Russia says Cuba situation is escalating after deadly incident with U.S.-tagged speedboat

Published Thu, Feb 26 2026 6:29 AM EST 

Updated An Hour Ago

Sam Meredith
Key Points

• Cuban forces were involved in a deadly incident with a U.S.-registered speedboat off the coast of the Caribbean island on Wednesday.
• “The humanitarian issues of Cuban citizens must be resolved, and no one should create obstacles,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
• The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Havana.

China's mysterious Shenlong space plane recently launched on its 4th mission. What is it doing up there?

By Mike Wall
Published 3 days ago
We don't know for sure, but there are some intriguing clues.

China's reusable space plane is circling Earth once again.
The Shenlong ("Divine Dragon") spacecraft launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Feb. 6, kicking off the robotic vehicle's fourth-ever orbital mission.

10 Cuban nationals on U.S. speedboat intended to carry out an 'armed infiltration,' Cuba says

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would carry out an independent investigation before responding. Four people on the boat were killed, Cuba's Interior Ministry said.

Feb. 25, 2026

By Babak Dehghanpisheh and Joe Kottke

Cuba said its military killed four Cuban residents of the U.S. who were on a speedboat that entered its territorial waters on Wednesday, which the country’s Interior Ministry called a "foiled armed infiltration."

A Specter is Haunting Greece

efsyn.gr

OPINIONS
24.02.26 16:00
Takis Lagios

It was the year 1848, when the "Communist Manifesto" was published, beginning with the phrase "A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of Communism." Many years have passed since then, filled with uprisings, revolutions, struggles, demonstrations drowned in blood, world wars, exiles, imprisonments, executions; years filled with visions, high ideals, pride, but also with hatred and internecine strife.

Epstein Lurked at JPMorgan for Years After Bank Kicked Him Out

  Hannah Levitt, Tom Schoenberg, and Emily Flitter

Tue, February 24, 2026 

(Bloomberg) - Five years after JPMorgan Chase & Co. sought to rid itself of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender was once again moving money into the bank.

Gaza firm to build UAE-funded housing compound in Israeli-held south, sources say

 By Reuters

A Gaza firm has been contracted to build an Emirati-funded compound for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in a part of the territory under Israeli military control, two Israeli officials and two Palestinian businessmen tell Reuters.

Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Analysis
Anthropic calls its chatbot ‘a new kind of entity’ that might be conscious - and it’s opening a huge can of worms.
Feb 25, 2026
by Hayden Field
Hayden Field is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets.

Over the past several weeks, as more and more Anthropic executives do interviews on a publicity blitz for Claude, one thing has gotten increasingly clear: Anthropic sure seems to think Claude is alive in some way, shape, or form.

Anthropic narrows AI safety policy pledge

by Julia Shapero
February 25, 2026
Anthropic is narrowing its AI safety policy pledge, removing the company’s previous commitment to halt the development of its AI models if they outpace its safety procedures.

Just 1 in 3 State of the Union watchers confident Trump will lower costs: Flash poll

by Ryan Mancini - 02/25/26 10:08 AM ET

A flash poll taken after President Trump’s record-long State of the Union address on Tuesday found that not many Americans are confident that he will lower costs.

Joint Communiqué of the 13 "Vertical Corridor" Countries - What they agreed on

efsyn.gr

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
24.02.26 21:45
"The Participants commit to mobilizing public and private sector funding [...] to achieve the national and regional energy goal of ensuring a secure and affordable natural gas supply throughout Central and Eastern Europe," they note, among other things.

A blog post just wiped $30 billion off IBM in a single afternoon

By Shanaka Anslem Perera
SUBSTACK

Not a product launch. Not an earnings miss. Not a competitor undercutting on price. A five-minute blog post explaining that Claude can read COBOL. IBM dropped 13%. Worst single-day loss since October 2000. Twenty-five years of stock resilience ended with one AI company publishing a capability update.

Here’s what happened:

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump

February 24, 2026, 5:00 AM ET
Stephen Fowler

An NPR investigation finds the Justice Department has removed or withheld Epstein files related to President Trump

The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.

Newly unearthed DEA document from Epstein files raises question: Did Epstein facilitate drug trafficking?

By Daniel Ruetenik, Pat Milton, Cara Tabachnick

February 23, 2026 / 6:20 PM EST / CBS News

Jeffrey Epstein was the subject of a previously undisclosed U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigation — a five-year-plus probe targeting him and 14 other individuals for suspicious money transfers possibly linked to illegal narcotics, a newly uncovered document in the Department of Justice's Epstein files reveals.

Suspect in Nancy Guthrie case had been to the house before the night of her disappearance, source says

By Jennifer Jacobs, Pat Milton, Jonathan Vigliotti, Anna Schecter 

Updated on: February 23, 2026 / 10:37 PM EST / CBS News

The masked man seen in the doorbell camera video, who is suspected of abducting Nancy Guthrie, appears to have been at her front door earlier than Feb. 1, the night police believe she was kidnapped, a law enforcement source confirmed to CBS News. The information was first reported by ABC News.

Why tariffs aren’t shrinking the US trade deficit

Story by Tom Fairless, Gavin Bade • 

16 hours • 5 min read

STUTTGART, Germany—President Trump is doubling down on his tariffs, even though they have so far failed to achieve one of their key stated goals: rebalancing lopsided global trade. On the contrary, recent data show the tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down on Friday and that Trump has vowed to reimpose under a different statute are cementing these imbalances.

'Unprepared For Tsunami': Bernie Sanders Fiery Speech On AI Ahead Of Trump SOTU Address | US News

 

The Greek Courier 

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders delivered a fiery speech that the United States is 'unprepared for the tsunami' of artificial intelligence, raising alarms about mass job losses. 

Stocks sell off as traders wake up to the realization that Trump has ‘highly punitive’ options for new trade tariffs

Jim Edwards
Mon, February 23, 2026 at 3:13 AM PST 

3 min read

Peter Mandelson arrested amid Epstein fallout

Huge figure in Labour politics arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office

February 23, 2026

By Matt Honeycombe-Foster

LONDON —Former U.K. ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was arrested Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, amid scrutiny of his association with Jeffrey Epstein.