hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan with the news from tokyo. we start with the latest on the coronavirus. one of the pharmaceutical companies trying to develop a vaccine is putting clinical trials on hold. british drug firm astrazeneca said one participant developed an unexplainable illness and is having an independent committee review its safety data. the vaccine is beingng develope in collaboration with the university of f oxford. trials were underway in a number ofof countries incncluding brit the united states and japan. the company said in a statement

that illnesses happen by chance in large trials, but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully. the race for a vaccine has become highly competitive as governments see it as a way to boost their own standing. some health experts have raised concerns over the unprecedented speed. the japanese government is negotiating with several european and u.s. pharmaceutical companies to receive vaccines. in principle, japan has made a deal with astrazeneca to secure 120 million doseses from early nextxt year. >> translator: japan will base its decision about the validity and safety of vaccines on the latest scientific research and experiments. >> now, nine leading drug makers acro the globe have issued a joint statement vowing to putut safety first.

they say they'll only seek approval or emergency use authorization after safety and effectiveness are demonstrated through a phase 3 clinical study. the united nations is urging countries to invest more in child health services that have been disrupted by the coronavirus. it says without intervention, more than 1 million kids under the age of 5 could die in the next six months. an interagency group led by unicef released a report on wednesday. it said the number of global under 5 deaths in 2019 stood at 5.2 million. that's the lowest figure since recordkeeping began in 1990. but the report says children's lives are being threatened by the pandemic. about 80 million infants under a year old in 68 countries are at risk off contracting vaccine preventable diseases. the report adds children in sub

saharan africa could have greater risk of dying from infectious diseases. moving now to afghanistan where at least ten people have been killed and 15 others wounded in an explosion targeting afgfghan v vice presi saleh. the bomb went off as the convoy passed through kabul wednesday morning. saleh said in a video message he suffered minor burns on his face and hahands. in j july last year, he was als slightly injured in an attack by militants on his e election offe that kililled 20 people. afghan president ghani condemned the attack as a heinous act of terror and says he's ordered an investigation. the taliban issuing a statement saying their fighters had nothing to do with the explosion. sporadic explosions have

continued despite a peace agreement that was reached in february between the united states and the militant group. iran's top nuclear official says the country is building a new nuclear facility to replace a key plant damaged two months ago in a fire. the country's state media say ththe head of f teheran's nucle department told parliament about the plan on tuesday. ali akbar salehi said the project had been launched to create a larger and more modern facility in the mountains near natanz in central iran. the fire caused severe damage to a building located in the same area. it housed high-perfoance centrifuges used for uranium enrichment. iranian officials say the fire was the result of sabotage. the government had earlier suggested the possibility that a new facility would be built at a separate location due e to security concerns. meananwhile, nhkasas learn e ed iriranian foreigign minister mohammad javad zarif plans to make an official visit to europe

as early as next week. seven countries are currently on his itinerary including britain, france, germany, italy and spain. the move is likely aimed at discouraging key european countries from agreeing with the united states to restore u.n. sanctions on iran. two years ago, the u.s. unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal struck between iran and the five permanent members of the un security washington has been reimposing sanctions against the country since then. the u.s. says u.n. sanctions will be restored on september 20th undnder the terms of the 25 deal, but most security council members say washington's demand is invalid because it withdrew from the deal. representatives of the group of seven nations and the european union have condemned what they call the confirmed poisoning of a russian opposition leader. they say their disapproval of the attack on alexei navalny warrants the strongest possible

terms. a joint statement issued on tuesday calls the use of chemical weapons under any circumstances unacceptable, it goes against international norms banning the use of such weapons. the statement calls the attack another blow to democracy and political plurality in russia. it calls for the perpetuators to be brought to justice. navalny has been in the hospital in germany since falling ill during a flight in russia last month. he's been a vocal critic of the administration of president vladimir putin. last week german chancellor angela merck el said navalny was attacked with a chemical nerve agent of the novichok group. the former soviet union. russia's government said no nerve agent was found in his system when he was tested in russia. the head of police in rochester, new york, resigned on tuesday following days of

