Reuters World News - Takaichi wins election, Lindsey Vonn and Tulsi Gabbard

Episode Date: February 8, 2026

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secures a landslide election victory and parliamentary supermajority.  Skier Lindsay Vonn is helicoptered to a hospital after crashing out of the Olympic downhill in Cortina. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard rejects accusations that she improperly delayed congressional access to a whistleblower complaint. Plus, India's wealthy embrace a new luxury symbol: water. Listen to the latest On Assignment podcast: Super Bowl LX: Can the NFL go global? Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.  Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices.  You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm your weekend host Sharon Reich Garson. It's Sunday, February 8th, today. Japan hands Prime Minister Sanayatakaichi a decisive election victory. Lindsay Vaughn's Olympic downhill ends in a crash. And in India, the status symbol of the moment might surprise you. It's mineral water. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

Japanese voters have delivered a landslide victory to Sanaia Takaichi, even battling through heavy snowfall to cast their votes. Takaiichi's been in power since October, and her Liberal Democratic Party now has a supermajority in Parliament. Reporter John Getty says the scale of her win puts her firmly in the driver's seat. It's an endorsement for her fiscal plans, So one of the campaign promises she made was to suspend a sales tax on food. And, you know, that would result in a pretty large fiscal hole that investors in Japanese government bonds and in the yen got pretty spooked about, you know, how would Japan finance this.

This is basically a green light for her to push ahead with those plans, which from, I guess, from international perspective and from financial markets, it is probably one of the most significant outcomes of this result. The other interesting diplomatic outcome from this is that weeks after Takaichi came into office, she touched off one of the biggest diplomatic disputes with China that Japan has had for over a decade. She now comes out of this election with a very, very strong domestic. mandate. So it will be interesting to watch now how that dynamic between Japan and China

goes on going forward. She's also surprisingly popular with younger voters who've taken note of her fashion sense. You know, some of the items that she carries around, like her handbag or the pen she uses, you know, there's been sort of a viral craze around those and they've been sold out and, you know, what they call in Japan, this sanna-katsu, this kind of real diehard following of her. And that's been, yeah, something surprising that has paid off. Japan's election is set to dominate global markets this week as investors weigh what the results could mean for bonds, currencies, and overall risk appetite. That comes after a volatile stretch for tech and AI stocks.

For a deeper look at how markets are reacting and where they may be heading, you can catch our sister podcast Morning Bid, breaking down the week ahead. The link is in the show notes. Skier Lindsay Vaughn has crashed out of the women's Olympic downhill, just seconds into her run, with the race halted as she received medical attention. The 41-year-old racing, despite a serious knee injury, appeared to catch her right pole on a gate before losing control and barrens. off the course at high speed. She was helicoptered to a hospital in Cortina for a medical assessment. Vaughn's teammate American men's downhill skier Bryce Bennett was watching the race with his family and friends in Bormio's main square. It's like when you watch downhill steam, everyone makes it look so easy and then when one thing goes wrong to see how high the risk is. Vaughn had been hoping to become the oldest alpine skiing Olympic medalist after winning

two World Cup races this year. Over to Washington, where there's tension inside the intelligence community. U.S. intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard is rejecting claims that she tried to block Congress from accessing a whistleblower complaint. Democratic lawmakers say she slowed the process by failing to give the proper security guidance within the 21-day window required by law. But in a social media post, Gabbard says she took immediate action once. she learned those instructions were needed, and she's accusing Democrats of pushing a, quote, blatant lie. The complaint which was filed last May alleges political interference in how classified intelligence has been shared. Gabbard says that the inspectors general under both the Trump

and Biden administrations haven't found it to be credible. Roiders could not verify the contents of that original complaint. Millions of people will be watching the Super Bowl tonight, and many will be keeping their eyes peeled on the ads, and of course, Bad Bunny's halftime show. To hear more about the big game and the politics around the NFL's push towards global stardom, check out our latest episode of On Assignment. The link is in the podcast description. Turning to Portugal now, where the presidential election seems set to break from the broader rise of the right across Europe. A recent poll shows moderate socialist Antonio Jose Seguro with a strong lead over André Ventura, the leader of the anti-establishment party Chega.

Portugal's presidency doesn't hold much executive power, but the office can help mediate the country's divided political landscape. Our reporter Andrei Kalip in Lisbon says some of Segura's support is coming from center-right figures who've lined up behind him. It's unusual to say the least, but also presidential race. is a bit different from parliamentary elections, where lines are much more defined. They wouldn't support a leftist candidate in a parliamentary election, definitely. But when it comes to president's role, it's a bit easier for them to make that move. Seguro says he wouldn't interfere in Parliament's day-to-day business. Ventura, meanwhile, is calling

for what he describes as an interventionist presidency, one that would advance his anti-immigration agenda. But Andres says Segura's lead doesn't necessarily mean Portugal's moving away from that agenda. The rise of the far right is here. They are the main opposition party and he's likely to get a bit more support at least in this election. But in this presidential election, people are going for the safer option of having an established candidate from a party that's been around for a long time. Shager was only founded in 2019, so it's been

seven years and it went from one parliamentary deputy who has winter himself to now over 50. Moving on to India, where the status symbol of the moment is something you might not expect. Mineral water. Our correspondent Aditya Kala went to see the trend for himself at a water tasting in New Delhi, whereas Somalié guided attendees through each glass. So the idea of the story actually came when I saw one of these Instagram posts on these

tastings, right? So there was something called a blind water tasting. That word kind of struck in my head that what's a blind water tasting? Because all we've heard so far, at least in India, is about wine tasting. And they kind of, instead of wine, they are pouring water from Avian, from, you know, the French water, the Italian water, the Indian spring water. And there's a mineral water. called the Saratoga mineral water from New York, which is very expensive. It's $9 for a 300 m.m. bottle. The rich in India who can afford a $9 bottle, they are kind of demanding that water. Most bottled or packaged water in the country costs around 20 cents. But Aditya says the growth of the luxury water industry says a lot about wealth and equality in India.

As you would know, India has a big water quality problem in the taps. The tap water that you get here, you cannot drink as opposed to some other countries. And we are now seeing that the wealthy who are very conscious about their health and, you know, they want the minerals and are learning that packaged water is very different from a mineral water or a spring water, which is sourced from the Himalayas or from the French Alps. It's a tale of two Indias in some ways, right? Like, India is a country where the rich are getting richer. There is a lot of a fluent class where people have the money to spend it.

And then there's another India, you know, who probably is reliant on tap water or even has to queue up outside tankers where water supplies are not regular in even some of the major cities in the country. So for me, it's kind of an explanation of the two different Indias that are playing out in one India. It's Sunday and maybe you've already been out for a morning walk or a planning one with the dog. But the walk we're going to tell you about it's nothing like yours. And it involves a very different kind of dog. On Mount Etna, T.H. Zurich have sent a four-legged robot dog up the volcano to sniff out gases that can signal changes in activity. Annie Mal carries cameras, LiDar, and a spectrometer of letting it measure

sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide while navigating unstable and sandy terrain. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. And if you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.