Argentina

Israel and Argentina have launched a direct flight starting in November as the two countries boost their ties under Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The twice-a-week flight comes as Israel is aggressively pushing to cement its geopolitical footprint in Latin America amid its growing international isolation and its entrenched image as an occupying power.

On May 7, Israel’s national carrier, El Al, opened bookings for a direct flight between Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires covering a distance of 12,000 kilometres (7,460 miles) – the longest route in the airline’s history.

However, the 16.5-hour journey is driven by political ambitions rather than mere commercial viability.

During a celebratory event in occupied East Jerusalem last month, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed Argentina’s Milei to hail the “first direct flight” between the two nations.

The event showcased a striking political alignment, further highlighted by the presence of US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who jokingly promised to buy the first ticket and described the two leaders as US “President Donald Trump’s biggest friends”.

The route aims to translate the “Isaac Accords” – a Latin American framework inspired by the “Abraham Accords” – into tangible reality. Morocco and Sudan established diplomatic ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords signed under President Trump’s first term.

Championed behind the scenes by Rabbi Axel Wahnish, Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, the framework aims to establish strategic cooperation in security, counterterrorism, and artificial intelligence with Latin American nations, including Ecuador, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

Trading tech for legitimacy

Israel is acutely aware that its status as an occupying power, exacerbated by the genocidal war on Gaza, has severely damaged its international standing. To secure recognition and bypass boycotts, particularly from an increasingly critical Europe, Israel is leveraging its advanced military and surveillance technologies.

Ihab Jabarin, an analyst specialising in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that Israel’s strategy has shifted.

“Israel’s moral image has completely eroded,” Jabarin said. “The logic now is: ‘you may not like us, but you need us.’ Israel is offering its expertise in cybersecurity, AI systems like Lavender, border management, and drones – technologies tested on Palestinian bodies and land – to countries grappling with internal conflicts and organised crime,” he told Al Jazeera.

Jabarin noted that Israel uses infrastructure – whether ports, underwater cables, or civilian aviation – as tools for national security and influence. “This flight is not just about transporting passengers; it is a permanent corridor for security and tech businessmen,” he explained.

This strategy of using technology and security to buy diplomatic loyalty mirrors Israel’s approach in Africa. It has forged close ties with Ethiopia, Kenya and Chad. Last December, Israel became the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia.

It has used smaller island states like Micronesia in the Asia Pacific to secure favourable votes at the United Nations and break its international isolation.

“Israel is trying to create a global network of interests that forces countries to weigh their relationship with Israel against their stance on the Palestinian cause,” Jabarin added. “It wants to make the world unable to live without it.”

The Milei-Netanyahu chemistry

The driving force behind this Latin American link is the ideological bond between Netanyahu and Milei. While left-wing leaders in the region, such as Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have severed ties or strongly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, Milei has embraced the Israeli narrative unconditionally.

For Milei, who declared himself the most Zionist president in the world in March, the alliance offers rapid positioning in the Middle East, closer ties to Washington lobbies, and a stance against Latin America’s traditional left. For Netanyahu, Milei offers unconditional emotional and symbolic support that Israel has largely lost in Europe.

“Netanyahu understands the value of a symbolic ally,” Jabarin said. “He needs leaders who can be marketed as proof that Israel can still forge ideological alliances, not just pragmatic ones. Argentina, under Milei, has become Israel’s most important ‘island of influence’.”

A ‘safe haven’ from war crime probes

The direct flight also serves a highly practical security purpose for Israel. With mounting legal challenges and arrest warrants targeting Israeli soldiers and officials in Europe over alleged war crimes in Gaza, the Tel Aviv-Buenos Aires route offers a crucial bypass.

On Tuesday, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister ⁠Bezalel Smotrich said he was informed that the ⁠International Criminal ⁠Court (ICC) ⁠had ⁠requested a warrant for his arrest. Prime Minister Netanyahu is also sought by the ICC for war crimes committed in Gaza.

Currently, travellers between the two countries rely on 21 to 33-hour transit flights through European hubs like Madrid or Paris.

Diego Ruzzarin, a Brazilian writer and analyst, argued that the project aims to secure hassle-free travel for Israelis, particularly military personnel, sparing them from international security interrogations or the risk of arrest in Europe.

