♪ thank you for joining us. from our studio in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." we start this hour in the u.s. where the justice department has filed an an try trust lawsuit against google, accusing them of maintaining a monopoly. >> as the anti-trust complaint explains, it has maintained its monopoly power through

exclusionary practices that are harmful to competition. so the justice department has determined an anti-trust response is necessary to benefit consumers. >> 11 u.s. states are also joining the lawsuit, which was filed on tuesday in the district court in washington, d.c. the lawsuit accuses google of signing agreements with popular device makers like apple and samsung to secure default status for its search engine. as s a result of its anti-competitive conduct, justice officials say google has accounted for nearly 90% of all general search engine inquiries in the u.s. in recent years. the lawsuit also alleges google gives the dataa obbtainned froms search service for its advvertising business. google denies the allegations, describing the lawsuit as deeply flawed, saying people use google because they choose to not because they're forced to or because they can't find

alteernatives. analysts think there will be a prolonged court batttle over t company's business model. google was fined about $1.7 billion by the european union over similar allegations last year. the justice department has been investigating tech giants like amazon, facebook, and apple since 2019 to see whether theyy're impeding their competitions. the investigation could lead to more lawsuits. turning to japanese prime minister suga yoshihide's trip to indonesia. suga has visited vietnam and indonesia since sunday. his first foreign visits as prime minister. he's scheduled to leave for japan on wednesday. in his meetings with the prime minister of vietnam, and the

president of indonesia, joko widodo, suga shared concerns about china's increased activities in the south china sea. they reaffirmed that they will step up cooperation in the field of security, including transfers of defense equipment from japan. they allso agreed to promote economic cooperation, such as strengthening supply chain stos cope with the coronavirus pandemic. japan regards the two countries as pivotal within the association of southeastern asian nations. japanese ofofficials say suga's visit demonstratess japan's continuing engagemment in the endo pacifific as a memberer of region. suga will stress the importance of rule of law and freedom of navigation for the stability of the region at an asean summit next month. china is also stepping up efforts to strengthen tiies wit asean. customs authorities say asean

surppassed the european union a china's biggest trade partner this year. transactions witith asean accounted for 14 pit.6.6% of ch trade during this period. among asean member states, trade with vietnam was up 18.5%, thailand 10.9%, and malaysia 5.8% compared to the same period last year. the increase is attributed to more chinese firms opening facilities in asean nations against the backdrop of chinese's belt and road economic initiative. another factor is the rise in exports of chinese face masks and medical equipment due to the coronavirus pandemic. chinese foreign minister wang yi visited thailand, malaysiaa, an laos this month. in cambodia, he signed a bilateral free-trade agreement. once home, wang toldd chinna's state-run shinuan news agency strengthening ties between china and asean will give a strong boost to the rregion's economim

recovery. he stressed beijing's willingness to contribute to the region's anti-infection measures succh as by prooviding vaccines. observers say china's pitch to asean members is strengthening ties will give them an economic advantage. beijing wants to increase its presence in the international community as it's increasingly at odds with washington. a japanese civic group has urged the government to consider more options for the disposal of radioactive waste water stored at the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the citizens commission on nuclear energy offers advice on the country's nuclear policy. it issueed a statement saying te govevernment should not move ahd with the plan to release the waste water into the ocean without listening to opponents of the scheme. it says carrying it out would be

trampling on the feelings of local residents. options proposed by the civic group include storing the water in larger tanks over a longer term to wait for the radiation levels to fall. the governor of south korea's southern province says the water disposal concerns all the countries around the pacific ocean and urged japan to discuss the matterr with otther nations. he says if japan rejects the request, his province will work with the residents of coastal south korea to file lawsuits. last week, japan's industry ministry briefed local authorities about how they plan to fight negative reports if the radioactive water is discharged into the ocean. it's expected to make final arrangements for the possibility of releasing the waste water. ♪ candidates in the u.s. presidential election are

