Early Edition: March 2, 2026 - Just Security

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A curated guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:

IRAN

*Saturday *

U.S. and Israeli military forces launched a series of strikes against Iran on Saturday morning, bombing numerous sites in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, and Tabriz. President Trump announced in a video on social media that the United States has begun “major combat operations in Iran,” adding “our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” Lauren Floyd reports for Axios; AP News reports; Luc Bronner and Ghazal Golshiri report for Le Monde.

A senior U.S. official said on Saturday that the strikes were launched because the United States concluded that waiting for an imminent Iranian attack would have resulted in far higher U.S. casualties, though no evidence of such plans was provided. Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) told CNN he had seen no intelligence “that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike. Trump, he said, has “started a war of choice.” Jack Detsch, Joe Gould, Eli Stokols, and John Sakellariadis report for POLITICO.

Iran retaliated against the strikes, aiming ballistic missiles and drones at U.S. bases and Israel. The retaliation campaign has spilled into neighbouring Arab states that host U.S. forces, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. Lauren Floyd reports for Axios.

*The United States and Israel originally planned to attack Iran a week earlier, but the opening strike was delayed for operational and intelligence reasons, *according to senior U.S. and Israeli officials. The officials said that a key reason for the delay was bad weather in the region. One Israeli official said that the talks in Geneva last week were intended to let time pass until the new strike date, keeping the Iranians believing that diplomacy was still Trump’s primary path. A second Israeli official said that talks were genuine and that if Trump had seen progress, he could have postponed the strikes again. Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report for Axios.

U.S.-Israeli strikes on Saturday on a school in southern Iran killed at least 153 people, including children, according to Iranian officials. U.S. Central Command said it was looking into reports of the incident, while Israel’s military said it was “not aware” of any IDF operations in the area. Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Robert Greenall report for BBC News.

*Sunday *

The Iranian government said yesterday that U.S.-Israeli strikes on Saturday killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump had announced Khamenei’s death hours earlier, calling on Iranians to take control of the government. Farnaz Fassihi, Ronen Bergman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Richard Pérez-Peña report for the New York Times.

Ahead of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Saturday, U.S. intelligence suggested that a complete change in government in Iran was unlikely if Khamenei were killed. It said that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were likely to assert a larger degree of control, but might be willing to curb the country’s nuclear program. It also said that whatever religious leader formally took over from Khamenei would be a hard-liner, according to sources. U.S. officials said that the joint strike on leadership targets and military sites in Iran created a high degree of uncertainty around all potential scenarios for political change in Iran. Julian E. Barnes and Tyler Pager report for the New York Times.

U.S. Central Command announced yesterday that three U.S. troops were killed in a strike against a U.S. base in Kuwait and five more “seriously wounded.”These are the first confirmed U.S. fatalities. In a video yesterday, Trump said there “would likely be more” U.S. casualties before the operation ends. On the second day of strikes on Iran, the U.S.-Israel operation hit more than 2,000 targets. Alex Gangitano reports for POLITICO; the New York Times reports.

Trump told the ** New York Times yesterday that the U.S. military intends to sustain its assault on Iran for “four to five weeks” if necessary**. Trump offered several contradictory views of how power in Iran might be transferred to a new government, saying he had “three very good choices.” One option, based on the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, involved removing the top leader while keeping much of the rest of the government in place. Earlier on Sunday, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Larijani said an interim committee would run the country until a successor to Khamenei was chosen. Zolan Kanno-Youngs, David E. Sanger, and Tyler Pager report.

*“[The Iranians] want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” *Trump told The Atlantic yesterday. When asked when this conversation would take place, Trump said, “I can’t tell you that,” noting that some of the Iranians involved in negotiations in recent weeks were no longer alive. Michael Scherer reports; Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Tyler Pager report for the New York Times.

*Monday *

*Israeli attacks in Beirut and southern Lebanon this morning have killed at least 31 people, *according to the Lebanese health ministry. The Israeli military said it was responding to attacks from Hezbollah. BBC News reports.

*ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR *

Israel’s Supreme Court on Friday issued a temporary injunction against the Israeli government, which should allow several aid organizations to continue their operations in Gaza as the case progresses. Reuters reports.

