It is the first time in the history of Argentina that a president campaigns saying that he is going to make a huge economic adjustment, and the people vote for him. It is the first time in the history of Argentina that a candidate wins an election with barely two years of experience in politics; and it is the first time in the history of Argentina that an economist arrives at the Casa Rosada. That is Javier Milei, who on Tuesday, through his Minister of Economy Luis “Toto” Caputo, informed the nation of the first economic measures that will be carried out at the beginning of his mandate.

“The next few months we are going to be worse than before, particularly in terms of inflation. It is preferable to tell an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable lie,” Caputo concluded in his speech.. The famous chainsaw with which the ultraliberal appeared so much during the presidential campaign is beginning to be applied.

The Managing Director of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Kristalina Georgieva, supported the measures of the economy minister and published a message on the social network X: “I welcome the decisive measures announced by President Javier Milei and his economic team to address the important Argentina's economic challenges. “It is an important step towards restoring stability and rebuilding the country's economic potential.”. The wink from the head of the IMF caused a good impact in the LLA party (La Libertad Avanza).

In addition, Argentine bonds rose 3% on Wall Street this Wednesday and the Stock Market set a new record, reaching its highest prices of the year.

In the United States, Republicans in Congress are very active before the new Milei government. As a result of Caputo's announced measures, Senator Marco Rubio and other congressmen sent a letter this Wednesday to President Joe Biden to “strengthen bilateral relations”. At the same time, US politician María Elvira Salazar asked the US Treasury and the International Monetary Fund to “urgently” negotiate the program with Argentina.

Among some of the 10 measures established by the new Government, the devaluation of the peso in the official market stands out; If a dollar cost 400 pesos, now it will be worth 800. Another resolution that also drew attention was the non-renewal of contracts of people who have been in the State for less than a year, since this is “a common practice in politics, incorporating thousands of family members and friends before a change of government to maintain its privileges,” according to Caputo.

One of the promises that Milei has already fulfilled is the reduction of ministries by half: from 18 organizations there will now be no more and no less than nine. The viral video in which the ultraliberal removed the posters with the names of the ministries from a blackboard predicted this decision. In addition, they reduced the secretariats from 106 to 54.

“The situation is critical,” said presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni, who explained at a press conference that “the decision is clear: there is no money and there must be concrete measures such as the Ministries Law and reduction of political positions.”

Milei's government also announced that it will stop bidding on more public works and will cancel approved tenders whose development has not begun. “There is no money to pay for more public works. Infrastructure works will be carried out by the private sector,” said the Minister.

Milei's chainsaw has begun its work. Although, for some, this has become a scissors, at least for now. Others, however, denounce that the adjustment has been excessive and disproportionate.

There is a remote corner in central China that in the 1990s became ground zero for the largest HIV epidemic ever seen.. It is estimated that more than a million people were infected due to an unhealthy blood donation market that attracted farmers in exchange for 45 yuan, around six euros.. Enough money to feed an entire family for a week in that then very poor land.

In Shanghai county, Henan province, there were as many as 22 villages that earned the label “AIDS villages” because they had hundreds of infected inhabitants.. There were entire families of HIV positive people, from grandfather to grandson.

It was a massacre during the following years due to the lack of antiretroviral drugs, which did not arrive until decades later.. Today, in the communities of Shanghai, which still carry the stigma of AIDS due to the many cases that remain from the end of the last century, almost every family has a relative who died of HIV.

These villages were visited in the 90s by a gynecologist named Gao Yaojie, the first to warn of the HIV epidemic that existed in Henan due to the dilapidated blood transfusion centers, installed in vans that were taken to the countryside.. Although they were illegal, they were supported by local officials, who campaigned to attract neighbors to donate and thus extract the plasma.

For donors, it was quick and easy money to earn.. Realizing that they could get much more by milking their veins than by pumping milk from cows or taking care of their land, farmers spent years going daily to these centers to make donations.. Henan became the country's great blood bank.

The problem was that unsterilized needles were reused or bags from different donors were mixed and reinjected into other people.. Dr. Gao reported all of this after discovering the first positive test in one of her patients, who had later been infected by a transfusion during an operation.

According to data later revealed by China's own Ministry of Health, up to 43% of donors in these illegal centers contracted HIV.. In the 2000s, Gao began giving talks at hospitals and schools, and speaking to the media, both Chinese and foreign, trying to reveal the public health crisis there was.

His work earned him recognition from international organizations, including the UN.. But the response of the local Henan administration was to try to silence her.. He spent almost a month under house arrest.

In 2009, the doctor moved to the United States. There she became an activist who, through her experience, denounced the censorship that prevails in China, starting with the fear that local authorities have when it comes to alerting the central government in Beijing with bad news and the danger that this entails. to stop future epidemics in time, such as the Covid that broke out in Wuhan at the end of 2019. Gao died at the age of 95 last Sunday at his home in Manhattan.

