‘Diversionary war’: Trump wants to distract Americans from scandals at home | Christopher S Chivvis

Iran strikes are attempt to hijack the global narrative and drown out Epstein and tariffs with the thunder of cruise missiles

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without deciding whether it should. The George W Bush administration failed to ask whether the costs, risks and likely consequences of regime change justified the gamble. The result was tragedy – for Iraq, for the Middle East and for America.

Donald Trump’s attack on Iran now follows the same pattern – but with an even narrower logic of performative power. In the run-up to Iraq, Washington devoted enormous energy to planning the invasion. Almost no attention was given to the more important question: was war necessary, and could it realistically produce a stable political outcome?

Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Published: February 28, 2026, 8:00 pm

The moment I knew: I saw her enjoying herself in her perfect little witch’s hat and I was a goner

Comedian Steph Tisdell had a delightful old-fashioned courtship with Jessie – and was struck by her small, everyday acts of kindness

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series

In my early 30s I’d decided I didn’t want to swipe right on another man holding a fish on dating apps and I was taking tentative steps into the world of dating women in my home base of Brisbane.

Things hadn’t got off to a great start and as I tried to refine my approach, a friend posed a question that I’d foolishly never really considered: what did I actually want in a partner?

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:00 pm

‘If it’s cold, they stop mating’: New York City rat population may be on the decline

As a result of New York’s most severe winter in years, the city may see a drop from it’s estimated 3 million rats

Since arriving from Europe in the 1600s, New York City’s rats have survived hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks, riots, fires, a pandemic (they actually thrived during that), the Dutch and Crocodile Dundee II.

But as a result of New York’s most severe winter in years, when the city saw snow, then a historic deep freeze, then even more snow, the rat population might now be about to decline. For a bit.

Published: February 28, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘I clicked on a button – and everything changed’: how a DNA test turned my life upside-down

When I found out my father had been adopted, I was curious to know more about his side of the family. Nothing could have prepared me for what I would discover …

Above my grandma’s bed hung a framed black‑and-white photograph of my dad. As a small child I quietly admired it; his luminous eyes, dark hair and gentle smile. He embodied a tender yet spirited early adulthood, staring into the future. Handsome and seeking.

As I grew older, I would discover that it was not, in fact, a photograph of my dad but of a man called Elvis Presley. Apparently he was very famous. My grandma had been a lifelong fan. My parents laughed – an adorable mistake – but I felt a hot pulse of humiliation.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

Her husband wanted to use ChatGPT to create sustainable housing. Then it took over his life.

Kate Fox says Joe Ceccanti was the ‘most hopeful person’ before he started spending 12 hours a day with a chatbot

On 7 August, Kate Fox received a phone call that upended her life. A medical examiner said that her husband, Joe Ceccanti – who had been missing for several hours – had jumped from a railway overpass and died. He was 48.

Fox couldn’t believe it. Ceccanti had no history of depression, she said, nor was he suicidal – he was the “most hopeful person” she had ever known. In fact, according to the witness accounts shared with Fox later, just before Ceccanti jumped, he smiled and yelled: “I’m great!” to the rail yard attendants below when they asked him if he was OK.

Published: February 28, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Trump’s not enough. And he knows he’s not enough’: California governor Gavin Newsom on populism, ‘purity tests’ and whether he’ll run for the presidency

He’s the Democratic politician with movie-star looks and a picture-perfect family, dogged by accusations of being a smooth‑talking elitist. Can he really unite the American left and win the most powerful office in the world?

When you think of the politician Donald Trump isn’t, when you think of the norm he broke, the archetype he shattered, you might well picture a man who looks a lot like Gavin Newsom. Tall and handsome, hair coiffed just so, with a blond wife and four photogenic kids at his side, Newsom, who has been the governor of California since 2019 and is often described as the frontrunner to be the Democratic nominee for the White House in 2028, looks the way professional politicians, and especially presidential candidates, look in the movies.

It’s dogged Newsom for years, that look of his, perennially suggesting that he is, in the words of one California newspaper, “too ambitious, too slickly handsome, and too patrician-seeming”, especially for a populist age that cherishes the authentic and has no truck with anything either phoney or “elite”. The elite tag especially has hung around Newsom’s neck for decades, thanks to the fact that his ascent to the top of California politics has seemed smooth and unbroken, apparently eased by a childhood spent in the orbit of the Getty family, when that name was a byword for astronomical wealth.

Published: February 28, 2026, 6:00 am

US-Israel war on Iran: IDF launches fresh attacks; Trump says supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead – latest reports

Israeli military says it is striking Iranian missile and air defence systems; US president says Khamenei’s death is ‘justice for the people of Iran’ as he repeats call for regime change

• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed, says Trump

• A visual guide to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran – and Tehran’s response

• War on Iran: how the US-Israeli bid for regime change unfolded

Blasts have been heard in several cities, including the capital, Tehran, and Isfahan in central Iran.

Reuters reports there are long queues at petrol stations in the capital, as many people try to leave. An unnamed Iranian official who spoke to the news agency said several ministries in southern Tehran had been targeted.

Published: March 1, 2026, 1:28 am

Inside Trump’s decision to attack Iran: ‘a window of opportunity’

The US joined an Israeli assault after intel suggested Iran’s top clerics and commanders could be hit at once

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Donald Trump launched attacks against Iran on Saturday as part of a joint operation with Israel after they developed intelligence that they could simultaneously target the country’s leaders and mullahs, according to two people familiar with deliberations.

The Israelis had been tracking the movements of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and determined there was a window of opportunity to launch attacks as they convened, the people said.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:19 pm

A visual guide to US-Israeli strikes on Iran – and Tehran’s response

Missiles and bombs landed across Iran, hitting political and security targets in Tehran, including supreme leader’s residence

• US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates

• US and Israel strikes on Iran – what we know so far

The US and Israel have announced the beginning of an unprecedented joint operation against Iran, beginning with a wide-ranging bombing campaign aimed at regime change.

