Launch

• Defending champions Vietnam will begin their title defense for the Asean Hyundai Cup 2026 this Friday, July 24. • Led by coach Kim Sang-sik, the Vietnamese squad will face qualifiers Timor-Leste in their opening Group A match held in Chonburi. • The tournament features a competitive field including teams from Cambodia, Singapore, and Indonesia, marking a significant regional football event.

• SpaceX launched Northrop Grumman's MRV-MEP satellite-servicing mission into Earth orbit on July 21. • The spacecraft is equipped with specialized 10-foot robotic arms designed to dock with and repair existing satellites. • This mission is critical for extending the operational lifespans of multiple satellites currently located in geostationary orbit.

Holistic approach to care which preserves children’s identities part of Minns government reforms to broader child protection systemFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAn Aboriginal family preservation program aimed at giving at-risk children space to “tell their own stories” has been launched across New South Wales after a historic investment from the state government.The program, co-designed by First Nations families, Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and the NSW government, aims to reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care through a holistic approach to child and family protection. Continue reading...

Australia’s foreign affairs minister discussed the importance of peace in the Pacific at her meeting with Wang Yi in the wings of Asean. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPenny Wong also criticised “destabilising and dangerous conduct” by China following a clash at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, AFP reports.The Philippines and China summoned each other’s ambassadors on Tuesday after the Philippine military accused the China Coast Guard of clubbing a Filipino sailor with a baton on Monday as they approached a grounded vessel that has long served as a Philippine garrison. Continue reading...

• PolitiFact, a project of the Poynter Institute, has launched "Well Informed," a new service designed to provide reliable health information to consumers and news organizations. • The initiative utilizes research-backed stories and social videos to help the public distinguish credible medical evidence from health-related misinformation. • This launch addresses the growing need for verified health data to combat the spread of misleading personal health claims across digital platforms.

Vertical Aerospace says government has given £10m backing, taking its total investment in the project to £48mBritish flying taxi startup Vertical Aerospace has said the UK government has expressed interest in buying a military variant of its aircraft as it races to gain approval for flights with paying passengers.Vertical also welcomed another £10m grant from the government, taking its total UK state funding to £48m. Continue reading...

Iran has attacked a tanker in the strait of Hormuz, forcing its crew to abandon the ship, after the US launched a tenth consecutive night of strikesMiddle East crisis live: follow latest updatesNearly 100 US service members have been injured over the last two weeks of escalating strikes on Iran, the Pentagon has said, as Tehran launched a wave of reprisals to the tenth consecutive night of attacks.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they had targeted US military sites including air defence systems and a radar installation in Bahrain and Kuwait, while a tanker in the strait of Hormuz reported being ⁠struck by an unknown projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat. Continue reading...

• Iran has launched a series of attacks targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, marking a significant escalation in regional conflict. • The offensive has resulted in the deaths of at least 3 U.S. service members and left dozens of others wounded. • In a potential diplomatic shift, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni traveled to Pakistan on Monday to engage in talks with the country acting as a key mediator.

• Moonshot AI launched its latest flagship artificial intelligence model, Kimi K3, around mid-July 2026. • The model's impressive capabilities triggered immediate volatility across global tech and digital asset markets. • Investors are increasingly concerned that Kimi K3 could disrupt established players in semiconductor design software and general technology infrastructure.

After the US military confirmed that a service member had been killed in Iraq – the third in recent days – Donald Trump said the new attacks were ‘in honour’ of the deadMiddle East crisis live: follow latest updatesThe US launched a ninth night of strikes targeting Iran early Monday, after announcing the death of another American service member, as the price of Brent crude oil climbed above $90 a barrel, the highest level since June.The US military said the service member was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq, where the US has military bases, during a controlled detonation of what was called unexploded ordnance on a downed Iranian attack drone. Continue reading...

• The U.S. launched retaliatory strikes early Sunday following an Iranian attack on a military base in Jordan last Friday. • Two U.S. service members were killed in the assault, and a third remains missing in action, according to U.S. Central Command. • These deaths mark the first U.S. fatalities from hostile fire since a cease-fire between Iran and the United States collapsed last week.

