this is the business briefing, i'm victoria fritz. tax and spend, or cut back and privatise? two conflicting plans for fixing latin america's largest economy, as brazil gets ready to choose its next president. plus: party like it's 1969. investors await another bumper set of us jobs figures, as the number of americans filing for unemployment benefits heads for a 49—year low. and on the markets, asian shares under pressure following wall street lower on concerns that those jobs numbers could come in stronger than expected. that, of course, would mean us interest rates rising higher and faster. borrowing costs on bond markets are already reflecting that, hitting their highest in seven years. we start in brazil, where sunday sees the first round of a general

election to choose the new president, vice president and the national congress. latin america's largest economy faces some serious problems, and the two frontrunners for the top job have very different views on how to fix them. let's take a look. brazil's economy is emerging from its worst—ever recession. it posted growth of 1% last year, after shrinking 3.6% in the previous year and 3.5% the year before that. the brazilian currency, the real, has slumped over the past year to well over 4 to the us dollar. it has, though, regained a tiny bit of ground in recent weeks. that is partly because of the rise of this man, jair bolsonaro, a far—right senator and former army officer who is leading the presidential polls. he is promising to bring brazil's debt under control with privatisations and austerity. that has reassured some investors, but for some, there are echoes of the military dictatorship that ruled brazil from the 1960s to the 1980s.

a month ago, he survived an asssassination attempt. against him, in second place in the polls, is fernando haddad of the left—wing workers‘ party, or pt. he is proposing more government spending and taxes on business and investors. haddad became the pt‘s main candidate after ex—president luiz inacio lula da silva was disqualified following his 12—year jail sentence for corruption. the pt has ruled brazilfor 13 of the past 15 years, and is blamed by many for its crippling recession and widespread corruption. well, if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote on sunday, it will be decided by a run—off on 28 october 28, and voters are still deeply divided. translation: bolsonaro have values

that today have been forgotten. education, schools should be stricter. today, a child doesn't even know how to sing the national anthem. the first time lula ran as a candidate i voted for him because i thought he was going to change things. i regretted it. the deal cannot be like venezuela. bolsonaro is the only upright candidate, who we trust completely to change this country. tee translation: haddad and his running mate make an excellent pad. i think lula is very well represented. i came here despite my age. ido represented. i came here despite my age. i do not want to see bolsonaro as president of my country at all. translation: the people from the middle and lower classes didn't have the means to live. we lived off what was left over. with lula, we were

recognised as citizens. we were able to study, work, retire. jimena blanco is principle analyst for the americas at the risk consultancy verisk maplecroft. good morning to you. you specialise in brazil. two very different plans, one sort of tax and spend, the other cutback and privatise. which seems like the least bad option at the moment? in terms of the economic recovery, i mean, neither of them are the market's favourite. so in terms of who investors might be supporting, they will be choosing who is the least bad option. but either option also brings its additional risks further down the line. so on the side of bolsonaro, when you are looking at responsible investment and esg risk exposures, those will rise as well. when looking at haddad, the problem comes

on the fiscal side and the idea of greater spending. on the fiscal side and the idea of greaterspending. neither on the fiscal side and the idea of greater spending. neither plan will be investors‘ favourites at the moment. but one of them has got to win. absolutely, so what we are looking at in terms of what happens in the next four years for brazil, we are looking at similar levels of political instability. probably not with the spikes we saw in the previous presidency, and an impeachment, but negotiations in congress will be extremely difficult. passing reform will be very difficult as well. and without those reforms we don‘t really see a rapid recovery of the economy going forward. so some of those fears voiced by people living in brazil, but they are worried about another situation like venezuela. are they well founded and justified 7 it sounds like you are saying there is at least another four years of instability in the region. there are huge differences we need to point out between venezuela and brazil. of

course that venezuela we are seeing now is after 20 years of a particular government model but has beenin particular government model but has been in place. brazil has much stronger institutions, regardless of who wins over the next four years. changing the brazilian constitution to stay in power indefinitely is nigh on impossible because of the way congress works. passing simple reform takes years, so imagine forming a constitutional assembly and changing the constitution. so the fear of another country turning into venezuela is something we see across the region around election times, often in relation to left—wing candidates, but our view is brazil is far from that situation. far from that situation but still dogged by corruption scandals. can brazil but that in its past7 scandals. can brazil but that in its past? corruption is interesting because it is not a new issue but it isa because it is not a new issue but it is a new issue in the mind of voters. if you go back ten years when people were polled about their main concern, corruption was a

smaller concern, now it is a concern for 90% of people. the investigation which we all know about is just one of the many bigger corruption scandals that have happened in brazil over the past four years. those investigations need to continue. that lead can be put back on the pot. it will remain a concern, on the pot. it will remain a concern, but if we fast forward a decade or 15 years from now, that will probably create a much better investment scenario for people going into brazil. longer term investment. thank you, fascinating. let‘s turn to the us now, where the number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell last week to its lowest in almost 49 years. the figures could signal another strong month forjob creation when the us releases payroll figures for september in a few hours‘ time. the data is likely to support the federal reserve‘s decision to raise interest rates for the third time this year, with more rises on the way. samira hussain reports from new york. economists don‘t believe that the

