April 3, 2026
[an article from Current Affairs with an introduction and photos from World-Outlook]

We have both seen things that will be permanently burned into our minds. People moving around in the shadows like ghosts. Mounds of foul-smelling trash in the street, with sanitation workers in the few running trucks overwhelmed by the task of collecting it — and worse, old men picking through the heaps, looking for anything they can use or sell.

Live fish dying slowly in tanks filled with stagnant green water. Shopkeepers losing all of their refrigerated and frozen food. Taxi drivers calling out desperately for a fare, because tourism to the island has shrunk to a trickle. Restaurants having to close in the middle of a busy dinner service after losing power mid-meal. The look of worry on medical workers’ faces, as they contemplate rationing their remaining antibiotics or painkillers.

Duration - 19:24 [a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

For more than six decades, U.S. policy toward Cuba has relied on economic warfare instead of diplomacy. The U.S.claims to target the Cuban government but ends up hurting the lives of millions of civilians.

International law expert Alfred de Zayas speaks to Belly of the Beast on Trump’s latest executive order, which allows him to slap tariffs on any country that ships oil to Cuba, and how the policy violates international law. He explains the difference between sanctions and unilateral coercive measures, and how the devastating measures are really a form of collective punishment.

“We are witnessing an assault on the UN Charter, on international law, and on civilization itself,” warns Professor Alfred de Zayas.

What happens when powerful states ignore the rules they demand others follow? And what does that mean for global institutions like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court?

Duration - 2:49  [a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Ely Malik is a trans Sanda kickboxer in Cuba who speaks about progress, shortages in health care, community survival, race and what it means to transition in front of the people who raised you. This isn’t just a story about fighting in the ring. It’s about fighting to exist, to be respected and to live truthfully — even when the world makes that dangerous.