Joanna Gill

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.

From Sarajevo to Skopje, reliance on coal power could expose the Western Balkans to a major economic hit when European Union green tariffs come into force next year.

Coal-fuelled electricity is one of the Western Balkans' most carbon-heavy exports and will be covered by the EU's new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which will put a levy on imports with a large carbon footprint.

Peruvian farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya is set to appear in a German court next week in a case against German energy utility RWE which could set a precedent for mounting legal cases against governments and companies over their climate impact.

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

The European Commission plans sweeping changes to key environmental and corporate responsibility rules, with critics warning that the regulatory rollback will expose workers to abuses and hobble action on climate change.

The plans to loosen rules on corporate sustainability reporting and supply-chain transparency aim to help Europe's companies compete with China and the United States, where President Donald Trump has promised to eliminate 10 regulations for every new regulation issued.