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US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei react at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on October 14, 2025.
What We’re Watching: Trump makes conditional pledge to Argentina’s Milei, Syria’s new leader meets old foe, Cameroon’s opposition leader declares victory
Trump pledges money to Argentina – if Milei’s party wins midterm
US President Donald Trump appeared to hand Argentine President Javier Milei a financial lifeline ahead of the South American nation’s midterm election later this month, pledging to grant the long-suffering economy a $20-billion bailout. But, the US leader added, “If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.” Trump denied that he was seeking to boost Milei ahead of the midterms, but Democrats criticized him for helping out a foreign administration while the US federal government is shut down. It’s also unclear what would constitute enough of a “win” for Milei in the eyes of Trump – the Argentine leader is hoping to win a third of Chamber of Deputies seats so that he can gain veto power.
Syria and Russia meeting turn enemies into allies again
Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Russia on Wednesday, meeting with one of the biggest backers of the Assad regime he overthrew. Both Syria and Russia have reasons to bury that hatchet. Al-Sharaa is seeking guarantees that Russia won’t rearm remnants of Assad’s forces, and could instead help rebuild Syria’s army. He also implored Moscow to hand over Assad to face trial in Syria. Meanwhile, Russia has lost or been restricted from accessing its military bases and naval ports in Syria, which provide Russia its only stopover points in the eastern Mediterranean for planes and ships traveling to Africa. Following the meeting, al-Sharaa said that Syria would honor all past deals struck between the two countries, suggesting that Russia’s military bases may be open for business again soon.
Cameroon’s opposition leader declares victory over 43-year incumbent
One might not expect that a battle between a 92-year-old and a 79-year-old — who happens to be his former friend — would necessarily have such major consequences for a country, but that’s exactly the case for Cameroon. Opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary, 79, claimed victory yesterday over President Paul Biya, 92, following Sunday’s presidential election, and called on the long-time leader to “honour the truth of the ballot box.” Biya’s party denied Tchiroma’s claims, though the long-time leader hasn’t necessarily been the most reliable practitioner of democracy. The official results for Sunday’s poll have yet to be announced – the deadline for their certification is Oct. 26.
Protesters led by children march in London, United Kingdom, on June 1, 2025, demanding the release of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia and an end to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Hard Numbers: Russia reportedly indoctrinating kidnapped Ukrainian children, Fed to discuss rate cuts amid political firestorm, Argentina’s Milei presents budget, & More
210: The Kremlin is holding Ukrainian children at 210 different sites across Russia, according to a Yale University report, and forcing them to have re-education sessions and military training. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has regularly cited the abductions as evidence that Moscow is committing genocide in Ukraine. Kyiv estimates that 20,000 children have been taken since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
€1 billion: Poland increased its cybersecurity budget from €600 million ($708m) to €1 billion ($1.18b) after Russian hackers targeted its hospitals and Warsaw’s water supply. The Polish foreign minister said the country faces 20-50 cyber threats to critical infrastructure each day, most of which it thwarts.
3: The US military hit a Venezuela drug boat on Monday, killing three people. The attack marks the second time this month that the US has hit a boat suspected of drug smuggling off the coast of Venezuela.
7: A political storm is clouding the US Federal Reserve as its seven governors meet over the next couple of days to decide whether to cut interest rates – the target range is currently 4.25%-4.5%. Among the seven decision-makers are Lisa Cook, whom President Donald Trump has tried to fire but remains in situ after a court win yesterday, and Stephen Miran, a Trump ally whom the Senate confirmed only yesterday.
1.5%: Argentine President Javier Milei presented his 2026 budget proposal Tuesday to the National Congress, with the aim of having a fiscal surplus of 1.5% next year. The budgets for each of the last two years have been rejected, so the government has instead extended and continued to use the one implemented in 2023. With the midterm election only six weeks away, the budget could have political ramifications for Milei.
