May 15, 2026
[weekly newsletter about Cuba (with YouTube video links) from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can also be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

For over seven million people in the United States, Alzheimer’s is a slow erasure of memory, identity and connection. As pharmaceutical giants charge staggering prices for treatments that offer limited results with dangerous side effects, a potential breakthrough has emerged from Cuba, a country subjected to more than six decades of U.S. economic warfare.

Our latest documentary, Teresita’s Dream, tells the story of how a Cuban scientist, amid sanctions and scarcities, has developed an Alzheimer’s medication that could “change the world.”

Also:

• Talks in Havana, War Drums in Miami
• Rubio's Cynical Aid Charade
• 40 Years After Jesse Jackson's Havana Visit, His Son Returns
• Cuban Americans: "Rubio Doesn't Speak for Me"
• "Monsters Against Their Own People"
• Who's Spying on Whom?
• "No Military Solution": UN Chief Slams U.S. Sanctions
• As War on Cuba Escalates, Companies Settle Lawsuits
• Rising Gas Prices as Russian Tanker Stalls

Duration - 2:36

At a time when the U.S. government’s economic war on Cuba is intensifying, U.S. lawmakers Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) traveled to Havana in early April.

At the Martin Luther King Center, Jackson paid tribute to his father, Jesse Jackson, recalling his historic 1984 visit to the island, when he met with Fidel Castro and helped usher in a rare moment of dialogue between Cuba and the African American community.

Jackson spoke of a generation of people in the United States shaped by the country’s continuous wars, and called for a different path forward — one rooted in dialogue, mutual respect, and human connection.

“It’s my prayer that the historical and political differences that divide us would not be used to deny our children the kind of future they deserve,” said Jackson.

May 15, 2026

Cuba’s top diplomat in the United States on Friday underscored the inviolability of her country’s sovereignty amid tenuous negotiations with the Trump administration and mounting fears that the US is planning to criminally indict a former Cuban president and possibly invade the island to abduct him.

“We have reorganized the whole country, the healthcare system, the education system, the transportation system, to keep the basic services running,” Torres Rivera told The Hill. “But it doesn’t mean that they are running normally. They are running under huge stress.”

Still, “a serious country that respects yourself... won’t put on the table your political system or your internal order that the people of our country decide in a sovereign way,” she stressed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47357758

John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, is the highest-ranking official in the Trump administration to visit the country.
May 14, 2026

Duration - 2:38
[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

May Day in Cuba was more than a workers’ celebration this year. Many marched with a clear message: no U.S. intervention.

May 12, 2026

As the team at Tehran-based Explosive Media keeps churning out viral artificial intelligence-generated Lego-style animated videos condemning the US-Israeli war on Iran, a Cuban version of the clips reacting to President Donald Trump’s threats to attack the island appeared Monday on social media.

First posted by Havana art historian and digital content creator María Teresa Felipe Sosa, the video was shared by users including US investigative journalist Ryan Grim and Explosive Media, which added, “Welcome to the #LRF Cuba,” or Lego Resistance Front.

Duration - 2:06 [a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Justine Medina is a barista and Cuban-American activist opposed to the embargo imposed by the U.S. government on Cuba, the island she considers her other homeland.

After multiple visits to Cuba, she says conditions have worsened: food shortages, scarcity of medicine and constant blackouts that make daily life harder.

According to Justine, this war, which has lasted 66 years and has intensified over time, only causes more suffering for the people.

“I grew up hearing criticism of the Cuban government,” says Justine, who was raised in Florida. “But I also learned that the embargo should end.”

May 11, 2026

By Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson

Ms. Jayapal, of Washington’s Seventh Congressional District, and Mr. Jackson, of Illinois’s First Congressional District, are Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Alejandro, a premature baby born in Havana’s Eusebio Hernández Pérez maternity hospital, weighed only two pounds when we met him in April. We watched him as he lay in an incubator, one of the few in the building whose delicate electronic components hadn’t been damaged by the high-voltage electricity surges that follow nationwide blackouts. Far-reaching U.S. sanctions make importing replacement parts for the other, broken incubators nearly impossible.

Touring the hospital, we saw women in the final days of their pregnancies trudging up flights of stairs, the elevators inoperable without power. The hospital staff members struggle to get to work without fuel for their cars. During blackouts, doctors sometimes have to manually pump ventilators to keep babies alive. They say the hospital has managed to avoid an increase in infant mortality over the past several months, but other facilities around the country have not been so lucky. From 2018 to 2025, as U.S. sanctions grew more punitive, Cuba’s once-impressive infant mortality rate skyrocketed by 148 percent.

