♪ hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm yoshi ogasawara in tokyo. we begin with an order to pause attacks in ukraine to mark orthodox christmas. russian president vladimir putin has told troops to hold their fire for 36 hours, but the ukrainians are dismissing the truce as a trick. putin says he's honoring an appeal from the head of the russian orthodox church, and he called on ukrainian forces to declare a cease-fire. but ukraine's leader rejected the offer as hypocrisy.

volodymyr zelenskyy says the war will end when the russians leave or are thrown out. >> translator: they want to use christmas as a cover to stop the advance of our boys in donbas, at least for a while, and bring equipment, ammunition, and conscripts closer to our positions. >> meanwhile, u.s. president joe biden agreed to provide more money and security help for ukraine during a phone call with the german chancellor on thursday. germany says it will send armored vehicles and the patriot air defense system. it's the first time the country will provide military equipment to ukraine. mexican security authorities have recaptured the son of a former drug kingpin after having released him three years ago. but the operation triggered violent clashes with members of a notorious drug cartel he's

linked to. owe video guzman was detained in the state of sinaloa on thursday. the 32-year-old is the son of joaquin "el chapo" guzman, who led mexico's largest drug organization, the sinaloa cartel. cartel members tried to prevent his transfer by burning vehicles to block roads. a gun battle also broke out in an airport. one commercial plane was hit by gunfire. footage shot inside the plane shows passengers crouching to take cover. reuters reports that no one was hurt but seth the airport was forced to suspend operations. mexican authorities had previously detained ovideo guzman in 2019, only to release him after failing to quell violence unleashed by members of the cartel. the united states has been offering a reward of $5 million for information leading to the

younger guzman's arrest or conviction. south korea's intelligence agency says former north korean foreign minister ri has been purged but stopped short of explaining what was behind his ouster or whether he has, in fact, been executed. ri served as north korea's chief netiator at the six-party talks on the country's nuclear program. he then became foreign minister in 2016 and engaged in negotiations with then-u.s. president donald trump's administration over pyongyang's nuclear development. ri has been out of the public eye since it became known in 2020 that he had been replaced as foreign minister. u.n. security council members have called for calm after a flare-up of tensions in jerusalem. it comes after an

ultra-nationalist israeli cabinet minister prompted outrage from palestinians. national security administer ben gavir was filmed visiting the al aqsa compound. the site is holy to yous and muslims, though under the status quo only muslims are permitted to worship there. palestinian delegates alongside representatives from several arab countries called thursday's emergency security council meeting, demanding a response. >> what red line does israel need to cross for security council to finally say, enough is enough, and to act accordingly? when are you going to act? >> speaking to reporters,

israel's u.n. ambassador suggested the visit had been blown out of proportion. >> this time, i'm truly, truly shocked. and why? because there is absolutely no reason that this emergency session today should be held. none. >> u.n. officials have urged restraint from all parties. republicans in the u.s. house of representatives remain in a stalemate over the leadership contest for the first time in more than 160 years. the situation has some within the party calling the vote a clown show. 11 rounds of voting failed to pick the speaker of the house. most expected lawmakers to choose republican kevin mccarthy in the first round. but 20 hardline conservative

lawmakers fused to getehind m, calli mccarthy untrustwthy. >> we had a deal on january 2nd that provided kevin mccarthy 218 votes and the gavel on the first ballot, and he smugly rejected that offer. >> the holdouts worry mccarthy will agree to work with the democrats to make deals they don't support. they want to weaken the speaker's powers, but as agreement proves more and more elusive, even other republicans are getting frustrated. >> 3.5 million more americans voted to have republican leadership in the house. they sent us here to get to work, and i just want to get to work. >> the democrats say the deadlock raises questions about the ability of the republicans to govern. they say the squabbling is dangerous. earlier, ross mihara got the rundown on the situation from

nakabayashi, a professor at a university. >> we are now three days into this impasse that has brought legislative work to a standstill. why is this happening now? >> yes. the main cause would be the results of the midterm elections. the margin of difference between the republican side and democrats is so small, only ten seats. therefore, there are huge opportunities for those far-right members to claim whatever they want. i think that is the real structural difficulties that mr. mccarthy is facing. >> on friday, the house will vote on a speaker for the 12th time. what will it take to get a resolution? >> well, it is very difficult. and even if mr. mccarthy somewhat make a concession and

becomes a speaker, his tenure will be so difficult, maybe unseen in our lifetime. and even after he becomes speaker, he might resign within one year or so. and even this current process of choosing speaker of the house, he -- i don't know -- can really remain as a candidate or whether he is stepping down or not, or he is insisting to remain as a candidate and repeating this kind of votes as many times as he can. interestingly, senate is in recess until january 23rd. therefore, they have a little more time to play these kind of

