All news: Thursday 20 August 2026

2026 United States military buildup in the Middle East

The USS George Washington arrives in the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln amidst a nine-month deployment and reports of mental health challenges among the crew and supply shortages on the aircraft carrier during the Iran war.

2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis

Data from Kpler shows that seven ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz, with four entering and three exiting the waterway.

Gaza war

The Israel Defense Forces accuses Hamas of using the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to carry out interrogations and torture Palestinians.

2026 Mali offensives

Human Rights Watch reports that Africa Corps forces summarily killed nine civilians, including four children, in Mali last month.

Kordofan campaign

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu regains control of Kauda, South Kordofan, following two days of clashes with Otoro fighters.

Myanmar civil war

Unexploded ordnance from past fighting is detonated after being tampered with in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State, Myanmar, injuring ten children.

Security Aviation Flight 45

Eight people are killed when a Cessna 441 Conquest II aircraft crashes at the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site in Western Alaska, United States.

A Mw 6.7 earthquake strikes the Parinacochas province in Peru.

Four railway workers on the Tōbu Nikkō Line are killed after being struck by a Limited express train in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.

Mauritania's coast guard rescues more than 300 migrants, including 40 children, from an overcrowded boat off the country's coast after finding them in distress.

At least 13 Tunisians are missing and two are rescued after their boat capsized off Tunisia while sailing toward Italy, according to the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights. One survivor is in critical condition.

Ecuador–United States relations

The U.S. Treasury Department issues sanctions on 15 people allegedly involved in a drug trafficking network shipping thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador through Mexico to the United States.

2026 Bangladeshi presidential election

The Jatiya Sangsad elects Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the President of Bangladesh in the first contested presidential election in 35 years. Alamgir will take office tomorrow.

Cameroon President Paul Biya returns to the country following a two-and-a-half-month absence.

Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi says the integration of Kurdish military, security, and administrative institutions into the Syrian state is complete following an agreement reached with president Ahmed al-Sharaa in January.

LSEG data shows that a vessel in France is loading wheat destined for Sudan, marking the first export of wheat from France to Sudan since August 2008.

2025 Mexican fuel smuggling scandal

Argentina deports a Mexican Rear Admiral accused of leading a fuel-smuggling network inside the Mexican Navy to Mexico after the Mexican government withdraws its extradition request. He is taken to the Altiplano maximum-security prison, where his brother and alleged co-leader, Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna, is also imprisoned.

Corruption in China

A Chinese court sentences Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan to life imprisonment for financial fraud, bribery, and embezzlement, and fines Evergrande and its real estate arm a combined ¥15.8 billion (US$2.35 billion).

Two ANC members including a former Knysna councillor are shot dead, one day after a sitting Knysna councillor is shot dead in a suspected internal ANC faction fight in Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa.

2026 Ebola epidemic

The World Health Organization says that the Democratic Republic of the Congo will receive 70,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine candidate developed by Merck to combat the Ebola outbreak in the country.

In American football, the National Football League fines the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints $500,000 each after they started a brawl after a joint practice session at the Cowboys' facility in Oxnard, California, United States.