Jabarin echoed this assessment, noting that the fear of legal pursuit in Europe is a significant concern within the Israeli establishment.

“The direct flight bypasses any potential legal harassment in Europe,” he said. “Latin America is now appearing in Israeli calculations as a more politically flexible space compared to rights-focused Europe.”

Economic risks and domestic pushback

Despite its strategic value, the flight faces significant logistical and economic hurdles. Because Israeli planes are banned from the airspace of several African nations, including Libya, the flights must take a costly detour over the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

To mitigate the economic risks of the long-haul route, the Israeli government has taken the unusual step of granting El Al a 20-million-shekel ($5.4m) subsidy, spread over three years.

The success of the route will heavily depend on Argentina’s Jewish community – the largest in Latin America, estimated at up to 300,000. According to Sabre data, roughly 55,300 people travelled between the two countries in 2025, a 37 percent increase from 2024, but still below the 71,200 recorded in 2019.

The project has sparked domestic criticism in both countries. In Israel, the transport ministry reportedly warned that pulling Boeing 787 Dreamliners from highly profitable US routes to service Buenos Aires could drive up ticket prices for Israelis travelling to North America.

In Argentina, left-wing congresswoman Myriam Bregman accused Milei’s government of dragging the country into an “imperialist war” without congressional approval, warning of a constitutional overreach.

Furthermore, the influx of Israeli tourists, many of whom are recently discharged soldiers, has caused friction in southern Argentina. Local residents and activists have blamed Israeli tourists for devastating fires in the Patagonia nature reserves due to negligence, the most recent being a massive blaze in January 2026 that destroyed 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres) and led to the arrest of an Israeli tourist.

For Israelis, however, an El Al flight to Buenos Aires carries profound historical symbolism. In May 1960, the Mossad used an official El Al flight to smuggle captured former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann out of Argentina to face trial and execution in Israel.

Argentina has withdrawn the last of its A-4AR/OA-4AR Fightinghawks, modernized versions of the classic A-4 Skyhawk, a type that saw six decades of service in the South American nation. The retirement of the A-4s comes as the Argentine Air Force (locally, the Fuerza Aérea Argentina, FAA) introduces the F-16 as its new fighter, signaling a major overhaul of capabilities.

The FAA announced the “definitive decommissioning” of the Fightinghawk fleet at Villa Reynolds Air Base in San Luis province yesterday. The base was home to the final Argentine A-4 unit, the 5th Air Brigade (V Brigada Aérea).

As well as the FAA’s introduction of the F-16, the decision to stand down the A-4s was based on prioritizing “operational efficiency and economic sustainability,” the service said. In a statement, it also pointed to the costs of maintenance and sustainment of the aging jets; keeping these aircraft operational had become an increasingly difficult challenge in recent years.

Los F-16 comenzaron su actividad de vuelo en el Área Material Río IV, operando en sectores autorizados.

Nuestros pilotos continúan su familiarización con el sistema de armas.

Esto reafirma nuestro compromiso con la defensa aeroespacial integral. pic.twitter.com/lExbKUIwS1

— FuerzaAéreaArgentina (@FuerzaAerea_Arg) March 30, 2026

A version that was unique to Argentina, the Fightinghawk emerged from a major modernization program carried out by Lockheed Martin on former U.S. Marine Corps A-4M and OA-4M Skyhawks, which were taken out of storage at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC). Work on the first batch of aircraft was conducted by Lockheed Martin in Ontario, California, with the remainder upgraded in Córdoba, Argentina.

Fightinghawk deliveries to Argentina comprised 32 A-4ARs and four OA-4ARs, beginning in the mid-1990s. Interestingly, these upgraded jets were equipped with the same AN/APG-66 radar used in early F-16 variants and were capable of carrying AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. In the cockpit, the Fightinghawk introduced hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls, multifunction displays, and a new head-up display. Also installed were an onboard computerized mission-planning system and a new navigation/attack computer. Radar-warning receivers and onboard oxygen-generating equipment rounded out the upgrade package.

