welcome to newsday, i'm steve lai. as election day in the us draws closer, kamala harris and donald trump continue to focus on seven crucial swing states — the states that may well decide this election. donald trump is visiting north carolina, georgia and pennsylvania. while there mr trump told supporters that the us is a "crooked country" and reiterated his false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election. kamala harris is campaigning in michigan, an industrial state, and it's a crucial one for her to win. early on sunday, she attended a church service and then called in on a restaurant in detroit. here's some of what both candidates have been saying. here we are on the sunday before the election and i would ask in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for his tactic, which i think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won't matter.

suggesting to people that somehow the integrity of our voting system is not intact so that they do not vote. and again, it is a tactic that is meant to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country, we did in 2020, he lost. but for future elections, i won't _ but for future elections, i won't even be a part of it. but you ought to go to paper ballots, you ought to go to paper id and you ought to have the election over by nine o'clock, i am hearing now they are going to take weeks. can you imagine? they spend all this money, all this money on machines and they are going to say, "we may take an extra 12 days." and what do you think happens during those 12 days? what do you think happens?

the results of tuesday's us presidential election will be watched closely here in asia. washington has strong allies in the region — with japan and south korea amongst them — but the us is also in direct competition with the world's second largest economy, china. here's a look at the mood in three north asian capitals ahead of the election. there is a feeling in china that beijing would face much greater pressure in terms of scrutinising human rights abuses here from a president harris than a president trump. in fact, donald trump is seen as being pretty weak on this front. that he does not seem to mind what authoritarian leaders do is a bonus to the communist party. a second trump administration may impose new tariffs on china and that would hit parts of the economy here. but this is all seen as negotiable because donald trump is viewed as somebody who can be bought because he is susceptible to flattery or any

deal which makes him look good, so the chinese government will be working up the means of purchasing up his acquiescence. when it comes to companies with dealings in both china and the us, they will be hoping greater trade links between the world's superpowers, but in reality whoever wins the election, tensions are likely to remain especially when it comes to the tech sector or any industry with a remote military application. as you might remember, some of the most defining moments of donald trump's presidency last time were these astonishing meetings with the north korean leader, where they sat down to reach a deal to make north korea stop developing nuclear weapons. but despite the fanfare, a deal was never reached, so since then, the biden administration has worked very closely with the south korean government to counter the threat of north korea and its weapons because north korea has continued to develop them and they are becoming more and more sophisticated.

seoul and washington have built up their military alliance. the thinking is that if harris is elected, she will continue this approach, which is what the south korean government wants. but if donald trump is elected, he may try to negotiate again with north korea and that could be good news for them because they might get a deal which they see as favourable to them. i was speaking to a former north korean diplomat who defected last year and he said to me the north koreans want donald trump to be re—elected for this reason, so this makes the south korean very nervous. the us has always relied on political stability injapan but that situation has dramatically changed in tokyo, when the liberal democratic party, which has ruled the country for most of its post—war era, was humiliated in the recent snap elections, its governing coalition losing its majority in parliament. now the prime minister must

look for other parties to form a new coalition or he heads a minority government. this political chaos is the last thing washington needs as they head into the us presidential elections and as the situation gets more tense here in the region. the silver lining to all of this is despite all of this uncertainty with politics injapan, one thing remains unchanged and that is japan's relationship with and commitment to the us. it's clear that the prime minister, when admitting defeat, addressed that relationship and said that no matter who wins, the japan—us relationship will remain strong. but whoever does win the election and gets in the white house will have to deal with a very different political landscape and a much more unstable east asia. milwaukee is reputed to be the brewing capital of the world, synonymous with beer, and home to four of america's largest breweries. so what better place

could there be to gauge the mood of voters on the most important issue of the election — the economy — than in a pub? clive myrie went to find out. at the oldest family—run bar in milwaukee... how's it going over there? ..everybody knows your name. this is craig. and angela. excuse me, excuse me, is that a bournemouth shirt? steve. bournemouth! afc bournemouth! up the cherries! where is your pint? i'm working! and rob. so you know what makes everybody happy in america? money. regulars, enjoying a jar on the weekend. the economy is the number one issue in the presidential election, and while inflation has raised the cost of a pint here under joe biden by around $1... there you go. ..elections are about more than statistics and numbers. they are about feelings and emotions. america's economy is on target for yet more growth but many are not feeling good about their own circumstances. bartender angela is undecided

