Health & Science

• Tuesday, May 5th 2026 - 21:58 UTC

  Spain agrees to receive hantavirus-hit cruise ship in Canary Islands following WHO request

  

  The Spanish government on Tuesday night authorised the docking in the Canary Islands of the polar cruise ship MV Hondius, on which a hantavirus outbreak has already left three people dead, after Cape Verdean authorities denied it entry to their ports and following a formal request from the World Health Organization (WHO) that invoked Spain's “moral and legal obligation” to assist the 147 passengers and crew on board, including 14 Spanish citizens.

• Tuesday, May 5th 2026 - 03:23 UTC

  Cape Verde denies docking to hantavirus-hit cruise ship as WHO confirms seven cases

  

  Cape Verde's health authorities on Monday denied permission to dock at the port of Praia to polar cruise ship MV Hondius, on board which the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed seven cases of hantavirus — two of them laboratory-verified — and three deaths linked to the voyage. The decision leaves the nearly 150 people remaining on board in prolonged isolation in Atlantic waters, while medical evacuations are coordinated for patients in the most serious condition and authorities evaluate the possibility of continuing the journey toward the Canary Islands, on Spanish territory.

• Monday, May 4th 2026 - 01:45 UTC

  Three dead in hantavirus outbreak aboard polar cruise ship from Ushuaia bound for Cape Verde

  

  The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed three deaths on Sunday aboard the polar cruise ship MV Hondius from a hantavirus outbreak, a disease typically transmitted through rodents. The vessel, operated by the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, had set sail from the port of Ushuaia, in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province, on March 20, bound for the port of Praia in Cape Verde, where its journey was scheduled to conclude on May 4.

• Monday, April 20th 2026 - 21:44 UTC

  Falklands: Uruguay Sciences Faculty researching sandy beaches of the Islands

  

  A group of Uruguayan scientists have spent the last two weeks gathering samples from beaches around the Falkland Islands. Their research is aimed at discovering how humans and wildlife affect ecosystems within the sandy coastline.

• Wednesday, April 15th 2026 - 10:00 UTC

  Bukele bets on Google to build “world's best health system” as medical sector decries layoffs

  

  El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced on Tuesday in a national broadcast the launch of the second phase of Dr. SV, a public health application developed with Google Cloud that incorporates artificial intelligence based on the Gemini model to detect, diagnose and monitor patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and kidney conditions.

• Saturday, April 11th 2026 - 04:44 UTC

  Orion capsule splashes down in Pacific, completing Artemis II, first crewed Moon flight in over 50 years

  

  NASA's Orion capsule splashed down at 8:07 p.m. ET on Friday (00:07 GMT Saturday) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, completing the Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

• Friday, April 10th 2026 - 17:54 UTC

  Argentina permanently revokes licenses of laboratories implicated in contaminated fentanyl case

  

  Argentina's National Administration of Drugs, Foods and Medical Devices (Anmat) permanently revoked the operating licenses of laboratories HLB Pharma and Laboratorios Ramallo, linked to the production of contaminated fentanyl that caused the deaths of at least 111 people between late 2024 and the first half of 2025, in one of the worst health tragedies in the country's recent history.

• Thursday, April 9th 2026 - 21:53 UTC

  Scottish cameraman Doug Allan dies in Nepal during trek to Annapurna base camp

  

  Wildlife cameraman and photographer Doug Allan died on Wednesday at a hospital in Pokhara, Nepal, after suffering a brain hemorrhage during a trek to Annapurna base camp, the world's tenth highest mountain. He was 74.

• Tuesday, April 7th 2026 - 21:40 UTC

  “The Moon became a sponge of light”: Artemis II astronauts share their observations

  

  The four Artemis II astronauts shared their lunar flyby observations with NASA's science team on Tuesday, reporting meteoroid impact flashes, levitated lunar dust, unexpected surface colors and an unprecedented total solar eclipse witnessed from the Moon's orbit.

• Saturday, April 4th 2026 - 11:39 UTC

  “We are one people”: Artemis 2 sends message of unity on the road to the Moon

  

  The Artemis 2 crew sent the first photographs of Earth taken from the Orion capsule on its historic journey to the Moon, accompanied by a message of unity at a moment of global turmoil. They are the first images captured by astronauts on a lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.