Israeli jets and US missiles struck hundreds of targets across Iran, sending residents fleeing in panic from major urban centres. Among the targets were Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, and Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as weapons facilities across the country.

Published: February 28, 2026, 4:57 pm

Explosions rock Dubai, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait as war spreads across Middle East

War launched by US and Israel on Iran has quickly escalated prompting anxiety and concern in whole region

• Full report

• US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates

Iran struck the world-famous Fairmont hotel in Dubai, setting the hotel alight, as the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran quickly spread to the rest of the Middle East on Saturday.

Residents watched in shock as an Iranian missile hit the five-star hotel in Dubai’s luxurious Palm Jumeirah area. Social media videos showed fires breaking out near the entrance of the hotel, which led to four people being injured.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:11 pm

Protesters rally across US after Iran strikes and reports of Khamenei killing

Crowds gather in DC, New York and beyond to denounce Trump’s Iran strikes as an illegal act of war

As news reports circulated that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, anti-war protesters gathered across the United States, including outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square to voice opposition to US military involvement in the region.

“It wasn’t sanctioned by Congress, so what Trump is doing is on his own terms, it’s making him a fascist and it’s making the country into a fascist state,” said Sue Johnson, a protester.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:49 pm

War on Iran: how the US-Israeli bid for regime change unfolded

Coordinated daylight assault on Tehran sparked Iranian retaliation and plunged the region into wider conflict

• US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates

• US and Israel strikes on Iran – what we know so far

The bombs and missiles started falling on Tehran in full daylight, at about 9.15am, after the working day had started and the streets and offices were full.

Bombing campaigns in the modern era usually start at night, to heighten the target’s sense of disorientation and minimise the effectiveness of air defence.

Published: February 28, 2026, 9:32 pm

With few good strategic options, Iran’s best prospect may be to retaliate while it can

Regime could try to retain control of streets as US and Israel have expressed no intention of mounting ground invasion

Venezula’s Nicholás Maduro was captured. But Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have chosen a different strategy for Iran: to target and aim to kill the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and as many other senior regime figures as possible.

Though Iranian military sites and its air defence systems were also targeted by coordinated US and Israeli bombing, beginning in the morning, the most significant attack was on Khamenei’s compound in Tehran.

Published: February 28, 2026, 8:06 pm

Trump vies for Bush’s crown for worst foreign policy decision in history

The US president upended half a century of US foreign policy in an eight-minute video with another attempt at Middle Eastern regime change

It was another date that would live in infamy. But whereas Franklin Roosevelt declared war in sombre tones to a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump did it his way.

The US president wore a white “USA” cap, dark jacket and white shirt open at the collar. He stood at a blue lectern bearing the US presidential seal and a black microphone, with the Stars and Stripes behind him, presumably at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. He released a video on his own social media network, Truth Social, at 2.30am on Saturday – a time when most Americans are asleep but Trump is often found rage-tweeting into the night.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:33 pm

Joe Biden warns that Donald Trump will try to ‘steal’ midterm elections

In a rare public address, former president said US is experiencing ‘dark days’ and urged Americans to vote

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Joe Biden has warned that his presidential successor, Donald Trump, will attempt to “steal” the midterm elections, in a rare public address.

Speaking in South Carolina, where he was being honored for his lifetime achievement in politics, Biden also asserted that the US is experiencing “dark days”, in a speech made hours before the Trump administration launched attacks on Iran.

Published: February 28, 2026, 3:11 pm

‘Viruses don’t know borders’: US anti-vaccine rhetoric could impact global measles crisis

Experts say global measles vaccination rates are falling as Trump officials signal a deprioritization of the virus

The US government has amplified anti-vaccine rhetoric and signaled that it does not consider measles to be a priority, which could have global ramifications as countries around the world have lost or are on the brink of losing measles elimination status.

The World Health Organization announced in late January that six European countries: the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan had all officially lost their measles elimination status, which means the virus has been circulating continuously in those countries for more than 12 months. In order to contain measles, at least 95% of children should be fully vaccinated against it, according to health recommendations, but vaccination rates have been falling across Europe.

Published: February 28, 2026, 1:00 pm

Man arrested in shooting of prominent Muslim leader in Utah during Ramadan

Imam Shuaib Din was not hit by multiple shots fired by Abdul Raouf Afridi, who ambushed him outside his home

A man has been arrested for recently shooting a gun at prominent Muslim leader Imam Shuaib Din in Utah, the police department in the city of Sandy said Saturday.

Din’s suspected attacker was identified as Abdul Raouf Afridi. Police said the man was arrested on 12 counts of aggravated assault, including felony discharge of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance, dangerous discharge of a weapon from a vehicle and possession of a dangerous weapon as a prohibited person.

Published: February 28, 2026, 6:51 pm

OpenAI to work with Pentagon after Anthropic dropped by Trump over company’s ethics concerns

CEO Sam Altman claims military will not use AI product for autonomous killing systems or mass surveillance

OpenAI said it had struck a deal with the Pentagon to supply AI to classified US military networks, hours after Donald Trump ordered the government to stop using the services of one of the company’s main competitors.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, announced the move on Friday night. It came after an agreement between Anthropic, a rival AI company that runs the Claude system, and the Trump administration broke down after Anthropic sought assurances its technology would not be used for mass surveillance – nor for autonomous weapons systems that can kill people without human input.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:06 pm

Son of rapper Lil Jon drowned after ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms

Body of Nathan Smith, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was found in pond north of Atlanta in February

The son of the rapper Lil Jon drowned after ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms, officials in the US state of Georgia said.

The body of Nathan Smith, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was found in a pond north of Atlanta in early February.

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:02 pm

Hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded or diverted amid air space closures in Middle East

Chaos as key transit hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha close, and more than 1,000 flights by major Middle Eastern airlines cancelled

• Full report: US president announces death of the ayatollah, who has ruled Iran as supreme leader since 1989

• Latest updates: Trump says Khamenei is dead

America and Israel’s attack on Iran disrupted flights across the Middle East and beyond as countries around the region closed their airspace and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the west to Asia halted operations.

Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There also was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government there announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.

Published: March 1, 2026, 12:09 am

Shia LaBeouf surrenders to New Orleans police after new warrant adds third battery charge

Actor, originally charged on two counts, also accused of shouting homophobic slurs during attacks on 17 February

Shia LaBeouf surrendered to New Orleans police after they obtained a new warrant Friday to arrest him again in connection with a case that had already left him facing two counts of battery.

The new warrant brought the number of people whom the Transformers film franchise star is accused of battering to three. He turned himself over to police in advance of a bail hearing on Saturday afternoon, after which he posted a $5,000 bond to continue out of authorities’ custody while awaiting the outcome of the case.

Published: February 28, 2026, 10:16 pm

Pilot ‘crawls out’ after plane crashes on to beach in Gosport

Bystander describes ‘loud crashing sound from the rocks’ as light aircraft goes into sea at Lee-on-the-Solent

A pilot survived after a light aircraft crashed on to a beach in Hampshire on Saturday.

The pilot had exited the aircraft before firefighters arrived and was subsequently assessed by the ambulance service, Hampshire and Isle of Wight fire and rescue service said.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:16 pm

US man issues challenge to disprove his claim of having world’s smallest penis to raise micropenis awareness

North Carolina’s Michael Phillips revealed that he had a 0.38in member in bid to reduce stigma of the condition

A North Carolina man has challenged anyone on earth to disprove his claim of having the world’s smallest penis as he advocates against body shaming and aims to raise awareness about the medical condition known as micropenis.

Michael Phillips, 38, threw down the gauntlet in an interview posted Friday on TMZ’s YouTube channel, in which he purported that his penis was 0.38in (0.97cm) when fully erect – and, holding up the fingernail on his right pinky to illustrate that length, added: “When it’s flaccid, it’s smaller than that.”

Published: February 28, 2026, 3:45 pm

‘Are you willing to fight back?’: Democrats ready to take on party’s old guard ahead of midterms

After Zohran Mamdani’s upset, a new wave of challengers targets incumbents, driven by fury at Donald Trump

They are impatient, unafraid and hungry for change. Inspired by Zohran Mamdani’s shock victory in last year’s New York mayoral race, a wave of insurgents is mounting primary challenges against Democratic incumbents ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The emboldened lineup of primary challengers – often, but not always, from the party’s progressive wing – has been fuelled by anger over the party’s tepid response to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, complicity in the war in Gaza and a crushing affordability crisis.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:00 pm

The real winners of Trump’s global tariff war: law firms, hedge funds and AI

Businesses are vying for a refund, with nearly $175bn on the line, but customers are unlikely to benefit from reversal

At 8am, two hours before the US supreme court officially slapped down Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs on 20 February, Joseph Spraragen’s phone was already ringing off the hook.

The seasoned New York-based attorney and his 40-strong specialised trade team at Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt (GDLSK) had spent months filing hundreds of lawsuits for heavy-hitter clients, including luxury brands Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, in protest of the US president’s decision to impose sweeping import taxes last April.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

Midterm ‘blue wave’ could block Trump’s agenda and launch investigations – here’s what’s at stake

Democrats hope to capture the House, but the Senate could be a heavier lift in November’s midterm elections

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On the first Tuesday of November, Americans will decide whether to keep Congress under Donald Trump’s control, or hand power to the Democrats. The first national elections since the 2024 polls that brought Trump back to the White House, the 3 November midterms will be a crucial test of whether the president’s handling of top issues such as the economy and immigration have met Americans’ expectations. On Tuesday, voters will cast ballots in initial state primaries, with more to follow in the months ahead.

Up for grabs in November are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate, and if Republicans lose their majorities in either chamber, it will alter the course of Trump’s presidency. Should Democrats take the House, they will gain the power to issue subpoenas as they investigate his administration, and can block the president’s legislative agenda. Should they wrest control of the Senate from the GOP, Democrats could stop Trump from appointing nominees to cabinet positions and the federal judiciary, including the supreme court.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump administration warns tariff refund process ‘will take time’

DoJ says it will not ask US supreme court to rehear tariffs case despite president’s complaint on Truth Social

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The Trump administration said refunds of tariffs struck down by the US supreme court “will take time”, according to court documents filed by the Department of Justice.

Businesses including FedEx have lined up to demand reimbursement for US tariffs they have paid but that the court last week deemed were imposed illegally, prompting heavy criticism from Donald Trump.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:56 am

The Russian honeytrap: alleged spy for Moscow faces five years in US prison

Nomma Zarubina, convicted of lying to the FBI, is the latest Russian woman accused of using her sexual wiles for spying

Nomma Zarubina, 35, now sits in a New York jail awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last week to charges that she lied to the FBI about her contacts with the FSB, Russia’s biggest domestic intelligence service.

But, in a playbook that comes straight from the cold war, the striking-looking Zarubina – known as “Alyssa” to her Russian handlers – was tasked with meeting prominent Americans in order to lure them into the orbit of Moscow intelligence.

Published: February 28, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘Iron river’: Mexico’s cartel violence fuelled by trafficked firearms from US

Lax American gun laws mean weapons are readily available to buy and smuggle south of the border

Mexico was rocked this week by a wave of brutal violence after the capture of the drug lord Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, AKA “El Mencho”, as members of his powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel blew up trucks, fired on police stations and engaged in gun battles with Mexican security forces.

The chaos eventually calmed but not before 62 people had been killed, including a pregnant woman caught in the cross fire. The scale of the carnage, as well as the arsenal involved, has underscored a key element of Mexico’s struggle against organised crime: cartels are armed to the teeth, and most of their weapons are trafficked from the US.

Published: February 28, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Liberty Vans’ appear across US to help immigrants – and document ICE raids

Volunteers offer moral and legal support, and document ICE actions with the aim of holding people accountable

As ICE operations ramped up across the US over the past year, vans emblazoned with imagery of the Statue of Liberty have been deployed in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and most recently, Minneapolis. Liberty Vans, or camioneta de la libertad in Spanish, are on a mission to defend vulnerable communities in the crosshairs of federal enforcement.

