The Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, is to retire in September, he announced in Lichfield Cathedral on Monday, during the St Chad’s Day festal evensong. His announcement was exactly ten years since his nomination.

Dr Ipgrave referred to St Chad as a “constant inspiration” during his episcopate in Lichfield. The 99th Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Ipgrave said that he had been “humbled to be amongst one of the successors of St Chad, our first and greatest Bishop”.

He continued: “Chad was the first to bring to Mercia the life-giving, peacemaking, soul-restoring gospel of Jesus Christ. As we face the challenge of re-evangelising our contemporary Mercia, I am convinced that we can only do that by walking in his steps of kindness, friendliness, and humility in the service of others.”

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The Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, is to retire in September, he announced in Lichfield Cathedral on Monday, during the St Chad’s Day festal evensong#bishopsretirement #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/oP8mOoslXD

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 3, 2026

Three events, three continents, one week. A parliamentary by-election in Greater Manchester, England; a thunderous war and the death of a tyrant in Iran; and a terrorist attack in Austin, Texas. They seem unrelated. They are not. Together, they tell you where political Islam has got to—and more urgently, where its most committed adherents are heading next.

On February 26, the UK’s Green Party won a parliamentary seat in Gorton and Denton that the Labour Party had held for decades. The Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, secured nearly 15,000 votes. Matt Goodwin, the candidate for the conservative populist Reform party, came in second with about 10,500, while the Labour candidate slipped to third. The obvious question is how a party associated with bike lanes, green energy, and rewilding managed to seize a Labour stronghold in Greater Manchester.

The answer has nothing to do with climate policy.

The Greens ran two entirely separate campaigns. To progressive voters, they offered the standard mix of green and anti-austerity policies. To Muslim voters, who make up 30 percent of the Gorton and Denton electorate, they offered something else. Leaflets in Urdu, Bengali, and Arabic told readers that Labour must be punished for its complicity in the Israeli war in Gaza. The translated material framed the vote as a community act—a way for Muslims to speak with one voice. Spencer appeared in a keffiyeh outside a mosque. Green Party leadership gave interviews to 5Pillars, an Islamist-leaning outlet that has been involved in the circulation of antisemitic and homophobic content. The Green Party pulled LGBT-friendly content from its Muslim-facing literature in the campaign.

Observers of the election found that about 12 percent of ballots were cast by people engaged in “family voting,” with multiple adults present in the same booth. Britain banned the practice in 2023, but its frequency in Groton and Denton may reflect a deep-set patriarchal tendency among local Muslims.

After the victory, Green deputy leader Mothin Ali attended a London rally backing Iran’s regime—the same regime whose rhetoric targets Britain and whose operatives have been linked to terrorist plots on UK soil.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Iran Is Collapsing, but Islamism Is Spreading. Where will the baddies go next? To towns with charming names like Gorton and Denton? https://t.co/kjEf7vZCuL

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) March 2, 2026

President Donald Trump said the US would keep up its military offensive against Iran for as long as it takes, outlining for the first time a set of four objectives he hopes to accomplish toward reducing the threat he said is posed by Tehran.

“We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that,” Trump said at a White House event on Monday about the timeline he foresaw for the campaign. “Whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes.”

The president has faced mounting pressure to better define the goals of his extraordinary military intervention on Iran, after days of sending mixed signals about what he wanted to achieve.

Trump said that the effort, which launched on Saturday, aims to eliminate Iran’s missile capabilities, destroy the country’s navy, cut off its path to a nuclear weapon and ensure that the government “cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”

Notably, the president did not mention regime change as one of the campaign’s goals.

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President Trump said the US would keep up its military offensive against Iran for as long as it takes, outlining for the first time a set of four objectives he hopes to accomplish towards reducing the threat posed by Tehran. https://t.co/S3SA3Hxjku

— Bloomberg (@business) March 2, 2026

Lord God, who didst inspire thy servants John and Charles Wesley with burning zeal for the sanctification of souls, and didst endow them with eloquence in speech and song: Kindle in thy Church, we beseech thee, such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known thy Christ may turn to him and be saved; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

John and Charles Wesley are commemorated as renewers of the church on 3 March. Charles wrote nearly 6,500 hymns. John’s legacy is a bit more complicated. The best book on John Wesley is Frank Baker’s John Wesley and The Church of England. https://t.co/E039syt95Y pic.twitter.com/xSMzEMe9Fd

— Jeffrey Goodman (@JHGoodman8404) March 2, 2026

Write deeply upon our minds, O Lord God, the lesson of thy holy Word, that only the pure in heart can see thee.  Leave us not in the bondage of any sinful inclination.  May we neither deceive ourselves with the thought that we have no sin, nor acquiesce idly in aught of which our conscience accuses us.  Strengthen us by thy Holy Spirit to fight the good fight of faith, and grant that no day may pass without its victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ivelet Bridge is a 16th‑century packhorse bridge crossing the River Swale near the hamlet of Ivelet, between Muker and Gunnerside in Swaledale. It is one of the most charming small bridges in the Dales. #YorkshireDales #Swaledale #TuesdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/idkT9dvyDw

— Yorkshire Dales National Park (@yorkshire_dales) March 3, 2026

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live, and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might befall him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

Now Joseph was governor over the land; he it was who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers, and knew them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” Thus Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them; and he said to them, “You are spies, you have come to see the weakness of the land.” They said to him, “No, my lord, but to buy food have your servants come. We are all sons of one man, we are honest men, your servants are not spies.” He said to them, “No, it is the weakness of the land that you have come to see.” And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you, you are spies. By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain in prison, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” And he put them all together in prison for three days.

–Genesis 42:1-17

Into the pink – a wonderful sunset sky over Loch Linnhe- have a great week ahead, friends #ScotlandisNow #StormHour #photography #photooftheday #landscape #OutAndAboutScotland #landscapephotography @VisitScotland @ScotsMagazine #STVSnaps #ThePhotoHour #beautiful pic.twitter.com/KTMniUmhEn

— Mike Wood (@MikeMikwd) March 2, 2026