The Wire - July 21, 2026

[00:00:04]This is the wire for 2300 Zulu, July 21st 2026. President's is routine information cut off at 2200. Bottom on a front. Houthis announce embargo of Saudi oil tankers. Large-scale bombings of Iran continue. Andy Burnham assumes office as British Prime Minister.

[00:00:18]Stabbing reported at church in Ireland.

[00:00:20]Beginning with international events in the Middle East of the war continues as before with a new series of attacks taking place overnight with CENTCOM conducting their seventh wave of air strikes within Iran since the break of the ceasefire. In Jordan, 22 base was struck again with Iranian ballistic missiles targeting an aircraft hanger as well as a warehouse. In Bahrain, significant Iranian targeting continued with the Iranians striking the electrical substation powering an Amazon data center. The data center itself was not hit, but the center remains offline due to the power source being cut. In the Black Sea, the targeting of oil tankers by both Ukraine and Russia has continued with concerns growing regarding the wider threats to petroleum infrastructure. Yesterday, Kazakhstan halted all shipments of oil through their pipelines that eventually arrive at the Russian oil terminals on the Black Sea due to the threats presented by Ukrainian drones. In Ireland this morning, a stabbing attack was reported at Holy Cross Church in Tramore, Waterford. One woman was stabbed at the altar shortly before mass began with the assailant fleeing the scene before being detained a short distance from the church. The victim remains hospitalized with serious wounds following the attack. In the United Kingdom yesterday, Andy Burnham formally transitioned into the role of Prime Minister. This afternoon, he authorized the use of British bases by the United States to conduct strikes in Iran marking a more public foreign policy departure from Starmer's government. Analyst for this wire. In the Red Sea, things are not going so well. Last night, the Houthis claimed to have partially closed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait threatening another major global maritime choke point. This announcement has been implemented as a blockade of Saudi ports with the Houthis claiming that all ships bound for Saudi Arabia will be attacked. The status of other ships just passing through the area remains unclear. As a reminder, the US already fought the Houthis specifically over their closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait last year. That conflict resulted in a de facto Houthi victory after the US ceased the bombing campaign without securing the defeat of the Houthis, and many shipping companies have to this day continued to avoid the Red Sea route altogether. So far, the Houthis have not struck any vessels.

[00:02:09]However, reports suggest they may have turned a couple of tankers around without missiles being fired. The Houthis are perhaps an even more substantial threat to the region than most realize, simply due to the weapons available to them. Unlike Iran, which has the capability of hitting individual ships in the comparatively cramped Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis have historically had to rely on the sledgehammer approach. It is true that the Houthis will strike vessels in their backyard with relative ease, but their main target is a Saudi port of Yanbu, far to the north on the east coast of the Red Sea. From that distance, the Houthis can't hit individual ships. They will be hitting the oil terminal itself.

[00:02:42]That's comparatively worse than striking just one ship. The Houthi targeting efforts are a much more blunt instrument than observed with Iran, and as a result, they are more likely to cause damage that lasts a long time. This was already demonstrated by their previous targeting efforts during the short-lived war last year. The Houthis can also hurt the United States more directly, too.

[00:03:00]Camp Lemonier in Djibouti is just 70 mi away from Yemen, on the other side of the strait. This has historically been a non-combat post, but this can change in an instant if the belligerents choose to escalate this war to include two continents. This concludes the wire 4 2300 Zulu, July 21st, 2026.