Volunteers in the small fleet of three vans – which are named for the second world war Liberty ships that delivered supplies to Allied forces – offer moral and legal support, stand in visible solidarity with families and document ICE operations so people can see the human impact of the military-style raids that have become a daily part of American life.

Published: February 28, 2026, 1:00 pm

A film honors America’s first self-governed town founded by formerly enslaved people

The Spirit We Move With explores the legacy of Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island and its Gullah Geechee community

In 1862, while the American civil war spread across the country, formerly enslaved people on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina were imagining a new future and envisioning new possibilities. They began organizing themselves and eventually created the first self-governed, autonomous city for freed people. It was called Mitchelville, named for the Union army Maj Gen Ormsby Mitchel, who led what would become known as the Port Royal Experiment, a model for how the country might transition away from slavery that served as a precursor to the Reconstruction period.

The freed people, who would come to be known as the Gullah Geechee, built their own homes, elected their own officials, created their own economy and, for the first time in US history, mandated education for their children. Each individual made their own decisions, from what they would wear, to whom they would see, to where they would go – decisions that they were prevented from making when they were kept in bondage.

Published: February 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

Our favorite affordable makeup products look more expensive than they really are

We asked a beauty creator and lab scientist to build a budget-friendly makeup routine. Here are their favorites

• This story was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it

Each week we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

As a bratty teen, I scoffed at drugstore makeup. I wondered why my mom bought her moisturizer and mascara at Target when the pricier options from Sephora were so much cooler. She had more in common with the experts than I realized. When we recently asked dermatologists for their favorite products, it turned out many of them can be found at the drugstore.

For hydrating your skin:
Elf Thirst Burst Drops

For an affordable toner:
Byoma Milky Toner

Published: February 28, 2026, 3:15 pm

Baz Luhrmann: ‘There’s the image of Elvis and then there’s the man’

The singular director has made a second film about the King of Rock, and Roll and this time audiences will get to see a side of him they’ve never seen before

In the spring of 1972, a film crew trailed Elvis Presley everywhere he went to capture a pivotal moment in his career – his first tour in nearly a decade. Ironically, one of the most crucial things that happened during that project occurred way off camera. “We really wanted to get an interview with Elvis on film,” said Jerry Schilling, a confidant and employee of the King who at that time was working for the company behind the movie. “But he was tired when we were going to do it and for whatever reason we never wound up getting anything on camera.”

They did, however, get Presley to talk casually on tape for about 40 minutes, during which he said things he never put on record before. That was enough to raise concerns for his notoriously censorious manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who insured that little of that talk saw the light of day during his lifetime.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:04 am

Butter author Asako Yuzuki: ‘I’m very far from the ideal Japanese woman’

Her novel about a female serial killer was a global hit. As Asako Yuzuki’s second book is published in English, she talks about criticism at home – and why she’ll be writing darker stories in the future

The next time Japanese novelist Asako Yuzuki comes to the UK, she would like to bake some traditional Japanese muffins for Paul Hollywood on The Great British Bake Off, she says when we meet over video call. It is evening in Tokyo, where she lives with her partner and eight-year-old son. “I’ve had my bath and am ready for bed,” she explains, via translator Bethan Jones, apologising for being in her pyjamas. She thinks the Bake Off judge would be particularly impressed by “marubouro” muffins, from Nagasaki. “Kazuo Ishiguro also comes from Nagasaki and British people love Ishiguro, so they are bound to love these muffins,” she continues. “They go very well with tea.”

As anyone who has read Yuzuki’s international bestseller Butter will know, Yuzuki is all about food. Based on the 2009 real-life “Konkatsu Killer” case (konkatsu means marriage hunting), in which 35-year-old Kanae Kijima was convicted of poisoning three men, Butter follows the relationship between journalist Rika Machida and Manako Kajii, a serial killer and gourmet cook, through a succession of interviews in Tokyo Detention Centre. Yuzuki even signed up for the high-class cookery school in Tokyo that Kijima attended as research. The result is an irresistible mix of social satire and feminist thriller, dripping with descriptions of buttery rice and soy sauce.

Published: February 28, 2026, 9:00 am

Trump just got much closer to bringing CNN to heel | Margaret Sullivan

With David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance poised to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the president is tightening his grip on the US media

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For many years, Donald Trump has trashed CNN and has taught his loyal followers to do the same.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, angry chants of “CNN sucks!” reverberated at his campaign rallies, and he still jumps at every opportunity to disparage star CNN journalists such as Kaitlan Collins.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

A world on edge as Trump bombs Iran and triggers war in the Middle East. There was no need for this | Simon Tisdall

We cannot know where this foolish, reckless attack will end – but new hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown and, ultimately, little will be achieved

They never learn. Once again, a bellicose US president has unleashed overwhelming military firepower to force a sovereign nation to its knees. Once again, blatant lies and exaggerated claims are being propagated to justify the attack. Duplicitous American diplomacy became a fig leaf for premeditated aggression. The cautionary advice of allies was spurned. The UN, international law and public opinion were ignored. Democratic consent is lacking. And once again, there are few defined goals by which to gauge success, and no long-term plan.

Now, as in the past, the predictable result of today’s renewed, expanded and apparently open-ended US-Israeli aggression against Iran will be instant, spreading chaos. Civilians will be killed, children orphaned, families torn apart. Regional turmoil and international oil-price panic will follow the Iranian retaliation that has already begun, and which may be backed by Tehran’s Hezbollah and Houthi allies. New hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown. The west’s foes will rejoice. And almost nothing of enduring value will be achieved. That was the bitter outcome of the failed US-led interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, it’s Tehran’s turn to reap the whirlwind.

