Good afternoon, everyone. Major developments are unfolding in Iran, even as significant news continues to break here at home, including multiple mass shootings, one of which is being examined for possible ties to terrorism. At the same time, new polling indicates that many Americans do not approve of the Trump administration’s strikes in Iran.
Right now, the flow of information is constant. The pace is relentless. The volume is staggering. Whether intentional or not, the effect is the same: exhaustion, confusion, and a growing sense that the truth is difficult to pin down. I am here to help you parse through all of it.
Here’s the news:
Iran news:
- A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,282 U.S. adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, conducted online after Saturday’s U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, found that only 27% of Americans approve of the action, 43% disapprove, and 29% are unsure, even though about 90% had heard at least something about the strikes, and 56% believe Donald Trump is too willing to use military force to advance U.S. interests, a view held by 87% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and 23% of Republicans, amid recent U.S. strikes in Venezuela, Syria, and Nigeria.
- No senior Trump administration officials appeared on the Sunday political talk shows, an unusual absence that stood out as the administration faces the challenge of explaining the reasoning behind and overall objectives of the U.S. strikes on Iran to the American public.
- Republican Senator Ted Cruz: “I have no indication they were anywhere close to getting nuclear weapons”
- Trump told The Atlantic in a Sunday morning interview that Iran’s new leadership wants to speak with him and that he has agreed to do so, following the reported elimination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials in Israeli strikes on Tehran. Speaking by phone from his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump said, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” adding that Iranian leaders “should have done it sooner” and “waited too long” to accept what he described as a practical and easy solution.
- Donald Trump told NBC News that U.S. strikes against Iran are “ahead of schedule” and suggested one possible outcome could be the “decapitation” of Iran’s leadership, saying there are “many outcomes that are good,” including “getting rid of their whole group of killers and thugs,” while acknowledging the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in Kuwait and saying casualties were expected.
- Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair Mark Warner said on CNN that, based on his review of the intelligence, he has seen no evidence that Iran was on the verge of launching a preemptive strike against the United States, casting doubt on claims used to justify recent U.S. military action and emphasizing that the threat was not imminent.
- U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said the goal of current U.S. policy toward Iran is to make sure that Iran cannot once again become the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, but when asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker whether President Donald Trump has a concrete plan to guarantee that outcome, Graham replied no, asserting that developing such a plan “is not his job” or “my job” as lawmakers and that the future of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people themselves rather than by the U.S. government.
- President Donald Trump said he has been informed that U.S. forces have “destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval ships, some of them relatively large and important,” and that “we are going after the rest,” indicating further planned attacks on Iranian naval assets as part of the ongoing military operations against Iran.
- Donald Trump appeared to link his decision to launch major strikes on Iran to his longstanding claims about election interference, posting on Truth Social that Iran tried to interfere in the 2020 and 2024 elections “to stop Trump” and now “faces renewed war with United States,” echoing allegations about Iranian election meddling while there is no evidence Iran played a decisive role in his 2020 loss.
- The Israeli Air Force announced air superiority over Tehran, the capital of Ian.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the seventh and eighth waves of Operation True Promise 4 are underway, targeting several U.S. bases across the region. The IRGC claimed that Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait has been completely disabled. It also asserted that 560 Americans have been killed or wounded, while U.S. Central Command said the total number of U.S. casualties is under 10.
- Search and recovery operations have concluded following a reported strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls primary school in Minab, southern Iran, with the county governor saying 165 bodies were recovered from the rubble, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency; NBC News said it could not independently verify the casualty figures, and additional details about the strike and the victims were not immediately available.
- Three U.S. service members were killed and at least five others injured in an attack in Kuwait as part of Operation Epic Fury, according to two U.S. officials; the troops were assigned to an Army sustainment unit based in Kuwait, and U.S. Central Command announced the casualties but did not release the names of those killed.
- The Wall Street Journal confirmed that the U.S. military reportedly used Anthropic’s AI model Claude to assist with intelligence analysis, target selection and battlefield simulations during the joint U.S.–Israel strikes on Iran, despite President Donald Trump ordering federal agencies hours earlier to sever ties with the company over objections to its use in military operations, highlighting tensions between the Pentagon and Anthropic as the Defense Department transitions to alternative AI providers.
- According to Reuters, veteran Iranian politician Ali Larijani has emerged as a central power broker following the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in airstrikes, announcing that a temporary leadership council would be formed while he oversees key portfolios including nuclear negotiations and regional security as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council; a longtime Khamenei loyalist and former nuclear negotiator and parliament speaker, Larijani has pursued pragmatic engagement with Russia and Oman on diplomacy while also being sanctioned by the United States.
- A wave of cyber operations targeted Iranian apps and websites alongside the joint U.S.–Israeli strikes, including the hacking of the popular BadeSaba religious calendar app to display anti-government messages urging armed forces to disarm, while internet connectivity across Iran dropped sharply and cybersecurity experts warned of likely Iranian retaliation through proxy groups, hacktivists, DDoS attacks, data leaks, and potentially destructive “wiper” attacks, though some reported strikes on Iranian government and military systems could not be independently verified.
- Cyberattacks hit Iranian apps and websites alongside the joint U.S.–Israeli strikes, including the hacking of the BadeSaba app to display anti-government messages, while internet connectivity dropped and experts warned of potential Iranian retaliatory cyber operations such as DDoS and “wiper” attacks.
- This is currently trending on Twitter:
Non-Iran news:
- Three people were killed and 14 others injured in a mass shooting early March 1, 2026, outside Buford’s bar on West Sixth Street in downtown Austin; the suspected gunman, who police say used both a pistol and an assault rifle after circling the area in a large SUV, was shot and killed by officers, and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force joined the investigation after preliminary evidence indicated a potential nexus to terrorism, though officials cautioned it was too early to determine motive
- Nine people were injured, including one in critical condition, in a mass shooting around 1 a.m. at Riverfront Live in Cincinnati’s East End during a DJ Fresh Birthday Celebration; police said the shooting appeared targeted after a man allegedly pulled a weapon and fired at another patron inside the venue, with UC Medical Center confirming eight patients received treatment, and the Cincinnati Police Department, along with the ATF, continuing to investigate the incident.s
- The Department of Education has hung up a giant poster of Charlie Kirk on the side of its building in Washington, D.C. The image was taken by Dave Weigel:
- West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of allowing its iCloud platform to be used to store and distribute child sexual abuse material, seeking damages and court-ordered reforms to strengthen detection and reporting systems; the suit cites internal messages from an Apple executive and highlights the company’s relatively low number of reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children compared with Google and Meta, while Apple said protecting children is central to its mission and pointed to existing safety features on its devices.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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