Photos this week: February 26-March 5, 2026 - CNN

The United States and Israel began joint attacks against Iran on Saturday, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran has responded with an unprecedented wave of strikes across the Middle East, targeting Israel and several countries that host US military bases, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel and Hezbollah are also trading blows as the conflict widens.

Both US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said their main objectives were to defend their respective countries from imminent threats posed by Iran — most notably, to prevent the Islamic regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, without providing any evidence that it was any closer to obtaining one.

Trump and Netanyahu have also been clear about their hopes for regime change in Iran. Trump told the Iranian people that “the hour of your freedom is at hand,” while Netanyahu has urged them to “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”

Here are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, as well as some photos that caught our eye.

released by The White House, US President Donald Trump, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of State Marco Rubio monitor

US military operations in Iranfrom the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Portions of the photo have been blurred by the source.

hearingin Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 3. Two days later,

she was firedby President Donald Trump. Noem has faced growing scrutiny over her conduct in the position, including her alleged romantic relationship with her chief adviser, distribution of the windfall of cash the department has received, and her conflicting accounts over fatal incidents involving federal immigration agents.

made the satellite glow redacross certain parts of the world.

her mother went missingin January. NBC said Guthrie

plans to returnat some point.

the appearance, Keller and Knight went on to poke fun at the Hughes brothers about how the women were originally supposed to appear on “SNL” alone, but “we thought we’d invite the guys, too.” It was a reference to President Donald Trump’s remarks to the men’s team and how he said he would be “impeached” if he didn’t also invite the women’s team to the White House.

its military operation against Iran.

Khamenei’s deathon Sunday morning, hours after US and Israeli officials declared he had been killed in their joint strikes targeting his regime.

See all the winners.

the rashis the result of a cream that the president is using as a “preventative skin treatment.”

son of Iran’s last shah, celebrate the US-Israel attacks along with other groups in New York on Sunday, March 1.

See the best photos from the Winter Olympics.

Talarico won the Democratic primaryon Wednesday and will face either US Sen. John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November.

total lunar eclipseat the Princess Sirindhorn AstroPark in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Tuesday, March 3.

funeralin Minab, Iran, on Tuesday, March 3.

Iranian officials sayat least 168 young students and 14 teachers were killed on Saturday morning when US-Israeli airstrikes hit the Shajaba Tayyiba Girls’ elementary school in Minab. The school sits about 200 feet from an Iranian military base. The White House

did not rule outon Wednesday that US military personnel carried out the strike, but it insisted that the United States “does not target civilians.”

found him guilty of murder and manslaughter chargeson Tuesday, March 3. Prosecutors accused Gray of buying his son an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas present and allowing him access to that weapon and ammunition despite warnings that his son was a danger to others. Colt Gray, then 14, used that rifle to carry out a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024,

killing two teachers and two studentsand wounding nine others.

damagedin Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday, March 3.

an interview with CNN, he said he still has a working relationship with Trump and that his outspoken ridicule of Trump’s staff is meant to motivate, not alienate, the president.

forcibly removedfrom a Senate Armed Services subcommitee hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, March 4. McGinnis, a Green Party Senate candidate whose campaign website says he is a Marine Corps veteran, is facing three counts of assault on a police officer and three counts of resisting arrest, Capitol Police told CNN in a statement. “No one wants to fight for Israel,” McGinnis yelled as officers dragged him out of the hearing room and he clung to the doorway, according to

cellphone video of the incident. Protests are not allowed inside the Congressional buildings, Capitol Police said. CNN reached out to McGinnis’ campaign for comment.

pose on the red carpetat the Actor Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 1.

Three people were killedand 13 people were injured in a mass shooting that took place Sunday in Austin’s bustling Sixth Street entertainment district.

See last week in 33 photos.