Published: February 28, 2026, 10:46 am

Black History Month was never ‘given’ to Black people. Thus, it can never be taken from us

The question of who owns and authorizes the month holds particular relevance amid attacks on Black history in the US

There is a myth that persists about Black History Month that can be heard in the common gripe: “They gave us the shortest month of the year” (they, the unnamed powers that be). Jarvis Givens, the author of I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month, hates it. “Every time I hear that backhanded comment it doesn’t seem right,” said Givens, an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “If you know anything about the basic origins of Black History Month then you know that we weren’t ‘given’ anything.”

The question of who owns and authorizes Black History Month holds particular relevance now, in its centennial year, and at a time when efforts to celebrate, preserve, and acknowledge Black people’s past in this country are under attack. Official recognition of Black American resistance to centuries of racial injustice is being challenged by local, state, and national efforts to restrict, ban and possibly criminalize such information in public schools, universities and other institutions. So the sentiment that Black history can be quite literally given or taken away by state officials is valid.

Saida Grundy is an associate professor of sociology and African American studies at Boston University, and the author of Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:42 pm

Why in the world is Melania Trump leading a UN security council meeting? | Arwa Mahdawi

The first lady is a Trump and therefore automatically qualified to do anything her heart desires

“We ended DEI in America,” Donald Trump boasted during his State of the Union (SOTU) address on Tuesday.

Unlike many things the president said in his excruciatingly long SOTU speech, this was actually half true. The Trump administration’s “war on woke” has pushed a lot of large companies and institutes to retreat from the diversity, equity and inclusion policies they used to pretend to be proud of.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: February 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

I’ve seen some bizarre exercises online. If I were an influencer, this is the one workout I’d recommend | Devi Sridhar

Forget snake yoga. All it takes to increase your life expectancy is factoring a set of simple exercises into your weekly routine

Are you still keeping up with your 2026 resolution to exercise more? Or perhaps you’re just trying to survive the winter doldrums, with exercise the last thing on your mind. Whatever it is, social media is alight with fitness influencers showing off all kinds of bizarre and viral exercise trends.

Take squats, a core exercise move. Those don’t seem good enough any more, so now we have Zercher squats (holding a barbell in your elbow crease like a metal baby), squats on vibration plates, squats while throwing a heavy ball and on and on. Some of these exercises may in fact be good, some useless, but because influencers can’t be seen to be doing the same thing every day, the key thing is that they’re novel and can be sold as “the little-known secret exercise that everyone should be doing”.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Published: February 28, 2026, 10:00 am

A political killing risks tearing the French left apart – and the far right is taking full advantage | Philippe Marlière

The fallout from the violent death of Quentin Deranque exposes Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s flaws – and leaves the wider left facing an impossible dilemma

In 2023 Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand leader of the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI), made a fundamental miscalculation. He publicly promoted a small group of young antifascist activists. La Jeune Garde, founded in Lyon in 2018, were politically inexperienced and had organised a series of sometimes violent confrontations with far-right groups.

Members of the group, which was banned in 2025, are now suspected of involvement in a killing that has convulsed France. The victim, Quentin Deranque, was a 23-year-old mathematics student and a far-right activist.

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:00 am

Manchester City close gap to two points at top after Semenyo sinks Leeds

For those wondering if Manchester City are overreliant on Erling Haaland, they offered a riposte at Leeds. It was neither a fluid nor entertaining victory but importantly it closed the gap at the top to two points, increasing the pressure on Arsenal in the process.

It helps that when the league’s top scorer is absent, City can rely on the third man in the charts. Antoine Semenyo scored his 14th of the season on a difficult night for Pep Guardiola’s side, making the full-time euphoria well deserved after what felt like a significant win. A number of City players sunk to the turf once the whistle went, having called on all their reserves to get over the line.

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:36 pm

Liverpool’s five-star display heaps more pressure on wobbling West Ham

The contrasting strengths of Liverpool and West Ham are reflected on the balance sheet, the team sheet and ultimately the score sheet. Arne Slot’s side improved their prospects of Champions League qualification with a peculiar victory at Anfield, the winning margin far more resounding than the performance.

In the week Liverpool announced record overall revenue of £703m in their latest accounts, most of it ploughed back into the bank balances of a title-winning team, West Ham warned that players will have to be sold this summer whether they stay up or not having suffered a £104.2m loss in the same financial year. Their prospects of avoiding relegation look bleak in the context of such a heavy defeat yet, strange as it seems, Nuno Espírito Santo could take encouragement from elements of West Ham’s display.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:13 pm

Barry and Pickford stun Newcastle to extend Everton’s fine away form

As rain fell, incessantly, Eddie Howe wandered around the pitch alone. The final whistle had just gone and, with Everton celebrating a deserved win, Newcastle’s lingering hopes of a top-six finish were also blown.

Newcastle look shattered, mentally as much as physically, by a Champions League campaign that will soon pit them against Barcelona and their Premier League form is suffering accordingly.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:27 pm

‘I know I can do it again – 100%’: Lando Norris on proving himself against the best in F1

Briton overcame crippling self-doubt to become F1 world champion and is determined not to relinquish his crown

Lando Norris recalls being rendered speechless with joy when he was given his first contract with McLaren. Sitting in the cramped office of a paddock truck, the confirmation that he had made it to Formula One left him “very smiley for a long time”. Seven years on, he enters the new season having achieved his lifelong ambition of becoming world champion and is wearing an equally irrepressible grin as he sets about defending his title.

Claiming the championship after a monumental season-long tussle that went to a thrilling three-way fight at the finale in Abu Dhabi was the defining moment of the 26-year-old’s career and perhaps something of a turning point.

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:00 am

Oleksandr Usyk to defend title against kickboxer at Pyramids of Giza in Egypt

• Champion will face Rico Verhoeven for WBC belt in May

• ‘I respect people who reach the very top in their sport’

Oleksandr Usyk, who has not fought since a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley in July, will defend his WBC heavyweight title against a kickboxer at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The bout with Rico Verhoeven on 23 May, dubbed “Glory in Giza”, will be the first title fight held in Egypt, according to The Ring magazine, and will be streamed live on Dazn.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:14 am

Parker rues ‘injustice’ as VAR denies epic Burnley comeback in seven-goal thriller with Brentford

Scott Parker was left sad and disappointed by more video assistant referee controversy after Burnley’s spirited comeback came to nothing. The home side were 3-0 down in 34 minutes and facing hostility from their own fans, but fought back to level before having a fourth goal ruled out after Jaidon Anthony was adjudged to be a shoulder-width offside.

