The 8th International Conference on Law Enforcement & Public Health

Vulnerability, policing and public health

6 - 9 September 2026
University of Leeds, UK

About the Conference

The Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA) and the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre will jointly host the 8th International Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference, LEPH2026 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK from 6-9 September 2026.

Following highly successful conferences in North America, Africa and Europe, the 2026 global event in Leeds presents a unique opportunity to spotlight global research and world-leading practice across law enforcement and public health. The 2026 overarching theme will be vulnerability, policing and public health.

The conference will be open to law enforcement and public health agencies, national and local governments, relevant research bodies, academic institutes, policy makers as well as the commercial sector and other partner organisations. Bringing these diverse communities and perspectives together, the conference presents an ideal space for sharing and learning about new approaches, instigating and developing real change in practice, based on the best available evidence internationally.

Full details - conference website ...

My source: Culling followers on Twitter '0 posts', last post years ago ...X may have been accepted legally as a signature, but it might denote injury, illness, or illiteracy. Twitter diehards really are in a 'graveyard'. And yet, amidst the tombstones, I found a POLITICAL care domain gem in @LEPH2026, which led me to @GLEPHAssoc. I will follow when allowed.

Previously: 'law' : 'vulnerability' : 'public health'

Theatres of War and Healing

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Theater of War Productions presents community-specific, theater-based projects that address pressing public health and social issues.	Wounded Ukrainian veterans find healing on stage c/o Reuters

Previously: 'theatre' : 'war' : 'public (mental) health' 

Apollo - Artemis II and the Joy of Earth

Since Artemis II was launched, several more-senior people in the media have been interviewed, with their reflections on certain lunar events in 1969 with the Apollo programme.

 

I too remember being woken up, taking several giant steps down the stairs and huddling around the black & white TV set in the early hours. I'm so glad I did that.

 

Thanks mum and dad. X

 

Following the livestream from Artemis, it's brilliant to see Christina Koch and Victor Glover onboard too.

 

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art002e008487 (April 4, 2026) - NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the Moon. Image Credit: NASA

"I have not complained about the weather one single time. I'm glad there is weather. I've not complained about traffic. I'm glad there are people around. One of the things that I did when I got home - I went down to shopping centers, and I'd just go around there, get an ice cream cone or something, just watch the people go by, and think: "Boy, we're lucky to be here. Why do people complain about the Earth? We are living in the garden of Eden."                     Alan Bean. Apollo 12

Image: NASA

Text: https://www.livingspace.earth/home/2018/5/remembering-alan-bean
 

Previously: 'Apollo' : 'exploration' : 'moon' 

A definition of the 'Psycho-Political'

Clearing books, magazines and journals (to make space for a few new acquisitions) on a trip to Hay-on-Wye, I bought a secondhand copy of:

Weizsacker, Carl Friedrich von. (1980). The Unity of Nature.

I noticed chapters on the definition of health and illness, and information.

Models of Health and Illness, Good and Evil, Truth and Falseness

Chapter  Jun 2014 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03671-7
In book: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Major Texts in Philosophy (pp.74-89)

Abstract

This essay is the core of our reflections on cybernetics. It is the only essay in this Part that tries to describe concretely what cybernetics can achieve. Written in the fall of 1967 but unpublished until now, it was inspired by a lecture on “Peacelessness as Mental Illness” delivered in Bethel in 1967 (published in Der ungesicherte Friede; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969). On that occasion the question arose whether it is medically justifiable, or merely metaphoric, to call the inability to maintain peace an illness. As far as I can see, contemporary medicine lacks a sufficiently clear concept of illness to decide this question. Since I had no desire to merely skirt the issue, I was faced with the task of outlining a scientifically justifiable definition of illness. The result is presented in Sect. 6.2 of this essay; its social application is very briefly sketched in Sect. 6.4.

(My emphasis)

Unfortunately, I cannot find a copy of the lecture. In my softback copy the title is "Lack of Peace as Psychic Illness".

