hello there, welcome to "newsline". i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. a malaysia airlines plane has crashed in eastern ukraine. it was shot down. fighting between israeli troops and members of the islamist group hamas intensified after a ground invasion ordered and players are gathering in the birthplace of the traditional japanese game to compete in an international competition. a malaysia airlines plane has crashed in eastern ukraine. ukrainian ocho authorities say it was hit with a surface to air missile.

they say all of the 295 people on board are believed to have been killed. the plane went down in an area along the russian boarder where ukrainian forces have been fighting prorussian militants. this armature video shows an explosion in the area where the plane went down then a plume of black smoke. search and rescue crews rushed to the area. they found debris covering the ground, and they have had to be careful because of the fighting in the area. the boeing 777 took off from amsterdam. most of the passengers were dutch. flight mh 17 left amsterdam shortly after noon local time on thursday. airline officials say they lost contact four hours later. the plane's last known position was over eastern ukraine about 50 kilometers from the russian boarder. ukrainian authorities blamed prorussia separatists. they have denied any responsibility. officials at malaysia airlines are dealing with their second major disaster this year.

another plane took off in march on route to beijing and disappeared. this time airline officials will have to manage under different circumstances. more from nhk world. >> reporter: the crash occurred about 50 kill almost torometers boarder. many ethnic russians reside here. some people made efforts to join russia after it annexed crimea in march. ethnic russian residents announced the formation of the donetsk people's republic and seized government buildings in the region in april. the region has been a base for prorussian militant groups. earlier this month in the same area a ukrainian transport plane

was shot down and three found dead. that was followed by the downing of a military jet in the same region o crew and dozens of soldiers on board. the ukrainian governmed pro-russ after the malaysia airlines tragedy, president petro poroshenko strongly condemned the act. >> translator: this plane was brought down. it's not an accident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act. >> reporter: prime minister of the self-proclaimed people's republic of donetsk, on the other hand, blames the government side. >> translator: a passenger aircraft has been shot down, shot down by the ukrainian air force. to tell the truth is a provocation on purpose. this is not the first time for ukraine to shoot down a passenger aircraft.

>> reporter: international calls for a thorough investigation are already pouring in from around the world. mitsuko nishikawa, nhk world. u.s. vice president joe biden says many questions need to be answered but he says this was not an accident. >> apparently has been shot down. shot down. not an acciden blown out of the sky. >> biden said he had spoken over the phone with ukrainian president petro poroshenko. he said he offered help from u.s. investigators and poroshenko accepted. vladimir putin says the ukrainian government is to blame for the crash. he said it would not have happened if eastern ukraine had been peaceful. putin and other ministers on served a moment of silence for the victims. he says he instructed his government to investigate the crash. malaysian prime minister held an

emergency news conference. >> if it transpires that the plane was indeed shut down, we insist that the perpetrators must be brought to justice. >> he said the crew did not make a distress call. he said he spoke by phone with u.s. president barack obama and they agreed investigators must get full access to the site of the crash. he said it was a tragic day in an already tragic year for his country. airline operators are drawing up new routes to avoid flying close to the boarder. aviation authorities in the u.s. and europe warned carriers not to use the air space. russia's transarrow and more are redirecting planes. french transport authorities are

urging their carriers to avoid the air space. the federal aviation administration said american carririers agreed not to fly near the boarder. thousands streamed across the boarder into the strip. the president ordered the ground defense as part of the operation against hamas. the islamist group that controls the palestinian territory. craig dale joins us with more. >> people have been speculating for days whether leaders would launch this ground invasion, prime minister netanyahu said it was a possibility and hours ago it became a reality this is video from gaza of the gaza skyline from time to time we can tell you we've seen explosions and heard gun fire or the thud of tank shells. nhk teams on the ground there say they have heard the sound of

severe fighting coming from the eastern part of gaza. the israeli defense forces released images of soldiers around the time of the invasion, commanders say this is a new phase in operation protective edge. they say they have been going after tunnels hamas built between gaza and israel. they say some heavily armed palestinians used it but stopped the soldiers are expected to continue the work. the ground invasion comes on the heels of a five hour truce that awe lowed supplies. leaders accused hamas of not ordering the truce. they say hamas is to blame for the continued conflict because they did not accept seize fire proposed early they are week by egy egypt. >> hamas closed the door to the opportunity, closed the door to a seize fire in so doing they

made a decision they want conflict. >> for their part hamas is calling this ground attack on gaza a dangerous step and they say israel will and fighters have been looking at israel for the past week and a half i they won't accept a seize fire that doesn't include an easing of the economic blockade of gaza and want israelis to release members. for its part, the israeli military carried hundreds of air strikes to try to destroy hamas' command centers. the tunnels and the rocket launches, cross boarder attacks killed more than 230 palestinians. they added to ranks with 30,000 reserve troops and calling up nearly 20,000 more. many are concerned this ground invasion now that it's underway will cause the number of casualties to grow, especially because gaza is a densely populated territory and israeli

