Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels are stepping up their strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

The attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes, which could potentially cause a shock to the global economy.

The Houthis are believed to have been armed and trained by Iran, and there are fears that their attacks could escalate Israel’s war against Hamas into a wider regional conflict.

Here’s what we know about the Houthis and why they are getting involved in the war.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthi movement, also known as Ansarallah (Supporters of God), is one side of the Yemeni civil war that has raged for nearly a decade. It emerged in the 1990s, when its leader, Hussein al-Houthi, launched “Believing Youth,” a religious revival movement for a centuries-old subsect of Shia Islam called Zaidism.

The Zaidis ruled Yemen for centuries but were marginalized under the Sunni regime that came to power after the 1962 civil war. Al-Houthi’s movement was founded to represent Zaidis and resist radical Sunnism, particularly Wahhabi ideas from Saudi Arabia. His closest followers became known as Houthis.

How did they gain power?

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the first president of Yemen after the 1990 unification of North and South Yemen, initially supported the Believing Youth. But as the movement’s popularity grew and anti-government rhetoric sharpened, it became a threat to Saleh. Things came to a head in 2003, when Saleh supported the United States invasion of Iraq, which many Yemenis opposed.

For al-Houthi, the rift was an opportunity. Seizing on the public outrage, he organized mass demonstrations. After months of disorder, Saleh issued a warrant for his arrest.

Al-Houthi was killed in September 2004 by Yemeni forces, but his movement lived on. The Houthi military wing grew as more fighters joined the cause. Emboldened by the early Arab Spring protests in 2011, they took control of the northern province of Saada and called for the end of the Saleh regime.

Do the Houthis control Yemen?

Saleh agreed in 2011 to hand power to his Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but this government was no more popular. The Houthis struck again in 2014, taking control of parts of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, before eventually storming the presidential palace early the next year.

Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia, which launched a war against the Houthis at his request in March 2015. What was expected to be a swift campaign lasted years: A ceasefire was finally signed in 2022. It lapsed after six months but the warring parties haven’t returned to full-scale conflict.

The United Nations has said that the war in Yemen has turned into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Nearly a quarter of a million people have been killed during the conflict, according to UN statistics.

Since the ceasefire, the Houthis have consolidated their control over most of northern Yemen. They have also sought a deal with the Saudis that would bring the war to a permanent end and cement their role as the country’s rulers.

Who are their allies?

The Houthis are backed by Iran, which began increasing its aid to the group in 2014 as the civil war escalated and as its rivalry with Saudi Arabia intensified. Iran has provided the group with weapons and technology for, among other things, sea mines, ballistic and cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones), according to a 2021 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Houthis form part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” – an Iran-led anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias backed by the Islamic Republic. Along with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis are one of three prominent Iran-backed militias that have launched attacks on Israel in recent weeks.

How powerful are the Houthis?

But they have made progressive modifications that have added up to big overall improvements, the official said. In a novel development, the Houthis have used medium-range ballistic missiles against Israel, firing a salvo of projectiles at Israel’s southern region of Eilat in early December, which Israel said it intercepted.

While the Houthis may not be able to pose a serious threat to Israel, their technology can wreak havoc in the Red Sea. They have used drones and anti-ship missiles to target commercial ships – some of which aren’t believed to be linked to Israel – prompting the USS Carney, a warship in the Red Sea, to respond to distress calls.

Why are the Houthis attacking ships in the Red Sea?

While, through a combination of geography and technology, the Houthis may lack the capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah, their strikes on commercial vessels in the Red Sea may inflict a different sort of pain on Israel and its allies.

The global economy has been served a series of painful reminders of the importance of this narrow stretch of sea, which runs from the Bab-el-Mandeb straits off the coast of Yemen to the Suez Canal in northern Egypt – and through which 12% of global trade flows, including 30% of global container traffic.

In 2021, a ship called the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the vital trade artery for nearly a week – holding up as much as $10 billion in cargo each day – and causing disruptions to global supply chains that lasted far longer.

There are fears that the Houthi drone and missile attacks against commercial vessels, which have occurred almost daily since December 9, could cause an even greater shock to the world economy.

Four of the world’s five major shipping firms – Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM Group and Evergreen – have announced they would pause shipping through the Red Sea amid fears of Houthi attacks. The oil giant BP said on Monday it would do the same – a move that caused oil and gas prices to surge.