A destroyed streetcar on Lisbon's iconic Gloria funicular railway line after it derailed and crashed, killing 16 passengers and injuring about 20 in one of the deadliest public transport accidents in Portugal, on Sept. 4, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Train tragedy in Lisbon, Painting stolen by Nazis discovered on a listing, US judge rules in favor of Harvard, Armani passes at 91
16: A funicular railway crashed Wednesday evening in Lisbon, Portugal, killing at least 16 people. The renowned yellow cable cars help transport people up the capital city’s steep, cobblestoned streets, and are a favorite for tourists. Foreign nationals account for most of the dead. Officials haven’t confirmed the cause of the crash, though eyewitnesses say a brake failure sent the car hurtling down the street and into a building.
80: A painting looted by the Nazis 80 years ago has been found in Argentina after it was spotted in a listing on an estate agent’s website. Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi painted the piece, called Portrait of a Lady, some 300 years ago. The Nazis stole many paintings, often from Jewish people who they imprisoned or killed. The most famous example is Gustav Klimt’s Woman in Gold, which now lies in New York City’s Neue Galerie.
$2.6 billion: A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration’s freeze on $2.6 billion in research funds was illegal. The judge found that the freezes, officially linked to Harvard’s handling of antisemitism, had little to do with its federally funded research and were instead a retaliation for the university refusing to comply with the administration’s demands to end its DEI efforts and screen international students for bias.
91: Legendary Italian designer Giorgio Armani has died at 91. Famous for redefining modern suits and global elegance, his empire spanned fashion, beauty, sport, and luxury hotels. Tributes poured in from leaders and celebrities, hailing him as a tireless pioneer who revolutionized style, elevated red carpets, and championed healthier runway standards.Argentine President Javier Milei speaks to the media while standing on a vehicle with lawmaker Jose Luis Espert during a La Libertad Avanza rally ahead of legislative elections on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 27, 2025.
Dual crises throw wrench in Milei’s election plans
The campaign for Argentina’s legislative election officially launched this week, but it couldn’t have gone worse for President Javier Milei. A corruption scandal – one of the very things that he railed against during his successful campaign two years ago – burst into the news after a leaked recording appeared to implicate his sister.
The tapes suggest that Karina Milei, who is also a member of the administration, was involved in a kickback scheme at the National Disability Agency (ANDIS). Nothing has been proven, but the federal authorities stepped up their investigation in response to the leaked audio.
That’s not all for Milei: alongside the corruption scandal are a host of economic issues that have undermined his policy of fiscal “shock therapy.” Output has been stagnant this year, the peso is massively overvalued – this decreases competitiveness of Argentine exports – and public sector pay is down in real terms. Argentina’s central bank also increased its reserve requirements this week, which could further hit the economy. The concern for Milei is that these issues will overwhelm the success he’s had in bringing down inflation and balancing the budget.
“It won’t be a corruption scandal that does him in, it will probably be the economic problems,” said Eugenia Mitchelstein, a social sciences professor at the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires. “The corruption scandal doesn’t help.”
The Oct. 26 midterm election, where a third of senators and half of the Chamber of Deputies are up for election, is a vital one for the president. The vote will not only be a bellwether for how Argentina feels about his economic approach, but also gives Milei’s La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party an opportunity to pick up seats in a Congress that has blocked many of the president’s proposed reforms.
What’s the current state of Argentina’s Congress? Milei only co-founded the libertarian LLA in 2021, so its representation in both chambers of the National Congress is paltry: only six of the 72 senators and 38 of the 257 deputies currently belong to LLA. What’s more, Argentina’s politics is heavily fragmented, meaning there are several different parties represented in the Congress – no single party has a majority. The Unión por la Patria (UP), a center-left Peronist grouping that is Milei’s main foe, has a plurality.
