Smoke from Canadian fires covers northeastern US

Volunteers restore the fossil of a prehistoric colossus in Warsaw

At the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw, a team of more than 2,000 volunteers is working on restoring the skeleton of a Mastodonsaurus, a giant amphibian that lived 240 million years ago. With chisels, brushes and protective glasses, they remove the rock that covers the bones millimeter by millimeter.

Visitors watch through a window as the work progresses. The skeleton measures almost 6 meters and weighs 1,300 kilograms. It will be the largest of its kind displayed in a museum in the world, according to Tomasz Sulej, a paleontologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

An experience open to citizens

The volunteers are not scientists, but managers, cleaning staff and tattoo artists, among others. They receive training and protective equipment before supervised two-hour sessions. “I imagine that those bones were underground for 240 million years and I am the first human being to touch them,” commented Tatyana Kozyk, team coordinator.

The specimen was discovered in southern Poland in 2023 by Sulej and Wojciech Pawlak. Unlike other finds in Germany and Russia, which measure 2 to 3 meters, this specimen offers new information about the species. “The structure of the body is different from what we knew,” Sulej said.

A message of natural resilience

Dorota Serafín, a 51-year-old manager, described the experience as “relaxing and philosophical, even mystical.” The Mastodonsaurus lived after the largest mass extinction on the planet, just before the rise of the dinosaurs. For Sulej, his story sends a message of hope in the face of climate change: “Nature and life always find ways to survive.”

The restoration will be completed in October or November. The skeleton will then be displayed to the public at the same center.

Rescue of historical memory

Guatemala faces a race against the clock to protect some 60,000 files of victims of the internal armed conflict (1960-1996). The documents, compiled over a decade by the National Reparations Program (PNR), seek to compensate those who suffered abuse. The government of President Bernardo Arévalo has until January 2028 to achieve this.

The PNR was born in 2003 after the 1996 Peace Accords, but during the governments of Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) and Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024) the program became inactive and its liquidation was ordered. The testimonies were abandoned.

Workers from a UNESCO-funded project try to recover the archive. Erick Briones, archive assistant, described the conditions: “Damp boxes, piled up, incomplete, broken files.” The goal is for this collection to be declared the world’s documentary heritage.

Among the cases is that of Manuel Botom Uz, who at the age of 4 was disappeared in 1982. According to testimony, he and his four brothers were attacked in Quiché by members of the army and civil patrolmen. His brothers were handed over to relatives, but Manuel disappeared. Twenty years later, his body was located and identified in a clandestine grave.

Elvin Díaz, presidential commissioner of Human Rights, said: “There was an intention by the Morales and Giammattei governments to erase collective memory.” He also explained that the purpose of the PNR was humanitarian aid, but the files contain “relevant information for a criminal investigation.”

The files detail homicides, forced disappearances, sexual assaults and forced recruitment. According to reports, the conflict left some 200,000 dead and 45,000 missing.

Future project plans to digitize the archive for universal access. A UN report on forced disappearances, issued last month, indicated that during the Morales and Giammattei governments “a systematic policy of dismantling institutions for peace and justice” operated.

The files will go to the Reparation and Dignification Plan for victims announced by Arévalo. This seeks to centralize the dispersed information to continue compensation and include cases of disappearance in the Humanitarian Search Mechanism.

Foreign ministers’ meeting in Manila addresses security challenges

The foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began a three-day meeting in Manila on Tuesday. The agenda focuses on the main security challenges in the region, marked by the escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran and the growing differences in the South China Sea.

In a joint statement after their first session, the foreign ministers expressed their concern about the escalation in the Middle East. They called for an immediate halt to hostilities and the safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route for global oil and gas trade. They also reiterated the commitment to resolve differences between States through dialogue and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The meeting in Manila becomes a key space for member countries to discuss strategies that promote regional stability. The ministers emphasized the importance of maintaining open communication channels to avoid misunderstandings and major conflicts.

ASEAN has historically been a forum for cooperation and dialogue in Southeast Asia. This meeting seeks not only to address current conflicts, but also to strengthen regional integration and collaboration on security and economic development issues.