Fresh attack comes after Iran’s supreme leader warned Washington would pay for ‘seeking to escalate’ the conflictTwo US troops killed and one missing in Jordan after Iranian attacksThe US military said it launched new airstrikes against Iran to “swiftly punish” the country’s Revolutionary Guard for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalisation.Speaking to the New York Post, the US president, Donald Trump, described the deaths as a “shame”. “They did it because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of the troops. “And it just shows you how bad (the Iranians) are,” he added.The two US troop deaths on Friday were its first from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”Iran appeared to target Saudi Arabia as ​well as other US Gulf allies and Jordan on Saturday after US attacks on Iranian bridges, power facilities ‌and other infrastructure.Mojtaba Khamenei said US actions had shown that Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility”, warning of “even heavier costs and further humiliation” for ‌the US, in a statement carried by the ‌official social media accounts of Iran’s supreme leader and state media.The American deaths brought the number of US service members killed since the war began to 16, while more than 430 have been injured. Iran’s health ministry said on ‌Saturday that 50 people had been killed ​and more than 500 injured in US strikes ​on the country over the past three weeks.In Iraq, a base near Irbil of the Kurdistan Freedom party, an Iranian Kurdish dissident group, was struck by a drone early on Sunday, wounding eight of its members, according to a military official with the group.The most significant damage from Iranian strikes on Saturday occurred in Kuwait, where a water desalination plant and an oil facility were hit, according to the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny nation that depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water. Continue reading...

• Mira Murati has officially launched Thinking Machines Lab, introducing a new AI architecture called "Inkling." • TSMC is significantly scaling its U.S. presence with a massive $100 billion expansion of its facilities in Arizona. • OpenAI has entered the hardware market with its first branded physical device, a $230 developer control pad created in partnership with Work Louder.

• Chinese AI start-up Moonshot has launched Kimi K3, a new large language model designed to compete with top-tier US systems like Anthropic’s Claude. • The release of K3 highlights a narrowing performance gap between Chinese and American frontier AI capabilities, particularly in reasoning and complex task handling. • This development is significant as it demonstrates China's ability to innovate in high-end AI despite ongoing US export restrictions on advanced semiconductors.

• Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), a new alliance headquartered in Shanghai. • The organization consists of 29 founding member countries, featuring a strong presence from Global South nations such as Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Malaysia, Senegal, and Pakistan. • WAICO aims to foster international cooperation and establish global AI regulations to ensure the technology remains safe and beneficial for humanity.

• Wall Street is trending toward weekly losses on Friday as a continued sell-off of chipmakers and AI-related stocks drags down the broader markets. • In Asia, Taiwanese shares plummeted 6.5% following an announcement from TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, to invest an additional $100 billion in U.S. fabrication plants. • Market volatility is further compounded by rising oil prices, triggered by the United States launching additional airstrikes against Iran.

US Central Command says attacks designed to ‘continue degrading Iranian military capabilities’The US military said it had launched a seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran on Friday night as fighting escalated over the strait of Hormuz.US Central Command, in a post on X, said the strikes, which began at 7pm GMT, were designed to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities”. Continue reading...

• U.S. forces have launched new strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure, specifically hitting bridges and a railway junction according to Iranian state media. • Iranian official Mohammad Ghalibaf has emphasized that Iran will maintain its claim to the Strait of Hormuz by force if necessary. • The situation highlights a strategic tension where Iran is simultaneously endorsing military resistance and leaving the door open for diplomatic negotiations.