What does Milei want? Milei’s first target is to win a third of the seats so that he can gain veto power. Beyond that, the president hopes to enact tax, labor, and pension reforms that will structurally alter Argentina’s economy. So far he has been able to muscle some changes through the National Congress, such as the big omnibus bill passed in June 2024 to deregulate the economy and hand the president more power. But his party’s threadbare representation limited what he was able to achieve, forcing him to negotiate with his opponents from a weak position. That could change after the October election.
“Even if the government does extremely well, they won’t have their own majority in Congress, so they will still need to negotiate with the more moderate sectors of the opposition,” Juan Cruz Díaz, the managing director of Buenos Aires-based advisory firm Cefeidas Group, told GZERO. “But they will do it from a different standpoint, from a different legitimacy. They will have more leverage.”
Who’s leading the charge against Milei? UP may be the biggest opposition party, but they have a leadership crisis. Over 40% of Argentinians said they didn’t know who the leader of the opposition was, or said there was none, per a Pulso poll from earlier this month. Another 25% said it was former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the left-wing Peronist leader who is currently under house arrest for corruption, and is barred from politics for life.
“[The opposition] is not only fragmented, it is leaderless,” said Marcelo J. Garcia, Americas director at Horizon Engage consultancy. “Milei is the only national leader that controls his political space, his political party. So that really plays to his advantage.”
Why should I care about Argentina? The Latin American nation of over 47 million people is better known for its soccer stars, beautiful Patagonian mountain range, and delicious beef steaks. But Milei is creating his own level of fame. His brash brand of chainsaw politics has become something exemplary for right wingers across the globe, with libertarians proclaiming his premiership as a paragon of success.
This election gives Argentinians the chance to say how they feel about Milei’s leadership, and whether he’s done enough to stabilize the country’s turbulent economy. It could have major ramifications for how Milei governs going forward, according to Mitchelstein.
“If he does well, if he gets, say, 40-42% of the vote, it will confirm his intuition, and it will probably make him more Milei than ever,” Mitchelstein told GZERO. “If he doesn't get that many votes, say, 37-38%, it might actually lead him to rethink his government, and also the way he’s been ruling.”
In Milei's Argentina, a fight for indigenous land
In Argentina’s Patagonia region, Indigenous Mapuche communities are clashing with President Javier Milei’s government over rights to their ancestral lands. Facing a deep financial crisis, Milei sees Argentina’s vast natural resources—minerals, oil, timber—as central to economic recovery. But the Mapuche, among the country’s strongest voices fighting for environmental protection, are being evicted from land they’ve lived on for over 14,000 years. On GZERO Reports, Will Fitzpatrick travels to Patagonia to interview Mapuche community members about the legal fight they say threatens Argentina’s unique biodiversity and indigenous culture, as well as their survival.
Land disputes between the Mapuche and the Argentinian state have existed for decades, but after the Milei government revoked a key law that protected Indigenous territories at the end of 2024, officials began an aggressive eviction campaign. Recent raids and accusations of arson have escalated tensions, and many Mapuche fear state power is now being wielded to push them off resource rich territory.
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Argentina's President Javier Milei speaks during the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, July 7, 2024.
What We’re Watching: Milei deepens Israeli ties, China scales back on Nvidia, Russia doubles down on Ukraine
Milei seeks to spread Israel sympathies across LatAm
Milei seeks to spread Israel sympathies across LatAmAs several nations become increasingly critical of Israel’s tactics in Gaza in recent weeks, one is going in the other direction: Argentina wants to enhance Latin American ties with the Jewish state, via a $1-million initiative called the Isaac Accords. The program will hand research grants to pro-Israel projects conducted in Latin America. Argentine President Javier Milei aims to further expand his goodwill toward Israel next year by expanding the Isaac Accords to more regional countries.
