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Five of the six countries invited to join the BRICS bloc of developing nations from Jan. 1 have confirmed they are joining, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran and Egypt, South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor said on Wednesday.

CAPE TOWN — Presidents Putin and XI and other leaders from the Brics bloc of developing countries will hold a virtual meeting on the Israel-Hamas war on Tuesday, with Secretary General Guterres also participating. The leaders of fellow Brics members Brazil, India, and South Africa, as well as of Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, which are set to join the bloc in January, will also take part, according to the office of President Ramaphosa of South Africa. Mr. Ramaphosa will chair the “extraordinary meeting” because of South Africa’s position as current chair of Brics,...

The Pentagon neither confirming or denying a report...US nuclear weapons...stationed northeast of London... Arab American leaders skipping a meeting with Joe Biden's campaign manager in Dearborn, Michigan... US politics a Reuters/Ipsos Poll showing President Donald Trump leading Joe Biden by five percentage points.. "Texas is going to continue to expand the border barriers that we are erecting" Speaking from India...Texas Governor Greg Abbott... The Biden Administration confirming a record number of "encounters" at the US southern border last month... The State Department formally approving the potential sale of F-16's to Turkey and F-35 warplanes to Greece... Colombia recalling its ambassador...

Joel Kotkin reports from Davos that things are not well with Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum. Says he: The growing irrelevance of what Adrian Wooldridge has labelled “the progressive aristocracy” can even be seen in the less than enthusiastic press coverage. Politico describes the contemporary Davos crowd as a “smart set” which “sounds dumb.” Then he sticks in the shiv: The grandees don’t have to travel far to see the results of their “reset” as nearby Germany’s industrial machine collapses, with even its last solar panel plant about to go belly-up. But then there was Javier Milei’s rousing speech in...

A few articles about this have been posted, but I didn't see a direct link to the video. Hit the source link. This ~25m speech is a must see/listen.

Argentina President Javier Milei denounced the "bloody abortion agenda" during his comments at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday.Milei, who won the election in November and entered office in December, began his remarks by warning that "the Western world is in danger" because "those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that … leads to socialism and thereby to poverty." After denouncing socialism and all other "collectivist" ideologies while plugging "free enterprise capitalism" as the only path to prosperity worldwide, Milei, 53, addressed...

@aphysicist Milei's 2024 Davos talk ... (20 mins or so )

Argentine President Javier Milei delivered an address fiercely condemning socialism at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, rejecting the “radical feminist” and “environmental” agendas fueled by socialism as well. Milei urged world leaders to embrace capitalism as an alternative. Milei, a libertarian economist, explained in a roughly 20-minute speech how socialism ultimately leads to poverty, how the state “is not the solution,” but rather “the problem itself,” and how leftism has co-opted Western government institutions to further its agendas. Wednesday’s speech was Milei’s first international address since taking office in December. “I am here today to tell...

The number of rental units in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, has doubled, and prices fell by 20 percent following President Javier Milei's historic decree deregulating Argentina's economy. “In December, after Milei's announcement, that number doubled. Today, we have a stock of more than 800 apartments, and it grows every day,” said Alejandro Bennazar, director of Institutional Relations at the CIA.The newspaper's report details that the greater supply of units, together with the possibility of freely negotiating a contract between the parties, which was impossible with the previous regulation, had a direct impact on the drop in prices.“If the update...

During his electoral campaign, Milei vowed to "exhaust all diplomatic channels so that the Falkland Islands become Argentine again." "We have to see how we are going to get them back. It is clear that the war option is not a solution. We had a war, which we lost. Now we have to make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels,"

The Centers for Disease Control has given $540,000 to a trans outreach program to help combat HIV transmission within the community. Transgender Equity Consulting is a firm run by Cecilia Gentili, who is an Argentinian trans woman and former sex worker who admits to living in the US 'undocumented' for ten years. Her firm was first awarded the grant by the federal government as part of a national drive to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 2021. So far, it has received $360,000 of the total funding, which will continue until 2026. Gentili fled her homeland seeking a safer existence as...

As he kicks off his most meaningful administration, a combination of oversized union power with a meddling judiciary has suspended a package of labor reforms. The three-judge court will rule on a legal challenge brought by the main union group, the General Labor Confederation (CGT), which argued that ‘the changes affected workers’ rights.’ Reuters reported: “The ruling by the National Chamber of Labor Appeals temporarily blocks enforcement of the labor regulations in Milei’s so-called ‘mega-decree’, which includes more than 300 measures aimed at deregulating the South American country’s economy. Labor elements of the decree include the repeal and modification of...

