The World Today: June & July 2023: Threats to rainbow rights

The plan to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines has met with anger from China and fears that it sets a dangerous precedent, writes Mike Higgins.

I fled Uganda with my children after my father-in-law tried to kill me. But in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, my sexuality still makes me a target, says Juliet Wabule.

By broadening feminist representation in peacebuilding to include LGBT voices, Colombia is redefining intersectionality, writes Jamie Hagen.

Progress in Thailand and Singapore contrasts with an anti-LGBTQ moral panic in Indonesia and the legal legacy of British imperial rule, writes Anthony Langlois.

Pro-LGBTQ legislation needs upholding, particularly in an era of conservative repression, writes Graeme Reid.

Ukraine’s government must provide jobs, eradicate corruption and devolve power to create a convincing vision of post-war prosperity, writes Orysia Lutsevych.

NATO membership may be off the table, but long-term investment will only come with effective deterrence against future Russian aggression, writes John Lough.

The Ukrainian historian tells Mike Higgins about how the war is giving rise to a new Ukraine and why China’s role – not nuclear weapons – is ‘the big unknown’.

Anti-corruption measures, deepening ties with the EU and widespread investment are essential to entice displaced Ukrainians home, writes Mustafa Nayyem.

Imagery of the disputed Aksai Chin territory reveals new Chinese military infrastructure and an increased strategic threat to India, write John Pollock and Damien Symon.

If President Macron’s forthcoming global financial summit is to matter, it must address debt and climate finance – here’s how, write Creon Butler and Lilia Couto.

What next after Russia’s ‘containment’, how to keep America engaged with Europe and which country joins next are just a few of them, writes Andrew Dorman.

On June 5, 1981, the first account of what became HIV/Aids appeared. But a prompt medical reaction was undermined by political apathy, writes Harold Jaffe.

A clampdown on private enterprise means ever more young Chinese are competing for prized but scarce civil service jobs, writes Yu Jie.

It was meant to prompt a reconsideration of LGBTQ Qataris. Instead, international coverage of the tournament entrenched local distrust, writes Christina Paschyn.

The Canadian Foreign Service officer tells Mike Higgins about queer diplomats’ difficult postings and the perception that LGBTQ rights are a western imposition.

The enigmatic Kim Yo Jong may become the dictatorship’s first female Supreme Leader, but ‘The Sister’ tells us nothing new about her, writes Anna Fifield.

Antony Loewenstein argues persuasively that Israel profits from surveilling Palestine, but should have spoken more to those it’s watching, writes Mairav Zonszein.

In the last three decades of the 20th century, the LGBTQ community came out of the shadows and into focus, a liberation aided and captured by photography.

This year’s conference, on June 29, focuses on multilateralism. Notable speakers at previous conferences have included author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and former prime minister Boris Johnson.