Nov. 24 (UPI) — Argentina has reported a record increase in syphilis infections this year, with cases up 20.5% compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Health’s National Epidemiological Bulletin.
Officials say the country is experiencing the highest levels since systematic reporting began.
During the first 44 weeks of the year, health authorities recorded 36,702 infections, a figure that nearly matches the 36,917 cases reported in all of 2024 and well above the 30,445 cases registered in 2023.
National rates have also climbed steadily, rising from 56 cases per 100,000 people in 2019 to 93 in 2024.
The increase is visible across all regions and affects mostly young people. Seventy-six percent of confirmed cases involve individuals between the ages of 15 and 39, with the highest rates among those 20 to 29.
The surge is unfolding alongside a broader cultural environment among young Argentines. Trends on TikTok and Instagram often portray or normalize sex without condoms, and references to this practice appear frequently in music and social media videos.
The Ministry of Health says the rise reflects two main factors: sustained circulation of the infection and improved detection through the national surveillance system.
Argentina’s situation mirrors a wider regional trend. The Pan American Health Organization estimates that the Americas register more than 3.3 million new syphilis infections each year, with regional cases increasing by nearly 30% since 2020. The region also continues to report some of the highest levels of congenital syphilis in the world.
In response, representatives from 23 countries met in São Paulo in July to coordinate a regional strategy. The meeting produced a document calling for expanded access to testing and treatment, stronger surveillance and greater political commitment to contain the disease.
International health agencies warn that syphilis continues to rise globally and that its growth in the Americas is placing increasing pressure on public health systems, particularly among young adults and pregnant women.
The holiday commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado which took place on November 20th 1845 when the Argentine Confederation fought against an Anglo-French navy in the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata.
The Argentine Confederation lost the battle, but there is a saying ‘lose the battle but win the war’ and this was true in this case. Despite the victory, the British and French suffered such heavy losses that the battle brought them to negotiate a treaty with Juan Manuel de Rosas, the Governor of Buenos Aires.
The battle was seen as a key event as it had been triggered by Argentine efforts to protect regional industries from colonial powers in the region by raising trading tariffs and efforts by de Rosas to get Uruguay and Paraguay to join the confederation antagonised the French and British and led to the battle.
November 20th has been nationally observed as the Day of National Sovereignty since 1974, but the fourth Monday only became a national holiday in 2010.
England just about rode out a second-half fightback from Argentina as an eye-catching Twickenham debut from Max Ojomoh helped extend their winning streak to 11 successive Tests.
Ojomoh scored one try and made another with a crossfield kick in the first half as England stretched out into a 17-3 lead at the break.
Their advantage could have been even more emphatic had hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie not had a try ruled out for a slight knock-on on the final play of the first half.
Argentina, who fought back from 21 points down to beat Scotland last weekend, crowbarred their way back into the contest though.
Justo Piccardo slid in before a pair of penalties from Tomas Albornoz and Santiago Carreras reduced the deficit to 17-16 on the hour.
But England seemed to recapture the momentum just in time.
A big break from Alex Coles set up a platform from which Ojomoh popped up for Henry Slade to stroll in under the posts.
George Ford’s conversion and penalty pushed England 11 points clear, only for Rodrigo Isgro’s converted try in the final minute to set up a grandstand last play.
The Pumas, needing a try to snatch victory, pounded away, with support from a small but loud collection of fans in the stands.
However, a final line-out, within 10 metres of the England line, went astray to wild cheers from the majority of the 80,807 spectators and Alex Mitchell kicked to the stands to ensure his England side successfully round off a 2025 that has featured only one defeat, a reverse against Dublin in February.
So Clarin, Argentina’s biggest newspaper, steered straight into it instead.
In the first two lines of their preview of Sunday’s match, “history, politics, the Falklands War and England’s persistent imperialist views” were all referenced., external
The story of a teenage Federico Mendez ironing out England second row Paul Ackford with a blindside haymaker 35 years ago was retold.
On Thursday, Franco Molina threw in another piece of the Anglo-Argentine back story.
“It was a goal, the referee gave it, it was a goal!,” the Argentina second row said, recalling Diego Maradona’s contentious ‘Hand of God’ goal in the 1986 quarter-final meeting at the football World Cup.
But it was all with a smile.
If all that history is being brewed up as pep-talk kerosene, Molina, who spent last season playing for Exeter, hid it well.
For him there was too much to get excited about in the 80 minutes to come, without dredging up the past.
“It is a big game, just because of the context of the international game,” he said.
“It is really special playing at Twickenham.
“It is going to be a really physical game and every English team is tidy in what they do, all the kicks from the field, all the play with the ball in hand.
“We will need to be really connected and precise across the whole 80 minutes to beat them.”
While it is not clear if Freeman’s video was imposed or motivated by joy after only England’s ninth win over the All Blacks in a 120-year rivalry, Elliot Daly, who is part of the team’s fines committee alongside Jamie George, said similar footage exists of other players.
“If you do something wrong, you do a TikTok video. Although it doesn’t have to go on TikTok.”
Steve Borthwick is one of those relieved about that final get-out clause. The head coach has been roped in for a cameo on one video that has, so far at least, not been shown beyond the team room.
“There has been a lot of laughter, a lot of very bad dancing – I think that is one of the better ones,” Borthwick said of Freeman, Steward, Pollock and Smith’s effort.
“I was asked to make a guest appearance in someone else’s TikTok dance, so there was a very limited role to play in one.
“The team saw it and that is as far as it is going!”
England take on Argentina on Sunday in their final match of 2025, seeking an 11th straight victory.
Hooker Jamie George, wing Tom Roebuck and centre Ollie Lawrence have been ruled out of Sunday’s match against Argentina as England’s tough autumn stretches the squad.
All three started the 33-19 win over New Zealand last weekend, but George and Lawrence picked up hamstring injuries while Roebuck has a foot problem.
Two other regulars, lock Ollie Chessum and centre Tommy Freeman, are again unavailable after missing the victory over the All Blacks.
Hooker Jamie Blamire, second row Charlie Ewels and uncapped teenage wing Noah Caluori come into the squad as Steve Borthwick’s side target an unbeaten autumn.
Caluori, who was named in England’s initial autumn internationals squad, scored in England A’s win over Spain on Saturday.
Argentina are in London this week after cruising past Wales and then coming back from a big deficit to stun Scotland in Edinburgh last Sunday.
Fly-half George Ford, who masterminded a 2-0 series win in Argentina in the summer, says England will be expecting a tough time against the Pumas.
“I know first-hand from being there in the summer how good a team Argentina are,” Ford told BBC Sport.
“They are an incredible, emotional and passionate team and we will have to make sure we get our prep right for that.”
Meanwhile, full-back Freddie Steward is available for selection despite failing a head injury assessment in the first half against the All Blacks.
The Rugby Football Union says Steward passed both his second and third HIAs, so is cleared to play this weekend.
Chile’s presidential election is heading to a run-off in December, in a showdown between leftist former Labour Minister Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast.
With about 83 percent of ballots counted on Sunday, Jara led with 26.71 percent, followed by Kast on 24.12 percent, according to the electoral authority, Servel.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
President Gabriel Boric, in a statement from the presidential office in Santiago, recognised Jara and Kast as the front-runners headed to the second round on December 14. He also congratulated both candidates, calling it a “spectacular day of democracy”.
Eight candidates appeared on Sunday’s ballot, but would have needed to get 50 percent plus one vote to win the election outright.
Despite leading in the first round, Jara, 51, faces an uphill battle in which her rivals are throwing support around Kast, founder of the far-right Republican Party.
Sunday’s election was dominated by growing public anxiety over surging murders, kidnappings and extortion in what has long been one of Latin America’s safest countries.
Jara, a minister under Boric, has promised to hire more police, lift banking secrecy to tackle organised crime and tackle cost-of-living issues.
Kast, 59, has pledged to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to keep out migrants and asylum seekers from poorer countries to the north, such as Venezuela.
