hello and thank you for joining us on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan with the news from tokyo. we begin with the developing story off japan's southern coast. japan's defense ministry says it's lost track of a helicopter that may have been carrying a high ranking officer in the ground self-defense force. the gsds black hawk was flying

near the island in okinawa prefecture. it disappeared from radar at around 4:30 p.m. on thursday. the helicopter had ten people onboard, and official sources say that number may include a gsds division commander. search efforts have been launched involving self-defense force units and japan's coast guard. taiwan's president has held high profile talks in los angeles despite threats from beijing. tsai ing-wen spoke with u.s. house speaker kevin mccarthy. he said the challenges facing taiwan's democracy unprecedented. tsai was returning from visits to central america and made a stopover in california. she met with mccarthy and other lawmakers both republicans and democrats orchestrated to show solidarity. >> to preserve peace we must be

strong. i would like to add that when we are together. >> mccarthsy is the most senior lawmaker to meet with a taiwanese leader on u.s. soil. >> the partnership is a matter of profund importance to the free world, and it is critical to mainten economic freedom, peace, and regional stability. >> mccarthy says the u.s. needs to maintain armed sales to taiwan and ensure those deliveries arrive on time. and earlier kitagawa keiko spoke with our washington correspondent who's been following the trip. >> let's look at the bigger picture here. what's the message mccarthy is trying to send? >> it's a support for taiwan from both sides of the aisle.

mccarthy a republican shared much of the spotlight. he emphasized this meeting was a bipartisan effort by congress. the event was carefully planned to try not to provoke china too much. it was held here in mccarthy's home state of california and not in taiwan. officials framed it as taking place just because tsai happened to be in the region, but it comes amid bigger changes. congress is taking an increasingly tough approach on china, and this signaled they're more supportive of taiwan. >> tell us about the meeting. >> the white house is trying to down-play things. it doesn't want china to respond like it did last summer. the country conducted an exercise near taiwan after the previous house speaker visited taipei. the biden administration points out tsai has had similar stop

overs and met lawmakers in the u.s. multiple times before, but of course there was a big difference this time. i asked the white house about this this week. this is the very first time the taiwanese president is meeting the speak of the house. how do you explain? >> president tsai's visit is going to be unofficial. we see no reason to trurn this transit consistent with long-standing policy and practice long-standing to something that is not. they should not overreact. >> the white house is trying to keep the line of communication open with beijing and they threatened there has been no changes to his one china policy. >> now, people in taiwan have been watching the meeting closely as well. that includes nhk world's in taipei who told us more about how tsai's trip is being viewed

back home. >> what do you think president tsai ing-wen has achieved with this trip? >> well, it was a show of unity with some washington heavyweights, and it's significant that while taiwanese presidents have made stopovers in the u.s. before they've never used the occasion to use such a high profile meeting. and it comes of course eight months after mccarthy's predecessor made that trip to taiwan. on the diplomatic front china managed to get honduras to sever diplomatic ties with taiwan last week. that brings the number of countries that maintain formal relations with taiwan to a record low 13. as china tries to isolate taiwan, tsai has been

from like minded countries. here in taipei the reaction has been largely -- >> translator: of course i support her. as the number of countries diplomatic ties have been increasing we should raise our presence with the international community. >> threatened counter measures, how do you expect the talks to effect relations. >> reporter: just after the meeting the chinese foreign ministry released a statement expressing strong opposition, but they haven't seen any military reaction which is categorized as retaliation yet, and we may not see that. that's because taiwan will have a presidential election next january, and beijing doesn't want any heavy-handed reaction

to tip the scales towards tsai's diplomatic party. on the other hand, china's leaders have report to look weak after tsai's visit. that may explain the warm welcome they gave former taiwanese president recently. he's still a heavyweight in the main opposition party and has been advocating for the one-china principle. so i think china's leadership has a fine line to tread. >> and ahead of tsai's meeting with mccarthy china's first domestically built aircraft carrier was seen in the pacific for the first time. the defense ministry says the aircraft carrier is called the shandong. it says it and two other sail ships were sailing eastward on sunday from the japanese island.

