Joanna Gill

More than a million people have backed a Europe-wide ban on "conversion therapy", boosting European Union efforts to outlaw outdated and discredited practices that aim to change a person's sexuality or gender identity.

The petition’s million+ signatories run counter to a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in many parts of the EU, which has been accused of failing to do enough to protect gay rights.

A German court rejected a Peruvian farmer's appeal for damages against RWE, the German energy utility he accused of putting his home at risk through climate change, but ruled companies were liable for their emissions - an important legal precedent.

The nearly decade-long battle concerned whether the company's carbon dioxide emissions could be blamed for Andean glaciers melting above Saúl Luciano Lliuya's hometown and swelling a lake to dangerous levels.

European countries have tightened migration policies this year, with more changes expected, despite a 38% drop in illegal migrant entries last year to the lowest level since 2021.

Elections this year have seen far-right, anti-migration parties grow in popularity and immigration remains a politically charged topic in the bloc's 27 member states.

As the popularity of social media and messaging apps grows, so does the volume of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, on the internet, and 2024 was the worst year on record, a new report shows.

European Union countries host more than 60% of child sexual abuse web pages identified in the last year, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), prompting calls for better regulations and reporting tools to protect potential victims.

The European Union spent five years developing new laws requiring companies to check and remedy cases of forced labour or environmental damage caused in their global supply chains.

Now it is seeking to roll back certain measures just months after adopting them.

Conflict, climate change and cuts to foreign aid will drive ever more people from their homes in coming years, tipping the world into a new state of insecurity, according to the head of the Danish Refugee Council.

In a wide-ranging sitdown with Context, Charlotte Slente ran through the triple whammy that is now facing the world's poor as western governments turn inwards just as war and rising temperatures push ever more people into need.

The wordless adventure of a cat that finds refuge on a boat during an apocalyptic flood, the Oscar-winning animated movie "Flow" has offered hope to an industry grappling with an existential crisis, thanks in part to the use of artificial intelligence.

With a meagre $3.7 million budget compared with Disney's $200 million movie "Inside Out", "Flow" beat industry giants to take home the best animated feature Oscar this year.

The slashing of funds for life-saving health projects around the world could unravel decades of progress in fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, forcing a "moment of reckoning" for global health, the head of the Global Fund told Context.

Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said his organisation, alongside other health groups, was working to fill urgent gaps after the U.S. government froze foreign aid, and other countries reviewed their donor budgets.

The European Union is considering the creation of "return hubs" outside the bloc to increase and fast-track deportations of rejected asylum seekers, as part of a package of new measures aimed at hardening its stance on migration.

EU leaders are set to discuss ways to expedite deportations at an Oct. 17-18 summit in Brussels after a slew of elections this year saw support for anti-immigration, far-right parties grow across the continent.

The conflict playing out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have seized vital mines in a lightning advance, spotlights the global race for access to critical minerals and the risk to local populations.

The race for minerals needed for renewable technologies - including coltan, lithium, cobalt and nickel - is set to ramp up this year as Europe and North America compete to secure access and break China's grip on the supply chain.