 Javier Millay has been elected president of Argentina. How did this far right-wing candidate emerge victorious? Gaza's Indonesian hospital has once again become the target of Israel's genocidal war. We bring you the latest from these attacks. This is the Daily Debrief. These are your stories for the day. And before we go any further, if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button. Far right-wing candidate Javier Millay has been elected president of Argentina. Millay, who is often described as a libertarian, defeated Sergio Masa, the economy minister of the incumbent Frontier Todas government of Alberto Fernandez. Millay has been extremely controversial for his strange proposals, which include dollarization and massive cuts to spending, including the elimination of entire ministries. He's also signaled he will move away from BRICS and stand by the US and Israel. To understand the strange or not so strange result, we have with us Zoe Alexandra. Zoe, thank you so much for joining us. A surprise result. It would almost seem a very closely fought election, of course. But maybe for you, could you first take us through what are the developments, so to speak, from this election? What are the results? You know, who is Javier Millay for that matter? Well, on Sunday, November 19th, Argentinians went to the poll for the second round of the presidential elections to decide between Javier Millay, who is a far right libertarian from the Liberty Advances Party, and Sergio Masa, who is the presidential candidate for the Center Left ruling coalition union for the homeland. And in these polls, Javier Millay will emerge victorious with around 99.3% of the votes counted. Millay had already scored 55.7% of the vote with Sergio Masa trailing behind with just 44.3% of the vote. These results were somewhat a surprise in the first round of the presidential elections after Sergio Masa had fallen behind in the primaries. He made sort of a record comeback and actually pulled in first with Javier Millay coming in second and having maintained kind of the same amount of votes that he had received in the Paso primary elections in August. So many thought, okay, Javier Millay won the primaries, Sergio Masa won the first one of the elections. And it seemed that Sergio Masa was continuing to accumulate votes. Many of the opinion polls just after the first round of the election had seen Sergio Masa continuing to hold this lead. However, in the past week, most of the major opinion polls that were released actually showed them in a technical tie with many of the major pollsters actually having Javier Millay a little bit ahead of Sergio Masa. So slightly unexpected, I think many people were shocked just because of the level of vitriol and hatred in the programs, the policies, the discourse of Javier Millay. Many people did not think it would be possible for such a figure, such a character to actually come to the presidency. If you see videos of Javier Millay, he exhibits erratic behavior, he screams, he shouts, he goes to protests, he goes to rallies with chainsaws. His proposals for the economy, which in Argentina right now, the economy is in dire straits and many can actually link his rise even to the economic situation itself. However, his policies, while they are policies of radical change, they're not necessarily changed for the better. He proposes the dollarization of the Argentine economy. He also proposes the dissolution of the central bank cutting most ministries in the country, ministries, secretaries, all major government programs. So a severe, severe austerity budget, making university, making healthcare no longer free, really hacking away at the basic rights of Argentinians. And while these, again, are radical proposals, they will most definitely cause a deterioration of the economic situation, which again 40% of the population in Argentina is living below the poverty line. In 2022 inflation was 100%. And many economists from across the world have commented that these proposals will really do nothing to address that this crisis. So it is, I think, an upset for many, both in terms of the economic recovery of the art of Argentina of the Argentinian people. But also, of course, in the area of human rights, this was a huge issue. This is actually the 40th anniversary of the return to democracy in Argentina from the last civic military dictatorship. And Javier Millay and his running mate, but essentially are people who deny the full impact of the dictatorship. They say that the numbers widely used by human rights organizations in Argentina and across the globe are hugely inflated that people use human rights to do criminal activity, use the guise of human rights to conduct criminal activity. Generally, what they call in Argentina denialist attitude saying that the dictatorship wasn't that bad they're exaggerating. This is all false. The whole idea of human rights is just made up. So this is, again, extremely concerning in a country that has fought extremely hard, not only for those social and economic rights but also this historical memory in the country, and many different processes of fighting for justice fighting for truth about what the dictatorship so this is another thing that's that's hugely concerning, as well as of course the attacks on the rights of minorities, the rights of women that he has promised to carry forth so all in all I think it was a huge upset. You know, not just for Argentina but really for people across the world seeing what many describe as a fascist leader with fascist ideas. And we've seen a lot of people responding worldwide both political leaders, social movements, quite quite concerned for what for what this means. And I think many have also pointed out that the progressive wave in Latin America is very fragile. This is a wave that's happening within the structure of liberal democracies. Where, you know, these, these terms that the progressive leaders win our last four years and then once again, you know, in, for example, in Argentina the far right has has clearly these ideas have been growing in society so I think it's it's a wake up call for many, many people are saying how do we evaluate what happens how do we move forward. And I think that it will be, it will be a tough. A