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Beijing, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, today urged the United States to lift sanctions against Cuba and remove the Caribbean country from the list of ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’.

At a press conference, Mao rejected the memorandum to toughen U.S. policy towards Cuba, was signed last Monday by President Donald Trump.

For more than 60 years, the United States has imposed a brutal blockade and illegal sanctions on Cuba, seriously violating the island's right to livelihood and development, transgressing the basic norms governing international relations and causing profound damage to the Cuban people, the spokeswoman recalled.

China firmly supports Cuba on the path of development that suits its national conditions and opposes Washington's unilateral sanctions under the pretext of so-called freedom and democracy, she added.

The spokeswoman stressed that lifting sanctions against Cuba and removing it from the list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ is also a shared call of the international community.

Buenos Aires, Jul 1 (Prensa Latina) The former president of Argentina Cristina Fernandez requested today through her lawyer to the court that tried her authorization to receive the president of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva, at her house where she is being held in house arrest.

Lula will arrive in Buenos Aires on Wednesday night and is expected to return to his country on Thursday afternoon to attend the Mercosur Summit where he will receive the pro tempore presidency of the bloc from Argentina, which concludes its annual rotating mandate.

Since she was sentenced to house arrest and politically disqualified, the Brazilian president expressed his desire to be able to share with her, to give her his support.

The lawyer Carlos Alberto Beraldi filed a request before the Federal Oral Court N°2 so that Lula can visit her in her apartment in San José 1111, where she is serving a six-year sentence for the Causa Vialidad.

Judges Jorge Gorini, Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu and Andrés Basso, the ones in charge of passing the sentence, will have to determine if they will allow the president to enter his home during his visit to Argentina for the Mercosur summit.

In granting the benefit of house arrest, the magistrates set a series of conditions such as the presentation of a list of people who will be able to access his apartment without judicial authorization. The list includes his children and his family group in general, police custody, accountants, doctors and lawyers.

Any other name not included in this list must require prior admission by the court.

In view of these conditions, Fernández's defense filed a challenge before the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber to revoke the limitation of visits -and their corresponding authorizations- and the provision ordering the use of an electronic anklet.

A hearing is scheduled for July 7 to analyze the appeal of prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola, who opposed the benefit of house arrest for the former president, and demand that she serve the six years behind bars.

Brasilia, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will announce today a decree making July 2 official as the second commemoration of Brazilian Independence, celebrated in the state of Bahia (northeast), highlighting its historical and popular character.

For the fourth consecutive year, Lula will travel to Salvador, Bahia's capital, to participate in the celebrations for the date commemorating the final expulsion of the Portuguese troops in 1823, which will now be officially recognized as the second date of Independence.

The decree, which will be signed and formally announced during the popular celebration, will consolidate this day in the national calendar as an official commemoration, although without the character of a national holiday.

The proposal had been considered by Lula in 2023, when he expressed his desire to transform July 2 into a date of historical relevance.

At that time, the president pointed out that the true independence was sealed with the victory of the Bahian people and not with the symbolic and so-called Grito do Ipiranga (Cry of Ipiranga) of Pedro I in 1822.

"There is an independence that was the emperor's cry, which we don't even know if he really gave it. But the real independence of Brazil was the result of the expulsion of the last Portuguese, on July 2 in Salvador. There was a struggle there and there were heroic women," Lula declared last year.

The history celebrated on each date in Bahia dates back to a 17-month war that began in 1822, when the local population demanded a definitive break with the Portuguese crown, which still maintained troops in several regions of the country.

The process culminated on July 2, 1823, when the Lusitanians withdrew definitively from Brazilian territory after intense battles, many of them fought by local militias and women fighters, such as Maria Quitéria and Joana Angélica, considered emblematic figures of the emancipation process.

Although independence was proclaimed in September 1822, the Portuguese resistance in Bahia prolonged the conflict. For this reason, many historians consider July 2 as the true closing of the cycle of national independence.

The decree to be announced by Lula gives a new symbolic and political status to the Bahian episode, integrating it into the national narrative on the country's autonomy.

With this initiative, the government seeks to recognize Bahia's protagonism and decentralize the official narrative of history, traditionally focused on the southeast. It also strengthens the president's link with the northeast region, a key bastion of his electoral base.

The first official date of Brazil's Independence is commemorated every September 7, in allusion to the Ipiranga Cry, pronounced in 1822 by the then Prince Regent Dom Pedro, on the banks of the Ipiranga River in Sao Paulo, with the phrase “Independence or death”.

La Paz, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) Bolivians support today the rejection expressed by President Luis Arce to a memorandum of the chief executive of the United States, Donald Trump, aimed at strengthening the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

“We join the request of the majority of the countries of the world, expressed on repeated occasions in the United Nations General Assembly and which the United States does not consider, which demand the immediate and unconditional lifting of the blockade (...)”, Arce wrote on social networks.

Referring to the memorandum, the South American head of state criticizes that it represents a new act of aggression against the Cuban people and government in what constitutes an explicit disregard for the principles of self-determination of peoples and non-interference.

The President adds that this document “(...) reinforces the violation of the human rights of a population that has resisted for more than six decades a criminal and obsolete economic, financial and commercial blockade by Yankee imperialism”.

“(...) All our solidarity with brother president @DiazCanelB and the brave people of Cuba,” concluded the Bolivian dignitary in his X account.

Referring to the issue in the newspaper El Mamoré, journalist Marco Santivañez, warns that Trump's new reprisals, including banning his fellow citizens from traveling to Cuba, constitute not only an inhumane act, but deeply cynical because it deepens the blockade.

