hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm yoshi ogasawara in tokyo. u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen has arrived in beijing for high level talks amid growing tensions over semiconductor exports. yellen's visit to china is her first as treasury secretary. she will remain there through sunday. the meetings will reportedly touch on global issues such as

climate change and debt in emerging countries. but semiconductors are expected to loom over the talks. the united states has been limiting exports of semiconductors to china, because they could be used for military purposes. on monday, the chinese government retaliated, announcing that it would limit its exports to gallium and germanium. the rare metals are used to build semiconductors. president joe biden's administration has stressed that it intends to engage with china economically, despite the export controls. for more on this story. >> why is yellen visiting china now? >> the u.s. has been stepping up pressure on beijing as part of

its stance of prioritizing over china. that leads to the production of semiconductors. however, trade between the u.s. and china hit a record high last year. the u.s. does not want the overall economy relation to retaliate. it's clear that secretary yellen is trying to communicate with her chinese counterpart to avoid an extreme escalation of the conflict. >> okay, and what is the situation in china? >> china's economy.

the real estate industry continues to stagnate. foreign companies continue to pull out of china due to supply chain concerns and other factors. against this backdrop yell yellen herself said the u.s. was considering an executive order. it was said china has a request that this indicates china is in a difficult situation and is trying to get a softer response from the u.s. on the economic front. >> so how do you think the meeting will go? >> the u.s. side has a number of issues it wants to bring up.

china's revised anti-espionage law and human rights issue is of great concern. the u.s. is likely to demand coercive issues on other countries and also there's issues of developing countries that have received chinese loans and are in financial trouble. yellen is expected to ask for more debt relief. beijing, on the other hand, will seek to have the u.s. ease its policy of targeting china. so on multiple issues a huge gap exist with the two countries. the biden administration's strategy is to prevent an extreme retaliation, but it's

believed the progress will be difficult to respond as well. meanwhile, it will be important to see whether both sides will show flexibility on specific issues. this will show the future of u.s.-china relations on the global economy. we now go to ukraine where the largest nuclear plant in europe is once again caught in the middle of russia's invasion. leaders on both sides of the fight are accusing each other of plotting to blow up the facility. damage to the zaporizhzhia power russnroops he occupiedt r for ove a year. now ukraine says tho forces pear to he planted explosives on its rooftops.

>> translator: we maintain maximum contact with our partners to ensure that no one in the world has even the slightest information about the situation. >> russian officials have denied the accusations and accused russia -- rather accused ukraine of planning to sabotage the facility. they say they're taking every measure to prevent a catastrophe. the international atomic energy agency says it has not detected any signs of explosives, but director general rafael grossi says the iaea team at the site needs to be granted access to the rooftops and turbine halls to make sure. the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant relied on cooling water from the dam until it was destroyed last month. since then nearby communities have been facing a major water shortage. nhk traveled to the area to

speak to local residents who have been impacted. >> reporter: without water she's finding it hard to do the simplest tasks for her family. >> translator: no water comes out. >> reporter: she lives in a village 100 kilometers north of the dried up reservoir that supplied the village with water. using tap water has been restricted to mornings and evenings. she says even trying to wash clothes for her newborn grandchild is difficult. >> translator: water is the biggest problem. it's necessary to live, but we get less and less every day. i'm glad i'm surviving, but i have no hope that things will improve.

>> reporter: the family sells goat milk but each goat drinks 15 liters of water on hot days, but even that is getting harder to secure. the dam sat along the dnipro river. it was destroyed on june 6th. devastating parts of the kherson region would flood. ukraine and russia blamed the other for the breach. the ukrainian government says more than 2,700 people were forced to evacuate and at least 21 people have died. the united nations estimates the water shortage has impacted some 210,000 people. local officials have since been delivering bottled water to nearby villages in the area. >> translator: i'm thankful to the local authorities for drinking water. it gets hot in the summer, so more water will be needed.

