Macri Defends Utility Bill Hikes, General Prosecutor Recommends Banning Them
As the Supreme Court ruling over the legality of the government-sanctioned increases on utility bills looms large, the Macri administration and the opposition continue to battle it out. We intend to do things the way they are supposed to be done, but it will take five or six years,” Macri said. At the same time Macri was making these statements, the country’s General Prosecutor, Alejandra Gils Carbó, issued a ruling requesting the Supreme Court uphold the different rulings that banned the increases throughout the country. ]”However, the ruling is non-binding, meaning that even though the Supreme Court will take her opinion into account, it has no legal effect whatsoever. According to pundits, the Supreme Court will issue a final ruling on this whole mess tomorrow.
Source:The Bubble
August 17, 2016 17:26 UTC
Studies Suggest Argentines Eat Too Much Meat, Not Enough Vegetables
But when you’re a celiac/lactose intolerant like I am, finding food that doesn’t make you ill can be a challenge. According to Katz, Argentines eat more meat than the recommended allowance (no surprises there), less fruit and vegetables, a higher amount of carbs (all those empanadas) and less dairy products. The results are not so great:While the WHO suggests an intake of at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables every day, only 17 percent of Argentines consume that amount of fruits and only 25 percent consume that amount of vegetables. Argentines consume more meat than what’s recommended and generally consume the fattier cuts. Argentines consume 75 percent more than the recommended amount of saturated fats, and way less legumes and whole wheat than the recommended amount.
Source:The Bubble
August 17, 2016 16:52 UTC
Puma On The Loose In Iguazú Leads To Brief National Park Closure
Tourists visiting the Iguazú Falls National Park in Misiones Province yesterday afternoon were surprised by the presence of an adult puma, which prompted park authorities to close off the park to visitors. The park will reopen when the mountain lion has been relocated to a different area of the Iguazú National Park, and will be fitted with a collar that will allow park officials to monitor its movements in the jungle. While habitat loss and fragmentation has threatened puma populations, the national park works within the protocol of prioritizing the security of all people close to the protected areas. This protocol of the National park had been established in 2001, according to Clarín, after a cougar attack in 1997 had mauled and killed the 20-month-old child of a park ranger. National Park officials had said that this was the first time a mountain lion had attacked a human in one of the 17 national parks in which pumas can be found.
Source:The Bubble
August 17, 2016 15:56 UTC
US Dollar Price Of Buenos Aires Apartments Reaches All-Time High In August
Inflation may have gone slightly down since it peaked in April this year (the highest rate in 14 years), but the average price of a standard, used apartment in the City of Buenos Aires reached an all-time high this month, at US $1,945.60 per square meter, according to consulting firm Reporte Inmobiliario. In the capital as a whole, the value of one square meter of an apartment has increased by 119.72 percent over the last 10 years. Apartments in the posh neighborhood of Recoleta took the cake, with a price tag of US $2,850, followed closely by Barrio Norte, Retiro and Palermo. Constitución, on the other hand, has the lowest average of all neighborhoods at US $1,515 per square meter. But whereas rents used to be adjusted on a yearly basis, now they’re adjusted every six months.”
Source:The Bubble
August 17, 2016 15:33 UTC
Freedom Granted To Belén, Woman Imprisoned For ‘Inducing Abortion’
The Supreme Court of Tucumán Province has ordered the release of Belén, a young woman from said province who was condemned to eight years in prison for allegedly inducing an abortion, which is illegal in Argentina. Belén (not her real name) is a young woman who went to the Avellaneda hospital in Tucumán in 2014 with crippling abdominal pain: she was given painkillers and was admitted for about two hours. Last Friday, thousands marched under the rallying cry of “Freedom for Belén” across the country. Several initiatives have been struck up in Congress to reform abortion laws but none have succeeded so far. In fact, President Mauricio Macri recently made it clear that he will be not be passing any law in support of abortion.