entering a final push. each has set their priorities, and some voters worry pompimpor issues are being overlooked. we bring you the story of a new york based peace activist's struggle to shine a political spotlight on nuclear weapons. >> reporter: rebecca irby has been closely watching each candidate for months. every debate, every promise. and each time, the issue she's dedicated her life to is left on the sidelines. >> we don't have another four years to just be playing around and pretending like these issues don't exist. so it's g going to take the people, all of the people, all around the world coming together to pussh these issues s forward. >> reporter: decades after the cold war, disarmament efforts have largely stalled. and the u.s. and russia still hold more than 90% of global nuclear warheads. experts recently became more

concerned about a new arms race after president donald trump withdrew from a key deal with russia. his rival, joe biden, has promised to reduce the role of nuclear weapons, but has not yet set a concrete plan to shrink the u.s. stockpile. irby has been pushing for that sort of movement since she had a fateful encounter in hiroshima nine years ago. at the city's peace park, she met an interpreter who was in his mother's womb when the bomb was dropped. now he educates visitors on its destruction. >> reporter: irby felt compelled to share his family's story. she made a documentary with a simple but strong message. it's possible for a victim of hate to be filled with kindness. >> he experienced all of this.

my country did this to him, yet he's helping me process my emotionss about it. >> reporter: sinince then,n, sh devooted herself showiing tha a weapon of destruction cannot create peace. but political action can create change. every year, she goes to the united nations with survivors to deliver petitions calling for a world free of nuclear weapons. she hoped for a breakthrough in 2020. 75 years after the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki. but attention was on the pandemic, which is now also the main focus of the election campaign. irby wants voters to see this as a domestic issue, so she partnered with indigenous activists. to help people understand the horrific effects of these weapons. >> what led to this development of nuclear weapons, when you reallyly think about it,t, why?

why did these nuclear weapons get developed after all? you know, who in their right mind wants to kill another human being? >> reporter: irby says many young people are motivated to fight nuclear proliferation with the s same urgency as thhey bat climate change. >> there is more strength and conflict in the world that couod leead to nucleaear war. and if you are a a person who lieves in and rads science, like you just start to -- you see these things. itit's inevitable. you can't not sesee them. >> reporter: when people go to the polls, irby wants them to think about these issues. and then push their leader to take real action. now turning to world weather, with our meteorologist tsietsi monare. people in vietnam have been seeing back-to-back storms

that's led to the worst flooding in decades. now, is there any relief in sight? >> unfortunately, relief is a little far away. there is another tropical storm heading there. and we've seen close to 180,000 homes submerged by these flood waters, so making things very difficult and challenging across vietnam at the moment. this tropical storm is now moving into the south china sea, in a western direction approaching vietnam. so over the next couple of days, possibly by saturday or sunday, it could make landfall in central vietnam and gathering momentum there, bringing heavy rainfall that is expected to continue for the next few days or so. also, places such as south china could be affected with the outer band of the storm, bringing in some rainy conditions along the coast. please do be careful there. more flooding is expected over the next couple of days as we head in towards the weekend. for now, though, some calm weather is expected for northern vietnam. hanoi will be 26, and showers

domominatating ho chi minh city da nang. towards europe, unstable weather conditions, that has brought some significant amount of rainfall, close to 240 mill 3450e9 e-- milllimeters in parts of spain, with 230 kilometers of gusts coming up, leading g to ppossibilities of power cuts because of the power lines that would be toppled of. you can see this low pressure system here. we will be continuing again for your wednesday into the rest of the week. we can see a lot of low pressure systems affecting weather in greece and italy. but for now, much of eastern europe will be slightly drier. there is a bit of a high pressure system moving things clear along those parts. but you can see along the scandinavian countries, cooler, rainy weather will be coming your way.

temperatures here in stockholm with the possibility of snowfall is expected there. once again, rainy and later stormy weather, possibility of gusts and also some hail could be developing in certain places. temperatures will be 21 and 18 towards lisbon. that's all your weather. take care.

