The Good Tree

Days 53–59 — February 22–28, 2026

The Gate

The United States and Israel struck Iran on the twenty-eighth of February.

Operation Epic Fury began shortly before ten in the morning, Tehran time. The United States launched cruise missiles from two carrier strike groups and air-launched munitions from jets in Israel and Jordan. Israel deployed two hundred fighter jets—the largest attack sortie in its air force's history. They dropped more than twelve hundred munitions across twenty-four of Iran's thirty-one provinces. The targets: leadership compounds, nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, missile production sites, IRGC bases.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, eighty-six, was killed. Israeli intelligence confirmed the body recovered before midnight. At least forty senior officials died with him.

In Minab, Hormozgan province, a strike hit a girls' elementary school called Shajareh Tayyebeh—The Good Tree. One hundred sixty-five dead. Most were between seven and twelve years old. The school stood near an IRGC base. The United States and Israel denied knowledge of it.

Trump called the campaign a fight for freedom and stated regime change as the goal. Congress was not consulted. The Gang of Eight was notified shortly before.

Iran struck back within hours. The IRGC launched attacks against twenty-seven American bases in the Middle East. Gulf states were hit: fire at Bahrain's Mina Salman port, debris in the UAE, a contained blast at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura refinery. In Tel Aviv, a direct hit killed one woman and injured twenty-two.

The IRGC closed the Strait of Hormuz. Tanker traffic dropped to near zero. Brent crude surged past seventy-eight dollars a barrel. Analysts projected one hundred twenty.

The Security Council met in emergency session. Russia called it aggression. China called it brazen. The Secretary-General said the strikes had squandered a chance for diplomacy. No resolution was adopted.

In cities across Iran, some danced in the streets. Others wept. Security forces fired on the celebrants. The internet went dark again. Iranian state television reported more than two hundred killed and seven hundred forty-seven injured across the country. The Assembly of Experts convened to choose a successor.

The Prelude

Four days before the strikes, Trump delivered the State of the Union—the longest in modern history. He laid the case against Iran: its nuclear progress, its proxies, the January crackdown that killed more than seven thousand of its own people. The United States, he said, would not stand by.

Two days before the strikes, the third round of indirect US-Iran nuclear talks ended without a deal in Geneva. The United States demanded Iran destroy its nuclear sites, surrender all enriched uranium, and cease regional proxy support. Iran refused the uranium transfer and insisted on continuing enrichment. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi: "We cannot forget that once we were negotiating with the U.S., and then they decided to attack us." Both sides agreed to meet the following week in Vienna. That meeting would never take place.

The War

Pakistan declared open war on Afghanistan.

On the twenty-seventh, Pakistani jets struck Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia province, destroying two brigade bases. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif: "Our cup of patience has overflowed." The Taliban had attacked Pakistani military positions the night before, retaliating for airstrikes on the twenty-first that killed thirteen civilians. Nineteen more civilians died in the week's fighting—mostly women and children. Land border crossings shut. Afghanistan has no air force.

Ukraine marked four years of full-scale war. EU leaders traveled to Kyiv. NATO held a ceremony in Brussels. The General Assembly passed a resolution reaffirming Ukraine's territorial integrity. The United States abstained.

On the ground, Ukraine reclaimed three to four hundred square kilometers near Zaporizhzhia—the largest territorial gains since the Kursk incursion. SpaceX blocked Russian forces from smuggled Starlink terminals. Drones grounded. Headquarters lost coordination. Russia answered with the heaviest aerial month since early 2023: two hundred ninety-seven drones and fifty missiles on the twenty-second, four hundred twenty drones and thirty-nine missiles on the twenty-sixth. A Kharkiv power plant was destroyed beyond repair. The ISW assessed Pokrovsk fully captured after a two-year battle. Russia could not advance beyond it.

Hungary vetoed the EU's ninety-billion-euro loan to Ukraine. The IMF approved eight point one billion separately. Bloomberg reported Russia would quit peace talks unless Ukraine ceded Donetsk. Zelenskyy refused.

The last American troops left Syria. In the eastern Pacific, Operation Southern Spear killed three more. No evidence was provided that the vessel carried drugs.

The Human Cost

The Security Council condemned the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan and sanctioned four commanders. Famine spread. The World Food Programme needed seven hundred million dollars through June. Twelve million displaced. Twenty-one million food insecure. In eastern Congo, one hundred seventy-one bodies were found in mass graves in Uvira after M23 rebels withdrew.

In Gaza, drone strikes killed at least six during the week. Thirty-seven aid organizations appealed to Israel's Supreme Court to prevent a ban on humanitarian operations.

Mexico's army killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes—El Mencho—leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a shootout in Tapalpa, Jalisco. Cartel retaliation killed more than seventy across the country.

In Myanmar, junta air strikes killed seventeen in Rakhine state, including women and children. In Brazil, flooding and landslides killed sixty-four in Minas Gerais. A bomb cyclone buried the northeastern United States under two to three feet of snow. Ten thousand flights canceled. Six hundred fifty thousand without power.

Off the northeast coast of Cuba, border guards fired on a speedboat from Florida carrying ten armed Cuban exiles. Four killed. Six detained. The boat carried assault rifles, explosives, and camouflage. Cuba called it an infiltration. Secretary of State Rubio said it was not a US operation.

The Border

The DHS shutdown entered its third week. Democrats demanded body cameras and judicial warrants. Republicans refused. Two hundred sixty thousand employees worked without pay. A blind Rohingya refugee was found dead in Buffalo after Border Patrol left him five miles from home on a cold night.

The Machines

On the twenty-sixth, Anthropic rejected the Pentagon's final offer. The contract would have permitted the use of Claude for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons targeting. The company refused. The Pentagon set a deadline for five o'clock the following afternoon. It passed. Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic products. The Defense Secretary designated the company a supply chain risk.

Hours later, OpenAI signed its own deal with the Pentagon for deployment on classified networks. Its CEO later said the timing "looked opportunistic and sloppy."

The Testimony

Bill and Hillary Clinton testified under subpoena before the House Oversight Committee on Jeffrey Epstein—the first time a former president had been compelled to testify before Congress since 1983. Bill Clinton, under oath: "I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong." Missing FBI interview summaries surfaced regarding accusations against Trump. Democrats demanded his deposition.

The Passing

Neil Sedaka died on the twenty-seventh at eighty-six. "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." "Laughter in the Rain." Three number-one singles across two decades.

The Ledger

A school called The Good Tree. One hundred sixty-five girls between seven and twelve. The speech came four days before the strikes. The negotiations ended two days before. The sequence: speech, talks, strike. The talks were the formality. Pakistan declared open war on a neighbor it once armed. Ukraine reclaimed territory while the United States abstained from defending its borders at the United Nations. A company said no to the Pentagon; within hours, another said yes. Some danced in the streets of Tehran and were shot at for dancing. One hundred seventy-one bodies in a grave in Congo. The Strait of Hormuz closed. The chronicle records.

Here continues the account of the year 2026.