The attacks could force ships to take a far longer route around Africa and cause insurance costs to rocket. Companies could pass on the increased cost of moving their goods to consumers, raising prices again at a time when governments around the world have struggled to tame post-pandemic inflation.

The Houthis say they will only relent when Israel allows the entry of food and medicine into Gaza; its strikes could be intended to inflict economic pain on Israel’s allies in the hope they will pressure it to cease its bombardment of the enclave.

Championing the Palestinian cause could also be an attempt to gain legitimacy at home and in the region as they seek to control northern Yemen. It could also give them an upper hand against their Arab adversaries, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who they accuse of being lackeys of the US and Israel.

How has the world reacted?

The attacks could be intended to drag more countries into the conflict. Israel has warned that it is ready to act against the Houthis if the international community does not. National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said this month that there needs to be a “global arrangement” to address the threat “because it is a global issue,” referring to the Houthi attacks as a “naval siege.”

The US on Monday announced a new multinational naval task force comprising the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Norway and others, to “tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor” that “threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.”

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the group would confront any US-led coalition in the Red Sea.

Just as the Biden administration is beginning to yield to pressure for it to push Israel to wind down its campaign in Gaza, the US may find itself being pulled more deeply into the Middle East by the ragtag – but effective – Houthi rebels who have made themselves impossible to ignore.

At least 126 people were killed and hundreds more injured after an earthquake hit northwest China, state media reported Tuesday, as rescue teams scrambled to reach survivors in sub-zero temperatures.

The quake, China’s deadliest in nearly a decade, rocked Jishishan county in Gansu Province late Monday night, damaging houses and roads. Rescuers raced to search for survivors trapped under rubble, while residents rushed outdoors, huddling overnight in the bitter winter cold.

As of Tuesday morning, the quake has killed 113 people, injured 536 others and damaged more than 155,393 houses in Gansu, CCTV said. Rescue workers have pulled 67 people from the rubble and evacuated 685 others from the province, according to the state media outlet.

In the neighboring province of Qinghai, 13 people have died and 182 were injured, with 20 more still missing as of noon, according to local officials.

The quake struck just before midnight while many would have been sleeping in their homes. It measured 5.9-magnitude at the shallow depth just over 6 miles, according to the United States Geological Survey. The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) gave a slightly higher reading of 6.2 magnitude.

The epicenter is located close to the border between Gansu and Qinghai, a mountainous region on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. The quake was followed by nine aftershocks at magnitude 3 and above as of the morning, according to the CENC.

The initial tremors lasted nearly 20 seconds and were felt in the provincial capital of Lanzhou 102 kilometers (63 miles) away, CCTV reported.

University students in Lanzhou shared photos on the social media site Weibo of crowds gathering outside their dormitories.

A student at Lanzhou University said when the quake struck, she first went to hide in the bathroom with her roommates, before running down 12 floors amid violent shakes.

“I’ve never felt such strong tremors,” she wrote in a Weibo post. “Wearing a down jacket, long underwear, and bare feet in slippers outdoors, where the temperature is lower than –10 degrees Celsius, (I’m) shivering with everyone.”

Some village homes in Gansu and Qinghai have collapsed into rubble, with firefighters pulling survivors out of the debris in the dark, footage from CCTV showed.

The quake has also cut off water and electricity supply as well as mobile signals in some areas, complicating rescue efforts.

At least 4,000 firefighters, police officers and soldiers have been dispatched to the disaster zone in Gansu, along with thousands of tents, folding beds, quilts and portable fire pits, according to provincial officials.

Bitter temperatures

In the epicenter of Jishishan, a county home to about 260,000 people, many rushed out of their homes to seek safety in open areas. Videos and images on state media and social media show families huddling together and wrapped in thick blankets on a public square.

A villager in Jishishan said she didn’t have time to put on extra clothes and ran out barefoot, rushing past bricks and glass shattered on the ground.

“There was a loud ‘boom’ and the wall on the second floor collapsed. (I was) nearly hit and trapped inside,” the villager told Jiupai News, a news site affiliated with the state-run Changjiang Daily.

Authorities have set up tents at a temporary resettlement site on a square in Dahejia, a hard-hit town in Jishishan county, CCTV reported.

The lowest temperature in Jishishan was -14 degrees Celsius, or 6.8 degrees Fahrenheit, overnight, according to CCTV.

The below-freezing temperatures pose the “biggest challenge” to rescue efforts, Wang Duo, an expert involved in the rescue, told the state-run outlet China Newsweek. The first 72 hours are usually considered the “golden period” for rescue, but that precious time window is shortened in this case due to the biting cold, Wang said.

