General strike disrupts life in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina's trains and subways were disrupted, flights grounded, grain shipments interrupted, deliveries halted and banks shuttered as unions held a general strike on Thursday.

The daylong strike comes as Javier Milei is 16 months into a presidency that has sought to eliminate Argentina's fiscal deficit through severe austerity measures.

The stoppage — led by the country's main union confederation, CGT — tried to bring Argentina to a standstill a day after union activists joined a weekly protest of retirees rallying for increases to their government pensions, most of which are about $300 a month and have lost significant value to inflation.