Although significantly more capable than the Vietnam-era Skyhawks they evolved from, the Fightinghawk was never designed as a dedicated air-defense fighter. Nevertheless, it was forced into that role after Argentina retired its last French-built Mirage fighters in 2015.

Against this backdrop, the FAA spent years trying to rebuild its ‘fighter’ capability but was repeatedly hampered by British efforts to block potential fighter buys. There was even speculation that Argentina might push to secure a deal with either China or Russia. Numerous aircraft options were evaluated before the U.S. government finally approved the transfer of F-16s from Denmark to Argentina in October 2023.

Early the following year, Argentina’s President Javier Milei confirmed that Buenos Aires would purchase the secondhand F-16s from Denmark. Welcoming the news, the U.S. Department of State described the jets in question as “low-cost high-performance multirole aircraft.”

The FAA is now in the process of introducing 24 F-16s, in the form of 16 single-seat F-16AMs and eight two-seat F-16BMs. It is also receiving several older Viper airframes for use as training aids and a spare parts source.

The retirement of the Fightinghawk also concludes the legacy of the wider A-4 series in Argentine service.

Argentina’s relationship with the A-4 began when the FAA took delivery of 26 former U.S. Navy A-4Bs in 1966, becoming the first export customer for the Skyhawk. A second batch of 26 A-4Bs arrived in 1970 and similarly joined the 5th Air Brigade at Villa Reynolds.

In 1976, another batch of 26 aircraft was delivered to the FAA, these being A-4Cs, again from U.S. Navy stocks. Their arrival allowed another unit to be equipped, this time the 4th Air Brigade at El Plumerillo.

For FAA service, these aircraft received the official designation A-4P from the U.S. government and the manufacturer, but were locally still often referred to as A-4B/Cs.

As well as equipping its air force, Argentina acquired A-4s for its naval air arm. In 1970, the Argentine Navy received a batch of 16 A-4Qs, a unique designation that applied to upgraded former U.S. Navy A-4Bs. These were primarily intended to serve aboard the aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo, a Colossus class vessel that was transferred from the United Kingdom after service with the U.K. Royal Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy. Unlike the first-generation FAA A-4s, the naval Skyhawks had, from the outset, provision for AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to provide air defense cover for the carrier group. They could also be fitted with a buddy refueling store.

By the time of the Falklands/Malvinas War in 1982, which began with Argentina’s surprise attack on the tiny British South Atlantic territory, nearly 8,000 miles from the United Kingdom, around 36 A-4s were in FAA service, with another eight more operational with the Argentine Navy.

At least one A-4 was tested from the airfield at Port Stanley in the Falklands, but the type was not judged suitable for sustained combat operations there. As for the Argentine Navy A-4s, these were initially embarked on the Veinticinco de Mayo, but the loss of the cruiser Belgrano forced the Argentine carrier back to port to avoid a similar fate.

All this was fortunate for the British, since the FAA and Argentine Navy A-4s were forced to operate from bases on the mainland, at the very margins of their range.

For the A-4s, the war began with the support of the initial amphibious landings near Port Stanley, after which FAA Skyhawks clashed for the first time with the British task force on May 12, 1982. Although four A-4s were brought down by air defenses in this confrontation, they inflicted heavy damage on the destroyer HMS Glasgow.

Argentinian pilots attacking British warships in San Carlos Water during The Falklands War

Typically, the FAA A-4s would transit to the islands at high levels, refuel from a KC-130 Hercules tanker, then drop down for a low-level attack run, dropping U.S.- or British-made free-fall bombs. Considering the challenges of these operations and the fact that the combination of low-level release and often-incorrect fusing meant many bombs failed to detonate, the jets had a major impact. In the course of more than 200 combat sorties, FAA A-4s sunk four warships and damaged several more. The service suffered eight losses at the hands of U.K. Royal Navy Sea Harriers out of a total of 19 A-4s lost, together with 17 pilots.

Meanwhile, the Argentine Navy A-4s claimed to have inflicted fatal damage on two warships (claims disputed by the British), for the loss of three Skyhawks and two pilots.

The bravery of the FAA pilots is noteworthy here, since the A-4s were flying with no air-to-air missile armament, no radar, no modern navigation system, delivering unguided munitions, and without radar-warning equipment. As you can read about here, as far as self-protection systems, the few examples that were introduced by the Argentines during the conflict were the result of desperate ingenuity.

The end of the conflict saw operations hampered by a U.S. arms embargo, but the Argentine Skyhawks soldiered on. The Argentine Navy stood down its last A-4Q in 1988, while the last of the first-generation FAA A-4s was retired in 1999.

With the retirement of the Fightinghawk, the A-4 remains in active military service only with neighboring Brazil.

The Brazilian Navy also acquired A-4s for carrier operations, but the retirement of its sole flattop, Sao Paulo, means that the value of its Skyhawks, locally designated AF-1, is increasingly questionable. However, work has been undertaken to upgrade these aircraft to ensure they remain viable, albeit now operating from a land base, at São Pedro da Aldeia. In all, five single-seaters and a pair of two-seaters were brought up to AF-1B and AF-1C standards, respectively. The seven upgraded Skyhawks received airframe and engine overhauls, a new Elta Systems EL/M-2032 multi-mode radar, a glass cockpit with HOTAS controls, and various other improvements.

Now that Saab Gripen E/F fighters are joining the Brazilian Air Force, retaining the Skyhawk fleet is also less important, and their time in service will likely come to an end soon.

In the meantime, however, the A-4 continues to provide good service to private military contractors, who appreciate the jet for its versatility, agility, and relatively low operating costs, meaning that it excels as both an adversary and as a test and training platform. Chief among these operators is the Canadian Top Aces, flying ex-Israeli A-4s, and Florida-based Draken International, which operates a fleet of the jets that previously flew with the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

As we have discussed in the past, the capabilities of some of these contractor-operated A-4s would be beyond the imagination of many of the pilots who originally flew the jets in military service. The latest standard of A-4s operated by Top Aces, for example, includes an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and an infrared search and track (IRST) system to better replicate more modern threats.

Therefore, while the A-4 may be fast disappearing from the inventories of air forces, its legacy is set to live on in the most tangible form, as it continues to serve in a variety of support roles around the world in the hands of commercial operators.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Large crowds marched across Argentina’s major cities to demand that President Javier Milei comply with a university funding law, and reverse sweeping budget cuts to the country’s tuition-free public university system.

The World Health Organization says the hantavirus poses a low risk to public health.

Arrangements are underway to repatriate passengers from a cruise ship after three people on board died.

So, how are officials applying the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to respond to the hantavirus?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Dr Mukesh Kapila – Professor Emeritus of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester

Dr Margaret Harris – Lecturer at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, former W.H.O. spokeswoman

Nicholas Locker – Professor of Virology at the Pirbright Institute, near Guildford, UK

In the fragmented mysteries of the great Argentine filmmaker Lucretia Martel, her explorations always start with sensory flashes: faces, spaces, objects, sounds in transfixing procession. The language is its own, resulting in disorienting but undiluted depictions of the worlds of modern elites (“La Ciénega,” “The Headless Woman”) and 18th century colonists (“Zama”) alike.

But now, with her first feature documentary, “Our Land (Nuestra Tierra),” Martel unravels a political crime and the larger offenses behind it with a vital clarity. The film is centered on the 2009 murder of Javier Chocobar, an Indigenous Chuchagasta man from Argentina’s northwestern Tucumán province, who was shot while defending his ancestral homeland from a thuggish incursion. The weight of the issue at hand — stolen land, territorial rights and the overdue recognition of a colonized country’s original peoples — brings out a tantalizing lucidity from the typically elusive Martel on a serious subject that requires discipline.

In one sense, she’s dealing with a rights issue too painful to be aggressively aestheticized, but she’s also exploring a blood-soaked injustice that can’t be treated conventionally. She begins, in fact, with rolling satellite images from space — as if to say: This appropriation of nature is the world’s problem, not just Argentina’s.

What follows, toggling between a courtroom and vast, contested land (filmed with dreamlike urgency by cinematographer Ernest de Carvalho), is a righteous, visually arresting swirl of fact and feeling, past and present. It’s also anchored by the stories of a community desperate to claim territory they’ve cultivated for centuries. “Our Land” is as honorable a documentary as you’re likely to encounter this year about what fighting looks like in today’s era of grab-what-you-can thievery.

