plus... with just eight days to go to the us presidential vote, we discuss how the outcome could impact global currency markets. i'm steve lai. coming to you from tokyo. japan and its ruling party are waking up and its ruling party are waking up to a new reality. the liberal democratic party has fallen short of a simple majority in the house of representatives vote that happened yesterday. together with its coalition partner komeito, they failed to reach enough votes to make that simple majority. they needed 233 seats, but we just 191 and 24 233 seats, but we just 191 and 2a respectively, they only managed 215. after the exit polls revealed a grim picture for the ruling party, the prime minister and president of the ldp shigeru ishiba said they must take the results humbly and seriously. that this is a

quote. the two main factors thought to have contributed to these results are both the stronger corruption scandals that have been in the run—up to this election. as well as the economy which is seen rising prices and stagnant wages really get under the skin of voters for this election. another indication of the unhappiness of voters was voter turnout. the number this time round was 53.84%, the third lowest since world war ii. surprisingly, the markets have reacted in a positive fashion. the nikkei 225 trading higher, the yen still at a three—month low. i spoke to a global strategist who had some insight on the uncertainty that lies ahead for the world's number four economy. my biggest takeaway is there were already the factors in place forjapan�*s equity market to continue recovering.

it's not particularly overvalued. at the same time, we have started to see some positive signals in the consumer sector. so as the bank ofjapan puts it, the virtuous circle injapan�*s economy. the wages and prices is continuing. and we probably have some good earnings to come. so it's probablyjustified to see the stock market hold up. and there are some pretty solid buyers coming in on dips, as we saw in august. even if we do see some of the shorter—term overseas investors selling, then a lot of the longer—term domestic buyers come in. the households, the institutions, corporates buying back their own shares. we will keep a close eye on what transpires today and we are waiting to see if shigeru ishiba, the new prime minister, is able to form a coalition government with partners outside of his usual komeito a ldp coalition. we are keeping it a close eye on it and i will

have updates throughout the morning on bbc news. thanks for that, steve. aside from the vote injapan, we're counting down to the us presidential election. it's just eight days away. with the two candidates still battling it out on the campaign trail, in what looks like a tight race, investors are paying close attention to the dollar. so far in october, it has been strengthening, with currency analyst jameel ahmad expecting that trend could continue, if donald trump is re—elected. well, we've already seen signs of that being priced into the market. if you look at the past month, the dollar index is up nearly 4%. that's a significant move. and it's taken the dollar up to at the time of this interview. in terms of the impact on the global economy, we have to take into account what make america great again version two might mean for global markets. given the last presidency, yes, we had uncertainty. however, to be fair, despite how controversial and some of the unpredictability

of that administration, it was fantastic for us financial markets. also fantastic for the us currency. and i would expect those types of trends to continue, or remain in place, if he does win. with that said, we also have to take into account that if kamala harris is victorious — and the opinion polls do appear to be neck and neck, although the betting markets are very clear that one candidate is leading — then i would expect for that dollar weakness to start resuming back into the market and for financial market investors to be focusing on central bank policy, inflation. but the unknown is that the previous president — who appears to be the leading candidate, according to the betting markets — and how much uncertainty that might bring and what that might mean for markets overall. turn it back to our top story. turning back to our top story. injapan, we have seen the yen depreciate this morning.

briefly, what do you think is coming up for the yen? the japanese yen, over the past month, has gone all the way from 143 to 153. that is a massive move in the financial markets. given the uncertainty that's likely to continue injapan, we're likely to see more japanese yen weakness. we are going to look at the bank ofjapan. the bank ofjapan have been very concerned about currency weakness throughout this year anyway. jameel ahmad. quarter—pounder burgers will be back on the menu in the us this week at mcdonald's, after they were taken off following an e.coli outbreak. the source of the problem has been identified to be onions which were served in 900 restaurants across a dozen states. those restaurants will also serve quarter—pounder burgers this week, but without slivered onions. staying in the us, it's a big earnings week for tech, with the big five unveiling their quarterly report cards. that is alphabet, microsoft, meta, amazon and apple. all of these companies have been betting big on al, with analysts keen to see if their vast investments are paying off. the bbc�*s ritika gupta has more. investors on wall street are bracing themselves for big tech earnings this week.

