Suicide rates in the United States have increased by 25-30 percent since 1999. This is particularly true for youth ages 12-24, with increases of approximately 30 percent over the same period. In Alachua County, Florida, where I teach and practice at the University of Florida, the base rate for suicides among youth ages 12-17 had been about five per 100,000 for many years, below the base national rate of 13 per 100,000. However, in the year 2017 that rate of completed suicides increased to 27 per 100,000, and for 2018 we are at a pace that will likely equal 2017.

For most people, light physical activity makes up the bulk of their daily physical activity. Yet government guidelines focus almost exclusively on moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity. The difficulty of measuring a person’s lightintensity physical activity largely explains this disconnect. It is not possible to measure light physical activity with a questionnaire. The amount of light-intensity physical activity a person thinks they have done bears almost no resemblance to what they have actually done. This means it has been difficult to study the effects of light-intensity physical activity on long-term health.

Why talk about productivity? We have a clear business challenge in the UK. Productivity is a major issue for Government and Philip Hammond devoted his first Budget speech as Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) in 2017 to addressing it.1

With multinational businesses looking to take advantage of opportunities in new and developing markets, how is their business expansion affecting international workforces and the benefit packages they receive? Multinationals, especially those headquartered in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America, are continuing to expand as they seek to achieve competitive advantage, diversify and gain access to new talent. As a result, many multinational companies operate in more than 100 countries and often generate over 80% of their revenues from non-domestic markets.