📰 Health alert in Argentina: cases of measles and whooping cough increase

The Ministry of Health issued an epidemiological alert after detecting a significant increase in cases of measles and whooping cough in different provinces of the country. The situation worries the authorities due to the low vaccination coverage in the child and adolescent population, which has resulted in several deaths of minors who had not received the corresponding doses.

📈 Epidemiological context

• In recent weeks, outbreaks were confirmed in Córdoba, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, with community circulation of both diseases.
• Influenza A H3N2 is also under surveillance, although a significant increase in cases has not yet been reported.
• According to official data, measles vaccination coverage is below 85%, far from the 95% recommended by the World Health Organization.

🧪 Official statements

The Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, warned:

"We are facing a complex scenario. Vaccination is the most effective tool to prevent preventable deaths. We urge families to complete their children's immunization schedules."

👨 👩 👧 Social impact

• Parents expressed concern about the lack of mass vaccination campaigns in vulnerable neighborhoods.
• Medical and pediatric organizations are calling for a national plan to reinforce mobile brigades in schools and community centers.
• In public hospitals, there are long lines to access doses of MMR and vaccines against whooping cough.

📊 Key facts

🔍 Analysis

The health crisis exposes a structural weakness in the Argentine vaccination system, marked by the lack of sustained campaigns and misinformation on social networks. Experts warn that, if the trend is not reversed, the country could face an epidemic of similar magnitude to the one recorded in 2019, when measles reappeared after two decades of eradication.

📌 Conclusion

The current situation requires an immediate and coordinated response between the State, the provinces and civil society. Mass vaccination and clear communication will be key to stopping the advance of diseases that, in the 21st century, should be under control.

Close

📰 Politics | The reform of the Penal Code and the intense debate in Congress

📌 An ambitious project that reopens a historic discussion

The national government is promoting a comprehensive reform of the Penal Code, an initiative that seeks to update a body of legislation that has been in force since 1921 and that, according to the Executive Branch, no longer responds to the challenges of contemporary crime. The bill, which includes 920 articles and unifies more than a thousand scattered criminal laws, was sent for treatment during the extraordinary sessions of Congress, which generated a strong political and academic debate.

The proposal includes high-impact changes: tougher penalties, expansion of imprescriptible crimes, incorporation of cybercrimes, penalties for malicious use of artificial intelligence and a more severe framework for homicides, aggravated robberies and acts of corruption.

🏛️ Congress, the scene of tensions

The ruling party is betting on taking advantage of the new parliamentary composition to move forward with the project during the summer, with optimism for having reached the first legislative minority after the change of December 10. However, the decision to deal with the reform in extraordinary sessions set off alarms in different sectors.

While the government defends the urgency of modernizing the penal system, opposition legislators and civil organizations are calling for more time for analysis, public hearings and a broader debate.

🎓 Jurists and academics call for a halt to "express treatment"

More than a hundred specialists in criminal law, including university professors, judges and prosecutors, expressed their rejection of the accelerated treatment of the bill. In a statement released this week, the Argentine Association of Professors of Criminal Law (AAPDP) warned that a reform of this magnitude "cannot be resolved in a closed book" and requires a "broad, informed and participatory" process.

Specialists demand that the debate be moved to ordinary sessions, with the participation of universities, NGOs, bar associations, associations of magistrates and specialized organizations. They also pointed out that the official project could lead to an "ideologized codification" if technical contributions from various sectors are not incorporated.

Among the signatories are leaders such as Alejandro Slokar and Raúl Eugenio Zaffaroni, who stressed the need to resume the participatory antecedents of previous reforms, such as those of 2006–2007 and 2012–2014.

⚖️ The most discussed points of the project

✅ Tougher penalties

The text proposes to increase the penalties for homicides, aggravated robberies and crimes related to corruption, with the aim of strengthening deterrence and the state response to serious crimes.

✅ Tech crimes and the use of AI

For the first time, the Code would incorporate specific sanctions for cyberattacks, digital fraud and the generation of false images using artificial intelligence, a phenomenon that is growing globally.

✅ Extended imprescriptibility

The bill extends the imprescriptibility to new crimes, which implies that certain crimes can be prosecuted without a time limit.

✅ Regulatory unification

The reform seeks to order more than a thousand criminal laws scattered in a single coherent body, a historical demand of legal specialists.

🧩 A debate that transcends the legal

The discussion on the Penal Code is not only technical: it also reflects ideological differences on the role of the State, public security and the balance between prevention, punishment and constitutional guarantees.

While the government maintains that the reform is essential to confront modern crime, academic and opposition sectors warn about the risk of approving such a lengthy text without an in-depth debate.

🔮 What's next

The project will begin to be discussed in commissions during the next few weeks. The ruling party will seek to speed up its approval, although the growing demand for specialists could put pressure on the opening of broader instances of participation.

The reform of the Penal Code promises to become one of the most relevant political debates of the year, with a direct impact on security, justice and the institutional life of the country.

Close

📰 Labor Reform: Milei signed the bill and sent to the Senate an initiative of 191 articles that redefines the Argentine labor system

The government presented the most extensive labor reform in decades, with changes in compensation, payment methods, working hours, unions and essential services

As soon as he returned from Oslo, President Javier Milei signed the Labor Reform project  in an office of the Jorge Newbery Airport, according to La Nación. The text, which has already entered the Senate, consists of 71 pages, 26 titles and a total of 191 articles, making it one of the most comprehensive and structural initiatives in recent years.

The Chief of Staff, Manuel Adorni, described the proposal as "the largest transformation in Argentine history in labor matters," stressing that it seeks to modernize the system, reduce litigation and promote the creation of formal employment.

✅ The central axes of the project

The most relevant points of the text are then developed, integrating the key contents of the 191 articles.

