Shashika Bandara

lol. What a diva

In our new piece in @bmj.com, @michaeldgreen.com & I argue that diversity matters when it comes to medical school admission not only for fairness, equality, & equity but also because research shows that population health outcomes are better with a diverse medical workforce

A matter of life & death

Maldives becomes the first country to achieve ‘triple elimination’ of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B In a landmark public health achievement, WHO has validated the Maldives for eliminating mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of hepatitis B, while maintaining its earlier validation (in 2019) for…

Maldives becomes the first country to achieve ‘triple elimination’ of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B

I am excited for Seth and Steph Curry’s first game together this season - there’s a poetic justice vibe to it.

House speaker Mike Johnson accuses Democrats of ‘political theater’ as shutdown enters day nine – US politics live Move comes as Donald Trump calls for imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor

Calls to imprison political opponents and deploy national guard as a show of strength/intimidation? What is happening? Has anyone not studies how Hitler rose to power and the political strategies he used - and the parallels with the current US context?

buff.ly/QGPb4n1

A really nice piece on the uprisings in South Asia. #SriLanka #Nepal and #Bangladesh

I strongly resonated with this paper! Often times, lived experience be it racism, visa inequity, or any other experience, is difficult to understand without living through it. It affects policies, priorities, and limits of our imagination.

journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

Sri Lanka tourist arrivals rise 30.2-pct in September | EconomyNext Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals increased 30.2 percent from a year ago to 158,971 in September 2025, data from the island’s tourism promotion office showed.

Happy to see #SriLanka becoming a tourism hotspot which helps economic growth especially for the informal sector. I also hope regulations are there for environment protection/local business.

Sri Lanka tourist arrivals rise 30.2-pct in September

Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired “I would never do that, as a scientist,” Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details.

EXCLUSIVE: In her first interview all year, Susan Monarez, CDC director for only 29 days, tells me why Trump/RFK fired her and where this is all headed.

The CDC director is an “inherently political position, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be politically compromised”, she tells @nature.com.

Why Buddhist monks in #SriLanka are against banning of corporal punishment against children escapes me. What is the philosophy that guides them?

Omg. Warriors finally settled their roster. We can have some hopeful basketball now. What a summer.

A beautiful way to live life and depart from it. It’s a loss for the world, loss of Jane Goodall.

Ed Miliband tells Elon Musk to ‘get the hell out of our politics and our country’ Blistering attack at Labour conference comes after tech billionaire has used X to hit out at British government

Miliband tells Musk to ‘get the hell out of our politics and our country’ on.ft.com/3IKTvjW

A wonderful opportunity to focus your studies with a BA in #globalhealth at the McGill Department of Global and Public Health, as a new student or an existing undergrad.

You can choose from five different streams of focus. Learn more:
www.mcgill.ca/global-publi...

What even? What are we trying to prove here? Evolution of toxic masculinity?

Starmer Describes ‘Fight for the Soul’ of U.K. as Populist Right Rises In a speech, the British prime minister will contrast his political project with that of Nigel Farage, whose Reform party promises mass deportations.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain will denounce what he calls “the politics of grievance” on Tuesday, seeking to revive his plummeting approval numbers with a warning about embracing intolerance that is directly aimed at the anti-immigration Reform UK party. Here's what to know.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

‘Science demands action’: world leaders and UN push climate agenda forward despite Trump’s attacks Leaders unveil new targets to cut planet-heating pollution after Trump called climate crisis a ‘con job’ World leaders have unveiled new targets to cut planet-heating pollution at the United Nations, in a bid to spur fresh impetus to the beleaguered climate effort a day after Donald Trump called the crisis “the greatest con job ever perpetrated upon the world”. A total of 120 countries and the European Union announced new goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York on Wednesday. The pledges most notably include one from China, the world’s leading emitter, which said it would cut emissions by 7-10% from its peak level by 2035. Continue reading...

‘Science demands action’: world leaders and UN push climate agenda forward despite Trump’s attacks

Hands down one of the most impressive, inspiring, principled politicians in the U.S. (and I’m not just saying this cuz of that awesome Wu Tang video 😉)

Also, given the current environment, this is also a gutsy thing to do (plenty of Dems would be too worried to do this)

British artists reclaim St George’s flag with a message of inclusivity In Manchester and beyond creative responses to the unwelcome message of ‘raise the colours’ are appearing * ‘Scary’ and ‘I loved it’: the ‘unite the kingdom’ march Artists in Britain have customised St George’s flags with messages celebrating diversity, in response to a campaign in which national banners have been flown from lamp-posts, outside homes and painted on roundabouts. While for many, flying the flag is a genuine expression of national pride, some flags have been graffitied on businesses and places of worship belonging to minority ethnic Britons, in some cases with slurs, after the launch of the operation “raise the colours”. Continue reading...

British artists reclaim St George’s flag with a message of inclusivity

If this happened in a low and middle income country, will we call it corruption?

Agreed. I’ve been thinking a lot of David Rose this past week and about why the Ezra Kleins of this world did not think that it warranted the same kind of attention as the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Sarah Akinterinwa on the privilege of being able to ignore the British far right – cartoon Last weekend saw the biggest ever march by the far right in London

Sarah Akinterinwa on the privilege of being able to ignore the British far right – cartoon

Opinion | The Aid Cuts Are Trump’s Most Lethal Policy In desperate villages in southwestern Uganda, not only are aid cuts killing children every day, but the death toll is accelerating.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“What I find here in desperate villages in southwestern Uganda is that not only are aid cuts killing children every day, but that the death toll is accelerating,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes.

History teaches us that authoritarians use any excuse to seize power | Judith Levine Nazis used the 1933 Reichstag blaze to justify snuffing out civil liberties. In the US, the calls for a crackdown have already begun

History teaches us that authoritarians use any excuse to seize power | Judith Levine

Snakebites surge across Southasia amid rising heat, floods and habitat loss Climate change is driving an increase in snakebites and envenomation deaths in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and beyond – and community-driven solutions are leading the fightback

Congratulations to Himal contributors Diwash Gahatraj and Ali Jabir Malik who have won the 2025 @coveringclimatenow.org “Climate in Every Beat” award for their inking climate change and snakebite prevalence in #Southasia. Read their piece from May 2024 now:

Vidyan Ravinthiran’s bold take on otherness and “Asian” diaspora identity ON PAPER, Vidyan Ravinthiran and I are strikingly similar. We are both British Southasian writers, of Tamil descent, who immigrated to the United States. We bot

Sri Lankan-British poet Vidyan Ravinthiran’s memoir ‘Asian/Other’, explores the porousness of identity in the #Southasian diaspora and the challenges of writing beyond Western expectation.
By Meena Venkataramanan

This is so messed up.

🇺🇸 A US panel stacked with figures sympathetic to the anti-vaccine movement will on Thursday take on federal immunization recommendations in a highly politicized meeting that could upend longstanding medical advice.
➡️ u.afp.com/SPEo

Okay. With the rise of Afghanistan as a cricketing powerhouse - Asia cup is heating up no?