hello and welcome back to "newsline." i'm shery ahn. let's get started with the headlines. chinese state media say they the communist party has deci to investigate a for of its top decision-making body. the united states and the european union are imposing more sanctions against ru supporting separatis after the downing of airlines jet. where would you like to do?

from tokyo, taxi drivers to shop keepers, people in japan are struggling to improve their english before the 2020 summer olympics. leaders in the u.s. europe are piling more political and economic pressure on president vladimir put. they've imposed ne russia to back up accusations that putin is supporting separatists in ukraine. the action is also tied to the downing of malaysia airlines flight 17. nhk world's craig dale is following the story. >> leaders in the u.s. and eu have been putting the squeeze on putin ever since he decided to the ukrainian back in march. now they are further punis putin. they accuse him of supporting pro-russian separatists who are fighting for control of eastern parts of ukraine. president obama says it will hit banks, energy and defense firm >> it does not have to be this way.

this is a choice that russia and president putin in particular has made. there continues to be a better choice, the choice of deescalation, the choice of joining the world in a diplomatic solution to this situation. >> european union leaders coordinated their action with the u.s. they'll stop state-owned banks from raising funds on europe markets. they'll impose an embargo on the weapons trade and they'll prevent russian oil companies from getting ahold of some technology. putin has already seen sanctions bite into different parts of the russian economy and the u.s. and eu have imposed measures against his aides and other russian officials, including travel bans and asset freezes. in the past he has shrugged off these actions or suggested countermeasures. but obama and other leaders have kept pushing and made it clear that they believe putin is actively trying to destabilize ukraine. they say he sent arms and agents to help pro-russian separatists. putin has denied that. and said ukrainian leaders are

to blame for refusing to address the separatist concerns and for not maintaining a cease-fire. the diplomatic divisions widened here after malaysia airlines flight 17 was shot down over eastern ukraine killing nearly 300 people. american and european leaders accuse the separatists of carrying out the attack and the russians of supplying the missile and training. they criticized the rebels for interfering with the crash site, the evidence and the investigation. but again more denials from the separatists and the russians and they blame ukrainian forces for shooting down the plane. german chancellor angela merkel says that russia is responsible for the latest round of sanctions and depending how putin reacts, the sanctions could be reviewed or increased. merkel has been cautious all along, mostly because trade between russian and europe is worth billions and because the europeans rely on russia gas. now in the background senior officials have been working to get a cease-fire in ukraine. u.s. secretary of state john kerry met in washington with the ukrainian foreign minister and

he spoke by phone with the russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov. lavrov asked kerry to encourage ukrainian leaders to call a truce and start negotiating with the separatists. the conflict in ukraine has left many dead on each side. and forced 85,000 ukrainians to flee their homes. they need shelter, food, and clothing. state run media in russia say 700,000 ukrainians have taken refuge across the border. this continued tension between russian and the west has many people drawing comparisons to the cold war. but president obama says this is not a cold war and he says putin holds the key to resolving t crisis. chinese state media say communist party leaders are taking aim at their bigges target yet in a crac corruption. they are investigating zhou yongkang, a man who used to sit alongside them.

>> reporter: zhou was the ninth highe ranking member o standing committee unt november 2012. the state-run xinhua new says the party's central disciplinary commission decided to investigate him for grave violations of discipline. >> translator: this case shows the government's strong will to tackle corruption. while in office he was reported to have built up enormous power and wealth. >> president xi jinping vowed to tackle corruption soon after took office two year government officials jailed a number of party officials, including the former chi the mega city of chongqing. bo xilai enjoyed a close working relationship with zhou.

>> translator: this case shows the government's strong will t tackle corruption. people have wanted thi action for a long ti. we can finally see being dragged down. >> reporter: it's a tactical move. >>translator: it's an unprecedented step to convict someone at the top of the leadership. xi jinping is trying to show the communist party and the public that he is serious about eliminating corrupt officials even if it is an elder of the

party. >> reporter: he was believed to have a close relationship with the former minister of the city of chie-ching. he was jailed on corruption charges and sentenced to imprisonment for life. >>translator: xi wants to put his people into important posts. he has to do something about the infaction in order to achieve

that. he's trying to shake the faction by convicting zhou. xi might shift to a softer approach now that he's established his position. there might even be some moves to improving ties with countries where relations had deteriorated. >> reporter: xi pai jinpng has continue to be tough with his relations with jap be and u.s. if he gets people behind him, he could afford to lighten the tone of negotiations. authorities in china are limiting information about an

