hello, and welcome to nhk "newsline" in tokyo. we start with the latest on russia's invasion of ukraine. a fierce battle tecontinues in e southeastern port city of mariupol. the british defense ministry says ukraine's continued

december of t defense of the city. a ukrainian missile attack did serious damage to the flagship of the russian fleet. it's said to carry as many as 680 and 16 cruise missiles. russia says its troops have taken full control of a key port area in mariupol. fierce fighting there has made it, extremely difficult for people to flee the violence. the mayor said some 100,000 people remain trapped. he said 21,000 civilians have opinion killed. the governor of sumi says 100 civilians have been killed, and

the toll is rising. he says some of the victims appear to have opinion tibeen t tortured or shot in the head. investigations are under way around kyiv where hundreds of bodies have been found after russian troops with drew. the presidents of the three baltic states visited a town on wednesday. >> even difficult to express in words. >> killing and torture of innocent, using illegal weapons, genocide, it will not go unpunished. >> a spokesperson of the russian fense ministry suggested on wednesday that t countrs military may attack kyiv again. >> translator: we can see that ukrainian forces are trying to

carry out subversive activities. if such activities continue, we will conduct strikes on decisionaking centers including including. >> people in the capital have mixed reaction. >> translator: i'm scared, but i won't go anywhere. ukraine has been fighting for its independence. we are kf teconfident that we w win. >> u.s. president joe biden has promised ukraine another $800 million in military aid. washington aims toolster ukrainian defense capabilities at a time when there's little hope of an immediate cease-fire.

the pentagon sayshat brings u.s. commitment to $2.6 billion. new data from china shows that imports from russia in march grew by over 26%, compared to the previous year. it comes as pay jibeijing slams international sanctions against >> what was behind the growth? >> well, the data showed that china continues to buy oil, gas and coal from russia. and of course that runs counter to the sanctions western countries have imposed on russian energy. but one analyst i spoke to said china is not in a rush to increase the amount it buys. he said beijing is clearly aware of of the on tecptics of tradinh

russia especially right now. here's what he had to say. >> translator: if china overtly pours russia there could be a backlash or they could be excluded interest being part of the international community, that's something china cannot accept. >> that concern may also be imposing, impacting chinese exports to russia. they are expected to be dropped by over 7% last month. the analyst said china's high-tech companies are becoming more hesitant to do business with moscow. he said they are worried it could affect their reputation and concerned that they could get caught up in sanctions. >> the international community fears china could create a loophole to help russia get around the sanctions. how realistic is that concern?

>> well, i think it depends on chinese president xi jinping. he invited vladimir putin to the winter olympics if and he's touted what he's call add no-limit relationship. but they may not have expected such a fierce, drawn-out war in ukraine and such a strong reaction from the international community. the expert i spoke to thinks chinese leaders have a lot to consider. >> translator: if western countries think of china in the same light as russia, they would accelerate moves to dee couple the chinese economy from theirs as a way to contain china. the conflict in ukraine has incrse thad ki increased that kind of risk. >> coronavirus is another big issue for the chinese economy

right now. especially in shanghai. the outbreak has shut down the country's major business centers and disrupting the economy. the chinese leadership is strongly worried it will continue to slow down. so china is facing tough decisions bo decisions both at home and abroad, and president xi will have to decide how critical trade with russia is, compared with the losses that could come with it. a cyber security firm is warning that scammers are stealing money from people who want to help ukraine. >> translator: unfortunately, the escalating situation in ukraine is convenient for cyber criminals. they asked for crypto assets

such as bitcoin. they say about 1.2 million of these e-mails are known to be around the world. trend micro staff also found web links that take visitors to fake donation sites. some direct recipients to sites that steal personal information. they're asking anyone who gets an e-mail for a donation to check the e-mail address and links to make sure they belong to a legitimate organization. a museum in heiroshima that moralizes the atomic bombing of the city in 1945 has reset a clock that shows the number of days since the world's most recent nuclear weapons test.

