And the February Award Goes to…
Welcome to the February edition of the News in Review poetry series. As always, I try to be as thorough as I can, but I can’t include everything, a lot happens in a month, and so there was far more to include than I had space to fit in this piece. But I have tried to include a balance of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the fun. February stood out for the massive amount of awards handed out as the Winter Olympics joined the annual Baftas and SAG ceremonies . Hopefully though, some of what follows will remind you that not everything is bad, even if February was starting to feel like the end of the world.
I will add a disclaimer that this piece was written by me; a British poet, and as such will be recording and commenting from news in a British perspective, which might mean some events you consider important from February 2026 are not included, and some things you have never heard of are more extensively covered.
Awards, Awards everywhere!
The Grammys, the Baftas
The people’s choice, the SAGs
Awards were falling thick and fast
This month upon celebrities
So blessed by social pedigrees
Their pockets can’t relate
To the proletariate
Still, we had something to celebrate
Watching Huntr/x take
The first grammy for K-pop.
Outside, wars raged non-stop.
Russia wailed on Ukraine
Israel bombed Gaza again
Took pot shots at Lebanon
And poked the bear that is Iran
Of course Trump had to lend a hand,
Looking for oil whilst making a stand
(Or pretending to) against a tyrant…
Because that worked so well for Bush’s government…
The Caribbean quakes in fear
As operation southern spear’s
Indiscriminate cannoneers
Make ships and cruisers dissapear
Upon a toddler’s whim
Cuba’s fate is looking grimm
With US navy closing in,
And setting up blockades
To stifle trade
And drain their fuel reserves,
That got on Putin’s nerves
A bit of a swerve
From the hero worship
Trump usually serves him.
The latest Epstein files are in,
Ex-Norwegian PM wins
A spot on the exclusive list
With Brad. S. Karp, who quickly quits
The Law firm where he worked.
British cops have quite the smirk,
As they get their hands on
The ex lord Peter Mandelson
For abusing his position,
And throw him in the clink
With the Andrew formally known as Prince
Space X begrudgingly cuts starlink
Over Russian occupied terrain
In the Ukraine
Such a shame for Musk
Who’s forced to put
People over profits
Russia warns the UK to stop its
Alledged plan to stock its
Ukranian ally
With Nukes
And Rebukes France
For joining in the plot.
The whole of Europe calls for trump to stop
His Greenland Crusade
Canada and France lend aid
To denmark
To prevent this skid mark
on American History
From further defiling the presidency
Without much success as he
Revokes congressional findings re-
Environmental concerns
On greenhouse gasses
and vehicle emissions,
Reenstates tariffs that were decommissioned,
Renames Palm beach airport
To support
His own ambitions,
And sends ICE to the Winter Olympics
Not the best way to fix
International relations,
Boos kick off the celebrations
For Vance at the opening ceremony.
The games themselves in Cortano
Were one hell of a show
With Johannes Høsflot Klaebo
The star of the snow
Bagging six golds
In cross country skiing
More than any other human being
In winter Olympic history
Norway take overall victory
With the most golds
Ever won by a single country
Eighteen
Far more than we’ve ever seen…
But our haul of five was no lean feat
And still managed to beat
Anything we’ve done before
Olympics done, the world turned back to war
And Yemen had a score
To settle with Israel
Retaliation for the hail
Of missiles on Iran
Israel lift the ban
On NGO’s in Gaza
Iran starts to bombard the
Allies of the USA
Within the middle east
There’s no cease
to the Barrage
The land will forever bear the scars
of war
of scarifice
of over a hundred children
That had to pay the price.
Brought on by the Tyrany
of Trump, and Khamenei
The US strike a deal with Eswatini
To send deportees (for a small fee)
So Trump can get immigrants out of a country
that’s built on imigration
He tries to distract the nation
With a declassification
of government files on UFO’s
When all we want is the truth about pedos
That everyone knows
But the C.I.A. refuse to show.
Anthropic said no
When the DOD
Asked about the possibility
Of AI surveillance
A lucky escape at first glance,
But Open AI snapped up the chance
To sign the deal instead
Online safeguarding’s been the spearhead
Of social media dread
X’s user base is dead
Unless you’re after porn,
Grok is feeling Ofcom’s scorn
And reddit’s under fire,
Forced to face the ire
Of the ICO
Portugal adds age verification codes
And other online safety checks
Gabon bans large swathes of the internet,
And Open AI’s fans are upset
That Chat GPT 4 has gone
They claim its knowledge of neuance
and writing skills are so advanced
they’re irreplaceable… They aren’t,
Just hire a writer bitch!
Ryan Westly Routh is nicked
Gets life for failing to stick
A bullet in Trump.
The President of Peru is dumped,
Impeeched for his illicit meets
With Chinese businessmen,
Palastine action is legal again
The Netherlands vote in a new PM
Whose younger, and gayer
than they’ve ever had before
South Korean stock markets soar
And US troops finally withdraw
From Syria.
Ireland starts a global first
by having artists reimbursed
Or… paid… In other words..
For time they spend creating
The greens have been celebrating
After skating to victory
In Gorton and Denton
Something Nigel Farage was bent on
But it was far from close
All he can do is quote.
Trump’s tantrum about postal votes
Brazil revokes
its decision
To sell the Amazon River
after protests from Indigenous people there
Bringing an end to an environmental scare
The world didn’t need.
It’s gotten harder to become a swede…
The people, not the vegetable
As Sweden ups its national-
Ization requirements
The World Laments
The Death of Rob Grant,
The genius behind Red Dwarf
And flights are stopped from taking off
In Texas,
over fears of a treasonous
Drone attack
That was in fact
A balloon
Logan Paul is over the moon
As the You Tube Tycoon
Sells the world’s most expensive
Piece of cardboard
His Illustrator Pikachu pokemon card scored
16 million dollars
at auction
Rumors spread that Kim Jong Un
Gives a death sentence to anyone whom
Is caught Listening to K-pop
In North Korea.
Poland fear
Chinese cars
Passing laws
To keep them out of military bases
And Canada faces, Tradgedy
as a school shooting,
Something they rarely see
Leaves nine dead,
six were kids,
My thoughts go out to their families.
How did February Look to You?
Was there anything that you missed? Was there anything I missed and you think should have really been in there? Feel free to ask, share your thoughts, or reminisce with your comments.
Thank you for reading February 2026 – The News in Review. As with all poetry on my website, this piece is free to enjoy, however if you would like to thank me. Or want help make sure I can continue to write these news reviews. Please head over to my Ko-Fi. There you will be able to support me if you wish, either as a one off, or monthly. As well as purchase more of my poetry which is unavailable on this website.
And Of course, check back next month to read March’s Review. See if you can guess what it might contain.