Mikkel Damsgaard then put Brentford back in front three minutes into injury time only for Ashley Barnes to net and spark scenes of jubilation, but his apparent equaliser was also chalked off, for handball, after a long delay.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:27 pm

European football: Kane double helps Bayern Munich sink Borussia Dortmund

• England captain scores twice in 3-2 win in Der Klassiker

• Lamine Yamal fires hat-trick in Barça win over Villarreal

Harry Kane scored twice again and Bayern Munich opened an 11-point lead in the Bundesliga with a 3-2 win at Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker on Saturday.

Joshua Kimmich let fly with his left boot to score the winner with a volley in the 87th minute, just four minutes after Daniel Svensson equalised for Dortmund with a brilliant volley inside the left post. Nico Schlotterbeck put Dortmund 1-0 up at the break, but Serge Gnabry set up Kane’s response and the England captain got his second from the penalty spot – after a foul by Schlotterbeck on Josip Stanisic – to take his league tally to 30 goals this season.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:00 pm

Football’s rulemakers to launch review of VAR and plan for ‘Vinícius Law’

• New rules will be added before World Cup finals

• Corners and second yellow cards can be checked

Football’s lawmaking authority, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), is to conduct a two-year review of the video assistant referee to ensure the technology is being used “to its best”. The announcement on Saturday came alongside a flurry of enhancements to the rulebook before the World Cup, including expanding the use of VAR into determining corner kicks.

Another proposal could mean punishments for players obscuring their mouths being fast-tracked for implementation at this summer’s tournament, after the alleged racist abuse of Vinícius Júnior by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni.

Published: February 28, 2026, 3:55 pm

Caribbean countries pledge humanitarian support for Cuba amid rising tensions with US

Disagreement among Caricom members hampers unified response on Cuban sovereignty and US intervention in the region

Caribbean countries have pledged to support Cuba through a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by a US fuel embargo, after a leaders summit defined by regional divisions over Washington’s policies.

The decision to send humanitarian assistance to Cuba was announced during a press conference on Friday to mark the end of the four-day Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in St Kitts and Nevis, which secretary of state Marco Rubio attended to discuss US relations with Caribbean governments.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

Islamic State emerges from rubble of north-east Syria to exploit discontent with al-Sharaa

‘Rebranded’ terror group seeks to recruit those alienated by Damascus government’s western pivot

On the surface, all that remains of Islamic State in the Syrian town of Baghuz are discarded tubs of whitening cream, spent RPG motors and children’s backpacks, with an old grenade nestled in the frayed pink nylon.

It was here nearly seven years ago that IS made its last stand. Its most zealous followers were obliterated along with the blood-soaked caliphate they fought to defend. Their bodies were collected and buried next to the town graveyard, while bulldozers came and sealed the entire area under a layer of heavy yellow earth.

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:00 am

US backs Pakistan’s ‘right to defend itself’ against Taliban after strikes on Afghanistan

Taliban offer to resolve dispute via dialogue after Pakistan bombed cities in Afghanistan in latest escalation with its neighbour

Washington endorsed Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” after it bombed major cities across Afghanistan amid heightened tensions between the two hostile neighbours.

The Taliban government in Kabul stressed it was ready to negotiate on Friday as violence intensified between the two countries.

Published: February 28, 2026, 4:13 am

‘Who’d guess they’re the same species?’ What Italy’s wall lizards reveal about genetic diversity and why it matters

Understanding biodiversity within species is key to our understanding of why nature works the way it does, say researchers

• Words and photographs by Roberto García-Roa

Twelve miles from the heart of Rome, Dr Javier Ábalos pauses his walk, lifts his sunglasses and points. To his right, perched on a rocky wall, sits a beautiful lizard. Its body is coated in charcoal-black tones speckled with striking yellow across a green dorsum, and its head, with a prominent jaw, is splashed with fluorescent blue spots. The reptile basks in the sun, unconcerned by our presence.

About 80 miles (130km) drive farther along the road that connects the capital with the small village of Poggio di Roio, the researcher from the University of Valencia has barely stepped out of the car when he spots another lizard. This one is smaller, with a brownish body and a narrower head crisscrossed by a network of dark stripes.

Researchers fear the common wall lizard of the white morph could be driven to extinction by the arrival of a new variation

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:00 am

North Dakota judge finalizes $345m judgment against Greenpeace in pipeline case

Judge slashed a $667m damages award to Energy Transfer over Greenpeace’s role in Dakota Access Pipeline protests

A North Dakota judge on Friday finalized a $345m judgment against Greenpeace in a lawsuit pursued by pipeline company Energy Transfer (ET.N) over the environmental group’s role in protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The final judgment by judge James Gion was in line with a decision he issued in October, in which he slashed by almost half a damages award of about $667m that a jury had awarded Energy Transfer in March.

Published: February 28, 2026, 2:09 am

Researchers praise ‘stunning’ results of new prostate cancer treatment

Early trials of the drug VIR-5500 showed it shrinking tumours in some patients

A new drug for advanced prostate cancer has shown promise in early trials experts have said, with the medication shrinking tumours in some patients.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in many countries, including the US and UK. About 1.5 million men are diagnosed worldwide each year.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:00 am

Russia may interfere in Danish election, exploiting chaos sown by US, spies warn

US threats to seize Greenland have created ‘new international fault lines’ that can be used to spread disinformation, Danish intelligence agencies say

Denmark’s intelligence services have warned that a foreign power may try to sway the general election on 24 March, saying the main threat was from Russia over support for Ukraine but also citing the chaos caused by US efforts to seize Greenland.

