Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández investigates the mysterious health incidents reported by U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana in 2017. The incidents — characterized as “sonic attacks,” “microwave attacks” and the “Havana Syndrome” — led to the shuttering of the U.S. Embassy and opened the doors to a barrage of devastating sanctions imposed by Trump and maintained by Biden. Liz interviews scientists from both countries who dismantle the theory that U.S. personnel were attacked. She shows how major media outlets fanned the flames of hysteria and speaks with the Cuban families separated by the near total closure of U.S. consular services.

On July 11, unprecedented protests erupted across Cuba. Most media organizations portrayed the demonstrations as a cry for freedom against Communism. But the reality was far more complex. Journalist Liz Oliva Fernández explores the root causes of the devastating economic crisis that has pushed Cuba to the brink. She takes the viewer to Cuba’s working class neighborhoods, where we see the impact of ever-intensifying U.S. sanctions during the COVID pandemic and the near fulfillment of a 1960 State Department memo justifying the purpose of the U.S. embargo: “[to deny] money and supplies...to decrease...wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.”

Journalist Liz Oliva Fernández exposes the striking disconnect between U.S. policy and Cuba’s reality. Liz reveals the absurdity of Biden’s offers to “help” the Cuban people with donations of vaccines, Internet access and remittances that bypass local financial institutions. She shows how Biden, pandering to Cuban-American extremists in Miami, has abandoned his promise to reinitiate the Obama-era policy of engagement with Cuba. Liz also reports on the crackdown against protesters and contextualizes both repression in Cuba and the U.S. government’s supposed concern for human rights abuses in the region.

Why are dozens of US students getting their medical degree in Cuba? What are they learning that they wouldn't be in the US? We asked these questions and more to four US medical students currently studying at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana through IFCO/Pastors for Peace's ELAM Scholarship Program. Here's what they had to say.

Amid COP28, how is Cuba confronting climate change? A major piece is the island nation's 100-year climate mitigation strategy, Tarea Vida, which includes efforts to restore coral reefs in order to protect against sea level rise. Cuba possesses one of the largest and best kept coral populations in the Americas, something that Pedro Chevalier, PhD, an expert from Cuba's National Aquarium, says must be preserved.

Callejón de Hamel is a narrow alley in Centro Habana filled with murals and installations promoting the African roots of Cuban culture. Created by the late artist Salvador Gonzalez Escalona, this vibrant community project has put the neighborhood on Cuba's cultural and tourist map.

On November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, meet Razan Maleh, a medical student from Ramallah on scholarship in Cuba: "We've had enough suffering. All oppressed peoples have the right to justice and to live in peace,” Mazeh says.

Thousands of Cuban young people joined Palestinian medical students for a massive march in Havana on Thanksgiving in solidarity with Palestine and against Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign of Gaza. "Our job now is to become good professionals so that we can return to Palestine and support our people," said Haneen Alhendi, a Palestinian medical student at the march.

Millions of Cubans live abroad, most of them in the United States. In November, hundreds of them returned for dialogues with Cuban authorities about how to further contribute to economic, political and cultural life on the island. Belly of the Beast reports from the 4th Cuban Diaspora Conference in Havana—the first of its kind to take place in nearly two decades.

Despite challenges stemming from U.S. sanctions, businesspeople from the U.S. and around the world are exploring business opportunities in Cuba, especially with the island's emerging private sector. Belly of the Beast reports from Havana’s International Business Fair.

These are the voices of Cuba's Mipymes, who are transforming the island's economic landscape in the face of stifling U.S. sanctions. “The complications are obvious:” says Beatriz Franco, COO of the construction company BLS Industry and Technology. “The embargo.” But Franco says Cuban entrepreneurs are hopeful due to a slight opening over the past years from the Cuban government as well as signs of looming regulatory change from the Biden administration.

The U.S. government tends to portray Cuba as a pariah state in the international arena. Much of the world doesn’t see it that way. Cuba is currently presiding over the largest negotiating bloc of nations at the UN, the G77+China. Belly of the Beast’s Liz Oliva Fernández reports from the G77+China Summit in Havana.