*Israel announced on Saturday that crossings into Gaza have been closed, as the U.S.-Israeli joint operation against Iran commenced. *COGAT, the Israeli army unit responsible for facilitating aid into Gaza, said that enough food had been delivered to Gaza since the start of the ceasefire to provide four times the need of the population, without providing any evidence. It said, “the existing stock is expected to suffice for an extended period.” Jaidaa Taha and Ahmed Tolba report for Reuters.

*OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS *

*Afghanistan said yesterday that it has been firing at Pakistani jets over Kabul, *as fighting between the two nations entered its fourth day. Afghan police also said yesterday that Afghan forces had combated Pakistani attempts to strike Bagram Air Base. There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government about attempted airstrikes or ongoing fighting. Abdul Qahar Afghan and Elena Becatoros report for AP News; Reuters reports.

South Sudan is at a “dangerous point” as a surge in civilian killings threatens a fragile 2018 peace deal, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Friday. Olivia Le Poidevin reports for Reuters.

U.S. CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OPERATIONS

Defense Department Inspector General Platte B. Moring III has paused a proposal to evaluate military targeting in the U.S. strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, sources told the New York Times. The proposal would examine whether U.S. Southern Command has established and followed targeting practices when conducting these strikes. Moring told staff in a meeting last month that the proposed project sounded as if it could become highly political. Moring’s office acknowledged that he had sought further information before deciding whether to approve the project. Charlie Savage reports.

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, announced yesterday that she will return to Venezuela within a few weeks. Jacob Wendler reports for POLITICO.

*U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS *

The Justice Department announced on Friday that 30 additional people have been **charged ***with disrupting a Sunday church service with a protest* during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The new indictments bring the total number of people accused in the protest to 39, including independent journalist Don Lemon. Ernesto Londono reports for the New York Times.

*Any Lucia López Belloza, a student who was mistakenly deported to Honduras last year despite a federal judge’s order blocking her removal, declined to return to the United States as she feared she would be detained and deported again. *Mattathias Schwartz reports for the New York Times.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS

*Authorities are investigating whether a man who fatally shot two people and wounded 14 others at a bar in Austin, Texas, on Sunday was motivated by the U.S. military campaign in Iran, *according to two sources. The police identified the gunman, who was killed by officers at the scene, as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne. Security concerns have emerged through the United States since the strikes against Iran started on Saturday, and several local law enforcement agencies have reported heightened alert over possible domestic retaliation. Jeremy Roebuck and Molly Hennessy-Fiske report for the Washington Post.

“I saw nothing and I did nothing wrong,” Bill Clinton said on Friday during closed-door questioning about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein by the House Oversight Committee. “Even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause. We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long.” Annie Karni reports for the New York Times.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS

Trump said on Friday that the U.S. government would blacklist Anthropic, as the Pentagon declared the company a “supply chain risk.” This follows Anthropic’s rejection of the Pentagon’s demands to lift all safeguards on the military’s use of its AI model, Claude. “The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,” Trump said. In his social media post, Trump also ordered that all government departments immediately cease use of Anthropic’s technology. David Lawler and Maria Curi report for Axios.

OpenAI announced on Friday night that it has reached an agreement with the Defense Department to deploy its AI models within the Pentagon’s classified network. CEO Sam Altman said that the agreement includes safeguards such as bans on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, despite these being the two key sticking points between Anthropic and the Pentagon in recent weeks. Bob King reports for POLITICO.

A Defense Department **memo***, dated Friday, shows that starting in September, the military will ban service members from attending certain graduate-level programs and fellowships at nearly two dozen universities*, including Princeton, Yale, MIT, and Georgetown. The memo states, “it is imperative that our warfighter education system forges strategic senior leaders who are trained to think critically, free of bias and influence.” Chris Cameron reports for the New York Times.

*TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION *

A federal judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction, extending an earlier order, blocking the Trump administration from arresting or detaining refugees on the basis that they had yet to obtain lawful permanent resident status. The judge said that he would not allow the administration to “terrorize” Minnesota’s refugee population by arresting and detaining them under a new policy that “turns the refugees’ American dream into a dystopian nightmare.” Nate Raymond reports for Reuters.

Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

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