which candidate to choose, and philosophical about the economy. do i want to pay less for gas? yes. do i want to pay less in taxes? yes. but it is what it is, and you do what you need to do to make a daily living, i guess. craig, a democrat and aerospace engineer, thinks the economy has hit the jackpot for jobs, and it suits the likes of donald trump to play down the success. i'm doing 0k and a lot of people i talk to are doing 0k. why do you think people believe that it's not doing so well? a lot of... a lot of fake news, i guess. or maybe they, in their personal life, aren't making as much, or everybody's economy is a very personal issue. so i can't speak to how america feels. i can speak to how i feel on it. me and my friends think it's fine. at half—time in the football game on the bar's tvs, more campaign ads. donald trump cares about his

billionaire friends. _ overall, much of kamala harris's campaign has focused on women voters. so how are you going to vote? i'm going to vote for donald trump. but taylor madison, who is 23, isn't won over by the democrats' economic record. the price of gas has gone up over a dollar here. the price of groceries, i just feel like everything has kind of gone up, and i understand that with time changing, everything must go up but it isjust going up at a lot higher rate than it was in the past. but what about our bournemouth fan, steve? he's in pr and thirsty and says the roaring us stock market can create a false impression about economic strength. but there's more going on. 90% of people aren't in the stock market, so it's a false... it's a red herring. all the other indicators, wages are up, employment is up, opportunity is up, you know, all those things, that is... wages, employment, nothing is up. - dude... i don't care about that. dude... no, let's talk about it. let's have a debate. seriously?

i don't care about the cameras. remember rob? he's voting for donald trump. well, let's actually— have a conversation about this. where are your wages up? this, america's election debate. no, no, no. let's talk about your point. is that you just actually said. wages are up. where are the wages up? red in tooth and claw. bell rings. samara klar is professor of political science at the university of arizona. she gave me her read on what may happen in those seven swing states, starting with arizona. it's really unpredictable. in 2020 biden won byjust 0.36%. all polling indicates it will be just as close this year with neither candidate outside the margin of error in polls for the last several months. what are the key issues for voters in arizona? like across the us, they are primarily

concerned with the economy, the border and abortion. arizona is a border state, it borders the us—mexico border and that has been a big issue. but we are on the front lines of the border crisis, which is a big issue for voters. abortion is a huge issue in arizona. arizona residents have the opportunity to vote on a measure that would protect abortion rights in the state of arizona. and then finally the economy. arizona has had really high levels of inflation and dramatically increasing costs of living. those are the three issues candidates have been touching on. harris is seen as the stronger candidate on abortion, most arizona voters strongly oppose the ban on abortion and that should help her. she has been very aggressive on the border recently to keep up with donald trump, who typically is seen as stronger on the border. both candidates have been here multiple times trying to explain how they are the best choice on the economy, how they will

be the best to get higher incomes, lower taxes, whatever people want. the state's demograpics have changed, becoming more urban and less rural, what are some of the key impacts from this? there are not clues right now because it is so close, but over the last 20 years or so, republicans have been consistently winning arizona's elections by smaller and smaller margins of victory. we have seen republicans lose their grip on power in this state until finally in 2020, biden won and trump lost the state. in 2022, a mid—term election, arizona elected a democratic governor and attorney general, we have two senators who were elected as democrats, so arizona has seen a blue

wave and lots of it can be attributed to the urbanisation of the population, urban cities are gaining in population and that tends to shift favourably for the democrats. are you seeing similar patterns in nevada, also a crucial swing state? yes, in terms of urbanisation, many people are moving into nevada. nevada is switching a little towards blue, a lot of young people moving there, and arizona and nevada both have quickly increasing latino communities. latinos are politically diverse but tend to favour democrats by two to one. let's turn to spain now. a visit by spanish royals to flood—hit valencia has been suspended after crowds pelted the group with mud. there's been frustration with both the preparations for the floods and the pace of the response. the flooding in valencia

has been described as the �*worst in generations'. more than 200 people died. spain's weather agency has also issued a new severe rainfall alert. 0ur europe correspondent mark lowen has more. wading into the unknown, an abyss of horror that rescuers believe still hides many. with every hour, the chance of a miracle fades further. in garages and car parks, they fear more bodies will be found, trapped as the floodwaters rose. search dogs and mountain rescue teams scoured the landscape for the missing. from high above, they are winched down to a car and amazingly, one woman was found alive today after being trapped in her vehicle for three days. valencia's suburbs are scenes of carnage and authorities are overwhelmed. now the prime minister has announced 10,000 more troops

and police officers to join the relief effort. whole neighbourhoods are still caked in mud, streets stricken with the remnants of lives. legions of locals do what they can to clear but it is barely scratching the surface. 0utside, we met pablo. 0n the night of the floods he rescued elderly residents of a nearby retirement home and retrieved the bodies of those who did not make it. he takes me to where the pensioners lived calmly until tuesday. we found them inside down the sofas, horrible. now when you look over there... i can't. yesterday i tried to go there and see but i could not. now a flood of solidarity — the volunteer effort increasing by the day, they queued all morning in central valencia to take supplies to the worst hit zones.