things and for those far-right wingers to appeal their presence and their actually opinions to their constituents and supporters. >> broadening this out now, how concerned should japan and other u.s. allies be about the situation? >> oh, we are looking at the situation very nervously because house members are very important to make american budget. also this year, there is a debt ceiling issue coming up. also the support to ukraine is related to some budget-making and international relation type of issue. also environmental issues such as global warming or climate change. those kind of things are all related. therefore, if the house cannot decide anything, i think american -- i think people are frustrated as well as international citizens like us

will be so frustrated about american direction of international leadership. >> thank you very much, professor. the u.s. president has unveiled new border control measures to meant to crack down on undocumented migrants. it's an issue that has dogged the biden administration. officials say in a single day in december, about 9,000 migrants arrived at the american border. the plan would immediately expel people from four countries who try to enter the country illegally. it will cover migrants from venezuela, cuba, nicaragua, and haiti. but 30,000 people per month will be allowed to come to the u.s. from the countries if they meet the legal requirements. >> this new process is orderly, it's safe, and it's humane. and it works. >> critics have slammed biden's border control policy as

insufficient. analysts say his administration wants to show that it's taking a different approach on illegal migrants than his predecessor, donald trump. after a six-year hiatus, the world baseball classic will return this march. team japan is gearing up with the aim of coming out on top for the first time in three tournaments. major league two-way sensation ohtani shohei is now officially on the roster. national team manager kuriyama hid deckty gave a list of the final 30, including ohtani. darvish you of the san diego padres will be among his teammates. darvish played in the second wbc in 2009 when japan took the championship for the second time.

fielders include murakami murataka of the swallows. he hit 56 home runs last season, setting a new record for a japanese player. murakami earned the triple crown of batting average, runs batted in, and home runs in japan's central league. >> translator: many people in japan are now facing various difficulties. we will do our utmost to cheer them up and encourage children to do their best. we are gathering top talents. just doing well is not enough. we will aim to be world number one to make everyone in japan happy. >> translator: when i was a student, i was excited just to see japan's top players competing as one team against top players from other countries. this time, i will be in that position. i will do my best to give a good performance. >> the full roster to be known as samurai japan will be

announced later this month. training camp will then start on february 17th. 20 teams will take part in the tournament. in the first und, japan will play against china, south korea, the czech republic, and australia. these games will be at the tokyo dome. unusually warm weather is expected across parts of asia in the coming days. our meteorologist sayaka mori has the details in world weather. >> it's been a snowy and cold winter for japan, but a big change is on the way. the weather agency has issued a special alert saying that it could be unseasonably warm next week. in other countries in northeast asia, we'll see springlike warm conditions into next week. beijing 10 on sunday, that's 8 higher than average for this time of the year. shanghai 17 on monday. that's more like early april. tokyo will be in the double digits starting on saturday, and

it will be much warmer later next week. meanwhile, about 40 tornados were reported in the eastern half of the united states since the beginning of january. and a dramatic video was captured, a lightning strike. take a look at this video from severe storms roved through the southeastern u.s. wednesday. in north carolina, a lightning strike was caught on surveillance camera in the parking lot of a famous nascar racer's headquarters. a secondolt hit near a security gate. no injuries have been reported. and the western u.s. also experienced wild weather on the day. we had a lot of snow and precipitation. in fact, san francisco had 260 millimeters of rain in 10 days. that's 50% of its annual rainfall, and it's the heaviest 10-day rainfall in about 150 years. a bomb cyclone and atmospheric

river dumped a lot of precipitation across the western u.s., mainly in california. but precipitation is easing at this moment, but it's not the end of the story. in fact, one more storm will be affecting california and the pacific northwest during the weekend, and then one more storm is expected to affect the western u.s. next week. it's been quite hot across the western areas of europe, and it's much colder across the east. look at this. minus 20 for the high, moscow on friday. that's it from me. stay safe.

before we go, people may have a hard time getting around central tokyo this weekend. service on one of the city's busiest rail lines is being partially suspended. starting saturday, trains on the yamanote line running clockwise

between osaki and ikebukuro stations will be canceled. that's due to renovation work at shibuya station. service is also being reduced on trains running the other direction. the interruption is set to last through sunday ahead of monday's public holiday. the operator, jr east, estimates just over 500,000 riders may be impacted. in response, service is being increased on tokyo's sakiyo line which runs along the yamamote. more information can be found at the link provided. that's all for this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm yoshi ogasawara in tokyo. thanks for watching, and do stay with us for more.

