Mothers of Plaza de Mayo leader Taty Almeida dies at 95

President of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Taty Almeida passed away on Sunday at 95.

Beloved by her fellow mothers and the rest of the human rights movements, she spent more than 50 years seeking answers and justice for the disappearance of her son, Alejandro Almeida, who was kidnapped by far-right paramilitary group Triple A in 1975.

Over the past four decades, Almeida became one of the most prominent human rights leaders in Argentina. She became president of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founders Line in December 2024, after the death of her predecessor, Norita Cortiñas, in May of that year.

She first heard about the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in 1979 and decided to find out what their work was all about. “It was hard for me to reach out to the mothers because I wondered who those women were,” she told Revista Haroldo.

Once she entered their headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires, however, she was shocked. “When I went in I saw pictures, and pictures, and pictures, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m not the only one.” Taty joined the group of mothers right then and there and never left.

“Until the one up there says otherwise, I’ll keep going, firm in my fight for memory, for truth and for justice.”

At: https://buenosairesherald.com/human-rights/mother-of-plaza-de-mayo-taty-almeida-dies-at-95

Mothers of Plaza de Mayo leader Taty Almeida, 1930-2026.

Taking over the reins of the renowned human rights group in 2024, the media-savvy Almeida worked tirelessly to draw attention to Preisdent Javier Milei's back-door efforts to free the over 1,200 convicted Dirty War culprits from house arrest - as well as what she saw as Milei's politically-motivated persecution of a top rival, center-left former President Cristina Kirchner.

Carlos 'Indio' Solari, legend of Argentina's rock scene, dies at 77

Carlos Alberto Solari, the Argentine singer-songwriter known as “the Indio” who led Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, one of the country’s most popular and influential rock groups, died Friday (June 5). He was 77.

As the lead singer of what in English translates as "Patricio Rey and His Ricotta Fritters" — known more simply as “Los Redondos” — Solari became a countercultural icon for disaffected Argentines coming of age as their country transitioned from a bloody military dictatorship to a democracy characterized by newfound freedoms but also instability and hyperinflation in the 1980s.

During the consumerist frenzy that gripped Argentina the 1990s, under the free-market policies of then-President Carlos Menem, Solari’s classic rock anthems, punchy dance tunes and cryptic lyrics gave voice to a spirit of rebellion against the excesses of capitalism and influences of foreign powers.

Los Redondos released 10 studio albums, eschewing major record labels to maintain artistic independence.

At: https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/carlos-indio-solari-death-argentina-rock-legend-dies-1236266159/

Carlos 'Indio' Solari and his 1985 hit La Bestia Pop ("The Pop Beast" ) - with vintage footage of the Buenos Aires waterfront.

Solari was known as much for his progressive rock as he was for his progressive politics.

Peabo Bryson, timeless tenor of Disney ballads and R&B legend, dead at 75

Source: CNN

Peabo Bryson, whose smooth tone and operatic control produced classic Disney hits as well as R&B standards, has died, according to a statement from his family. He was 75.

The statement said he died Tuesday evening “surrounded by the love of his family and those closest to him.”

Bryson is best known for contributing his talents to the Oscar-winning Disney duets “Beauty and the Beast,” sung alongside Celine Dion, and “A Whole New World,” sung with Regina Belle for the animated film “Aladdin.”

He’s also known for songs like “Feel the Fire” and “Can You Stop the Rain,” among others.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/02/entertainment/peabo-bryson-death

Robert Reich - UC Berkeley Keynote Address 2026

Peter Thiel flees to Argentina?

Last year, tech fascist guru Curtis Yarvin warned that Trump’s Silicon Valley supporters should prepare to flee the United States in case Democrats retake power. Now, one of Yarvin’s key followers — Palantir co-founder and Antichrist enthusiast Peter Thiel — appears to be heeding his advice.

Thiel has purchased a new mansion in an affluent section of Buenos Aires, according to the New York Post. The billionaire plans an extended stay in Argentina, according to the Buenos Aires Herald, and he met with Argentine President Javier Milei this week.

“Thiel, the 58-year-old founder of online payments processor PayPal and AI company Palantir, is reportedly planning to stay in the country for two months,” reported the Herald on April 23.

“He is mostly in a US$12 million house he bought in Barrio Parque, an affluent neighborhood in Buenos Aires,” local media reported. “Thiel and his husband, Matt Danzeisen, saw Milei in Casa Rosada at 2 p.m., together with the country’s Foreign Minister, Pablo Quirno.”

