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During a video message to the participants of the Fifth International Patria Colloquium, currently being held in Cuba, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova highlighted that Moscow and Havana share a number of values that they jointly defend in the international arena.

“Russia and Cuba are more than partners,” the Russian diplomat emphasized this Thursday, April 16. “We share truly warm and fraternal relations that have stood the test of time.”

“[Our relationship] is about sovereignty,” she continued, “including digital sovereignty, multipolarity, trust in international law, and the central role of the United Nations in conflict resolution, non-interference in internal affairs, and the inadmissibility of illegal unilateral sanctions.”

Defending sovereign policies
Zakharova noted that both nations are currently facing a hybrid ideological war directed against those who uphold sovereign policies, “whether it be Moscow or Havana, Managua, or Beijing.”

Echoing the ideas of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, the Russian official described the forum, which runs through to Saturday, April 18, as a necessary space where journalists, bloggers, academics, diplomats, officials, and public figures can “fight for the truth, for freedom of thought, and for the right of every people to connect with their homeland, without obeying the rules imposed by others.”

According to the spokesperson, “in a world where information has become a weapon, where history is rewritten, and entire countries are demonized, this forum stands as a bastion of common sense.”

US Diplomat John Barrett to Replace Laura Dogu as Chargé D’Affaires in Venezuela

A new global order on information
The Patria International Colloquium has established itself as a key forum for debate, analysis, and the convergence of diverse communication perspectives. This space aims to foster a new global information order that ensures the representation of all voices, including those from the Global South, in the face of the dominant narratives of major centers of power.

The meeting, which has the support of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, Casa de las Américas, and the Cuban chapter of the Network in Defense of Humanity, reaches its fifth edition in a global panorama characterized, among other points, by information wars, geopolitical tensions, and military aggression.

The colloquium is being held at the Línea y 18 Cultural Station in Havana, where artificial intelligence is a central theme for discussion. The program includes analyses of technological sovereignty, political power, digital communication, and other related topics.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/AU

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Geologists have solved the mystery of the disappearance from the geological record, millions of years ago, of one of North America's most important waterways: the Colorado River. A paper published in Science shows that the river flowed into an upstream lake over the course of a few million years, then likely flowed for the first time into the Grand Canyon. The moment marked the Colorado River's transition to a continental-scale river as it made its way down to the Gulf of California.

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In an apparent sign that Tehran blinked first in the blockade showdown between Iran and the US, the two sides announced on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open and operational after nearly seven weeks that have seen hundreds of ships blocked and sent energy prices soaring worldwide. “IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK YOU!,” US President Donald Trump said on social media, using an unofficial name for the strategic...

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The president of Venezuela’s Monitoring Commission of the Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence, Deputy Jorge Arreaza, has reported that most of the applications received under this legal tool correspond to people who were in a judicial process, but not behind bars or detained.

“It’s not that we released 8,000 people from prison; that number of people detained for political reasons has never existed during the Bolivarian Revolution,” he explained this Wednesday, April 15. “The vast majority, 96.1%, were in legal proceedings and appeared regularly before the courts, and only 314 people were detained for political reasons, which is in accordance with the law.”

He stated that 8,406 applications have already received a ruling, which has allowed progress in reviewing cases that had previously remained open for years. “There were 8,000 people; the vast majority of them had been in process since 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2017. How do we address this? Through due process,” he explained, “which requires us to study the justice system, and this justifies the call for reform of the justice administration system made by our acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.”

National Assembly President: Institutionality, Dialogue, and the Economy Define the National Present

He highlighted the unprecedented level of coordination undertaken in implementing this law, given the overall volume of applications received. “As of yesterday, Tuesday, we had received 14,368 applications (11,772 valid applications),” he added, “numbers that force us to ask ourselves questions.”

Arreaza noted that all cases have been processed in accordance with the procedures established by the Commission, and that this law seeks to contribute to the country’s political stability and break the cycle of conspiracies and pardons.

(Últimas Noticias)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/AU

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A sprinkle of nutmeg powder on baked goodies or mashed potatoes can immediately lift the flavor with its warm and sweet aroma. Even though it is used globally, not much is known about the true origins of the nutmeg spice tree, Myristica fragrans. In an attempt to retrace evolutionary history, researchers traveled to five different islands in the Moluccas archipelago, Indonesia, traditionally known as the Spice Islands and collected leaves from 393 nutmeg trees to analyze their DNA.

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Blistering temperatures rising to 40°C and above will now be branded "cruelly hot" or "kokusho-bi" in Japan, the weather agency said Friday, as heat wave days become increasingly frequent in the region.

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The global price of oil witnessed a significant drop after the announcement, as Trump thanked Tehran for opening the ‘Strait of Iran’ while vowing to keep in place his blockade on the country's ports

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Some exporters at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou report a modest return of orders to China from Southeast Asia, as energy-market volatility linked to the US-Israeli war in Iran prompts some Western buyers to prioritise supply chain stability. The shift is visible in buyer patterns on the exhibition floor, where the number from Europe and the United States appears to have recovered from last year’s levels, according to Chinese exporters, with more inquiries for home appliances, new energy products...

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A chimpanzee community in Uganda’s Kibale National Park that split into rival factions later attacked former allies in what researchers are describing as a rare chimpanzee “civil war.” The new study, published in the journal Science, draws on nearly three decades of observations at the Ngogo chimpanzee research site, led by primatologist Aaron A. Sandel of the University of Texas at Austin, in the U.S. He and his colleagues say this is a rare event that may occur only once every 500 years. It’s only been observed once before by humans. Before the split, the Ngogo community was unusually large, with roughly 150 to 200 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), making it one of the largest chimp groups ever recorded in the wild. After the rupture, the community divided into two factions, which researchers call the Central and Western groups — named after the areas of forest they occupied. Before the Ngogo chimps divided into two groups, it was one of the largest groups ever recorded: between 150 –  200 animals. Image by Aaron Sandel. Between 2018 and 2024, the Western group carried out 24 attacks on the Central group, killing at least seven adult males and 17 infants. Sandel told Mongabay the conflict is still unfolding and may have lasting consequences for the population. “The Central group is at risk — they have had a dramatic increase in mortality,” Sandel said. “A key question is: How are they going to fight back?” Unlike most primate group fissions, the Ngogo split involved…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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The US appears to be intensifying its war efforts with an economic squeeze to force Iran to cave in before further talks, but Chinese observers say the strategy could backfire on the US economy. The US continued to exert pressure on Iran on Friday even as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that passage for all ‌commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was completely open for ⁠the remainder of a two-week ceasefire due to expire on April 22. The passage of the vessels would...

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Does a male bird with a long and complex courtship dance have superior cognitive abilities? Simply put, is a talented dancer a smarter bird? To answer the question, researchers at Université de Montréal studied the zebra finch, a small bird known for the dramatic differences between the male and female of the species. The scientists wanted to determine whether females choose males who perform elaborate dances because those displays reflect above-average intelligence.

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