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Cuba, like North Korea, is one of a few nations with a centrally planned economy, rationing out to their people items of basic sustenance. After the Cuban Revolution that ended in 1959, the ration book became a cornerstone of Fidel Castro’s government. It gave Cubans access to government-subsidized bread, milk, meat, fish, and cleaning supplies. In recent years, however, items have been removed from the ration book and prices have risen—creating a real crisis in a nation where the average citizen makes only $15 per month.

Today, people are not the only creatures traveling northward and crossing borders—dangerous mosquitos are also coming! Mosquitos carrying diseases formerly seen only in tropical regions are now moving into Europe and the United States (The Telegraph, September 24, 2024). The mild form of dengue fever causes high fever, headache, body aches, nausea, and rash.

While forest fires rage on multiple continents, eastern Europe is being devastated by flooding. As one sixteen-year-old said after observing the devastation in the Polish town of Ladek Zdroj, “It’s a city like in an apocalypse.... It’s a ghost town” (Reuters, September 16, 2024).