hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." we begin with the latest missile launches from north korea. the south korean military says the north fired two missiles off its east coast on friday. it comes amid warning that's pyongyang is preparing for another nuclear test. officials confirmed the incident after midday. south korea's military says they

were short range ballistic missiles. it says they were fired from an area in the country's southeast. sources close to the japanese government say the missiles did not land inside the country's exclusive economic zone. there are no reports of damage. north korea launched missiles on 28 occasions this year and unprecedented this wook officia this week officials warned of a decisive response if they conduct the seventh nuclear test. latest launch comes as new satellite images suggest north korean military facilities are undergoing major upgrades. experts say it can all be part of pyongyang's intercontinental

ballistic missile program. construction has been working at a plant that is used to make tanks and other vehicles. observers say the expansion could be linked to the development of all terrain mobile missile launchers. he was also going the site of an icbm launch in 2017. meanwhile, u.s. think tank is also reporting major activity at the satellite launching they called for the launch site to be modernized. the facility could be used for icbm related purposes. a new report from the u.s.

defense department says china is the country's most serious challenge to security. it pointed to what it called beijing's aggressive attempts to change the international system. >> the prc is the only competitor out there with both the intent to reshaup tpe the international order and the power to do so. >> the pentagon released the 2022 national defense strategy on thursday. the document says china has expanded and modernized the forces with the goal of offsetting u.s. military advantages. it says the defense department is focused on chinese activities in the region and the challenges posed by russia in europe. the pentagon also released a nuclear posture review. it discussed growing concerns about nuclear and missile developmentes in china, north

korea and russia. it said washington will will strengthen what it calls extended nuclear deterence to protect the allies. a chinese defense spokesperson says they will boost the military capabilities by 2027. that's when china will mark 100 years since the army was founded. the qvicommunist party says tha the party will elevate china's ormz forces to world class standards. the japanese government is looking into purchasing tomahawk cruise missiles from the united states. it considers the tomahawk a counter strike weapon that is has proven effective with u.s. forces in various operations. the goverent says they're planning to use it to reinforce japan's defense capabilities until new models can be fully deployed in four years or

they will manufacture their own missiles soon. the government is also keen to boost the capability for the mass transport of personnel and supplies to prepare for a possible emergency across the taiwan straight. it is weighing the option of increasing the number of civilian ships they contract to support such capabilities from the current two to around there is a stark warning about a humanitarian crisis in if eastern europe this winter. he says many more people could free ukraine if russia continues its attacks on energy infrastructure creating an even greater burden for neighboring countries.

poland's dpu it you foreign minister sat down with nhk in tokyo on friday. he said poland lacks the funds to provide adequate housing and educational support to be approximately three mullon ukrainians in its country. that is the largest number of ukrainian refugees in any nation. >> our infrastructure was not prepared for such numbers within weeks or days. so the challenges are tacks onhe irastructe tolerabl heaid ty tget sficient i willn life he aed it woulbe very difficulforhe peopl of ukrain to mak it thrgh nter witut foreign aid.

>> japanese police have arrested a gangster currently serving time in prison. it's over the deadly shooting of a restaurant magnate almost a decade ago. in 2013, he was gunned down in front of the headquarters in tokyo. they offer hundreds of out lets across japan and overseas. investigators have implicated him in the killing. he's a senior member of a based out of a prefek sucture. dna collected from cigarette butts found near the murder scene matched of that the suspect. investigators say he is expected to have killed the restaurant chain owner at someone else's

request. a japanese cabinet member has apology yuzed for receiving a letter of support from an affiliate of the former unification church. he is the latest senior lawmaker relevant re veeld to have tuz with the group. >> translator: i acknowledge that me, my staff, and my office lacked awareness about the group at the time. and that was not appropriate. i would like to sincerely apologize. >> he told the committee the letter had been sent to him by an affiliate of the x unification church ahead of last year's lower house selection. he said he did not ask for the group support. another senior official, estate minister of defense was also grilled by opposition lawmakers for his ties with the group. he's alleged to have invited members of the ex-unification church to his office while serving in the jtice ministry.