Far from having written the final chapter of the game of thrones in the Zulu kingdom, as was believed, the soap opera surrounding the new monarch of the 12 million people who make up the largest ethnic community in South Africa has taken a new and bizarre turn.

It is not all the money he is asking for, it is not clear that it is enough for Viktor Orban to give in, partially or totally, but it is clear that it is a more than important first step.. The European Commission announced this Wednesday that it is unlocking 10.2 billion euros in European funds awarded to Hungary that had been blocked for months.. The decision, explains Ursula von der Leyen's team, occurs because the Magyar Government would have completed the required reforms, the last of them on Tuesday night in its Parliament. But no one is aware that the announcement is made on the same day that the prime minister will travel to Brussels for a European summit that is marked, precisely, by the total veto of the start of Ukraine's accession negotiations and the review of the Budget. community that includes a mechanism to finance up to 50 billion euros between loans and transfers to kyiv over the coming years.

On 22 December 2022, the Commission found that Hungary did not comply with what is known as the horizontal enabling condition of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights due to several concerns, including judicial independence.. Following a “thorough assessment” and several exchanges with the Hungarian Government, the Commission now believes that Budapest has completed the pending judicial measures. “This means that part of the financing of the cohesion policy would no longer be blocked and, therefore, Hungary could begin to claim reimbursements of up to around €10.2 billion,” says the statement made public this Tuesday afternoon..

“Member States must ensure the fulfillment of enabling conditions throughout the Cohesion Policy period. The Commission will closely and continuously monitor, in particular through audits, active engagement with stakeholders and monitoring committees, the implementation of the measures adopted by Hungary. If, at any time, the Commission considers that this horizontal enabling condition is no longer met, it may decide again to block financing,” the text warns..

From Brussels, conscious of the image, they give one of lime and sand. The specific requirements for that item are considered satisfied, one third of the frozen total, but the rest, 21,000 million, are not. This part is also special, because it depends entirely on the Commission and should not go through the Council, through the Governments, as happens with Next Generation disbursements, for example..

Also a year ago, and to protect the Union budget “from violations of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary within the framework of the budgetary conditionality mechanism”, the Commission stopped any disbursement, arguing that there were no guarantees or compliance in relation “with the principles of the rule of law in Hungary in the areas of public procurement, judicial actions, conflicts of interest, anti-corruption and public interest trusts”.

Despite the exchanges since then, the Commission believes that “the violations of the principles of the rule of law” that led to the adoption of measures have not been resolved, so three cohesion policy programs, with a budget of 6.3 billion euros remain suspended and Hungary still does not have access to those funds. And the same goes for the Country Recovery Plan, in which 27 “super milestones” were committed to guarantee the protection of the Union's financial interests and strengthen judicial independence.. These “super milestones” remain unchanged in Hungary's revised plan, approved by the Council on December 15, 2023. There is some progress, which has to do with the horizontal enabling conditions mentioned above, but, since the main ones have not been fully met, at the moment no payment request can be made. So the total blocked for the moment remains at 21,000 million.

The European Parliament and the Hungarian opposition believe that it is an inadmissible, shameful transfer, and that it only fuels the destructive strategy of the dean of community leaders.. The other 26 and the institutions are divided between those who believe that this time Orban's pulse is different, that not only is he serious but that his reasons (the “national interest”) are irreconcilable and those who believe that no, that it is not a suicidal conduit, who is too intelligent and skillful and who always has a plan. Among the first is the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. Among the latter, the president of the Commission, for example.

That this is blackmail is no secret.. Orban's political director, Balasz Orban, told Bloomberg this week: those potential 31.2 billion euros, between Next Generation, Cohesion, Regional, etc.,. They demand them. They do not even assure that this is enough to remove the veto from Ukraine, but what is clear is that to start considering it the cash flow has to start arriving. And with that they would think of themselves as “a contribution” to that essential fund to meet the needs of kyiv..

In his meetings with leaders at the highest level, the self-proclaimed illiberal leader denounces that his country has made many of the required reforms and that Brussels still keeps those funds frozen.. Which have to do with the legal system and the courts, but also with anti-corruption measures, or the lack thereof. The separation of powers, the audit mechanisms of community money, the rights of the LGBT+ community or those of refugees.

Main obstacle, but not the only one

Unlocking those 10,000 million, a third of the total, is an offering to try to overcome the main obstacle for the European Council that this Thursday and Friday must decide the future of Ukraine, Moldova and the Community Budget. But Orban is not the only problem.