American tech fascists have rallied in support of Milei, a chainsaw-waving anarcho-capitalist zealot who is known for claiming to communicate with the ghost of a dead dog, as well as for imposing disastrous policies on the country’s economy. Milei, 55, claims credit for reducing inflation - but his popularity has dropped to 36% as people struggle to survive amid mounting job losses.

At: https://www.thenerdreich.com/peter-thiel-flees-to-argentina/

Nightmare on Dardo Rocha Street? The Buenos Aires property purchased last week by Palantir and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

The 8,000 ft² townhouse, designed in the 1920s by the same Argentine architect (Alejandro Bustillo) who - unwittingly - designed what's widely believed to be Adolf Hitler's post-war hideout cabin in Patagonia, at US$12 million marks a record high for any single property purchased in Buenos Aires.

Though touted in right-wing Argentine media as confirmation of Thiel's plans to invest billions in the foreign debt-saddled South American country, the purchase has also led to speculation that Thiel intends to use the property as a getaway should U.S. midterms result in Democratic majorities - and potential investigations and subpoenas.

Argentine film and theater great Luis Brandoni dies at 86

Argentine cinema, theater and television legend Luis Brandoni has died at the age of 86, his friend and producer Carlos Rottemberg announced Monday on X.

Brandoni's body will be taken to the Buenos Aires legislature to lie in state on Monday afternoon. He was admitted to hospital on April 11 after a fall at home that caused a brain-bleed.

He starred in dozens of films over the course of a prolific career from 1966 to 2026 - including the historically-based "Rebellion in Patagonia" (1974), the Academy Award-nominated slice-of-life tale "The Truce" (1974), the tragic "Juan, Who Once Laughed" (1976), the medical drama "Realization" (1984), the family comedy "Waiting for the Hearse" (1985), the tale of exile "Made in Argentina" (1987), the political dramas "There Are Some Guys Downstairs" (1985) and "The Lost Steps" (2001), and the dark humor tale "The Weasel's Tale" (2019).

He also lit up the stage with hugely successful plays such as "Conversations with My Mother" and "Parque Lezama," and in the 2023 Hulu series "Nothing" with longtime friend Robert de Niro.

Political drama

Brandoni and his wife - fellow actor Marta Bianchi - were detained and tortured during the fascist last dictatorship in July 1976. They were, they later learned, freed only thanks to the intervention of Federal Police Chief Arturo Corbetta - who was a fan.

Long affiliated with the centrist UCR, Brandoni was elected to Congress for one term in 1997. He lurched steadily to the right in his later years however - to the point of resigning in 2017 from the Argentine Actors Association, which he joined in 1962 and led from 1974 until his 1976-83 exile, over political differences.

Brandoni, they alleged, "undid with his elbow what he had written with his hand," and "acts in a way that serves the principles and economic interests that gave rise to the dictatorship."

A staunch supporter of right-wing President Mauricio Macri during his disastrous 2015-19 tenure, Brandoni was widely rebuked in 2019 for denying that the fascist 1976 coup was, in fact, "a coup."

At: https://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/national/argentine-film-and-theater-great-luis-brandoni-dies-at-86/article_bcda64e6-3d4e-577b-8bac-5a1d1ede4f83.html

Veteran Argentine actor Luis Brandoni and the legendary Robert de Niro co-star in 2023 Disney+ series "Nothing."

Brandoni, one of Argentina's most acclaimed actors with over 100 film and tv acting credits in his 60-year career, ultimately alienated most of his colleagues with his vocal lurch to the right in later years.

US court overturns $16.1 billion judgment against Argentina over oil firm seizure

A US appeals court on Friday overturned a $16.1 billion judgment against Argentina for nationalizing the oil company YPF in 2012.

The ruling was a big victory for President Javier Milei as he tries to boost Argentina's troubled economy.

"We won the YPF trial," Milei wrote in capital letters on the social media platform X, calling the 2-1 ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York the "best possible outcome."

The court struck down a 2023 ruling from Judge Loretta Preska of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that ordered Argentina to pay $16.1 billion to minority shareholder companies she said were harmed by the nationalization of YPF.

The appeals court said Friday that breach of contract claims made by these companies were not recognizable under Argentine law.

