hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm yoshi ogasawara in tokyo. north korea's relentless provocations are once again dominating talks between tokyo, washington, and seoul. high ranking officials from the three sides vow to keep dealing with the threat together. >> today a special representative for north korea

gathered here to have discussion on policies visa vi north korea, which centered on three, deterrence, sanctions and -- >> he condemned pyeongyang's repeated missile launches of which the most recent came on wednesday. he and his counter parts say they'll cooperate closely to realize the complete denuclearization of north korea. at the same time they insist the door for dialogue with pyeongyang remains open. well, north korea will no doubt be on the agenda at the next trilateral summit between tokyo, washington, and seoul. japanese government sources say that will likely happen next month. prime minister kishida fumio is expected to visit the united states on august 18th for talks with president joe biden and south korean president yoon

soeng-yol. the leaders are expected to discuss security cooperation including early activation of a data sharing mechanism to exchange realtime missile warning data. they're also expected to discuss economic security as well as washington's extended deterrence or its commitment to defend its allies with nuclear weapons and other capabilities. >> translator: it is important for japan, the u.s., south korea to respond to north korea and to further strengthen strategic ties to secure the free and open international order based on the rule of law. >> matsuno says the three country's closer cooperation will help resolve issues including pyeongyang's nuclear and missile development and the abduction of japanese nationals.

now to new zealand where two people are dead after a gunman opened fire in auckland. it happened just hours before the start of the fifa women's world cup. the man opened fire at the construction site at around 7:30 a.m. thursday. authorities say at least six people were injured, including a police officer. the gunman was confirmed dead at the scene. the area was cordoned off after the incident. the world cup kicked off as scheduled. new zealand's prime minister said there was no threat to national security. much of the northern hemisphere is baking under an extreme heat wave with no end in sight. as we see in this next report tens of millions are being forced to adapt to what experts

say is the new normal. >> reporter: here in yokohama just outside tokyo school's not out for summer just yet. but it's so hot getting to clas is a health hazard. >> translator: with this we're helping the kids cool down and taking steps to prevent heatstroke. >> reporter: the principal installed misters at the entrances. before recess he checks the temperature. it tracks not just dangerous heat but also humidity. too high and they can't play outside or even go for a swim. >> translator: we have to tell them to stay in the classroom to keep safe. today there was a child who was on his way outside with a ball, and i had to tell him, i'm sorry, you can't play outside today and asked him to go back inside. >> reporter: japan and many other parts of the globe are

sweltering under jetstreams of hot air meandering to the north. it's helped create what's set to be the hottest summer on record in italy. several cities were put on red alert as temperatures rose to almost 42 degrees in rome on tuesday. even near the pyramids of giza, an area known for its high temperatures, this year is different. power cuts and temperatures staying above 40 degrees mean people and even animals used to living in the heat have to adapt. >> translator: the heat wave this year is stronger than any other year. we try to stay in the shade more, drink more water, and eat more iced food, drinks, and ice cream. >> reporter: the world meteorological agency says it's only going to get worse. >> and the world needs to prepare for more intense heat waves. the recently declared el nino is only expected to amplify the

current intensity of extreme heat events, so we're in for a bit of a ride, i'm afraid. >> reporter: with extreme temperatures comes extreme weather. wildfires in north america and western europe, deadly flooding in japan and south korea. at the same time experts like nakamura warn hotter than average temperatures in the southern hemisphere could soon cause even more misery. >> translator: it has actually changed the water temperature in the indian ocean. as a result, typhoon activity near the philippines will become more active than usual. >> reporter: like many experts, nakamura says the answer is clear, cut greenhouse gas emissions and that will hopefully stop global temperatures from rising catastrophically. but for now he says there's not much we can do to stop the heat, just try to stay cool and brace

for more. russia says it's conducting naval drills with china in the sea of japan. the russian defense ministry says the drills run from thursday to sunday. the announcement said they're designed to strengthen cooperation between the two navies and maintain peace and stability in the asia pacific region. the russian ships taking part include destroyers from the pacific fleet. also taking part are more than 30 russian and chinese aircraft including bombers.

the drills include battles using warships and joint artillery activities. by holding them in the sea of japan, the two countries appear to hope to restrain the united states and japan. the united states is warning that russia may attack civilian ships in the black sea. this follows moscow's exit from an agreement this week that allowed ukraine to safely ship grain through those waters. russia said on wednesday it would consider all ships bound for ukrainian ports to be potential carriers of military cargo. the white house national security council says there's information indicating that russia laid additional sea mines in waters leading to those ports. it says this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the black sea and lay blame on ukraine. the council also says it's already seen russia hit ukraine's grain export ports in

odesa with missiles and drones on tuesday and wednesday. and those attacks destroyed agricultural infrastructure and 60,000 tons of grain. video released wednesday appears to show yevgeny prigozhin in belarus. he's the man who led the private military firm the wagner group in last month's mutiny against russia. independent media outlets in russia reported that the video was shared on a social network channel linked to prigozhin. the video is dark and blurry making it difficult to confirm whether the speaker is prigozhin.

