news of life from girl lend a surprise choice by the swedish academy for this year's nobel prize in literature a 77 year old american poet louise glick is honored for an unmistakable poetic voice in her work spent well on the themes of childhood and family life also coming up mike pence and campbell harris face off in a u.s. vice presidential debate dominated by the provirus crisis they also sparred over supreme court appointments abortion and climate but did they have any answers. a

warning that germany could be heading for an uncontrollable spread of the. chancellor angela merkel says she does not want a repeat of the country's spring lockdown. plus living in fear of the next bombing . hoping that the ceasefire in syria will hold. a michael ok welcome to the program the 2020 nobel prize in literature has been awarded to the american writer and poet in the. swedish nobel academy said she had one for her unmistakable unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal. debut collection of poetry 1st born was published in 1. 1968 she is a pulitzer prize winner and

a professor of english literature at yale university the swedish nobel committee described her as one of the most prominent poets in american contemporary literature because to be announced the award after several years of controversy and scandal for the world's preeminent literary accolade let's bring in karen hempstead from arts and culture karen it's good to see you so glick. we're expecting this you know. in the words that i've digested it by now but in a word no i was definitely she was not on top of my radar let's say when i woke up this morning. many obviously as an american poet you will know of her but many people on this side of the pond will not know her work but she's definitely well decorated as you said yourself pulitzer prize in 1903 and she was poet laureate in the states from 2003 till 2004 but i was pretty surprised because you know we were many were expecting the the academy to to possibly try to redeem itself for the

past few years and i would have expected them to be a bit more in tune with the political zeitgeist and perhaps try to bring a bit more diversity to the award on the other hand it says something about the relevance of poetry today and if it gets more people writing poetry then that can only be a good thing you know there are so many beautiful writers out there in the world some who will never get recognized with even the smallest accolade to put this in some perspective for us. yeah i'm so i mean what what the academy decides is is always relatively relatively mysterious sometimes i mean she's considered definitely one of the most important and talented contemporary voices in america and she's currently writer in residence at yale university so she does definitely have a very visible presence there she's written many books poetry her most recent faithful and virtuous knight actually won the national book award back in 2014 so she's known for her technical precision for an intense emotional quality great

sensitivity into family issues loneliness death and loss and she does a lot of reworking of classical mythology into her work and nevertheless she's a poet that people can understand and i think that's one of the reasons she was she writes poetry that people understand i think that's what the cademy liked about her we both now refer to past scandals and there's usually there was even an alternative prize back in 2018 that's right so the question is used a new. well prize for literature still relevant with the times you know there are a lot of people who feel that in its current form it has really outlived its usefulness and even perhaps caused a lot of damage the academy is obviously in their view dated privileged definitely not transparent enough as i've said there was huge controversy last year in 2019 when the award went to peter hunt an austrian writer who has unfortunately in his later works downplayed and even denied the genocide committed by the serbs against

muslims in the bosnian war so that was highly controversial from a political standpoint there's been sexual misconduct scandals obviously with a member of the academy's husband who was convicted of rape in 2018 there was also financial misconduct embedded in that story and that all reflects really poorly on the academy that let these things go on for many many years obviously a largely male dominated and highly secretive group as well as we know sort of their their their rules they've also been accused for a very long time of being just too euro centric you know and for not recognising the incredible scope of writers out there that are writing in other languages like arabic or chinese or or. non european languages let's put it that way and then of course there's the gender issue and they got that right this time with louise glick but it's certainly it's certainly not what i think many people were expecting and through it all scandals were not your nobel prize and there's still

a moment to jenna flicked at the winner that's right thank you so much karen homestead you're very welcome. in the u.s. is growing over how and if the next presidential debate will take place president donald trump says he will not take part in a proposed virtual debate after an announcement by organizers that next thursday's event would be held online trump's democratic challenger joe biden had previously refused to take part in a face to face contest while the president was still infected with the virus meanwhile republican vice president mike pence and his democratic challenger campbell harris have held their only debate ahead of the november election the 2 clashed over the trumpet ministrations response to the pandemic and several other hot button issues. after the recent chaotic presidential debate this seemed civil and much more. the 2 candidates seated at

a safe distance divided by plexiglass barriers in the 1st and only vice presidential debate both harris and pence seemed grateful finally given we need to vice president just like he interrupted me and i'd like to just finish the coronavirus pandemic was just one of many issues of contention between mike pence and camila harris the american people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in history of our country undermining the pen's who hits president trump corona pandemic task force on excess went on the defensive from the very 1st day president donald trump has put the health of america 1st before there were more than 5 cases in the united states all people who had returned from china. president donald trump do what no other american president had ever done whatever the vice president with the pen demick still affecting millions of americans leaving many worried about keeping their health care coverage harris