US president accused China of meddling in his 2020 election defeat and said system was ‘catastrophically’ unfair. Plus Christopher Nolan’s epic take on The Odyssey hits the big screenGood morning. Donald Trump accused China of interfering with the 2020 election in a primetime televised address that laid bare his continuing obsession with his defeat to Joe Biden, but which opponents warned was a smokescreen for him to meddle in the forthcoming congressional midterms. Trump’s claims are unverified.In a 25-minute speech, the US president cast extraordinary doubts on the integrity of the US electoral process, saying it was “catastrophically” short of standards of fairness and trust, while vulnerable to trespassing by foreign powers. Democrats warned that Trump was trying to sow confusion, spread misinformation and lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the midterm elections.What was the aim of Trump’s address? In this analysis piece, Sam Levine explains how the president is using his office and US intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in elections. Instead of offering smoking-gun evidence, the release of new papers seemed to be a return to a classic Trump strategy of flooding the zone with information in an attempt to muddy the waters.What did US networks do about broadcasting Trump’s allegations? The US’s largest television stations split on whether to air Trump’s White House address, which was filled with unproven accusations. While CNN, ABC and NBC chose not to air the speech live, CBS, Fox News and MS Now (formerly MSNBC) aired at least large portions of the speech live.What did Rubio say? “They can call themselves anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist, communist, anarchist or Marxist. It’s always the same. It is a poisonous resentment cloaked in the language of equality and justice liberation – an overwhelming need to tear down, to wreck, what is beautiful and what is right on behalf of people who are only filled with ugliness,” he said. He called leftists “an encroaching darkness” and “the enemies of civilization”. Continue reading...

• Boehringer Ingelheim reported first-half 2026 net sales of EUR 15.8 billion for its Human Pharma division, fueled by strong U.S. demand and the performance of JARDIANCE®. • The company expanded its R&D pipeline to approximately 80 projects, advancing key assets including the cancer immunotherapy obrixtamig and the kidney disease drug apecotrep. • Research momentum remains high with five new compounds entering clinical trials, while the Animal Health sector focuses on new product launches and responding to disease outbreaks.

• The United States launched a series of rare daytime air strikes against Iran as part of an ongoing cycle of tit-for-tat military escalations. • In response, Iranian leadership accused Washington of attempting to overthrow the Islamic Republic, asserting that while Tehran does not seek war, it must remain prepared to fight. • This escalation highlights the volatile security situation between the two nations and the risk of a broader regional conflict.

• The White House has launched "Gold Eagle," a cybersecurity clearinghouse designed to help federal agencies, critical infrastructure operators, and AI developers patch security flaws identified by advanced AI models. • The initiative will utilize leading frontier models, including Mythos, and is the result of several months of collaborative design and conversation between the administration and industry leaders. • This effort matters as it leverages the power of AI to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors.

• President Trump has ordered an additional round of military strikes against Iran while reiterating the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. • In a significant policy shift, Trump has reversed his previous announcement regarding a 20-percent tariff. • These escalations signal a heightened military and economic confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, further destabilizing regional tensions.

• OpenAI researcher Miles Wang is reportedly in talks to launch an AI-driven drug discovery startup with a projected valuation of $2 billion. • Venture capital firm Lightspeed is in discussions to lead the funding round, though Wang has disputed the specific valuation figures and company description. • The move highlights a surge in investor interest in life sciences, exemplified by Chai Discovery's recent announcement of $400 million in funding at a $3.8 billion valuation.

• The European Union has initiated negotiations to establish the legal framework and legislation required to introduce a digital euro. • The EU aims to finalize these regulatory rules by the end of 2026, paving the way for a pilot program involving approximately 40 banks and payment firms in 2027. • This initiative represents a strategic move toward digitizing the eurozone's currency, with a target for a full public rollout by 2029.

• The Eärendil-1 space mirror has been cleared for launch, marking the first step toward a massive proposed constellation of 50,000 satellites. • The system is designed to reflect sunlight, though the project has sparked significant concerns regarding increased light pollution and its impact on astronomy. • This initiative represents a major shift in orbital infrastructure, potentially altering how sunlight is managed or distributed from space.

• President Donald Trump announced the launch of "major combat operations" against Iran on February 28. • The offensive consists of massive joint airstrikes carried out by the United States and Israel. • These operations represent a significant escalation in military conflict between the U.S.-Israeli alliance and the Iranian government.