troops invaded at the end or toward the end of a 2008, 2009 war and 1300 pal tin gin estini when that conflict ended. >> thanks, craig. >> what is happening in gaza has unsettled investors and troubled by the plane crash in ukraine, too. they see it has threats and fear the conflict in ukraine could draw in more forces and bring about more instability. people on markets around the world sold off stocks and put their money into safer investments, government bonds for example and we are seeing that trend play out here in tokyo, too. the nikkei has stocks down across most sectors. analysts say investors are sharing shares in exporters. people who track the market say the news is driving traders to shift the money into safer as

sets like the yen. dealers sold the dollar and bought the yen and the dollar is hovering near two-month lows and the eros yen is near five-month lows. government bonds are seen as a less risky place to put money in times of geopolitical tensions and this morning investors are buying japanese government bonds. the yield hit the lowest level in more than a year. now let's take a look at how stock markets in other parts of asia are rejecting. malaysia stock market is down. malaysia airlines stock fell more than 15% at one point this morning. the sell off is spreading to other parts of asia with hong kong and seoul. we will track all these markets for you throughout the day. now finance leaders in south

korea are trying to put their economy back on track. but they are wrestling with a strong currency and sluggish consumer spending. the finance minister made it his mission to turn things around and economists are paying close attention. he teaches international economics. he joins us from seoul. how do you expect the finance minister will tackle these is e issues? >> korea's consumer spending dropped to 293, korean people cancelled trips and social events a other international programs. they even refrained from drinking for two months, so the government lowered this year's growth forecast from 4% down to

3.8%. regarding the stronger currency, the new minister would not directly intervene in the foreign exchange market, rather they import more raw materials in advance. regarding the stimulation policy it seems that the finance minister wishes to i'm muhave t policy with reforms. the finance minister stimulation policy is on the right track but he may confront krcriticisms because his policy will create forms and bubbles. >> now the bank of korea kept its benchmark interest rate at 2.5%, that's for 14 months. what are policy makers trying to do and where do you think policymakers will go from here? >> okay. the bank of korea governor often runs into a dilemma situation.

it makes the wealthy people happier. a lower interest rate, however, can stimulate the economy and reduces the household debt burden. also, the bank of korea governor takes into account a higher interest rate makes the one stronger with capital inflows. if the minister and the governor both agree on the severity of the economic recession, the governor can lower the interest rate with little hesitation. at the july monetary board meeting, the governor decided not to change its benchmark interest rate. nevertheless, he made a remark that he and the finance minister share the same opinion that the economy is seriously sagging. he may lower the interest rate next time but i do not know exactly the magnitude of the rate cut and it's timing. i think it's going to have a hard time in deciding on it even at the next meeting. >> all right. thank you for your insight

professor kim there. home builders in the u.s. have got a little more time on their hands over the past two months, they have started work on fewer houses. commerce department officials say from may to june, housing starts fell 9.3%. they dropped to an annually adjusted pace of 890,000. many expected the figure would rise above 1 million. analysts rely on building permits to gauge what construction will be like in the months ahead. and permits fell, too. they were down about 4% to about 960,000. analysts at the u.s. central bank say housing prices and mortgage rates are rising, and they say that's thrown the market off track. japanese leaders had visions of balancing the budget within a few years. they hoped to achieve what is known as a primary surplus by fiscal 200 but oc20 but officia

that does not look likely. a primary surplus suggests the government takes in more than it spends if you exclude interest payments on the debt. cabinet office officials looked at a scenario where the economy keeps growing and consumption tax goes up to 10%. they say even then, the primary balance in 2020 would sink to a deficit of more than $100 billion. tax revenue in the last fiscal year beat estimates by $16 billion. still the primary balance hit a deficit of $230 billion. executives at microsoft are preparing to make the biggest lay off in their history. they plan to eliminate 18,000 jobs. the executives say over the next year, they will cut 14% of the work force. they just acquired that in

april. ceo conducted a review of microsoft's reliance on the product, the windows' operating system. he wants to focus more on tablet devices and cloud computing services. he told staff the shift will be difficult but says microsoft has to revolve in order to survive. >> more headlines for you in business next hour. i'll leave you with a check on markets.