First, we hear from the defendants, captured by Martel’s cameras at their 2018 trial in Buenos Aires (an unconscionable nine years after the shooting). The three accused men — a businessman and two ex-cops — flounder at positioning themselves as the true victims when their own handheld video of the incident shows otherwise: The confrontation with the Chuchagastas only escalated because they brought a gun. Their lawyers obnoxiously push a narrative of ownership versus trespassers, backed by reams of documents and tossed-around historical dates.

But as Martel patiently unfolds the Chuchagastas’ perspective — personal narratives that come to life in intimate photos, atmospheric sound design and warm home footage — we begin to understand that documents and files are a bogus battleground given their hundreds of years of careful tending. One community member distrusts dialogue to begin with, calling it a means to “give up something.”

“Our Land” is the work of a director whose attention is rigorous, whose care is genuine, but who is also conscious of her outsider’s perspective. It’s an ally’s respect. There’s no better proof of that than in her drone shots of this embattled community’s sun-soaked valley: elegant, purposeful, even awkward (a bird hits one) visitations from the air. They’re a reminder that she’s the filmmaker, surveying a story that belongs to others. Documentaries don’t get much more honest than that.

A passenger from the cruise ship hit with a Hantavirus outbreak has spoken to Al Jazeera from isolation about what took place on board. Three passengers died from respiratory illness on the MV Hondius as it travelled from Argentina to West Africa.

On one of her previous visits to Los Angeles, Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel found herself having a smoke on Hollywood Boulevard.

There, while she stepped over the famous concrete-embedded stars, an unhoused man struck up a conversation with her.

“He kept explaining to me that he was poorly dressed because he was currently living on the street after someone robbed him, but he had written a screenplay,” Martel, 59, recalls in Spanish over coffee on a morning in April at a West Hollywood hotel.

“He told me they had stolen a watch from him — not a Rolex but a known brand,” she continues. “The whole time he was trying to convince me he was a millionaire who just so happened to be on the street because of random circumstances.”

One of Latin America’s most indispensable storytellers, Martel is fascinated by how prevalent that dream still is in L.A. — that movies can change your life overnight.

“That particular fantasy is par for the course in this city,” she says, though she’s not above it. It’s the reason she’s back to promote her first documentary, “Our Land,” out Friday.

Unhurried when it comes to her output, Martel has only made four fiction features, among them 2001’s “La Cienaga” and 2008’s “The Headless Woman” (returning to theaters this month in a new 4K restoration). Her biting and formally audacious narratives examine class, politics and — a speciality — the interiority of women through enigmatic portraits of psychologically complex individuals.

“Our Land,” a piercing indictment of the enduring wounds of colonialism, chronicles the murder of Indigenous Argentine activist Javier Chocobar in 2009 and the prolonged trial of the perpetrators in 2018.

Chocobar was shot during a confrontation with armed men over land in the Tucumán province of Argentina where the Chuschagasta Indigenous community has lived for many generations. Martel explores the killing not as an isolated event in her country’s recent past but as part of a long history of dispossession.

“Racism is a foundational element,” she says of her homeland. “The only consistent thing in Argentina, from the country’s birth to the present day, is the rejection of Indigenous people.”

In Argentina, Martel explains, public education has indoctrinated the population into believing Indigenous people no longer exist. Yet many Argentines proudly claim a connection to the Europeans, Italians in particular, who arrived in the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“When giving speeches, our presidents always say, ‘We are a country of immigrants,’ or ‘We came from the boats,’” says Martel. “They use metaphors like these because deep down Argentines feel much more indebted to European immigration than to our Indigenous population. But more than half of the people in Argentina have Indigenous ancestors.”

In 2020, Chocobar’s three convicted murderers appealed their guilty verdicts and were set free. “Our Land” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2025, which brought renewed attention to the case. A month later, the sentence was upheld and two of the men returned to prison (one died in the interim).

Martel believes that outcome was a response to her film. “Communities wage the fight but cinema helps,” she says.

