Luis, a 26-year-old Panamanian man, has tried to donate blood four times in his life. The first time he was rejected. The other three times, he was allowed to do it only because he hid the fact that he has a boyfriend.

“I felt dirty, as if I was sick,” Luis said of his first attempt to give blood to an ailing family member. He used a pseudonym because he feared the legal implications of breaching Panama’s rules banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood.

Last year, I marched in Budapest during a banned Pride event. People joined not just to defend LGBTI+ rights, but because they understood something deeper: our community is the canary in the coalmine for freedoms in Hungary. And now, with European attention focused elsewhere, the state apparatus is mobilising against those who stood to defend them.

Spain’s first LGBTQ+ rights ambassador has set two priorities; working to decriminalise same-sex relations around the globe and fighting anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech online.

“Spain has decided not to stand on the sidelines, and to take a decisive step in defending the LGBTIQ+ community,” Jorge Noval Álvarez told Context in an interview.

President Donald Trump’s first year in office has been characterised by sweeping changes to international aid, human rights policies, immigration and U.S. governance at home and abroad.

He signed a record number of executive orders in his first 100 days, many of which targeted transgender and non-binary rights, access to gender-affirming care and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the United States.

Money has done so much for humanity, enabling the creation of our highly complex societies and bringing legions of people out of poverty.

But the limits of our current economic system are becoming increasingly clear. As global leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, is it time to imagine new possibilities for our monetary system?

RUSHINGA, Zimbabwe – Hundreds of women hired by charities to clear deadly landmines across Zimbabwe are now struggling to survive after the United States and other big donors slashed foreign aid – and with it, axed their jobs.

The women were working for international NGOs, including The HALO Trust and APOPO, in eastern Zimbabwe where former colonial rulers laid millions of anti-personnel landmines along the border with Mozambique during the 1970s Liberation War.

RUSHINGA, Zimbabwe – Agness Joe vividly remembers hearing a loud bang and then the screams of her husband and children.

Joe had stepped on a landmine as she walked from her farm in Mozambique back to her home in Zimbabwe in 2011. Both of her legs were gone below the knee. By some miracle, the baby on her back and her daughter walking nearby were unhurt.

When Fareed learned that Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad had been toppled on Dec. 8, 2024, it was both the best and worst day of his life.

Fareed, who has lived with his family in Britain since 2023, celebrated the end of nearly 14 years of war in his home country. But the news sent his son into a deep depression.

“I wanted my kids to remember this day as a really special day. But my son immediately asked me, ‘Baba, would England now kick us out to go back to Syria?'” Fareed, who did not want to use his last name, told Context.

From the United States to Britain and Germany, countries are overhauling asylum rules amid broader tensions over immigration.

Critics say the clampdowns will make it harder for people fleeing war and persecution to seek protection.

After a year marked by legislative setbacks and devastating cuts to funding, the outlook for LGBTQ+ rights in 2026 could be daunting, with elections, court decisions and legal reforms likely to affect policies and people around the world.

After taking office last year, U.S. President Donald Trump ended years of funding for global rights initiatives and HIV prevention, while lawmakers in Ghana, Kazakhstan and Turkey clamped down on LGBTQ+ rights.