More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to U.N. health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under 1 year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children. In January, U.S. President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the U.S. AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the U.S. was pulling billions of dollars that had previously been pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine — which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to U.N. estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

U.N. experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

Ukraine’s prime minister resigns

Ukraine’s prime minister announced his resignation Tuesday in the first formal step of what is expected to be a significant reshuffle of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wartime government, which could also see the country’s ambassador to Washington replaced.

“I am tendering my resignation from the post of the Prime Minister of Ukraine,” Denys Shmyhal wrote in a letter posted on his Telegram page.

Zelenskyy said Monday that he has offered Shmyhal’s job to 39-year-old Yuliia Svyrydenko, who is currently deputy prime minister and the country’s first female economy minister.

Svyrydenko played a key role in negotiating a U.S.–Ukraine mineral agreement. She has frequently represented Ukraine in high-level talks with Western partners, focusing on defense cooperation, economic recovery and reconstruction.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the reshuffle will play out in coming days, as the Ukrainian parliament must schedule a vote on Zelenskyy’s proposed changes amid the all-out war launched by Russia on Feb. 24, 2022.

Crew defends Grand Canyon fire response

The National Park Service is defending its handling of a lightning-sparked wildfire that destroyed the nearly century-old Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of historic cabins, saying containment lines had been built around the blaze and crews were prepared to conduct defensive firing operations.

But then came a sudden and extreme shift in the wind that far exceeded forecast conditions, the agency recounted Tuesday in an email sent to The Associated Press.

“The Dragon Bravo Fire began July 4 as a lightning-caused wildfire and was under a full suppression strategy from the outset,” the agency said, adding that the team first assigned to the fire “effectively managed the fire through its initial phase” and that Grand Canyon National Park requested additional resources as fire activity increased.

Arizona’s governor and members of the state’s congressional delegation called for an investigation as the Park Service immediately came under scrutiny after the lodge and other historic buildings were destroyed.

The flames were fanned by uncharacteristic nighttime gusts that topped 40 mph, said fire information officer Stefan La-Sky.

NYC area hit with deadly rains, floods

The torrential rains that inundated the New York City area left at least two people dead, officials said Tuesday, as road closures and transit disruptions lingered across the region. More than 2 inches of rain fell on Central Park in the span of a single hour Monday night, the second-wettest hour ever recorded in the city.

A state of emergency was in effect in New Jersey, where Gov. Phil Murphy said flooding in the suburb of Plainfield swept away a vehicle Monday night, killing two people inside. The storms swelled waterways up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and forecasters warned that flooding was still possible from Washington, D.C., to the Carolinas.

New York City’s public transit system was largely up and running after the storms sent water cascading into subway stations and bubbling up through sewer drains Monday night, inundating tracks and trains and leaving some commuters temporarily stranded.

Florida executes convicted murderer

A man convicted of fatally shooting two people outside a Florida bar in 1993 as part of an attempted revenge killing was executed Tuesday evening, the 26th person put to death in the U.S. this year.

Michael Bernard Bell, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, said Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis. Bell was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith.

Bell is the eighth person executed in Florida this year, with a ninth scheduled for later this month.

Huckabee decries Israeli settler violence

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on Tuesday called on the Israeli authorities to “aggressively investigate” the death of a 20-year-old Palestinian American citizen in a clash Friday with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling his killing a “murder” and a “criminal and terrorist act.”

Huckabee, who has been vocal about his support for settlement in the West Bank — which is widely viewed as illegal in the international community — used uncharacteristically strong language in his statement condemning the death of Sayfollah Musallet, a young Floridian who had been visiting his family in the area.

“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Huckabee said.

The ambassador’s demand comes amid a rise in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

— From news services