BUENOS AIRES – Argentina’s President Javier Milei specialises in theatre and throwing verbal bombs. That’s how he came from nowhere to win power in 2023 from the Peronist movement that had controlled this country for decades. Memorably, he wielded a chainsaw on the campaign trail to show his zeal for change, shouting: “Libertad, Carajo! Long live Freedom, damn it!”
No wonder Donald Trump is a fan who has just given his buddy Milei the gift of suggesting the US is rethinking its long-standing neutrality on the Falklands Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. The US President also suggested on Thursday that he might not come to Britain’s aid in a potential territorial dispute over the Falklands. Even allowing for Trump’s predilection for shooting his mouth off, his intent was plain to see: to punish Britain for not giving him the help he sought in his disastrous Iran war, and to make the new UK Government step up defence spending.
Milei used a televised address to the nation overnight to declare that the “winds of change” favourable to Argentina’s claim to the islands were “blowing around the world”.
Inside the BBC meltdown over licence fee’s future
Scrambling to find £500m
The BBC is scrambling to cut £500m from its budget after executives discovered a gap in finances which shocked even new director-general Matt Brittin.
It comes as the number of households paying the £180-a-year licence fee fell by half a million last year to 23 million, the latest BBC accounts show.
The previous year, accounts showed a 300,000 drop in licence fee payers.
The BBC’s chief financial officer, Bérangère Michel, said earlier this year that the drop in TV licences had “resulted in an unsustainable financial position”.
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More job cuts to come
The BBC must cut £500m from its budget by 2028 – with £160m to be delivered immediately. The corporation has already announced 550 job cuts in news, nations and TV and radio content as part of the first stage in its savings plan.
Other cost-cutting options include cutting BBC Four arts and its archive channel and moving its content to BBC Two. The BBC Three youth channel could also be under threat.
‘Every part of BBC affected’
- More shows are set to be axed, following this week’s decision to scrap , insiders said.
- In a staff memo, seen by The i Paper, interim BBC head of news Jonathan Munro, said the 200 job closures announced in June would be followed by “further post closures (in news)” in the coming months.
- “Every part of BBC News will be affected, including senior leaders, and we’re reviewing some on-air roles,” said Munro.
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Familiar faces set to depart
There will be familiar faces leaving, presenters, on-screen correspondents. They will be looking for a small number of expensive on-air people who they might try to persuade to leave sooner than they expected. It’s all up in the air.
A leading news figure told the i paper
Apprentice jobs also hit
- Apprentices were also told they could no longer expect jobs, as a result of the cuts.
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Four things to know as Reform reported to the police over ‘funding breach’
Reform UK has been reported to the police over allegedly breaching political donation rules.
The allegations
In the Channel 4 report, Reform’s Dan Jukes, discusses with a donor ways to allegedly get around electoral rules by securing a £500,000 donation via a foreign source.
The report, carried out by Verbatim Investigations, appears to show head of policy James Orr, suggesting the donor’s father could pay for polling. The report claims Reform commissioned three polls £32,500 in total and that the public was not told who commissioned or funded them.
The law
Under UK law, foreign companies are not a permissible source of funding for political parties, including payments for studies and research. Accepting donations from them could constitute a criminal offence.
Reform claimed it was the victim of a hoax and denied any wrongdoing.
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Reform’s response:
Reform UK has been the target of a hoax perpetuated by foreign-funded, climate change activists posing as would-be party donors. The party denies any wrongdoing.
A Reform Spokesperson
Reform UK has a robust vetting process for prospective donors approved by the Electoral Commission.
Who reported Reform?
- The Lib Dems have written to the Met Police and Electoral Commission saying that James Orr, a senior adviser to Farage, facilitating the donation from an impermissible donor would breach the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.
- Labour also intends to report the matter to the police, it is understood, while the Greens have called for an investigation.
- The Met said it is assessing the reports.
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‘No money reached Reform UK at all,’ says Orr
Orr, Reform’s policy head who is at the centre of the allegations, said that “no money reached Reform UK at all”.
