US continues striking Iran, Yemen’s Houthi ready to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, wildfire smoke blankets US cities, China launches Kimi K3 AI model, Algeria orphanage fire, wildfires in Spain

The US launched a sixth consecutive night of strikes against Iran “to further degrade Iranian military capabilities”. Iran has requested that Yemen’s Houthi movement prepare to shut down the Red Sea oil route if the United States follows through on threats to strike Iranian power infrastructure. Dangerous wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota has blanketed a massive swath of the U.S. from the Midwest to the East Coast, putting over 115 million Americans under urgent air quality alerts. Trump said he was declassifying documents that purportedly show China illicitly obtained 220 million U.S. voter files and engaged in election interference. The Chinese Embassy stated China does not meddle in U.S. affairs. Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI has officially launched Kimi K3, a massive 2.8-trillion-parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) system that stands as the world's largest open-weight AI model. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) finalized a 25% tariff on thousands of Brazilian imports, taking effect on July 22, 2026. A devastating fire at a state-run orphanage in Mohammadia, Algeria, has killed 11 children and injured 19 others. More than 500 Rohingya refugees are feared dead after two crowded vessels reportedly capsized in the Bay of Bengal. Uganda officially discharged its last confirmed Ebola patient on July 15, 2026, from the Mulago Ebola Treatment Unit. However, the virus continues to spread rapidly in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).