Combating Climate Change, Surviving Wartime Sexual Violence, Fleeing Ukraine

Editors' Note

In two days, the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) begins in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Our first article this week is from two climate and health scholars from the Philippines—one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries—who discuss the link between climate change and mental health, and how it is often overlooked.

Our next author examines the long, deeply disturbing history of sexual violence as a war tactic—including findings from three UN reports looking at the recent atrocities in Ethiopia, Haiti, and Ukraine—and how international law has proven largely ineffective at preventing rape and sexual violence during conflict.

To learn more about what the winter holds on the health front (will it be a "tripledemic"?), we interviewed our Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation colleague and public health expert Ali H. Mokdad. Bottom line: get vaccinated, and don't throw away your masks quite yet.

We close out the week on two brighter notes: First, we have a story of four Ukrainian caregivers and thirty individuals with intellectual disabilities who made a brave escape from the country earlier this year. Then, to celebrate the recent Halloween holiday, our Culture Friday slideshow lets readers in on superstitions surrounding certain foods. Hint: perhaps you should switch from coffee to tea.

As always, thank you for reading, and be well.—Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors 