News of social

Private estimates: Three million new poor created so far this year

24-09-2024 16:19 Private estimates, published ahead of the INDEC national statistics bureau's latest update, suggest that some three million people have slipped below the poverty line since the turn of the year.

by Gonzalo Martínez

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

55% of Argentina’s population below poverty line, says UCA body

05-09-2024 08:53 Extreme poverty affected 17.5% of people in first half of 2024, reports private observatory from the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA).

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Musk’s free speech mantra collides with crackdowns on hate speech and disinformation

19-08-2024 13:32 Elon Musk’s absolutist version of free speech has thrown the world’s richest man and his X social-media platform into the crosshairs of governments worldwide.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Social indicators cast doubt over Milei's 'catastrophe' averted claim

04-07-2024 13:09 President Javier Milei recently stated that the government’s social policy is “extremely good” and it had help prevent a “catastrophe.” Yet the government's own data and reports produced by private institutions indicate most social indicators have recorded a step backwards since he took office.

by Agustina Bordigoni

SOCIETY

Report: Online video adding to challenges for news firms

17-06-2024 15:36 Short videos from social media have become the main source of information for young people, Reuters Institute report warns.

POLITICS & ECONOMY

Milei government moves against social organisations and picket groups

20-05-2024 16:02 President Milei’s government is moving against Argentina’s influential social organisations and picket groups as social conflict rises in the nation.

SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS

Raids on 30 locations as investigation into extortion case continues

15-05-2024 15:35 Raids on more than 30 locations as investigation into extortion allegations continues; Social and picket group leaders accused of having forced members to attend marches in return for state aid.

POLITICS

Crisis at Human Capital Ministry: abrupt exits and resignations

24-04-2024 16:18 Legal Secretary Maximiliano Keczeli not the first from Sandra Pettovello’s inner circle to quit post, but he is perhaps the most important figure to have stepped down. Milei’s ‘protective umbrella’ and administrative overspills.

by Ramón Indart

As I see it

The worst journalists in the world

20-04-2024 06:07 Milei wants to control the narrative and, by doing so, change the way Argentines think about the world. Does hurling insults at journalists help win him more adherents?

by James Neilson

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Emperor of the Argentine Republic?

23-03-2024 06:32 In a country obsessed with dark priests that roam Government House with differing levels of influence on the upper echelons of the political class, Santiago Caputo has walked into his role perfectly.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

COMMUNICATION & POLITICS

Argentina's 'troll' president: Milei takes aim at rivals online

07-03-2024 15:42 Argentina’s outspoken ultra-liberal president expresses himself online at frantic speed, using social media sites as a both a platform for his "revolution" and an outlet for his anger.

WAR IN MIDDLE EAST

Israel's Shiri Bibas: unwitting face of hostages

06-03-2024 14:31 Poignant images of an anguished Shiri Bibas clutching her two red-headed boys as she was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 have turned her into the face of the Israeli hostages seized that day.

PONTIFICAL MESSAGE

Pope Francis says state must guarantee ‘social justice’

28-02-2024 22:49 Two weeks after meeting President Milei at Vatican, pontiff contradicts head of state’s views on markets, the state and social justice in a pointed message to a Catholic NGO in Buenos Aires.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Fight club

24-02-2024 06:08 For President Javier Milei, anyone who thinks differently is simply an enemy. This is a real problem because it undermines the very concept of democracy.

by Nelson Castro

SOCIAL UNREST ON RISE

Strikes and walkouts multiply as anger against Milei's austerity mounts

22-02-2024 21:05 Social unrest is growing, labour groups protest in response to President Milei’s belt-tightening measures; Railway staff, health workers, teachers and even scientists take to streets in protest.

ARGENTINA IN CRISIS

Milei’s ‘no money’ slogan put to the test – but is there patience?

22-02-2024 16:46 Enthusiasm abroad for Javier Milei's presidential project is not matched by growing unrest on the streets of Buenos Aires.

POLITICS

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich deepens anti-picket doctrine

19-02-2024 16:37 Argentina's security minister is moving forward with her anti-picket protocol with social conflict on the rise and wants the courts to be swifter in lifting roadblocks – the order from her portfolio is not to dialogue with social organisations and union leaders.

by Ezequiel Spillman

Messi in China

Messi Hong Kong no-show sparks wave of outrage in China

09-02-2024 16:33 Lionel Messi's no-show at a match in Hong Kong has triggered a surge of online outrage in the city and in mainland China

SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTS

Milei government orders social groups, unions to pay for protest

13-01-2024 22:04 Security Ministry sends summons to more than a dozen unions and social organisations, ordering them to pay the state millions of pesos for the policing of recent demonstrations within 10 days.