We don't tend to think of mental illness in the collective, but history provides many examples within and extended across communities - 'mass psychogenic illness'. More recently there is a literature on the mental health, competency of global leaders, also known as 'hubris syndrome' previously. Even the history of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker is controversial, his World War II record and knowledge of nuclear physics.

We have a veritable storm across all the domains of Hodges' model (including the spiritual) that point to the model's ongoing  relevance, consider:

• climate crisis;
• pollution (air, water ...)
• geopolitics;
• disruption of the international rules-based order;
• the status and reputation of global organisations (were they ever 'international'?);
• the record of current global political leadership;
• the need to protect Political titles (not just Professional titles, Dr, Nurse, ...)?;
• the rise of artificial intelligence.

Link: 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300477492_Models_of_Health_and_Illness_Good_and_Evil_Truth_and_Falseness?

c/o RollingStone UK - "U2 surprise-drop politically charged ‘Days of Ash’ EP with six new songs"

The collection delves into ICE, Israel, the West Bank, Ukraine, Iran — and features a guest vocal by Ed Sheeran

U2 (RollingStone UK - Picture: Anton Corbijn) 

By Andy Greene

'U2 have emerged from a long hiatus with a surprise six-song EP, Days of Ash, available now, in which they address political flashpoints around the world, including ICE raids in the US, the Iranian uprisings, the war in Ukraine, and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The six songs — ‘American Obituary’, ‘The Tears of Things’, ‘Song of the Future’, ‘Wildpeace’, ‘One Life at a Time’ and ‘Yours Eternally’ (featuring Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia) — are all on streaming platforms. They’ve also created lyric videos for each one.' 

Continued ...

Previously: conflict : war : hope : peace

The 2025 peace laureate

The 2025 peace laureate

'The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Maria Corina Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people. She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.'

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María Corina
Machado	Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Revisiting the G7 ... G20

'Under the Trump administration, the US is retreating from the global leadership role it has played since the end of the second world war. The world is bedevilled with challenges and there is a desperate need for stability and co-ordinated solutions to global problems. Where will the leadership to solve them come from? 

Some have argued that we are now in a "G zero" world in which no one is in charge. There is great uncertainty and the powerful dictate solutions to smaller players. Others say we are moving to a regional carve up - a G3 where the US. Russia and China have spheres of influence in a modern day version of the Three Emperors League. 

Some version of a new multi-polar order may yet take shape. But it also seems clear that a G minus one world is starting to fill the vacuum in some domains — with countries coming together to find solutions to global problems without the US.' p.11.

 

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imaginary - *You cast your vote and get the  global leadership we all deserve. ...	- numbers
... Discuss.	G20 G7 G-0? Goto*

My source: 

Minouche Shafik, How to live in a G minus one world, Opinion, FTWeekend. 26-27 July 2025, p.11.

https://www.ft.com/content/7b884f20-e44e-4afe-9c0c-0c602f76b3f6

Previously: 'G7'

'The Bells of Nagasaki' by Takashi Nagai

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	nuclear
'The Bells of Nagasaki' by Takashi Nagai	power

Takashi Nagai, William Johnston (Translator), Richard Lloyd Parry (Introducer). The Bells of Nagasaki. London: Penguin.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/469083/the-bells-of-nagasaki-by-nagai-takashi/9781529952605

My source:
Olivia Ward-Jackson. What one man saw in the ruins of Nagasaki, Review, The Daily Telegraph. 26 July 2025. pp.6-7.

See also:

UN Peace Bell

Jones, P. (1994) An Enthusiast's View of CAL. (Problems in production of CAL - Simulation effects of Nuclear Weapons - conversion of GWBASIC to BBC BASIC from BYTE - with original author's permission - J Fanchi). IT in Nursing. 6,2.

Why in the World do I have to walk this way?

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my childhood - memories
my family, community, home, role models, friends from the neibourhood	Why?

