As global temperatures continue to increase and human activities continue to expand, many countries and regions are witnessing the consequences of global climate change. Mongolia, a nomadic and picturesque landlocked country, has battled with ongoing desertification, recurring droughts, and increasingly frequent sandstorms in recent decades. Here we review the abrupt changes in the climate regime of Mongolia over the recent few decades, by focusing on atmospheric events, land degradation and desertification issues, and the resulted sandstorms.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has put an additional strain on Afghanistan’s weak healthcare system. Prior to the pandemic, the government and its allies had already problems in providing high quality health services for the people in Afghanistan because of inadequate facilities, insecurities, and ongoing conflicts. This year, COVID- 19 exacerbated the situation and overwhelmed the healthcare system even further. As predicted, an influx of migrants suspected of having COVID-19 contributed to community transmission and led to an increase of cases across the country.

Sri Lanka has recently emerged from nearly three decades of protracted conflict, which came to an end five years ago in 2009. A number of researchers have explored the devastating effect the conflict has had on public health, and its impact on Sri Lanka’s health system - hailed as a success story in the South Asian region. Remarkably, no attempt has been made to synthesize the findings of such studies in order to build an evidence-informed research platform. This review aims to map the ‘research landscape’ on the impact of conflict on health in Sri Lanka.