Councillor Ayumu Kikuchi, representative of the Japanese Embassy in London addresses the Hiroshima Day Remembrance in Coventry Cathedral, August 6th 2026. On August 6th I attended the annual Coventry Cathedral commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. The Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee of Peace and Reconciliation organises the remembrance every year […]
FIGURE 1: A Pyro-cumulus firecloud in Valpacos, Portugal,July 29th 2026 Picture: MeteoTras-os montes A World in Flames The world is on fire. More than three hundred thousand people in Southern France and Spain have become the latest climate refugees in the last month. They were not included in the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimate […]
Session 4 of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of Ireland Summer Conference, Registrar presentations on their aspirations for their future. With President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Professor Diarmuid O’Shea, Dr Tony Holohan, former Chief Medical Officer of Ireland, Dr Kevin Kelleher Dean of the FPHMI, and Dr Fenton Howell, formerly […]
PART 2: Lessons for me, and for the Global Network for Academic Public Health GNAPH President John Middleton, with World Federation of Public Health Associations, Chief Executive officer, Professor Bettina Borisch. GNAPH and WPFHA lead a group of global health organisations implementing the competencies and outcomes framework Overwhelmingly positive and optimistic impressions For me, the […]
WHO 5th steering group photo march 24th 2026 The fifth steering group meeting of the WHO roadmap for public health workforce including emergencies In March this year, public health experts convened at the WHO headquarters in Geneva for the 5th steering group meeting of the WHO roadmap for public health workforce including emergencies. GNAPH has […]
A senior colleague in European public health tells me, “Public health is currently off the agenda not only in the US but also in Europe because all countries have forgotten the pandemic and are now in ‘war’ mode. This status is even more heightened by the ongoing events in the Middle East.” It is to […]
Thirteen years ago, I wrote that gender is a poverty and public health issue. Sadly, that statement is more urgent today than it was even then. Across the world, women’s rights—the foundation of community well-being and collective progress—are being systematically eroded. From legislative attacks on reproductive autonomy to the silencing of women’s voices in politics, […]
A New Year: A New Resolve, a Renewed Moral Compass for Public Health “Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers and it would be foolish to deny it. Rejection of human solidarity, obtuse and cynical indifference to the […]
A Climate of Despair? A Climate of Hope? Hate less, do more: Climate despair, epidemic anxiety, epidemic hatred and the need for a new public mental health in the age of disinformation Photo credit: John Middleton Climate despair – and how to respond? Friends, colleagues, defenders of health! The phenomenon of climate despair is being […]
A Climate of Despair? A Climate of Hope? Migration and health – a tsunami of mass destitution and disease, and a backlash of repressive politics In November, I made presentations on migration and health for the APACPH congress in Thailand, November 7th, and the European Schools of Public Health (ASPHER) meeting at Poznan, Poland, November 24th. Congratulations […]