alphabet, meta, microsoft, amazon and apple all report, and these five tech giants combined account for 23% of the weighting of the s&p 500 index, so the reaction to their results could have big implications for the stock market rally. while expectations are high for profit and sales, investors will be alert to any underperformance, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence that could trigger volatility. analysts will zero in on advertising revenue when alphabet, google�*s parent company, and meta report. for alphabet, this remains its main revenue driver. for meta, the growth of its reality labs division will also be in focus. cloud computing will be a key theme when it comes to amazon's aws unit and microsoft's azure. and finally, analysts expect strong growth from apple's iphone segment. but they'll be watching

for any weakness in china and the broader consumer electronics market. turning to india, and its new era of start—ups, where businesses are trying to bridge the digital divide. from netflix programmes in local dialects to online shopping, more and more companies have been creating digital solutions for the rural areas of the country. the bbc�*s nikhil inamdar went on a remote discovery and filed this report. we're on the set of the film batta — a high—octane drama about power and justice. action! the location today is this village. so this isn't any big—budget bollywood movie, it's actually a very small regionalfilm, and it's tailored for a specific rural audience that lives in the northern state of haryana. it's produced by stage — an app co—founded by vinay singhal in 2019.

in india, there are 19,500 different dialects. and 18 of them, which we have found, which are large enough to exist as an independent market. but there is no—one that does that. in another part of the country, frontier markets is bringing online shopping to remote rural customers. the start—up connects village communities with big companies through local female entrepreneurs. ahead of diwali, they're offering up a deal on laptops. we are enabling access to products and services. we work with women and empower them and build their capacity to earn income. and we help companies to reach the milestone they are not able to reach.

with these remote villages in the far—flung corner of india are not on the radar start—ups, at best, agriculture focused companies have made inroads here. but things have now begun to change, as more and more investment begins flowing in to companies that are looking at tapping the rural opportunity. anand daniel has funded the biggest tech start—ups that have changed urban living. he is now cutting more cheques to entrepreneurs building for the village. more than 1a million people in rural india have smartphones and spend more than 100 minutes a day on the phone. their aspiration is they want to buy everything the urban consumer has. that's a $200 billion market opportunity. but cracking this market will not be easy. rural spends are small. consumers are scattered and operating costs are high. but the opportunity is clearly large enough for start—ups and investors to be betting their money. we're also keeping an eye on oil prices,

following israel's attack on iran during the weekend. in asia trade, prices are down by around 4% this morning. so far, the strikes bypassed iran's oil facilities — therefore, not posing a direct threat to global supply, but of course, uncertainty on how the conflict might develop rocks investors. and we're eight days away from the us presidential election. the two candidates appeared to be locked in what observers are calling the tightest race in decades. forthe calling the tightest race in decades. for the latest updates, head over to our website and the live page on us election. lots to cover, please keep watching bbc news.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm karthi gnanasegaram. the headlines: salah scores, to make sure liverpool take a share of the points, in an entertaining encounter with arsenal.

dangerous driving, punishments and penalties — f1's championship battle reaches boiling point at the mexico city grand prix. and double delight for draper — the british number one wins the biggest title of his career and moves into the world's top 15. hi there. we'll start with the premier league. a late equaliser from mo salah earned liverpool a 2—all draw with arsenal at the emirates stadium. mikel arteta's side twice had the lead, but both times, were pegged back, so both teams had to settle for a point in north london. the result means manchester city end the weekend on top of the table, with liverpool and arsenal in second and third place, respectively. it's pleasing to see that we can come back

into the game two times, especially with one day left