the adjustment was made to protest two u.s. sub critical nuclear tests, conducted in 2021. the hiroshima peace memorial museum in the western japanese city restarted the peace clock on wednesday. this came in ponce to information about nuclear weapons tesss in the u.s. that fell short of reaching critical explosive force. the second of the two tesss came 209 day the earlier. nhk was told wednesday that the tests were care eed out in nevada on june 22nd and september 16th. they were the first of their kind under president joe biden who backs president obama's call for a world without nuclear weapons. in 1992, the u.s. government announced a moratorium on tests involving nuclear explosions, but success give administrations have carried out sub critical

tests on the ground that they do not r not produce nuclear blasts. >> translator: i hope that a halt will be put to such tests. >> the director stress the that information about the tests comes amid heightened concern about such weapons being used in conflict. north korean leader kim jong un has gifted brand-new homes to a group of people deemed worthy, including one of the world's most recognizable faces of the state-run korean television sho says kim gave away a freshly built unit to people aimed at rewarding loyalty. the leader even designed the

homes himself. this woman was among several people employed by state-run newspapers and broadcasters to get a set of keys. kim called the anchor a national treasure and citing her 50 years behind the microphone. people know her for reporting on some of the most important moments in the nation's history. these include nuclear tests and the death of the current leader's father and predecessor, kim jong il. as north korea continues to mark on april 15th 110 years since the birth of founder kim ill song, it does so at a time of turbulence in the reasonable, amid multiple missile launches bit north, south korea is set for a political course change with president-elect yoon to take office next month.

nhk world sat down with an expert to get an insight on the future prospects for the korean peninsula. >> i'm pretty sure they'll be doing something to show to the world their military prowess and another objective is to impart the message that we may be poor, but we are a very, very strong country, so you should be proud of that. so i think there is also a domestic consideration. one thing for sure is that north korea will do something to impart a strong and stern message to the united states that we are still holding on to our policy, which is augmenting our military capability. so deal with us. president-elect yoon said a number of times that he would adopt a more principled approach

when he deals with north koreans. there's bot there's got to be a real progress in north korea's dee nuclearization first. only after we accomplish that can we resume inter korean exchanges, cooperation projects. ere shouldn't be any preconditions for these negotiations to resume. all you have to do is to come back to the negotiation and go to the diplomacy is wide open. so north koreans will really have to take the first step. unless that happens, inter korean relations will not improve in the foreseeable future. there is no such a thing as a good policy. your choice should be between a bad policy and worse policy or bad policy or the worst policy. i think the worst policy or the worst policy is to use any

military options against mortganorth koreans, why? because it could skrat escalate full-blown war. the worse policy is to come to for the korean pressure. halting joint military exercises with americans, that's worse that shouldn't happen. so the only other viable option is to stick to sanctions until the sanctions do take effect. it may take a long while, it may not and creative policy, but that's only policy that is available to north korea. so we've got to be more patient. we might have to impose another sanction here to penalize north

koreans. it's time for world weather with our meteorologist sayaka mori. she lets us know if chilly conditions are here for longer. >> hello, we're seeing a dras tech chan particular change in temperatures. thankfully rain is going to be a part of the story tomorrow. but thankfully on saturday it's going to be drier. ample moisture coming in from the south. heavy rain is likely in central and western japan. this is a strong, very strong typhoon. you can see the eye in the center, packing gusts of over 200 kilometers per hour. it's likely to pound the ogasawara islands directly on friday. we could see gusts of nearly 180

kilometers, strong enough to topple trees and waves could be up to 12 meters. so mainly on friday and then high waves and also moisture will affect the main islands of japan too. an intense spring storm has been pummeling much of the u.s. and parts of canada. there was blizzard warning in praise and sti place in the north. and twisters and large hail. take a look at video coming out of central texas where severe weather hit. nearly two dozen people were injured when tornados swept throh central texas tuesday. the storms caused widespread damage in salado. the same system pushed thrgh parts of the u.s. wednesday as well, bringing damaging winds, hail and tornados from ohio to louisiana. in fact, salado was hit by a huge hail with a diameter of

centimeters. temperatures will be on the warm side in the u.s. capital on thursday. that's it for me, have a nice day. that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." thanks for watching and do stay

with us for more. this is "newsline" biz, i'm gene otani, central banks in south korea and singapore say they are tightening monetary policy. they join others around the world reacting to the situation in ukraine. the bank of korea decided on thursday to raise the benchmark interest rate to 1.5%, the fourth rate hike since last

