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Open Current Digest — news, summarized
The Guardian · Oct 14, 12:21
Guinea-Bissau's health minister, Quinhin Nantote, announced on Tuesday that the government never authorized a controversial Danish-led hepatitis B study in newborns, despite Danish ethics committee members being told it had local approval. The trial, championed by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and funded by the CDC with $1.6m plus private backing, would not test vaccine safety or effectiveness but instead track nonspecific health outcomes like mortality and neurodevelopment in infants. The minister convened an emergency meeting with involved organizations and demanded strict compliance with national and international ethical standards, while experts condemned the study as unethical and neo-colonialist, and it remains unclear whether the US will proceed.
The Guardian · Oct 14, 08:39
Canadian folk legend Joni Mitchell, 82, has become a US citizen after first moving to the country in the mid-1960s, sharing footage of her citizenship ceremony on Instagram with the caption "A journey that began 62 years ago." The new status allows her to vote in US elections, something she had previously lamented being unable to do, having remarked at a 2024 concert that she wished she could vote as a Canadian. Mitchell, who rose to fame on the US folk circuit after moving there in 1965 and now lives in Santa Barbara, recently returned to performing following a 2015 brain aneurysm, and a biopic about her life—reportedly starring Meryl Streep—is being prepared by director Cameron Crowe.
The Guardian · Oct 13, 18:25
Southern California coastal communities are cleaning up after a weekend of extreme weather, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel brought flooding and intense waves that battered beachside homes in Long Beach and Newport Beach while also affecting Baja California and Las Vegas. Massive waves destroyed a Long Beach boardwalk and damaged homes, leaving at least nine unsafe to enter, displacing residents, and costing the city over $1m from emergency reserves, while Newport Beach declared a local emergency and Las Vegas tied an all-time October daily rainfall record. With an exceptionally strong El Niño supercharging the Pacific, officials warn California faces a challenging winter ahead, with forecasts suggesting a potentially historic El Niño that could bring heavy rain, landslides, and destructive high tides.
The Guardian · Oct 13, 11:00
The UK government has asked Interpol to reject Argentina's requests for "red notices" seeking the arrest of individuals involved in the Sea Lion oil project off the Falkland Islands, arguing the requests are politically motivated amid tensions not seen since the 1982 war. Argentina's president Javier Milei has vowed to block the project—which could triple the Falklands' GDP—and has launched criminal proceedings against companies involved, including Israel's Navitas and its British partner Rockhopper Exploration, while a draft sovereignty bill would extend sanctions to affiliates, shareholders, suppliers, and even fishing industry workers. Although Interpol has indicated it would respect its constitution's prohibition on political interventions, concerns remain that Argentina could persuade member states to act on the arrest requests, leaving workers and companies worried about travel risks, particularly in South America.
The Guardian · Oct 13, 10:00
A scandal engulfing Brazil's supreme court has become a major issue in the presidential election, threatening to undermine President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva just days before the 25 October runoff. The crisis began when a police investigation revealed that Justice Alexandre de Moraes's wife's law firm held a contract worth about £20m with a banker accused of orchestrating Brazil's largest banking fraud, with links to at least four other justices subsequently exposed, meaning half the court has been drawn into the scandal. Lula, who lost the first round and blames the court's "promiscuity" in part for his poor result, now faces senator Flávio Bolsonaro—son of the jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, whom Moraes helped convict—as the frontrunner, with analysts saying the crisis fueled anti-system sentiment among undecided voters.
The Guardian · Oct 13, 07:00
A four-month Guardian investigation has found that Latin American criminal organisations are now active in at least 12 European countries, with some groups potentially operating in as many as 16. The investigation linked a 471% rise in cocaine seizures between 2014 and 2024 to the expanding presence of cartels such as Mexico's Sinaloa and CJNG, Brazil's PCC and Comando Vermelho, and Colombia's Clan del Golfo, which have forged alliances with local mafias beyond traditional gateway countries like Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Experts warn the phenomenon is spreading to new territories including Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Germany, and authorities expect the problem to grow as drug production in Latin America has roughly quadrupled over the past decade to a record 4,100 tonnes in 2024.
The Guardian · Oct 13, 04:29
Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel have battered Mexico's Pacific coast, killing at least five people and causing flooding that downed trees, blocked roads, and inundated homes. Simon claimed the life of a 71-year-old man in Guerrero and damaged infrastructure in coastal towns including Acapulco, while Rachel is blamed for the deaths of four members of one family, including two children, in Baja California, with five people still missing and dozens rescued by helicopter. Although Simon is weakening and moving away from the coast, officials warn of continued life-threatening flooding, mudslides, and waves up to five metres high, with the El Niño phenomenon expected to fuel more intense hurricanes this season.