he said he did not deny the accusation. he held many meetings on requests from members of his constituency. but he did vow to end his relationship with the group. the ex-unification church has been under scrutiny since the shooting death of former presume munster a munster abe shinzo for ties with politicians and shady marketing practices. >> the yen's recent plunge has made other currencies more attractive to investors and apparently also to thieves. police say someone allegedly stole a stack of $100 bills and euro notes from a shop in tokyo. the sikt storaticket storage re theft at 7:00 p.m. on thursday. the suspect opened a fashlly closed shutter, broke a glass window with a hammer and took 100 bank notes. two employees were inside the

store closing up for the day. they heard the noise but the money was already gone. the store creates coupons and tickets and also exchanges currency. it is near a station, a busy terminal in central tokyo. foot traffic was reportedly hef you at the time of the uns dent. police say the suspect coved the shops shutter with a blue tarp to hide their actions. they believe the green back was targeted due to its surging val value against the yen. police in central tokyo are beefing up security in anticipation of the thousands of halloween goers gathering in a popular downtown area this weekend. a large number of revellers enjoy celebrating halloween in the area surrounding the train station. in past years, police were called upon to arrest individuals who vandalized cars. however, during the pandemic,

the number of people on the streets dropped sharply. officials are expecting the crowd to return this year. partly because japan has eased many of the covid travel restrictions on tourists. riot police will be deployed around the station scramble crossing to deal with any p possible problems. the dj police will be on site guide pedestrians. they're considering restricting vehicle traffic to make more room at the highly congested crossing. drinking alcohol will be prohibited on the streets, parks, and other public places near the station starting from friday

>> it is difficult for some foreign residents. the money they sent to loved ones overseas isn't stretching as far as it used to. we have this report. >> she works in gentleman pab. but is originally from myanmar. she comes to this company every few months to support family back home. >> translator: i'm sending money to my mother. >> she is transferring 200,000 yen, about $1400. but with the falling yen, it won't end up converting to the amount she is hoping for. at this office, the yen dropped 5% in value against myanmar's currency since last month. >> translator: the hope the yen will get stronger. i'm not the only person struggling with this situation. >> whul people here are still

sending money for this company, they say they're doing it less often these days. >> some customers try to reduce the time of the sending money and shipping money. >> the yen is trading lower against almost all occur enyou ises compared to this time last year. it fell to 151 against the dollar a week ago. he says that may make some you will legal risk of transferring money overseas and warns people to watch out for scams. he says he and his co-workers are closely watching the yen just like customers are. >> we also hope that it will be good for sending money from japan. >> this man is transferring funds to south africa for his

family's living expenses. he says inflation is making the inflation worse. >> they need to send more. when you send more, you have to watch out. it's so high. you need to live on a little. it is very bad. >> as people hope for things to get better, they continue to transfer money. the yen's value mao change. the means to support loved ones is constant. >> it is time for a check on world weather with our meteorologist. strengthening tropical system is putting residents in the philippines on alert. we have the details. >> tropical is located to the east of the fuphilippines is bringing a lot of heavy rainfall. at least 13 peoe have been killed because of floods and landslides. the system is expected to move northward and it could approach

its likely to approach the islands into saturday. it could make land fall on saturday as well. and then as you can see, it will stay near this area at least into tuesday, possibly through wednesday. so hef yavy rain will continue affect the philippines, at least until next week. many areas will receive more than 200 muillimeters of rainfall. there are v. been a couple of tropical systems since september. so additional news is not good news. to you juan will receive plenty of rainfall because of. this meanwhile, tokyo lows were in the sing am digits for the first time in three years in a row. so it's going to be mild during the day time hours. 21 for the high on saturday. 20 degrees into next two weeks. now how we see storm you conditions on sunday. and also monday. possibly into the midweek. it's been exceptionally hot acro western europe.

35 degrees was reported in southern spain. take a look at this vud yoe from spain and france. summer like weather continues to treat western europe. it's late october. tourists in france and spain are sunbathing. beach resorts across france have extended their season as the unusually hot weather keeps tourists coming. the warm weather has raised the risk of wuildfires in many regions though. the temperatures are 10 degrees higher than this time of year. so that's it for me. stay safe.

. that's all for this edition of "nhk newsline." do stay with us for more.

this is newsline biz. consumer prices in tokyo rose in october at the fastest pace in four decades when the effects of consumption tax hikes are excluded. soaring raw material prices and higher import costs due to the weaker yen were the main factors. the internal affairs ministry says the consumer price index

for the capital cluimbed 3.4% from a year earlier. that is the highest since june 1982. it excludes fresh foods because weather conditions caused the prices to fluctuate. food prices increased 6%. gas bills soared 29%. electricity charges went up by 27%. the prices of cell phones rose 16.5%. the cpi is considered leading indicator of nationwide inflation. the japanese government has approved an economic package at the special meeting of the cabinet. >> translator: this is a comprehensive economic package aimed at overcoming rising pric prices and reviving the economy. we'll implement price measures people's livelihoods and buzzes. we'll also strengthen the economy for the future.