Image: https://x.com/Lowkey0nline

Globally - seeking the ink of scholars

The Ink of the Scholars:
Reflections on Philosophy in Africa

Since the late 1980s, in trying to understand Hodges' model, especially its political dimensions beyond nurses as advocates, the mental health act, choice and self-determination. To be followed by consent, then informed consent, mental capacity, human rights, equality, protected characteristics, safeguarding, equity, social in-justice; I've then questioned my assumed neutrality of the model. 

Allied to this is the fact that Hodges' model is one of many models and frameworks, largely created in the developed world. What alternative viewpointsof nursing, care and philosophies are there? Do these challenge Hodges' model? Or, can Hodges' model also encompass them, in a complementary manner?

Serendipity, or ADHD, seems to follow me around. In addition determined to extract value from my purchase and reading of the weekend FT, I learned of potential key read:

Prempeh, C. THE AESTHETE. Koyo Kouoh, The curator of 2026 Venice Biennale talks whisky sours, working from bed and being the "high priestess of the okra church". HTSI, FTWeekend, 3 May 2025,pp.21-22.

'THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN THE PAST YEAR is a book on African philosophers, The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa, by Souleymane Bachir Diagne, one of our most brilliant thinkers. He challenges the idea that there isn't a philosophical framework to African societies. There are ideas around Africans being the great architects of hospitality and Diagne reflects on what the African approach to humanity is. What does it mean to be careful, mindful and caring? It's not just about welcoming people to your home or feeding them. Hospitality is carrying people, making people feel comfortable in your environment - it's intellectual and emotional. Everyone should read Diagne, full stop.' p.21. 

 

Shocked: I have just read of Koyo Kouoh's passing - RIP. 

Souleymane Bachir Diagne, & Jonathan Adjemian. (2016, May 23). The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa. CODESRIA Books Publication System. CODESRIA
https://publication.codesria.org/index.php/pub/catalog/book/40

See also: 'hospitality'

1st Seminar Series: "Violence, Memory, Networks" - Interdisciplinary Connections

Dear colleagues,

The first session of the seminar "Violence, Memory, Networks" will take place on 19th March, 2025, at 2.30 pm (GMT), exclusively online.

In this session, Caroline Elkins (Harvard University, USA) will speak about "Legalized Lawlessness: Violence and the End of the British Empire" and Max Silverman (University of Leeds, UK) will bring us a communication on "Concentrationary violence and the everyday: the Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, 2023)".

Registration is free but mandatory: https://forms.gle/brgNcR6hk6dxf7gu7

Event website: https://www.uc.pt/fluc/seminarvmn/

We would be very grateful if you could publicise the event through your channels.

Looking forward to see you soon,

The organising committee.

My source: https://www.uc.pt/fluc/ief/

Praying ... for PEACE

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PRAY	PREY
PRAY	PREY

Nobel Peace Prize 2024

'The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

In response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, a global movement arose whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as “the nuclear taboo”.

The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger context. ...'

Press release. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Sat. 19 Oct 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/press-release/>

Previously: Nobel Prize :: peace

1989 SHADES OF GREY, Computer Aided Learning program, BBC Micro. Simulation of nuclear weapons, Based on Fanchi, J. Local effects of nuclear weapons, BYTE, Volume 11. Issue 13. Dec., pp. 143–155. Computer Aided Learning program, BBC Micro, published by Open Software Limited.
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2024/03/jones-publications-list.html

Bridging more than theory |-----| practice

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A purpose of Hodges' model  is to help bridge the theory-practice gap. Theory-	' BRIDGES TO PROSPERITY 'We've built more than 500 trail bridges, serving over 1.8 million community members throughout the world. At Bridges to Prosperity, we envision a world where poverty caused by rural isolation no longer exists.'
Practice Communities Histories	BRIDGES to PEACE

https://bridgestoprosperity.org/

Suqi, R. Bridge the GAP, HTSI. Autumn Design Special. FTWeekend, 14 October 2023, p.67.

'Earthrise' c/o Bill Anders RIP

Earthrise in 4K

"In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space. But as crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered was Earth." 