The PET police intelligence service and FE military intelligence said in a joint statement the election campaign could be marked by disinformation and cyberattacks “to sow division, influence the public debate or to target candidates, parties or specific political programmes”.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:26 am

Decision to allow UK exports to Armenian firm under review over Russian links

Cygnet Texkimp was approved to export machines to Rydena, but ministers examining deal after Guardian highlighted founders’ links to Kremlin military supply chain

Ministers are reviewing a decision to allow a British company to export hi-tech equipment to Armenia after the Guardian uncovered links to the Russian military supply chain.

Cygnet Texkimp, based in Cheshire, was weeks away from exporting two machines that produce carbon fibre “prepreg”, a lightweight material that can be used in a range of civil and military applications.

Published: February 28, 2026, 1:00 pm

Deaths of 22 children in Channel due to ‘catastrophic failure’ by UK and France, NGO says

Project Play finds UK taxpayers are funding ‘record child fatalities’ and ‘repeated violence’ against children in northern France

The deaths of 22 children while trying to cross the Channel in the last two years, along with the mistreatment of thousands of others, were due to “catastrophic failures” of the UK and French governments, according to a new report.

Project Play, an NGO that has worked with 2,192 children hoping to cross the Channel from northern France to the UK to claim asylum in the last two years, has documented the impact of the hostile conditions in northern France due to regular teargassing, evictions and dinghy-slashing by the French police.

Published: February 28, 2026, 9:36 am

Hard work, romance and bell hooks: how Olivia Dean became British pop’s newest megastar

After a Grammy and a global breakthrough, the 26-year-old singer could sweep the board at next week’s Brits. Her closest collaborators explain her massive appeal

Saturday’s Brit awards will feature performances from heavy hitters such as Harry Styles and Mark Ronson – but all eyes will be on Olivia Dean, the Londoner who has become one of the UK’s biggest breakouts in years, thanks to her second album The Art of Loving and its mega-smash UK No 1 single Man I Need. Nominated for five awards, this year’s ceremony is likely to serve as a coronation for Dean, who has found international success on a scale that most contemporary British artists struggle to achieve.

The Art of Loving focuses on love in all its permutations, applying meditations on friendship and romance to a light, gauzy blend of bossa nova, throwback R&B and indie-pop. Dean delivers each song with unfussy exuberance – she somehow captures both the otherworldly poise of Diana Ross and the charm of your best friend killing it at karaoke – and has become the voice of a generation whose romantic lives have been complicated by dating apps and other digitally mediated mating rituals.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘She isn’t sorry’: is anyone rooting for Tyra Banks now? Eight things you need to know

Ever since Netflix dropped its documentary series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, the supermodel has been under fire. But is there another motive behind all the controversy?

“I was rooting for you,” Tyra Banks famously berated a contestant on America’s Next Top Model some 20 years ago. But who, now, is rooting for Tyra Banks?

The supermodel and reality-TV mogul has been under fire from all sides ever since Netflix dropped its documentary series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Long-circling scrutiny of the show’s tasteless extremes, frequent body-shaming and blatant failures of duty of care have come to rest on Banks herself, with viewers, Top Model contestants and even her former friends all expressing outrage at her apparent lack of repentance.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm

DTF St Louis: this David Harbour whodunnit about dating apps and infidelity is close to the bone

Steve Conrad’s dark comedy is full of twists and sad laughs. As for the fate of Harbour’s character, does Lily Allen have an alibi?

Last October, Lily Allen released a jaw-dropping album about the sexual politics of her marriage to actor David Harbour. It was a musical assassination – reportedly written in the wake of her personal sleuthing into his long-term infidelities via the dating app Raya. Therefore the timing of DTF St Louis (Monday 2 March, 9pm, Sky Atlantic), in which Harbour plays a man in a stagnant marriage who downloads a hook-up app to enjoy some extramarital boom boom, is juicy. For everyone except his publicist.

From the trailer, this was a hard-to-read show. Was it a dark comedy, a bedroom farce, a police procedural? The answer turns out to be yes, to all of those things. I also wondered whether it might be a televisual return to the erotic thrillers of the 90s. The answer to that one is no, although it’s a show with sex on the brain.

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:00 am

‘A woman screams from a high balcony: “Help me! I’m freezing to death!”’ – novelist James Meek returns to Kyiv

Stepping off the night train, full of memories of his life there three decades ago, the writer finds a changed city fighting for survival

My first flat in Kyiv was a couple of metro stops outside the city centre, just opposite Volodymyrskyy market, in a nondescript mid-20th century block. The lease was arranged by post. It took me five days to drive there from Edinburgh in an old Polo in November 1991. Finding my way to Kyiv was easy – one road from Calais takes you straight there – but once I got to the outskirts, I must have used a paper map to navigate through the city. I spoke no Ukrainian, and enough Russian to ask basic directions, but not enough to understand the answer. I could read the street signs. I found a parking space round the back and began to unload my stuff.

Recently, I went back. I crossed the road from the square by the metro and went through the market. It’s a neater, quieter place than I remember from the early 1990s, not so much because of the war as from the gradual changes over the intervening years, when peasant farmers around Kyiv became fewer and post-communist supermarkets and commercial food distribution systems replaced the old state shops. In the weeks before and after the 1991 referendum, when Ukrainians voted to leave the Soviet Union, precipitating its quick disintegration, I went to the state shops to queue for cheap, rationed, often scarce items such as bread and hard cheese; the market was a place of plenty and, for locals, high prices. Row upon row of countrywomen in aprons sold huge jars of sour cream, chalk-white towers of cottage cheese wrapped in muslin and pots of horseradish in beetroot juice, alongside vendors from the Caucasus offering persimmons, pomegranates and fresh coriander, and pickle merchants with buckets of Korean carrot salad and wild garlic stalks. All this is still abundant in Kyiv, still locally made, but packaged and stacked on supermarket shelves by big firms. Nobody’s selling homemade sour cream now – perhaps they’ll be back in spring? – there’s only one pickle seller, and the meat counter is no longer quite the shrine to pork fat it once was.

