Has broken out or broke out

[Susan21]

1. With some particularly bad timing, the scandal has broken out just days before a national holiday celebrating Buddha’s birth.

Or

2. With some particularly bad timing, the scandal broke out just days before a national holiday celebrating Buddha’s birth.

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forums, Susan.

The use of the present perfect tense in #1 tells me that the scandal broke out very recently and #2 that it came to light in the more distant past.

Rover