Large swathes of China, including its northwest, have been gripped by a sudden cold snap in recent days, with temperatures plunging to near historic lows in some northern areas.

Chinese Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged authorities to “make all-out efforts” to search for survivors and treat the injured, noting that the disaster took place in a high-altitude area with cold weather, according to Xinhua.

China’s Finance Ministry and Emergency Management Ministry allocated 200 million yuan ($28 million) in natural disaster relief funds to the two provinces hit by the quake, Xinhua reported.

China is no stranger to powerful earthquakes, especially in southwestern parts of the country where the Eurasian tectonic plate meets the Indian plate, a dramatic collision that creates the mighty Himalayas and the vast Tibetan plateau.

The quake is the deadliest to have hit China in nearly a decade, according to publicly available reports, since an earthquake in the southwestern province of Yunnan killed around 600 people in 2014.

Yunnan’s neighboring province, Sichuan, witnessed a devastating magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 2008 that killed some 90,000 people.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has swept to a third, six-year term as Egypt’s president, winning 89.6% of votes in an election in which he faced no serious challengers, the National Election Authority announced on Monday.

The election took place as Egypt struggles with a slow-burning economic crisis and tries to manage the risk of spillover from the war in Gaza, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Some voters said the eruption of conflict in Gaza had encouraged them to vote for Sisi, who has long presented himself as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region – an argument that has also proved effective with Gulf and Western allies providing financial support to his government.

Voting in Egypt was held over three days on Dec. 10-12, with the state and tightly controlled domestic media pushing hard to boost turnout, which the election authority said had reached 66.8% – above the 41% recorded at the last presidential election in 2018.

The election featured three other candidates, none of them high profile. The most prominent potential challenger halted his run in October, saying officials and thugs had targeted his supporters – accusations dismissed by the National Election Authority.

“There were no elections, Sisi used the entire state apparatus and security agencies to prevent any serious contender from even running,” said Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent group.

“Just like last time he handpicked his opponents who only went through the motions of running against the president with either muted or almost no criticism of his disastrous policies.”

Egypt’s state media body has said the vote was a step towards political pluralism and authorities have denied violations of electoral rules.

Costly extravagance

Sisi, a former general, has overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent across the political spectrum since leading the 2013 overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

He was elected to the presidency in 2014, and re-elected in 2018, both times with 97% of the vote. The constitution was amended in 2019, extending the presidential term to six years from four, and allowing Sisi to stand for a third term.

Some admire an infrastructure drive including a new capital built from scratch in the desert east of Cairo. Others see the city as a costly extravagance at a time when Egypt’s debt has swollen and prices have soared.

Sisi’s backers say security is paramount, and that some groups have benefited under his rule.

That included women, said Nourhan ElAbbassy, assistant secretary-general of the youth branch of the pro-Sisi Homat AlWatan party.

“We would love to see more females in key positions, more female ministers in the cabinet as long as they’re qualified, and revisions of personal rights laws that have to do with issues like marriage, divorce and alimony,” she said.

Authorities have sought to address criticism of Egypt’s human rights record with steps including opening a national dialogue and releasing some prominent prisoners. Critics have dismissed the moves as largely cosmetic.

Many Egyptians expressed indifference about the election, saying the result was a foregone conclusion.

Reuters reporters who covered the vote in Cairo, Giza, Suez and the Sinai Peninsula witnessed people being bussed in to some polling stations and lingering outside them waving national flags or banners as patriotic music played. Other polling stations appeared quiet.

A Reuters reporter saw bags of flour, rice and other basic commodities being handed out to people who voted in Giza, and some voters said they were pressured by their employers to take part, or that financial incentives were offered to those who cast ballots.

The state media body said any provision of money or goods in return for votes was a criminal offense, punishable by fines or prison.

Pope Francis formally permitted Roman Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples on Monday, in a significant shift in the church’s approach to LGBTQ+ people.

The blessings may be carried out providing they are not part of regular Church rituals or liturgies, nor at the same time as a civil union, according to a Vatican document approved by the pope.

The latest ruling fleshes out the opening the pope made to blessing same-sex couples last October and marks a shift away from a 2021 ruling from the Vatican doctrine office which barred any blessings, saying God “cannot bless sin.”

But since July 2023, the doctrine department has been led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, an Argentinian prelate and ally of Francis, who has struck a different tone to his predecessors.

