Brazil has more than three million "ghost citizens": people who don't have a birth certificate or ID card. In administrative terms they do not exist and have no access to public health care or education. They also can't vote. But in the run-up to October's elections, these people could constitute a potential political force. Our correspondents Perrine Juan, Louise Raulais and Tim Vickery take a closer look at the legal and social workers who are trying to help "ghost citizens".

Black flags have been raised across the country as millions of workers go out on strike in Sri Lanka. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa continues to ignore calls for him to step down.

Colombo has seen clashes between government supporters and protesters outside the offices of the president and prime minister. Hours later, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa offered to step down.

As protesters tried to enter Mahinda Rajapaksa's residence overnight, police escorted him out on Tuesday morning. The flare up of violence has left at least five people dead and scores injured.

Facebook parent Meta has opened its first physical store — in Burlingame, California — to showcase its hardware products like virtual and augmented reality goggles and glasses.

The president has warned against "racial and religious disharmony." Police have received orders to use live ammunition against protesters deemed to be participating in violence.

On May 15, parliamentary elections will take place nationwide in Lebanon. The Lebanese diaspora, estimated to be double the size of the domestic population, already cast their ballots last week. Around 60 percent of people across 58 countries turned out, slightly more than in 2018. We bring you a special edition of Middle East Matters on Lebanon's first elections since the mass protests of 2019.

Pro-choice demonstrators are rallying across the US in opposition to the Supreme Court's draft opinion that could scrap the right to abortion. Protesters say it is only the beginning of their fight against the decision.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades, facing depleted petrol reserves, food shortages and a chronic lack of medical supplies. More than a month of mainly peaceful protests against the government's handling of the economy turned deadly last week when supporters of the former prime minister stormed an anti-government protest site in the commercial capital Colombo. We discuss the depth of protesters’ grievances, as well as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s chances of weathering the storm, with Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and activist Bhavani Fonseka.

In 2020, Thai youth sparked the largest wave of anti-government protests since the 2014 military coup. But human rights activists say persecutions and systematic harassment have weakened the pro-democracy movement.

Egyptian influencers, especially women, have become the target of a crackdown by authorities. At least a dozen women have been prosecuted since 2020 for ''attacking family values''. Two of them, Haneen Hossam and Mawada al-Adham, were sentenced to three and six years in jail on charges of "attacking society's values" and "inciting human trafficking". Like many TikTokers, they made videos of themselves dancing and lip-synching to music. For more on the crackdown, we speak to Souleimene Benghazi, an Egypt and Tunisia campaigner at Amnesty International.

Following the second-deadliest school shooting in US history, protesters faced off with gun enthusiasts at an NRA convention in Texas this weekend. But both sides doubt that reforms will happen.