International

International Workers’ Day celebrated in Cuba

Photo: @PresidenciaCuba

May 5 |

With acts, parades and artistic and cultural events, hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers participated this Friday in the celebration of International Workers’ Day, showed their willingness to continue contributing to the development of the country without departing from the path of socialism and showed solidarity with the struggles of workers around the world.

The celebration was called by the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) and was postponed until this Friday due to inclement weather. Due to the economic situation, this time the events were organized in each municipality, so the celebration of 164 was foreseen and popular participation was extended.

The main event took place in Havana and was headed by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

Before more than one hundred thousand people gathered on Havana’s Malecon, CTC Secretary General Ulises Guilarte said that Cubans are fighting with their own strength and talent to overcome objective difficulties and internal insufficiencies on the road to development.

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He emphasized that they are focused on the economic battle, expanding food production, increasing income collection for the country, strengthening the socialist state enterprise and increasing foreign investment, among other goals.

He explained that this collective effort seeks to improve the supply of products and services, control price increases and increase the value of salaries and pensions.

Guilarte denounced the impact of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States (U.S.) against Cuba, which translates into countless difficulties in daily life and is considered the greatest violation of human rights of the inhabitants of the Caribbean nation.

He recalled that only those who fight and resist have the right to triumph, as Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz once said. He said that his compatriots will never surrender or give up the desire to conquer new victories.

He stressed the value of unity and said that, in addition to facing the challenges of the country’s development, workers will maintain their solidarity with other peoples in the face of the crisis of the capitalist system and its neoliberal policies.

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He pointed out that the U.S. articulates new campaigns of manipulation, lies and hatred against the Revolution and this time tried to spread negative opinion matrixes on the popular support to the May Day celebration.

Guilarte considered that Friday’s events and parades, supported by thousands of Cubans, explicitly refuted this thesis, and stressed that what happened is proof of the majority support of the people for the Revolution and its continuity.

The celebration of May Day in Cuba included the celebration in Havana of the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba and Anti-imperialism 200 years after the Monroe Doctrine, which took place between April 29 and May 2. Around 1,300 guests from different parts of the world attended the event in the Cuban capital.

After postponing to Friday the celebration of International Workers’ Day, the Cuban government declared May 5 a labor holiday and thus allowed the massive participation of the people in the working class celebration.

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International

Hiroshima survivor who embraced Obama dies at 88

The emotional embrace between Barack Obama and Hiroshima survivor Mori—who was eight years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb in 1945—resonated around the world.

According to Asahi Shimbun and other local media, Mori died on Saturday at a hospital in Hiroshima.

Mori, known for his research on the fate of American prisoners of war in Hiroshima, was thrown into a river by the force of the explosion on August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of the city.

In a past interview with AFP, ahead of his meeting with Obama at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2016, Mori recalled the chaos and desperation that followed the blast.

He described how, after emerging from the water, he encountered injured civilians seeking help amid the devastation, an experience that stayed with him throughout his life.

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In 2016, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to the victims of the first atomic bomb used in warfare. During the visit, Mori was visibly moved as he met the president, sharing a brief but powerful moment that symbolized remembrance and reconciliation.

The bombing of Hiroshima resulted in the deaths of approximately 140,000 people, including those who succumbed to radiation exposure in the aftermath.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people and contributing to the end of World War II.

International

Colombia seeks ‘total suffocation’ of armed groups with regional support

Colombia is advancing a strategy aimed at the “total suffocation” of illegal armed groups, seeking to corner them in border regions with the support of Ecuador and Venezuela, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview with AFP.

According to the minister, coordinated pressure from neighboring countries—backed by United States—aims to dismantle criminal networks that use cross-border routes to traffic Colombian cocaine toward North America and Europe.

For decades, armed groups involved in Colombia’s internal conflict have relied on border territories as strategic rear bases to evade military operations and maintain logistical support.

However, Sánchez said that dynamic is beginning to change.

“We expect a total suffocation between both nations so they have no spaces where they can live or feel safe […] to close off any room they might have,” he stated during the interview in Bogotá, less than five months before the end of President Gustavo Petro’s term.

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Regional developments have reinforced this strategy. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation, Washington has increased its influence in Caracas, where interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has implemented a renewed anti-narcotics policy.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa—a key U.S. ally in the region—has launched a two-week security plan under strict curfews to combat criminal gangs, with U.S. support.

Sánchez argued that these combined efforts leave illegal organizations with fewer escape routes and operational spaces, effectively placing them in a “dead end.”

International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.