July 21, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1798, Napoleon’s Army of Egypt used a new military tactic, the massive divisional square, to defeat the Egyptian forces of Murād Bey at the Battle of the Pyramids during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign.
QotD: Burnham "has got a big job ahead of him, but he will be able to do it and, of course, the U.S.A. will be there to help!” President Trump posted on Truth Social acknowledging Britain’s new prime minister.
US/IRAN/HOUTHIS/MIL – Iran forces attack Bahrain and Kuwait after US hits Iranian ports and cities.
U.S. forces bombed Iran's south and west after President Donald Trump said Tehran would pay dearly for the deaths of American soldiers, while Iran targeted U.S. sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan on Tuesday and a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, opening a potential new front in the war and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
Shipping companies loading or discharging cargo at Saudi ports could be targeted "in any location" by Houthis, according to an email sent to companies on Monday and seen by Reuters.
Explosions were heard around the city of Shiraz in southern Iran, state media said. Konarak and Chabahar on the southern coast, the city of Khorramabad and a civilian site outside the city of Abdanan, both in the west, all came under attack, media reports said. Later the IRNA news agency quoted an official in Khorramabad as saying no enemy attack had taken place there.
MORE/ISRAEL – Israel believes Iran moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain.
Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into tunnels deep inside a mountain last fall, Israeli and U.S. officials say, a development that would heighten concerns that Tehran could reconstitute its nuclear program.
Israel passed along the intelligence findings to the U.S., saying the centrifuges were transferred to the Pickaxe Mountain site last fall after the 12-day war in June when American and Israeli strikes pummeled Iran’s three main nuclear sites.
Pickaxe is “a possible target for a nice big fat shot,” Trump told conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt on July 13. It was the first time he has explicitly talked about Pickaxe as a target, although he has previously mentioned an Iranian underground location buried in granite.
USMCA – US, Mexico resume USMCA trade talks as Trump hits Canada with new tariffs.
U.S. and Mexican trade negotiators will meet for a third round of bilateral talks on Tuesday to try to push forward with revising the North American trade agreement, just as President Donald Trump slaps Canada with a new set of punitive duties.
The talks, which exclude Canada, are set to run for three days and are the first formal discussions on changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement since the Trump administration declined to extend the six-year-old regional trade pact on July 1.
The move started a clock to wind down USMCA within 10 years unless the three countries can agree on improvements. Industry groups have urged Trump to keep intact the trilateral structure and largely tariff-free access that underpins nearly $1.6 trillion in annual trade.
CHINA/PHILIPPINES – Clash ahead of ASEAN meeting.
https://www.dw.com/en/china-philippines-clash-in-south-china-sea-ahead-of-asean-meeting/a-78044915
Sailors from the Chinese and Philippine navies faced off with oars and batons in the disputed South China Sea, with Philippine officials saying that one of its sailors suffered a head injury as a result of the altercation.
The latest confrontation took place on Monday near the Second Thomas Shoal, a contested area where the two countries haverepeatedly clashed before. The Philippines keeps a military presence in the area aboard the grounded warship BRP Sierra Madre.
Manila said that Chinese Coast Guard personnel had assaulted Filipino sailors as they approached the outpost.
China quickly rejected this narrative. Beijing's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the "Philippine side provoked the incident first," by approaching the Chinese vessel in small rubber boats, but then "turned around and made counter-accusations, distorted the facts and engaged in malicious hype."
On Tuesday, China summoned the Philippine ambassador in Beijing to lodge its complaints, with the Philippines quickly following suit with the Chinese counterpart in Manila.
EU/CHINA/RETAIL/FINE – AliExpress hit with record EU fine.
https://www.dw.com/en/aliexpress-hit-with-record-eu-fine/a-78040720
AliExpress said it plans to appeal a penalty imposed by European Union (EU) regulators, who found shortcomings in the firm's efforts to curb illegal, unsafe and counterfeit goods.
The largest Chinese e-commerce platform in the EU, AliExpress, has been fined €550 million ($629 million) for failing to tackle sales of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products.
"The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online - it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act," European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen said on Monday.
It is the largest fine ever imposed under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets out clear rules for online services in the EU, targeting especially very large online platforms.
ZIMBABWE/LITHIUM/LOGISTICS – Zimbabwe adds freight rail option to lithium export gateway.
Zimbabwe's state-owned railway company said on Tuesday its collaboration with private operators now provides capacity to haul lithium concentrate to Maputo port in Mozambique by rail, expanding logistics options for the battery mineral.