“When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” the declaration, authored by Cardinal Fernandez and another official, states. “The grace of God works in the lives of those who do not claim to be righteous but who acknowledge themselves humbly as sinners, like everyone else.”

The new ruling says it is opening “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex” although says it is leaving decisions to “the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers.”

James Martin, a Jesuit priest who ministers to gay Catholics and who has been supported by Francis, described the ruling as a “huge step forward in the church’s ministry to same-sex couples” and a dramatic shift from the Vatican’s 2021 stance.

The pope’s attempts to shift the church’s approach to LGBTQ Catholics began in 2013, when, in reply to a reporter’s question about gay clergy, he said: “Who am I to judge?”

Francis has indicated his support for the civil recognition of same-sex couples, and sought to move the Vatican away from some of the harsh language it has used in the past about gay people. His support for legal recognition of gay couples – as distinct from marriage – moved the church in a different direction to a 2003 Vatican ruling, which said it was “necessary to oppose legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

The pope has also offered his support to a nun from the United States, Jeanine Gramick, who has ministered to gay Catholics for years. She had previously been censured by the Vatican but recently met with Francis, who described her as a “valiant woman.”

The Vatican’s latest ruling says that offering blessings to same-sex and unmarried couples can be done “without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.” The Catholic Church’s teaching is that sex should only take place within marriage, and the ruling says that the church cannot offer a “liturgical blessing” to same-sex or unmarried couples because it could “offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.”

But the ruling states that the meaning of a blessing cannot be reduced “to this point of view alone” and would mean that “a pastoral gesture that is so beloved and widespread will be subjected to too many moral prerequisites, which, under the claim of control, could overshadow the unconditional power of God’s love.”

The pope, the ruling stated, has insisted that the church cannot simply become “judges who only deny, reject, and exclude,” and needs to have a broader understanding of blessings.

Francis’ openness to LGBTQ+ Catholics has been an element in the opposition he has faced from a small, yet vocal, minority inside the church. His latest move on blessings is likely to face resistance in these quarters.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

At least 86 people have died and 96 others were injured after an earthquake in northwest China, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday morning local time.

The quake, which hit China’s Gansu Province late Monday evening, prompted the deployment of rescue workers, including officials from local emergency management and fire departments, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.

The United States Geological Survey said earlier that a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in the area had caused severe shaking, with extensive economic damage probable and likely widespread.

The earthquake struck around 23 miles west northwest of Linxia Chengguanzhen with a shallow depth just over 6 miles, according to the USGS. The provincial capital of Lanzhou is about 60 miles away from the epicenter.

The first launch in more than a year of Blue Origin’s New Shepard tourism rocket, designed to vault paying customers on brief trips to the edge of space, was scrubbed Monday morning.

The Jeff Bezos-founded company said the scrub of the uncrewed science mission was “due to a ground system issue the team is troubleshooting,” according to an update shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Initially, Monday’s launch of New Shepard was delayed by an hour due to cold temperatures at the launch site at Blue Origin’s facilities on a private ranch in West Texas, according to the company.

Blue Origin said it will make another launch attempt Tuesday beginning at 11:37 AM ET. The launch will stream live on the company’s website.

The mission would have marked the rocket’s return to flight after Blue Origin spent months recuperating from a failed uncrewed test flight.

New Shepard’s 2022 failure

A New Shepard rocket and spacecraft were set to launch a batch of science instruments on September 12, 2022. But one minute into flight, the rocket endured Max Q — an aerospace term that refers to a moment of maximum stress on a vehicle at a relatively low altitude where the atmosphere is still fairly thick, and the rocket is moving at nearly the speed of sound.

Around that time, the rocket appeared to emit a massive burst of flames. The New Shepard capsule, which rides atop the rocket, then initiated its launch abort system — firing up a small engine to blast itself safely away from the malfunctioning rocket. That system worked as intended, parachuting the capsule to a safe landing.

Blue Origin later revealed that the cause of the failure was a problem with the engine nozzle, a large cone that directs the flaming exhaust at the rocket’s bottom. Onboard computers accurately detected the failure and shut the engine down, according to the company.

No injuries were reported on the ground, and Blue Origin said the science payloads and the capsule could be flown again.

But the rocket, left without a functioning engine, smashed back into the ground and was completely destroyed. Typically after New Shepard launches, the rocket booster guides itself back to a safe upright landing so it can be flown again.

