. Its the latest move in efforts to transition to power without a concession from president donald trump. Biden is pulling staff from his Campaign Team and reaching back into his political history. He said he wants a diverse team. Jen Omalley Dillon who managed his president ial bid will be his deputy chief of staff and also selecting Cedric Richmond as a senior advisor. But theres no word yet on bidens cabinet. U. S. Media are making predictions for secretary of state. Names including National Security advisor susan rice and senator chris coons from bidens home state of delaware. Two big name democrats are reportedly in the running to be ambassador to the United Nations. Pete buttigieg who dropped out of the president ial race to support biden and former secretary of state hillary clinton. President trump is making his own staffing changes. Trump tweeted tuesday that he fired his governments top Cyber Security official chris krebs whose office rejected claims of election fraud. The statement said the vote was the most secure in american history. Trump lashed out at krebs alleging massive fraud without providing any evidence. Shortly before the firing krebs tweeted that the claims have been either unsubstantiated or incoherent. After getting the news he doubled down saying his team did it right. By now trumps followers are likely used to seeing disclaimers on tweets and posts about the election. Social Media Companies are defending the practice which has wrangled republicans. The tech firms say they have a policy to flag comments that have been misleading. Republican lawmakers call it censorship. Twitter Ceo Jack Dorsey and Facebook Ceo Mark Zuckerberg spoke at the Senate Judiciary committee hearing. They were called thereafter blocking a New York Post story about joe bidens son during the election campaign. Republicans who controlled the senate put the tech giants on the defensive. The public asked us to offer additional context. To help make potentially misleading information more apparent. We did exactly that applying labels. Facebooks zuckerberg says the process needs to be transparent for users to trust it. By contrast the move is making some conservatives shift to new social media platforms. Apps like parlor and rumbl dont sensor content and have reportedly become popular among radical farright groups. The u. S. Defense Department Says an interceptor missile has successfully shot down a target representing an icbm during a test. Officials say the target was destroyed off hawaii monday. It was launched from a test site in the marshal islands more than 4,000 kilometers away. The United States calls this an incredible accomplishment. It seems to be a message to north korea. They have been actively developing its own missile program. Japan jointly developed a new interceptor and planned to deploy it with maritime selfdefense force. Next an animated japanese movie continues to dominate box office ace cross the nation while hollywood pushes back the release of many block busters. We looked at how other industries are capitalizing on the franchises popularity. Fans are packing the theater for one blockbuster. The story is about the battle between humans and demons about 400 years ago. It has more than 223 million at the box office in the 31 days after its release. This has a section related to merchandise. People of all ages buy them. Other businesses are jumping on the bandwagon. Its a big Business Opportunity for the travel industry, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. In the movie, the heroes are on locomotives. That inspired the railway. Translator we wanted to be popular with people of all ages. We want more people to choose travel by rail, which has fallen off during the pandemic. Its become a hot tourist attraction. Its also the name of the hero. Translator im grateful were getting visitors from outside the prefecture. At the shrine, visitors write their wishes on small wooden plaques. There are hundreds of them here. The number of emma offered here has doubled from last year. We asked what they wished for. 2020 has been a tough year for many people in jah pab. You can say that its given them just what they need to have energy to carry on. Its time for a check on the weather with meteorologist jonathan oh. Residents had a nice, warm day. But you mentioned tuesday that other parts of jah were going to see some changes. So whats ahead for the remapder of the week . We did see some warm weather again for many parts of japan, but it wasnt necessarily all dry. We had a front that was moving through the northern portions of the country. It brought in some of wet weather pattern and well be seeing more of the rain expanding across the country as we go through thursday and into friday. Now we were talking about one to move through and another one coming behind it. But its kind of almost becoming this one big type of pattern that has taken place. Well see the front moving towards the south and as it does so, well see cold air come in. Take a little pith of time to take place. In the process, well also see a lot of rain thats already impacting china into north and south korea. It will spread to Western Areas of japan. As we go through thursday and friday. And as that spreads to the east, were talking about an increased chance of rain and up to the north. Heres a look at the forecast. Looking at rain from thursday through saturday and then the snow comes into the picture. Temperatures up to 25 on friday. Cant rule out a shower or so. Then the bottom really falls out as monday we drop to 15 for the daytime high. So be ready to bundle up by the time we get to the first part of next week. Also looking at a big temperature drop. Midteens into monday. Were still seeing some of the cold air filtering from the north into places like china. So beijing also a high of 10 kming up on thursday and the cold air will be spreading to the east toward the weekend. Meanwhile, were keeping an eye on iota. Its a tropical depression at this point, but its causing a serious impact. This is how things look as high winds lashed the country as the hurricane made landfall monday