Politics

• Wednesday, January 15th 2025 - 20:44 UTC

  Cuba begins releasing prisoners after removal from US terror-sponsoring nations list

  

  Cuban authorities began releasing prisoners Wednesday after Tuesday's decision by the outgoing US Government of President Joseph Biden to remove the Caribbean islands from the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations. Havana also said that, as per a deal brokered by the Vatican, it would be freeing up to 553 detainees, including some of those jailed for participating in anti-government rallies. However, leading Republican politicians in Washington hope to restore Cuba to that infamous category after Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

• Wednesday, January 15th 2025 - 10:38 UTC

  Meta tells Brazil end of fact-checking limited to the US

  

  The end of the fact-checking service provided by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp owning Meta has only been implemented in the United States (US), at least for the time being. The company made those remarks to Brazil's Federal Attorney General's Office (AGU) checking the company's compliance to the legislation in force in the South American country.

• Wednesday, January 15th 2025 - 10:32 UTC

  Alleged Islamist terrorist arrested in Argentina

  

  Argentine authorities announced Tuesday the arrest of an Islamist individual who was allegedly planning an imminent attack on home soil. “The plan was very advanced, in its last stage...,” Security Minister Patricia Bullrich explained. The suspect posed “a concrete threat to national security,” she also pointed out. “We thwarted his plans before he could cause any harm,” she insisted.

• Wednesday, January 15th 2025 - 09:58 UTC

  UK’s Labour government to the rescue of the steel industry

  

  The United Kingdom government has formed the Steel Council to advise and implement a new steel strategy, to help revitalize the steel industry and has pledged financial support of steelmakers Tata Steel and British Steel.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 21:37 UTC

  Uruguayan lawmakers call Venezuela's gov't “a dictatorship”

  

  Uruguay's Parliament passed Tuesday a unilateral declaration from the ruling Multicolor coalition stating that “no one can deny” there is a dictatorship in Venezuela. The opposition Broad Front (Frente Amplio - FA) of President-elect Yamandú Orsi, who is to take office on March 1, submitted a text of its own excluding the word “dictatorship” and hence no consensus. However, the FA reckoned that “the Venezuelan government has deepened its distancing from the institutional framework” and that the absence of audits in the electoral process “erodes the legitimacy of the result and questions any democratic transition.”

• Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 21:08 UTC

  The Netherlands, France, and Italy ordered to limit diplomatic missions in Caracas to three staffers

  

  Venezuela's Foreign Ministry Tuesday instructed The Netherlands, France, and Italy to cut down their diplomatic missions in Caracas to three members each following what the Bolivarian regime described as “meddling in internal affairs.”

• Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 10:55 UTC

  Brazil’s reacts to Meta’s decision to drop fact checking program, “social media will not become a lawless land”

  

  Brazil’s government and Justice Branch have reacted strongly to Meta’s announcement to abandon its fact checking program. The country’s newly appointed Communication Minister Sidonio Palmeira criticized Meta's decision, calling it “bad for democracy.”

• Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 10:31 UTC

  Peruvian court sends case against Keiko Fujimori back to square one

  

  Peru's Third Criminal Court Monday annulled Keiko Fujimori's trial for the irregular financing of her 2011 and 2016 electoral campaigns, citing a previous sentence from the Constitutional Court (TC). As per this split ruling, the case moves back to the indictment phase for Fujimori and the other more than 30 defendants.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 10:23 UTC

  Lula signs into law the banning of cell phones in elementary schools

  

  Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Monday into law Bill 104/2015 restricting the use of portable electronic devices such as cell phones in public and private elementary schools nationwide. A presidential decree is due in the next 30 days to regulate the measure so that it becomes valid by the start of the school year in February. The bill was approved by Congress at the end of last year.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 10:18 UTC

  Former Bariloche official shot in Rio dies

  

  A 51-year-old Argentine traveler who was mugged and shot in the head in a Rio de Janeiro favela on Dec. 12, 2024, after mistakenly following GPS directions, died Monday after nearly a month in the Souza Aguiar Municipal Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Gastón Burlón was a former Tourism Secretary in the Patagonian skiing resort of Bariloche until 2023.