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
The UN estimates the number of deaths in the Papua New Guinea avalanche at 670
A United Nations agency estimated this Sunday that more than 670 people were killed in the avalanche of land that in the early hours of Friday buried a remote village north of Papua New Guinea.
The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Papua New Guinea, Serhan Aktoprak, told Australian state television, ABC, that according to the new estimates, more than 150 houses were buried by a layer of rocks and earth between six and eight meters deep and they fear that more than 670 people have lost their lives.
However, the United Nations delegation in Papua New Guinea clarified this Sunday to EFE by email that the number of deaths confirmed so far by the emergency response team is five, those whose bodies have been recovered in the village of Kaokalam, 600 kilometers from the country’s capital, Port Moresby.
“The team has informed us that it is difficult to confirm the actual number (of deaths) while search and rescue efforts continue,” said Kesang Phuntsho, head of the United Nations office in Papua New Guinea.
In addition to the five corpses recovered, the UN delegation indicated in a report this Sunday that there are an undetermined number of injured, “including 20 women and children.”
The official UN statement is also more cautious about the number of houses buried by the analch, which at the moment is between 50 and 60, in addition to a school, a church, orchards and vehicles.
The United Nations report indicates that the disaster area remains dangerous due to the risk of new avalanches, so they are working on the evacuation of the survivors, about 1,250, according to Aktoprak.
“My colleagues had to escape from the place because of the growing danger, since rocks continue to fall non-stop and the earth continues to slide,” said the head of IOM in the country.
He has also warned that the large amount of land fallen during the avalanche is putting pressure on the houses in the area, so evacuation is necessary.
About 4,000 people officially live in the area where the avalh occurred, although the authorities estimate that the number of people affected is higher, since the town in which it occurred is a place where locals fleeing conflicts and tribal clashes in nearby villages take refuge.
Much of the village of Kaokalam was buried by a layer of between six and eight meters of rocks and stones and the avalanche affected an area of more than 200 square kilometers, including about 150 kilometers of the main road of the province, which makes it difficult to rescue and help the survivors.
In addition, other sections of access to the village are cut off by previous landslides, so it is only possible to access by helicopter or in off-road vehicles.
Images from the site of the catastrophe shared on social networks show a vast area of rocks and land torn from a hill, as well as neighbors collecting their behods and exploring the area buried by the landslide in search of survivors.
The affected area usually suffers from heavy rains and floods, and the landslides are not unusual in the country, in which, despite the wealth in natural resources, a large part of its more than nine million inhabitants live in extreme poverty and is isolated due to a deficit in communications and infrastructure, especially in remote places such as the current catastrophe.
International
Spain assures that no one will intimidate her in her support of the Palestinians
Spain made it clear this Sunday that no one is going to “medren” it in its support of a ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip, after Israel broadcast a video in which it reproaches the country for its imminent recognition of the Palestinian State.
“Spain has been very firm condemning the attacks of Hamas and demanding the release of all the hostages, but Spain has also been very firm and will continue to be demanding a ceasefire and the knowledge of help from the land points,” stressed the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
At a press conference in Brussels after meeting for the first time in person with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohamed Mustafa, he stressed that “no one is going to beurther us in it.”
Albares guaranteed Spain’s support for the Palestinian National Authority and said that next Wednesday he expects to receive Mustafa in Spain, a day after the country has materialized the recognition of the Palestinian State.
The head of Spanish diplomacy stressed that the Palestinian people “have the right to have a State, just as the people of Israel have that right.”
“Both have to coexist in peace, security and good neighborliness. The recognition of the State of Palestine is of justice for the Palestinians, it is the best guarantee of security for Israel and is indispensable to achieve peace in the region,” he said.
Asked about the video shared on social networks by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, in which he reproaches that Spain is going to recognize the Palestinian State, Albares replied that it is “scandalous and execrable.”
“It is scandalous because it is known from all the world, especially from my Israeli colleague, that the Government of Spain has condemned the terrorism of Hamas from the first moment and in all its actions,” he said.
The video, which lasts 18 seconds, starts with the flag of Spain and some of the images of the attacks of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on October 7 appear, alternating with those of two people who imitate flamenco dancers, while the phrase “Hamás: ‘Gracias España’” appears overprinted.
For Albares, the video is also “execrable” for the use he makes of flamenco, “a universal art, an open music, a music that dialogues and, therefore, a universal language that brings us closer to all the peoples of the world and that inspires us,” he said.
The minister also referred to other statements criticized by Israel, those made on Saturday by the Spanish head of Defense, Margarita Robles, in which he considered that what is happening in Gaza “is a real genocide,” and said that it was “an opinion” on an issue that is being elucidated by the International Court of Justice.