one more story. sake brewers across japan are gearing up for what they hope will be a good season with the arrival of cooler temperatures. this brewery in saitama prefecture north of tokyo have been making sake for over 120 years. workers have started preparations for the first brew of the season. the company says sales this year are down 30% compared to the previous year, as orders from restaurants have dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic. >> translator: we put all our heart into making our sake, and we hope oour customers arre enjoying it. this year people might not be having parties as much. but i hope they will enjoy locally brewed sake at home. >> the new sake will be ready for customers late next month. we will be looking for war

to id. that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." thank you very much for staying with us. ♪ snemd ♪ welcome to "newsline in depth." i'm yanaka marie. the coronavirus pandemic has caused sudden and dramatic changes in human activity. some of them good for the environment, others less so. now, as economies struggle to return to prepandemic levels, society is confronting fresh challenges in its efforts to

rein in pollution and tackle climate change. our first report is about arguably the most damaging environmental impact of the pandemic, garbage. across the world, a surge in home delivered meals has created a new wave of plastic pollution. let's take a look at how the issue is affecting some asian countries. >> reporter: in china, the waste is piling up. and one environmental raising the alarm, particularly when it comes to food deliveries. on average, three containers are used per order. and just one delivery app reportedly received more than 40 million orders last month. south korea is experiencing a similar problem. >> translator: the pandemic is leading more people to use food delivery services. >> reporter: officials there are starting to take action. they plan to send thousands of workers to garbage depots to

ensure resident rsz recycling everything they can. in japan, one waste management expert says that plastic waste from containering and packaging is up as much as 16%. >> translator: the first goal is to redduce plastic waste and substitute it with other materials that are environmentally friendly, and make the switch to such products. >> reporter: some japanese cities have started to reduce the use of plastic containers. one in the country's southwest is asking restaurants to pack food in the containers that customers bring. the city is also providing restaurants with reusable containers as another option. >> translator: we would need eextra money to prepare these containers on our own, even though they may not be returned. so this is very helpful. >> reporter: but he says the scale of the problem means it

can't be solved by consumers and small businesses alone. the companies making the packaging also need to do much more to address the growing environmental toll as the pandemic continues. next, an inspiring story that shows how creative think g ing can help the environment and protect people from the coronavirus at the same time. our report takes us to thailand, which has one of the largest fishing industries in the world. >> reporter: sea turtles are now endangered in thailand as their numbers plummet. many get caught in nets left behind by fishing crews called ghost nets. the project, net free seas, was launched by an ngo with the aim of solving this. one of the lead campaigners is this woman.

>> translator: we want to clear the ocean of fishing nets and other gear. >> reporter: the project recruited 20 volunteer divers. retrievg ghost nets from the seseabed isis not eaasy, asmany entangled in coral reefs. but divers manage to collect about 200 kilograms of nets from this dive alone. >> translator: we saw a lot of ghost nets down there. the nets are hard to cut because they're so durable. >> basically the results of illegal fishing. as you can see, when these nets are left in the ocean, they harm the coral reefs. >> reporter: another aim of the project is to raise awareness among fishermen. >> translator: it's very easy to conttribute. you're just cutting clean your old nets and leave them in a dy

place. >> reporter: she has visited over 40 communities to encourage fishermen to join in. under the project, old nets can be sold for around 30 cents a killo. since it started in may, it has collected about six tons of nets that might have ended upup in t ocean. >> translator: we used to throw old nets away or burn them. this project has created jobs. people are happy to collect the nets. >> so far we have received like really positive reception from local communities. so we are expecting that we'll have at least 10 to 15 more communities joining. >> reporter: once collected from communities, used nets are cleaned and shredded. the project started amidst the coronavirus pandemic. so the nets were transformed into products to fight off the virus.

so far, 700 kilograms of plastic has gone into disinfecting products. the waste has been recycle sfsco products. what i have here ask a facemask, spray bottle and push stick. sales have taken off with orders coming from japan and europe. >> it's not about the concept or the promotion, but we want to make it like, you know, normal routine and hopefully more and more companies trying to use these materials. >> reporter: the project coincides with a rare benefit from the pandemic, which reduced human activity in oceans, marine pperhapsps this inititiive coul help an eveven b bter environme forthailand's majestic sea animals.