See also:

Earthrise: The Story of the Photo that Changed the World | Short Film Showcase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsShNeDvccc

Thank you Bill and all the Apollo team and subsequent space faring families across the Home planet.

P.S. I'll leave it to you to relate the significance of Apollo 8's 'Earthrise' to Hodges' model.

Policy Dialogue - Water, Conflict and Peace in the Middle East: online

Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to invite you to the next Policy Dialogues from the JHU-UPF Public Policy Center:

Water, Conflict and Peace in the Middle East

Thursday 25th April, 6pm CEST

Online via Zoom (registration required)

Language: English

The Middle East is a region of both severe water problems, and acute political instability. But what is the relationship between these two things? This Policy Dialogue will provide an opportunity to reflect on this question and its implications. It will overview the region’s water problems, and consider how these problems are – or are not – contributing to conflict. It will also examine, conversely, how war and violence are affecting patterns of water resource degradation and water insecurities, and will reflect on opportunities for water-related peace-building, including on how water for peace initiatives might best be pursued.

We are delighted to invite Natasha Carmi (Water Peace Programme Manager at the Geneva Water Hub) and Jan Selby (Professor of International Politics and Climate Change at the University of Leeds, UK) to share their expertise during this session.

We invite you to join us and explore the complexities of this extremely important issue. You can register here. Please also share this invitation within your networks.

Best regards,
Aeve

Aeve Ribbons
she/her

Educational Projects Manager of JHU-UPF Public Policy Center (UPF-BSM)
Managing Editor of the International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services (IJSDOHS)

My working days are Monday-Thursday / Mis días laborables son de lunes a jueves.

Website: http://www.upf.edu/jhu-ppc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pubpolcenter

My source:

Politics of Health Group Mail List Messages

Visit the PoHG website for lots of interesting links and publications: http://www.pohg.org.uk/

Visit PoHG on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/282761111845400

Follow us on Twitter: @pohguk

Peter Higgs - Boson and Field

"Higgs theorised that particles would acquire mass by interacting with a new type of field. That field had a very special excitation of its own, another particle called the Higgs boson. The Higgs field solved a huge question in theoretical particle physics, and the Higgs boson was a tantalising target that experimentalists could hunt for in order to tie theory to reality.

“If you remove everything from the vacuum, all matter or quantum fluctuations, all electromagnetic stuff, all gravity, you will be left with the Higgs field,” says Frank Close at the University of Oxford. “And we need that just like a goldfish needs water. It stabilises empty space.”

Working independently from Higgs, Belgian physicists Francois Englert and Robert Brout reached the same conclusion, also in 1964."

New Scientist

On BBC Radio 4 11th April 1500 UT, Frank Close extended the goldfish analogy: "as if some clever goldfish have proved that they are immersed in something because they have found a molecule of H₂O."

BBC Inside Science

The following is from a previous post:

UK Higher Education Research Excellence Framework - Disciplines

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2023/07/ref-uk-higher-ed-h2cm.html

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Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience Archaeology Theology and Religious Studies Philosophy [Mathematics & Logic] ^Communication  as Intra- Interpersonal (Skills) Neurodiversity hence an individual's sense-making

Clinical Medicine (Neuroscience) Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy Biological sciences  Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences Chemistry Physics Mathematical Sciences Computer Science and Informatics Engineering Architecture, Built Environment and Planning Geography and Environmental Studies Archaeology Area Studies Sport and Exercise Sciences,

Archaeology Social Work and Social Policy Sociology Anthropology and Development Studies area studies Education Modern Languages and Linguistics English Language and Literature History Classics Communication^, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies

Leisure and Tourism Archaeology Economics and Econometrics Business and Management Studies Law area studies Politics and International Studies

34 subject-based Units of Assessment (UOAs)

1st April 2030 From Person to Planet:

First Call for the First Transdisciplinary Health 

and Social Care Conference -

Everyone is Invited!

Open to all health and social care professions and disciplines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_healthcare_occupations

A celebration of the Hodges' field.😉

RIP Peter Higgs

European Public Health Week - Health is a political choice!