the arrival of some of wagner's vehicles in belarus was reported this week. an independent belorussian monitoring group estimates more than 2,000 mercenaries had arrived at a camp in central belarus by wednesday. cambodia's general election is scheduled for sunday, but the main opposition candlelight party has been excluded from the ballot. its leaders calling for the international community to step in. in an interview with nhk -- criticized the decision to disqualify his party over allegedly incomplete paperwork.

>> translator: excluding the candlelight party is like killing democracy in our country. >> 18 political parties including the ruling cambodian peoples party led by long time prime minister -- will take part in the general election. as the main opposition is not allowed to join, observers say the ruling party is all but certain to win. in the previous general election five years ago the largest opposition party at the time was ordered to disband and was also unable to take part. his party monopolized all the seats as a result. he says sunday's election is sending the election down the wrong path. he's calling for action by the japanese government which had been involved in peace efforts in cambodia through u.n. peacekeeping operations. >> translator: i'm asking japan

to intervene so cambodia can return to democracy. >> he stressed the party will continue its activities despite the challenges. netflix says its crack down on password sharings paying off. the company reported a second quarter jump in profits and subscribers. the u.s. video streaming giant says the april to june period brought in 8$8.18 billion. that's up 2% from the same time last year, and net income was $1.48 billion, up 3%. netflix says the number of subscribers increased by nearly 6 million around the same time. that pushed its global total to nearl nearly 240 million last month. the company says it's thanks to stepped up efforts to crack down

on nonsubscribers using other accounts to access the service. netflix says the new low priced subscription plans support by advertisements also helped to attract new customers. but the company is facing new challenges. many actors and screen writers in hollywood are currently on strike. they're demanding higher pay and restrictions on the use of a.i. in film making. the strikes have already delayed production of some netflix programs. it's time now for a check on world weather with our meteorologist jonathan oh. people in the philippines are keeping an eye on a tropical system that's heading in their direction. jonathan has the latest. >> hello. we have been seeing a bit of activity picking up in the western pacific. as we see this tropical system trying to gather some steam together east of the philippines, eventually we're expecting it to coalesce in a much more organized system and

heading westward. this is a look at the forecast of the next couple of days. again, we're expecting it to try to create more circjlgz i eventually heading towards the west. there's a little disagreement in term of whether it'll go straight to the west or make a north westerly curve. so we'll keep an eye out on that. in the meantime we're seeing more moisture flow across the philippines so heavy rains and thunderstorms a part of the story as we go through the rest of this week. we do have a stationary front, the rainy season front in south eastern areas of china and actually located south of japan, though we have seen several areas where western portions of of japan during rainy season, so we're expecting a little more dryer pattern in time. we're going to see more clouds as we go into friday, and highs will be around 31 degrees. looking at thunderstorms from beijing down to shanghai and tie

pay as we go through the day. take a look at video of one of the tornados. it hit the central area of north carolina wednesday flattening buildings and knocking down trees. the twister touched down 12:30 last about an hour and covered a distance of 32 kilometers. in just a bit you'll see some damage from this. i will tell you there have been no reports of serious injuries so far. this is one factory located where it took some significant damage. now, we are expecting some calm in the carolinas but talking about the possibility of severe thunderstorms into the central plains as we go through thursday. so be on the look out for that. heat continues to be a part of the story in southern areas of the united states with highs mid to upper 30s as we go into thursday. hope you have a good day wherever you are.

and 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 "news line biz." i'm gene otani. japan has announced it will work with india to strengthen the semiconductor supply chain. it is part of an agreement the two countries reached to increase economic cooperation. japanese industry ministry announced the details at an event in new delhi.

he said the two countries will increase the exchange of resources as part of the measures. >> translator: there's a lot of potential in cooperation between india, which has excellent human resources and japan, which excels in manufacturing equipment and materials. >> he said the countries will work together to establish a basis for semiconductor production. the agreement covers other areas including steel. the countries say they will work together to cut carbon emissions from the production process. japan has cut its outlook for real economic growth in this fiscal year through march citing slowing exports and other factors. the cabinet office says it expects gross domestic product in real terms which is adjusted for inflation to expand 1.3%. that's town 0.2% from the forecast in january.