♪ this is "newsline biz." i'm gene otani. the value of japan's food exports hit a record in 2022, even before the year ended. the figure was boosted by a weak yen and recovering demand in the global restaurant industry. the government says shipments of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products were just over 1.2 trillion yen, about $9.3 billion. they were up over 15% in yen terms from the same period a year earlier.

seafood experts jumped. says of scalloped surged by 47%. yellow tail rose almost 40%. alcoholic drinks were also strong. shipments of whiskey and sake were up by about 21%. the government has said it aims to extort 2 trillion yen or about $15 billion a year in the overall category by 2025. it now says it wants to reach that target earlier. the yield on the benchmark 10-year japanese government bond hit 0.5% on friday for the first time in about 7 1/2 years. that's the central bank's newly set upper limit. market sources say many investors are selling jgbs on speculation the bank of japan may soon taper its easy monetary policy. the sources say investors saw a decision late last month by the boj as effectively raising interest rates. the bank decided to allow the yield for the 10-year bonds to

move in a range of plus or minus half a percent. the earlier range was plus or minus 0.25%. the boj had been under pressure to join other central banks in raising interest rates. real wages of japanese workers marked their biggest year-on-year fall in over eight years in november. that was as rising prices weakened spending power. the labor ministry says real wages adjusted for inflation fell 3.8% from a year earlier. it was the eighth straight month of decline. it was also the biggest drop since may 2014 when an increase in the consumption tax pulled real wages down by 4.1%. the average monthly pay in november was less than 284,000 yen, around $2,100. that's up half a percent in yen terms from a year earlier and it was the 11th straight month of year-on-year increase, although the pace has slowed. ministry officials say the small

gains coupled win inflation mean real wages are actually get worse. japan's government has been asking employers to find opportunities for people over the traditional retirement age. it's part of official efforts to address the rapidly aging society, and a new survey suggests a growing number of companies are complying. the labor ministry asked over 230,000 firms about the opportunities they were offering to older employees as of june last year. more than a quarter of them say they have changed their rules so that workers could stay on until 70. that's a bump of 2.3 percentage points from a similar survey last year. the poll also suggested that the rate of change varied by the size of the company. more than 28% of small firms had changed their retirement rules. just over 20% of large firms made adjustments.

general motors has reclaimed its title as america's favorite automaker, surpassing toyota motor on the sales chart. gm says it sold more than 2.2 million new vehicles last year. that's a 3% jump from a year earlier. toyota motor north america saw its sales drop 9% to around 2.1 million. gm occupied the top spot in the u.s. market for many years but was overtaken by toyota in 2021. it shrugged off the supply chain issues that plagued other automakers last year. gm actually saw an improvement in their access to semiconductors. this week, we have been looking at the 2023 outlook for the world's three largest economies. our final report focuses on the united states. the federal reserve slowed the pace of interest rate increases

at the end of last year to dampen inflation. but investors still expect rates to keep rising, and they worry about a recession. we asked two experts to explain their views in greater detail. >> translator: i forecast that the u.s. economy will slow as the fed's monetary tightening policy continues. the most concerning factor is inflation. the key is for inflation to calm down steadily. >> last year was marked by a surge in consumer prices as the economy rebounded from the covid pandemic. yasaku believes much of the inflation was driven by pressure for higher wages due to a scarcity of workers. companies had to feed the cost of higher pay through to the prices of goods and services. here we see the pace of wage growth compared to the year before.

paychecks grew by nearly 7% last year, and the inflationary pressure associated with that has yet to ease. yasaku suggests an adjustment in the labor market is needed to bring the trend under control. that means few people working and a higher jobless rate. transtor: of course, a worsening employment situation is not good for household budgets. but currently, the biggest issue is inflation. so we can say the worsening labor market is relatively good for the whole economy to eliminate inflation. it will lead to a slowdown in the pace of wage hikes and an overall inflation as well. >> another expert believes the u.s. faces even greater risks and may be headed for a recession. >> translar: it is said it takes six months to a year for motary meares to affect the realconomy.

the fed started raising rates last march and carried out a big rate hike in june. so the effects could start appearing in march this year and will gradually cap economic growth. >> he says the economy could bottom out in the aprito-june period. that's because the jobarket should not contract too much, unlike the global finaial crisis that began in 27. ichikawa also believes the excess savings held by households could support consumer spending. >> translator: u.s. households have enough savings because of government subsidies during the pandemic. so i think the duration of the recession will be short, and it won't be too serious. when prices stabilize and rates rise more slowly or stay unchanged, consumer spending will recover and lead the onomy on to a covery tck. >> but both men remain cautious about the threat of lasting

inflation. yasaku worries the fed could be forced into a tight spot. if the country falls into recession with prices still rising, the central bank's hands could be tied. it would be unable to ease policy to support the economy. >> translator: the year 2023 will be a tough period for the fed. it was very simple in 2022. the economy was growing. wages we getting higher, and prices were rising. what it had to do was just keep raising rates. but in 2023, the economy will slow. at the same time, the inflation rate is still high. in light of this, the fed will have to choose whether to keep tightening policy or whether to ease. i think that is gog to be really tough for them. >> so the two experts agree that u.s. policymakers will need to navigate through some tricky and dangerous waters before the economy is set for clear sailing

again. let's have a look at the markets.

from the "newsline biz" team in tokyo, i'm gene otani. thanks for being with us. kxq#qq■ .

this is affecting economic activity. ♪ >> you're watching al jazeera these let-up stories. republican kevin mccarthy has again lost in the sixth round of voting in his bid to become speaker of the u.s. house representatives come about 20 hardliners are refusing to support him.

we report from col