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Black soot after reported black rain following a strike on fuel tanks, in Tehran, Iran, on March 10, 2026.

Iran's Black Rain and the Health Shadow of Oil Wars

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The environment is a casualty of the Iran war, as "black rain" creates toxic damage that typically endures

A nurse checks a premature baby at a maternity hospital, in Idlib, Syria, on February 27, 2020.

Syrian Doctors Fight Infant Blindness After War

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Syrian American ophthalmologists are banding together to improve pediatric tests for retinopathy of prematurity

How the Iran War Is Straining Humanitarian Aid, in Three Charts

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Aid organizations face meandering shipping routes and soaring fuel costs beyond the price of gasoline

Map titled “Shipping Aid in Wartime” showing how food shipments to Port Sudan are rerouted because of the Iran War. A solid dark line marks the typical route from Nhava Sheva, India, across the Arabian Sea, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and Red Sea, to Port Sudan, with labels for Salalah, Jeddah, Suez Canal, and Port Sudan. A dashed orange line shows the alternate route looping south across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip, and back up West Africa and the Mediterranean before reaching the Red Sea. A note on the map says ships avoiding the Bab-el-Mandeb take this longer route. Caption states that rerouting can add 6,000 miles and more than three weeks of transit time.

Iran War Threatens Water Desalination in the Middle East

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A rep from the International Water Management Institute details the possible ripple effects of attacks against desalination plants

Pie chart titled “Middle East Dominates Water Desalination.” It shows the share of global operational cumulative desalination capacity by region. The Middle East has the largest share at 41.8%, followed by East Asia and the Pacific at 22.2%, North America at 10.3%, Europe and Central Asia at 9.56%, Latin America and the Caribbean at 6.1%, Africa at 5.89%, and South Asia at 4.15%. Subtitle notes that the region processes 29 million cubic meters of water per day, equal to 42% of the world’s capacity. A footnote says Africa excludes Egypt, and Europe and Central Asia excludes Turkey and Cyprus.

Darkness and Courage: A Humanitarian in Lebanon Details the War Escalation

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MedGlobal's Lebanon country director describes how communities are stepping in amid the fresh conflict

MedGlobal teams provide urgent support to internally displaced persons, in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 16, 2026.

"We've Been in Famine for Months": Life in Post-Ceasefire Gaza

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Amid the Iran war and new closures of Gaza's border crossings, Palestinians have resumed a desperate search for food and medical aid

Project HOPE Gaza Human Resources Coordinator Nouralhuda Abu Gefra sits in the rubble of her partially damaged house in Gaza, on October 14, 2025.

A Humanitarian Off-Ramp for the Iran War

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Health diplomacy has long served as means for adversaries to work together when politics make broader engagement impossible

Members of the Red Crescent talk to each other as smoke rises into the air after a reported strike on Shahran fuel tanks, in Tehran, Iran, on March 8, 2026.

Two Years of the Gaza War in Three Health Charts

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Two years after Hamas attacked Israel, the health consequences of the brutal war are sharp

Bar chart titled “Child Mortality Explodes in Palestinian Territories” shows child mortality rates (deaths per 1,000 children ages 5–14) from 2013 to 2023 for Israel, the regional average, and the Palestinian Territories. Rates for Israel (dark blue) and the regional average (gray) remain low and stable across the decade. The Palestinian Territories (orange) show spikes in 2014 and 2023. A note marks 2014 as the Gaza War leading to the greatest number of civilian deaths since 1967. A second note marks 2023 as the October 7 attack that triggered a large-scale invasion of Gaza. The Palestinian Territories’ mortality rate rises sharply to nearly 30 per 1,000 in 2023—almost nine times higher than in 2022. Source: UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation; chart by CFR/Allison Krugman for Think Global Health.

How Anti-Immigration Measures Could Deplete the U.S. Health Workforce

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The role of immigrants in health care has become more critical because of a worsening worker shortage

Deferred Enforced Departure status holder Marie Zar, who works as a nurse’s assistant, gets ready for work, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on March 29, 2019.

Health Care Under Fire: How the Middle East Reflects a Global Crisis

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Humanitarian law obliges all conflict parties to protect health facilities and workers, yet deadly attacks persist

Health Care Under Fire: How the Middle East Reflects a Global Crisis

Authoritarianism and the Genetics of Trauma

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A Syrian American global health scholar reflects on generations of trauma after decades of Assad dictatorship

Authoritarianism and the Genetics of Trauma

A WHO Director on the Future of Polio Eradication

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Hamid Jafari, the World Health Organization's polio chief for the Eastern Mediterranean, discusses funding post-USAID

A WHO Director on the Future of Polio Eradication