China pressures tech giants over Nvidia AI chip orders
Beijing is demanding Chinese tech firms, including Alibaba and ByteDance, justify purchases of Nvidia’s H20 AI chips. China would prefer that the firms buy domestically. The move follows a deal allowing Nvidia to resume H20 sales in China by paying 15% of revenues to the US government. Now the Chinese scrutiny is prompting some companies to scale back orders, potentially cutting Nvidia’s China market share to 55% this year from 66% in 2024, amid ongoing US-China tech tensions.
Russia doubles down on Ukraine ahead of Alaska summit
In what seems to be an attempt to maximise its territorial gains ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska, the Kremlin launched a fresh push in eastern Ukraine this week. The advance comes as Trump renewed his calls for both Moscow and Kyiv to cede territory for a potential peace deal. But while Putin may be showing resolve on the battlefront, he appears to face economic troubles at home: Russia has reportedly enlisted tens of thousands of North Koreans to fill labor shortages as its traditional workforce is increasingly pulled to the frontline.Deputy head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev delivers a speech during a session of the educational marathon “Knowledge. First” in Moscow, Russia, on April 29, 2025.
What We’re Watching: US-Russia tensions mushroom, Israeli minister prays by al-Aqsa mosque, Milei vetoes pension boost
US-Russia tensions escalate
Are the 1960s calling? A US president is repositioning nuclear submarines while Russia is carrying out previously scheduled anti-submarine drills – with China’s help – in the Sea of Japan. Donald Trump made the move on Friday after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, called the threat of US sanctions, “a step towards war.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down Medvedev’s words on Sunday, but the tensions remain. US special envoy Steve Witkoff visits Russia this week ahead of the deadline that Trump imposed on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine war or face expanded sanctions.
Israeli minister’s provocative prayers in Jerusalem
In a move that is sure to ignite fury across the Arab world, far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sunday visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, known to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, and prayed there. The move breaks a decades-long arrangement under which Jews can visit the compound, the third-holiest Islamic site that also sits on the same plot as the first and second Jewish temples, but not pray there. Ben-Gvir’s move came after Hamas released videos Friday of emaciated hostages held in Gaza. The move recalls then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the mount in 2000, a provocation that touched off the Second Intifada.
Argentina’s president vetos pension boost
The chainsaw stops for no one. Argentina’s ultra-libertarian President Javier Milei, who has already slashed billions from the federal budget, vetoed a proposal to increase pensions on Monday. “There is no money,” he said. It’s a risky move. Milei, elected in 2023, faces his first mid-term elections this fall. His cost-cutting has helped to tame Argentina’s notoriously high inflation, but the economy has struggled lately – the peso just posted its worst month since 2023 – and his cuts have generated some social backlash.A gas station in Düsseldorf, Germany, on June 10, 2025.
HARD NUMBERS: Oil prices spike, China stops drinking, BTS eyes reunion, and more…
12%: Oil prices spiked 12% in early trading on Friday following Israel’s attacks on Iran, reflecting fears that a wider Middle East conflict could restrict access to crude exports. Later in the morning prices softened slightly, but were still up nearly 9%, to more than $75 per barrel.
4: Although school shootings are rare in Europe, four of the worst incidents this century have occurred since 2023, raising concern about whether the phenomenon – until now largely a US problem – is spreading more rapidly.
3: Is the wait over? Millions of BTS fans hope so. The K-Pop supergroup has not performed together in three years due to its members’ mandatory South Korean military service. But now that they have been discharged (honorably!), rumors are flying that the group could take the stage again at a festival outside Seoul this weekend.
1.5%: Argentina’s monthly inflation fell to just 1.5% in May. That’s the lowest level in five years – and a stark fall from early 2024, when it exceeded 25%. President Javier Milei’s radical cost-cutting policies have helped put a lid on rising prices.
50%: China’s production of baijiu liquor, the country’s go-to tipple, has dropped more than 50% since 2016. Demand for alcohol overall in China is plummeting as a result of changing tastes, a slowing economy, and a new campaign to stamp out drinking among the Communist Party’s 100 million members.