By Christopher Saville, Clinical Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology and Sport Science, Bangor University
Life expectancy in the UK has risen dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. For more than a century, people lived increasingly long and healthy lives. But around the turn of the millennium, that progress began to slow.
In 2015, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published a landmark study showing something unexpected. From the late 1990s onwards, death rates among middle-aged white Americans without university degrees had started…
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By Elaine Nsoesie, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston University
Blessing Mberu, Head of Urbanisation and Wellbeing, African Population and Health Research Center, African Population and Health Research Center
A new book called Urban Health in Africa explores how rapid urbanisation across the continent shapes public health and wellbeing. Drawing on diverse research and case studies, the book reframes African cities not just as sites of challenge, but as places of innovation, resilience and opportunity.
We spoke to global health researcher Elaine Nsoesie and urbanisation and wellbeing sociologist Blessing Mberu, co-editors…
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By Howard Stein, Development Economist and Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan
Michael Olabisi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) and the department of Agricultural Food and Resource Economics (AFRE), Michigan State University
Africa holds key green energy minerals but exports them raw. If the continent had its own Green Bank, it could finance local manufacturing and green industry.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Smoke from a building in the center of Beirut, Lebanon, which has been hit by the IDF after an evacuation order, on March 12, 2026. © 2026 Adri Salido/Getty Images (Beirut, March 23, 2026) – Israeli forces have expanded ground operations in southern Lebanon after indicating an intent to forcibly displace residents, destroy civilian homes and conduct strikes that could target civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Forcible displacement, wanton destruction and attacks deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes. Countries that continue to provide Israel…
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Monday, March 23, 2026
The war in the Middle East is well into its fourth week and the humanitarian emergency it has sparked continues to be the focus of international attention, along with the energy crisis caused by attacks on shipping in key Strait of Hormuz and other oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf region. Stay with us for live updates from across the UN system. App users can follow coverage here.
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By Kanav Narayan Sahgal
An amending Bill proposed in India’s lower house of Parliament that strikes at the core of transgender people’s right to bodily autonomy and privacy.
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By Adnan Haq, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science, University of South Wales
In the 2021 Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, elite mountaineer Nirmal Purja races up the world’s highest summits at extraordinary speed. But even he isn’t immune to altitude.
During one ascent, Purja develops symptoms of high-altitude cerebral oedema (brain swelling), a dangerous form of altitude sickness that can strike with little warning. It’s a stark reminder that when oxygen levels fall, no amount of fitness…
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By Tom Vaughan, Lecturer in International Security, University of Leeds; Sciences Po
Nuclear “non-proliferation” – preventing the spread of nuclear weapons beyond states that already have them – has been held up as the rationale for the US-Israeli war on Iran.
In his statement announcing the start of the operation on February 28, Donald Trump said: “we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.”
This highlights two lessons about the problems with non-proliferation logic…
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By Conor Meehan, Associate Professor of Microbial Bioinformatics, Nottingham Trent University
Janelle Mwerinde, PhD Candidate, Skin Microbiology, Nottingham Trent University
When living with a partner, you might be sharing more than just the same home, lifestyle and interests. You might also share various microscopic organisms residing on and in you.
This community of microorganisms, which consists of mainly bacteria, viruses and fungi, is known collectively as the human microbiome. The various microbiomes found throughout the body all play an important role in health.
From birth, the human microbiome is shaped by our interactions with our mother, who introduces…
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By Jane Entwistle, Professor of Environmental Geochemistry, Northumbria University, Newcastle
The new Netflix series Lead Children has put a spotlight on the issue of lead poisoning in 1970s Poland. The series follows a young doctor who discovers that children living near a smelting plant have been poisoned with lead.
According to the latest Global Burden of Disease study, exposure to lead remains one of the leading environmental risk factors for early death and poor health globally.…
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