July 21 2026 News

CENTCOM struck Iranian command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defenses for the tenth straight night, degrading Tehran’s ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise caution and heightened vigilance and should be prepared for possible flight cancellations, periodic airspace closures, and potential travel disruptions. Please monitor embassy and consular security alerts, local authorities, and the news for breaking developments. Americans outside the Middle East should reconsider travel to and through the region.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that his country was engaged in a “full-scale war” with the United States, even as regional mediators pressed Tehran and Washington to accept a 10-day ceasefire aimed at reopening diplomatic negotiations. “The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” Pezeshkian said, warning Iranians that the country would have to endure the consequences of continued resistance. His statement came as the United States moved additional military aircraft toward the Middle East and considered expanding its campaign beyond the nightly strikes carried out since fighting resumed on July 7.

The National Institute for the Study of the Red Heifer announced this morning the birth of another red heifer in the Golan Heights. The new calf was born in the herd belonging to Shay Givon, a rancher working with the Institute. Care was taken not to attach an ear tag to the calf in order to preserve its status of purity. Givon was also the one who identified the previous red heifer calf about six weeks ago at one of the dairy farms where he provides services. “I feel that we are living in a historic period,” Givon said. “Since the last calf was born, I have received inquiries and questions from Jews of all backgrounds in Israel and abroad - Hasidim, Litvaks, secular Jews and religious Jews. The Jewish people are awakening more than ever to the issue of the Temple and the restoration of ritual purity in Israel, and the Master of the Universe is opening doors and opportunities for us that have not existed for 2,000 years.”

Erdogan has spent nearly $1 billion building a global school network that investigators say is used to export political Islam and target his opponents abroad. According to a report by the Belgium-based human rights group Solidarity with Others, Turkey's state-funded Maarif Foundation educates around 30,000 students in 34 countries while helping Ankara seize control of schools previously linked to the Gülen movement. Since 2016, the foundation has reportedly been involved in the closure, confiscation, or forced transfer of 162 schools across 29 countries, taking direct control of 131 institutions and affecting around 7,800 teachers and staff.

ICC’s report, Global Persecution Index 2026, found that the Church is adding members in places where worship can bring arrest, imprisonment or death, pointing to underground and digital networks that let believers gather outside the reach of the state. Iran is the most extreme case, according to the report, which calls the country’s house church movement among the quickest to expand anywhere, sustained by hidden networks and online evangelism even as converts from Islam are arrested, jailed and, in some cases, executed under blasphemy and national-security statutes. The report quotes anonymous experts who rank Iran’s Christian population as “one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world.”

They have grueling gym regimes and rigid routines that monitor food, sleep and nutritional intake – but unlike other athletes, these ‘Olympians’ aren’t trying to cross the finish line first. That is because the Rejuvenation Olympics is a competition to live for as long as possible, and some fork out astronomical amounts doing it, including one man who spent £1.5million in a year and even had blood plasma transfusions from his own son. This wacky world is championed by ‘biohacker’ Bryan Johnson, whose motto “don’t die” has seen him splurge the aforementioned sum on everything from experimental gene therapy to 100-plus pills a day and non-stop MRIs, ultrasounds, colonoscopies and gene tracking.

At first glance, Andy Burnham’s decision to scrap Keir Starmer’s proposed digital ID card program appears to be a victory for privacy advocates. However, the move eliminates only one specific form of digital identity—a universal government-issued ID card—not the broader digital identity infrastructure. Burnham has a long record of supporting national ID systems, online age verification, expanded surveillance powers, and greater government regulation of internet activity, making it clear that his opposition was to the implementation rather than the principle itself. Much of the digital identity framework remains in place and continues to expand through initiatives such as GOV(.)UK One Login, digital driver’s licenses, Companies House identity verification, NHS login systems, and mandatory age verification for online services. Rather than relying on a single national ID card, Britain is building a decentralized identity ecosystem where identity verification is embedded across multiple government and digital platforms. In effect, the digital ID card may be gone, but the infrastructure that enables digital identity continues to grow—one service at a time.

The unveiling of Kimi K3, an open-source AI model developed by Chinese company Moonshot, has rattled stock markets and Western tech executives amid fears that it will challenge business models and US tech supremacy. The model is as powerful as the most advanced AI systems launched by US leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, while being cheaper to run. Moonshot also lets people freely download and modify the code underpinning the model. Dean Ball, a senior executive at ChatGPT-developer OpenAI, wrote on X that China’s strategy of giving away its AI code would probably lead to “full AI communism, which is precisely what China proposes”. Tech stocks around the world crashed last week and there are fears that the slump will continue on Monday after investors spent the weekend getting to grips with the implications of Kimi K3.

A pair of humanoid robots “got married” in a symbolic wedding ceremony in Russia. In an event held at the Pushkin Library in Moscow, “office worker and blogger” Robert and “ballerina” Matilda pledged their love for one another and were officially declared “robot spouses”. They were accompanied by their “pet,” the robotic dog Dogmatic, who brought their wedding bands into the venue. The library said the “newlyweds” recited vows “promising to be reliable partners through all of life’s algorithms, to support one another through every update, and to always maintain a stable connection between their hearts and processors.”