During a Thursday interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos  said that the escape system that jettisoned the capsule to safety is the most difficult piece of engineering in the entire rocket — but “it is the reason that I am comfortable letting anyone go on New Shepard.”

“The (rocket) booster is as safe and reliable as we can make it,” Bezos added. “The power density is so enormous that it is impossible to ever be sure that nothing will go wrong. … So the only way to improve safety is to have an escape system.

“A tourism vehicle has to be designed in my view … to be as safe as one can make it,” he said. “You can’t make it perfectly safe. It’s impossible.”

What went wrong

When New Shepard does lift off again, a success could tee up the company to restart its trips to space for thrill seekers.

Before the September 2022 failure, New Shepard rockets had flown 22 consecutive successful missions — including six with passengers on board. Bezos flew aboard the rocket in 2021.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches and is charged with ensuring public safety, oversaw an investigation into the failure. The probe revealed that the engine nozzle failed because it experienced higher temperatures than what the company had anticipated.

To fix the issue, Blue Origin said it implemented “design changes to the combustion chamber” — the area of the engine where fuel explosively mixes with oxidizer — and adjusted “operating parameters,” or the data that the company uses to model safe flights.

“Additional design changes to the nozzle have improved structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads,” the company said in a March statement.

The FAA formally concluded the mishap investigation on September 27, outlining 21 “corrective actions” Blue Origin must implement before returning to flight. The agency did not reveal details on what those actions were, noting the report “contains proprietary data and U.S  Export Control information and is not available for public release.”

New Glenn on the horizon

New Shepard’s expected return to flight comes as Blue Origin is racing to deliver on another key project: It’s developing a massive rocket called New Glenn that’s capable of hauling satellites and other large payloads into orbit.

That rocket is years overdue. And the same engines that will power New Glenn’s rocket booster, the BE-4 engines, will also fuel a new line of rockets developed by United Launch Alliance — a joint Lockheed Martin and Boeing venture. United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to launch its first mission, delivering a NASA-sponsored lander to the moon, in January.

New Glenn likewise has an important first launch on the horizon, potentially carrying a NASA satellite to study the magnetized area of space around Mars as soon as next year.

Bezos admitted during last week’s podcast interview that he is “extremely nervous” about the first launch of New Glenn.

“Every launch I go to, for New Shepard, for other vehicles, too, I’m always nervous for these launches,” he said. “A first launch — to have no nervousness about that — would be some sign of derangement.”

A volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula is erupting, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said in a statement on Monday.

The eruption began at around 10 p.m. local time, following an earthquake at around 9 p.m.

The meteorological office reported that the eruption is visible on webcams and appears to be located close to Hagafell, about 3 kilometers north of the town of Grindavík.

“A Coast Guard helicopter will take off shortly to confirm the exact location and size of the eruption,” the meteorological office said.

Earlier this year, residents from Grindavík and nearby settlements were evacuated from their homes as the threat of a volcanic eruption loomed.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned there will be “problems” with neighboring Finland after it joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) earlier this year.

Finland’s ascension to NATO marked a major shift in the security landscape in northern Europe, and added some 1,300 kilometers (830 miles) to the alliance’s frontier with Russia.

It was also a blow for President Putin, who has long warned against NATO expansion.

“They (the West) took Finland and dragged it into NATO! Why, did we have any disputes with Finland? All disputes, including those of a territorial nature in the middle of the 20th Century, have all been resolved long ago,” Putin said in an interview published on Sunday.

“There were no problems, but now there will be, because we will now create the Leningrad military district there and definitely concentrate military units there,” Putin added in the interview by Russian state broadcaster Russia 1.

Putin also dismissed as “complete nonsense” remarks from US President Joe Biden, who earlier this month warned that Putin would “keep going” if he takes Ukraine, suggesting that Russia could eventually attack a NATO ally and draw US troops into conflict.

The Russian leader said Russia “has no reason, no interest, no geopolitical interest, neither economic, nor political, nor military, to fight with NATO countries,” adding Moscow does not have any territorial claims in NATO countries.

“There is no desire to spoil relations with them (NATO countries), we are interested in developing relations,” Putin added.

Border spat

Finland became the 31st member of NATO when it joined in April, doubling the security alliance’s direct frontier with Russia.

Even before Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, he had demanded NATO limit its expansion. Yet, it was the war that “altered the security environment of Finland,” driving the Nordic nation’s desire to join the alliance, President Sauli Niinistö said in May 2022 when announcing his country would seek to join.

