♪ hello and thank you for joining us on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo with the latest at this hour. revamp the country's defense strategy in japan. one of the new policies gives the country the capability to launch counterstrikes prime minister kishida said it needs to boost its current defenses >> translator: as well as the possibility of attacks where massive amounts of missiles are

launched at once, these are the harsh environments surrounding japan. >> the government plans to spend about $315 billion on defense over the next five years. corporate income and tobacco will be raised to spend for that. staying with japan, the government has drawn up a plan to boost coast guard capabilities amid intrusions into japanese waters by chinese ships. ministers approved the policy on strengthening the maritime security system on friday, it's the first time since 2016 japan has created a policy on bolstering the coast guard's capabilities, the policy takes into account heightening

international tensions, these include larger and more heavily armed chinese government vessels operating near okinawa islands, china and taiwan claim them. japan's policy aims to step up patrols of its waters by ships and aircrafts, that will be done using drones and other new technologies. the policy says the coast guard will strengthening information-sharing and cooperation with the self-defense forces to improve the capacity for strategic collaboration at home and abroad, to put the coast guard under the defense minister's control inhe event of an armed attack. the coast guard is expected to undergo joint training. to implement the major hiking the coast guard's budget to $2.2

billion in fiscal 2027. turning now to malaysia, search efforts return after a de deadly landslide. 16 were killed and 17 are still missing. it happened at a campsite just outside the capital, kuala lumpur, around 3:00 a.m. local time. about an acre of land was struck with dirt and debris. rescuers are still sifting through mud and downed trees, the area's prone to landslides often triggered by forest and land clearance, the region is also currently in its raining season. the u.n. general assembly has adopted a resolution urging north korea to return all foreign nationals it's abducted for the 18th straight year.

more than 60 countries co-sponsored the resolution including japan and south korea, china and russia didn't voice their spot the resolution said the u.n. condemns north s systematic. north korean ambassador to the u.n. said his country rejects and condemns the resolution. >> a product of a hostile policy of the united states, has nothing to do with promotion and protection of human rights. >> kim left the general assembly in the middle of the session. now north korea's state media has

reported the development of a new type of strategic weapons system and testing of a high-thrust solid fuel engine. the north's repeated testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles has caused great concern among neighboring countries. the korean central news agency said the test was conducted thursday at a satellite launch site in the country's northwest. the aim was to prove the rocket engine's reliability. north korea currently possesses icbm-class missiles that use liquid fuel, but they have shortcomings such as difficulty in long-term storage of fuel in and time needed to inject them. solid fuel is easy to store and can be launched quickly, making it difficult to detect and intercept. the media report says leader kim jong-un expressed belief that the new weapons system would be completed in a short amount of time. north korea's five-year defense plan calls for the development of an icbm that uses solid fuel. pyongyang has conducted an unprecedented number of missile tests this year, including a new

and larger model of icbm, which experts say could put the entire u.s. mainland within its range. the u.s. senate has passed a defense bill that includes up to $10 billion over the next five years in military assistance for taiwan. senators on thursday approved the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2023 by an overwhelmingly bipartisan majority the legislation authorizes defense spending of at least $863 billion, up to $10 billion from to 23 to 2027 for taiwan. the bill also allows washington toed provide taipei for as beijing increases its military presence in the region.

the legislation will take effect when president joe biden signs it. taiwan is amending election laws to tackle the political influence of so-called deep fakes, they are a.i. created videos designed to mimic a person's likeness. taiwan's cabinet approved draft revisions on thursday, allowing candidates to ask website hosts or others to remove or limit access to certain videos once police have confirmed deep fakes. taiwan is also looking to ban campaign ads funded by overseas groups. it comes as taiwanese authorities have accused of china of manipulating public opinion during elections. . the revisions are expected to be

enacted before taiwanese voters head to the polls in 2024. japanese boxing fans are celebrating a historic have itry in the ring, this week inoue became an undisputed world champ, first to hold all four major titles. inoue felt england's paul butler in tokyo, the undefeated fighter is nicknamed the monster, the fight got off to slow start before inoue started use his jab. knocked him out in his 11th round. >> translator: i fought aggressively so i was a bit more tired than usual but i feel good here. >> reporter: the 29-year-old

also become japan's first undisputed world champion in any weight class. earlier james tengan spoke with the trainer of boxers for over a decade. you actually spent time in the gym with inoue, what were your impressions of him there? >> i watched him sparring with a boxer i trained a couple times, and on his level of skill and power is overwhelming, especially his punches, but he's also quick. my boxer told me it was difficult to land any hard punches on inoue. so he's clearly a very well-rounded athlete and talented fighter. >> let's talk more about the significance of what happened this week, how big is it to win all four titles in a weight class?