The Guardian · Oct 13, 03:03
Argentina temporarily closed tourist access to the famed Iguazu Falls on Monday after heavy rainfall, fuelled by a powerful El Niño weather pattern, caused the Iguazu River to flow at more than six times its normal rate. National park officials took the precautionary measure when the river's flow exceeded 12,000 cubic metres per second, with park director José María Hervás citing continued rain and high water releases from upstream dams. The park reopened to tourists on Tuesday as the river's flow gradually declined, though meteorologists warn the 2026-2027 El Niño is expected to be the biggest ever recorded, with scientists believing human-caused global heating is making these events more intense.
The Guardian · Oct 12, 21:40
Bolivia's attorney general has opened an investigation into former president Evo Morales over his alleged involvement in the killing of three European men and the torture of two others during a 2009 police raid on a hotel in Santa Cruz. Acting attorney general José Armando Urioste announced the preliminary investigation, naming Morales and former vice-president Álvaro García Linera as suspects in murder, abuse, torture and unlawful detention, following a complaint by rightwing lawmakers and after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded in 2021 that the government had violated human rights in the case. Morales, who is already in hiding from two active arrest warrants related to protests and an alleged trafficking case, has not commented on the new inquiry.
The Guardian · Oct 12, 13:14
A Colombian-born businessman wanted by the US for allegedly bribing top Venezuelan officials has been taken into American custody after years on the run. Alvaro Pulido, 62, who was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and 2021, allegedly partnered with Alex Saab to funnel bribes to Maduro allies in exchange for over $2bn in state contracts for food, medicine, and housing, and had a $10m reward on his head. Pulido is scheduled to appear in a Miami court on Tuesday, while his partner Saab has already pleaded guilty in a related case and agreed to cooperate against Maduro and others.
The Guardian · Oct 12, 10:48
The Balkans experienced dramatic temperature swings last week, with clear skies under a high-pressure system creating unusually large gaps between daytime highs and overnight lows. In Kosanica, Montenegro, the difference between day and night temperatures reached 30C on 4 and 5 October, more than double the October average. Meanwhile, a low-pressure system moving toward the Aegean Sea is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to Greece this week, with 50-150mm of rainfall forecast and the highest totals around Skiathos, before reaching Crete, which was hit by severe flooding just a week earlier.
The Guardian · Oct 11, 13:45
The remnants of Hurricane Isaias moved north from the Florida Panhandle into the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic on Sunday, leaving nearly 396,000 customers without power in Florida and Alabama and causing at least four deaths, including two people killed by falling trees. The storm, which made landfall as a category 2 hurricane near Destin, Florida—the first hurricane to hit the continental US in two years—brought hurricane-force winds that tore roofs off buildings, downed trees and power lines, and prompted warnings of flash flooding, tornadoes, and dangerous surf across the south-eastern US. President Trump approved emergency declarations for Florida, Alabama, and Georgia to enable federal aid, while forecasters warned that flooding threats could stretch into the Appalachians and the Carolinas as the storm continues north.
The Guardian · Oct 11, 07:45
Jordan Yap, a 30-year-old experienced hiker from Melbourne, went missing in September while attempting a 10-day solo trek along Peru's remote Huayhuash mountain range, roughly 400km north-east of Lima. His family and friends announced on social media that he had been found dead, after concerns arose when he failed to make contact on his expected return date, missed a flight from Lima to Cusco, and had misplaced his satellite beacon before setting off on the 120km hike. The family thanked the search teams, police, and everyone who assisted in the effort, asking that Jordan be remembered as a vibrant man who brought immense joy to many people's lives.
The Guardian · Oct 11, 06:56
Panama has declared a state of emergency after two powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 6.6 in magnitude, struck the country on Friday, toppling buildings and triggering more than 100 aftershocks as strong as magnitude 5.8. While no deaths were reported, the quakes caused damage across all 10 provinces, injuring 27 people and destroying or damaging roughly 420 homes, 420 schools, seven hotels, 13 churches, and nine bridges, with the hardest-hit areas in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera, Cocle, and Los Santos. Some communities remain cut off by landslides as international aid arrives, including a US disaster response team and $5m in pledged humanitarian assistance, while officials credit strict building codes with preventing widespread fatalities.
The Guardian · Oct 09, 04:00
A chance Instagram photo led botanists to discover a new species of giant waterlily hidden deep in Colombia's rainforest. Waterlily expert Carlos Magdalena of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, spotted the plant in a photo taken by Jeremiah Harris in the Inírida River and, after years of investigation and a five-day expedition, confirmed it as a new species named Victoria colombiana, described in the journal Phytotaxa. With only an estimated 30 to 50 plants remaining in the wild, the species is already critically endangered, and the team is now working toward an official IUCN Red List designation and conservation efforts to protect it.
The Guardian · Oct 10, 00:13
A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday, hitting at a shallow depth of 12.6km with an epicenter about 200km from Panama City. The quake caused buildings and some roads to collapse, sent thousands of panicked residents into the streets, and triggered more than 40 aftershocks, though the country appeared to avoid widespread destruction or deaths, with the Panama Canal, a major copper mine, and the international airport resuming normal operations. The USGS estimated economic losses could reach between 1% and 10% of Panama's GDP, and the country is due to hold a national evacuation drill next Monday to test its emergency response.