Africa's top lithium producer Zimbabwe mostly trucks the bulk mineral to port, a more expensive option fraught with logistical bottlenecks.
The National Railways of Zimbabwe said in a statement it had partnered with Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), a unit of South Africa's Grindrod (GNDJ.J), and Zimbabwean logistics firm Silvergill to send the first 1,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate from Tsingshan Holding Group's Gwanda Lithium Mine to Maputo.
The first 180 km (112 miles) stretch of the consignment would be on BBR's track between Gwanda and Beitbridge, the NRZ said. The NRZ's 300 km line then connects Beitbridge and the Chicualacuala border post with Mozambique, the railway said.
The Limpopo line, which connects Chicualacuala and Maputo, is about 522 km, making the rail leg from Gwanda to port about 1,000 km long.
CHINA/MEXICO/AUTOS – Chinese car sales in Mexico surge despite new tariffs.
Mexican sales of Chinese-brand vehicles jumped nearly 30% in the first six months of the year despite steep tariffs imposed in January that were intended to slow the rise of Asian imports, according to a sales report obtained by Reuters.
The undated report from the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors showed Chinese brands accounted for 17% of new vehicle sales in Mexico during the first half of the year, up from 14% a year earlier, with sales climbing to 137,525 from 107,712.
Chinese brands’ rapid expansion in Mexico has transformed the country’s auto market and alarmed U.S. officials, who fear the country could become a springboard for Chinese companies seeking to enter the U.S. and upend an industry that contributes $1.2 trillion to the economy annually.
Mexico's Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Luis Rosendo Gutierrez told Reuters the sales data is misleading because Chinese automakers began the year with sizable inventories in Mexico after front-loading shipments ahead of the tariff increase.
The real impact of the tariffs, he said, is evident in a 43% decline in imports of Chinese-brand vehicles during the first five months of the year compared with the same period last year.
"What's important is not the sales figures. What's important is that the measures have halted imports of vehicles from Asia," Gutierrez said.
TRANSATLANTIC CABLING – Google connects new transatlantic cable between Portugal and US.
Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) has successfully connected a new transatlantic subsea cable to Sines in Portugal, it said on Tuesday, adding another U.S.-Europe data route as demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services surges.
Google's Nuvem, named after the Portuguese word for "cloud", links Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with Sines, south of Lisbon, via Bermuda and the Azores.
UK/POL – Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveils new government, replacing Starmer era.
New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham took power Monday, purging the cabinet of his predecessor's loyalists as he promised a 10-year plan to ease cost-of-living pressures and signalled a tilt to the left.
He immediately got to work after replacing Keir Starmer in Downing Street, holding separate calls with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky before appointing his ministerial team.
Burnham, 56, pledged to re-industrialise Britain and decentralise power as well as end sleeping rough on the streets after he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to become the head of government following Starmer's departure.
Burnham "has got a big job ahead of him, but he will be able to do it and, of course, the U.S.A. will be there to help!" Trump posted on Truth Social, noting they discussed trade, military cooperation and demining the Strait of Hormuz.
INDIA/POL/YOUTH/MOVEMENT – India’s opposition leader calls for Modi to step down as youth-led ‘Cockroach’ protests press on.
India's main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, demanded on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi step down over the police crackdown against student protests demanding reforms in the education system.
Modi must resign "for destroying the future of India's youth", the Congress Party leader said in a post on social media as he led a march with other MPs towards the prime minister's residence in New Delhi.
"The government doesn't want to take any accountability, nor does it want to have a debate on it in parliament," said Gandhi.
Along with dozens of his Congress party lawmakers, Gandhi staged a sit-in protest outside Modi's residence. Several were seen fastening zip ties around their wrists.
Gandhi's comments came after police said 60 protesters were injured in clashes with security forces in the heart of New Delhi on Monday, marking the biggest street rally in the capital for about five years.
Thousands of protesters had gathered to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, following an appeal by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online movement.
The protests follow a series of examination scandals that have shaken confidence in India's testing system.
Some 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination under tight security last month after the previous test was scrapped following the leak of a question paper.
That came on top of another scandal related to the online marking of tests taken by nearly two million high school students.
Comments (2)
Myrtle Beach, SC in the news for something good for once!
"On this day in 1798, Napoleon’s Army of Egypt used a new military tactic, the massive divisional square..." Not so new, not even in 1798. The Sumerians created this formation; the Macedonians popularized it. And called it a "phalanx. - a word we still use today.