A jury in Barrow County, Georgia, found Colin Gray guilty on 27 counts linked to the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. The charges included second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and offences related to endangerment and neglect. The case concerns the attack on 4 September 2024, when Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, opened fire at the school. Two students and two teachers were killed and nine people were wounded.

Prosecutors argued that the father enabled his son to access the firearm used in the attack. During the trial, it was reported that the weapon had been a gift for his son in December 2023. The defence argued that the defendant did not know his son would carry out an attack. The date for Colin Gray’s sentencing has not been specified, and he faces a prison term of more than 100 years.

Colt Gray is awaiting trial and faces 55 charges, including four counts of murder.

On 3 March 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Washington. The talks took place in the Oval Office at the White House. Trump said Germany was “helping”, including by enabling U.S. forces access to selected bases and facilities. He said the United States was not asking Germany to send troops and did not expect “boots on the ground” from Berlin.

Trump called Merz an “excellent leader” and said he had a good relationship with him. He said securing an agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine remained very high on his list of priorities. Trump also said the United States had enough ammunition for operations against Iran and for sales to Europe to support Ukraine.

Merz said the two countries agreed on the need to remove Iran’s current leadership and said they would discuss the “day after” in Tehran. The chancellor said after the meeting that he urged Trump to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin and stressed that any durable agreement on Ukraine would require Europe’s backing.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body, was due to select a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Saturday in a U.S.-Israeli strike. Iran’s opposition said the new supreme spiritual and political leader of Iran is Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, the late leader’s son. According to information carried by Iran International, Mojtaba’s selection was made under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Manoto News reported that one member of the Assembly of Experts sent Mojtaba an official condolence message describing him as a “well-rounded jurist” who meets the criteria for leadership.

The report said Ali Khamenei had served as Iran’s supreme leader for nearly 37 years. The article described Mojtaba as a long-time intermediary between his father and the state’s security structures, and as a figure linked to the IRGC and the Basij. It also said the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on Mojtaba Khamenei in 2019. The stated rationale was his cooperation with his father in maintaining Iran’s system of power and involvement in actions destabilising the region. The publication did not cite an official Iranian government statement confirming the appointment of a new supreme leader.

An Israeli air strike hit a four-storey residential building in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on 4 March 2026. Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said at least four people were killed and six were wounded. Rescue teams worked in the rubble to pull out families trapped under the collapsed building. According to NNA, the strike was part of an intensification of fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border that began on Monday after Hezbollah used drones and missiles against Israel.

Since then, Hezbollah has fired further rockets, Israel has carried out waves of air strikes on Lebanese territory, and sent troops into the south of the country. Hezbollah said on 4 March that its fighters launched a barrage of rockets at a gathering of Israeli forces in the Metula area near the border. The Israeli military on the same day called on residents of 16 villages in Lebanon to evacuate, saying it was planning actions against Hezbollah. NNA also reported further Israeli strikes at dawn, including on a hotel and on an apartment in eastern Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry said on 3 March that since the start of the current escalation, Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people and wounded 335.