International
Milei proposes may pact for opposition unity, promising firm leadership
Argentine President Javier Milei has called on the opposition to sign the ‘May Pact’, a new foundational document with 10 State policies, while offering his “conviction” in response to criticisms over potential governance issues during his administration.
In his inaugural address at the ordinary sessions of the National Congress, the president urged the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires to sign this document on May 25, the Day of the Motherland, in the city of Córdoba (central Argentina).
However, he explained that he will summon local governors to the Casa Rosada (Government headquarters) “to sign a pre-agreement and enact both the Basic Law (and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines) and a package of fiscal relief for the provinces” to then work “on a common project” and “begin a new era of glory” for Argentina.
Milei aims for consensus
Behind this dual proposal lies the recent standoff between the president and provincial governors over fiscal adjustment and cuts in funds that the State must send to the territories, which led to a call for “dialogue” and “respect” from local governors amid Milei’s frequent outbursts and disparaging messages towards them.
“If what they seek is conflict, they will have conflict because, unlike some of you who think about your next election, we only think about freedom,” said the libertarian president.
Milei asked that, despite differences, leaders can “prioritize the nation’s interests over electoral ones”.
Therefore, he called on governors and leaders of political parties to sign the ‘May Pact’ to “leave behind the antinomies of the past”, with 10 State policies for Argentina to abandon “the path of failure”.
Inviolability of private property; non-negotiable fiscal balance; reduction of public spending to around 25% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); tax reform to reduce tax pressure; review of the co-participation scheme (State-provinces) “and end the current extortionate model” were the first points listed.
Milei invites all parties
Furthermore, the commitment of the provinces to advance in the exploitation of natural resources; a “modern” labor reform; a sustainable pension reform; structural political reform to modify the current system; and opening up international trade for Argentina “to be a protagonist in the global market”.
Milei said that all parties are invited because, as he claimed, neither he nor his party want to “play the mediocre game of politics”, but rather they emerged on the scene to “seriously change the country”.
In response to the potential governance issues often discussed concerning the lack of “parliamentary strength” of La Libertad Avanza (LLA, far-right), Milei countered with his “conviction”.
Thus, he claimed that his party “may not have the parliamentary strength or governors or mayors, but it knows what it has to do, how to do it, and has the conviction to do it”.
LLA is the third parliamentary minority, with 38 deputies and 7 senators, and does not have any governors, which obliges it to make agreements to advance legislative projects.
Télam News Agency to be shut down
Milei announced that his government will close the Télam public news agency.
In reviewing some achievements of his Executive in the 82 days since taking office on December 10, the libertarian highlighted the closure of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI), which he described as “thought police”, which, he explained, “spent 2.8 billion pesos to maintain paid militants”.
“In this same vein, we are going to close the Télam agency,” the president announced without offering further details of the operation.
He also referred to the “immorality” of “spending money to buy the will of journalists” through official advertising in the media, which his Executive has suspended for a year, “in a country where people are starving”.
Founded in April 1945, the Argentine public news agency Télam had been in the libertarians’ sights since the electoral campaign, during which several leaders referred to its possible privatization or closure, as well as with the rest of the public media.
However, today the president only mentioned Télam.
Other media may be affected
On February 5, the Argentine government published in the Official Gazette the decree of intervention for one year of all state media as part of its policy of “reorganizing public companies”.
The Educ.ar portal, Radio Nacional, Televisión Pública, the Télam news agency, and the segmented Public Content channels (Encuentro, Paka Paka, Depor TV, ACUA Mayor, and ACUA Federal) were included in the list of media intervened for a year – with the option of extension – by Decree 117/2024.
Also included were the administration of the Audiovisual Production Center and the assets of the Argentine Universal Audiovisual Content Bank (Bacua).
According to the decree, the mission of the intervention was to “develop a plan for reformulation, readjustment, and action for the societies”, which will include reviewing fund management, modifying the contracting regime, and appointing or suspending officials.
The document named Diego Chaher and Diego Marías as intervenor and deputy intervenor, respectively, of Radio and Television Argentina and, ‘ad honorem’, of Télam, Public Contents, and Educ.ar. Both under the authority of the Chief of Cabinet of Ministers, Nicolás Posse.
“Populism took away 90% of our income”
In addition, the Argentine president denounced that populism took away a good part of the population’s income, when reviewing the “inheritance” received from the Administration of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).
“Populism took away 90% of our income to the point that a third of formal workers are poor,” said the president at the beginning of his speech before the Legislative Assembly, which serves as the start of its ordinary sessions and which offers, as he himself recalled, 82 days after the start of his administration, last December 10th.
International
Australia asks the population to write down their flatulence to study intestinal health
An Australian government scientific agency asked the population of the oceanic country on Friday to make an exhaustive record of their flatulence, in order to better understand how the excessive expulsion of gases impacts intestinal health.