The Guardian · Oct 10, 00:50
Three men have been found guilty in Mexico of the 2024 murders of Australian surfing brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, who were killed during a surfing trip on Baja California's Pacific coast in a suspected robbery. A judge ruled that the three Mexican defendants, including the alleged ringleader known as "El Kekas," acted with premeditation, prompting emotional statements from the victims' families, who travelled to Ensenada for the trial and expressed that no verdict can undo their loss. Sentencing is scheduled for 16 October, with prosecutors seeking 210 years for each defendant, though the maximum sentence in Baja California is 60 years, and the families plan to honour the victims through a foundation in the brothers' names.
The Guardian · Oct 10, 05:00
A mysterious illness known as Havana syndrome has afflicted dozens of CIA officers over the past decade, including a senior officer who suffered severe head pain, balance loss, and cognitive problems during trips to London and Warsaw in 2019. While many victims and some officials believe the symptoms result from attacks by Russian intelligence using an energy weapon, skeptics—including some scientists—attribute the condition to environmental factors, psychogenic causes, or even mass hysteria, with a 2022 government panel finding the symptoms genuine and possibly caused by external stimuli. However, a 2023 US intelligence community assessment concluded that available evidence points against the involvement of US adversaries, leaving the mystery unresolved and fueling accusations of a possible cover-up.
The Guardian · Oct 10, 12:00
A businessman named Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores has been elected mayor of Queropalca, a remote district in Peru's central Andean Huánuco region. The 45-year-old, from the leftwing Ahora Nación party, won 229 of 663 votes in the 4 October election, defeating far-right rival Gaspar Osorio, who received 204 votes. Flores, a freight transporter who previously belonged to Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force party, will take office on 1 January, joining a line of Peruvian politicians named after Hitler who have won elections in recent years.
The Guardian · Oct 08, 20:20
A survey of the world's largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has found that around 180,000 Aldabra giant tortoises are thriving on Seychelles' Aldabra Atoll, the highest figure ever recorded for the once-endangered species. The estimate, produced by the Seychelles Islands Foundation and the University of Exeter using five years of count data from 2018 to 2022, marks the first update since a figure of 100,000 in the late 1990s and represents a remarkable recovery from fewer than 1,000 tortoises in the 19th century. While researchers celebrate the atoll as one of the Indian Ocean's greatest conservation success stories, they warn that climate change, droughts, and invasive mammals like feral cats and black rats still threaten the population, making continued monitoring and planned eradication efforts essential.
The Guardian · Oct 09, 04:00
Egyptian journalists are organizing a protest in Cairo this weekend in response to the arrest of six colleagues from the independent fact-checking platform Matsadaash, who face terrorism-related charges for allegedly working for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The detained journalists told their lawyers they were tortured, blindfolded, beaten, given electric shocks, and forced to film false confessions, though the interior ministry denies the allegations and prosecutors say forensic examinations found no signs of violence. The arrests, along with the questioning of journalist Rasha Azab over a social media post criticizing the interior ministry, mark what press freedom advocates describe as a broader escalation against independent media in Egypt, prompting journalists to vow to defend their profession and colleagues.
The Guardian · Oct 09, 09:59
Isaias has become the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season, forming with 80mph winds during an unusually quiet season influenced by El Niño. The storm is expected to strengthen to a category 2 hurricane before making landfall on the northern Gulf coast on Friday evening, bringing 75-150mm of rainfall with risks of flash flooding, life-threatening storm surge, and damaging winds across the Florida panhandle, southern Alabama, and Mississippi. A hurricane warning has been issued, with residents advised to prepare for long power outages and obey evacuation orders.
The Guardian · Oct 09, 16:30
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Navi Pillay, the 85-year-old South African jurist and former UN human rights chief who chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza. The Norwegian Nobel committee praised her long career defending universal legal principles—from representing Nelson Mandela under apartheid to serving on international tribunals and the ICJ—saying she showed that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence. Israel's foreign ministry reacted furiously, denouncing the award as the "weaponization" of the prize to legitimize anti-Israel hatred, while hours after the announcement the Trump administration unveiled new sanctions against the ICC, where Pillay also once served.
The Guardian · Oct 09, 21:36
A controversial Danish-led trial in Guinea-Bissau that will withhold hepatitis B birth-dose vaccines from some of 14,000 enrolled newborns has been approved by an ethics committee at the University of Southern Denmark and by Guinea-Bissau officials, despite earlier suspension amid international uproar. The trial, praised by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr as part of the Trump administration's vaccine agenda and reportedly backed by $1.6m from the CDC plus private funding, will give half the babies the vaccine at birth while withholding it from the others for six weeks, though the updated protocol now excludes infants whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B. Critics, including four ethics committee members who resigned in protest, argue the study is deeply unethical because unvaccinated infants risk contracting hepatitis B—which can cause lifelong damage—through casual community exposures and a 5% false-negative rate in maternal testing, effectively exposing children to infection "by design."
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