but officials raised the outlook excluding inflation or in nominal terms by 2.3 points to 4.4%. this reflects soaring prices and a range of goods and services. the officials also say they expect japan's consumer price index for fiscal 2023 to increase 2.6%. it's partly due to the effects of government subsidies to curb rises in electricity rates and gasoline prices. japan's trade deficit narrowed in the first half of 2023. that was after it ballooned to a record last year. surging auto exports and falling costs of imported crude oil helped close the gap. the finance ministry said imports surpassed exports by nearly 7 trillion yen or about $50 billion. the deficit was down about 13% from the same period last year when it was the largest ever for the period. the value of exports was up 3.1%

in yen terms from a year ago. auto exports jumped as a shortage of semiconductors eased. overall imports were also up, but by less than 1%. the costs for crude oil dropped nearly 9%. the finance ministry also released the preliminary data for june. it shows that exports rose 1.5% from a year earlier while imports fell significantly. the trade balance as a result was in the black for the first time in nearly two years. but the surplus was small as exports to japan's largest trading partner, china, fell 11%. japan's government plans to widen its ban on automobile exports to russia to include used domestic cars which are popular in that country. the government will likely approve the move at a cabinet meeting next week as part of tightened restrictions over

russia's invasion of uk ukraine. sources say an export ban will be placed on diesel cars as well as hybrid and electric vehicles. the government banned exports of electric cars worth 6 billion yen or $43 million last year. the embargo means they'll only be able to export some compact car tuesday the country. the move comes after leaders of the group of seven economies agreed to strengthen sanctions against russia at their summit in may. the united states and european union have already widened their restrictions on vehicle exports. figures released by japan's finance ministry found the country's exports to russia in 2022 totaled more than 600 billion yen or $4.3 billion. passenger cars accounted for aboutttt h h h h h h h h h h h . nissan motor has announced

that its flagship yokohama factory has produced its 40 millionth engine. but the plant's functions are gradually being reshaped as the auto maker shifts its focus to ev development. >> translator: we want to target the development and production of innovative technologies for evs and achieving carbon neutrality. >> the yokohama plant started operations in 1935, two years after the company's founding in the same city. it started producing electric and hybrid motors in 2010. these motors are now a major part of its output accounting for about 40% of the total in fiscal 2022. nissan says it plans to setup a pilot production line at the plant next year for the development of so-called all solid state batteries. it says this technology will dramatically boost the performance of evs.

shipments of large screen tv sets in japan have risen for the first time in seven months. this bucks an overall trend of sluggish demand for consumer electronics. the japan electronics and information technology industry association says deliveries of televisions 50 inches or larger in june rose 2.2% from the same month a year before. they accounted for about 40% of all tv shipments. analysts say that price reductions in the product category encouraged more -- encouraged consumers to buy. meanwhile, the value of overall consumer electronic shipments fell about 5% in yen terms last year. that amounts to roughly $360 million. japan's declining birthrate and aging population has left many communities struggling to survive.

but some towns are proving popular with families with young children. nhk world's akiyoshi kana reports in western japan. >> reporter: a young farmer is hoping to buy a home and visits this model room for a condominium. the city is 10 minutes by train from kyoto. >> translator: i have a 3-year-old daughter, and here we are blessed with rich natural surroundings and relaxed environment, so it's suital for raising children. >> reporter: the average price of condominiums is about two thirds that of neighboring cities like kyoto and osaka where housing prices are soaring. >> translator: we think that more and more young families prefer to live in a good environment for raising children even if it's tin the suburbs.

>> reporter: the town had been facing a depopulation crisis as many young people left. it is located further away from the big cities. but now many young families are moving there because they can purchase large homes at an affordable price. the local government is reducing the property tax rate for young families who buy a house if they agree to live in taga for at least five years. in some cases the town also provides medical care support for those raising children. the child population is now up about 8% from five years ago. >> translator: it's important to bring in young people and households with children if we want to preserve our community.

>> reporter: but elsewhere in the prefecture other communities with a similar influx of young families can face challenges. moriiumama city is about 30 minutes from kyoto. many families here cannot enroll their children in child care centers because of a shortage of child care workers. >> translator: we are working very hard to find staff. we hope to provide care for as many children as possible and support families raising kids. >> reporter: just like these communities many locals across japan have been welcoming young households. they need to keep thinking of ways to make family friendly environments. all right, let's have a look

at the markets. and that's

adrian: why has russia exited the grain deal brokered by turkiye? president erdogan says that he's hopeful it can be revived, but cracks are beginning to show in these countries' relationship. so, how much politics is at play here, and what does it mean for global food supplies? this is “inside story.” ♪ adrian: hello and welcome to the program. i'm adrian finighan. when the grain export deal was reached last year, it was hailed