>> reporter: one local official from a neighboring village says the plan is to bring in water from a different river to make up for the shortage. >> translator: an intake from another river is being constructed. it's different. the water will be drawn from the river and treated so we can have clean drinking water. >> reporter: russian controlled areas south of the dam were also hit by flooding, but the u.n. said russian officials are keeping humanitarian workers from getting access to survey the extent of the damage. the united states is accusing russia of harassing military drones over syria. it says russian fighter jets forced the drones into evasive maneuvers. u.s. air force officials released a video of an encounter they say happened wednesday. they say three american drones were on a mission against islamic state militants when

they were approach by three russian fighters. they say the russians dropped para parachute flares in front of a drone and one fighter got in front of a drone and engaged its after burner. the u.s. air force statement said russian actions reduced the drone operator's ability to fly safely. it describes the incident as an another example of unprofessional and unsafe actions by russian air forces operating in syria. it says this kind of behavior threatens the safety of u.s. and russian forces. in march the u.s. military said a drone had crashed into the black sea after a collision with a russian fighter. moving now to central japan where a collapse at a construction site has left two people dead. six others were injured when a large section of the unfinished expressway gave out. it happened around 3:00 a.m. on thursday. the site is located near an

intersection with a major roadway linking tokyo and nagoya. local residents told us what they heard. >> translator: i shouted are you you okay and i heard someone answer no. >> about 30 workers were on site at the time. authorities say they are looking into the cause. south korea says it'll release its report on friday assessing japan's plan to discharge treated and diluted water from the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. south korean government officials say its independent assessment is based on data released by japan and analysis by south korean experts who visited the plant in may. the officials say the report

will include conclusions and suggestions for japan. water used to cool momenten nuclear fuel at the fukushima daiichi plant mixes with rain and ground water. the accumulated water is treated to remove most radioactive substances but still contains tritium. the japanese government plans to dilute the water to reduce the tritium level to about one seventh of the world health organization safety standard for drinking water before discharging it into the pacific ocean. the international atomic energy agency on tuesday issued a report confirming that japan's plan is consistent with international safety standards. there's great concern in south korea about the discharge of the water, but the government has said it respects the iaea's report. iaea director general rafael grossi is due to arrive in south korea on friday to attend the agency's assessment of the

japanese plan. it's time for a check on the weather with our meteorologist jonathan oh. we had a wet start to thursday here in tokyo but got to see some sunshine as well. jonathan tells us how things are looking for friday. >> hello. we did see some rain moving its way toward the east as we went through the daytime hours thursday, and now we have a low pressure system located over hokkaido. so northern areas of japan may still be dealing with wet weather as you go into friday. but elsewhere we're talking about heat as high temperatures going to be moving into the 30s

in plenty of locations as we go through friday. back towards the west we do have a seasonal stationary front moving out of china. and as it does so portions of of south korea into areas of western japan picking up on the rain into friday and the weekend looking quite wet for a good portion of japan. i mention the hot weather here. fukushima may hit 38 on friday, and that's hot. make sure you take it easy if you have to be outdoors. try to stay hydrated and try to stay indoors as much as possible. you're going to be seeing some sunny weather as well, so that's going to make it even harder. the rest of the country really spreading out in terms of the rain for saturday and sunday, so we are looking at a bit of a wet weekend. the seasonal front will be a part of the story back towards china and shanghai and main thunderstorms as you go through the day. meanwhile as you look at what's happening across europe, we have the storm that rolled over the netherlands and now moving its way towards the north and east. take a look at this video coming

out of the country as a rare summer storm battered the netherlands wednesday. wind gusts and falling trees destroyed many cars and made roads impassable. the weather agency said the storm is the country's strongest ever during the summer months. we are looking, again for that low to be moving toward the north and the skcandinavian peninsula will be dealing with wet weather. mid-20s to upper 30s down towards the south. athens looking at a high of 36 as we go through thursday. hope you have a good day wherever you are.

and before we go, a brewery in gifu prefecture central japan

is now shipping sake that's been matured for about three months in a snow hut. brewers in the town known for its heavy snowfall have used snow huts for about 30 years made with local springwater. on wednesday workers removed about 1,000 bottles of sake stored at around 1,000 degrees celsius in a snow hut. they pack the sake into containers along with snow and peach branches. >> translator: the taste of the rice this year is richer than usual, so i think our product will taste even better this time. >> about 4,000 bottles of the snow chilled brew are expected to be dispatched this year in three shipments. 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. one of japan's biggest travel agencies, that is, is tipping that domestic travel will return to pre-pandemic levels this summer. jtb forecast between july 15th and august 31st 72.5 million people will take trips around the country with at least one overnight stay.