protest after a black man died in police custody earlier this year. police chief lauren singletary will step down at the end of the month. he maintains his officers did nothing wrong in the death of daniele prude and said the case was being politicized. prude's family obtained police bobody camera footage through a freedom of information request. this includes graphic scenes that may be disturbing to some viewers. police officers con fronted prude as he was walking around naked on a street. they were responding to a call from prude's brother who said he wanted help as his brother was coping with mental health issues. the footage shows the officers putting what's known as a spit hood over prude's head and pinning him to the ground. he died one week later. the video sparked protests against what critics see as an excessive use of force by the police. seven officers who were involved in detaining prude have been

suspended. the attorney general of new york state has launched an investigation into the case. staying with the u.s., residents of california are enduring another night of smoke and flames. thousands have had to evacuate in a rececord season of f wildf, and they're e not the only amamericans experiencing extrem weather. nhk world's catherinene kobayas explains. >> reporter: the skies in california burn red every year in what seseems like a rite of summer. but this year, wildfires are consuming more land than ever, destroying homes, cutting off power, and cloaking the skies in smoke. >> our number one priority for this fire is the protection of life and property. >> reporter: residents have sweated through record heat during a dry summer, then lightning strikes sparked dozens of fires. wind stoked the flames as the fires converged. but those aren't the only causes. one couple held a celebration to

announce the gender of their baby. they used a pyrotechnic machine that generates smoke and heat. that ignited another wildfire. several people had to leave their homes. >> i am upset thahat people are stupid. >> reporter: rescue crews are getting by on little sleep. some rushed to this camping area to save more than 200 people trapped by the flames. >> all of the individuals that they rescued were greeeeting th crew members with hugs. > reporter: and califorornia aren't the o only ones struggli through the end of summer. a view from above shows the extent. smoke all the way to kansas. people in colorado felt temperatures climb toward 40 degrees celsius one day, then woke up to snow the next. summer to winter overnight. a fire consumed most of f the homes in t this town in washingn state.

residents wonder what now. >> everything gone, clothes, beds, everything. >> reporter: and emergency crews don't expect their work will be done soon. they've b been unable to contai many of f the fires addingg to devastation in a year markrked it. catherine kobayashi, nhk world, new york. people in southwestern parts of japan continue to deal with the aftermath of typhoon haishen which tore through the area earlier this week. the powerful storm prompting evacuation orders for millions of people.us most of the evacuees are now back, but authorities in miyazaki prefecture are still searching for four people mussing after a landslide. some homes in the path of destruction remain without power prompting concerns over a

lingering heat wave. now the situation is shedding light on an overlooked but potentially deadly safety hazard. our next report looks at portable generators and the danger they pose. >> reporter: hot days lead to hot nights as electricity companies work to clean up the mess typyphoon haishen left t behind. they say most people will have power by the end of wednesday. in the meantime, they'll look for other ways to protect themselves from heatstroke. at this house, residents turn to a portable generator. the family was helping a relative in her 90s who was forced to leave her home. the safe haven held an unexpected danger. emergency rescue workers say the home was sealed up tight. sturdy windows with mesh screens, all locked. inside they found three people

lying on the floor, unconscious. the elderly woman was dead. police suspect carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a portable generator. the area had been without power for two days. these devices are common in japan. people rely on them as life saving resources when natural disasters cause prolonged blackouts. but fatal accidents related to generators are not u unheard of. three e people d died, anonothe were hospitalized in hokkaido when a powerful earthquake in 2018 knocked out power for t the days. there were similar cases after a devastating typhoon last year. the problem is global. hurricane laura has killed at least 25 people in the u.s. state of louisiaiana, including eight linked to carbon m monoxi poisoning from porortable generators. >> keep p it away from your hom. don't put it anywhere near a covevered awning, a porch, gara,

