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SYNOPSIS OF MEDIA HEADLINES

Selected in the period from September 08 to 20, 2025

Click here to read what has been published up to September 07, 2025

Download the August 2025 newsletter here in PDF format with a synopsis of the news published on our portal.





Research reveals how pollution can trigger harmful changes in the brain that lead to neurodegeneration.

El País.es, 09/04/2025

Synopsis: Air pollution has been found to trigger cardiovascular diseases, respiratory infections, and cancers, such as lung cancer. It is also responsible for 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide each year.

Now, new research from Johns Hopkins University, published in the journal Science, has focused on the link between air pollution and the risk of developing dementia, a group of neurodegenerative diseases traditionally associated with aging and characterized by the loss of memory and cognitive function. The study highlights the role of the alpha-synuclein protein, an essential mediator that connects environmental stressors with brain damage, specifically in Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the abnormal accumulation of this protein in the brain and which is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia, after Alzheimer's.

Xiaobo Mao, a researcher in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University and author of the study, explains that an association between pollution and the risk of developing dementia had already been demonstrated, but "the specific molecular mechanisms were not clear." Data from 56 million US patients hospitalized for neurodegenerative diseases between 2000 and 2014 were used, focusing on those related to Lewy bodies, and their exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) was calculated-a suspended air pollutant formed from the combustion of vehicles, in factories, or by burning materials. It was found that as exposure to this type of environmental toxin increased, so did the risk of hospitalization for these neurodegenerative diseases.

In experiments with mice, those exposed to these pollutants showed accumulations of alpha-synuclein and eventually suffered brain atrophy, neuronal death, and cognitive impairment-all characteristic features of dementia. In contrast, when genetically modified mice that were unable to produce alpha-synuclein were exposed to the same pollutants, no significant changes in the brain were observed: neither brain atrophy nor cognitive impairment. The hypothesis of these scientists is that environmental toxins, such as fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), could trigger an abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein, which has the capacity to spread damage throughout the brain.

OPEC+ accelerates oil production after years of defending oil prices

Bloomberg, 09/07/2025

Synopsis: In an 11-minute meeting, OPEC+ agreed to another round of production increases of 137,000 barrels per day starting in October, as the group expands its policy shift toward higher volumes after years of focusing on price stability. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies surprised oil markets in recent months by restarting 2.2 million barrels of production that had been halted a year earlier than expected, in an attempt to regain market share, even against the backdrop of widespread expectations of an impending supply glut. The group expects that further increases in sales volumes will offset any revenue losses from lower prices, said one delegate, representing a reversal of the strategy that OPEC+ has pursued since its inception nearly a decade ago. Goldman Sachs Group predicts that Brent crude could plummet to below $50 per barrel by 2026.

25% of the world's population still lacks access to clean drinking water.

El Espectador, 09/04/2025

Synopsis:

This is the main conclusion of a report published by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The report, which focused on progress made between 2000 and 2024, highlighted that the world population increased from 6.2 billion to 8.2 billion, and that one quarter gained access to safely managed drinking water, while one third gained access to safely managed sanitation. However, "progress has been uneven, and the total number of people still lacking access has declined more slowly." Overall, the number of people lacking access to safely managed sanitation has decreased in rural areas, but has increased in low-income countries, as has the number of people lacking basic hygiene facilities, rising from 427 million to 502 million. The report concludes that 3.4 billion people still lack access to safely managed sanitation facilities (354 million people defecate in the open), while 1.7 billion people still lack access to basic hygiene services at home. People living in the poorest countries are twice as likely to lack access to safe drinking water, with rural populations, children, and ethnic and indigenous minorities being the most affected.

2026 World Cup: Colombia could play matches in stadiums located in areas with climate alerts

EL ESPECTADOR, 09/10/2025

Synopsis: A report by the organizations Football for Future and Common Goal warns that 14 of the 16 stadiums for the upcoming World Cup in North America already exceed climate safety thresholds, with rising temperatures, floods, and droughts threatening to alter the venues where the world's most popular sport will be played. Miami, Houston, Monterrey, and Dallas are among the cities with the most climate-vulnerable stadiums, each facing between 100 and 160 days of extreme heat.

NASA captures the emergence of a new island in Alaska after decades of thawing.