>> the net free seas projects relies on the hard work of activists to clean up the ocean and fight the coronavirus at the same time. now on a global scale, some efforts to keep covid-19 from spreading are benefiting the environment. at least for now. early on in the pandemic, factories went quiet, planes sat idle and people stayed home, causing economies to grind to a halt. the result was a dramatic fall in pollution and improvement in air quality. these changes have made people question what they can do better as economies reopen. one focus is renewable energy as we'll see in our final report. >> reporter: during the oil crisis of the 1970s, geothermal power was seen as an alternative. that put japan at the forefront of the technology.

but many proposed sites for plants were in national parks and were rejected by the government. that and other obstacles caused development in the field to lose momentum. japanese technology was finally put to use far from home. in kenya. the east african nation's economy has been growing at about 5% per year, creating great demand for electricity. but it has been difficult for the supply to keep up. >> translator: some rurural are ill donon't have electrtricity. in fact, eleectricity is quite expensive. >> reporter: the need to increase electrical output led the power authorities to look for a place suited for geothermal power. hell's gate national park is known for its wild animals. it stretches 7,000 kilometers and home to many volcanos. steam blows out of the ground here and there.

now pipes stretch along the mountains, carrying that steam. the development of the geothermal power station has accelerated over the past decadade. it now produces 700 mega watts per hour, making it the largest plant of its kind in africa. steam and hot water that have accumulated 2,000 meters unnderground spin tuturbines th generrate power. ththe system produces electrici consistently at a low cost, making it ideal for developing countries. kenya's success in this field is thanks in part to a special delivery all the way from japan. companies sent turbines that rotate efficiently. >> this is our company's turbine. it's currently rotating 3,000 times per minute. reporter: the jan international cooperation agency has been sending specialists to

kenya to research underground resources and trained local engineers and given loans worth $800 million over the past decade. thanks in part to these efforts, geothermal plants now provide nearly half of the electricity in kenya. they want to increase output to 5,000 mega watts per hour in the next decade. the authorities are also building a network to send electricity to tanzania, ethiopia and other neighboring countries starting next year. >> kenya improves the livelihoods of kenyans. that's the main reason. >> reporter: geothermal energy products are finding success in africa, helped along by cutting edge technology from japan. >> rebuilding our economies in a more environmentally friendly way will be vital to the future of manfind.

earlier, i spoke to an exxpert aabout the lessosons w can lea from the pandemic. >> with the covid-19 pandemic, economic activitieies have b be suppressed, particicularly in mararch, aprpril, and may this . because of that, water and air qualities we are improved and the co-2 from humanan activitie havee bee dedecreased. it will be a aroundd 7%7% less year than last year. but if this happens o only for single year and quickly goes backk to the original state,, i will have a negligible impact on the ever increasing atmospheric co-2 concentration. and also on the resulting global warming trend. >> so how can we build on the experience of the pandemic to make positive changes? >> somee g goverrnments like onn

the eu haave been emphasizing green recovery from the economic damage due to covid-19. there is invvesting in renewabl energies and other green infrastructures to stimulate the economy and create jobs. and i think onene of the mostst important lessons we have learned from the pandemic is that unthinkable changes can ctuallyly happen immediately if we treat a crisis as a crisis. like, you knknow,w, stay homom travel restrictctions, remote wk and so oon. so t this means we can tackle climate chaange also in an uunthiinkable manner ifif wewe identntify climate cchange as a real crisisis. and we haven't done that yet. >> thank you for your expertise. >> the coronavirus pandemic has caused immense upheaval and suffering. but it also represents a unique

opportunity to alter the way we think about the world around us, and use that to create a better and healthier society. by committing to a green recovery, we may be able to achieve a world in which it's not only the economy that thrives, but the environment, as well.

>> curfews are imposed in two nationwide states against police brutality. hello. i am barbara. you are watching al jazeera live from london. the fiance of tomball files a lawsuit against the saudi crown prince alleging hihis invololvet in the journalist's death.