INTERVIEW / PERIODISMO PURO

Juan Grabois: ‘A disruption evidently captivated most Argentines’

23-12-2023 06:46 Lawyer, social leader and former presidential candidate Juan Grabois on Javier Milei, the government’s economic emergency measures and receiving criticism from both sides.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

ANTI-AUSTERITY PROTEST

Anti-austerity protesters rally in first test of new anti-picket protocol

20-12-2023 20:10 Left-wing groups stage demonstration in Buenos Aires on anniversary of 2001 protests; Bullrich claims success as first public protest against Milei administration passes off peacefully.

GUEST VOICE

Protest and circulation – a clash of two worlds

19-12-2023 21:52 The right to demonstrate and move freely are on a collision course in Argentina. Not to be taken as something natural. But the way out must inevitably be via dialogue.

POLITICS

Government says it will take away welfare from protesters who block streets

18-12-2023 17:54 Argentina's government warns against street blockades on eve of major demonstration; Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello warns that those who participate and receive welfare support will have it taken away from them.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Argentina’s poverty rate has risen to 44.7%, says UCA body

05-12-2023 23:12 Latest study by UCA’s social debt observatory says that without welfare programmes, poverty would affect 49% of the population; Extreme poverty has risen 9.6%, finds report.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

UCA report: Poverty rate would be 50% without welfare support

03-09-2023 10:24 New report from the Catholic University of Argentina’s Social Debt Observatory concludes poverty affects 38.9% of the population; Those under 17 most affected; Without child benefit and welfare support payments from the government, half of Argentina would be poor.

ELECTIONS 2023

Argentina's presidential hopefuls compete for votes and followers on social media

18-07-2023 10:33 Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook, each network with its own audience and peculiarities, are central to the digital terrain in which Argentina’s presidential hopefuls are competing for votes. But who has the most followers and the greatest reach?

BRAZILIAN ECONOMY

Brazil 'finfluencers' bring finance to the favelas

17-05-2023 15:05 So-called 'finfluencers,' or financial influencers, are going viral in Brazil, delivering financial education to the masses in a country known for its gaping inequalities.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

UCA: 6 in 10 children and adolescents in Argentina are poor

16-05-2023 15:07 Data from UCA’s influential Observatorio de la Deuda Social indicates that some 8.2 million people aged under 17 were living in poverty at the end of 2022.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Brazil court suspends Telegram app in neo-Nazi probe

27-04-2023 13:47 Brazilian court orders nationwide suspension of messaging app Telegram after parent company failed to provide data on neo-Nazis operating on network.

ELECTION 2023

Córdoba leads way as politicians splash cash on social media

26-04-2023 22:59 Data showing the biggest spenders on Meta over the last 90 days reveals huge investments from Córdoba; Schiaretti and Lousteau coughing up the most, though keep an eye on ‘satellite’ accounts used to hide spending.

by Julian D'Imperio

DEBT PILE

Argentina confirms plans to force debt swap on state entities

23-03-2023 17:08 State banks and ANSES social security agency must swap 100% of foreign bond holdings for peso-denominated debt, decree confirms.

POLITICS

Social movements stay off streets for president’s speech to Congress

28-02-2023 15:42 When he delivers his flagship state-of-the-nation speech to Congress on Wednesday, President Alberto Fernández will not be able to count on the support of government-aligned social movements on the streets.

CRISIS IN VENEZUELA

'Food for the soul:' caring for elderly left behind in Venezuela exodus

21-02-2023 10:16 The CONVITE NGO is helping to take care of Venezuela's elderly – thousands of them abandoned amid an exodus of younger people seeking better lives elsewhere, with little help from the country's "precarious" elderly care system.

CLIMATE DENIERS

Climate disinformation surges in denial, conspiracy comeback

02-02-2023 16:51 False information about climate change flourished online over the past year, researchers say, with denialist social media posts and conspiracy theories nearly doubling from 2021 to 2022 after US environmental reforms and Elon Musk's Twitter takeover.

Diss Track

Shakira and Bizarrap's new song sets social media alight

12-01-2023 17:24 Shakira and Bizzarap set social media ablaze on Thursday night after releasing a song openly aimed at the Colombian artist's ex-partner, Gerard Piqué; New tune has been listened to 34 million times in 17 hours.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

UCA report puts poverty rate at 43.1%

06-12-2022 14:07 More than 17 million people in the country are poor, according to the latest report by the influential Social Debt Observatory of the UCA Catholic university; Figure would rise to 50% without existing state assistance, concludes study.