💵 1. New payment methods: salaries in dollars and virtual wallets

The bill allows employers to pay salaries in dollars, cryptocurrencies or virtual wallets, as long as there is an agreement between the parties. This point seeks to make payment methods more flexible and adapt them to the digital economy.

🛡️ 2. Optional Severance Fund in Lieu of Severance

One of the most profound changes is the creation of a Labor Severance Fund, similar to the UOCRA model, which will be able to replace traditional compensation.

• It will be optional for each collective agreement.
• The employer will contribute a percentage monthly to cover eventual dismissals.
• The stated objective is  to reduce litigation and give predictability to companies.

In addition, the bill establishes that the compensation will be lower, since they will not include Christmas bonus, vacations or prizes in their calculation.

⏱️ 3. Bank of hours and changes in the working day

The text incorporates the figure of the "bank of hours", which will allow:

• Compensate overtime with days off.
• Accumulate hours worked to reorganize the working day according to productive needs.
• Agree on flexible schemes between employer and worker.

This mechanism aims to modernise the organisation of working time.

🧑 ⚖️ 4. Labor judgments: payment in installments

Another controversial point is that labor court judgments can be paid in up to 12 monthly installments, updated by official index. The Government maintains that this will prevent bankruptcies of SMEs; Critics warn about the impact on workers.

🏥 5. Expansion of essential services

The project expands the list of essential services, which involves:

• Greater limitation of the right to strike.
• Stricter mandatory minimum guards.
• Inclusion of sectors such as education, transportation, and critical digital services.

This is one of the most extensive chapters of the project.

🧾 6. Changes in the union system

The government introduced a last-minute change: It eliminated the article that affected union solidarity dues to avoid a direct conflict with the CGT.

However, he maintained one key point:

• Membership fees will be optional.
• They will require the express consent of the worker.
• The principle of individual freedom of association is reinforced.

📘 The most important contents of the draft of 191 articles

Below is a summary of the most relevant thematic blocks of the full text:

1. Modernisation of industrial relations

• New contracting modalities.
• Regulation of teleworking and remote work.
• Seasonal, project, or demand contracts.

2. Reduction of litigation

• Changes in limitation periods.
• Limitation of fines for unregistered employment.
• Mandatory conciliation mechanisms.

3. Incentives for formalization

• Labor laundering with partial forgiveness of fines.
• Simplified registration for micro-employers.
• Tax benefits for new hires.

4. Flexibility of the working day

• Hour bank.
• Individual and collective agreements to reorganize shifts.
• Greater margin for agreed overtime.

5. Changes in licenses

• Extension of maternity and paternity leave.
• New leaves for care, adoption and workplace violence.
• Reorganization of special licenses.

6. Dismissal regime

• Optional Termination Fund.
• New compensation calculation.
• Payment in installments of judgments.

7. Essential services and the right to strike

• Expansion of sectors included.
• Mandatory minimum on-call duty.
• Penalties for non-compliance.

8. Trade union system

• Optional fees.
• Transparency in the use of funds.
• Rules for internal elections.

🧭 Conclusion

The Labor Reform bill sent to the Senate represents a structural change in the Argentine system. With 191 articles that range from the way salaries are paid to union organization, the Government seeks to install a new paradigm based on flexibility, predictability and the reduction of litigation.

The legislative discussion promises to be intense, with the support of the business sector and strong questioning from the trade union federations.

Close

Google Willow: The Quantum Chip Revolutionizing Computing

The Google Willow quantum chip, presented on December 9, 2025, constitutes a scientific milestone by demonstrating quantum error correction below threshold and achieving quantum supremacy with 105 qubits. Its architecture allows errors to be exponentially reduced as the number of qubits increases, solving a three-decade challenge in quantum computing.

White Paper: Google Willow

1. Context and relevance

• Date of filing: December 9, 2025.
• Institution: Google Quantum AI.
• Scientific publication: Nature, where the experimental results are documented.
• Impact: Willow represents a decisive step towards building useful and scalable quantum computers capable of solving practical problems with commercial relevance.

2. Willow chip architecture

• Number of qubits: 105 superconducting qubits.
• Base technology: transmon qubits, cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero to maintain quantum coherence.
• Bug fixes:
  • It implements quantum surface codes, which distribute logical information across multiple physical qubits.
  • It was shown that by increasing the number of qubits, the error rate decreases exponentially, confirming that the system operates under the quantum error correction threshold.
  • This result experimentally validates a theoretical principle proposed almost 30 years ago, considered essential for scalability.

3. Quantum supremacy

• Benchmark performed: A standard quantum sampling reference task.
• Runtime: less than five minutes.
• Comparison: The Frontier supercomputer  would need approximately 10²⁵ years to complete the same calculation.
• Conclusion: Willow confirms quantum supremacy, demonstrating that certain problems are intractable for classical computing.

Featured Comparison

4. Key scientific breakthroughs

• Bug fixes under threshold:
  • It allows logical qubits to be more reliable than physical qubits.
  • It opens the door to scalable and stable quantum systems.
• Scalability:
  • Reducing errors with more qubits indicates that the technology can grow into thousands or millions of useful qubits.
• Experimental validation:
  • It is confirmed that the theoretical principles of quantum computing are applicable in real hardware.

5. Potential applications

• Pharmacology: Simulation of complex molecules for drug discovery.
• Energy: Advanced battery design and nuclear fusion modeling.
• Artificial intelligence: optimization of deep learning algorithms.
• Cybersecurity: development of systems resistant to quantum attacks.

6. Conclusion

The Google Willow chip  not only confirms quantum supremacy, but solves the historical problem of quantum error correction under threshold. This breakthrough places Google at the forefront of quantum computing and paves the way for practical applications with an impact on science, industry, and society.

Close