In that context, Albares alluded to the precautionary measures of that UN court for Israel to put an immediate end to its military offensive in Rafah and recalled that its decisions are “mandatory for all parties, they must be complied with and thus avoid the loss of more human lives and so much unnecessary suffering.”
Mustafa, for his part, praised “the courageous decision taken by Spain” to recognize Palestine as a State and urged the rest of the European countries that have not yet taken this step to do the same as a gesture to “end the serious injustice to which the Palestinian people have been subjected for decades.”
He was also “fully convinced” that “a large number of European countries” will recognize the State of Palestine “in the near future.”
Before Mustafa, Albares emphasized the “important role” played by the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and guaranteed him the political and financial support of Spain.
The head of Spanish diplomacy said that, when peace returns to Gaza, both that territory and the West Bank “must be placed under a single Palestinian National Authority.”
He also defended that there is a “massive financial plan” to rebuild Gaza, that the Strip is connected by a corridor with the West Bank and that the capital of the Palestinian State is East Jerusalem.
Albares participates today and tomorrow with the Member States of the European Union and Arab countries in different meetings “to outline the next steps in our efforts for peace.”
International
Israel reproaches in a video in X Spain’s policy of recognizing the Palestinian State
Israel again reproached Spain’s policy with the recognition of the Palestinian State, with a video published this Sunday on the account of X of the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, accompanied by a mention of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and then the message “Hamás thanks him for his service.”
In the video, which lasts 18 seconds, it starts with the flag of Spain and some of the images of the attacks of the Palestinian group on October 7 appear, alternating with those of two people who imitate flamenco dancers, all the time with the phrase printed on “Hamás: “Thanks Spain.”
In the last few hours, numerous X accounts are distributing recordings without filters or warnings of the crudest moments of the October 7 massacre.
The circulation of these videos has intensified following the announcement by Spain, Norway and Ireland of their decision to recognize the Palestinian state on May 28.
With his message today, Katz again charges against the Spanish Government after its recent announcement that it will recognize the Palestinian State, after last Friday it banned the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem to “provide services to the Palestinians” and ordered the connection between the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Palestinians to be cut off.
Katz also criticized on Friday the vice president of Spain, Yolanda Díaz, for publishing the day after the announcement of the recognition of the Palestinian State a video on her social networks of support in which she stated “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” a slogan of the Palestinian cause that Israel considers anti-Semitic because they say that it implies the disappearance of its state.
“If this ignorant and hateful person wants to understand what radical Islam is really looking for, let him learn about the 700 years of Islamic rule in Al Andalus, in what is now Spain,” Katz wrote in a message on his X account this past Friday against Díaz.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, considered “scandalous and execrable” the video published today by his Israeli counterpart in which he reproaches Spain for its imminent recognition of the Palestinian State and uses flamenco in a “huring” way.
“The video seems scandalous and execrable to me. It is scandalous because it is known to the whole world, especially to my Israeli colleague, that the Government of Spain has condemned Hamas terrorism from the first moment and in all its actions,” Albares said at a press conference in Brussels with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohamad Mustafa.
“I have said it many times and today I reiterate it here again, the people of Israel are a friendly people of the Spanish people, and Israel, of course, has the right to have its State,” said the head of Spanish diplomacy in his appearance before the press at the headquarters of Spain’s permanent representation before the European Union (EU), after meeting with Mustafa.
For Albares, the video is also “execrable for the use it wants, although it does not achieve it, hurtful, of one of the greatest symbols of Spanish culture such as flamenco.”
A symbol of Spanish culture of which he said he was “especially proud because I love it,” he said.
And, he added: “As soon as I have an hour free, I will go to see a flamenco show to vindicate it, because it is what the world needs right now, a universal art, an open music, a music that dialogues and, therefore, a universal language that brings us closer to all the peoples of the world and that inspires us.”
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, assured this Saturday that what is happening in Gaza “is a real genocide” and has pointed out that the recognition of the Palestinian State “does not go against Israel,” whose embassy in Spain has regretted that it has made the story of Hamas its own.
Diplomatic relations between Israel and Spain have been tense since Sánchez’s last visit to the country, last November, in which he reproached the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that his offensive in Gaza was not respecting international humanitarian law.
Spain will formally recognize the Palestinian State on May 28, along with Ireland and Norway, which provoked the anger of Israel, which called for consultations with its ambassadors in those countries and summoned their respective representatives in Tel Aviv for a reprimand.
The UN estimates the number of deaths in the Papua New Guinea avalanche at 670
Spain assures that no one will intimidate her in her support of the Palestinians
Israel reproaches in a video in X Spain’s policy of recognizing the Palestinian State
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
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