- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
- Trump demonizes migrants in dark, misleading speech
- X says 'alert' to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report
- US, European markets rise before Boeing unveils sweeping job cuts
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point
- Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
- Israel says fired at 'threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- Ecuador's last mountain iceman dies at 80
- Milton leaves at least 16 dead, millions without power in Florida
- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
- Internal TikTok documents show prioritization of traffic over well-being
- Israel says fired at 'immediate threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- New US coach Pochettino hails Pulisic but worries over workload
- Brazil orders closure of 2,000 betting sites
- UK govt urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon's case with China
- Sculptor Lalanne's animal creations sell for $59 mn
- From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk's giant leap into politics
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- Supercharged hurricanes trigger 'perfect storm' for disinformation
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Djokovic proves staying power as he progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Sheffield Utd boss Wilder 'numb' after Baldock death
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- Fans immerse themselves in Marina Abramovic's first China exhibition
- Israel says conducting review after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Djokovic 'overwhelmed' after 'greatest rival' Nadal's retirement
- Zelensky in Berlin says hopes war with Russia will end next year
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Djokovic proves staying power as progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Hurricane Milton leaves at least 16 dead as Florida cleans up
More hunger, less money: Argentine soup kitchens count rations
In an Argentine soup kitchen, empty plastic containers are piling up from hungry visitors, and the cooks are worried their limited supply of pasta will not be enough to fill them.
"I don't know if we will make it today," frets 50-year-old Carina Lopez, who manages the community dining hall in San Martin, a poor neighborhood in north Buenos Aires.
She points to empty crates normally filled with fruit and vegetables.
Today, those coming for a hot meal will only get plain pasta and a small piece of pork.
Meal centers like this one are facing a dual crisis: the influx of ever more hungry mouths to feed during an economic crisis, and a decision by President Javier Milei's new government to freeze their aid.
Tens of thousands of such community organizations in Argentina received their last batch of food from the government in November, before Milei -- a libertarian, self-described "anarcho-capitalist" -- was inaugurated.
Milei's government says it plans to audit the needs of each individual soup kitchen to put in place a system of direct aid, and excluding intermediaries such as social movements he describes as "poverty managers."
"There will be an innovative method so that help arrives where it is supposed to," Milei's spokesman Manuel Adorni said.
The soup kitchens, which typically provide more than 100 portions a day, have waited months on that innovation while battling to survive off some municipal aid and donations.
Lopez said she had been told by authorities to either "cut the soup kitchen's days, or kick people out."
"But I can't kick anyone out. There are new people. New elderly people."
- 'The situation is beyond me' -
Argentina faces annual inflation of over 250 percent with almost half the country now living in poverty after decades of economic mismanagement.
Milei, an outsider elected on a wave of fury over the country's decline, has vowed a painful turnaround and embarked on massive spending cuts.
He also started his term by devaluing the long-overvalued peso by more than 50 percent and cutting state subsidies on fuel and transport -- further hitting the poor.
One of the new visitors to the soup kitchen in San Martin is Daniel Barreto, 33, a bricklayer who like others is struggling to find contract jobs with many construction sites at a standstill after the government froze all new public works.
Meanwhile, private companies are hiring less because of the economic crisis.
The wages Barreto does manage to scrape together are nonetheless eaten away by inflation.
"However much I do or don't work, the money is not enough. I have a wife and four kids," he said. "The situation is beyond me."
The social movements who run the soup kitchens -- born of a strong sense of community -- say the number of people resorting to them has risen at least 50 percent.
"And that has only just started," said Melissa Caceres of a local group co-ordinating the soup kitchen.
Often families will send in a child to pick up some food, to avoid being seen.
Argentina counts some 38,000 so-called "community dining halls," said Celeste Ortiz, spokeswoman for the Barrios de Pie social movement.
- Minister under fire -
In February, Argentina's conference of bishops called for "all spaces which give food... to receive help without delay."
Last week, hundreds of people lined up along 30 blocks after Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello told social movements complaining about the lack of food aid that anyone who was hungry should come "one by one" to see her.
She did not come out to see them.
Pettovello is currently the target of a lawsuit from a union leader over her ministry's failure to deliver food.
The government has taken pains to show that Milei's mass deregulation of the economy will not hit the most vulnerable, doubling the value of food vouchers handed out to families.
In recent days, Pettovello has sealed aid programs worth more than half a million dollars with Evangelical churches and the Caritas Catholic charity.
However, Caritas has spoken out against the government's selective aid, saying "a country where poverty is increasing cannot tolerate partisan opinions, ideological prejudices and sectoral struggles."
As the battle continues, the cooks in the San Martin soup kitchen breathe a sigh of relief after stretching their rations to feed all those who needed it for one more day.
S.F.Warren--AMWN