24 hours in pictures, 3 March 2026

2026-03-03 - 16:33

Palestinian volunteers are carrying out restoration, cleaning and cataloguing efforts to save damaged books and manuscripts at the Great Omari Mosque Library in Gaza City, Gaza, which was heavily damaged during Israeli attacks on March 2, 2026. The library, which housed approximately 20,000 books and manuscripts before the war, now reportedly holds only around 4,000 works following the strikes. Volunteers are carefully restoring items that were buried under rubble, worn out or had their pages severely damaged. Through these efforts, they aim to preserve Gazaâs cultural, literary and scientific heritage despite the destruction caused by the conflict. (Photo by Abdalhkem Abu Riash/Anadolu via Getty Images) Johannesburg Emergency Management Services and police remove the body of the ninth victim of a building collapse in Ormonde, south of Johannesburg, 3 March 2026. Yesterday a section of the building collapsed killing 9 workers. The building was under construction, but according to Joburg Mayor Dada Morero the city had not approved the building plans of the structure. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen A woman holding a cat walks along a road in Beijing on March 3, 2026. (Photo by WANG Zhao / AFP) NAB AFL Auskick players during a 2026 AFL Opening Round Media Opportunity on March 03, 2026 at Burleigh Beach on the Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/AFL Photos/via Getty Images) A Fox trots past No.10 ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at No.10 Downing Street on March 03, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Revellers smear gulal (coloured powder) during celebrations on the occasion of Holi, the Hindu spring festival of colours, in Kolkata on March 3, 2026. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) A woman walks with a drink near a man sitting along the beach in Dubai’s Jumeirah area on March 2, 2026. Iran’s strikes on Gulf neighbours since February 28, following the US-Israeli attack, forced the UAE to shut its airspace, blindsiding travellers who thought they were headed to one of the region’s safest holiday destinations. (Photo by Fadel SENNA / AFP) A firefighter inspects destruction at a site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on March 3, 2026. The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran spread across the Middle East, threatening to plunge the global economy into chaos, with Lebanon and Gulf energy exporters dragged into the conflict. (Photo by AFP) People pay their respects to civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson as he lies in state at the Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina, United States on March 02, 2026 (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images) The Moon orbits through the Earth’s shadow resulting in a lunar eclipse on March 03, 2026 in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand will get a full, start‐to‐finish view of a total lunar eclipse on the night of Tuesday 3 March, with totality from about 12:04am to 1:03am on Wednesday 4 March NZDT, and it is the only total lunar eclipse anywhere in the world this year. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images) Protesters outside the unveiling of a statue at North Beach Precinct on March 03, 2026 in Durban, South Africa. The statues celebrate the historic contribution made by former President Nelson Mandela and former African National Congress President Oliver Reginald Tambo to the country’s liberation and democracy and are directed at enhancing the city’s cultural and heritage tourism offering. (Photo by Gallo Images/Darren Stewart) Gardener Heike Meifert sorts flowering primroses in a greenhouse at Fontana Gartenbau GmbH, of which there are currently several thousand specimens in vibrant colors. The plants are part of the company’s spring production, which mainly supplies its goods to wholesalers in Berlin and Brandenburg. The company cultivates around two hectares under glass. In addition to classic spring-flowering plants such as primroses and pansies, the company mainly grows tomatoes and cucumbers throughout the year. There is also a wide range of bedding and balcony plants, which are sold to garden centers, markets and regional retailers during the season. Production has already been running at full speed for weeks, as demand for early flowering plants increases significantly with the first milder days. For the nursery, spring is one of the most important times of the year when a large proportion of sales are generated. (Photo by PATRICK PLEUL / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP) Protesters hold portraits of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gather during a solidarity protest outside the US Consulate in Durban on March 3, 2026 after Khamenei was assassinated during US and Israeli strikes on Tehran. (Photo by Rajesh JANTILAL / AFP) A billboard unveiled by the Democratic Alliance along Stormvoel road in Tshwane, 3 March 2026. Picture: Supplied/DA An aerieal view of meanders blanketed in snow form as they flow into the Demirozu Dam, which supports local agriculture and livestock farming during summer in Bayburt, Turkiye on March 03, 2026. (Photo by Besir Kelleci/Anadolu via Getty Images) PICTURES: Behind the scenes at romantic ballet classic Giselle