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the far-right Republican Party, waves to his supporters, following early results during the presidential election, in Santiago, Chile, November 16, 2025 [Rodrigo Garrido/ Reuters]
Conservative candidates back Kast
Speaking from Santiago after Boric’s statement, Jara thanked supporters and urged Chileans not to let fears over rising crime drive them into the arms of the far right in the run-off.
“Don’t let fear harden your hearts,” the politician said, insisting that the answer to crime was not to “come up with ideas, each more radical than the next” and hide behind bulletproof glass.
The comments were a dig at Kast’s draconian campaign security measures.
For his part, Kast, in his address to supporters, called for unity and promised to “rebuild” Chile after four years of centre-left rule, which he termed “maybe the worst government in Chile’s democratic history”.
Maverick economist Franco Parisi caused surprise by finishing third on 19.42 percent, ahead of ultra-right lawmaker Johannes Kaiser on 13.93 percent, and former conservative mayor Evelyn Matthei on 12.70 percent.
Parisi refrained from backing either Jara or Kast in the run-off, saying that they both needed to go look for new voters “on the street”.
The next-closest contender, Kaiser, conceded defeat and announced his endorsement of Kast, while Matthei, another conservative who won about 13 percent of votes, quickly followed suit, citing the “absolutely uncontrolled arrival” of migrants and claiming Chile needed a “sharp change of direction”.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, said supporters at Kast’s headquarters were euphoric.
“There seems to be confidence that even though he came in second place by a slim margin, he will be the first to cross the finish line in the run-off next month. These people say that it is time for a deep change in this country,” Newman said. “They say the main problems are crime, delinquency, a slow and stagnant economy and also just the fact that there has been the same people governing this country for too long, and say that it’s time for a major overhaul.”
Law-and-order issues
The dominance of law-and-order issues in Sunday’s election has marked a drastic change from the wave of left-wing optimism and hopes of drafting a new constitution that brought Gabriel Boric, who isn’t allowed to run for re-election, to power.
The rising crime has been widely attributed to foreign criminal groups, coinciding with a doubling of Chile’s migrant population since 2017. Migrants now make up 8.8 percent of the country’s residents.
Wall-to-wall news coverage of crime has led to a clamour among voters for a “mano dura” or iron fist.
Rodrigo Arellano, an analyst at Chile’s University for Development, called the results “very bad news” for Jara and said it seemed “unlikely” she could win the December 14 run-off.
“Not only is her vote count low, but the combined total of the opposition candidates is almost more than double hers,” he told the AFP news agency, blaming anti-incumbent and anticommunist sentiment.
Jara’s candidacy is considered historic in contemporary Chilean politics, in part because of her working-class background and in part because she represents the Communist Party, which has not seen such broad support since Chile’s return to democracy.
Jara, who led an effort to reduce the work week from 45 hours to 40, has campaigned on affordability, pledging to increase Chile’s minimum wage and make housing more affordable. She has also made efforts to distance herself from Boric’s administration, even hinting at a possible break from her Communist Party if elected president.
Kast, frequently compared to United States President Donald Trump, founded Chile’s Republican Party in 2019 and is widely credited for bringing extreme right positions to the national stage. He lost to Boric in the 2021 presidential election.
He has repeatedly denied reports that his father was a supporter of the Nazi party, describing him instead as a forced conscript in the German army.
Voter turnout on Sunday was significantly higher than in the previous 2021 presidential election, as voting was mandatory for all 15.7 million registered voters.
Chileans also voted for members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate on the same day.
The governing leftist coalition currently has a minority in both chambers, and right-wing majorities in both could set the stage for Congress and the presidency to be controlled by the right for the first time since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.
The election is being closely watched as a gauge of the broader fortunes of South America’s left, which has recently suffered setbacks in countries like Argentina and Bolivia.
Last month, a centre-right president was elected in neighbouring Bolivia after 20 years of socialist rule. Right-wing candidates look likely to win presidential elections in Colombia and Peru next year, while the left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is predicted to face a close battle to retain his office in Brazil despite ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s sentencing for leading a failed coup.