“I believe that we must use cinema for its enormous power to alter perception and not soothe the rich,” Martel says. “It’s not about delivering a message but rather about showing how an idea functions.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

For over 14 years, Martel worked on “Our Land” on and off. This time included periods when she focused on 2017’s “Zama,” her masterful period piece following a Spanish official in 18th century Argentina “who doesn’t want to be American,” she says, referring to the continent. In her mind, both “Zama” and “Our Land” come from the same impulse to dissect colonialism.

As part of her research process, Martel and her team created a detailed archive of documents related to the case that the Chuschagasta community now has at its disposal. Over the years, Delfín Cata, one of the Indigenous men present during the attack, would call Martel. He never asked about how her film was going, but the director sensed he was tacitly checking in on her progress, hoping that she was not losing faith.

“That was a confirmation that, beyond my own interest, there were people who needed this film,” she says. “I felt the immense satisfaction of knowing I was doing something that would be concretely useful.”

For Martel, the question of whether she was the right person to make this film (one she got in Venice) seems unfair. “It’s wrong to prevent a human being from speaking about their own history because they are not a woman, because they are not Black, or because they are not Indigenous,” she says. “It’s better to make mistakes trying to understand something than not to try at all. The chances of making a mistake are enormous in a film, no matter how good your intentions are.”

A key piece of evidence in the Chocobar case, prominent in the film, is a video that one of the attackers filmed, presumably expecting the Indigenous community to react violently, to justify firing his gun at them. The Chuschagasta men that faced them weren’t armed. As used by their aggressors, the camera functioned as a weapon.

Hollywood feels incompatible with Martel’s sophisticated, confrontational movies rooted in her country’s troubles. By Martel’s own admission, it doesn’t feel like a fit for her.

“I would have to force myself to create something outside my own country, outside my own language,” she says. “And that doesn’t really appeal to me.”

Still, Marvel Studios famously asked to meet with her when seeking a director for 2021’s “Black Widow.” Martel says she was among many directors they contacted, but she was curious to take the meeting even if she knew nothing would come of it.

“They wanted to do it over Zoom and I happened to be here in Los Angeles,” she remembers. “I told them I could come in, because I wanted to see what the whole process was like.”

Martel describes the month she spent in L.A. — an eye injury prevented her from flying home sooner — as a “lot of fun in the end,” even if no blockbuster emerged from it. More recently, another Hollywood offer did tempt her, but she ultimately passed.

“It was a good book suggested to me by an actress of undoubted talent,” Martel shares, careful to avoid names. “I considered it, but you very quickly have to picture yourself spending three years or at least a year and a half living in the United States making a movie. I have a thousand things in Argentina to worry about.”

Still, Hollywood, and its significance to moviemaking, has a singular, unnerving allure on her. Two of Martel’s favorite movies set in L.A. are David Lynch’s nightmarish “Mulholland Drive” and Robert Aldrich’s psychodrama “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

“There is something ruthless and utterly devoid of sanity at the heart of this film industry, and I’ve never felt that darkness as clear as in ‘Mulholland Drive,’” she says. “How can an industry that handles so many millions [of dollars] and such impeccably dressed famous people be so full of lunatics? That film captures that perfectly.”

And occasionally, she thinks, a big production breaks the mold, such as Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 when Martel served as jury president — a controversial choice.

“It certainly had an impact on me,” says Martel. “I didn’t vote for it, though. I had another favorite, a Chinese film that stood no chance of winning.”

Phillips, she thinks, created a premonition for what was to come. “For me, the real killer clowns are Trump, Milei or Orbán,” Martel says, referring to polarizing leaders. “They expose themselves to ridicule and spout all sorts of nonsense. Those are clowns. And I think that movie captured that.”

Not one to mince words, Martel elaborates on the relation of Joaquin Phoenix’s social outcast turned supervillain and President Trump.

“The origin of the Joker is social resentment,” she says. “Trump holds no resentment toward society because the system gave him everything. But he has exploited the people who do harbor resentment. That is where you see the kind of clown he is, one who knows how to use people.”

Artificial intelligence, far-right ideologies, voracious capitalism — all of it makes Martel alarmed, seeing it as pushing us collectively to the brink of collapse. But there is hope, she thinks.