“It was a public poll arranged by an independent person paying an independent pollster, and those polls were published immediately for the general public,” he said in a video posted to X.
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Aides step down
Both Orr and Jukes have stepped down from their roles. Farage said Reform UK has “broken no laws” and has not “taken any dodgy money” amid allegations the party breached political donation rules.
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Two rescued a week after Nepal floods
Two people have been rescued alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal, nine days after
a catastrophic flash flood killed more than 1,200 people.
Some 39 workers are still believed to be trapped inside the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project, according to Suresh Raut, a senior official of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
Rescued workers named
Authorities have named Sanjaya Shah, a mechanical foreman with the NEA, as the first person to be rescued from tunnels.
The second person rescued is Kabir Maharjan, the BBC reported.
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Injuries to hands and feet
- Both workers have injuries on their hands and legs, thought to be from crawling through the tunnel.
- They are also suffering from lack of oxygen, authorities said.
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Huge rescue mission
Hundreds of the more than 5,000 still missing are labourers working in a vast network of tunnels at hydropower sites along the river.
Engineers have been pumping air into the hydropower tunnels as part of the huge rescue operation. Aside from the tunnel, it is estimated that over 5,000 people remain missing in Nepal and Tibet.
The rescues inject hope into an otherwise gruelling mission through thick mud.
A tunnelling expert told the news agency that teams had already dug through debris blocking the tunnel for 50-60 metres (164-196 feet) before finding survivors.
They were hoping for a breakthrough, said Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.
“After a week of 24/7 heartache, we might, just, be back in miracle country.”
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Watch more from The i Paper
Strawberry fields for ever as gene-edited fruit to hit UK shelves
Gene-edited strawberries and tomatoes could soon be in British supermarkets for the first time after the Government gave the green light for final approval of the foodstuffs.
The Food Standards Agency will now have the final say on whether the products – a longer-growing strawberry and tomatoes with increased vitamin D – can be offered to consumers.
What you need to know
- Gene-edited foodstuffs have had their DNA adjusted to enhance or delete certain natural attributes such as ripening times or nutrient levels.
- In this case, “sunshine” tomatoes have been created by the Norfolk-based John Innes Institute with as much vitamin D as two eggs. A US company has also created eight strawberry varieties that fruit for longer.
- Crucially the technique is different from genetic modification, where material is added to an organism. With gene editing no additional DNA is introduced.
How will gene-edited fruit benefit consumers?
The Food Standards Agency now has the final say on whether the tomato and strawberry varieties can be offered to consumers after the Government approved the precision-bred plants.
Scientists say the fruits will look and taste the same as equivalent non gene-edited products. The result will be in an extended growing season for strawberries and tomatoes with the same amount of vitamin D as 28g of tuna.
Watch more from The i Paper
How unprecedented El Niño could persist through to February
The head of the United Nations has warned that the world is facing a “supersized” El Niño event that has a “near 100 per cent likelihood” of lasting until February next year.
Antonio Guterres was speaking as UN experts warned the world has entered a “danger zone of extreme weather” in the coming months.
What you need to know
- Data released by the World Meteorological Organisation shows this year’s El Niño is set to be the strongest in more than 70 years, with “big impacts on rainfall and temperature patterns”.
- The natural climate phenomenon is already established in the Pacific and is caused when sea temperatures rise.
- The effects of El Niño vary by region. Hot, dry weather may hit South America, south east Asia and Australia. In India, monsoon rainfall can decrease but the southern US faces a higher chance of flooding.
How will El Niño affect the UK and the rest of the world?
Guterres warned that El Niño was being “supersized before our eyes” and that the world should brace for extreme weather. He said: “The planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up.”
In Britain, the direct impact of El Niño can be harder to discern but forecasters have warned of the likelihood of a wet and stormy autumn and early winter. The Met Office has said the weather phenomenon can increase the risk of colder UK winters.