Source:The Bubble
August 17, 2016 14:37 UTC
Grenade Found Near House Of Judge Who Banned Electricity Increases
A grenade was found today in a dumpster a few meters away from the house of Martina Isabel Forns, the federal judge who banned electricity increases throughout the country last month. Police sources told La Nación that the grenade didn’t have any firepower and couldn’t be detonated. I got a call from the Security Minister [Patricia Bullrich], who offered me protection,” said the judge this morning. Read more: Energy Minister Aranguren Justifies Utility Bill Increases Before Committee“Mine was the only ruling discussed [at Energy Minister Aranguren’s presentation] and I signed the same ruling as the La Plata Court. “He mentioned me in Congress and not the Court; this indicates [their anger] is directed towards someone,” she said.
Source:The Bubble
August 17, 2016 14:15 UTC
Lange, Carranza win gold in sailing
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Lange, Carranza win gold in sailingArgentine pair Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli sail toward the finish line to clinch the gold medal during the medal race at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. It was the second gold for Argentina at Rio 2016 after Paula Pareto clinched gold in judo. The Austrians almost took silver after they finished the medal race with the same amount of overall points as Australia, 78. The tie, though, was broken because they finished in third in the medal race, one spot behind Waterhouse and Darmanin. The results were the tightest of the Rio 2016 Olympic regatta.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
August 17, 2016 04:32 UTC
Uruguay: Brazil tried to buy our support
“The Brazilian government received with profound discontent and surprise the statement from Chancellor Nin Novoa,” Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said. Brazil considers Uruguay a strategic partner.”Brazil labelled Nin Novoa’s statements as “not compatible with the excellent state of the relationship between Brazil and Uruguay.”‘Bullying’ CaracasEl País cited the official transcript of the meeting,which is not publicly available yet. As Uruguay held the chair last, it plays a leading role in seeking to transfer the responsibility, despite resistance from Brazil and Paraguay. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last night lashed out at Brazil during his week television and radio programme. Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes has long been a rival of Maduro’s but Uruguay under President Vázquez has more or less maintained the affinities built during José Mujica’s tenure.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
August 17, 2016 03:11 UTC
Brazil justice authorizes probe on Rousseff
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Brazil justice authorizes probe on RousseffSÃO PAULO — A Brazilian Federal Supreme Court justice (STF) has authorized the opening of an investigation into suspended President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for allegedly working to obstruct the course of a sweeping corruption probe, the GloboNews news channel said last night. In June, Zavascki barred the use of some wiretaps — also leaked by GloboNews — that showed Rousseff and Lula negotiating the cabinet appointment. Only the STF can authorize investigations against Rousseff and Cabinet ministers, because they enjoy immunity from prosecution. Late last month, a federal judge pressed charges against Lula for allegedly working to obstruct the work of investigators in the Car Wash probe. Rousseff had been publicly mulling the idea of a plebiscite for weeks as the Senate moves closer to the impeachment vote.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
August 17, 2016 02:48 UTC
Leones on verge of historic Olympic medal
Olympics — Men’s fields hockey Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Leones on verge of historic Olympic medalArgentina players celebrate after beating Germany 5-2 to set up an Olympic final against Belgium. Although Argentina’s women’s national field hockey team won four Olympic medals (silver at Sydney 2000 and London 2012 and bronze at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008), the men’s team have never reached the last four at Olympic Games. Argentina and Belgium gatecrashed the Olympic field hockey festival and reached their first men’s final together. Seconds later, the players were embracing and group hopping all over the Olympic Hockey Stadium, too, roared on by hundreds of fans. The Dutch fans, unprompted, spurred their team to start singing, then the Belgium team went a capella, loudly, with their fans echoing them.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
August 17, 2016 02:48 UTC
Soros cashes in as Barrick posts great first half
