Some women wore black funeral attire and sported flower crowns. Other people in the procession in Buenos Aires carried a huge coffin.
But this funeral procession in the Argentine capital was not honouring a person.
Instead, it was to mourn the “death” of wages of Argentine workers in a country where inflation is expected to hit 90 per cent by the end of this year, eating up workers' purchasing power despite years of government attempts to curb price increases.
“The situation for the workers is devastating. Before the middle of the month, we don't have any more salary, it's not enough,” Melisa Gargarello, a representative of the Front of Organisations in Struggle (FOL), the protest's organiser, said.
One protester carried a “clinical history” for Argentine wages, a chart showing how inflation has eaten up the value of pay cheques.
While much of the world is battling high single-digit inflation this year, Argentina's struggles are in a different category.
“The pay cheque has died” read a banner in the symbolic procession, which toured the main streets of Buenos Aires and ended in front of the Presidential Palace.
The flower crowns worn by women carried the message “RIP the minimum wage”.
The country's official monthly minimum wage stands at 45,540 Argentine pesos ($334), while a basic food basket for a family of two adults and two children costs more than twice that amount at 111,298 pesos ($817), according to the national statistics institute Indec.
Years of political efforts to curb inflation have done little to abate price increases, and in July the country registered its highest inflation rate in 20 years.
The latest effort involves the appointment of a new economy minister, Sergio Massa, who has been granted expanded powers to try to tame inflation.
Argentines have dubbed him a “superminister”.
“Today, we are holding a symbolic funeral for wages, which we have to say expresses the situation that all workers in Argentina are experiencing,” said FOL's Maximiliano Maita.
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
The years Ramadan fell in May
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Juventus v Napoli, Sunday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Match on Bein Sports
The specs: 2018 Maxus T60
Price, base / as tested: Dh48,000
Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
Power: 136hp @ 1,600rpm
Torque: 360Nm @ 1,600 rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel consumption, combined: 9.1L / 100km
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre V10
Power: 640hp at 8,000rpm
Torque: 565Nm at 6,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: From Dh1 million
On sale: Q3 or Q4 2022
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Draw:
Group A: Egypt, DR Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Group B: Nigeria, Guinea, Madagascar, Burundi
Group C: Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania
Group D: Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Namibia
Group E: Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Angola
Group F: Cameroon, Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau
Honeymoonish
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
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