At: https://www.nbcrightnow.com/national/us-court-overturns-16-1-bn-judgment-against-argentina-over-oil-firm-seizure/article_23824e59-e913-53bb-9588-a939890d7c5f.html

The headquarters of energy firm YPF - Argentina's largest company of any size - looms over Buenos Aires' upscale Puerto Madero ward.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that Federalist Society Judge Loretta Preska's 2023 ruling awarding Burford Capital - a litigation vulture fund domiciled in money-laundering hub Guernsey - over $16 billion for a 2012 renationalization in which they took no part, violates Argentine law.

YPF has, since 2012, spearheaded the development of the Vaca Muerta unconventional oil and gas field - which now provided over 60% of Argentina's oil and gas needs.

Its stock price has risen over 13-fold since its July 2022 low.

Actor James Tolkan of 'Top Gun' and 'Back to the Future' fame dies at 94

James Tolkan, known for his roles as authoritarian figures in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94.

Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died “peacefully,” but no cause of death was given.

In Back to the Future, Tolkan portrayed the bow tie-wearing vice principal Gerald Strickland, who eyeballed students for trouble in the halls of the fictitious Hill Valley High School — in particular Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox.

Born in Calumet, Michigan, Tolkan served in the Navy during the Korean War and eventually made his way to New York, where he spent a quarter century acting in theater roles. He was a member of the original ensemble cast of “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee Welles.

Perennial tough guy with a career that spanned 60 years, actor James Tolkan confronts tough questions with co-star Robert Loggia in the 1986 comedy Armed and Dangerous.

50 years after its last coup, Argentina remembers painful legacy of dictatorship as Milei challenges narrative

In Argentina, March 24 is a day of mourning, marches and political disputes.

Fifty years after the coup d’état that brought the last military junta to power, tens of thousands of people once again took to the streets this Tuesday to remember the victims of a dictatorship that far-right President Javier Milei is seeking to reinterpret.

Under the slogan Nunca más (“Never again”), which marked generations, human rights organisations, trade unions and social advocacy groups gathered for their annual march, carrying photos of the disappeared in a large demonstration in Buenos Aires that converged on the famous Plaza de Mayo.

Human rights organisations estimate that 30,000 people were disappeared during the dictatorship, mostly between 1976 and 1978. The Argentine government acknowledged 8,961 in a 1984 report - triggering a debate that rages to this day.

Milei's Human Rights Secretary, Alberto Baños, dismissed the 30,000 figure as “false” last November - a sentiment publicly shared by Milei, Vice President Victoria Villarruel, and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona.

Declassified files show that dictatorship officials themselves acknowledged “22,000 dead” in a July 1978 cable to their Chilean counterparts.

An estimated 500 infants and children were likewise abducted at the time - many for adoption by pro-regime families. Some 140 have thus far had their true identities restored - mainly thanks to the efforts of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which 95 year-old Estela Barnes de Carlotto still leads.

Since the 1987 amnesty laws that benefitted members of the armed forces were struck down in 2003, 1,231 defendants have been convicted of crimes against humanity.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/amp/argentina/argentina-remembers-dictatorship-victims-as-milei-challenges-narrative.phtml

Argentines in Buenos Aires commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country's last military coup.

Though the fascist, 1976-83 dictatorship is repudiated by 7 out of 10 Argentines, its still-sizable number of apologists include many in President Javier Milei's far-right administration.

But besides its infamous Dirty War against dissidents, historians also point to the ruinous economic legacy of the last dictatorship, under which the country's foreign debt ballooned five-fold to $45 billion - which foreign speculators and the country's own elites largely used to dollarize and offshore local assets, leaving Argentina “the richest poor country in the world.”

The resulting hard-currency shortage has led to sputtering GDP growth averaging just 1.6% over the past 50 years (compared to 2.7% for the U.S.), and soaring poverty as real wages faltered and housing leapt out of reach for millions after the country's landmark National Mortgage Bank program was defunded in 1977.

Yanis Varoufakis: 'Nothing can save' Trump from Iran War disaster

"Donald Trump - like George W. Bush before him, like LBJ in the 1960s - has been caught in a trap of his own making, and he doesn't know how to wriggle out of it."

"This is a perfect storm: You have energy going up; AI investment tapering; interest rates going up - even if the war stops today, which [Trump] can't because he has no way of de-escalating."