Within a few months of its application, the Finnish government said it would spend around $143 million on building barrier fences along Finland’s 830-mile eastern border with Russia, which used to have little security protections.

Finland again shut its entire border with Russia this week, over claims hundreds of people were trying to cross without a visa.

After another closure was announced last month, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo accused Russia of “enabling the instrumentalization of people and guiding them to the Finnish border in harsh winter conditions. Finland is determined to put an end to this phenomenon.”

On a dark night six months ago, Adrian mustered the courage to flee.

Already on the run for days, with freshly stitched wounds on his thigh, he struggled over the border by foot.

“I crossed a swamp at the border. When I reached a railway protected by Kenyan police, I had to bribe them to get through,” he says.

Adrian’s journey from a promising young professional with a marketing job in Uganda, to an asylum seeker on the run began with his father, a prominent Muslim businessman in the capital Kampala.

Adrian says his father told him he wanted to restore dignity to their family.

“He grabbed a knife that was near him. He felt that he could cut me into pieces,” Adrian says, showing the jagged scars streaking his leg.

“In Uganda when they kill someone in the LGBT community – it is not a big deal.”

Hiding from hate

Even in the daytime, the curtains in the safehouse are drawn.

“With the hate that we are living in today, if you go out there and they notice that I am LGBTQ, sooner or later I will be dead,” he says.

It’s unclear how many Ugandans have fled to Kenya, but rights groups in both countries say the numbers have risen substantially since Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, which includes the death penalty, in May.

US President Joe Biden has called the law “a tragic violation of universal human rights,” and demanded its repeal. “No one should have to live in constant fear for their life or being subjected to violence and discrimination. It is wrong,” he said.

‘Family values’

Family Watch International says that its mission is to “protect and promote the family as the fundamental unit of society.” It campaigns against teaching young people about LGBTQ issues, sexual health, other areas it regards as a threat to the “natural family,” lobbying at the United Nations, across the US and in other countries.

The organization has hosted key politicians pushing anti-LGBTQ laws. Slater has addressed or convened multiple “family values” conferences across the African continent – both in person and remotely.

As well as being influenced by US evangelical groups, several African nations’ anti-LGBTQ laws have their roots in the colonial era, including in Britain’s anti-sodomy provisions. When the UK decriminalized same-sex acts in 1967, many former colonies had already won independence and the laws on their books stayed in place.

But there has been a contemporary push to clarify and, in some cases, strengthen these laws.

In 2013, Nigeria passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relationships, which contained penalties of up to 14 years in prison. A year later, Uganda’s president signed into law the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was subsequently struck down by a Ugandan court on procedural grounds after Western governments suspended some aid.

But in recent years, African politicians have begun proposing a new generation of anti-LGBTQ legislation. The bills in Ghana, Uganda, and Kenya are cloaked in “family values” but anchored in severe punishments for the queer community and their supporters.

Ghana could soon pass one of the harshest pieces of legislation, known as the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values bill, after its Supreme Court dismissed a legal challenge in July.

In Uganda, being gay can now get you life in prison or the death penalty for certain homosexual acts. The new law, which is blamed for a rise in violence against members of the LGBTQ community, received robust support from Ugandan members of parliament. Ugandan activists and civil society groups are currently challenging the law in court.

“The laws are very organized in their planning and the political mobilization of the population to support the cause. The passing of the law is just the tail end of that very meticulous process,” says Nicholas Opiyo, a leading Ugandan human rights advocate.

Friends in high places

Perhaps the most symbolic illustration of Family Watch International’s clout came from a conference in Entebbe, Uganda, this past April.

In one photo from the conference, Family Watch International staff and co-founder Slater stands in a small group photo with the Ugandan president.

The conference on sex education happened just weeks before Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May. Museveni and the First Lady praised the work of Slater and her organization in public gatherings.

Family Watch International says those meetings were impromptu and that it was not in charge of the conference in Entebbe.

But a source directly involved in the event said that Slater and Family Watch International were, in fact, vital in the planning of the Entebbe conference – even suggesting a name change to avoid “significant backlash.”

And while Family Watch International says it is not involved in any way in the law, the same source said the group has assisted members of parliament in pushing the legislation and helped shape its wording.

“Family Watch International staff made repeated changes to the draft,” the source said, even suggesting clauses that should be added to the text.

“I have documents I can show you later that I have not been involved in any of those laws, period, it’s just absurd,” she said.