night. The rivers swelled. Roofs were torn off. Nine people have been killed in nicaragua because of the storm. A double punch marked the first time that a couple major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic Ocean in the month of november since records started. We are talking about rain continuing into the central portions of central america. That also expands to mexico. Seeing a hard time through the next couple days. Hope you have a safe day wherever you are. F fpz. That wraps up this edition of nhk newsline. Coming up next is newsline biz, so dont go away. This is newsline biz. Officials say the Fiscal Health of developed nations will likely worsen significantly as a result of economic measures to deal with the pandemic. Foft responses to the coronavirus pandemic in a bi biannual report on the world economy. The scale of the the economic measures was unprecedented. With a value of about 12 trillion globally. Japans economic package reached 42 of its gdp while the figures for germany and the United States stood at 37 and 15 . Officials say countries need to focus on improving Fiscal Health once the pandemic is brought under control. And the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has expressed concern over the impact of the surge in Coronavirus Infections on the u. S. Economy. He said the next few months may be very challenging. Theoncern is that peoe will lose confidence in efforts to control the pandemic and theyll pull back from activities they think might put them at risk of infection and theres some signs of that already. Powell made the comments on tuesday during an online event organized by a business group. He pointed out more than a dozen states are now imposing restrictions on economic activity. The chair said its difficult to tell when expectations over the development of a vaccine will translate into a positive impact on the economy. Powell said recent signs from the vaccine trials were good news. It comes awe maid falling demand due to covid19. Kawasa kawasakis new assistant has various instruments and a camera. The arms can be operated like human fencingers. The robot was developed with the medical device maker. The Health Ministry says its the first maker to win government approval to produce and sell a surgical assistant robot. Kawasaki officials aim to turn around finances. The Company Posted a net loss in the first half of the current fiscaler year. The British Government says its acting ahead of schedule with a bold measure glens global warming. It will ban sales of new gasoline and diesel cars and vans by 2030. Thats five years earlier than planned. Officials say by 2035 theyll also ban sales of new hybrid autos. They plan to promote electric and other cleaner vehicles through buyer grants and installing more charging station. The u. K. Has stepped up its planning on the environment as it prepares to host the cop 26 conference next year. Boris johnson outlined his plan to fight climate change. He suggested what is good for the environment will also benefit the economy. The measures have won broad support from industry. The chief executive of the society of Motor Manufacturers and traders said the plans success will depend on how easily consumers can buy new cars and recharge them. And japans two Major Airlines have decided not to take on new Flight Attendants in 2021. The pandemic is to blame. In 2020, 1,200 employees came onboard. The drastic declines in passenger loads means they will be the last for a while. Many young people aspiring to those jobs are reluctantly changing course. Flight attendants usually start work after finishing college or a Vocational School such as this. More than 90 of its graduates are hired by japanese or International Carriers in a typical year. The current situation, though, is anything but typical. As of midoctober only 20 of those in the last stages of training had been offered jobs. Translator many of our students have been determined to study with us since high school. I feel sorry for them. They dont have a clear employment path these days. As a result the school has begun steering them to businesses outside the airline industry. Translator the pandemic took my dream away. I changed my focus to the jewelry and fashion industry which ive also liked since childhood. The Flight Attendant school says the language and Customer Service skills that students acquire transfer well. Translator were introducing our students to other types of work they might find fulfilling. Not everyone is willing to give up just yet, though. A University Student in her third year. Shes wanted to be a Flight Attendant for as long as she can remember, so shes taking a year off school hoping that Employment Opportunities will rebound. Translator i think jobs will still be scarce in 2021. My chances will be better if i postpone my graduation by a year. Months o things seemed to be going her way. She was accepted into a Foreign Exchange program in the u. S. Three days after she arrived, though, her university in japan told her to come home because of the pandemic. Translator at that moment i thought why are these things happening to me. I was sad and frustrated beyond words. Back in japan she began working part time as a teaching assistant at an english language school. That would help her repay Student Loans and keep her options open. I hope this job will keep me going until i can get back on track to becoming a Flight Attendant. So for now shes in a Holding Pattern waiting for the skies to clear. Okay, lets get a check on the markets. And thats it for newsline biz from our tokyo studios. Im ramin mellegard. Thank you so much for joining us. Rt. Is aljazeera. These are the top stories. The pentagon has confirmed sharp reductions in the number of u. S. Troops in afghanistan and iraq by mid january, just before President Trump leaves office. 2,000 will withdraw from afghanistan and 500 from iraq, leaving 2. 5 thousand in each country. Limit us remind those who question or resolve or may seek to interfere with this pursuant plan and coordinated plan signatures. The United States armed forces remain committed to p