Portal:Current events/2026 July 16

July 16, 2026 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2026 Iran war
- 2025–2026 Iran–United States negotiations
  - 2026 Iran war ceasefire
    - White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says that Iran is still interested in an agreement with the United States. (Reuters)
- July 2026 United States strikes against Iran
  - The United States Central Command launches new strikes against Iran for a sixth consecutive night in an effort to degrade Iranian military capabilities. (Middle East Eye)
  - Explosions are reported in Iran's Qeshm Island, Bushehr, Ahvaz, and Bandar Abbas, including a bridge in Bandar Khamir. A truck on the bridge is reported to be targeted, killing the driver. (Turkiye Today)
  - Tasnim News Agency reports that American fighter jets attacked the Iranshahr Airport in the Sistan and Baluchestan province. (Ynetnews) (MTV)
- Kuwait in the 2026 Iran war
  - The Kuwaiti defense ministry reports that the military intercepted and destroyed 32 drones entering the country's airspace. (Arab Times Kuwait)
Sudanese civil war
- Sudanese refugee crisis
  - Around 1,000 Sudanese returnees in Egypt are reported by a local committee to have returned to Sudan. (Middle East Monitor)
- The Sudanese Armed Forces says that they have destroyed around 205 combat vehicles, military supply trucks, and four strategic drones belonging to the Rapid Support Forces in the past two weeks. (AA) (Sudan Tribune)
Insurgency in Cabo Delgado
- Five insurgents are revealed to have been killed and several others injured in recent clashes last month involving the Mozambican Army and the Islamic State near Catupa, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. (Moz24)

Business and economy

TotalEnergies and its partners inaugurate the 216 MW Hydra solar-and-battery project in the Northern Cape, South Africa, which is the largest hybrid renewable energy project on the continent. (Renewables Now) (Business Insider)

Disasters and accidents

Twenty-one people are killed and several others are injured after a bus lost control and veered off the road in Kapchorwa, Uganda. (Xinhua)
Fourteen people are killed and five others are injured after a minibus plunged into a deep ravine in Cajamarca, Peru. (Xinhua)
Eleven people are killed and 19 more injured in a fire at a care facility in Algiers, Algeria. (BBC News)
Six members of a family are killed after a fire engulfed their house in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. (Xinhua)

Health and environment

2026 Ebola epidemic
- The Ugandan health ministry reports that Uganda has discharged its last patient diagnosed with Ebola, triggering a 42-day countdown clock on when it can be declared free of the virus. (Reuters)
2026 United States cyclosporiasis outbreak
- The Washington Post links the iceberg lettuce produced by Taylor Farms and supplied to American fast food chain Taco Bell as a source of the current cyclosporiasis outbreak in the United States, which is caused by Cyclospora cayetanensis. (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
- Taco Bell removes lettuce from some of their restaurants following reports that the Food and Drug Administration has opened an investigation into iceberg lettuce supplied to them. (The Hill)
- The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reports that the amount of hospitalizations in the state linked to the cyclosporiasis outbreak has surpassed 100 people. (ABC News)
Zambia's health ministry declares an end to its cholera outbreak, which started in August of last year, after four weeks without a case. (Lusaka Times)

International relations

Papua New Guinea–Taiwan relations
- Taiwan says that its representative office in Port Moresby will continue operating and assisting Taiwanese nationals, rejecting Papua New Guinea's decision to close it and stating that the move was made without prior consultation. Papuan foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko says that his ministry informed Taiwan of the closure "weeks ago". (AFP via The Straits Times)
Sudan–United Arab Emirates relations, War crimes during the Sudanese civil war
- Sudanese justice minister Abdallah Dirif says that the government will launch lawsuits against the United Arab Emirates in international courts for its role in supporting war crimes by the Rapid Support Forces in the ongoing civil war. (Sudan Tribune)

Law and crime

Corruption in Thailand
- The Thai interior ministry identifies irregularities in the mandatory examination results of 5,814 civil servants and considers suspensions, while police arrest three suspected organizers following a joint investigation with the anti-corruption commission. (AFP via The Straits Times)
Huachicol fiscal, Organized crime in Mexico
- Ernesto Ruffo Appel, former governor of Baja California, Mexico, is arrested on charges related to organized crime and fuel smuggling. (Gringo Gazette)
Unification Church and politics
- South Korea's Supreme Court upholds People Power Party lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong's two-year prison sentence for accepting ₩100 million (US$67,400) in illegal political funds from the Unification Church, removing him from the National Assembly. (AFP via The Straits Times)
Former Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) CEO Giovanni Castellucci is convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the 2018 collapse of the Ponte Morandi in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, which killed 43 people. (ANSA) (TrasportoEuropa)

Politics and elections

Dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov
- Protests take place in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine against president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to replace defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov with major-general Yevhenii Khmara. (BBC News) (Reuters)
- Ukrainian Air Force deputy commander Pavlo Yelizarov resigns from his position in protest of Fedorov's removal as defense minister. (BBC News)

Science and technology

Astronomers report the first observationally confirmed atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet within its star's habitable zone, after detecting helium escaping from the upper atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a super-Earth approximately 49 light-years from Earth. (Space.com)