European Public Health Week

13-17 May 2024

Health is a political choice! 

"The European Public Health Week (EUPHW) 2024 will focus on the overarching topic - Health is a political choice! - highlighting the interplay between politics and health to create sustainable change for better health in the future. 

We will open the dialogue online and in person in Brussels on Monday, May 13, at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, discussing how to integrate health into the political agenda effectively. We will address health within the context of crises and explore the concepts of a well-being economy and politics. Additionally, we'll delve into the importance of community participation in health politics, implementing Health-in-All-Policies, and the broader application of health considerations across all policy areas. This day aims to set the stage for a week of fruitful discussions, laying the groundwork for actionable insights and strategies to ensure health is prioritised across all levels of political decision-making. Stay tuned for more information on this event!. ..."

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Mental health Self-esteem Personal and Cultural Identity Sense of security: Crisis <> Peace Public mental health & well-being Individual health literacy	Planetary health Global pandemics - Local inequities Environment - Cities, Rural, Remote Pollution control Evidence (across policy contexts) Nutrition local, glocal, global [Geo*]
Social policy Housing: Climate/Demographic mitigation Healthy societies, Living alone, Families Inclusive communities Social media - Information provenance	Elections - National/International *Politics Economics Policy, Regulation Health systems Yes, health is a political choice!

When you 'give no quarter'^

When the only thing
on the table is your history,
there is no space, even as corners multiply.
No longer is there space for a future,
no longer space for hope,
no space for a peace to be thought of -
let-alone shared.

When you give - absolutely! - no quarter
and act to prove the same,
Yes, you stand.
But how do you stand?
You stand to lose insight,
and so much more - 
you stand to lose
humanity

 

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CON-SCIENCE	SCIENCE geo-
Time & Land	politics PEACE?

^Easy for me - many of us - to say?

Listen also:

BBC Radio 4 Start the Week War crimes justice

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vktw

Where do you/we find peace? Discuss.

"I'd like to Teach the World to Sing ..."

 

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intelligence

ARTIFICIAL

Peoples Communities Societies Peace

"Joseph Votel, a recently retired head of the Pentagon's Central Command, said last year he was struck by how Israeli forces mounting strikes in Gaza in May had been integrating AI into their operations and by "the impact that is having on their targeting cycles". He says Israel is using AI to generate a large range of potential targets for surveillance to whittle down. This lets its forces "disrupt enemy attacks without the need for a lengthy development period or a longer campaign."  America's armed forces, helped by Palantir (an AI company which, like Anduril, takes its name from "The Lord of the Rings") and other contractors, is trying to build such technology into a system which can narrow down a huge range of potential targets and pass information about them freely to where it is most needed. Given the finite capacity of communication systems, not to mention the vulnerability, this requires that an increasing amount of processing be done "on the edge" - that is, on the platform carrying the sensor.  In 2016 a Pentagon project called Maven started trying to address the "lots of surveillance but not much to show for it" problem identified by General Ryan. The idea was to automate the identification of people and objects in the petabytes of video footage sent back by surveillance drones. It ended up producing software efficient enough to run on the drones themselves. In Scarlet Dragon, a recent-AI focused American exercise in which a wide range of systems were used to comb a large area for a small target, things were greatly speeded up by allowing satellites to provide estimates of where a target might be in a compact format readable by another sensor or a targeting system, rather than transmitting high-definition pictures of the sort humans look at.  In a world where bandwidth is often the biggest constraint such parsimony is a boon. It speeds up kill chains while reducing vulnerability to jamming. At the same time, it puts a greater burden on the automated parts of the system to provide reliable synopses of what they see, which is a worry for people keen to ensure that fully informed and responsible human beings stay on top of all decisions about where and when to blow things up." p.9.

 Signals from Noise. Heads in the clouds. The Economist Technology Quarterly, Defence technology, Hide and seek. January 29th 2022. 442: 9281. pp. 9-10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_7Swtv0XM