🚨🇧🇷 BRAZIL DECIDES ITS NEXT PRESIDENT ON SUNDAY — AND WE'LL BE THERE LIVE! Brazil is heading into a closely watched presidential election, with Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro offering two very different visions for the country's future. Crime, corruption, censorship, the economy, and judicial power have become major issues in the race. Both candidates have passionate supporters, and the outcome could shape Brazil's political and economic direction for years to come. With the race coming down to the wire, all eyes are on Sunday's vote. @Libby_Alon and @DaviBraid will be reporting LIVE from Brazil, bringing you the latest developments, reactions, and election-night atmosphere. Watch NewsForce LIVE this Sunday, October 25.

🇯🇴 BREAKING: Gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a church in Karak, southern Jordan, reportedly killing seven people. Two attackers got out of a car and started shooting at Hamoud Church, Jordanian broadcaster Al-Mamlaka reported, citing a source. Security forces are hunting for them, and the motive isn’t known.

🇦🇹🇷🇺 Austria is expelling four Russian diplomats for “activities incompatible with their diplomatic status,” a phrase usually used for spying. Three worked at Russia’s embassy and one at its mission to the OSCE, a European security group based in Vienna. Austria has now expelled 18 Russian diplomats since 2020. Russia says it will respond.

🇺🇸 A Texas startup wants to clone the U.S. military’s best working dogs and edit their genes to make them healthier. Warhound, backed by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and the CIA’s venture fund, raised $200 million. It plans to clone top dogs and remove genes linked to hip disease and some cancers, and may later add wolf genes for a sharper sense of smell.

🇩🇪 Manuel Otto, the German creator of the hit game “Stick Run,” has died at 30. His team says he appears to have taken his own life during a Twitch livestream. Twitch says it quickly removed the stream, but videos of it still spread online. Otto made the game at 14, and more than 43 million people played it.

🇬🇧🇫🇷 British fighter jets took part in a French nuclear strike drill for the first time. Royal Air Force Typhoons escorted French Rafale jets as they practiced a simulated nuclear attack. No real nuclear weapons were used. France’s nuclear air force has operated almost entirely on its own since 1964.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 China has approved U.S. bank Citi to open its own fully owned securities firm in the country, after a nearly five-year wait. The Shanghai-based unit can help companies raise money, trade stocks, and offer investment advice inside China. Citi plans to roughly double its staff there to about 100 by the end of the year.

🇵🇱🇺🇸 OpenAI is teaming up with Poland’s national research institute, NASK, to test advanced AI systems for weaknesses and make them safer. OpenAI said earlier that a group of its AI agents escaped their test environment and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face.

🇷🇴 A cargo ship caught fire and capsized in the Black Sea off Romania, leaving one crew member dead and three missing. Another ship pulled 10 people from the water, nine of them alive, about 15 miles off the port of Constanța. Rescuers are searching for the others. The 13 crew members were from Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The cause of the fire hasn’t been announced.

🇷🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦 Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine will hold three-way peace talks in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, the Kremlin says. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin set the agenda: security arrangements for both Russia and Ukraine after a peace deal. Zelensky said this week he'd accept freezing the war along the current front lines, while Russia called new Ukrainian and EU proposals mostly not "useful."

🇮🇱Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint Friday, wounding at least five people, two critically, according to Israel’s emergency service. Israeli forces shot and killed both gunmen. The military imposed a “full siege” on Hebron. Netanyahu ordered preparations for a wider West Bank closure, but its timing and duration remain unclear. Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.

🇹🇼Hundreds of flights across East Asia were canceled Friday as powerful Typhoon Champi passed near Taiwan’s northeast coast. Schools, offices and the stock exchange were closed, while authorities reported one person dead, 171 injured and about 1,000 evacuated. The storm brought wind gusts of up to 191 km/h and was forecast to bring heavy rain through Saturday. Forecasters said they could not rule out a Taiwan landfall.

🇨🇦Carney: “We will never be the 51st state” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would “go our own way” and rejected the idea of becoming part of the United States. “We’re preparing, we’re strong, and we’re getting stronger,” he said.

🇺🇸Federal prosecutors say the cases involved more than $1.6 billion in alleged false billing for substance abuse treatment, over $135 million for unnecessary heart procedures and $138 million for hospice care billed for patients who were not terminally ill. Eight people were arrested Thursday. The allegations have not been proven in court.

🇺🇸Mark Zuckerberg can sell some newly created non-voting Meta shares to cover a potential tax bill while retaining majority ownership, according to company filings. California voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to impose a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion—a levy that could cost Zuckerberg more than $11 billion. The agreement also commits him to remain in California for eight years, barring unforeseen circumstances.

🇳🇿Air Marshal Tony Davies has resigned as chief of the New Zealand Defence Force, saying he failed to disclose an inappropriate relationship from his time as a unit leader. He called it an error of judgment contrary to the military’s values. The matter has been referred to an independent inspector-general; Rear Admiral Mat Williams will take over during the transition.

🇬🇧UPDATE: Aisha Zaman, 27, has been charged with possessing a prohibited firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence after a police officer was shot in the foot in Nottingham city centre. She is due in court on Friday. The officer remains in a stable condition in hospital. Several others have been arrested as the investigation continues.

🇺🇸 Florida’s AG wants to limit teens to two hours a day on social media and ban AI chatbots from acting like their friends. James Uthmeier’s proposed Safe Screens Act would also make app stores verify ages and turn off features like endless scrolling and autoplay unless parents allow them.

🇺🇸 The vaccine custom-made for each patient’s tumor cut the risk of melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, coming back by 42%, a major study shows. Made by Moderna and Merck with the same mRNA technology as COVID shots, it trains the immune system to attack cancer cells. Two years after surgery, 82% of patients who got it were cancer-free, compared with 70% without it.

🇺🇸🇲🇽 A former Mexican state prosecutor could be tried for treason for letting CIA officers join a drug raid without telling Mexico’s government. In April, two CIA officers and two Mexican agents died in a crash after a drug lab raid in Chihuahua. Ex-state attorney general César Jáuregui is accused of letting the Americans join, which only the federal government can approve.

🇨🇳🇹🇼 Taiwan says China is pairing militia fishing boats with its coast guard to expand “battlefield preparation” around the island and into the Pacific. One came within about 3 miles of Taiwan’s restricted waters off its Pacific coast in August. Taiwan believes China is practicing for a sea blockade. The boats look civilian but are crewed by trained, state-backed sailors. Taiwan says Japan and the Philippines are feeling the pressure too. China says its operations are lawful.