Cuba Kills Speedboaters, Superager Brains, & Color Memory

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Adam Rogers
February 26, 2026

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Cuban soldiers killed four people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered speedboat yesterday after the vessel entered Cuban waters, according to Cuba's Interior Ministry. The Cuban government said the boat's occupants fired on soldiers first. What the boat was doing in Cuban waters remains unknown.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US is independently verifying the facts and would not rely solely on Cuba's account. DHS and the Coast Guard are investigating whether the victims were American citizens or permanent residents.
Skirmishes between Cuba's Coast Guard and US-flagged speedboats are not unusual, but deaths are rare. The incident comes as US-Cuba tensions rise following Trump’s executive order imposing tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, worsening the island’s energy crisis.

A study published in Nature found that "superagers" — older adults with unusually strong memory — continue producing new brain cells at twice the rate of typical healthy seniors.
Scientists analyzed donated brain samples across five groups, including young adults, healthy older adults, superagers, and people with early dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. They tracked three stages of developing neurons in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, and found active growth in healthy brains. Superagers showed the highest levels, while Alzheimer’s brains displayed little to no new neuron production.
Researchers say the findings open the door to therapeutics that could preserve memory and cognitive function in aging adults. Next steps include examining how diet, exercise, and inflammation interact with neurogenesis to affect brain aging.

President Trump assigned Vice President JD Vance to lead a “war on fraud” in Tuesday’s State of the Union, aimed at investigating billions of dollars in suspected improper payments across federal programs.
As a quick first step, Vance and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz announced a temporary pause on a $259 million Medicaid reimbursement to Minnesota. The administration said payments will resume once the state proposes corrective actions, while Minnesota officials disputed the move and warned of potential harm to residents. The Justice Department has already charged 98 people in Minnesota with $1 billion in alleged daycare-related fraud — one of several Democratic-led states Trump singled out in his address.
The administration's legal authority to withhold funds already appropriated by Congress remains unclear, raising separation of powers questions.

A wildfire burned 25,000 acres in South Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve, forcing periodic highway closures on Alligator Alley due to dangerous smoke. (More)

A DHS official told state election officials Wednesday that ICE won't show up at polling places. (More)

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers quit his Harvard professorship after newly released emails showed he was closer to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein than anyone knew. (More)

At least 133 people escaped al-Hol camp in Syria, which held 23,500 Islamic State suspects, after clashes broke out when government forces seized it in January. (More)

Antonio Tejero, the Spanish officer who stormed parliament in a 1981 coup attempt, died at 93 Wednesday, the same day Spain declassified documents about the plot. (More)

Brazil's supreme court sentenced two former politicians to 76 years for ordering the 2018 murder of Marielle Franco, a Black gay councillor who criticized police violence. (More)

US stock markets closed higher on Wednesday (S&P +0.81%, Nasdaq +1.26%, Dow +0.63%). (More)

Nvidia's quarterly revenue jumped 73% to $68 billion, powered by AI chip sales, and the company forecast next quarter at $78 billion — well above expectations. (More)

Kalshi fined a MrBeast video editor for insider trading — he used secret knowledge of upcoming videos to place winning bets on the prediction market platform. (More)

Cincinnati sued former quarterback Brendan Sorsby for $1 million, saying he refused to pay the exit fee required by his NIL contract after transferring to Texas Tech. (More)

Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia offered $1 million prizes for the 2027 dunk and 3-point contests to attract bigger stars, but the NBA said the plan doesn't comply with rules. (More)

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced 17 nominees, including Oasis, Wu-Tang Clan, Sade, and Billy Idol, with inductees to be revealed in April. (More)

Scientists discovered that morning dew drops trigger flowering in plants by setting off a chemical chain reaction, suggesting dew patterns — not just temperature — drive bloom timing. (More)

Scientists chasing storms in a minivan filmed tiny electrical sparks hopping between leaves for the first time, confirming trees light up during thunderstorms. (More)

A near-complete dinosaur skeleton found in Patagonia reveals that a family of tiny, single-clawed dinosaurs shrank millions of years before developing their odd ant-eating features. (More)

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