Enrique Anarte Lazo

A new spike in mpox cases in Berlin has sparked alarm among German health authorities and LGBTQ+ advocates, with local groups calling for an urgent vaccination campaign to protect gay and bisexual men most at risk from the outbreak.

The German capital registered four times more mpox cases in the first three months of 2025 than in the same period of 2023 and 2024, and unlike many of the cases reported across Europe this year, most of them are not travel-related.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has made access to HIV treatment for men who have sex with men and trans people uniquely difficult, despite a waiver for parts of the flagship President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

Both groups are among those most at risk of HIV infection and face multiple legal and social obstacles in many of the 55 countries, including Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, that benefit from PEPFAR since it was launched in 2003.

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to slash most U.S. aid funding has plunged thousands of humanitarian programmes into uncertainty - and the millions of people who rely on the projects for food, clean water, shelter and healthcare.

In Namibia, a country of 3 million people in southern Africa, the most vulnerable people who relied on U.S.-funded HIV/AIDS services may now struggle to access vital medication and other care.

The conservative bloc won Germany's election last Sunday but its leader Friedrich Merz, set to become the next chancellor, may struggle to secure enough support from other parties to implement the LGBTQ+ rights rollbacks he promised voters.

Merz faces complex and lengthy coalition negotiations after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to a historic second place in a fractured vote after the collapse of chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way alliance.

For many LGBTQ+ Germans, this month's elections are no longer about winning new rights; the best-case scenario now is just to hang on to any hard-won gains and ensure life doesn't get worse.

"They're talking about revoking the trans self-determination law only three months after it entered into force. It's absurd," said Jojo Ludwig, a social media creator who last year was legally recognised as non-binary - neither male nor female.

There’s so much that doesn’t make the final cut of a film.

A few months ago, my colleague Sadiya Ansari and I went to Nairobi to film a documentary about LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Kenya, which for years was seen as a safe haven for queer refugees.

Kenya is the only country in East Africa to offer asylum to LGBTQ+ people fleeing oppressive laws in neighbouring countries such as Uganda.

But for many LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, it has become another place of abuse, where they live on the margins awaiting official refugee status, and must still hide their true selves.

Elon Musk's public backing of Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party polling second ahead of February's snap election, has exacerbated fears of rights reversals among LGBTQ+ people concerned about the party's possible influence on policy.

"The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!" Musk wrote in an article in late December. He also plans a live interview with Weidel this week.

Uganda will pay a high price for its strict anti-LGBTQ+ law passed last year, said one of only two lawmakers who voted against legislation in the country's parliament.

The World Bank halted all new lending to Uganda as a result of the law and the east African country has also suffered from lower foreign direct investment, international aid, trade and tourism.

The first openly LGBTQ+ candidates to run for office in Namibia say young voters want change even as hate crimes rise on the streets and many older Namibians oppose equal rights.

Two out candidates - one gay, one pansexual - are running in the Nov. 27 elections, with younger voters making up the lion's share of the electorate.