Watch more from The i Paper
Disgraced comedy actor Chris Langham dies, aged 77
The former The Thick of It star has died from cancer at the age of 77. His high-flying career came to an end in 2007 when he was convicted of viewing child sexual abuse images.
What you need to know
- Langham’s death was announced via an obituary in which said he had died from pancreatic cancer on 24 June this year.
- He was for many years a leading comedy actor and writer, starring in the BBC’s Whitehall satire The Thick of It. He was also a writer for and appeared in sketch show Not The Nine O’Clock News.
- But his career came to an end when he was charged with 15 counts of downloading indecent images, including clips that showed the rape of a teenager and sexual abuse of an eight-year-old.
‘I did something terribly wrong’
Langham’s fall from grace was precipitous. Days after winning a Bafta he was charged with sex offences and subsequently sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment. The actor claimed he had viewed the material for research purposes.
The actor denied he had a sexual interest in children but he was placed on the sex offenders’ register. In a 2015 interview, the actor said: “I did something terribly wrong… I was punished, quite correctly, for being as stupid and arrogant as the judge described me to be.”
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
Sales of battery
electric vehicles hit a record high last year.
Starts at £22,995 for the smaller battery
Available with either a 40kWh battery or a larger 52kWh pack, that offers almost 255 miles, the latest, retro-inspired Renault 5 is both a joy to behold and a hoot to drive.
The interior has been lavished with a level of detail that’s typically reserved for more expensive cars.
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A champion of EV efficiency
It offers a remarkable 491 mile range on a single charge from the 85kWh battery.
It is a technological masterclass inside with the ability to option screens that span the entire width of the dashboard, including an optional display for the front passenger.
Priced from £37,400
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It’s a lot of money to part with, but this is arguably all the car you will ever need.
The £89,000 Macan is a premium SUV that somehow manages to blend Porsche’s reputation for dynamics and sporty driving with everyday practicality.
The 95kWh batteries can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 21 minutes from the fastest public charging outlets.
With the business class-style six seat configuration costing a staggering £76,995, it is by far the most expensive Kia ever made, but it backs up its financial demands with a suite of genuinely useful and impressive onboard technology.
It’s fast, goes a long way between stops and charges relatively quickly but the interior is bland, the onboard technology is infuriating and the experience is devoid of emotion.
All of its gadgetry can’t disguise the fact that performance is weak, even for a typically zippy EV, the ride is fussy at slower speeds and it’s not in the least bit enjoyable to drive on a country road.
- While good value (prices start at £17,935) for the 200-mile max range, there are more interesting options from Hyundai, Citroen and Renault for similar money.
- It attempts to wow with tech, much of which hinders, rather than helps.
- There’s no tangible benefit over mounting your phone to the dash.
- Simply an average driving experience, adequate range and slow charging speeds.
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He said: “Recently, President Trump declared that the US is re-evaluating its historic position in relation to the Malvinas”, using the Argentinian name for the Falklands. He added that Britain was facing “multiple crises of a migratory, demographic and economic nature that are unlikely to be resolved. It is clear that they are on a path of decline. Argentina’s future, however, is flourishing and will prevail.”
He claimed that Trump’s re-evaluation over the islands was “not innocuous”. “The US is considering this change of position because it knows that Argentina has a reliable partner, aligned with Western values, in a strategically important position that can be a valuable ally in the decades to come,” Milei added.
The islands – whose residents voted by 99.8 per cent in 2013 to remain British – are “under British occupation”, he claimed, announcing plans to sanction oil companies working off the islands.
Milei’s address to his nation here showed a leader emboldened by the notional support of Trump’s America to reassert Argentina’s claim to the islands. The man admires Winston Churchill, we are told hereabouts, and there was some of that in this speech. “The islands are ours, they were taken from us, and they are indispensable for us in the coming decades,” Milei declared. “There can be no argument here. They are part of the Argentine territory….we will fight tooth and nail to defend our interests.”
