We are your source for down the middle explanations of world news in 10 minutes, and the two stories leading off today's show have one thing in common coronavirus.

In New Zealand, concerns about the spread of the disease have led to the postponement of a parliamentary election.

It was originally scheduled for September 19th.

Now it's set for October 17th.

Prime Minister Justin Are Dern made the announcement after the number of co vid 19 cases jumped last week.

The country had gone more than 100 days without the disease spreading through its communities.

But this month an outbreak of dozens of cases took place in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, so a strict lock down was put in place there on August 12th and the election was delayed.

It's not the first time New Zealand has seen a lock down like this.

It went under one of the strictest in the world starting on March 25th, and that lasted five weeks.

But life had been getting back to normal before the most recent outbreak moving from the South Pacific to the North Pacific.

Japan just reported the economic hit it took because of coronavirus.

The Asian country has the world's third largest economy behind the United States and China, and Japan says it's gross domestic product dropped by 7.8% from the first quarter of this year to the second one.

That's not the worst in the world.

America's drop in GDP between April and June was 9.5%.

Germany's was more than 10%.

Britain's was more than 20%.

Reasons for the decrease in Japan's GDP included falling exports and less consumer spending because of coronavirus related restrictions.

But economic activity did pick up again in June and July.

Meantime, Japan's defense minister is keeping an eye on events in a body of water that's more than 1000 miles southwest of the Japanese mainland.

This is the South China Sea.

It's where about a third of the world's shipping trade passes through, and Japan is one of several countries in the region and beyond that, speaking out against China's activity there.

For years, China has been building and militarizing artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Final preparations before takeoff.

Rare footage of a U.

S Navy air crew flying a mission over the South China Sea last week.

This'll aircraft bristles with high power scopes to conduct surveillance.

Were serving as those eyes and ears patrolling ahead of the force, closely monitoring our adversaries.

The adversary here is China, and it's not long before a Chinese voice calls out over the radio and tells the U.

S plane toe leave E United States military aircraft very operate players spend.

I witnessed similar challenges two years ago on a different U.

S Navy flight over this increasingly tense region.

At least seven different governments have competing claims to parts of the South China Sea, but Beijing claims virtually all of this see for itself.

To cement its claim, China embarked on a massive island building project, constructing runways and radar stations on what had been reefs and atolls.

Last month, the Trump administration declared Beijing's position illegal.

We rejected China's unlawful claims in the South China Sea once and for all.

The Defense Department says it has stepped up deploying warships and planes on what it calls freedom of navigation operations through the sea, prompting Beijing's top diplomat to accuse the U.

S.

Military of trying to destabilize the region.

In the first half of this year alone, the US sent military aircraft that more than 2000 times.

But it's not just the US that's challenging China's territorial claims here.

Late last year, Indonesian ships faced off against Chinese vessels.

You are in Indonesian waters, sir.

Please move away and go back to your territory.

Sir.

Indonesia deployed fighter jets to an island that it controls.

If any possible conflict that affecting to the our territory or, you know, stability.

Yeah, well, we will protect our interests.

National interests.

Meanwhile, other countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines growing increasingly assertive against Beijing's maritime claims.

The Philippines building up one of its own islands, while the commander of the Philippines Navy warns about alleged Chinese provocations on the high seas.

The first one to part the shop losers public support, and I'm sure they want us to take the first shot.

But we will have.

With so many navies operating in such close quarters, there's growing risk of a first shot that could trigger a wider conflict.

Ivan Watson, CNN Hong Kong Yeah, 12th trivia Which of these types of electromagnetic radiation has the shortest wavelength radio waves infrared waves.

Visible light, ultraviolent light of these options.

UV light has the shortest wavelength, Mayo Clinic says.

If you follow the directions, most of the disinfectant cleaners you have at home can kill Cove in 19.

At least on the surface is you clean.

The U.

S Environmental Protection Agency lists products containing ethyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide as likely being effective cleaners.

But the race is on to see what else could do the trick.

Essential oils, candles, ultraviolet light.

One company is hoping its robot can seek and destroy coronavirus.

This new technology could help in the fight against co vid 19 an autonomous robot that claims to neutralize harmful viruses and bacteria.

Oh, Marsha, please.

Dubai based company has used ultraviolet light to purify air and sanitized drinking water for nearly five years.

Once the coronavirus hit, he and his team looked at ways to deploy UV light to fight the virus.

We have camera.

We have sensor.

We have an emergency robot uses waves of ultraviolet light called U V.

C.

You see, it's a length off light, and at that level of strength, the light can kill virus by disassembling it, killing the DNA RNA and not letting them reproduce.

Using cameras and sensors, the robot maps its environment, plans its path and determines how long disinfection will take.

But before the UV lights turn on, safety measures are taken.

We have military regret, UBC lenses.

We have face shield.

We have suits and gloves.

If the UBC can destroy the DNA RNA off a virus or bacteria, it can also be harmful to your skin and your eyes.

Over 100 years ago, UV light was first used to disinfect drinking water in must, say, France.

And since the start of the Cove in 19 Pandemic, it's been trialed in New York subways and Busses.

UBC has been shown to be effective against other coronaviruses, but studies related specifically to covert 19 has still ongoing.

Since mid March, we have basically in our laboratory and in our research endeavors, done nothing but you ve for viral surrogates of Kobe.

According to James Molly's research and tests by the U.

S.

National Institutes of Health, UV light helped decontaminate traces of covert 19 on N 95 respirator masks.

Molly cautions that UBC is only as effective as the dosage of light.

It gives off.

I can get results an inch away, that air pretty impressive.

Six inches away.

I'll get no effect if I'm not careful.

You know that could be overcome with these robots because generally they'll put them in the room for 60 minutes.

And so we're not trying to get it done in 10 seconds.

We've now got a huge amount of time, and we can just keep dozing or pulsing shop.

We says his robot can last three hours on a full charge and can cover nearly 20,000 square feet in that time.

And while questions remain whether this will stop Kovar, 19 he hopes that UBC can someday replace sprays and disinfectants, especially in CNN.

Sheer pandemonium wraps up our show this Tuesday.

This is a birthday party for Xinsheng.

She's a panda at a zoo in southwest China.

What makes her remarkable is her age.

Shing shing just turned 38.

Pandas in the wild are estimated to live only 20 years and in captivity 30.

So this particular panda is the human equivalent of 110 years old.

She celebrated with a cake topped with watermelons, carrots and bamboo shoots.

I mean, what else do you give a panda for her birthday pantaloons?

Pantomime lessons with a pandering be to pandering.

Hey, look, no matter how you look at it, she's 38.

Let's keep that clock's pendulum swinging.

Y'all, I'm Carla Zeus for CNN.

10.

South Cobb High School is in Austell, Georgia.

It's great to have you guys watching today and thank you for your comment at youtube dot com slash CNN Tent, Yeah.