In it, Museveni gives an extraordinary endorsement of Slater’s work and says she played no part in “originating, canvassing, or supporting” the law. Instead, it says she suggested a “safe haven” for “homosexuals.” The final Ugandan law allows for the “rehabilitation of offenders,” including widely discredited conversion therapy.

Family Watch International has repeatedly stated that it is against the death penalty and imprisonment of members of the LGBTQ community and does not support the law, but a youth leader with close links to the organization in Kenya had a different take.

Tobias Nauruki, a representative of the Empowered Youth Coalition, had just returned from the same meetings at the UN, where he posted photographs of the UN buildings and group pictures with leading anti-LGBTQ members of parliament.

Family Watch International said that Nauruki is “not authorized to speak” for them.

“I’m happy for the laws being pushed. One, they are going to protect me as a person, Tobias, and the generations I’m looking forward to have in the near future,” he said, referring to his future children. “The maintenance protection and promoting the family values is very important to maintain the traditions that have been there.”

Nauruki said that LGBTQ people should be imprisoned if they break the laws but be given the opportunity to convert. He added that the instances of harassment and abuse of LGBTQ people cited by human rights groups are “minor.”

A harsh new reality

But the emergence of a draft Kenyan Family Protection Bill, that would punish gay sex with prison, has pushed the queer community in Kenya further into the shadows.

The bill surfaced after a February Kenyan Supreme Court ruling that allowed the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) to officially register as an advocate for the LGBTQ community, garnering praise from LGBTQ campaigners as well as backlash.

“It was very surprising that there would be such a large and horrible reaction to something we had been working on for 10 years,” said Njeri Gateru, the executive director of NGLHRC. “This is quite clearly a deliberate push for the criminalization of queer bodies and queer lives.”

Gateru says that instances of harassment of members of the queer community have doubled in the last two years, with more than 1,000 instances recorded up to August this year alone.

Nairobi has long been a relative haven for LGBTQ Africans. There are several well-known gay bars and hang-out spots and transgender Kenyans were relatively safe in certain areas.

Crucially, if the bill becomes law, it will ban LGTBQ Africans from being able to seek asylum or being granted refugee status in Kenya – and expel those convicted under the legislation.

Among its draconian measures, the bill threatens a fine of 10 million Kenyan shillings ($65,000) or 10 years in jail for funding LGBTQ+ groups, and outlaws their existence. Landlords who knowingly rent homes to LGBTQ+ people can be fined and or jailed for up to seven years.

Already the feeling of safety has changed since the draft bill was publicized and politicians, including President William Ruto, started speaking out against gay rights.

Groups like Galck+, an LGBTQ+ umbrella organization in Kenya, are inundated with distress calls day and night.

Despite an international backlash to the proposed bill, especially from donor countries, Kenyan lawmakers are pressing on.

He had just returned from the same meetings that Nauruki, the youth representative, and Slater attended at the UN in New York. A book by Sharon Slater on family values sits on his shelf. He says he hasn’t read it.

Kaluma denied that he has a close relationship with Slater, though he said he does admire her teachings on “traditional families.”

He said that Family Watch International played no part in the Kenyan law.

“No, no they can’t. That would be to say I don’t have my own brain. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not the first law I’ve proposed to parliament,” he said.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Kaluma said that Kenyans aren’t taking the law into their own hands, and that Ugandans fleeing into Kenya are pretending they are being persecuted.

“I can tell you all this is self-serving gimmicks,” he said, claiming they are just trying to get to the US or Canada.

Nowhere to go

There is nothing fictional about Sylvia’s escape from Uganda.

Sylvia says she thought she found refuge in her grandmother’s house, only to be forced out.

“My mom came herself and she told me, ‘You are not welcome here; you are not part of our family. You either go, or I call the police.’ I cried because I love my mom,” she says.

In the safe house in Nairobi, the Ugandans feel that their space to live in safety is running out, that the proposed Kenyan law presents a direct threat to them.

They now face a complex process of registering for asylum and potentially moving to the Kakuma refugee camp in remote northwestern Kenya.

“When is it going to stop?” asks Ann, who only arrived a week ago. “If you come to Kenya what is going to happen, if you go to another country, what are they going to do to you there?”

Ann and Sylvia take turns to gently stir a pot of boiling beans on a gas cylinder. Adrian is looking at remote job options on a laptop. Another resident of the safehouse is polishing his shoes on the porch outside.

For now, they are safe. And they have each other.