>> well, it's become more difficult for boxing fans to figure out who's the best in the world, there are now four different world championship titles, each one is sanctioned by a different body, so a boxer need to win all four of them to prove they're the undisputed champ in the weight class, inoue's only the ninth person in the history of the sport to do that. >> where do you think his strength comes from, what makes him so special in. >> very faithful to the bakes, a model for boxing, the powerful punch with both hands is amaze and his speed is off the charts, he has a very good boxing brain, he can adapt to each opponent everyone defensive ones like paul, let's listen to what he

had to say about inoue after their fight. >> and it was accurate more than anything, the speed the accuracy which i think made the power. >> what about the future of -- what's next for inoue? >> he's looking at moving up one weight class, he wants to win all four titles. if he can do that he'd become the first boxer in the world to change weight classes and become the undisputed champ, inoue says fighting against bigger opponents would be a thrill. >> translator: i think it's important to be motivated if you don't get motivated you won't be able to improve your performance and that's why it's important to fight against strong opponents and keep taking on challenges. >> so, i don't think we have

seen inoue reach the limit of his abilities, he's literally the monster just like his nickname, i can see him dominated in the new weight class and achieving new goals. ♪ ♪ next in weather, people across europe are undergoing extremely cold temperatures. one woman in ukraine was rescued from a frozen lake. our meteorologist jonathan ooh has more on that in our world weather report. >> reporter: some frigid weather for the northern portions of

europe and we've been dealing with some snowy weather moving across the eastern side of the continent and a dramatic rescue that was caught on camera in ukraine, here's a look at some of that video, cold weather was gripping the country on wednesday and ukraine's national police saved a woman and her dog trapped in a frozen lake. a rescuer had to strip down to his underwear to dive in and rescue the person who had fallen through the ice with her pet, thankfully they were able to be rescued and taken out of the cold situation. we're looking at frigid temperatures for the northern portions of europe, we're talking about highs at or below freezing throughout the day, down toward the south, couple of areas of low pressure rolling on through, the possibility of strong thunderstorms from italy into the balkan peninsula. be on the lookout for that. we're looking at some snow to

mosc moscow. quick note on the world cup wrapping up this weekend, weather's going to be dry, temperatures to be expected to be in the 20s throughout the day for both days and it's going to look at least weatherwise pretty good. across north america, winter storm plummeting the upper midwest and over into the northeastern areas of the united states. down to the south and east things are starting to calm down as high pressure moves into the area. atlanta, a high of only 10. denver at 1 with sunny skies. across japan, snow continues from the north along the sea of japan side of the country, a system coming in from the west and that's going to bring some rain. sapporo, temperatures below freezing. hope you have a good day wherever you are. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and before we go, many children who fled ukraine due to rush sa's invasion will spend a christmas like no other this year. but there was a sense of at least some kind of normalcy in tokyo, they were treated to a christmas party. the children introduced themselves to the man in red, they gave him cards with drawings of what they hope to

find under the tree later this month. >> the event was organized by a group that supports evacuees from ukraine, about 30 families took part. >> translator: to be able to meet other ukrainians and speak with them in our language for the first time in a long time. japan has taken in about 2,000 ukrainian evacuees this year, the organizers saying they wanted to give the evacuees some comfort and will continue to think about what they can do for them. that concludes this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. coming up next is "newsline biz" with ramin mellegard.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this is "newsline biz." japanese think tank has released its annual assessment of cities, tokyo in third place for the seventh year in a row. the institute for urban strategies uses 70 indicators in 6 categories to 48 major cities. london and new york. fourth ranked paris edged closer to tokyo this year. tokyo saw its score fall for