[Catholic Caucus] "Buenos Aires: lightning on the halo and keys of St. Peter. Bergoglio at the end of the road?"I am reposting another article by Andrea Cionci that was originally published in Sfero.Well, from a faith perspective, how should we interpret the lightning bolt that struck the statue of St. Peter on December 17th?Statue of Saint Peter, Buenos AiresOn Sunday December 17, 2023, lightning literally pulverized the key and halo of the statue of Saint Peter, located on the facade of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas , north of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The news...

Javier Milei’s new government has kept his outrageously optimistic promises. Within days of taking office, he basically dismantled Peronism, the socialist-fascist system crippling the nation since the end of World War II. He did it by decree: He declared an economic state of emergency lasting for two years, and by virtue of the state of emergency, stopped government control of the economy across the board. You can read it here in the original: It’s a massive, detailed document. For example: Hyperinflation is a big problem in Argentina, because the government just printed the money needed to pay for its desires....

Javier Milei caused a political earthquake in November after winning the presidency in Argentina, ending decades of socialist rule. The wild-haired economist got to work immediately after being sworn in, slashing the number of government ministries, including the nation's gender and diversity bureaucracy. He's now pushing the ball further down the field, with a sweeping executive order that eliminates many of the more communistic aspects of Argentina's government. That comes as the once-wealthy South American country desperately tries to recover from a self-inflicted inflation crisis that has seen prices rise 160 percent in the preceding year. Milei ran on a...

Newly elected President Javier Milei of Argentina is an admirer of the right to keep and bear arms, similar to the Second Amendment enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America. Argentina has a vibrant gun culture nurtured by strong rural farming and cattle ranching roots.According to csmonitor.com, sales of small-caliber weapons (probably .22 caliber) were not regulated until the early 1990’s. As Argentina has descended into worse and worse poverty from inept socialist policies, more and more regulatory burdens were placed on the acquisition and carrying of firearms.As reported by as-coa.org, ordinary citizens can acquire some firearms....

"Argentines Today is a historic day for our country after decades of failures, impoverishment, decadence and anomie, today we formally begin the path of reconstruction since we took office just 8 business days ago, we have been focused on trying to contain the enormous crisis that we inherited, that is why we designed a shock stabilization plan that includes a fiscal adjustment program, an exchange rate policy that adjusted the exchange rate to the market value and a monetary policy that includes the sanitation of the Central Bank. We are doing our utmost to try to reduce the tragic effects...

Former New York Mayor and lawyer for President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani ordered to "immediately" pay... Voting extended in elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo... A late night barrage of rockets from Lebanon hitting the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona... In Poland the new left-leaning secularist government cleaning house at state media companies... (News, Comment And Analysis) With just weeks to go before the election in Taiwan a talking point news story about China and Taiwan.... China said to have suspended a currency swap agreement with Argentina... Argentine President Javier Milei announcing by decree the changing of 300...

How's this for an idea? Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, and his new justice minister, Patricia Bullrich, have advised Argentina's rioters they can kiss their welfare payments goodbye if they go out rioting -- starting fires, spraying graffiti, breaking windows, blocking roads, and looting. Milei's government in Argentina 🇦🇷 announced that they will cut off welfare benefits for everyone who riots and cuts off traffic in protests. The security minister said that police will take pictures and drones will, too. The most based spending cut! pic.twitter.com/LB0j6n1iN9 — Daniel Di Martino 🇺🇸🇻🇪 (@DanielDiMartino) December 19, 2023Bullrich, a former political rival of...

Pope says journalists accusing him of pro-Russian stance have a fetish for excrementROME – Pope Francis says journalists who accuse him of being pro-Russian for not condemning Vladimir Putin by name for his invasion of Ukraine are falling into “disinformation, slander, defamation, and coprophilia.”The pontiff was responding to a letter sent to him by Argentine journalist Gustavo Sylvestre, who works for the C5N television station, which is aligned with the current government of the South American country.“Coprophilia” is the technical term for a sexual fetish involving human excrement.In his letter to Sylvestre, Francis said some of the reporters accusing him...