May 8, 2026

May 4, 2026

Duration - 8:39
[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Vic Mensa came to Cuba — but not as a performer. The Chicago rapper arrived as part of the Nuestra América Convoy, an international solidarity mission bringing humanitarian aid to an island under one of the longest economic blockade in modern history.

“From a U.S. perspective, the pain of the world is often out of sight, out of mind,” he said in an interview with Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández. Vic came to Cuba to see the impact of U.S. policy firsthand.

Cuba didn't just move him politically. It moved him personally, as a Black man, as a father, as someone who carries both America and Africa inside him.

Walking deeper into Old Havana, he kept seeing faces that looked like home. Like Chicago. Like Ghana. Like family.

“What I like the most about this experience is seeing that there are Black people on this planet who can't be broken,” he said.

[weekly newsletter about Cuba (with YouTube video links) from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can also be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

May 8, 2026

As the Trump administration ramps up economic warfare and threats of military action against Cuba, solidarity from people in the United States is growing in response.

This week, we hear from people who have traveled to Cuba amid deepening economic hardship on the island — from a young activist who left Minneapolis for Havana to march on May Day, to rapper Vic Mensa who witnessed the effects of sanctions firsthand in a Cuban hospital, to organizer Imani Bashir who reflects on Cuba through the lens of anti-imperialist and Black radical traditions.

Also:

• MAGA Influencer Violates Trump's Sanctions
• Trump's Cuba Order Claims First Casualty
• Teresita's Dream Screens at Havana Film Festival NY
• New Poll: U.S. Citizens Oppose War on Cuba
• Military Invasion On Hold?
• Cuba Modernizes Migration Laws
• Solar Energy Expands

Duration - 8:01

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

While Washington doubles down on its economic war on Cuba, one young activist from Minneapolis packed his bag and flew to Havana. Lavish came not despite U.S. aggression, but because of it, to show solidarity with the Cuban people.

On International Workers’ Day, Lavish was joined by Josué, a young Cuban researcher who has been attending May Day marches since he was a child. The two come from different worlds, but found common ground in Havana.

Cuba is living through one of its hardest economic moments in decades. And yet, there are people in the United States who choose to show up anyway, to stand alongside a people they believe deserve dignity, sovereignty and the right to live without the threat of war or foreign intervention.

Emergency Rally in Jacksonville, FL, USA condemning Trump's plans for war against Cuba

Saturday, May 9 4:30 - 5:30pm

Memorial Park, 1620 Riverside Ave.
Jacksonville, Fl 32204

Sponsor: #US Hands Off #Cuba Committee, Jacksonville, Florida

#LetCubaLive
#USHandsOffCuba
#news #politics
@cuba

Emergency Speak-out Saturday Night in #LosAngeles, CA, #USA - No War on #Cuba

[update: #JewishVoiceForPeace - #JVP in Los Angeles just endorsed the speak-out.]

#OilForCuba!
#EndTheBlockadeEmbargo
#CubaSolidarity
#LetCubaLive
#VivaCuba #CubaSí #AbajoElBloqueo #SolidaridadConCuba
#PetróleoParaCuba
#news #politics #USpol #LatinAmerica #Caribbean
@cuba

Duration - 3:00

Vic Mensa traveled to Cuba with the Nuestra América Convoy, not as an artist, but as a witness.What he found in the streets of Old Havana moved him to his core.

Join Patreon to watch full interview! By becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, you gain early access to selected videos and documentaries and can attend a monthly live briefing with a Belly of the Beast journalist.

More importantly, your membership also helps support our on-the-ground reporting that you won’t find anywhere else!

Duration - 2:02

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Imani Bashir is a Black American activist from Washington D.C. She visited to Cuba following a radical political tradition, one that includes Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, and Kwame Ture, figures who understood the Cuban Revolution as part of a broader struggle for liberation.

For Bashir, visiting Cuba wasn't just political, it was personal. Seeing Afro-Cuban people, she says, was seeing people who look like her, who share her history, who have maintained their culture and dignity under decades of sanctions.

Her argument on the blockade is straightforward: Cuba has never been a threat to the United States. It has never put U.S. safety, its food supply, or resources at stake. "It has only been the other way around," she says.

And on the U.S. government's stated concern for the Cuban people: "I absolutely don't think that the United States government wants to help the Cuban people, because the United States government doesn't want to help the American people.”

