Stories that caught our eye: July 12 to 19

INFLATION ALMOST STATIC

Last month’s inflation was 1.6 percent, the INDEC national statistics bureau announced last Monday, barely up from May’s 1.5 percent and below the estimates of almost every private consultant, which had ranged from 1.7 to 2.1 percent. Inflation thus accumulated 15.1 percent for the first half of the year while running at an annual rate of 39.4 percent. The key item of Food and beverages was almost the lowest of all at 0.6 percent, apart from Garments and footwear (0.5 percent), while the main culprits were Education (3.7 percent) and Housing, water, electricity and fuels (3.4 percent). Core inflation (excluding regulated and seasonal prices) was 1.7 percent, the same figure which the Central Bank’s REM market survey is projecting for this month despite a five percent dollar surge in the first fortnight of the month.

TRUMP BACKS YPF APPEAL

The Donald Trump government last Wednesday presented itself as an amicus curiae of Argentina against Manhattan judge Loretta Preska’s ruling to hand over 51 percent of the share of YPF state oil company to two hedge funds, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Joe Biden last year.

CFK STAYING PUT

The Federal Cassation Court has confirmed that former two-term president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will remain under house arrest at the same San José 1111 address and with the same conditions of a compulsory electronic ankle monitor and restricted visits, it emerged last weekend, while last Monday reports that there would be a Cristina de Radio streaming were laughed off as a joke. The court ruling was in response to appeals by her defence lawyers and the prosecution to relax the conditions and send her to a common prison respectively. But forensic accountants have now updated the damage to the state arising out of the fraudulent allocation of Santa Cruz highway contracts occasioning her six-year sentence to 685 billion pesos (or US$540 million) from the 85 billion of her original conviction in late 2022, a sum which she and her co-defendants will be required to repay in 10 days or have their assets auctioned. As for the rumoured Radio 10 outlet, the journalist Sofía Caram explained that Cristina de Radio would be a Sunday humour show using audios of the Partido Justicialista chair rather than a streaming in real time.

MILEI’S MEDIA WARS

Last Tuesday President Javier Milei was given five days to explain in court his aggressive social networks posts against 12-year-old autistic child Ian Moche in response to a lawsuit launched by the boy’s mother and constitutional lawyer Andrés Gil Domínguez, calling on him to eliminate the message in which Milei maintained that Ian was Kirchnerite and “part of an organisation to overthrow him.” Milei was also denounced by the journalist Julia Mengolini for threats, public intimidation and misallocation of public funds, along with libertarian militants and influencers for using artificial intelligence to show her in an incestuous scene with her brother. Early this month Milei had mounted charges against Mengolini for making offensive comments about his links with his sister Karina and his dogs.

BULLRICH’S DIGITAL SPIES

The Security Ministry last Tuesday approved the “Particular Protocol for the Digital Activities of Undercover Agents” permitting the federal security forces to infiltrate digital platforms, social networks and websites to investigate drug-trafficking, illegal immigration, cybercrimes, financial fraud, gunrunning, child sex abuse and organised crime in general in order to collect evidence. The measure, signed by Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and published in the Official Gazette, appoints judge and constitutional law profesor Ricardo Basílico to head the council, which will meet monthly, for the next three years. The undercover agents are allowed to assume false identities in order to infiltrate criminal organisations.

THE ADORNI SHOW

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni has launched a weekly Friday programme Fake-7-8 (a parody of 6-7-8 in Kirchnerite times) transmitted live on his personal YouTube account, in which he takes issue with allegedly fake news against the Javier Milei government, denying closure of the National Institute against Cancer among other items.

IRAN MOANS

The Iranian régime included Argentina and President Javier Milei in an official document to the United Nations last Wednesday, complaining about the Argentine government’s alignment with the anti-Tehran offensive against Israel and the United States. The statement also rapped Canada, the Czech Republic and Paraguay for similar stances.

GAY MARRIAGE ANNIVERSARY

The LGBTIQ+ community was joined by human rights organisations last Monday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Senate approval of the gay marriage bill while militants warned that the advances “are under attack by the (current) government” with the “hate speech” emanating from the Javier Milei administration and the prejudices of the extreme right while “not being shared by the immense majority of Argentine society which celebrates the pluralism of forming families.”

KICILLOF’S CORRECTIVE

Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof praised the Senate’s last session on July10 passing a raft of opposition legislation (regarding pensions, the handicapped and Bahía Blanca emergency aid) as a “democratic corrective” for the Javier Milei government. Milei has vowed to veto these initiatives as an “institutional coup.”

ANOTHER DEAD WHALE

The second dead whale in a week showed up in the River Plate estuary last Tuesday, belonging to the endangered sei species which faces extinction. No immediate steps were taken to withdraw the corpse of the mammal, which was over six metres long, with experts extracting material for study while the general public was advised not to approach in order to avoid contagion.

MACRI’S FIFA DIPLOMACY

Ex-president and Fundación FIFA chief Mauricio Macri was quick to share a photo showing him all smiles with United States President Donald Trump during last Sunday’s Club World Cup final in New Jersey when Chelsea upset the favourites Paris Saint-Germain 3-0. Trump’s presence was not immune from some boos in the stadium.