couple of years for Argentina. Right, like you said, of course, you know, very difficult circumstances in Argentina, could you maybe talk a bit more about those circumstances because the question always is when a candidate like Javier Millay wins. What are the conditions which led to the emergence of someone like him. Well, there has been a lot of speculation exactly how did this happen. How good someone with such radical and crazy ideas win the elections in Argentina and I think it is impossible to understand the rise of Javier Millay without understanding what's been happening in the country for the past eight years. What has been happening on the economic front what's been happening with the lawfare campaign against Christina the Kitchener and other people in the Paris block. But I think the economic factors had a huge impact. During the government of Mauricio Macri, he took out several billion dollar loan from the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, and quickly plunged the country into a crisis. He also enacted very harsh austerity measures, cutting again several key ministries, cutting social programs, trying to raise the public services tariff. And so many of these started to aggravate the economic situation. He takes out the IMF loan to allegedly fix the economy and he did not do that. And the country continued to have the currency be devaluated. The peso lost its value I think in the span of a couple years it devaluated around 500%. We saw inflation go up massively. This was accompanied by of course socioeconomic indicators, rising of rising of unemployment, rising of number of people living in poverty, the number of people living in a state of homelessness. So these were all occurring under the Mauricio Macri government, the economic deterioration, privatization of key state goods, all of these happening all at once. And then from this discontent from this feeling that Macri had really driven the country into the ground, he's defeated in the 2019 elections against Alberto Fernandez, Alberto Fernandez running of course, for the front of those coalition, bringing together many left and progressive groups, really with this message of change and with this message of economic recovery. However, Alberto Fernandez is foreign in a couple months later the pandemic happens. He, of course, he takes very strict lockdown measures. But at the same time, the country is still in this economic crisis. And he, he's coming from this broad coalition, which is the front of those where there's many, many different tendencies and it is a peronist coalition but it has sectors from the right from the center. And while the left called for radical economic transformation for, you know, appropriating failing companies, being able to boost the national economy, the national production. Alberto Fernandez appeared to not have the will to really carry this forward. This was seen of course when he attempted to take over Vicentín, which had, which was falling on bankruptcy. And this caused the move by his government to try to do this cause a huge uproar. Many accuse him of being Castro Chavista of hurling all sorts of in insults at him putting pressure on and he immediately withdrew. And this essentially marked what was going through the pattern for the next four years. Many from the more left sectors of the coalition were calling on his government to not negotiate with the IMF to not pay with the IMF, saying this isn't a legal loan the people not have to pay they should not have to suffer the consequences for a loan that the previous government had taken out and had not done anything to help the people. However, again, he goes the IMF they negotiate and they agree on a debt repayment schedule. And so people, not only saw that he was not going to really, you know, there were changes there were more subsidiaries there were more social programs but there wasn't you know this radical turn that there needed to be and this was reflected in the continued deterioration of economic conditions. Of course he was dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic of the lockdown of the global economic slowdown. But that's still this of course because huge impact in the Argentine people's lives. Again, the currency devaluation continued in a very intense way inflation as I said 2022 inflation was 100%. So it was very, very difficult years under Alberto Fernandez and so when me lay comes and says I'm going to do away with all of these sort of policies. These people, you know are doing nothing for you I'm going to bring around radical change. In other countries it doesn't necessarily matter what that changes it just matters that there is going to be change and figures like Alberto Fernandez were clearly did not have the political daring this or the, even really the support the support behind him to actually make changes necessary that would have vastly improved people's lives. And sadly now it's going to be more of the same austerity policies which are going to continue to worsen the conditions of people's lives. And the left is at a serious setback because of course they were semi in power with the government of the Fernandez part of the ruling coalition. That's been defeated. So it's definitely going to be a period of rebuilding of assessing of seeing what happens and strengthening organizations attending to people's needs. This is going to be a time of great material need for the people just because the economic situation again is likely to continue to get worse. So it is going to be, as I said before, difficult and interesting couple of years for Argentina. It's unclear how many of the proposals that have eared me lay propose will he actually be able to take forward. Many of them are highly unpopular not only among sectors of the left and working class organizations but even of the bourgeoisie business are not favored by some of the proposals that he's making. So again, how will this actually play out. It has remains to be seen but I think we're going to see a lot of shake up in Argentina, but as well a lot of resistance a lot of organizing and a lot of of responding to to these these policies that he's going to propose. Thank you. Thank you so much Zoe. Tough times coming ahead. Most likely for people