Published: February 28, 2026, 5:00 am

‘The kinetic energy is palpable’: Manchester embraces its first Brit awards

Event’s first venture outside London aims to recognise geographical diversity of UK’s music talent

Visitors to Manchester this week have been visibly amused to be arriving into Olivia Deansgate station, with many posing for selfies in front of the temporary sign. The tribute to the chart-busting musician is just one indication of how Manchester is embracing the arrival of the Brit awards on Saturday, the event’s first venture outside London in its five-decade history.

Stacey Tang, theBrit awards chair, said the move to the Co-op Live arena was about recognising the geographical diversity of the country’s music talent. “Creativity doesn’t happen in one postcode in the UK … so the idea that the biggest night in music should always be in London, I think, is ageing out,” she said.

Published: February 28, 2026, 6:00 am

My cultural awakening: Leonardo da Vinci made me rethink surgery – I’ve since mended more than 3,000 hearts

For one heart surgeon, seeing the Renaissance artist’s anatomical drawings gave him a natural understanding of the body that was often overlooked in modern medical science

If you’d asked my teenage self, growing up in a small village in Shropshire, what I wanted to do with my life, I would have talked about art and music long before I spoke of scalpel blades and operating theatres. As an 18-year-old, I intended to go to art school, until my mother sat me down and told me rather bluntly that being an artist wouldn’t earn me much money. As she spoke, a surgical documentary flickered across the screen of the black-and-white television in our living room. I told her, half joking, that that was what I’d do instead. Which is how I ended up repeating my A-levels and fighting my way into medical school, where I qualified in 1975.

By 1986, I was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Papworth hospital in Cambridge, repairing failing hearts in a nascent field of medicine. Since then I’ve repaired more than 3,000 mitral valves – more than any surgeon in the UK – but the work that truly reshaped me came not from a textbook but from an encounter with centuries-old drawings.

Published: February 28, 2026, 7:00 am

‘I’d hoped to capture the graphic chaos in the window. What I found was an even more tangled scene’: Michael Krupka’s best phone picture

He may not be a cyclist, but the photographer was drawn by this bike shop’s jumble of frames and parts

Michael Krupka had passed Philadelphia’s Via Bicycle repair shop for years before he ventured inside. As a photographer rather than a cyclist, he was drawn by the jumble of frames and parts in the front window. “My father was a machinist and when I was a child we had a workshop at home where he could repair pretty much anything mechanical he encountered,” Krupka recalls. “As an artsy kid, I didn’t inherit those skills, but I do have an aesthetic attraction to machines and mechanical things.”

Krupka was out that day on what he describes as an “intentional photo hunt”. He asked a guy repairing a bike near the entrance for permission. “He just shrugged and carried on,” Krupka says. “I’d hoped to capture the graphic chaos against the backlit window. What I found was an even more tangled scene, with even more bikes in the foreground, which I used for the bottom third of the composition,” he says. “The shot has something of a maze or jigsaw element, too, a kind of puzzle that might have interesting things to find within it.”

Published: February 28, 2026, 11:00 am

Blind date: ‘I was hoping for a lovely time, a fancy dinner and to meet the love of my life. I got two out of three’

Brigitte, 27, an admissions officer for a nursery group, meets Jack, 30, a teacher

What were you hoping for?
Great food, great company and hopefully an evening that could be the beginning of something.

Published: February 28, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Crazy, without limits’: Paris disco haunt of Jagger and Grace Jones to reopen

Legendary nightclub Le Palace, where Serge Gainsbourg and Prince also performed, to rise again

In the late 1970s, Le Palace in Paris’s busy theatre district was one of continental Europe’s most famous nightclubs.

On the opening night on 1 March 1978, Grace Jones stunned VIP guests with her rendition of Edith Piaf’s classic La Vie en Rose. Later, Serge Gainsbourg and Prince came to perform, Bob Marley was photographed there and Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld were part of a glittering cast of international celebrities, politicians, designers and models who came to drink and dance.

Published: February 28, 2026, 9:00 am

Tim Dowling: Do I look like a man who would buy stolen wine?

As I attempt garden repairs between downpours, I wonder why I was targeted as a likely purchaser of shoplifted goods

I’m walking to the station in driving rain, under the protection of a £12 umbrella I bought at a newsagent the day before – during a previous rainstorm – which is already turning up on one side. My head is down, and I do not immediately see the young man approaching from the other direction, arms full, who stops in my path.

“D’ya wanna buy one?” he says, holding out one of three bottles of white wine he has clearly just shoplifted.

Published: February 28, 2026, 6:00 am

‘A temple of food’: London’s grande dame Simpson’s in the Strand rises again

As the storied London dining room reopens on its bicentenary, restaurateur Jeremy King honours its heritage while restoring a faded icon

Simpson’s in the Strand was the sort of London institution where nothing changed without very good reason. Founded in 1828 as a coffee and chess club, the restaurant introduced wheeled silver trolleys so waiters could dispense roast beef and gravy without disturbing the players’ concentration, and kept them long after the chessboards had gone. In the 1860s, to emphasise its focus on British food, Simpson’s rejected the French word “menu” in favour of “bill of fare”, and so it would remain.

Ornate, self-consciously stately and a bit stuffy, it was as English as Charles Dickens, PG Wodehouse and Winston Churchill – all of whom, perhaps unsurprisingly, were devoted patrons. Wodehouse described Simpson’s as “a restful temple of food” where, as one of his characters observed, diners were “at liberty to eat till you were helpless, if you felt so disposed”. Not all diners, however: women were barred from the main dining room until 1984.

Published: February 28, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran has no mandate – or legal basis

US president violates UN charter just days into his Board of Peace era, and chooses to take the biggest gamble of his administration

• US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates

• US and Israel strikes on Iran: what we know so far

The first war of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace era has begun – an unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public.

Trump’s recorded eight-minute address after the first bombs had fallen made clear that this would be no limited strike aimed at cajoling Tehran into concessions at the negotiating table.

Published: February 28, 2026, 12:43 pm