Tuesday and Wednesday, record high temperatures were set in Anchorage and Sitka as warm air from the low-pressure system in the gulf pumped warm air and moisture to southern parts of the state.
Onchocerciasis is one of 21 afflictions, most of them treatable and preventable, that the World Health Organization classifies as neglected tropical diseases. Together, they affect more than a billion people, but because many are among the poorest people in the least developed places, these diseases have historically received little funding, research or attention.
While they are rarely fatal, these diseases exact a huge toll in human suffering, including pain, disfigurement and disabilities such as blindness. They are sometimes called “biblical” because they have plagued humans for so long that they are mentioned in ancient texts
Afghanistan were as sudden as they were brutal. Even after the U.S. withdrawal and the end of the war in 2021, the United States continued pouring money into Afghanistan. From the 2021 Taliban takeover until last year, Washington had provided nearly $1 billion annually — over a third of all aid flowing into one of the world’s poorest countries. That funding has all but evaporated with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The agency’s programs once helped clear landscapes scarred by war and mines, diversify crops and keep millions from hunger. Four million children are now at risk of dying from malnutrition, according to the World Food Program, the most in a quarter-century.
“The U.S. withdrawal exacerbated an already bad situation,” said Sherine Ibrahim, a former head of the Afghanistan office of the International Rescue Committee, which received three-quarters of its funding from the U.S. government. “No other donor has stepped in and no one will in those proportions.”
Nearly 450 health centers closed because of the cuts, including a tiny white building in the drought-stricken village of Nalej, where Malika Ghullami safely gave birth to two children in past years and was pregnant again with twins last year. [emphasis added]