taiwan's defense ministry said it sailed between taiwan and the philippines earlier in the day. officials at the japanese defense ministry believe china's trying to improve the shandong's operational capability. they say they'll stay on the alert and monitor the a report from the u.n. says north korean hackers stole a record amount of crypto currency last year. it's calling for a government official to be sanctioned. the report is from a u.n. security council panel on north korea. it says hackers from the country stole over $1 billion of crypto currency in 2022. it also says they're using more sophisticated techniques making it more difficult to trace. experts say crypto assets stolen by north korea are used to fund its nuclear and missile program. the program is recommending

sanctions against the head of a government agency believed to be involved. meanwhile u.s. and south korean officials in charge of north korean issues have discussed responses with pyeongyang accelerating nuclear and missile development. u.s. special representative song kim and the south's top nuclear envoy met on thursday. the foreign ministry in seoul says the two agreed to strengthen cooperation with the international community to persuade the north to immediately end its provocation and enter talks for denuclearization. the head of the japanese foreign ministry's asian and oceanic affairs bureau plans to sit down with the two officials on friday. they're expected to confirm close cooperation between their countries in dealing with the issue. in other news, a new order from the taliban has barred afghan women from working for the united nations. u.n. officials say the ban could paralyze support activities in

afghanistan. the u.n. says female staff members have already been prevented from going to work. it also says taliban members have harassed or detained women working for the organization. u.n. officials are calling the ban unacceptable and a violation of women's rights. now, this is just the latest edict affecting female aid workers in afghanistan. last december the taliban banned female employees of nongovernmental organizations from working in the country, but the ban did not include u.n. workers. the infamous group claimed they failed to wear head scarves properly. the u.n. says over 28 million people in afghanistan are in need of humanitarian aid as the country faces a severe shortage of food and supplies.

the traditional japanese approach to cuisine was recognized as a cultural heritage to unesco ten years ago. since then abroad it's tripled to 160,000 and a recent concept brought chefs from across the globe to decide who has best mastered this art. >> these traditional dishes including pressed shrimp sushi flavored with kelp and spring scented bamboo shoots flavored with herbs and miso were all prepared by nonjapanese chefs. the world challenge brought six

chefs from abroad to compete in the two day competition. they were chosen from among 140 who participated in the preliminary round. their task is to prepare five appetizers and a soup using dashi which is the base of many dishes. from singapore won the asian division. she has trained in japan. it's her first time in the competition. just before the contest she visited tokyo's bustling market to seek out the freshest spring

ingredients. freshly caught are key to her plan. she makes a colorful roll using shrimp. the livers are carefully removed from the clam. she places the greatest importance on the dashi stock, ensuring the water temperature is covered. >> i use more than six different dashi. every single item i use has dashi. >> points are lost if the prep time exceeds the limit. >> she's over by four minutes. this is her course, wild plants in tempura, sing porrian mustard greens with mashed tofu and a roll, all typical of spring. as delicious as it looks, it's not quite good enough for first

place. >> the winner is number congratulations. >> he created the unique flavor by combining walnuts glazed in syrup, an ingredient from his home country. chu finishes third scoring high points for taste. >> i think it's a new discovery and further >> chu will no doubt have plenty of competition. chefs around the world continue to be fascinated. all right, shifting now to the weather. stormy conditions were on the menu thursday for wide areas of

japan. our meteorologist jonathan oh has the details for here and elsewhere in our world weather report. >> hello, we have been dealing with some strong winds in parts of japan and certainly windy in tokyo. and back to the west we saw gusts up to 95 kilometers per hour. as we saw the cold front trying to make its way towards the east 123 millimeters of rain in fi24 hours. that's a lot of rainfall. and so as we go forward in time we're looking at rain across japan. once again as we go into friday a high pressure system off to the east is pushing back against a cold front that's trying to move through, so it's going to take a slow trek towards the east. so as we go throughout the next 24 hours and up to 280 millimeters of rainfall with

gusts up to 126 kilometers in some locations, be on the lookout for that. we will see the end eventually ending as we go through the week and to the west and dryer weather coming up by saturday. tokyo looking at rain for a couple more days before we start to see and stormy weather across north america which extends into canada and way down into the southern united states. and i want to show you this coming out of toronto, take a look. severe weather which caused multiple tornados in the united states also affected parts of central canada with this video posted on social media capturing the moment when lightening hit in toronto early wednesday morning. on top of that we had hundreds of thousands of people losing power. we are expecting the cold front to push towards the east, the eastern sea board of the united states looking severe thunderstorms as we go through the day on thursday so be on the

lookout from that. much colder air pushing in as we go throughout the day on thursday. hope you have a good day wherever you are.