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Soros cashes in as Barrick posts great first halfBy Luzi Ann JavierBloombergBillionaire George Soros isn’t waiting around to see if this year’s surge in gold-mining shares will last. After climbing 169 percent in the first half, its best-ever performance for the period, Barrick shares have slipped from a three-year high reached last month. The holdings in Barrick slumped by 18.35 million shares to 1.07 million shares, according to a filing released Monday. As Soros cut his stake in Barrick, he bought 240,000 shares of SPDR Gold Trust, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of gold. At the end of June, Paulson & Co. owned 4.8 million shares of the ETF, a US filing showed.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
August 17, 2016 00:33 UTC
McLaughlin, TV provocateur and pioneer, dies
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 McLaughlin, TV provocateur and pioneer, diesNEW YORK — John McLaughlin, the conservative political commentator and host of the namesake long-running television show that pioneered hollering-heads discussions of Washington politics, has died. No cause of death was mentioned, but an ailing McLaughlin had missed the taping for this past weekend’s show for the first time in the series’ 34 years. Since its debut in April 1982, The McLaughlin Group upended the soft-spoken and non-confrontational style of shows such as Firing Line, Washington Week in Review and Agronsky & Co. with a raucous format that largely dispensed with politicians. McLaughlin also played himself on episodes of ALF and Murphy Brown and was ridiculed as a speed-talking egomaniac by Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live. “My theory is people say under pressure for the most part what they really mean,” McLaughlin said.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
August 16, 2016 21:11 UTC
Energy Minister Aranguren Justifies Utility Bill Increases Before Committee
Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren today appeared before a special committee comprised of representatives from the Chamber of Deputies to justify the steep increases in utilities, collectively known as tarifazo. [We found] there were distribution issues; high subsidies; obsolete infrastructure; prices below the costs needed to generate energy; prices that had artificially been kept low. In 2010 we imported all our energy, despite being the second country in the word in terms of oil and non-conventional gas reserves,” Aranguren said. Electricity bills rose by 40 percent, while gas bills rose by less than 200. When it comes to gas bills, we pay about 18 percent of what Uruguayans, Chileans and Brazilians pay,” the minister finished.
Source:The Bubble
August 16, 2016 21:00 UTC
Protest For More ‘Adequate’ Retirement Funds Disbanded With Water Cannon
A pensioners’ protest for more adequate retirement funds got out of hand today when police removed protesters, most of an advanced age, using force and a water cannon, even, after they refused to clear one of the car lanes they were blocking. Pagina 12 reports that the head of the Independent Retirees’ Movement, Mariano Sánchez, believes that, “It is an embarrassment that a retiree receives no more than AR $4,900. A retirees’ funds’ bill passed by the Macri administration was recently enacted. It seeks to readjust the amount of money pensioners receive from the government, after years of gross government mismanagement of retirement funds. Basically, retired Argentines have been chronically shortchanged when it comes to receiving their retirement funds — many simply haven’t gotten any and many others have been given sums far below what they need to live comfortably.
Source:The Bubble
August 16, 2016 19:52 UTC
Argentina Is Importing Quinoa, A South American Crop, From Indonesia
While the grain is naturally produced in Argentina, the country usually imports quinoa — though not normally this much. While the government and various other organizations have dedicated time and money to promote the local production of quinoa, Argentina usually imports quinoa from Peru and Bolivia, the two largest producers of quinoa in the world. However, according to an article in Clarín, Argentina has imported eight tons of quinoa from Chile and 22 tons from Indonesia in the last six months. Clarín culled this data from the National Agrifood Health and Quality Service of Argentina (Senasa), who reported that Argentina imported 192 tons of quinoa in the first six months of 2016, a 501 percent increase when compared with the same time period in 2015, in which Argentina imported 32 tons of quinoa. Locally produced quinoa is often sold in-country, primarily in small health stores called dietéticas, at regional fairs and in local supermarkets.
Source:The Bubble
August 16, 2016 19:07 UTC