august. consumer prices in south korea jumped 4.1% from a year before. boj officials expect inflationary pressure to persist longer than previously thought. they also announced they were tightening policy. the m.a.s. manages policy through exchange rate settings rather than interest rates. officials decided to allow the singapore dollar to strengthen to curb price hikes of imported goods. the central bank in canadas are announced a rate hike on wednesday. its key rate was increased by half a percentage point, the biggest single move in more than two decades. more than 20 auto makers from around the world are about to hoe ca to showcase their latest models. the spotlight for many is on new electric vehicles. the show opens on trioffriday,

skipping two years because of the pandemic. u.s. auto makers and ford will display their new pickups. >> everything has really evolved in a, amazingly. so, in two years, the amount of model vehicles that are for sale in dealerships by manufacturers is really a marvel to see. >> the new york office of the japan external trade organization says the three months through march saw new car sales in the u.s. fall by 15% from a year ago. it says the global chip shortage is behind the slump. but electric vehicle sales grew 72%. that's been fueled in part by surging gasoline prices. looking ahead, higher nickle prices may pose a threat to that growth. the metal is essential for making ev batteries. mitsubishi heavy industries

say they have close there had only remaining development base in the united states for japan's first home-grown passenger jet. the company is scaling down its work on the space jet, and it sees no prospect of delivering it to customers. mitsubishi says it closed down a flight testing center in the state of washington at the end of march. the facility was part of plans to obtain certification. but work there had been on hold for a year. the company announced in objectr 2020 that it would drastically cut the budget. they have been working on the aircraft since 2008, with the first plane supposed to reach customers in 2013. the main provider of electricity on japan's northern island of hokkaido says it will stop buying coal from russia. this follows a japanese government decision to phase-out

imports of the fuel as part of sanctions against moscow. hokkaido electric power company says the plan will not affect its operations, as they have secured sufficient coal to last through the end of march next year. the utility also says it will switch to other exporters to enlure stable electricity supply. coal-fired thermal power plants accounted for more than half of the company's energy output in fiscal 2020. nearly 10% of the utility's coal imports are from russia, making it the second-largest foreign supply ir supplier after australia. professional tour guides in japan are asking the government for financial support, saying the covid pandemic poses a serious threat to their careers.

representatives of two guide organizations visited tourism minister and asked him to continue providing people in their profession with subsidies throughout the current fiscal year. they say the prolonged pandemic has vdestroyed most jobs in ther field. some have been forced to quit or change careers. >> translator: we are reaching our limit boast mental. i am worry th worey thad guidese in short supply. culture and history enthusiasts in a central japanese city are showing that attractions in their community can be just as interesting as major sightseeing spots. they are offering tour guide services that exposes people to something unique and often

unknown that's right under their nose. nhk world has the story. >> reporter: these people strolling through a neighborhood in the city of gifu, central japan. the tour guide points to something in the road that's very it is believed to be one of p traces of the castle which was destroyed over 500 years ago. the members of the tour group tried to imagine that scene. the guide has interest in local history and can help make the past come alive. >>

>> the idea is to encourage people to check out places of interest in and around the city during the pandemic. >> translator: our guides are full of passion. going on a walk with them makes an ordinary landscape seem like a scene with a great story to tell. >> reporter: about 50 guides are available to conduct the tours. each of them specializes in a given field, including archaeology, geisha culture and insects. this is one of the guides. he's interested in things o

tofft off the beaten track. he asks local people to share their knowledge. >> today he is leading a tour group to a temple that's about 1,300 years old. but that's not the main attraction. a hike up a steep trail, and then. it looks like something from ancient egypt. >> translator: it's made of limestone. after many years of mining, it gradually became shaped laoicik pyramid. >> reporter: it makes them realize they hadn't noticed things that are right under their nose. >> translator: it's very interesting to learn about unexpected, hidden facts. >> translator: i'm so happy when people become interested in

niche things. >> reporter: these knowledgeable guides lend a new perspective to every day scenes, and that helps people appreciate their local community. even more. nhk world, gifu. >> all right, let's have a look at the

and from the "newsline" biz team in tokyo, i'm gene otani. thanks very much for being with us. o7ñ;ñ;?k

>> the mayor of the besieged ukrainian city of mariupol says and estimated 21,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the war. ukraine's military is warning that russian troops will capture the devastated city soon. russia's president has defended the war as a noble mission that will achieve its goals. vladimir putin also said it is not possible to isolate his country after