a century's old japanese toy is making a big come back. it's gaining popularly of tips and tricks players share. the players are competing in an international competition in the birthplace of the game. nhk world reports. >> reporter: gaining popularity a few years ago when the first

videos of tricks and combinations were uploaded online. the first world cup is taking place here in the birthplace. this toy is attracting players from around the world. 108 entries from 11 countries compete for the title of world champion. >> it's nervous because you're, you know, going up against everyone at once and it's -- but it's very fun. >> reporter: he is only 14. but his skills earn him the top stop at competition. he watches his rivals closely to see what kind of moves they have

got. he took it up about a year ago. he decided to participate in the world championship to test his skills on the wider stage. >> i want to show people my style of play. >> in the first round, contestants are giving three minutes to complete five tricks. they are awarded points biased n the difficulty of each trick. ace chooses a moderately difficult combination of tricks. he completes them successfully and earns his score. the best 20 contestants will advance through the final round. ace came in eighth place.

now he has to get ready for the next phase. >> i'm going to practice tonight, work on my tricks and we'll see tomorrow. [ cheers ] >> it's time for the final. the contestants will be demonstrating their fanciest moves. now it's ace's turn. the pressure seems a bit too much for him. he's unable to complete the combination he wanted to perform. the teenager now understands he'll have to train much to match the best of the best. >> they are taking a theraditiol

japanese game to the next level. everyone is having fun. >> people might dismiss it easily but it's much more interesting than it seems. >> the final results are announced. the arena is a 19-year-old from the united states. ace came in 15th place. >> lower tricks so i can add up my points but it didn't work. >> what do you want to do? >> i want to show everything that i learned and play. >> for centuries, this traditional toy has kept up young people's imagination and everything indicates it's going to stay.

let's now get a check of the weather, firefighters in western u.s. states are battling wildfires. we see more in world weather. >> hello there, the summer fire season is heating up in the western u.s. firefighters are very busy to seize the fires. we have video of one of the fires in washington state. hundreds of people in western washington were told to leave their homes because of a fast-moving wildfire, some 860 homes affected by the blaze fueled by low humidity. the plume of smoke 20,000 feet high was visible in seattle. 180 personnel were battling the flames. we need rain. we'll take a look at the rain forecast summer rain is likely in the inland parts of washington state, however, not enough to make a dent in those

significant rain deficits. the south, popping up thundershowers are likely but it will be accompanied with in rainfall. thunderstorms could ignite wildfire so conditions are very critical. meanwhile, severe weather is happening in northern parts. we're looking at severe weather to continue in around alberta for the next 24 hours or so, tornado watches in effect and to the south, severe weather happening in the southern plains. we have reports of 280 millimeters of rain past dallas over the past 24 hours, that's five times what we normally see during the entire month of july. so flash floods are going to be high risk. the rainy maker will move towards the deep south as we go into friday. but the dry spot in the northeast and temperatures are going to be comfortably nice. chicago at 24, 27 in toronto and to the south, oklahoma city at 24 degrees on your friday.

all right. across asia, we have a couple of tropical systems. one here is a newly formed tropical storm and this one is typhoon that killed dozens of people in the philippines. it's a strong typhoon packing wind gusts of nearly 235 kilometers per hour in the center will likely reach southern parts by tonight as a very strong typhoon that could cause damaging winds, devastating wind damage as well and then the center will move over southern parts of china like the province as we go into the weekend. rainfall will be significant and very strong winds are likely to occur in the south coast of china and northern participants of the vietnam as we go into the next three days. now back behind it, there is another line of rain extending all the way up to the northwest. this is caused by a tropical storm. motmo is expected to move to the

northwest rather than the philippines. to the north, japan will have thunderstorms, thundershowers will be a main feature as we go into the weekend and across the korean peninsula, scattered thunderstorms. but there is the wide spot of dry weather in and around the area and temperatures are on the scorching side over 35 degrees in tucson, beijing and 36 on saturday even rising to 38 on your sunday. so rainy weather will lower temperatures on friday. getting back to the 30s on the weekend. here is the extended forecast around the globe.

as we've been reporting a

malaysia airlines plane has crashed in eastern ukraine. ukrainian authorities say it was hit with a surface to air missile. they say all 295 people on board are believed to have been killed. the plane went down in an area along the russian boarder where ukrainian forces have been fighting prorussian militants. big developments in the gaza conflict. military officials announced on thursday evening they started a ground offensive in the palestinian territory of gaza. it became a thing of the past as fighting between israeli forces and hamas militants once again flared up. we'll follow the stories every step of the way and keep you updated right here on "newsline." we'll be back at the top of the hour.

good evening. from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. with the prison population at an estimated 2.4 million persons, conversation about how for-profit prisons are contributing to the excessive sentencing of so many in thismatithis nation. assess many from bryan stevenson, founder and executive director of the alabama-based equal justice initiative which is dedicated to working on behalf of the poor and wrongly incarcerated. stevenson won a supreme court ruling in mandatory life without parole sentences for 17 and under inr indeed unconstitutional. glad you are joining the conversation with bryan stevenson about america's prison population. coming up right now.