of Argentina will be tracking this on daily debrief and people's dispatch as well. The Indonesian hospital in Gaza is one second the target of Israeli occupation forces. At least 12 people have been killed and those in the hospital are under threat. Meanwhile, the attack on Gaza continues to have diplomatic repercussions both in the region and internationally. We go to Abdul for more. Abdul, thank you so much for joining us. Another week begins and unfortunately another hospital clearly being targeted by Israel at this point. What is happening at the Indonesian hospital? As for the latest report, there are 12 people 12 Palestinians killed in the Israeli tanks when they defied there are relations on the hospital, particularly targeting the second floor of the hospital where most of the patients are located where the main operation theater was there. And as for the reports, the operation theater has been completely destroyed. And of course, the Israeli forces have also cut whatever the remaining source of electricity were there while surrounding the hospital. There are also reports that since they were shelling all across the locality where the hospital is based, there were also some of the cells were also basically went into a school which was basically sheltering another thousands of Palestinians there. So though the reports of casualty from that attack is not yet clear, it seems that there are a certain number of people Palestinians also killed in those attack as well. As per, of course, the Indonesian government and the Palestinians have condemned the attack and attack, and it seems that they're comparing it what happened to the al-Sifah hospital, where all Palestinians, including the patients were forcefully evacuated by the Israelis. Last week, including the 29 premature, 31 premature babies, which were finally had to be transferred through Rafa border to Egypt. As per the latest report, the babies have reached Egypt, and they will be kind of put into the ventilator or sorry into the incubator there. So that has been the report. Al-Sifah also claimed that there are bodies lying in and around the hospital and because the Israeli tanks are still there and they're still firing, so nobody is in a position to go and retrieve the bodies. Abdul, in this context, of course, a lot happening globally, both regionally and internationally around this war as well. On the one hand, we know that the Houthis also there's quite a bit of news after the Houthis seized a tanker. So could you maybe talk a bit about that as well? Well, on Sunday, Houthis captured the galaxy leader, one cargo ship, which of course is partially owned by a British company, but also partially owned by an Israeli businessman. As per Houthis' earlier declaration of war against Israelis, Houthis have claimed that until Israel stops its war against Palestinians, Ismasakhar and Gaza, they will not, they will keep on kind of attacking Israeli targets, whether it is the ships into the Red Sea or whatever territories which their missiles can reach. As we already know, in the last few weeks, Houthis have fired several rockets and drones towards the southern Israel. Of course, most of them have missed their target and some of them are very intercepted, but still in that particular scheme, you can say they basically captured the ship. And as per the latest report, though Israel has denied that ship belongs to it and it will do anything to kind of retake it, but Japanese, which basically currently leaves the ship, have basically claimed that they are in negotiation with Houthis to kind of retake the, take the ship back. So yeah, that is on that front. Apart from that, as far as the global aspect is concerned, we all know last week there was an, sorry, last week there was an Arab-Israel, sorry, Arab Islamic summit held in Saudi Arabia and they had basically formed a ministerial committee which had the task to kind of meet all the members of the United Nations Security Council to convince them to kind of put pressure on Israel to stop, so that it can stop its war on Palestinians. So they, in the first leg of their international tour, they have reached China and they met the Chinese ministers yesterday, sorry, on and on Sunday, I'm sorry about that, on Monday, and China has promised that it will do anything in its part to end the war and to work for the longer term solution of a two-stage solution there. The Saudi minister and the Egyptian minister have very strongly claimed, denied, of course, the Israeli right to, Israeli claim of right to self-defense as far as the war in Gaza is concerned. They have also questioned Israel's claims about Hamas being responsible for its attacks on its hospital because as for the, whatever reports we get in media what we see, most of the Israeli quote-unquote evidences which they have presented in media claiming that the hospital belongs to, belongs to Hamas, Hamas used it as a headquarters ulcerify in particular and now Indonesian hospital as well is completely bogus and most of them are planted. So all of these things are happening. Let's see what is the result. I think they will also meet other permanent members of the UN Security Council in the coming days. Also, we'll finally very briefly brief a report appearing, of course, saying that there has been some kind of agreement regarding a potential ceasefire for a few days, but no site confirming it as of now. Well, those reports have been denied, both by Hamas and Israeli government, of course, though there are in, as you rightly pointed out, there are in confirmed reports from various sources that US and Qatar have been able to kind of clinch a deal between Hamas and Israel to kind of exchange the around 200 plus people who are kept hostage with Hamas in inside Gaza as per the reports. But yet it is not confirmed and Hamas has vehemently denied at least on its part that any such deal has been reached. Thanks Abul so much for that analysis. We'll come back to you over the week as developments continue to unfold in this war on the people of Gaza. That's all we have in today's episode of Daily Debrief. We'll be back tomorrow with a fresh episode. In the meanwhile, do visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on all the social media platforms.