Despite a moderate effect on asset prices, Argentine markets welcomed the legislative approval of the 2026 budget on Friday. According to analysts, markets were expecting the bill to be passed and are now looking to see how the administration will carry out structural reforms. “The approval of the budget is very important, but it was already expected, hence today’s moderate reaction from financial assets,” independent financial analyst Gustavo Ber told the Herald. Argentine companies on Wall Street, traded through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), were stable, suffering a few slight losses. “They will always need a bailout — for a year and a half, we have been going from bailout to bailout, and well, you can’t live on bailouts,” Repetto concluded.

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) is in hot water over its finances again, after investigative journalists at La Nación newspaper reported that US$42 million of its income had been moved to shell companies in Florida. AFA linked to money laundering investigationsAFA has been in hot water over its alleged involvement with a company being investigated for money laundering since the start of December. On December 16, Senator Patricia Bullrich reported Tapia and AFA treasurer Pablo Toviggino to the ethics committee of CONMEBOL, South American football’s governing body. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) said it wouldn’t “give [the government] the right” to intervene in football, in a 2,500-word statement. Tapia is also under fire in a case filed against Luciano Pantano and Ana Lucía Conte, who stand accused of money laundering.

Two years ago, President Javier Milei had such a tiny congressional minority that people were asking how he would govern. But, while Milei is hoping that legislating will be a clear run, even with allies he’s short of an overall majority. On Friday night, Milei and his party celebrated as the Senate passed his 2026 budget by a comfortable 46-25 margin. It is the first time the president has passed a budget, after working with extensions of the 2023 budget in 2024 and 2025. Nonetheless, in 2026, Trump’s contingent support of the Milei administration will continue to influence Argentina’s international agenda.

In October, the U.S. Treasury, under Trump’s Secretary Scott Bessent, funneled billions of dollars to Argentina’s central bank. It was designed to stabilize the peso just days before Argentina’s midterms, buying Milei time, credibility, and a crucial electoral win. Trump said it outright: if Milei lost, the money would disappear. This wasn’t foreign policy. But by labeling it a swap and hiding it in the balance sheet of the central bank, the Milei administration bypassed Parliament entirely.

(Image: Celina Mutti Lovera / Dialogue Earth)In the province of San Juan, one of the most arid in Argentina, water is more than a resource: it is a symbol. But the essential resource needed to sustain this pistachio revolution is precisely what is most lacking in San Juan: water. “In San Juan, it rains between 80 and 100 millimetres per year, and droughts are more frequent and longer. Pistachio trees take 8 to 10 years to mature (Image: Celina Mutti Lovera / Dialogue Earth)A field of 20-year-old pistachio trees, some of the oldest on the Pistachos de los Andes farm. As Salvioli says, “it is a resource that cannot be renewed.”Pistachio samples at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology in San Juan.

This piece is part of the Argentine-Chinese Chamber of Commerce’s monthly column in the Buenos Aires Herald. China’s five-year plans are instruments of governance at the highest strategic level, as they set the roadmap that defines — politically, economically, and socially — the consensus on the country’s direction. Its industry, which is characterized by high levels of automation and technological sophistication, will be a pillar of growth, seeking to position China as a competitive country in the production of manufactured goods with a high degree of value addition. This means Argentina must secure its position in this stage of China’s development by emphasizing two axes. To achieve these objectives, direct interaction at the highest level between Buenos Aires and Beijing will be crucial in the coming years.

2025 was a prosperous year for Argentina’s energy sector, all thanks to its biggest star: the huge shale oil and gas field Vaca Muerta, in northern Patagonia. Energy surplusThis huge production has led to the second record broken this year: the largest nominal positive energy trade balance in history. In the first eleven months of 2025, the energy trade balance had a surplus of US$6.9 billion dollars, according to the Energy Department. That’s nominally higher than the previous record from 2006, when the energy surplus reached US$ 6.1 billion. Pillar of Milei’s governmentArgentina’s energy surplus is one of the main pillars of President Javier Milei’s economic program, which aims to maintain a “zero deficit” — ie.