So what lies behind this latest chapter of verbal conflict over islands at the end of the world, almost 8,000 miles from London? And how dangerous is this to a new UK government with problems aplenty elsewhere? I have reported this standoff ever since being here during the war over the islands in 1982. I later had the rare journalistic experience of hearing the then-president of Argentina, one Carlos Menem, end the “state of war” to me and my TV camera, back in 1989, news that was celebrated in Washington DC, Moscow, Beijing, not to mention London.
The voice I’m hearing most this week, and it speaks loudly, is from an adviser to Milei who said bluntly to me and others: “Britain is yesterday, Argentina is tomorrow.” The adviser insisted this reflected what they were hearing from Trump’s Washington DC
Clearly, Trump sees a transactional window, however short-sighted, in Latin America, and from day one of this second term he has made it clear that he believes the region belongs to him and his diktat, from Greenland to the south Atlantic, in stark contrast to the multiple presidencies I reported from Washington, when the hemisphere so often looked like an afterthought.
Look at what he did in Venezuela, taking out one leader and installing another who is doing his bidding on the country’s oil. Look at how he threatens Cuba, and its desperate, old-style, left-wing leadership. He even rewrites the rules on respect for sovereignty, namely to stay out of the elections of others, supporting the right-wing candidate in Brazil’s election next month.
“Trump changes his mind, as we know, almost by the day,” says José Octavio Bordón, veteran Argentine politician, once a candidate for the presidency. “And Milei is now back in campaign mode. Addressing the nation this way, it’s a power play, but without anything concrete to show, it can end up looking confused.”
Truth be told, Milei knows that there is no way Argentina can think militarily about the Falklands. The 40-odd years that separate us from the war of 1982 have seen the Argentine armed forces degraded in terms of resources, manpower and technology. Any process over the future of the islands lies clearly in the political arena.
“Sometimes it’s all about luck in politics,” to quote that insider at the Presidential palace.” Our President just got lucky, because of Trump’s very welcome present to him.”
Certainly Milei needs a rallying cry, just a year ahead of elections and polls that show his agenda for change only just ahead of the Peronist machine. And that lies behind his seizure of the Malvinas issue overnight with his address to the nation. Pollsters warn that such thinking may be short-sighted. “People care much more about the cost of living, rising prices, insecurity, health care, than the Malvinas,” says pollster Martha Reale. But that may be a secondary consideration.
What’s so telling is that we learn that Trump’s Pentagon sees the south Atlantic as “a geostrategic maritime corridor,” to quote one US diplomat this week, connecting the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. “How big a factor is that for this latest back and forth over the Falklands?” I asked, mentioning the issues Trump has with waterways in the Middle East, remember that Strait of Hormuz, even the Panama Canal, and yes, his evident distrust of the Brits. “Work it out for yourself,” I was told with a chuckle. “A new America from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego.”
And, lest we forget, there is everything from oil, to fish, to minerals, in those waters down south, always a Trump obsession. Milei’s address promised sanctions against a corporate alliance promising to produce oil out the south Atlantic by 2028. Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum are working together on a project titled Sea Lion, now threatened by Milei outlawing Argentine companies helping them. You wonder how long before we hear of Trump buddies who want control of any such mining for wealth.
From the perspective of someone who once heard an Argentine President declare an end to war, and someone who then worked at the UN on how to foster dialogue between the two countries, there has to be a fear in Trump’s meddling with the Falklands issue. Firstly, that the most powerful man in the world is using another leader’s current vulnerability to pursue his own vendettas and interests, cynical to the last.
Then, to my ear, this Argentine President has probably closed the window on a conversation between London and Buenos Aires for the foreseeable future with the verbal bomb-throwing. We return, sadly, to a dialogue of the deaf. More’s the pity, because even on the football pitch….Argentina and England, well we have a mutual respect, us for Leo Messi, they for Bobby Charlton. No, seriously.
Because (surprise, surprise) the last thing most Argentines are is anti-Anglo in my experience. Far from it. And in time, as the late President Menem once told me, there surely could be a way to put two flags on those islands at the end of the world, explore peacefully what might be, and seek the co-operative tomorrow, yes , which a Trump could never do.