accessibility. now in the economic field tokyo's wages and other indicators dragged down the total score. on the other hand, tokyo improved in the environment category as it received higher scores for cleanliness. major operator of bullet trains in japan started offering a charter service for the first time. as the country's high-speed services try to recover ridership numbers brought down in the covid pandemic. groups can reserve a carriage or the entire train. a choice of designs of headrest covers. select video footage and music played during the journey, they can put up banners for the

groups at station platforms to fwreet the passengers the company expects that the charter customers will mostly be in group tours and corporate training programs, officials say the bookings can be made on its website. the operator says the number of passengers in november was 20% lower compared the same month in 2018. before the coronavirus pandemic. and the governor of urging the people of taiwan to enjoy the prefecture and its foods. mimura shingo visited taiwan following the easing of border restrictions and spoke at a promotional event for the media and social media influencers. apples from aomori account for around 90% of those exported from japan, and they are especially popular in taiwan. and before the coronavirus

pandemic, aomori was a destination for many tourists from taiwan. there was high demand for hot springs and tours involving snow, which is rare in taiwan. mimura told the audience that the aomori nebuta festival was held for the first time in three years. >> i have to dance around two hours. i really want to challenge, yes. very good, yes. >> a family restaurant chain in taiwan is serving desserts made with aomori apples and hot pots featuring scallops from the prefecture. now the trade dispute between the two world's biggest economies is heating up. the u.s. administration of joe biden has added companies to its trade blacklist, contrary to

u.s. national security and foreign policy interests, the new entries to the list include chinese chipmaker ymtc, technology diverted to chinese tech firm huawei, in october, washington said it would tighten restrictions on exports to china, the rules cover semiconductor products used for a.i. and supercomputers that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction. beijing has filed a lawsuit with the world trade organization claiming these regulations violate international trade rules. nurses go on strike in britain for the first time in over a century. soaring energy prices and other inflation are hitting household

budgets. >> a labor union copromizing more than 460,000 nurses staged a strike on thursday, members rallied in front of a hospital in central london, demanding raises. needed to address staffing shortage. >> what we want to see is 50,000 vacant posts in the country are addressed, pay the nurses a decent wage. >> thursday's action was the nursing union's first nationwide walkout in its history. >> we want to be considered professionals and earn enough so

that we can live just you know have a house and live a decent life. >> railroad workers raising worries of disruption of travel. the british government will continue to try to work with public sector labor unions but pay raises that much inflation rates are unrealistic. now let's take a look at what's happening in the week ae ahead. first up is business sentiment in europe's biggest economy. now, on monday, the german iof institute will release its business index for december, showed improvement for the second consecutive month in november. companies were still less satisfied with their current business but pes michigan

regarding the coming months dropped sharply and the recession may prove lessevere than many had expected sflncht next week sees key events for the japanese economy and on tuesday, the bank of japan will announce its monetary policy decision and the consumer price index that's closely watched by the central bank will be released on friday. the boj decided to maintain its last monetary easing, its stance has contributed to the yen weakness that has driven up the cost of imports. it climbed 3.6% from a year earlier. the inflation target is 2%. the boj governor said after the last policy meeting the rate of change in the core cpi was likely to increase toward the

end of the year, the bank revised up the outlook to 2.9%. the pace of inflation will decelerate toward the middle of fiscal year 2023, last week he said monetary easing could enable companies to raise wages and the central bank would be able to stabilize. turkey's central bank will announce its decision on thursday. to control inflation by raising rates. policymakers lowered the key rate for the fourth consecutive time in november when the inflation still stood around 85%. the monetary policy committee decided to end the rate-cutting cycle that started in august. on friday the u.s. department of commerce will release the personal consumption expen churches price index for

november, a key measure for the federal reserve. it slowed somewhat in october signaling that inflationary pressures could be moderating. fo the fifth consecutive month. and the fed scaled back the size of its interest rate hikes this week. with 50 basis points. but fed officials indicated they'll have to keep raising rates next week to tame inflation. okay, let's get a check on the markets. ♪ ♪

that's it for "newsline biz" from tokyo. i'm ramin mellegard. thank you very much for watching. ço ♪

>> e.u. energy ministers meet and failed to strike a deal to cap the price of natural gas, increasing as russia has invaded ukraine. we look at the deep divisions and if they can be overcome. this is "inside story". ♪ hello. welcome to the program. i am adrian finighan. ministers held their