National Geograpich, 09/10/2025

Synopsis: The retreat of glaciers in Alaska has exposed Prow Knob, and has also caused a significant expansion of nearby proglacial lakes, such as Lake Alsek, which grew from 45 square kilometers to over 75 square kilometers in just four decades. Similarly, Harlequin Lake and Grand Plateau Lake, also fed by glacial meltwater, have doubled in size since 1984. Images captured by the Landsat 5 and Landsat 9 satellites reveal the gradual transformation of this region from 1984 to the present day. This phenomenon is not isolated. In the coastal plains of southeastern Alaska, ice is retreating to water at an alarming rate. This accelerated melting not only reshapes the landscape, but also weakens the glaciers themselves, making them more vulnerable to calving and collapse.

Latin America in Ursula von der Leyen's speech

DW, 09/12/2025

Synopsis: "Europe has to fight for its place in a world where many major powers are ambivalent or openly hostile": this was a phrase from the State of the European Union address that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered before the European Parliament. "For this struggle for its independence, Europe needs new and old allies and partners," she stated, adding, "we will offer strong incentives for partners to purchase European products." She then mentioned parts of Latin America, specifically Mexico and Mercosur, a region with which Europe seeks to establish an agreement in which Latin American countries would export agricultural, livestock, and mining products, while Europeans would sell their industrial products, under the premise that Brussels will promote "Made in Europe" products, despite the opposition from agricultural sectors in the old continent.

The goal is to repeat the colonial-era trade of trinkets for gold.

She also spoke of creating "a coalition of like-minded countries to reform the global trade system, a coalition like the CPTPP," including Chile, Mexico, and Peru.

Tom Kucharz, an analyst with Ecologists in Action, stated: "With her mentions of Mercosur and Mexico, however, she makes clear her intention to deepen the various forms of extractivism that destroy nature and human life in Latin America."

Another point she emphasized is that not all migrants and countries are welcome. "We, the Europeans, decide who can come here and under what conditions."

Regarding these discriminatory statements, Magdalena Bordagorry, coordinator of the EU-LAT Network, which brings together development organizations in Latin America and Europe, stated: "On the eve of the EU-CELAC Summit, we hope that both sides can read the current political and historical context responsibly and promote a rights and equality agenda in this complex geopolitical moment that requires strong leadership in that regard."

Climate change is fueling wildfires in Spain and Portugal

DW, 09/V2025

Synopsis: An analysis comes from World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists that studies the role of global warming in extreme weather events.

It states that rising global temperatures have increased the likelihood of deadly wildfires by 40 times, such as those in Portugal, which burned 260,000 hectares, and in Spain, which burned 380,000 hectares, devastating vast areas this summer, claiming at least eight lives and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

The analysis states that climate change makes the conditions that fuel wildfires 40 times more frequent and 30 percent more intense. This year, a European record was broken, with more than one million hectares burned.

The study concludes that the Spanish heatwave was 200 times more likely and 3 degrees warmer due to climate change.

In a world without climate change, heatwaves of similar intensity would occur less than every 2,500 years, while, with current warming levels, they are likely to occur every 13 years, the scientists say.

Another aspect is that so far this year, wildfires in the EU have released 38 million tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.

Recent studies have linked wildfire smoke to 1.53 million deaths worldwide each year.



MEDIA HEADLINE SUMMARY

Selected until September 7, 2025



CELAC calls for maintaining Latin America as a "land of peace," free from any intervention.

Aporrea, 09/01/2025

Synopsis: The foreign ministers representing 23 of the 33 countries that make up the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) called for maintaining the region "as a land of peace" after an emergency virtual meeting to analyze the United States naval deployment in the Caribbean, near Venezuela.

Last week, the White House defended the military deployment in the Caribbean, which includes destroyers, a guided-missile cruiser, and a fast-attack nuclear submarine, as part of its anti-drug strategy and asserted that it has the support of several Latin American countries.

During the meeting, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil stated that 4,200 "trained" US troops are "ready and prepared to invade" Venezuelan territory and demanded that the United States immediately withdraw these troops and the eight vessels that, according to Caracas, are deployed near its coast. He also denounced "the presence of a nuclear submarine in the Caribbean," which, he considered, "not only violates the zone of peace" declared in 2014, "but also violates" the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco, which declared Latin America and the Caribbean a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Gil stated that the United States' excuse for "this unusual and rude deployment" is a "totally false story" about "an alleged cartel they have called the Cartel of the Suns," an alleged drug trafficking organization designated as terrorist by Washington, which links it to the government of Nicolás Maduro.