and that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. coming up next is "newsline biz" with ramin mellegard, so don't go away. ♪ this is "news line biz" i'm ramin mellegard. a regular delivery service has been launched in tokyo. it caters to customers in rural locations providing food products and household items. these services offered held a

kick off event on wednesday. a drone loaded with three pizzas took off during the ceremony and flew at a height of 100 meters. they're conducting so-called level sea flights in which the devices operate ipuninhabited areas and the drones flyover to locations along its banks where customers pick up their orders. the drone carries cargo for seven minutes and landed 2 kilometers away. most were happy to get fresh pizza after a working a day in the field, they said the regular service will bring big changes to local peoples lives. >> translator: we'd like to make it possible for drones to do their deliveries right next to customers. >> the company aims to have four flights and that means the drones would be able to flyover

residential and urban areas. and the operator of a major sushi restaurant in japan is set to offer its used cooking oil for sustainable aviation fuel. food and life companies, the parent firm of the sushi chain is teaming up with three businesses including engineering firm jgc holdings. used cooking oil will be collected from about 680 outlets. a joint venture setup by jgc holdings will use the oil produce fat a refinery. most of it will be supplied to domestic airlines. an official at food and life company says climate change poses a threat to further business and it depends on

marine resources. it says it wants to contribute towards creating a recycling oriented society. fat emits up to 80% less of carbon dioxide than fuel. the group says almost 205,000 n-boxes were sold in the fiscal year that ended march 21st. sales of eight of the top ten models in the list increased by the previous year helped by the gradual easing of the global chip shortage. the nissan sakura was the best

performing electric vehicle and placed 35th in the rankings. and the new york auto show kicks off on friday with more than 20 auto makers from around the world taking part to showcase their latest models. electric vehicles are in the spotlight as the u.s. government is offering a tax break for evs assembled in north america. kia has announced it'll start assembling evs in the united states next year. japanese owner giant toyota will be featuring electric suv models of its high end lexus brand. nissan and subaru will also be promoting their evs. the new york japan office says new car sales in the u.s. fell almost 8% in 2022 from the previous year. that was mainly due to rising interest rates. a nissan north america official said the proportion of evs in

the u.s. market has been rapidly increasing. he says tax incentives are sure to boost sales. and one of the latest additions to tokyo's skyline is set to open in the capital kabukicho district next saturday. it's better known to one of the largest entertainment areas than skyscrapers. the group started the construction of the tower in 2019. now, the building has 48 stories and five basement floors. it opened to the media on thursday. dining and drinking establishments are arranged in alleys on the second floor resembling side streets in the neighborhood outside. a luxury hotel occupies the upper floors. entertainment facilities include a live music venue and a nightclub on the basement floors. the tokyo group says bus services linking the tower with

hanida and narita airplanes will start operating to coincide with its opening. japanese tea culture has endured for thousands of years and gained enthusiasts around the world, now some international students are trying to add a bit of spice. nhk world's fuji misaki has the story. >> reporter: the strength is a blend of japanese green tea and cinnamon. merging japanese tea with indian consumers was planned by a startup supporting foreign students in japan. the negsative aims to create overseas business opportunities by involving international

students in traditional japanese industries. >> translator: these international students are very talented, and they chose to come to japan. i thought they could help create something new. >> reporter: the process focused on a popular type of green tea grown mainly in saitama prefecture. seven overseas students from countries including brazil, mongolia, and turkey were asked to create plans to promote the tea in their own countries. among them is from india who's been in japan for aig years and currently started at tokyo graduate school. indians commonly drink chai, and after moving here gupta quickly became interested in japanese tea culture. >> tea is a hobby for me because

after coming to japan the one thing i missed the most after my parents was tea. >> reporter: gupta learned about tea and its manufacturing process from a farmer aiming to promote saitama overseas. together they developed a new tea product. >> translator: it should be something that people can enjoy in their every day lives. >> translator: the most popular tea flavors in india are clove, card m cardamom, and ginger. >> reporter: after experimenting with ingredients they created a new tea flavored with sin mon. they hope the taste of the tea mixed with the sweet and spicy aroma will appeal to the indian market. >> translator: i think it's a chance to think outside the box and reconsider how others can appreciate the taste and aroma of green tea.

>> it's harder to make a good taste out of it, but this is something i'm interested in. if i go to somewhere else, if i tell them i have a tea, i can tell i lived in japan and made something japanese indian. >> reporter: the team is now exploring other new tea flavors. it hopes to boost business not only in india but also in other countries by adding a touch of spice to the tea. fujii misaki, nhk world. >> okay, let's get a check on the markets.

that's it for "newsline ■

cyril: what's driving the recent unrest in kenya? opposition leaders say they're protesting against the high cost of living. they also accuse the president of stealing the last election. so, can this be contained, or will it escalate? this is "inside story." ♪ hello, and welcome to the program. i'm cyril vanier. kenya has seen several days of protests and unrest, sparked by a rising cost of living and