Top 5 US news stories
July 21 2026
Trump Orders Defense Contractors to Onshore Critical Supplies
Judge Approves Anthropic's $1.5 Billion Copyright Settlement
House Intelligence Panel Advances Fiscal 2027 Authorization Bill
Study Finds Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Formed Beyond Jupiter
Houthi Blockade Threatens Saudi Oil Exports Through Bab el-Mandeb
Trump Orders Defense Contractors to Onshore Critical Supplies
President Trump signed an executive order on July 20, 2026, tightening sourcing requirements for critical materials and components used by the US military. The order limits Defense Department waivers for purchases from covered countries and can require contractors to submit plans for moving supply chains onshore. It also directs regulators to require more comprehensive mapping of designated defense supply chains. Contractors are being encouraged to qualify new suppliers in the United States and allied countries. The directive adds new compliance obligations across the defense industrial base and signals a sustained federal push to cut military dependence on foreign sources.
White House
Judge Approves Anthropic's $1.5 Billion Copyright Settlement
A federal judge granted final approval on July 20, 2026, to Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement with authors and publishers. The agreement provides approximately $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 copyrighted works that Anthropic obtained from unauthorized online libraries. An earlier ruling in the case held that training AI models on lawfully acquired books constituted fair use, while downloading pirated copies was independently unlawful. Final approval closes the case without an appellate ruling on the underlying AI-training question. That leaves the broader legal status of training on copyrighted works unresolved even as the industry's largest settlement to date becomes final.
TechCrunch
House Intelligence Panel Advances Fiscal 2027 Authorization Bill
The House Intelligence Committee advanced the fiscal 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act on July 20, 2026. The bill increases funding for intelligence agencies' access to frontier artificial-intelligence models and establishes a chief AI officer for the intelligence community. Other provisions expand the National Security Agency's AI Security Center, strengthen inspector-general authorities and require more visibility into classified spending. The measure now awaits consideration by the full House. The bill's priorities place artificial intelligence at the center of the intelligence community's annual policy agenda.
House Intelligence Committee
Study Finds Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Formed Beyond Jupiter
An international research team reported Friday, July 17, 2026, in Science Advances that the asteroid that struck Chicxulub, Mexico, 66 million years ago was a rare carbonaceous CO, or Ornans-type, chondrite that formed in the outer solar system beyond Jupiter's orbit. The conclusion is based on ultra-high-precision nickel-isotope measurements taken from the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary clay layer, which the authors call the most convincing chemical fingerprint yet of the impactor. Researchers from the University of British Columbia and partners in Paris, Brussels and Vienna also concluded that fine atmospheric debris, rather than the impactor's sulfur content, was likely the primary driver of the mass extinction. The findings refine both where the dinosaur-killing object originated and how the impact extinguished much of life on Earth.
ScienceDaily
Houthi Blockade Threatens Saudi Oil Exports Through Bab el-Mandeb
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis declared an immediate maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia on July 20, 2026, with military spokesman Yahya Saree saying the group would target ships carrying Saudi exports through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The group tied the move to what it called Saudi Arabia's siege of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and warned of escalation if Riyadh retaliates. The roughly 20-mile-wide strait at the southern end of the Red Sea handles about 12% of global trade and has become the principal route for Saudi oil exports because shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has largely stopped. The declaration extends Iran's long-running asymmetric strategy of using allied armed groups to pressure maritime chokepoints, giving Tehran leverage over global energy flows without direct confrontation. US military campaigns against the Houthis under both the Biden and Trump administrations failed to suppress the group's attacks on shipping, in part because warships expended air-defense missiles costing more than $1 million apiece against drones the Houthis field for a few thousand dollars. The Saudi-led coalition said it had begun protection measures and would respond forcefully to attacks on passing vessels, a posture that threatens to open a new front in the widening regional conflict.
ABC News Australia / NBC News
JULY 21, 1865: WILD BILL HICKOK KILLS DAVE TUTT IN FIRST QUICK-DRAW WESTERN SHOOTOUT
Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt faced each other in Springfield, Missouri’s town square in what is widely regarded as the first classic Western quick-draw duel. Hickok, honoring the era’s informal “code of the West,” fatally shot Tutt after warning him not to come closer, and was later acquitted of manslaughter.
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