NR. It is sad to see how, with this lukewarm, convenient statement, the CELAC meeting actually served to grant the United States carte blanche to invade Venezuela, under the guise of a supposed Cartel of the Suns. And this is so because it neither condemned nor clearly demanded that this US military contingent withdraw from the Caribbean, despite the extreme gravity of such an action.

This reaffirms what we have been maintaining: that this organization is useless for defending the interests of the peoples of our region.

A group of Israeli settlers beat and kill a 20-year-old American in the West Bank.

Aporrea, 09/03/2025

Synopsis: Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old American from Florida, was beaten to death in July by Israeli settlers while visiting relatives in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, as confirmed by NBC News.

The group of settlers blocked an ambulance from reaching Musallet for about three hours, according to his relatives. When the settlers left, Musallet's brother was able to retrieve his body and load it into the ambulance, according to the statement. But "Saif died before reaching the hospital."

A second man, Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, died in the same incident, according to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live in developments built on Palestinian territories that the international community considers illegal. Since the war in Gaza, settler violence in the West Bank has increased, with raids on villages, burning homes and farmland, and physical attacks on residents, often aided or abetted by Israeli security forces.

In March, a United Nations report warned that settler violence had "increased amid a climate of continued impunity."

Peru: Residents of Pampa Clemesí lack electricity despite living near a solar plant.

Centro de Información sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos, 08/11/2025

Synopsis: In the town of Pampa Clemesí-just steps from Peru's largest solar complex-residents spend their days in the dark, waiting for a government promise that never comes.

Marco Fragale, the company's executive director in Peru, said they built a dedicated line for the town. "We've erected 53 towers, laid almost 4,000 meters of underground cable, and invested $800,000 to bring electricity to your doorstep."

But the final stretch-the two kilometers needed to connect the line to homes-is the responsibility of Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines. That work was supposed to begin in March 2025. That date arrived, and no crews arrived, nor were any cables laid.

There is a shortage of more than three million teachers in Latin America.

Prensa UNESCO, 09/05/2025

Synopsis: The UNESCO World Summit on Teachers, held in Santiago, Chile, on August 28 and 29, 2025, committed to reinventing and supporting the teaching profession in the outcome document entitled the SANTIAGO CONSENSUS.

On the occasion of this meeting, UNESCO published a 77-page document entitled: Regional Teacher Strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025-2030, which served as a framework for the discussions.

From the abundant information on the topic contained in the document, we extracted some figures and references that give an insight into the serious state of education in the countries of the region:

1 - In some countries in the region, a significant percentage of teachers work under temporary contracts, particularly in Peru (48.7%), Brazil (46.3%), Costa Rica (43.5%), Uruguay (41.9%), and Honduras (40.6%).

2 - Although temporary contracts provide greater flexibility to education systems, they negatively affect those in this situation. In addition to instability, temporary contracts imply fewer labor rights, such as not receiving compensation equivalent to the entry-level salary for public teaching, not being able to access other positions or advance in their careers, and affecting the possibility of accessing training and continuous professional development (

3 - One-third of households in the region lack a fixed internet connection, with significant gaps in service quality and access by area of residence (74% of households in rural areas have fixed internet access compared to 42% of households in rural areas).

4 - The analysis by country shows gaps in enrollment and attendance that reflect the disadvantage of students belonging to indigenous groups, from rural areas, and from lower incomes. These gaps translate into unequal educational achievements that have barely changed in recent decades. While only two out of three adolescents complete upper secondary education in the region (64%) (UNESCO, 2024a), in the wealthiest quintile, 89% complete this level, compared to less than half of the poorest quintile (48%)

5 - Latin America is the most unequal region in the world when considering the income gap between the richest and the poorest (United Nations Development Programme, 2021). The richest 10% concentrate more than half of national income (55%) and household wealth (77%). The region faces a new challenge: the migration of more than 15 million people, a consequence of economic, crime, and political factors, in addition to mobility caused by natural disasters.