>> prime minister says that the government has decided to spend about 39 trillion yen or $270 billion. the government wants to bring electricity prices down by 20%. they plan to start a subsidy of five cents per kill owe watt hour in january and planning one for natural gas used by households and businesses of 20 cents per cubic meter. the package will strengthen subsip diz nifrt half of the next fiscal year in order to curb rising fuel prices. families raising young children will get around $700 in support. the government needs to drop the supplementary budget bill to fund the economic package. it plans do that next month so the diet can is pa the bill during its current extraordinary session. the government is expected to finance most items in the package by issuing new bonds. a spending plan in the uk under

former prime minister liz truss failed to secure funding and threw the financial market into turmoil. truss suggested last month that government bonds would be issued to cover the funding short fall. but the market was skeptical of the unfunded expansion of government spending resulting in a surge in uk bond yields. the pound plunged against the dollar hitting the weakest level. truss was forced to resign just one and a half months after taking office. japan's latest economic package is also unfunded. it is ten times the size of the one that failed in the uk. but the justice department doesn't sm wried that it could cause market chaos. bank of japan is sticking to the monetary easing policy saying the economy still needs stimulus. the doj is buying government bonds to inject money into the economy. that means even if the government issues new bonds, it would not result in a surge in

yields. expert wafrn that's what happened in the uk. it could occur in japan if nothing is done about the loosening of fiscal discipline. >> the bank of japan is sticking about the monetary easing despite growing pressure to raise interest rates as the yen weakens. boj board members wrapped up a two day policy meeting. they zuded decided to keep the term interest rate in negative territory and will guy government bonds to hold long term rates around zero percent. the board also raced the inflation forecast for this fiscal year which ends next ma. they expect prices to increase by 2.9%, up from the 2.3% it announced in july. this is the medium forecast for the consumer price undecindex. energy and raw materials rows and the yen weakens. >> translator: after the new

year, overseas cost push factors weaken. and that will help reduce the year on year consumer price index increase through the middle of fiscal 2023. in the latest outlook, cpi is projecting to rise to about 3%. before coming down to the mid 1% range in fiscal 2023. >> boj governor adds it is possible for prices and wages to increase faster than the bank anticipates. but at this moment, it is unlikely that inflation will stabilize around 2% in the next fiscal year. >> u.s. media had reported that bill yoi an elon musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of twitter. "the washington post" and other news outlets report that musk acquired all shares of the

social media platform. several media reports say that twitter executives including the ceo have already been fired. musk withdrew his yout plan in july saying the number of fake accounts was higher than twitter clau claimed. twitter filed a lawsuit to hold musk to thinks agreement. on tuesday, he pledged to close the deal by friday. >> let's see what is happening in the week ahead. there is a number of key figures out and we start with business sentment in chun. the country will announce on monday the purchasing managers index for october. a reading of 50 indicates expansion. a figure below that number means contraction. the survey for country's manufacturing sector unexpectedly returned to growth last month but expansion continued to slow for the

nonmanufacturing sector. there is little evidence that the business mood in china changed this month. a worsening real estate market and weakening global demand are weighing on the economy. the japanese finance munn stri will announce on monday how much it intervened in foreign exchange markets. the country spent about $20 billion to try and bolster the yen last month. and was believed the muinistry may have far exceeded. they briefly surged by seven yen against the dollar last friday. the currency also jumped on monday by about four yen. investors suspect the muministr behind the movements but officials have not confirmed any interventions this month. the latest gdp figures for the euro-zone will also be out on monday. economic data is pointing to a substantial slowdown. some economists are even expecting a quarterly contraction for the july to

september period. inflation figure for consumer prices in the euro-zone is due on monday as well. soaring inflation pushed the european central bank to raise its key rate by a mass .75% on thursday. policymakers now believe the higher prices will last longer than expected. central bank officials in the u.s. are set for another big rate hike on wednesday. economists expect the federal reserve to increase its key rate by power pl by .75%. but there are questions as to whether the fed will keep the same pace hikes in december. some economic data suggests at gresive tightening is having an effect on the economy. we'll also see some key earnings reports for the july to september quarter from major japanese firms next week. sony group will release us results on tuesday. a declining yen could benefit some parts of its business.

the company officials have indicated that they will still expect profits to decline for the fiscal year due to weak sales of gaming software. toyota motor sr announcing its earnings on tuesday as well. the world's largest carmaker said production for the business year ending in march will be lower than expected. persistent semiconductor anticipate other parts shortages are taking a toll. analysts want to see how the downward revision affects the company's business outlook. all right. let's have a look at the markets.

and from the newsline biz team, thank you for being us with. ■x■xqñn ■x have reached a st

milestone. >> ukraine says what weather and terrain is making a counteroffensive more difficult. the president says the fiercest fighting is taking place in the eastern domestic region. >> there have been no significant changes on the frontline. most is taking place other where. it's the place