it happened very close to us and they have closed their houses and their cars and it is all material and we know people that have lost families and that is a disaster. the last of the buses are being loaded up to head to the worst affected areas. 0rganisers believe that some 15,000 people have showed up today, an outpouring of emotion filling the vacuum that many feel has been left by the authorities. disaster has brought spaniards together, critical of their politicians, determined to help out. national unity fighting national trauma. mark lowen, bbc news, valencia. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

let's look at some other stories making news. police scotland say they've received a "non—recent" allegation of sexual assault made against scotland's former first minister, alex salmond, who died last month. in 2020, he was cleared of 12 sexual offences charges, including rape. his alba party said the new allegation was a smear. scotland correspondent, catriona renton has more details. alex salmond was first minister of scotland from 2007 to 2014. he left the scottish national party in 2018 after a number of allegations of sexual misconduct came to light. now, he won a legal case against the scottish government over its mishandling of the complaints. now, in 2020, he was cleared of 13 sexual offence charges, including attempted rape. now, police scotland has said that they have received a separate report of a non—recent sexual assault and the information is being assessed. the herald on sunday newspaper also reported that up to six women approached the snp two years ago to complain about mr salmond.

you're live with bbc news. a developing story to bring you — at least ten people have died after a volcano in eastern indonesia erupted on monday. that's according to an official speaking to bbc indonesia. videos appear to show houses burned and damaged due to the rain of rocks. the volcano is located in the southeastern part of the island of flores. reports say lava and rocks spewed six kilometers from the mountain's peak. we'll bring you more as we get it. turning to moldova now, where maia sandu has claimed victory in the country's run—off presidential election. it marks her second term in office and a boost for the country's pro—eu aspirations. as she cast her vote on sunday, president maia sandu urged people to protect their independence, warning that "thieves" wanted to buy moldovans' votes. her opponent, backed by the pro—russian party of socialists, had promised a closer relationship with moscow.

liana fix is a resident fellow at the german marshall fund in washington. i asked her what was at stake as moldovans went to the polls. formal dover it was a choice between europe and russia but not the first time moldovans had to take these choices. these concerns were particularly high after russia's invasion of ukraine, which has confirmed moscow is not only using violent means but also political subversion as a means of getting neighbouring countries' support. does this victory for sandu put moldova on a closer path to eu integration?

it very much will, there will still be elections in moldova next year, which will be important, but it has been an important signal because it shows despite widespread claims about russian interference and russian vote buying, the majority of moldovans still want to take the country to the west. it was a very narrow vote in a referendum for the bid for moldova to move closer to the eu or get integrated into the eu, so does that suggest sandu's ambitions are not widely shared more broadly in moldova? yes, the first dimension is that russia's war against ukraine has raised concerns amongst some moldovans — will moldova be next if it tries to get closer to the european union and the west? those fears that are directed towards western partners of moldova —

what will they do if moldova gets under russia's threat? they already have russian troops stationed in that region. the second point is that maia sandu has confirmed that several thousands, up to 300,000, votes have allegedly been bought by russia, people have been paid to vote for a pro—russian candidate, and this election feels on a massive scale in a small country like it can contribute to a narrow result. what do you make of those claims of russian meddling, which they denied, given that she did not win ultimately? the surprise would have been if russia did not meddle, but it also demonstrates there are limits to russian political meddling. despite all the efforts to buy votes, despite efforts of cyber attacks during this election, it is still difficult

for russia to turn around a majority of voters if they want to confirm maia sandu and in addition in moldova, the diaspora is more traditionally western oriented. it shows the limits of influence on elections in neighbouring countries. what will be her main priorities in her second term? to advance moldova's eu integration, it might take up to ten or 15 years even. moldova obviously wants to get ahead in the reform process to align itself with european union standards and the fight against corruption in moldova is very high on her agenda. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. the jailed vietnamese property tycoon truong my lan will appear in court on monday

for the start of an appeal against her death penalty. she was sentenced in april for embezzling more than $12 billion from a bank that caused tens of thousands of people to lose their savings. bolivia's foreign ministry says supporters of the former president evo morales are holding at least 200 soldiers hostage. in a statement, the ministry said three military units were assaulted on friday by what it called irregular groups. the defending formula one champion, max verstappen, has won a crash—strewn sao paulo grand prix after starting in seventeenth position on the grid. the race had to be stopped after 33 laps because of wet conditions. a female iranian student has been detained by security guards after stripping to her underwear in public at a university in tehran. a spokesman for the islamic azad university said she'd been found to have a "mental disorder". but many social media users in iran say her actions were more likely a protest against the country's strict dress code.

