The global malaria death rate has almost halved since 2000, according to the latest World Health Organization figures. Our World in Data places that recent progress in a longer history by combining WHO and IHME estimates with 20th-century work by the malaria researcher Richard Carter. Since 1900 the death rate has fallen by 96%. If it were still at its 1900 level, around 16 million people would die of malaria each year rather than roughly 610,000. Malaria is spread by mosquitoes, and the decline reflects bed nets, insecticides, drugs and control campaigns. It remains one of the great public health successes, though the disease still kills hundreds of thousands each year. The long view shows how much is possible and how much work remains.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.