chain it to a tree if left in the yard but don't let a generator cost you your life. >> reporter: the country's centers for disease control is trying to get the word out, as people should be aware of the dangers and know how to safely use a generator. japan's consumer affairs agency issued a similar warning calling for proper ventilation. this expert on disaster prevention says it's hard to know h how many people have e b victims of these sorts of accidents. deaths related to power fafailus aren't logged with other disaster fatalitities. >> translator: a big problem is that information on such acaccidents has not beenen shar. everybybody in the country m mu learn the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoni. >> reporter: nemoto says authorities should not wait until disaster strikes to warn people about the risks. next in sports, japanese tennis star osaka naomi hasas

advanced to the u.s. opepen semifinalsls by beaeating ameri shelby rogers in straight sets. it's the first time osaka has made it to the final four since she won the championship two years ago. osaka overwhelmed rogers with powerful ground strokes and serves. she breeze through 6-3, 6-4. shale face jennifer brady of the united states in the semimifina. >> i think the biggegest t thinr me was to o be the aggressor an to be able to be okay with making unforced errors. yeah. just to accept, you know, the unforceded errors because i kno that i'm going for shots. >> osaka has been wearing masks representing black victims to protest racial injustice. this time her mask bear george floyd'd's name. floyd died in may in

minneapolis. in her previous mask, she wore the name trayvon martin. afterward she received a video from martin's mother expssing her gratitude to the tennis star. osaka tweeted she was flooded with tears. it's time now for a check on weather with our meteorologist sayaka mori. people here in japan experienced unseasonably warm weather and isolated thunderstorms on wednesday. so sayaka, will these unstable conditions continue? >> yes. the unstablele whether wilill continue at least into thursday. possible intnto friday depenend on where you are. there'e's a possibility of seve thunderstormrms, hail, and even tornadoes are not out o of the question.. if you see black clouds

approaching, takake shelter immediatel ll ly immediately. the cause of the extreme change in weather is high temperatures near the ground but in the upper atmosphere there's a cold air mass. because of that, we saw spotty heavy showers. we've got lots of rainfall especially in the southwestern islands of japan. not just that. lots of heavy rain pounded central japan. we had an alert for tornadoes posted in the northern areas of the kanto region this afternoon. as for temperatures, 32 for the high in tokyo. staying that way into friday. sapporo saw a high of 32 degrees once again. and temperatures are cooling down as we go into thursday with rain possible. osaka and fukuoka will see heavy rainfall during friday as well as saturday because of a rainy season front. we have a rainy season in autumn as well in japan. now, we have the remnants of typhoon haishen spinning over

southeastern china. this storm will continue to stay in northern china. so more stormy weather is expected. and interestingly, this system will likely head towards the south as we go into the next several days. because we have a high pressure system to the north that will push the storm to the south. temperatures are in the 20s in beijing as well as seoul and thunderstorms are possible in the south of china and manila on your thursday. now, let's go to north america. lots of wildfires occurring in the western areas. but in the rockies we saw a huge temperature drop. on monday it was 33 in denver and only 1 degree was reported on tuesday. so the temperature d dropped by about 32 degrees in just 24 hours. snow is falling heavily too. take a look. a drastic temperature change brought snow and damaging winds to the u.s. rockies on tuesday. the cold weather follows a long spell of hot and dry weather.

casper, wyoming, has had 43 centimeters of snow in 24 hours. denver had a 2.5 centimeters of snowfall. it looks like cold weather will continue and then it will shift to the north. that's it for me. stay cool.

and that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. coming up next is "newsline biz" with ramin mellegard, so stay right there.