In recent weeks, several voices have appeared that in one way or another are altering the board. The vast majority of community and diplomatic sources repeat these days that there are 26 countries on one side and only one on the other, but scratching the surface we see that the reality is somewhat more complex.. Hungary is the only one that talks about threatened “national interests”, the only one that threatens in public, that accuses Ukraine of being “the most corrupt country in the world” or that denounces persecution of the Magyar minority. But in the heat of this dark light, several more rulers have been raised.

Italy, Austria, Slovenia or Slovakia have begun to show doubts, to link issues, to ask for compensation, to draw lines. Some do it, as happens in Vienna, because they say they cannot accept favorable treatment for Ukraine when there are others on the waiting list, like Bosnia, whom they want to support.. Others, like Slovakia, because it is the best way to wink (energetically) at the Kremlin without saying it openly.. In the case of Italy, diplomatic sources denounce, the tone has been raised in recent hours. “Italy says it wants a balanced approach, and that there cannot be a decision on Ukraine without another on Bosnia. And they say that there will be no additional contributions of money for Ukraine until issues relevant to Italy are addressed in the Budget negotiations.. And they have brought up a lot of issues,” says that clearly upset source..

Some neighbors do not like these “last minute doubts” and believe that it is inelegant, dangerous and disrespectful to mix the 50 billion for the survival of Ukraine with the troubled nations.. And that it is absurd to ask for Bosnia, which, they argue, has not done what it should have and had promised.. Not even when it was loosely approved to give it the status of candidate country. Repeating that strategy again, they reiterate, would not make sense..

convoluted summit

All of this makes this week's Summit, the last of the year, even more complicated.. The veto at the start of accession negotiations cannot be circumvented. Maybe Moldova could be approved and kyiv continues waiting. One or both could be postponed to January or February, when kyiv has completed all pending requests.. Or it can become stagnant.

But what the EU wants a solution for is the mechanism of 50,000 million, of which 17,000 would be in transfers and 33,000 in loans.. If Hungary refuses, alternatives will be sought, either using the financial instrument that has already been used, the MFA+ (although the Community Budget is more comfortable, easier and safer) or special vehicles, a more exceptional resource but which would allow us to go to 26.

The entire package remains to be outlined, and the renewal of the Budget in general (the Commission requested 66,000 million additional contributions and the latest negotiating funds had already reduced it to 25,000, including that of Ukraine), but sources in Brussels are more optimistic. They anticipate a long and hard negotiation, but they say that in the end these types of discussions end up being resolved. And if in 2020 they agreed for one trillion euros, now that the doubt is around a few billion euros it cannot be impossible.

Mark Drakeford announced this Wednesday the 13th his intention to resign as head of the Welsh Government and the leadership of the Labor Party in the autonomous territory. The still Chief Minister of this nation of the United Kingdom will continue to hold his ministerial position until the election of his successor in spring 2024, according to the provisionally planned calendar.

Drakeford confirmed his decision, in a message he issued in Welsh and English in front of the Parliament (Senedd) headquarters in Cardiff, exactly five years after his appointment as chief minister and Labor leader of Wales.. He had been anticipating his withdrawal from the front line of politics in this northern region of Great Britain for months, if not years.

“When I ran for leadership I said that, if elected, I would serve for five years.”. “Exactly five years have passed since I was sworn in as chief minister,” he remarked, without giving a chance to questions from the media.

The coronavirus pandemic dominated the tenure of the distinguished academic and former Labor political adviser. He frequently clashed with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose responsibility for the health crisis was limited to England, both on social restrictions to contain the spread of the virus and on leadership style..

Drakeford projected serenity, caution and restraint in his frequent press conferences and messages to the nation during the outbreak of Covid-19. He came from the radical socialist tradition, from the “soft left”, and supported Jeremy Corbyn's candidacy for the Labor leadership in 2015.. The now leader of the party, Keir Starmer, recognized him this Wednesday in the Westminster Parliament as the “titan of Welsh Labor politics.”

In the statement of resignation from his dual position, he gave a brief overview of the major issues that he has had to deal with during his five-year term, from the effects of the central government's austerity policy to Brexit, the climate crisis, the wars in Ukraine and Middle East and “four different prime ministers, so far”. He would refer to the chain of heads of the United Kingdom Government, from Theresa May to Rishi Sunak, who have followed one another in Downing Street since he took the reins of Wales.

Drakeford now passes the baton with an eye on the electoral calendar. The general elections to the Westminster Parliament must be held before January 2025 and, if the voting intention forecasts are met, his heir will have the “opportunity to work with the newly elected Labor government in London,” he said, hopeful of the change of party. in the central executive.

The still chief minister promised to work for a Labor victory in Wales and nationally.. The regional elections are scheduled for May 2026, when his successor will try to consolidate Labour's continued dominance in the territory since the 'devolution' of powers from Westminster to Cardiff approved in the 1997 referendum.