went straight on the attack if you have a preexisting condition heart disease diabetes breast cancer they're common for you if you love someone who has a preexisting condition and you they don't say how many are you if the vaccine ends his response avoided specifics obamacare was a disaster for the american people remember well president trump and i have a plan to improve health care and for preserve protect preexisting conditions for every american and here's the abortion also came up as always an important factor in american elections were informed. i'm pro-life i don't apologize for. and this is another one of those cases where the search for dramatic contrast joe biden and carmel harris support taxpayer funding of abortion all the way up to the moment of birth late term abortion they want to increase funding to planned

parenthood of america issues before us can be more serious there is the issue of choice and i will always fight for a woman's right to make a decision about her own body it should be her decision and not that of donald trump and and the vice president michael pence though most viewings of the debate to place bertie at home some locations host a small viewing parties like this one in cincinnati. well i think it was a lot more like a debate than the previous presidential that be a lot more with what normally happens not far it was pleasantly surprised to see more civility in this debate than the previous presidential debate. it's on the whole much this vice presidential debate will change the dynamics off the presidential race donald trump and his challenger joe biden ship will to face off again in the 2nd debate next week. i'm now joined by dee to

be reported from washington greetings maya this debate appears to be getting more attention then vice presidential debates of the past and i imagine that has something to do with the ages of the men on the top of the ticket. both of these candidates are thought of as presidents in waiting so to speak and that's always true to a certain extent with vice presidents you sort of expect a vice president to eventually mount a presidential campaign especially a vice president that's running for a 2nd term as is the case with mike pence but it is true that either whoever wins in november that man will be the oldest person ever inaugurated at a presidential inauguration 74 joe biden is $77.00 particular attention was paid to harris not only for the usual reasons of a she's a new face she's a slightly newer name for a lot of people she's also a woman of color but joe biden has said he made remarks in the past saying that he will be a quote transitional president implying that if you were elected he would not run

for reelection and that it would be expected that kamel harris would step up and then run for president herself you know there's always talk in washington d.c. united magine the chatter is fairly loud today what's the feeling there the day after who's coming out of this debate with the belts. honestly they both had a job to do and they both did their job pence is often seen as that antidote to trump he is a consummate politician he smooths out trump's rough edges he gives a lot of people who are a little more wary about from something to to grasp onto. something a little more experience to look at harris had to attack she had to attack the president's pandemic plan his health care plan all the various issues many of which have come up in the past almost 4 years of this administration both of them did their jobs plan sat there and he stuck to the party line and he talked about the

president's accomplishments and harris did in fact go on the attack she was able to hit him on health care on the supreme court all of these different issues that have come up honestly though michel we have 4000000 people in this country who have already voted poll say that 90 percent of people have already made up their minds as is the case a lot with these debates it is a chance for people to get to know the candidates but it's not going to change anyone's mind i hear you again that was the 1st and only vice presidential debate of this campaign meanwhile 2 more presidential debates are scheduled we've learned the trump is rejected the idea of a virtual debate what are people saying about trump's response and what the options or if the president continues to reject the idea. yes quite a reversal from last week when the biggest scandal was whether or not there were going to be rules changes in the debate rules and the president was saying oh he was looking forward to the next debate greatly just yesterday actually he was

tweeting oh he very much looks forward to the next debate and now we have this big reversal the honest answer is they probably tried to impose this change because we don't know whether or not the president is still contagious with the coronavirus let's also be clear though there is no law or statute that says presidential debates have to happen they are supposedly a public courtesy but again in this situation these debates are really ever going to change anyone's mind and i would say that we're in unprecedented waters with the potential canceling a debate we've been unprecedented water so many times in the last 3 years that he's just going to have to shrug. my hair shorter from washington d.c. much appreciate it as always let's turn now to some of the other stories making news around the world at this hour clashes have erupted between us a by john in armenia and around the disputed region of no going to karbala the fighting comes ahead of talks between the u.s.

france and russia aimed at securing a cease fire between the 2 former soviet republic. residents of mexico's yucatan peninsula are cleaning up after hurricane delta the storm packed the winds of up to 175 kilometers per hour there were no reports of deaths and the damage was less severe than initially feared the storm is now heading towards the u.s. coast. germany's disease control agency is warning that there spread of the krona virus could become uncontrollable if people don't stick to hygiene in distancing roles well germany has seen relatively few infections compared to the rest of europe officials sigur show a dramatic jump in cases in the latest 24 hour period and chancellor angela merkel says she does not want to repeat of the situation in the spring when europe's largest economy went into lockdown more than a foot has a new infections in the past day that's germany's highest rate since april when the

county was to knock down has many say yes want of complacency and a population and cold for responsible straight since april when the kountry was to knock down has many say yes spawn warned of growing complacency and a population and cold for responsible behavior. 80000000 people cooperate the chances of the virus spreading will drop dramatically. but this pandemic is a kayak to test for us as a society and we can only pass if we pull together. in recent days. in high risk areas such as the capital. from saturday on the way it's a curfew will be imposed on bars and restaurants many prices post soaring cases but according to the account trees leading vajrayana g.'s rest trick sions alone one suffice is not sufficient to impose its.