what has happened to her since being detained is unknown. rana rahimpour is an iran analyst and a former bbc persian presenter. she gave her analysis of how the incident is being viewed outside tehran. the details of exactly what happened, it's still unclear and a lot of rumours are going around on social media. but one thing that is clear is how this woman's protest has been received by large parts of the iranian society. many believe that this is a very brave act of protest against compulsory hijab. there are reports on social media that suggests that this woman was harassed by the so—called security officers, orforces at the university, or a member of basij, the militia, because she wasn't wearing a headscarf when she was entering the university, and as a result of that encounter, the member of the basij tore that woman's clothes and in protest, she has taken it off.

and that doesn't come as a surprise, because the iranian regime for decades have been suppressing iranian women and has imposed compulsory hijab on them. and, in 2022, we saw a peak of it when a woman was killed while in the custody of the morality police and this oppression has continued. this is a show of frustration, a show that the islamic republic of iran is refusing to accept. before we go, a three—person chinese crew has returned to earth after more than six months aboard the tiangong space station. the capsule containing the astronauts descended to earth, assisted by parachute, and touched down intact at a landing site. ground crews assisted the three astronauts through the capsule�*s latch and onto stretchers ahead of a post—landing medical check. during their mission the team completed china's longest spacewalk totalling more than eight hours. beijing says it's on track to send a crewed mission to the moon by 2030.

that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello. it's been a week devoid of sunshine for the vast majority due to cloud being trapped underneath an area of high pressure. that high pressure system stubbornly sits across europe for much of this week, but as it moves away eastwards at times and weather fronts get close by to the west, we should start to get a bit more of a breeze as we go through the week. that will help to break up the cloud a bit more, so we should see a bit more sunshine come through later on, but that does mean some night time and morning fog patches are possible, and with southerly winds developing, it's going to be quite a very mild week — in fact, gets milder as we go through. notice on our anomaly chart, these deeper oranges and reds appearing in the north of scotland around the moray firth and also inverness — we could see temperatures six to seven degrees above average by thursday. it's here though, we start chilliest first thing on monday morning after clear skies

through the weekend. eight or nine degrees for many elsewhere. another very familiar picture there, rather grey skies, cloud trapped under this area of high pressure. 0n the edge of it, though, so we may see a little bit more breeze help to break the cloud across some of these western areas to allow some brightness through. but it's here there's a greater chance of one or two light showers. we could also bring in a bit more sunshine as well to the southeast and southern counties of england every now and again, but a cloudier day in the north east of scotland and temperatures as they have been through the weekend. now, monday night into tuesday, cloud sits in place. where you get any breaks, temperatures could dip down into single figures. also, we could see some mist and fog with some clearer breaks towards east anglia and the southeast, but certainly into tuesday not a huge amount change to begin with. but as we start to see this weather system get close by, it's not going to have a direct impact on us. but what it will do, it starts to bring in from the south more in the way of low cloud

towards irish sea coast — could turn quite misty around these areas, damp and drizzly, too. and southerly wind also developing means northern scotland to get favoured for a bit of sunshine, maybe to the north east of wales, too, and still some sunny breaks possible towards the south and southeast. temperatures lifting just a little bit into tuesday. so it will be a mild day, a fairly cloudy one. fireworks add a little bit of colour to proceedings in the evening for bonfire night, with most places staying dry and mild. as we go through the rest of the week, it's a familiar picture — high pressure to the east, but as these weather systems get a bit deeper towards the west, a strengthening southerly airflow. notice on our capital city forecast, the temperatures lift — could hit around 17 or 18 around the moray firth on thursday, but still to the south and east during the next few days, the chance of lots of cloud and some overnight mist and fog.

china's top legislative body meet this week as investors eye stimulus plans for the economy. we take a look at how america's cost of living crisis could impact the polls on election day. welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. in china, the standing committee of the national people's congress will kick off its week—long session in beijing. it's a time when legislators will review a range of issues including state asset management and changes to laws.

a chief economist at goldman sachs laid out what to expect from the npc this week. this week's npc meeting will last from today until friday. what we are really looking for is, after the conclusion of the npc standing committee meeting on friday, what exactly is the fiscal resource they are approving for stimulus. for supporting the economy. it's possible that there will be a press conference following the conclusion of the npc meeting. that would be a venue for them to provide more details. for investors and markets, people want to know how much and what are you going to spend it on. details are what you are looking out for, do you think we'll get a clear indication with regards to housing or local covenant debt? we're not sure how much detail we are going to get. butjudging from the amount they approve, hopefully we'll be able to piece out for example how much might be

allocated for debt resolution, because local governments are under a lot of financing pressures.