“What we have invented is very dangerous but we can dismantle it,” she says. “That is the only thing I’m betting on, that, at some point, a consensus will emerge and we’ll go, ‘Let’s not do this.’”

“I believe that we must use cinema for its enormous power to alter perception and not soothe the rich,” she says. “It’s not about delivering a message but rather about showing how an idea functions.”

She points to one of her subjects in “Our Land,” an Indigenous man who told her he loves the 1959 Charlton Heston epic “Ben-Hur,” a passion she does not share but understands.

“That’s a blow for all of us who make auteur cinema,” Martel says with a laugh. “That feeling that ‘Ben-Hur’ evoked gave him the strength to continue fighting for his community’s territory.”

The night before our interview, Martel rode around L.A. on a scooter holding onto a friend. These days she uses a cane to help her with mobility. “The city has great light,” she says, still open to being surprised by it.

Three of six passengers who fell ill from suspected rodent-transmitted virus have died, and one is in intensive care, the WHO says.

Three people have died on a cruise ship in the Atlantic, with at least one confirmed to have suffered from hantavirus, a rare disease transmitted to humans from rodents.

Health authorities are now investigating a suspected outbreak of the virus on the MV Hondius, which is sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde.

In a statement on Sunday, the World Health Organization said that one case had been confirmed and at least five other passengers were suspected of being infected.

“Of the six affected individuals, three have died, and one is currently in intensive care in South Africa,” WHO said in a statement.

“Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and crew. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing.”

WHO added that it was “facilitating coordination” between countries to evacuate the two other passengers showing symptoms of the infection.

Hantavirus, a rare disease transmitted to humans through the droppings or urine of infected rodents, can be fatal in severe cases and cause hemorrhagic fever.

Infected couple among casualties

South Africa’s National Department of Health said earlier on Sunday that there had been an outbreak of a “severe acute respiratory illness”, which had killed at least two people, and that a third person was in intensive care in Johannesburg, according to the AFP news agency.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, confirmed that the patient being treated in Johannesburg tested positive for hantavirus.

A 70-year-old was the first to develop symptoms. He died on the ship, with his body now being held on the island of Saint Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic, the spokesman said.

The patient’s 69-year-old wife also fell sick and was evacuated to South Africa, where she died in a Johannesburg hospital, he added.

Mohale told AFP that authorities have not confirmed the nationalities of the deceased. But the person in intensive care was reported by AFP to be a 69-year-old Briton.

BUENOS AIRES, April 27 (UPI) — Argentina’s incentive program designed to attract large-scale investments, a key pillar of President Javier Milei economic agenda, is showing early signs of success through increased foreign currency flowing into the country.

In an economy in which hard currency shortages often shape government policy and financial stability, early results from the Large Investment Incentive Regime, known by its Spanish acronym RIGI, are being closely watched by government officials and financial markets.

According to figures from Argentina’s central bank, projects approved under the program generated a net inflow of $762 million through March. The funds entered the country directly and helped provide some stability to the exchange rate.

Gonzalo Brest, a legal partner at KPMG Argentina, told UPI the progress of the investment regime sends a positive signal for the country’s economy.

“In concrete terms, this could translate into more private-sector jobs, especially in areas such as construction, transportation, metalworking, logistics, energy and mining, along with greater economic activity in the provinces where the investments are established,” Brest said.

He added that the program’s impact could extend beyond employment and affect Argentina’s external accounts.

“If these projects move forward, Argentina could increase exports and generate greater foreign currency inflows — something that is critical for an economy that has historically faced external constraints and balance-of-payments pressures,” he said.

Brest said the RIGI program is also intended to address Argentina’s long-standing difficulty in attracting large-scale investment in capital-intensive industries that require stable rules over long periods.

“In the government’s view, the regime functions as a kind of ‘island of stability’ aimed at accelerating investment decisions that, without a special framework, would likely be postponed or relocated to other countries,” he said.

The program is primarily focused on sectors such as oil and gas, mining, renewable energy, ports and heavy industry, all with strong export potential. Brest said the initiative’s main goals are to boost exports, increase foreign currency inflows and create jobs.

Many of the proposed projects are tied to lithium, copper, gold, silver, liquefied natural gas and oil development in Vaca Muerta, one of Argentina’s largest shale oil and gas formations.