“It is a policy of strangulation, of systematic asphyxiation, typical of the most rancid fascism (...)”, expresses the director of that press outlet.

He adds that Cuba is not alone because it does not kneel and resists.

He points out that this “criminal encirclement” will last for a long time.

Referring to the issue in the newspaper El Mamoré, journalist Marco Santivañez warns that Trump's new reprisals, which include the prohibition of his fellow citizens from traveling to Cuba, constitute not only an inhumane act, but also a deeply cynical one because it deepens the blockade.

“It is a policy of strangulation, of systematic asphyxiation, typical of the most rancid fascism (...)”, expresses the director of that press outlet.

He adds that Cuba is not alone because it does not kneel and resists.

He points out that this “criminal encirclement” has lasted for 60 years and includes years of deprivations, isolation attempts, dirty campaigns, blockades to medicines, technology and trade.

However, he maintains, Cuba is still there. Not as a nation that has been bent, but as a beacon of dignity for Latin America and the world.

Santiváñez points out that Trump's new tightening of the blockade is nothing more than the deepening of an economic war declared against a sovereign country.

“(...) And what is Cuba's crime? What crime justifies these measures? Is it being in solidarity? Is it having doctors in the most forgotten corners of the world? Is it not surrendering?” he asks.

He warns that the people do not forget that in the hardest hours, when the great centers of power hide vaccines, medicines, Cuban doctors arrive with their white coats to offer the only thing they have: life.

"Cuba does not give what it has to spare, it gives what it has. Cuba shares without calculation, without usury, without demands. And that profoundly human, profoundly revolutionary generosity is what the empire will never be able to understand," the letter concludes.

Discontent with federal policies has sparked separatist sentiments in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. On Monday, Probe Research released a poll showing that 22% of Manitoba residents would vote in favor of separating from Canada if an independence referendum were held.

Conducted with interviews of 1,000 people and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, the survey indicates that up to 70% would vote to remain in Canada. It also reveals that support for separation is strongest in rural areas and among conservative voters.

The results reflect a similar trend in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In these western Canadian provinces, separatist sentiment has grown in recent years, particularly among conservatives frustrated with federal government policies.

That frustration intensified after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won the April 28 election, causing disappointment among conservatives who have been out of power since 2015.

Currently, Alberta — one of Canada’s wealthiest provinces and the source of 84% of the country’s oil production — is the epicenter of the separatist movement. A poll published in late May indicated that 30% of Alberta residents support independence, up four points from 2021.

In fact, Alberta now shows significantly stronger support for separatism than Quebec did when it held independence referendums in 1980 and 1995. This sentiment is growing amid accusations that the federal government is sacrificing Alberta’s prosperity in favor of Ontario and Quebec.

Alberta’s separatist movement plans to hold a referendum in 2026. In May, it unveiled the proposed question for the vote: “Do you agree that the province should become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?”

The proposal gained momentum after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a conservative, moved to lower the requirements for holding referendums and announced she would not oppose its organization. Ahead of the April 28 election, Smith voiced her opposition to a potential Liberal victory and has since justified the western provinces’ frustration following Carney’s win.

Progressive politicians deal a severe blow to President Milei’s party. On Sunday, Peronist candidates won in local elections in the province of Formosa and the city of Rosario, pushing President Javier Milei’s Freedom Advances party into a distant third place.

The results of these provincial elections may be seen as a prelude to the upcoming national legislative elections in October, when Argentina’s far-right will attempt to counter a resurgent Peronist movement, currently undergoing a process of reorganization following former President Cristina Fernandez’s placement under house arrest.

In Santa Fe, voters chose mayors, city council members and local leaders in 365 municipalities. In that province, “United to Change Santa Fe” — a coalition led by Gov. Maximiliano Pullaro’s Radical Civic Union (UCR) — won in 17 of the 19 major cities.

Another surprise came in Rosario, one of the province’s largest cities, where Peronist candidate Juan Monteverde claimed victory with 30.6% of the vote, beating far-right contender Juan Aleart, who received 28.8%. This marks the first Peronist win in Rosario in more than 50 years.

“The only way to save this democracy we have is to participate more and generate projects that try to represent the majority, even knowing that we are different. Because there is a social majority in Rosario, Santa Fe, and Argentina that does not agree with what is happening.”

“Today, the people of Rosario defeated the president, the governor and the mayor,” Monteverde said. “They voted without fear, against the political machines, and they won because there is a social majority that is struggling and disagrees with what is happening. But it lacked a political force to represent it. In Rosario, that force has now emerged.”

Freedom Advances won in just 2 out of 365 districts, securing 34 city council seats. Despite the modest results, Karina Milei — the president’s sister and secretary of the presidency — celebrated the outcome with fanfare.

In Formosa, Peronist Gov. Gildo Insfran cemented his dominance with more than 67% of the vote. His next goal is to push for a constitutional reform that would allow him to run for re-election in 2027. The far-right Freedom Advances party garnered just 11% of the vote.

From her residence in Buenos Aires, Cristina Fernandez spoke with the two Peronist leaders to congratulate them on their victories. “A few minutes ago, I spoke with my comrade, Gov. Gildo Insfran, to congratulate him on the excellent results for Peronism in the election of constitutional convention delegates and provincial lawmakers,” she posted on social media.

Argentina is currently in the midst of a marathon of staggered provincial elections throughout 2025. On Oct. 26, Argentines will vote to renew half of the country’s legislature by electing 24 senators and 127 representatives.