Saturday 18 July 2026

In the seventh day of renewed U.S. strikes, civilian infrastructure, including a desalination plant in Jask, are damaged, cutting off the access to water for 10,000 civilians.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin and Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front rebels ambush a Malian military convoy in the Gao Region of Mali.

Communications services in Iran's Hormozgan province are disrupted after U.S. strikes damaged 116 radio towers there.

Kuwait says Iranian attacks have struck a second power and desalination plant in two days, causing a fire and shutting several generating units, while other attacks injure firefighters and a worker and temporarily disrupt flights from Kuwait International Airport.

Axios reports that Iran has launched a ballistic missile at a United States base in Saudi Arabia, making it the first direct attack by Iran on the country since targeting a petrochemical complex in Jubail.

Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi says that the United States has violated the terms of the Islamabad Memorandum and that Iran is "no longer implementing them".

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a statement published by IRNA, report that two oil tankers have exploded after hitting mines south in the Strait of Hormuz. However, the U.S. Central Command disputes the claims on X as "false".

The Philippine foreign affairs department reports that four Philippine-registered vessels carrying 81 seafarers have safely transited through the Strait of Hormuz. The vessels are identified as the MV Lyng Trader, MV Western Doncaster, MV Vivian Trader, and MV Eva Fuji.

The U.S. CENTCOM launches a new wave of strikes for an eighth consecutive night against IRGC targets in response to two American service members killed in Jordan.

Moscow Oblast governor Andrey Vorobyov and Tambov Oblast head Yevgeny Pervyshov say Ukrainian drone attacks killed seven workers and injure 49 others at Wildberries warehouses in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, Russia, while another strike ignites an oil facility. Ukraine says the warehouses support Russian drone production.

Arab League secretary general Nabil Fahmy and U.S. envoy Massad Boulos reach an agreement to establish a regular framework for joint coordination for a ceasefire in the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

An insurgent is killed and five others are injured during a counterterrorism operation that foiled a terrorist plot in Wana, South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

The Bahraini military intercepts projectiles fired from Iran.

An oil facility is damaged, according to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

Jens Spahn resigns as leader of the governing CDU/CSU alliance in Germany's Bundestag amid criticism after he and his husband became parents through surrogacy, despite Germany's ban and his party's opposition to the practice.

Belgium approves an import ban on goods from Israeli settlements.

Kuwait Airways reschedules most of its flights due to the country's airspace being closed amidst ongoing Iranian attacks.

Four people are killed, four more are missing, and seven others are injured after torrential rains and flash floods hit a mountainous village in Lai Châu province, Vietnam.

Over 100 houses burn down in a fire in the Krokstadelva municipality of Norway.

Five people are killed and two others are injured in a workplace accident in Thanh Hóa province, Vietnam.

Five people, including three women, drown in the Godavari River whilst fishing near Polavaram district, India.

In association football, England beats France 6–4 in the highest-scoring third-place playoff in FIFA World Cup history, securing their best result since winning the tournament in 1966.

At the London Athletics Meet, British runner Josh Kerr sets a new world record of 3:42.66 for the mile. The previous record of 3:43.13 by Hicham El Guerrouj had been set in 1999.