towards the north, minus 4 for ulan bator, that's the high on wednesday. 13 in tokyo, 11 in seoul, meanwhi meanwhile, with bright sunshine and 12 in taipei. to the americas, heavy rain down here in southern portions of mexico and the western seaboard down towards northern california, but generally a very dry picture. strong high pressure is in charge of the center of, certainly, the u.s. and up into canada. still seeing a little bit of snow here for portions of the northeast and some chilly rain showers down into the midatlantic, as well, but that's going to be moving out as we head into wednesday. what will remain is the cold. let's take a look at some of the temperatures here, minus 1 for your high in winnipeg on tuesday, 0 in chicago, 5 in d.c., and you have the snow showers in here, too. quick look into europe. we've got that wind and the rain, snow in the upper elevations in the west. quite a windy system coming in along this front. you're going to see the showers into scandinavia and france, very stubborn and well developed low here in the mid mediterranean is keeping things very sto

meanwhi meanwhile, 5 degrees here, 7 in beijing, minus 16 up in ulan bator. much of china is staying dry. cloudy skies there, and a little bit better in hong kong and taipei, both at 21 degrees. on we go into the americas. out west, things are going to be looking quite clear. high pressure is keeping things dry. out to the east, a bit of a different story. very wet in the southeast and you can see where the purples and pinks are popping up. this is where we're seeing a mix of freezing rain and sort of slush, snowy, slushy mix. where you see the freezing rain here through the carolinas, in towards georgia, as well as much of northeastern portions of texas, you're going to be seeing really bad driving conditions. you need to check that local forecast before you set out, because even just a few centimeters accumulating of ice there on the ground can make for dangerous driving conditions. up towards the northeast, it's going to be mostly snow with the heaviest moving across the great lakes. this is going to start to wind down for you on your monday. daytime, that

meanwhi meanwhile, we're just getting the latest snapshot, even, of uk public finances. the uk public sector intervention, 8.708 billion versus the 8.242 billion in october 2012. 6.83 billion versus 6.155. we will pick up on that. the underlying of net 54.8 billion. 8.2% lower than the april through october period in 2012. so the -- they say that the net debt financial sector is 1 is.2 trillion in october. 5 55.4% tripped up by the treatment of royal mail sales. they got a benefit from the royal mail when they had to take on the pension scheme, as well. but anyway, public finances improving slightly in october is the key take away. although some sort of thought they might improve more than what we got. chris, your view of the uk at the moment. the pmi is at the highest? >> right. combined across the three sectors, highest in 13 years. >> that's one of the high series? >> absolutely, yeah. even manufacturing, highest in the world, beating even the likes of fast growing taiwan sales korea. a very good story. that does highlight the growth we're going to see in tax receipts

meanwhi meanwhile, in japan, to he see ba plans to bike a 50% stake in britain's nugeneration. >> toshiba has been struggling to advance its nuclear plans since 2011. it's now looking to reinforce its business by investing overseas. currently, france ddf suez and spain's ibarduola owns a 50% stake in nugen. the deal is worth about $200 million but the british government is bringing it up to potentially $400 million. other companies such as france ariva are interested in buying nugen, but the reliability of toshi toshiba's subsidiaries as apparently gave it a leg up. toshiba plan toes increase sales in its nuclear business to $10 billion by 2018. ross, back to you. >> thanks for that. have a good weekend in tokyo. >>> fears over a jump in energy prices have re-ignited the debate over fracking and whether shale gas could be a game changer in the industry. new shale gas could help families with their bills and make the country more competitive. joining us with his thoughts, chris fultz who has been in london this week speaking about the benefits of shale exploration in the uk. you were at a