“Being here is the best feeling I have ever had in my life. I now live with the people who understand me, who love me genuinely for who I am. It gives me hope that maybe the world is not against me,” Ann says.

They have become a family.

The British royal family can be a litigious bunch, but perhaps no member is more so than the Duke of Sussex.

Prince Harry’s tempestuous history with the media is well documented at this point. His memoir offered insight into his deep resentment of the tabloid press and it’s no secret he holds them complicit in his mother’s premature death.

The 39-year-old royal has taken it upon himself to fight for a more “responsible media,” as he once put it, and is currently engaged in a number of legal battles in the United Kingdom.

Here’s a rundown of his ongoing and recent civil litigation against media outlets:

Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL)

This challenge is a joint endeavor with several high-profile individuals, including Elton John and his husband, David Furnish.

Campaigner Doreen Lawrence, actress and model Elizabeth Hurley, actress Sadie Frost and former politician Simon Hughes make up the rest of the claimants. The group brought the case in October 2022 and alleged that ANL, which publishes titles including the Daily Mail and MailOnline, engaged in various types of criminal activity to obtain information about individuals in the group. ANL has denied any wrongdoing.

The group accused ANL of hiring private investigators to plant listening devices in homes and cars and record private calls. The publisher has also denied allegations that it would pay corrupt police officials for inside information, engage in impersonation and deception to obtain medical records, and would hack into bank accounts and financial transactions by “illicit means and manipulation.”

Britain’s High Court ruled in November that the case over alleged unlawful information gathering could proceed despite ANL’s attempts to have it dismissed without trial on the basis that it was brought too late. Justice Matthew Nicklin said ANL failed to deliver a “knockout blow” to any of the claims brought by the claimants.

Second Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) lawsuit

Prince Harry is also suing ANL for libel over a February 2022 Mail on Sunday story about separate legal proceedings against the UK Home Office over his family’s security detail.

The article was published with the headline: “Exclusive: How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret… then – just minutes after the story broke – his PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute.”

In July 2022, a High Court judge found parts of the article were defamatory. ANL firmly contested the claim, with lawyers for the publisher arguing the report was an “honest opinion” that did not cause “serious harm” to his reputation.

In December, Justice Nicklin refused a bid from Harry’s legal team to strike out ANL’s “honest opinion” defense or grant a decision in their client’s favor without a trial. Explaining his decision, the judge said “the Defendant has a real prospect of demonstrating, at trial,” that statements issued by the prince’s communications team were “misleading” and allowed the case to continue. It is likely to go to trial in 2024.

News Group Newspapers (NGN)

This is another of the duke’s cases that has seen some movement in recent months. In 2019, Prince Harry sued News Group Newspapers (NGN) over alleged unlawful information gathering.

The lawsuit includes claims that NGN – the UK publisher of The Sun and now-defunct News of The World newspaper – illegally intercepted voicemail messages, obtained private information by deception and used private investigators to illegally gain information.

NGN argued for the case to be thrown out and said that Harry should have brought his lawsuit sooner, but the prince said he wasn’t able to due to a “secret agreement” between NGN and Buckingham Palace.

In July, the High Court ruled that the royal could not sue for alleged phone-hacking or use his argument of a confidential deal but allowed other claims to continue. The trial is expected to get underway in early 2025.

Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN)

Harry began a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) at the same time he launched his action against NGN in 2019.

The trial started in May and offered the rare sight of a senior royal sitting in a courtroom’s witness box. Prince Harry and three other claimants representing dozens of celebrities are suing the major British newspaper publisher, accusing its titles of phone-hacking and using other illicit means to gather information between 1991 and 2011.

MGN has contested most of the allegations, arguing in its court filings that some claims have been brought too late and that in all four cases there is insufficient evidence of phone-hacking.

In December, the Duke of Sussex was awarded £140,600 ($179,000) after the High Court ruled he was the victim of historical phone hacking by MGN.

In a summary of his ruling, Justice Timothy Fancourt found that the publisher started phone hacking in 1996 but the practice was “extensive” between 2006 to 2011. However, he determined the prince’s phone “was only hacked to a modest extent.”

He determined that 15 stories published by MGN about Prince Harry during that latter period used methods including phone hacking, deceptive “blagging” practices and private investigators to unlawfully gather information.

The prince described his win against MGN as “a great day for truth, as well as accountability,” in a statement read by his lawyer, David Sherborne, outside the court in London. An MGN spokesperson said they apologized “unreservedly,” according to PA Media.

This story has been updated.