pace of hiring will change all that much. on average, the us economy has been adding about 196,000 jobs per month for the past several months. so key will really be wage growth. hourly wages went up in the last jobs report, and that is a really good thing. so if friday‘s report shows that we just have increased again, it will be a real sign that there is momentum in the economy, and that it just there is momentum in the economy, and that itjust wasn‘t there is momentum in the economy, and that it just wasn‘t a there is momentum in the economy, and that itjust wasn‘t a 1—off blip. the other thing which is going to be key is the labour participation. now, although the unemployment rate remains low, people who had previously stopped looking for work haven‘t really got back into the game. so economists will want to see a real, meaningful change in the number of people that are actively looking for work. let‘s go to asia now, and the world‘s biggest electronics

firm says it is on track for another quarter of record profits. south korea‘s samsung electronics leads the global market for smartphones and memory chips, which have been in huge demand, but it has also had some serious legal problems. sharanjit leyl is following the story for us in singapore. it just keeps getting itjust keeps getting better and better, doesn‘t it, in terms of the profit numbers for samsung. that's right, you said it. samsung electronics seemed to keep on doing this, their profits set to surge 20% toa this, their profits set to surge 20% to a record high. we know samsung, of course, for its mobile phones, but its chip division has been bolstered by a robust demand from things like data centres, and this firm‘s estimates show that their quarterly profits will be coming in at $15.5 billion. chips account for nearly 80% of samsung‘s operating profit and they benefited from this

huge surge in data centres for cloud computing, which spurred a big surge in prices for things like dram chips, which allow devices to perform multiple tasks. but it continues to underperform with the galaxy nine underperforming, and there are legal challenges as well. top company executives keep getting into trouble. the chairman has been indicted by prosecutors in seoul for alleged involvement in sabotaging labour union activities and all of this follows the device chairman, jy lee‘s release from prison on allegations of bribery. now let‘s brief you on some other business stories: apple, amazon and major banks are among us companies and agencies who have had data stolen by chinese spies, according to bloomberg. according to the financial news agency, data has been siphoned off via tiny chips inserted on server circuit boards made by a company

called super micro computer. apple, amazon and super micro have rejected bloomberg‘s claims, which follow a year—long investigation, calling them untrue. a man who punched a young woman outside a paris cafe after yelling at her has been given a prison sentence. russell trott reports. the scene outside a typical parisien cafe, but look towards the left of the shot. the woman in the red

dress, marie laguerre, hasjust been struck by a passerby. the man in the black t—shirt, who she says had been shouting obscenities and through an ashtray at her after she told him to shut up. the encounter lasted just seconds, it has had a lasting impact, afterfootage seconds, it has had a lasting impact, after footage of the incident went viral. it sparked outrage and provoked international debate about the level of harassment experienced by women on a daily basis. the 22—year—old student‘s attacker has now been sentenced to six months in prison and fined more than $2000. prosecutors deem there to be insufficient evidence to find him guilty of sexual harassment. yet as ms laguerre believes the treatment he will receive alongside his sentence could have the greatest impact. translation: what satisfies me the most is that he will be

forced to do training on sexist violence towards a women. that is the most satisfying thing. it is wonderful. just days after the attack, french lawmakers passed new legislation to crack down on sexual aggression on the street, including predatory remarks and catcalling. actions which could now attract on the spot fines of up to 750 euros. marie laguerre has now set up a website for other women to share their stories. she hopes that this will bolster the conversation already in full flow, thanks to movements like #metoo. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: survivors finally start to receive supplies, a week after indonesia‘s devastating earthquake and tsunami. 1,400 people are confirmed dead. hundreds more are still missing. the judge chosen by president trump for america‘s highest court has said

he might have been too emotional when he gave evidence to senators last week. brett kavanaugh said he has been wrongly accused of sexual assault. cristiano ronaldo‘s sponsors express concern over an allegation of rape made against the superstar footballer. now it‘s time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the wall street journal, and it features an op—ed by us supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. he writes that he said a few things he shouldn‘t have said, and acknolwedges his sharp tone during his testimony over sexual misconduct claims. bloomberg claims a big exclusive. it says china‘s managed to compromise apple and amazon‘s servers using tiny microchips hidden on circuit boards. the two companies deny the reports,

which came after a year—long investigation by bloomberg businessweek. spies are on the front page of the metro, and pretty much every other newspaper here in the uk. ‘novichump‘ the headline as it covers the discovery of four russian operatives trying to hack the chemical weapons watchdog investigating the novichok attack in britain. let‘s look at the bbc news website. this story‘s on british mps saying fashion is harming the planet, discarded clothes are piling up in landfill sites, while fibres are polluting the water system and poisoning marine life.