6 - In Latin America and the Caribbean, there persists a shortage of qualified teachers-at least one million in primary education and 2.2 million in secondary education. This shortage is unevenly distributed, affecting more intensely geographically remote and socially disadvantaged areas and critical subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Foreign Languages, and Intercultural Education, underscoring the urgency to focus efforts in these areas. According to this study, it is estimated that by 2030, 21 countries in the region will not be able to meet the demand for primary school teachers, and 29 countries will not be able to meet the demand for secondary school teachers.

The plan to clean the air by capturing CO2 just got a reality check: Earth doesn't have as much space as we thought.

Xataca, 09/04/2025

Synopsis: A devastating new study by an international team of scientists has provided a reality check for all those who argued that underground carbon capture and storage would allow us to "live" in peace without having to reduce our emissions overnight. The storage facility is much smaller and has very strict conditions for its use.

Initial estimates suggested a storage capacity of between 10,000 and 40,000 gigatons of CO2. The new figure, which the authors have defined as a "prudent planetary limit," is 1,460 gigatons of CO2. It's like discovering that the hard drive you thought was 40 terabytes actually only has 1.5 terabytes of usable storage.

Factors such as seismic risk, the inability to use polar areas and proximity to population centers, and limited depth in marine areas significantly reduce the space available for such storage.

The main conclusion of the study is that geological storage is not unlimited. It is a finite resource, like oil or lithium, and must be managed with an intergenerational perspective.

Scientists dismantle the US government's climate report

IPS, 09/05/2025

Synopsis: More than 85 scientists and climate experts reviewed the U.S. Department of Energy's new climate report and concluded that it is "not scientifically credible" and predetermined to justify weakening environmental regulations and favoring the fossil fuel industry.

Andrew Dressler, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Texas, stated that "this report makes a mockery of science. It is based on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge and omissions of important data."

Perhaps the most sensitive aspect of the Energy Department's study is that it is being used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a basis to overturn decisions dating back to 2009 that regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, which cause global warming. This is the most important legal framework this country has for limiting climate pollution.

With its new policy, the Trump administration is pushing for the expansion of fossil fuel production while cutting incentives for clean energy.

Scientists say the government report "seeks to downplay the risks of record heat, intense rainfall, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels, and widespread health damage, all well documented by decades of peer-reviewed scientific research."

For the critical panel of experts, "the scientific consensus remains clear. The evidence confirms that the climate crisis is stronger than ever."

Einstein Hospital in São Paulo: Pen capable of detecting malignant tumors in seconds during surgery

Folha de S. Paulo, 08/01/2025

Synopsis: A mass spectrometer, a piece of equipment normally found in research laboratories and used in surgical settings, which can help identify tumors in a matter of seconds, is being used in the operating rooms of the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo.

To make this feasible, a special cart was built for the spectrometer, which must remain on a stable surface and be connected to a vacuum pump at all times.

How South America is becoming the fastest-growing oil region in the world

BBC News Mundo, 08/27/2025

Synopsis: The production boom will be driven primarily by large projects operating in the area known as the Brazilian offshore pre-salt, in Guyana's Stabroek Block, and in Argentina's Neuquén Basin, according to the International Energy Agency.

According to estimates by the international consulting firm Rystad, South America will go from producing around 7.4 million barrels of oil per day (heavy and light) to almost 9.6 million.

Nearly half of the projected oil growth for all of South America will come from the offshore subsoil, says Flávio Menten, an analyst at Rystad. "South America is the largest deepwater producing region in the world," he explains.

Far from the depths lies Vaca Muerta in Argentina, a gigantic geological formation that hosts shale oil and gas. By the end of 2026, a pipeline of more than 400 kilometers will begin operating, carrying Vaca Muerta crude oil to a terminal on the Atlantic.

Undoubtedly, the Middle East will continue to produce many more barrels of oil per day (around 35 million) than South America (close to 10 million) in 2030, but what will make the difference is the percentage increase in production levels.

This oil boom in South America has met with harsh criticism from scientists and environmental organizations, who are calling for more investment in clean energy to halt the advance of climate change. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said that oil revenues are necessary to finance green energy, something his critics consider a contradiction.

Despite environmental pressures for the development of energies such as wind and solar power, and green hydrogen, the oil industry continues to look to South America.