U.S. Voices Against the Blockade is a series featuring U.S. citizens who oppose U.S. sanctions on Cuba. Watch Episode 2 and catch up on all previous episodes in the series.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46923628

May 5, 2026

While millions marched across Cuba on International Workers’ Day, “the regime of Donald Trump chose to intensify its economic war on the heroic island nation. This timing is not incidental. It is profoundly symbolic: an imperial declaration issued on the very day the Cuban people publicly reaffirm their revolutionary commitment before the world.”

This is what Isaac Saney wrote in an essay on his Facebook page on May 1, 2026. Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and a professor of Black African Diaspora Studies and History at the Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. He is also a member of the executive board of the Canadian Network on Cuba.

We are publishing below Saney’s essay for the information of our readers because it accurately draws out the implications for Cuba, and the Cuba solidarity movement, of Trump’s May 1 executive order.

Duration - 1:40 

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Renowned Cuban-born violinist Yilian Cañizares has been described as one of the most incredible talents of her generation. She tells us why, despite building a hugely successful career in Europe, she still feels Cuba is her real home.

Duration - 13:39

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Yilian Cañizares stands out as one of the extraordinary talents of the new generation of Cuban musicians. She conquers international stages, taking traditional Cuban violin beyond the boundaries of classical music.

Yillian was born in Havana and later settled in Switzerland. On her return to Cuba for this year’s Jazz Plaza Festival, she shares her vision: “Cuban music has virtuosity, flavor, and cubanía, and I come to add a little sweetness, my feminine perspective.”

For Yilian, Jazz Plaza is a place where dreams turn into music, and where roots, friendship and dedication are celebrated. A space that inspires new generations, especially women who want to leave their mark on music.

Discover her story, her music, and her passion for Cuba and Afro-Cuban jazz in this interview with our journalist Liz Oliva Fernández.

May 2, 2026

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez of Cuba on Saturday responded with stark and defiant words to the latest attacks coming from US President Donald Trump, who on Friday signed a new executive order authorizing even more aggressive sanctions against the island nation and later threatened to invade the country.

“The President of the United States escalates his threats of military aggression against Cuba to a dangerous and unprecedented scale,” said Díaz-Canel in a statement. “The international community must take note and, together with the people of the United States, determine whether such a drastic criminal act will be allowed to satisfy the interests of a small but wealthy and influential group, driven by desires for revenge and domination.”

Duration - 1:06 
[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Thousands of Cubans marched this Friday to the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune in Havana, in front of the U.S. embassy, as well as to squares and parks across the rest of the country, to celebrate May Day.

“Cuba defends itself” was the slogan of the marches, as thousands took to the streets in support of the Cuban Revolution and rejection of U.S. economic warfare and military.

This year’s May Day marches take place amid a deepening economic crisis marked by shortages of medicine, food and fuel that have been brought about in large part by U.S. sanctions.

May 1, 2026
[weekly newsletter about Cuba (with YouTube video links) from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can also be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

On International Workers' Day, as protests around the world linked economic hardship to U.S. military aggression, Donald Trump issued an executive order intensifying his administration’s war on the Cuban people.

This week, we look at the sweeping order, which is the latest escalation in a decades-long economic war designed to bring about regime change by suffocating the island’s economy.

Also:

• Amid U.S. Aggression, Cubans March on May Day
• U.S. Voices Against the Blockade
• Cuba's "Magic Formula" for World-Class Musicians
• New Report: Cuban Babies Killed by U.S. Sanctions
• Senate Blocks Resolution to Stop Attack on Cuba
• Cuba Turns to Local Crude to Counter Oil Blockade
• Fact-checking Marco Rubio
• Cuban-American Billionaire on Trump Guest List
• The Cost of the U.S. War on Cuban Doctors
• ICE Arrests Multiply, Green Cards Diminish
• Tourism Drops in Cuba Amid Oil Blockade
• Cuba Collaborates with FBI in Kidnapping Case
• Belly of the Beast Recommends

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46654885

Duration - 2:02
[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Renee is a surgeon from Philadelphia who speaks out against the U.S. government’s economic war on Cuba. After visiting the island, she says the healthcare system is under severe strain: shortages of medicine and basic supplies, limited resources and constant blackouts that disrupt patient care. 

According to Renee, these restrictions are harming ordinary people and making medical treatment increasingly difficult. “People are not being saved. People are being harmed,” she says. “If we really supported human rights in the United States, Cuba wouldn’t be in this situation.”

U.S. Voices Against the Blockade is a series featuring U.S. activists who oppose U.S. sanctions on Cuba. Watch Episode 1 to hear Renee’s voice and stay tuned to hear other people from the United States speaking out against U.S. sanctions.

“If it's true that it is the Cuban government that is causing the problems, then lift the blockade, let the oil in and let's see what happens,” she says.