that's on par with the level in 2019. the prediction is based on surveys, hotel bookings, flight reservations and other economic indicators. jtb says it expects the average person will spend 40,000 yen or about $280 on their trip. that's nearly 10% more than in 2019. it's also the highest amount since 1996 when surveys started. growing travel demand, price rises, and higher accommodation fees due to hotel labor shortages are all factors. and tokyo based bus tour company says it expects 60% more customers from july to september compared to last year. >> translator: the pandemic put many people off traveling. we hope more people will enjoy a variety of our tours as some of them are just starting up again this summer. >> hato bus says it'll increase the number of its day and overnight tours to 140 this

month. that's up about 75% from a year earlier. a survey by japan's biggest labor organization shows japan on average are offering the largest wage hikes in about 30 years. their results are drawn from this spring's labor negotiations. the survey by the japanese trade union confederation covers more than 5,200 unions that have received answers from management by the end of june. it says the unions won an average hike of 3.6%. that's up 1.5 points from a year ago. it is the first time since 1994 that the figure has topped 3%. another section of the poll looked at non-regular workers including part timers. their average hourly wage will be 1,095 yen or $7.50. officials say many unions saw

their wage demands fully met and even exceeded. they say if the trend continues it would serve as a springboard for discussions on hiking the minimum wage. university graduate school professor is an expert on minimum wage issues and he says raising the lowest pay level could eventually lift wage levels nationwide. >> translator: regular workers can benefit from higher pay hikes, but they won't apply to part timers. that is why raising minimum wages will be crucial if we want to see a continuation of this desirable trend towards pay raises. >> he says it's ripe and rising commodity prices and intensifying. on thursday they launched an online health consultation

service in four languages. the paid service at terminal 2 is available in english, chinese, vietnamese. users start by describing their symptoms to a nurse, they are then connected to a doctor through a device. >> how can i help you today? >> in this demonstration the doctor recommends some over-the-counter drugs and offers a referral to a nearby clinic. narita officials designed the service to replace a clinic at terminal 2 that recently closed due to a decline in visitors. tokyo police have arrested four people on suspicion of operating unlicensed taxi services. the suspects allegedly used their own cars to pick up customers in the ginza district from january to june. they were arrested on thursday on charges of violating the road

transportation act. the police say the drivers operated late at night and sometimes promised their customers a 30% discount, but they allegedly set arbitrary prices rather than charging metered fares. the prices were occasionally higher than those charged by licensed operators. authorized taxis in japan can be identified by their green number plates. drivers must meet certain conditions including having insurance, covering passengers, and the event of accidents. the ministry is calling on the public to only used authorized taxis. train friction continues to impact u.s.-china relations. the two sides have repeatedly raised tariffs on products with manufacturers and consumers paying the price. the growing number of chinese companies have discovered a new

route to the u.s. market despite the barriers to business. nhk world reports. >> reporter: monterey, a town in northern mexico, sits near the u.s. border. foreign companies have been setting up operations here for decades led by u.s., japanese, and south korean manufacturers. the study in 2019 chinese manufacturers kicked off a new wave of investment. >> they're a company from china. all of their product is going to be supplied either in mexico or the u.s. >> reporter: last year 25 chinese companies setup plants here, making everything from home appliances, auto parts, to furniture. and it all started with a trade war that broke out in 2018. promoting its made in america policy the trump administration enforced tariffs on more than --

with the door to the u.s. market narrowing chinese manufacturers set their sights on an alternative route through mexico. mexico has a free-trade agreement with the u.s. this allows foreign companies to export across the border as long as certain conditions are met. they have to setup a production base in mexico and procure parts within north america. >> translator: made in china is now turning out to be made in mexico. china is seeing mexico as one of their key markets for their growth. >> reporter: mexico is tuned to see the trend continue. a local market research company outlines the new opportunities being created by chinese companies. it explains how the government is pushing ahead with a plan to

build a highway to the u.s. border, easing the flow of goods. >> they bring many benefits and become very competitive, and we're going to be having -- it's going to be so attractive to be living in this state that we're going to have internal migration. >> translator: chinese companies will continue to expand, and by 2025 they'll make up one-third of all new firms in this region. >> reporter: some american companies welcome the entry of chinese companies to mexico because they provide inexpensive components. the trend of chinese companies expanding to mexico is expected to continue in the future. nhk world. all right, let's have a look at the markets.

and for the "newsline biz" team in tokyo, i'm gene otani. thanks very much for being with us.

♪ folly: donald trump is heard on tape discussing classified documents. it's a crucial piece of evidence in a federal investigation into his handling of sensitive documents. so, how will this affect the case and the republican race for the white house? this is "inside story." ♪ hello and welcome to the program. i'm folly bah thibault. it's a 2-minute recording that could prove devastating for donald trump.