‘Chart your fart’ campaign (Register your fart)
Through the ‘Chart your fart’ campaign, researchers from the Australian scientific and industrial government agency (CSIRO) invited people over the age of 14 to keep track of their winds in a free cell phone app for at least three days.
These data, which include the amount and quality of flatulence, including attributes such as smell, volume, duration, persistence and detectability, will help create a graph of what can be a ‘normal’ wind in the different groups of Australians, according to a statement from CSIRO.
“The expulsion of gases is a natural fact and a sign that our digestive system is functioning as it should to expel the excess gas that is produced by breaking down and processing the food we eat,” explained Megan Rebuli, a nutrition expert who participates in CISRO’s research.
Excessive flatulence, according to 60%
The characteristics of the winds vary by the intake of “different foods, medical conditions or even the way we chew or swallow can influence the way our body processes excess gases, which translates into odors, frequencies or even different volumes,” said Rabuli.
For her part, the project director and CISRO scientist, Emily Brindal, explained that this citizen research will be “as good as the data we obtain,” by trusting that the population will contribute to this study on the health and well-being of citizens, despite the fact that some people feel embarrassed or uncomfortable by this body function.
According to a study on CSIRO’s intestinal health in 2021, more than 60% of Australians reported experiencing what they identified as excessive flatulence, and up to 43% said they experienced it most days.
International
Israel bombs Lebanon again after a wave of attacks with dozens of dead
The Israeli Army bombed Dahye on Friday, a suburb in southern Beirut considered a stronghold of the Shiite group Hezbula, after ordering residents to evacuate the area and among a wave of attacks in Lebanon that have caused at least 43 deaths in recent hours.
The bombings took place on Friday morning, according to the Lebanese media Al-Mayadeen, and for the moment it is clear whether they caused deaths or injuries.
Shortly before, the Arabic spokesman of the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, urged the neighbors of several buildings located in the Ghobeiry area to evacuate “immediately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”
Air planes against Hezbulá command centers
The Israeli Army already bombed the Dahye, including two Civil Defense centers, last Wednesday and Thursday, also after requesting the evacuation of several buildings in the area.
The armed forces then claimed in a statement that they had destroyed nine weapons warehouses and command centers of the Shiite group “embedded” in civilian areas, an argument that Israel repeats to justify its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon.
This Friday, their fighter jets attacked the command centers of the elite force of the Shiite group Hizbulá (Radwan) in the Nabatieh area, in southern Lebanon.
Among the targets attacked is a terrorist infrastructure site used by the elite force of Hezbullah “to carry out terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and our troops,” according to a military statement.
He also said that yesterday the troops attacked more than “120 terrorist targets” throughout the neighboring country, including weapons storage facilities, command centers and a large number of launchers, including some from which Hezbulah fired rockets towards Haifa and the area of Upper Galilee, in northern Israel.
Early this Friday, the Army also bombed south of Beirut, a bastion of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbula known as the Dahye, after a wave of attacks in Lebanon that have left at least 43 dead in recent hours.
Shortly before the attacks, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, urged the neighbors of several buildings located in the Ghobeiry area to “evacuately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”
According to a military statement, these attacks against the capital were targeted at weapons warehouses, a command center and other unspecified infrastructures of Hizbulá.
On the other hand, the Army also detected about five projectiles fired from Lebanon towards the district of Haifa and Alta Galilee, which were intercepted or fell in the open air.
Likewise, the military note assured that last night Israeli planes attacked “several smuggling routes of the Syrian regime” on the Syrian-Lebanese border, allegedly used for the illegal introduction of weapons to Hezbulah.
Negotiations for a ceasefire
This crossfire is maintained while in recent hours reports have continued to arrive disseminated by Israeli and American media indicating that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon could be closer.
This Thursday, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, reiterated in a conversation he had with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, that there is “a desire to achieve a ceasefire” in Lebanon to allow the more than 60,000 evacuees from the north to return to their homes, and that “progress” is being made in the negotiations.
Although, Saar also wanted to point out that an agreement is not enough if the international community does not guarantee that Lebanon “is returned to the Lebanese people instead of being controlled by the Iranian regime.”
In more than a year of conflict, at least 3,386 people have died in Lebanon and another 14,417 have been injured, including 220 minors and 658 women, according to the latest update from the Lebanese government, prior to these latest attacks.
Lebanon: “The US truce proposal is not acceptable”
The President of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, confirmed on Friday that he has received a proposal from the United States for a truce between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbulá, but indicated that “it is not acceptable” in its current terms.
“The US proposal includes a text that is not acceptable to Lebanon, which is the question of the formation of a committee to oversee the implementation of Resolution 1701 (which ended the war between Israel and Hezbula in 2006), which includes several Western countries,” he said in a written interview with the London-based Arab newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat.
