Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, traceable back to 4,000 BCE – evidence of the disease was even found in the mummy of pharaoh Tutankhamun. However the 100 million inhabitants of modern-day Egypt can rest easy after the nation was certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in late October. The third country in the region to prevent malaria transmission for three years in a row, this achievement is the culmination of a century of public health efforts to eradicate the disease.
Dozens of dock workers at Greece’s Piraeus port banded together in October to prevent a ship being loaded with 21 tonnes of ammunition bound for Israel. Heeding the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, the dockers’ union formed a human chain to block a truck carrying the cargo from North Macedonia. Following the action, the union said it refused to ‘allow the port of Piraeus to become a base for war’.