“These are sectors where Argentina has abundant resources, but needed greater certainty to turn them into production and exports,” Brest said.

He cautioned, however, that the program’s long-term success will depend on factors beyond the design of the regime itself, including macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, access to financing and public support for large-scale projects.

“Even so, the RIGI is already functioning as a strong signal to international markets that Argentina wants to compete for major investment capital,” he said.

The program has received more than 35 project proposals totaling more than $80 billion. Of those, 13 projects have received government approval, representing combined investments of more than $18 billion.

Among the latest proposals under review is the “Fértil Pampa” project led by Pampa Energía. The initiative calls for a nearly $2.4 billion investment to produce fertilizers in the industrial hub of Bahía Blanca in Buenos Aires province.

With these developments, the RIGI program is moving beyond its initial phase of announcements and expectations.

The next challenge will be determining whether the promised investments can be sustained over time and translated into real economic activity, jobs and a stable flow of foreign currency for a country seeking relief from one of its most persistent economic constraints.

Press freedom advocates have warned of hostile rhetoric towards journalists and increasingly restrictive policies under Milei.

The administration of Argentina’s Javier Milei has restricted access to the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, as part of an escalating feud with the country’s journalists.

Accredited journalists reportedly arrived at the Casa Rosada on Thursday and attempted to enter the building through fingerprint scanning, as they usually would.

But they were unable to pass the scan. As confusion hit the news corps, the head of Argentina’s Secretariat of Communication and Press issued a clarification that their press accreditation had not been revoked.

“The decision to remove the fingerprints of journalists accredited to the Casa Rosada was taken as a preventive measure in response to a complaint filed by the Military Household regarding illegal espionage,” Secretary Javier Lanari wrote on social media.

“The sole objective is to guarantee national security.”

Lanari’s post cites an incident wherein two journalists from the Argentinian channel TN were accused of secretly filming inside the government palace.

After their report was broadcast, the Milei administration accused the journalists of endangering government security by showing parts of the Casa Rosada that were reportedly off limits.

On Wednesday, Milei himself took to social media to call the journalists “repugnant trash”. He then challenged other members of the news media to justify their actions.

“I would love to see that filthy scum — the 95% who carry press credentials — come out and defend what these two criminals did,” Milei wrote on X.

Since then, the president has repeatedly reposted messages critical of the news media, often accompanied by the acronym “NOLSALP” or “NOL$ALP”. It stands for: “We don’t hate journalists enough.”

“Someday, that filthy journalistic scum (95%) will have to understand that they are not above the law. They abused legal precedent. It does not come without a price,” Milei added in one of his posts on Thursday, as he continued to slam the news media.

This week’s actions are the latest in a series of policy changes under Milei designed to tighten restrictions on journalists.

Last year, for instance, his government capped entry to certain rooms in the Casa Rosada and placed other areas out of bounds.

Critics say the policies are part of a wider broadside against journalism in Argentina. The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said that, since Milei took office in 2023, the country has seen “a sharp decline in press freedom”.

And PEN International, an organisation for writers, warned last year of a “serious deterioration” in free-speech rights.

It pointed to legislation that further restricted which government documents could be made public and to Milei’s dismantling of public media, as well as the installation of a “mute” button to silence journalists during news conferences.

Already, the decision to bar journalists from entry into the Casa Rosada has faced pushback, including from Argentinian lawmakers.

Marcela Pagano, a former journalist turned deputy in Argentina’s legislature, announced on Thursday that she had filed a criminal complaint against Milei.

“The Casa Rosada is not private property,” Pagano wrote in a statement.

“Still less does a head of state — or his henchmen officials — have the authority to decide whether the press may access the building.”

She called Thursday’s incident “an unprecedented occurrence since the return of democracy” in Argentina in 1983.

“Prohibiting journalists from exercising their freedom of expression is the first step toward silencing any dissenting voice — a situation that we in Argentina have experienced during our country’s darkest moments,” she added. “THEY WILL NOT SILENCE US.”

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has reaffirmed strong alignment with the US and Israel during a visit to Jerusalem, backing their war on Iran.

His visit with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu included new agreements and closer ties.