Likewise, Berri – the main mediator figure in the truce, being the one in whom Hizbulá trusts for the negotiations – said that “the proposed alternative mechanism is currently being debated,” and that “the work is progressing, in an environment that is positive.”
“Americans and others know that it is unacceptable, and that it cannot even be discussed in principle, and that we cannot accept any violation of our sovereignty,” he said in reference to the “freedom of movement” of the Israeli Army in Lebanon.
He also denied that the proposal includes “the deployment of NATO or other forces” in the country.
Regarding the possible arrival of the envoy of the administration of US President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, pointed out that his visit to Beirut “depends on the development and progress of the negotiations,” without giving further details.
A French blue helmet dies in a traffic accident
A French blue helmet died this Friday in a traffic accident while traveling in a convoy to the headquarters of the UN mission in Lebanon (UNFIN) in Naqoura, in the south of the country.
According to a brief statement from the FINUL, which does not give details about the circumstances of the accident, three other Gallic members of the peacekeeping forces “suffered minor injuries.”
“This morning, a FINUL convoy heading to the FINUL headquarters in Naqoura was involved in a traffic accident on the coastal road, near the village of Shama,” the note says.
The victims were cared for by the staff of the peace mission and the Red Cross at the scene, according to the FINUL, who conveyed their condolences to the family of the deceased blue helmet and expressed their wishes that the injured recover soon.
International
Latin America will once again be in the sights of the United States with Rubio at the head of diplomacy
Marco Rubio, of Cuban origin and first Hispanic appointed as US Secretary of State, promises to redirect Washington’s attention to Latin America under a second term of Donald Trump, at a critical moment marked by the immigration issue and Chinese investments in the region.
The great campaign promise of the president-elect is to carry out the largest deportation in the history of the country, which anticipates that “Latin America will have the most central role in US foreign policy of the last 30 years,” says Brian Winter, expert of the Americas Society organization.
Latin America waiting for US actions.
At the head of US diplomacy, Rubio “will bring enormous attention to a region that the United States has overlooked on many occasions,” adds Henry Ziemer, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Considered a ‘hawk’ in foreign policy, this Florida senator born in Miami 53 years ago has distinguished himself for being a supporter of the hard line with China and Iran, as well as a strong defender of Israel.
He has also paid great attention to Latin America, being a strong supporter of US sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as being critical of the left-wing governments of Mexico and Colombia, and a supporter of Javier Milei’s Argentina.
“Rubio sees the region with a strong ideological spectrum: he divides it between left and right leaders, between rivals and friends,” Winter explains.
The unknown of Venezuela or the end of “Florida politics”
One of the unknowns that Trump’s team has not cleared is the policy it will maintain towards Venezuela, after the president, Nicolás Maduro, proclaimed his re-election in elections questioned by the international community.
During his first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican chose to apply maximum pressure on the Caribbean country with sanctions to overthrow Maduro, but the president is still in power and the crisis in the country has caused thousands of Venezuelans to migrate to the United States.
The main reason for the insistence on Venezuela was not so much a desire for interventionism but a desire to win votes in the key state of Florida, with an important population of Cuban and Venezuelan voters, Michael Shifter, former director of the Inter-American Dialogue analysis center, tells EFE.
US in search of accelerating deportations to Latin America
With the electorate in the state already solidly republican, Trump does not have that incentive now. On the contrary, the future president could try to “give in to Maduro and perhaps recognize him to reach an agreement on migration and give business opportunities to his friends” in the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
The truth is that in order to deport Venezuelan migrants, against whom Trump has led a stigmatization campaign and promised mass deportations, the United States needs to reach an agreement with Venezuela, a country with which it has no diplomatic relations.
Joe Biden’s Administration resumed deportation flights after a brief pause in the oil sanctions imposed on the country.
According to Adam Isacson, an expert at the Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) center, the other option to accelerate deportations would be to pressure Mexico, and other countries such as Colombia, to accept Venezuelan migrants.
Mexico and the review of the T-MEC
What seems very clear is that “Mexico will be at the forefront of the policies of the second Trump Administration in terms of both migration and the economy,” Ziemer highlights.
Washington is increasingly concerned about Chinese investments in strategic industries such as electric vehicles in Latin America and especially in Mexico, a country with which the United States has the T-MEC free trade agreement.
Trump himself said in the campaign that he wanted to open the T-MEC review process in 2026 and Rubio has been one of the legislators who has positioned himself most in favor of countering Chinese operations in the region.
The Republican, who already threatened Mexico with tariffs in his first term to force greater control of migratory flows, will use this letter again in trade negotiations.
“I don’t think the break of the agreement is the most likely way, but it is possible. Companies are underestimating it,” warns Winter.
Australia asks the population to write down their flatulence to study intestinal health
Israel bombs Lebanon again after a wave of attacks with dozens of dead
Latin America will once again be in the sights of the United States with Rubio at the head of diplomacy
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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