Argentine senators have begun debating the 2026 budget bill. President Javier Miei’s government hopes to have the budget passed by the end of the year, and intends to maintain a fiscal surplus in 2026. If the bill is passed, it would be the first time the Milei administration has gotten a budget bill through Congress. It is the first time in history that the same budget has been used for three years in a row. It was rejected by the lower house last week.

Three and a half weeks after the Central American nation’s elections, Nasry Asfura has been declared the victor of the November 30 vote. The conservative former mayor of capital city Tegucigalpa, who has been endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, beat second-placed Salvador Nasralla, the National Electoral Council announced on Wednesday evening. The Honduran electoral authorities declared Asfura victor with 97.9% of the results counted, and said it was mathematically impossible for the results to change. Asfura, of the National Party, received 40.3% of the vote to Nasralla’s 39.5% — a difference of 27,026 votes. “I recognize the great work of the electoral commissioners and the whole team that implemented the elections,” Asfura wrote on X after the results were announced.

Over the Christmas holidays, 6.9% fewer toys were sold in Argentina compared with the 2024 season, reflecting more cautious consumption and tighter household budgets, the Argentine Toy Industry Chamber has reported. Board gamesCreative toys and arts and craftsDollsInteractive plush toys and simple technology, such as electronic pets and toys with sound and movement. Traditional brick-and-mortar retail sales fell by almost 10%. Online sales, which account for about 25% of the market, remained stable, affected by the expansion of international platforms such as Temu and Amazon. At neighborhood toy stores, purchases averaged AR$19,000 (US$12.88) per toy.

“The goal is to eliminate the country’s dependence on Wall Street gradually,” he said, adding that the administration hopes the U.S. financial markets will become only a “marginal financing source” for Argentina. At market prices, debt in Wall Street represents less than “four or five points,” he said. “Argentina needs to be a more normal country in this regard. No other country depends so much on Wall Street,” he went on. “The ideal situation for the country is for companies and people to start getting credit from Argentines themselves,” he said.

A federal court has ordered the Argentine Central Bank to hand over information regarding the location of the gold bars it allegedly shipped abroad in June last year. Although there has been no official confirmation of where it was sent, some media outlets reported that the gold was moved to London for a repo. La Bancaria demanded to know if any gold bars had been shipped abroad. So far, the Central Bank has refused to provide the information. Argentina’s assets are being probed for potential seizure by the Southern District Court of New York to partly pay for the lawsuit.

A powerful and unexpected storm hit Buenos Aires on Tuesday evening, bringing operations at Jorge Newbery Airport to a complete standstill. At the airport, heavy rain and lightning triggered safety protocols that prohibited refueling and aircraft movement on the runway. A severe storm alert is currently in place for Greater Buenos Aires. No rain is forecast in the city or its suburbs, with mostly cloudy skies in the early morning, gradually becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon and evening. Meanwhile, Friday, marking the end of Christmas week, will see partly cloudy skies and a renewed heat wave.

Jutting into the Atlantic like a beckoning finger, the Valdés Peninsula is one of the most remarkable wildlife areas in the Southern Hemisphere. Beyond the coast, the interior of the peninsula is classic Patagonian steppe: low bushes, endless horizons and sudden, wind-carved ravines. Access to the reserves is regulated, and the main sites — Punta Norte, Caleta Valdés, Punta Delgada, Isla de los Pájaros and others — are linked by gravel (ripio) roads. ; penguins, whales and rheas in a single day, something very few sites on the planet can match. Good infrastructure around Puerto Madryn and Puerto Pirámides means you can enjoy serious birding and wildlife watching without multi-day treks or technical logistics.

Once again, the exploration is being streamed on the YouTube channel of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which provided the resources and equipment to carry out the exploration in collaboration with the CONICET. It comes just four months after their streaming of the Mar del Plata canyon caused an internet sensation and a newfound defense of Argentine state-funded science, which has suffered drastic cuts under the Javier Milei government. The team recently won a Martín Fierro award for best streaming show of 2025 in Argentina. 🐙 ¡Conocé al nuevo pulpo que captó el streaming “Vida en los extremos” del CONICET! pic.twitter.com/3bywrRYRL3 — Filo.news (@filonewsOK) December 19, 2025On Monday, during a dive over 2,600 meters into the ocean, scientists also found a VHS tape.