More consistent success raises expectations of Argentina, something they have not always handled well.
In the summer they lost a home series 2-0 to England, despite Steve Borthwick’s side missing 14 players who were touring with the British and Irish Lions.
In the Rugby Championship, they started with a defeat and a win at home against New Zealand and went to Australia with a big chance to cement their status as title contenders.
Despite leading by 14 points at half-time, they ended up losing 28-24 after conceding a last-gasp try.
They avenged that loss the next week and ran the Springboks close in their final game after a 67-30 defeat in Durban, but finished bottom of the table.
Argentina went to Cardiff as favourites last week and put up 52 points, but Scotland are unlikely to be as charitable as Wales and the Pumas do not usually tour well in the northern hemisphere either.
The last time they won more than one game in November Tests was 2014.
However, with Wales dispatched and Scotland and England to come, this team has the chance for a historic clean sweep.
The odds might be against them, but three wins on British soil is not farfetched for this Argentina side.
Argentina team to face Scotland: Cruz Mallia, Isgro, Moroni, Chocobares, M Carreras, Prisciantelli, Benitez Cruz; Vivas, Montoya (capt), Delgado, Petti, Rubiolo, S Grondona, Martin Gonzalez, Oviedo.
Video shows the moment of a massive explosion at an industrial park in Argentina. The blast happened at warehouses housing agricultural chemicals, south of the capital Buenos Aires. Firefighters battled to control fires ignited by the explosion. At least 22 people were injured.
Scotland: Blair Kinghorn (Toulouse), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints), Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors, capt), Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors); Finn Russell (Bath), Ben White (Toulon); Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh), Ewan Ashman (Edinburgh Rugby), D’arcy Rae (Edinburgh); Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Gregor Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors), Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors).
Replacements: George Turner (Harlequins), Nathan McBeth (Glasgow Warriors), Elliot Millar Mills (Northampton Saints), Josh Bayliss (Bath), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Dobie (Glasgow Warriors), Tom Jordan (Bristol Bears), Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh).
On October 9, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina’s central bank and said that the US had begun directly purchasing pesos in foreign exchange markets to prop up the country’s currency. Six days later, he announced the Treasury was arranging an additional $20 billion facility with private banks and sovereign wealth funds. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has spent around $400 million buying pesos in multiple interventions.
The main objective of the rescue effort is to support Milei, whose libertarian reform agenda has earned enthusiastic backing from Trump. And Milei has delivered impressive results since taking office in December 2023, slashing monthly inflation from 25% to 1.5%, achieving a fiscal surplus in his first month, cutting 15% of the federal workforce, and reducing the poverty rate by around 10 percentage points.
However, Milei’s currency policy has become his Achilles heel. His attempts to defend exchange rate bands that keep the peso artificially strong—a strategy that’s drained Argentina’s dollar reserves and fueled capital flight. A heavy loss in Buenos Aires province elections in early September triggered a run on the peso that sent it plunging to record lows, and bond yields soared, precipitating US support.
Despite Trump’s efforts, the peso’s recovery was brief and continues to hover near its lows. Forward contracts indicate investors are betting on post-election devaluation. The intervention has triggered political backlash in the US with critics questioning why Washington is bailing out a country whose soybean farmers compete directly with those in the US. The results of the October 26 midterm election, where Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party won half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate, will only strengthen his reform agenda.
Wales are playing a week later than other nations, with all last weekend’s games played outside World Rugby’s international window.
The window is a designated three-week period, which starts this weekend, where international matches take precedence over club fixtures and all players are made available.
The likes of Ireland, Scotland and England chose to stage matches a week before the window opened.
The extra games are organised to raise revenue for governing bodies with the success of the fixture depending on how many tickets are sold.
The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has opted to play their extra match on the weekend after the window closes. They take on the Springboks on Saturday, 29 November when no other international matches are taking place.
The match in Cardiff clashes with league fixtures in the United Rugby Championship (URC) which will involve sides from Wales and South Africa.
Both Test teams are set to also be without players who play for clubs in England and France, while the Springboks also have players involved with sides in Japan.
