This is the 9th Weekly News Roundup of 2026. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here, which covers 2024 and 2025.
These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
I’ve spent so many years wrestling with what forgiveness means. I think we all struggle. When someone apologizes, the standard response is “it’s okay,” but when true wounds have been dealt, it’s not okay, and being forced to say otherwise serves no one’s best interest. The best definition I’ve encountered is the one that says forgiveness is when you no longer allow the injury done to you to disturb your peace ... I’ve also encountered the idea that forgiveness is not something that just happens once; it is a discipline that must be undertaken again and again, until at last the wound is finally healed. - Kathleen Basi
Thin culture is the surface stuff—fashion, food, music. Thick culture is deeper: What is the Good? What makes life worth living? What should we aspire to become?” ... Thick culture is harder to see, and rarely acknowledged, even by those living in it, because it is the water we swim in, and you can’t really cosplay it, without some foundational life changes. - Chris Arnade
We’ve had no debate; we’ve had no search for international support or allies; we’ve ignored the UN entirely; the Congress didn’t debate, let alone vote, in advance; and the American people were told about the war after it had already begun. - Andrew Sullivan
Big Stories This Week
President Trump launched massive airstrikes on Iran, along with Israel, beginning a war without any consultation with Congress or allies and lacking a clear reason for doing so. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. attacked Iran because they knew Israel was going to, but quickly changed his story when Trump disagrees. Multiple polls showed the U.S. public is not supportive. Skepticism and backlash emerged quickly among some Republican commentators and a handful of lawmakers. The price of oil skyrocketed.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who presided over ICE operations in multiple U.S. cities including Minneapolis, and who indicated that Renee Good was a domestic terrorist hours after the unarmed Minneapolis woman was shot and killed by an ICE officer, was fired by Trump.
Week in Review
Saturday, Feb. 28
The U.S. and Israeli military launch a joint aerial assault on Iran, hitting targets throughout the country with missiles launched from the air and sea. Trump announces in the afternoon that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has led the fundamentalist Islamic government of Iran since 1989, has been killed in the strikes.
One of the U.S. strikes on an Iranian naval base also appears to, based on detailed reporting, mistakenly hit a nearby elementary school with a precision bomb that kills 175 people, many of them small children. Video footage shows panicked parents searching in the rubble for their children.
At least 22 people are killed in Pakistan in clashes with police as they try to attack a U.S. consulate there.
Sunday, March 1
Six U.S. soldiers are killed in an attack by an Iranian drone on a military installation in Kuwait. Trump says in a video posted to social media that more U.S. soldiers are likely to die in the conflict. “We grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation,” Trump says. “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is. Likely be more.”
A gunman wearing a t-shirt with an “Iranian flag design” and the words “Property of Allah” enters a bar in Austin, Texas after midnight and opens fire, killing two and wounding 14 before he is shot and killed by police.
Pope Leo says in his weekly message to pilgrims in St. Peters Square that he is “following with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and in Iran.” He says: “Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions, I make a heartfelt appeal to all the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm. May diplomacy regain its proper role, and may the well-being of peoples, who yearn for peaceful existence founded on justice, be upheld. And let us continue to pray for peace.”
Monday, March 2
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the U.S. struck Iran in part because the U.S. government knew that the Israeli government was planning to do so. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio says.
Trump says the war in Iran could last four to five weeks. He adds that he is prepared “to go far longer than that.”
The Iranian Red Crescent Society says the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people in Iran. Another 11 people are reported dead in Israel from Iranian retaliatory attacks. Dozens more are dead in Lebanon due to Israel’s airstrikes.
Rubio’s comments intensify concerns among Republicans over Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran. Tucker Carlson is the most vocal in his criticism. Republicans and Democrats criticize Trump for failing to seek congressional approval.
Two days after the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began, the U.S. State Department issues an order encouraging Americans in the Middle East to evacuate, but offers no assistance in doing so. The lack of assistance is slammed by current and former lawmakers, including recently retired Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu claims on Fox News that Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which the U.S. attacked last June, were being reconstituted. Trump claimed last June that Iran’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
Tuesday, March 3
Trump, asked if Israel forced his hand to attack Iran, claims that Iran planned to launch attacks of its own on U.S. forces, but does not specify where. “If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first,” Trump claims. Rubio shifts his explanation to mirror the president’s. This contradicts what officials in the Trump administration told congressional staff on Sunday, that there was no evidence of an imminent threat from Iran.
