As Brazilians head to the polls on Sunday for the second round of presidential elections, our correspondents take us to the heart of the country's favelas, where residents live in unsanitary conditions. Over the past 40 years, the area occupied by Brazilian favelas has almost tripled in size. They now cover around 460,000 hectares, compared with 53,700 in 1985. 

France has reported the first-ever recorded case of a human contracting the Shamonda livestock virus, which is most commonly found in cattle. Public health authorities stressed that there did not appear to be any health risk to the public, adding that the infection had been "an exceptional case" involving a person with a severely compromised immune system.

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, October 22: The New York Times's sources report plans for fresh strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections. In other news, the French Senate publishes a 30-step proposal for how to "take back control", just days after protests gave way to riots. Also, how software engineers found and patched up bugs in the language that makes up 70 percent of the internet. Finally, the story of a man for whom what happened in Vegas did not stay there.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, exiled former Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay said any successor to the Dalai Lama appointed by China "is going to be a fake one". He also likened Beijing's ethnic unity law to "an ethnic erasure", said Tibetan concerns had been "downgraded a bit" in US-China talks and accused China of failing to warn of the deadly August floods on the Nepal-Tibet border.

The International Criminal Court, which US President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to dismantle "brick by brick", has been awarded the European Union's Sakharov human rights prize.

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted the company's progress on artificial intelligence during an earnings call on Wednesday and called for more investment. The tech giant's Muse AI agent has garnered 10 million users since its launch six weeks ago, while third-quarter revenue rose to $64.6 billion. Meanwhile, the company is accused of political interference in Brazil's presidential election. Also in this edition, we check in on France's rising borrowing costs.

Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Steven Erlanger, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Europe for The New York Times, based in Berlin. Europe's political centre is confronting a crisis that extends far beyond electoral volatility. From France and Germany to Italy and Spain, mounting economic frustration, generational inequality and declining confidence in established political leadership are reshaping the continent's democratic landscape. "The promises of more economic growth haven't come true," explains Erlanger, describing a continent marked by "a kind of general disgust" and "a sense of drift." 

Youth-driven protests have been popping up all over Europe: in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Serbia and Greece. The spark here in France was deteriorating conditions in high schools and universities, particularly for students from underprivileged backgrounds. Meanwhile, wages aren't keeping up with inflation. The housing crisis is front and centre in places like Spain and Portugal, while corruption and democratic backsliding have sparked uproar in Albania and Serbia.

Michael Carrick's side saw their winless run extend to seven matches in all competitions as a Nico Paz double powered the Italian side to an emphatic 4-1 win on Wednesday night. 

As governments and corporations alike scramble to install a patch to fix fundamental security flaws in a programming language that helps run roughly 70 percent of the world's websites, here's what you need to know about how AI has helped bring these critical vulnerabilities to light.

In Pavlohrad, a Ukrainian city less than 90km from the front line with Russia, there is no respite from war. Residents describe daily life under bombardment, caught between exhaustion and determination. Amid criticism of Trump, TikTok rumours and strikes against civilians, FRANCE 24 gathered accounts from those who “refuse to yield”.

Government and corporate websites were shut down across the world overnight into Wednesday after cybersecurity firms used artificial intelligence to reveal critical flaws in widely used programming language PHP. PHP programmers on Wednesday released a patch fixing the vulnerability.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that "illegitimate" protests would be banned in the coming days, ⁠while those from organised groups such as unions would be offered alternative paths for the marches to protect businesses. The government has said it will put French soldiers in the street after rioting and looting broke out on the fringes of mass peaceful demonstrations over the weekend. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

Russia and Ukraine traded major drone and missile strikes on each other's capitals overnight, hours after Moscow signalled readiness to resume US-mediated peace talks. President Donald Trump said negotiations were closer than ever to ending the war, though the Kremlin expressed doubts over Ukrainian and European proposals.

Irish lawmakers voted Wednesday to scrap a requirement for UN approval before deploying military peacekeepers overseas, approving the controversial legislation by 79 votes to 71. Opposition lawmakers warned the move threatened Ireland’s longstanding military neutrality. Ireland is not a NATO member but has traditionally participated in international peacekeeping missions.

Real Madrid thrashed RB Leipzig 4-1 on Wednesday to secure their third consecutive Champions League victory. Bernardo Silva, Arda Guler, Kylian Mbappé and Yan Diomande scored for Jose Mourinho’s side, while Tidiam Gomis replied for Leipzig. Mbappé has scored in all three European matches this season, taking his tally to 12 goals.

In tonight's edition: Sudan's brutal war continues to take a devastating regional toll, as a drone strike in Abyei reportedly kills 153 people. We speak to the UN envoy for Sudan following an emergency international meeting on the escalating crisis. Also, health authorities prepare to coordinate a response as Ebola cases emerge in Nigeria and rise in Kenya. Finally, 10 years after Cameroon’s deadliest railway disaster, families of the 79 victims are still fighting for justice, saying their pain has yet to be acknowledged.

François Picard welcomes former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Jim Townsend and former US Air Force officer Michael (Mikey) Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Is American military power becoming an instrument of political and religious coercion, both at home and abroad? From the reported restrictions on Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite communications to the Trump administration's overtures towards Vladimir Putin and the growing controversy over religious ideology within the Pentagon, the two guests offer a stark assessment of the direction of American foreign and defence policy.