Shashika Bandara
@shashikalb.bsky.social
2.5K followers 94 following 350 posts
Fish curry enthusiast. Global Health Policy and Human Rights. Ph.D. @McGillU. Formerly @DukeU.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
shashikalb.bsky.social
I am excited for Seth and Steph Curry’s first game together this season - there’s a poetic justice vibe to it.
shashikalb.bsky.social
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
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
buff.ly
shashikalb.bsky.social
A really nice piece on the uprisings in South Asia. #SriLanka #Nepal and #Bangladesh
shashikalb.bsky.social
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...
shashikalb.bsky.social
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
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.
economynext.com
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
maxkozlov.bsky.social
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.
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.
www.nature.com
shashikalb.bsky.social
Why Buddhist monks in #SriLanka are against banning of corporal punishment against children escapes me. What is the philosophy that guides them?
shashikalb.bsky.social
Omg. Warriors finally settled their roster. We can have some hopeful basketball now. What a summer.
shashikalb.bsky.social
A beautiful way to live life and depart from it. It’s a loss for the world, loss of Jane Goodall.
shashikalb.bsky.social
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...
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
nytimes.com
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.
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.
nyti.ms
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
elisecutts.bsky.social
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:
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
gavinyamey.bsky.social
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)
shashikalb.bsky.social
If this happened in a low and middle income country, will we call it corruption?
nytimes.com
Wall Street banks and tech companies big and small were scrambling on Saturday to figure out how their tens of thousands of employees would be affected by President Trump’s proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee for visas granted to skilled foreign workers.
Trump’s $100,000 H1-B Visa Fee Spurs Confusion and Chaos for Companies
The White House sought to clarify the proclamation on Saturday, but many companies remained cautious. “We are still flying in somewhat foggy conditions,” one attorney said.
nyti.ms
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
kakape.bsky.social
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.
billkristolbulwark.bsky.social
"My thoughts turned to David Rose, who volunteered to try to prevent another such attack on our country, and then, when back home, ran toward danger once again to help his fellow Americans."
www.thebulwark.com/p/a-hero-dav...
A Hero We Didn’t Deserve
Remembering David Rose who ran towards danger.
www.thebulwark.com
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
nytimes.com
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.
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.
nyti.ms
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
himalmag.bsky.social
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:
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
buff.ly
Reposted by Shashika Bandara
himalmag.bsky.social
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
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
buff.ly
Reposted by Shashika Bandara