attack. xinhua says group of p armed with kni northwestern china car deadly attack. dozens of people were ki the assault in the uyghur autonomous regi the news agency says rampaged through government buildings and a police station on monday near the c kashgar. security authorities reportedly shot and killed a them. gs information about the violence is not longer available open the internet. internet service has been cut off. ethnic uyghurs have grown frustrated with income gap with the ha majority. armed groups have carried out a number of attacks in the region. it is being called april organized act of terrorism. >> fresh data shows today that domestic output by japanese auto makers was up in june from the same period last year. marking a rise for ten straight months. industry figures show over 800,000 vehicles rolled out of factories out of eight major

auto makers in japan last month. toyota's output was off by under 1%. demand surnlinged prior to a hike in japan's consumption tax in april. nissan's production also down 15%. the company moved some production to united states where sales are expanding. >> a different picture over at honda, production up nearly 50%. it does remain uncertain whether japan's domestic output will continue growing as some auto makers are moving bases over seas. domestic car sales could remain sluggish for some time due to the consumption tax hike. managers have seen managers at plants japan have seen inve build up on the fact so they've asked w things down a bit. the latest numbers sho

industrial production at the fastest rate disaster three years fukushima. factory output fell from may t june by 3.3%. that's worse than many economists had predicted. consumers went on a spending spree before the consumption tax went up in april. now they are holding on to their money. industry ministry officials say the biggest drops in production came from machinery makers. seoul kspi claimed 1% today to 2 o 082.

here in tokyo, the nikkei average rose for a fourth straight session. traders focused on companies that raised their full year profit outlook and they pick up stocks like honda motor as well. the shanghai composite did fall as well. it edged down today to 2181. recent advancers such as banking and property shares faced pressure due to profit taking. >> are having trouble enough chicken f their menu. they started to worry afte china supplier was breaches of food safet so now they're tur chicken from brazil. the president at mcdonald's japan delivered her first news conference since the broke. sarah casanova apologized and says that the company no imports all of itshi thailand but it's no and managers at some had to stop offering some items.

>> the company will test chicken from brazil for quality. managers have begun using mcdonald's website t customers on where come from and where processed. japanese prime minister shinzo abe is exploring more opportunities on his tou latin america. he met in the colombian ca bogota with their president. they want to speed u an economic partne agreement. abe and santos agreed to cooperate in creating a friendly environment for japanese firms working to build infrastruct and develop resources. they're pushing for an investment deal and want to improve the process of protecting those investments. abe and santos also promised to collaborate in creating an international framework to tackle climate change. some japanese technology electronic makers see a bright

future in technologies that tvs and computers. so they are teaming up on the research and development on wh are known as organic o displays are thinn crystal displays and h sharper images. but they are expensive t produce and that's p them from being us large-screen tvs. still, some see a futu displays in tab let and laptops. executives at japan display, panasonic and sony have decided to form a new r&d company. they will get financial support from a government-backed fund, the innovation network corporation of japan, they want to stop the technology from getting into the hands of their rivals overseas. now they'll face the challenge of turning oel displays into practical and profitable products. >> that is going to do it for business hour. here's the markets.

>> tokyo is holding the summer olympic games in 2020 and many people in japan are stud i didn'ting english to be able to play host. gene otani is here. japan is on a deadline. how are people are getting road? >> when we usually talk about

preparation, we talk about roads and stadiums and all the things to be done. the big stickler in japan is the language issue. not too many people in japan speak english and there are efforts being made to speak the language. in our three-day series, i want to show you what efforts are being made and some of the problems that people here in japan face. a lot of them are busy brushing up on their skills. today, we're focusing on the service industry. here's a look at what i found. >> reporter: for a person who doesn't speak japanese, even the simplest thing such as communicating with a taxi driver can become a challenging task.

>> can you take had me to the sky tree. tokyo sky tree. >> 62-year-old veteran cab driver was enthusiastic to speak english. he tried hard to explain to me about the imperial palace but after our conversation went beyond destination and main tourist spots, he found it challenging. >> can you go inside the palace? >> can you -- >> go inside the palace? >> go inside the pals? >> that's not stopping him from improving his english. he says he's been taking language lessons for a year, so i asked him to take me there. >> two years ago. two hours ago. >> when i arrived, i found an

equally motivated full house organized by the tokyo taxi center. cab drivers come here once a month, many say the classes give them more confidence. >>translator: i want foreign visitors to like japan so i hope we taxi drivers can help them by speak english. >>translator: i want to try my best to provide the taxi service for foreign guests. >> he was a role model and leading the pack. >> thank you very much using our taxi service. >> thank you. i don't need to put my seat belt on? >> it's a very good idea. >>translator: i said to tokyo olympics as a target and i want

to practice english very hard to help foreign visitors during the game. >> i'm in a more traditional retear area. store owners are trying to attack more customers. they noticed an increasing number of foreign shoppers strolling along the streets. this is look pretty traditional. it says an english menu is available. let's go inside to see what it's like. no one spoke english at this nooddle shop, but that's okay. the menu was fully trltd. however, when i asked this late about something, away she went. this jean store owner was a little more prepared. may i help you? >> yes. >> he's found a way to getting over his shyness and overcome the language barrier post it

notes just in case he forgets useful phrases. >> please take a try. >> try it on? >>translator: when i can't remember suitable words, these notes here. keeping them here, i manage to get by. >> he is among other shop keepers who got together and started a group english class but once the class started, many were embarrassed by their accents or cared about minute details or perfection. their lack of confidence was apparent. >>translator: my english is far from perfect. when i studied in school, it was all about memorizing. we didn't learn about communication. >> the instructor sounded more like a therapist than english teacher. >>translator: if we worry too much about this, we won't be

able to speak english. >> that seems to be the problem for many japanese, if they could only get over the psychological barrier and understand that making mistakes is okay. then we might hear more english in japan. >> it's so great to see so many people trying so hard to study english. especially that cab driver. he was lovely. >> you know his english isn't perfect but you know how he wants to service his customers. >> i understand what you mean for psychological barrier for some japanese that seems to be the bigger issue. gene, what do you have for us tomorrow? >> we're going to take a a little bit of a bigger picture story. tomorrow, we want to talk about the new english education policy the japanese government announced last december. it aims to overhaul the english education system in public schools by 2020. >> we'll be looking forward to it.

tropical storm halong may not be a typhoon yet but it's already causing problems. >> despite its status, it left problems in guam. they are having many power outages. observers say flooding is making it difficult to travel on the roads. the center is now moving toward the west, moving away from these islands, including guam and saipan, but it's still bringing stormy conditions in these

islands. we're talking about destructive waves, and flooding. it is expected to move toward the west. it is expected to become a typhoon by your friday and probably move up to the north aiming for the southern islands of japan next week. now we have another tropical storm to talk about. it's bigger than halong. it is expected to move out toward the northwest. probably move over the area of oak can i gnaw wa. they will start to feel the stormy conditions tomorrow. we'll talking about rain and waves up to five meters. the bulk of the water is in the water at this moment. you can see lots of rain is falling over the western areas of philippines. an additional 200 millimeters of of rain is likely to fall for

the next couple of days. watch out for flooding as well as landslides. now across europe, you can see rotation, severe weather is happening. we have numerous reports of flooding and power outages in germany, romania and other places. the worst will happen in the northwest areas of the balkan peninsula on your wednesday and the worst area are under the eastern areas of the adriatic coast, tornadoes can the no be ruled out. temperatures, 5 degrees higher than normal in stockholm, moscow 10 degrees higher than normal. finally over the america's, it's the monsoon season in the areas of the southwest. especially in the four corner regions, july and august are the wettest areas of the year. moisture is colliding from the

pacific and the gulf of mexico. heavy rains will move over the southern plains for the next several days. for the next several days, thunderstorms will continue in places like albuquerque and el paso. being the back side of the rocky mountains it's staying hot and sunny. 40 degrees on your wednesday and friday. spokane washington, 37 degrees in both wednesday and thursday. heat is number one related killer. stay hydrated. here's your extended forecast around the globe.

>> before we go, a giant crater cropped up in the per ma frost field in siberia. a giant crater cropped up in permafrost field in western siberia. russian scientists are examining the site to find the cau the mystery. the 60-meter wide hole sits the yamalo-nenets shot reminds people of that exploded over february. russian researchers say they have never seen a hole this bi they suspect it coul from rising temperat melted underground i. they say that a po may have caused an exp but they say its less likely that a meteorite caused this phenomenon. people around the world are speculating about th mysterious hole oneo sharing site. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm shery ahn.

thank you for watching. 

>> a comeback. we begin in gaza, where the hamas military leadership have rejected suggestions of a cease-fire. the commander of hamas' military wing says his soldiers were eager for death. fighting continued with israeli shells hitting a crowd at the un's kewell -- at a you in school -- at a u.n. school.