The death toll in Iran rises to roughly 800 people.
The U.S. stock market plunges on concerns about rising energy costs and the potential for inflation to surge higher once again due to the U.S. war against Iran.
Israel expands a ground invasion into Lebanon.
A 54-year old Georgia man is found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for giving his 14-year old son an assault-style rifle in 2024 even as his son demonstrated behavior that should have been a red flag before he shot and killed two students and two teachers at his high school that year.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before a Senate committee. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, calls Homeland Security and ICE a “disaster” under her leadership and calls for her resignation.
Wednesday, March 4
A U.S. submarine torpedoes an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, killing at least 87 sailors, with over 60 others missing. Another 32 are rescued. It is the first torpedo attack by a U.S. submarine since World War II.
American political observers absorb the news out of the Texas primary elections: Democrat James Talarico — a 36-year old Presbyterian seminarian who ran a campaign centered around his Christian faith and a critique of the evangelical right — wins a competitive contest and advances to face the winner of the Republican primary in the U.S. Senate election. His campaign hands out signs that say “Love Thy Neighbor” at the election night rally. More Democrats vote in the Texas Senate primary than in the Republican contest, which is also fiercely competitive and results in a runoff the day after Memorial Day between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. “Usually, Republican primary voters outnumber Democrats by around 20 percentage points in Texas,” Nate Cohn writes, calling the turnout numbers for Democrats “extraordinary.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that Trump struck Iran because he “had a feeling ... based on fact, that Iran was going to strike the United States.”
Senate Republicans vote down an attempt to require congressional approval for further military action against Iran, ignoring the Constitution’s Article I authority for Congress to exercise oversight of war powers.
Thursday, March 5
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is removed from her position. Trump nominates Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma in her place.
Trump says he is not worried about the rapid increase in oil and gas prices, as the price of a barrel of oil jumps from $74 to $94 in one week. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise,” he tells Reuters.
Friday, March 6
The February jobs report shows 92,000 jobs lost last month.
The memorial service for civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in Chicago lasts five hours. Former President Barack Obama says in his remarks: “We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault to our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible.”
Israeli air strikes on Iran and Lebanon continue as evidence emerges that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran to help them strike U.S. targets.
Interesting Reads
How the AP decided to describe joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and Iran’s retaliation, as a war, by The Associated Press
Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base, by Malachy Browne and Aaron Boxerman for The New York Times (gift link)
Trump takes unconventional approach to communicating to the public about war in Iran, by David Bauder for The Associated Press
In Their Words: How Trump’s and his administration’s statements on Iran evolved and conflicted, by Michelle L. Price, Ben Finley and Will Weissert for The Associated Press
Kash Patel gutted FBI counterintelligence team tasked with tracking Iranian threats days before US strikes, sources say, by Hannah Rabinowitz for CNN
Worms in food, poor medical care, lights on 24/7: Families tell of life in Texas detention center, by Garance Burke, Adam Geller and Valerie Gonzalez for The Associated Press
what do I write in the fog of war, by Judy Wu Dominick for Life Reconsidered
A Story Bigger Than Iran: The AI war at the Pentagon, by Garry Kasparov for The Next Move
I smell a crash coming, says former Goldman Sachs boss, by Tom Saunders for The Telegraph
The MAGA 4H club: a story about forgiveness, by Kathleen Basi for Intentional Catholic
Confronting the Unman by Jake Meador for Mere Orthodoxy
my grandfather created heavens gates - hell’s flames and now I write about getting free from fear based faith, by Kristin LaValley for The Liminal Way
Haitian man dies in US immigration custody with untreated toothache, brother says, by Jacques Billeaud for The Associated Press
Ezra Klein: The Case Against Writing With AI, by David Perell for How I Write
How Team Nicaragua, underdogs in the World Baseball Classic, landed Dusty Baker, by Daniel Brown for The Athletic