tokyo's benchmark stock index dropped sharply on wednesday tracking overnight losses on wall street. the nikkei plunged amid worries sparked after it piled billions of dollars into u.s. tech stock options. softbanknk shares have now fall over 10% since reports surged last week. other areas dropped as well. the key index in sydney finished

the day down 2.1% after touching its lowest since late june. this is "newsline biz." i'm ramin mellegard. now, police in japan face a grgrowing trend in crimes targeting cashless payments. regional banks in the past week reported a series of frauds using stolen bank details linked with the e-money service nt ntt docomo. users must register their account information. ten regional banks in japan had rereported impropoper cash withthdrawals. docomo offfficials believeve th obtainined illegal i informatio open a carrier account. they alleged the data was used to transfer cash from victims' bank accounts to the carrier acaccount. e-money frauds have risen sharply. cases of illicit withdrawawals

from onlinene accounts totaled 1,872 last year. financial losses were around $24 million or about 5.5 times more than the previous year. now, workers in japan may be looking beyond the pandemic. a new survey says their view of business conditions have improved for the fourth month in a row. one index fell and that was for restaurants. the months in the economy watch survey says sentiment rose up 2.8 points from the previous month. the poll covered more than 2,000 workers including shop staff and taxi drivers. retail showed optimism. but worries over the virus still affects the hospitality sector. air conditioners are selling well thanks to extra demand amid the scorching weather and more people working from home. now, looking ahead, predictions

for two to three months from now improve for the first time in two months. up 6.4 points from july to 42.4. the cabinet office says the improvements are most likely to slower growth in the number of new infections. now, millions of vending machines dot japan. now one of them is offering something different from the usual cold sodas and hot coffee. in a sign of the times, it's selling high quality fabric face masks. local officials and an industry group installed the machine in west japan amid the coronavirus pandemic. it offers 18 types of masks produced from locally produced fabric. some of the masks are made to feel cool in the scorching summer heat with prices starting at about $6. >> translator: it's not always easy to sell things face-to-face during the pandemic. so this machine allows people to buy l locally produced masks at

any time witith social distanci. >> the machine is due to operate until the end of march. it will even pre-warm masks over the coming winter months. people in the u.s. have been stuck in a lockdown. many of them are trying to make up for lost work. now a mobile app is allowing them to become their own stockbrokers. david mcclure has the story. >> reporter: on february 24th, the u.s. stock market began to crash. just one month later, the dow jones industrial average had dropped to 18,591 points. but since then, markets have made nearly a full recovery despite the overall economy getting worse. unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus from monetary easing to expanded unemployment insurance and stimulus checks helped to boost markets.

some analysts point to another reason for rallying stocks. the rise of non-professional traders known as retail investors. calista lewis is one of them. she's a s single mother raising young boy. she buys and sells stocks using a mobile app called robinhood. all trades are commission free and you can even buy fractions of shares. in the first half of 2020, the app gained over 3 million new users. she started trading stocks in april when the pandemic forced her workplace into a temporary shutdown. >> i put $1500 in. i was like, let me jussi what i can do with this $1500 and from there, in two weeks i was at $2,000. so i started liking it.

i was super excited. >> reporter: she continued to ride the recovering stock market. and now has a portfolio worth about $10,000. >> i don't plan on stopping trading. i'd like to trade for the rest of my life. if financial transaction companies are on there now with the coronavirus, people don't want to use cash. they don't want to use credit cards. they want to use apple pay or whatever. >> reporter: but some experts are worried new and inexperienced traders using apps like robinhood may be driving up stock prices too quickly and might not be prepared foror a correction. >> that't's somhingng that we woululd caution invnvestors on. again, a lot of these stocks, esespecialally the individuaua s that are being, you know, based anand drivenn by hype alone,e, they're much more likely to kind of, youou know, go down i in mu ththe same way theyy went up wh isis very quickly. in a way that maybe at times is

unpredictable. >> reporter: free digital trading platforms like robinhood have made it easier for people to invest in the stock market. but there is still significant risks to the u.s. economic recovery that could bring a very different market terrain for new investors to deal with. david mcclure, nhk world, new york. okay. let's get a chcheck on the markets.

and that's it for "newsline biz." from our tokyo studios, i'm ramin mellegard. thank you very much for joining usus. anchor: hello, and welcome back

to france 24 newsroom. these are the latest world headlines. a major fire destroys one of greece's overcrowded migrant camps. thousands of asylum-seekers flee for safety on the island of less boss. we will be heading to athens to get the latest from our correspondent there.