The day
Friday 21 August 2026
22 stories, biggest first.
- 1
Culture
American fantasy film The Odyssey reaches US$1.35 billion at the worldwide box office to become the highest-grossing R-rated film, surpassing Deadpool & Wolverine.
- 2
CrimeCapital punishment in Japan
Japan executes a 58-year-old man for a 2009 arson attack that killed five people at a pachinko parlor in Osaka. It is the first execution under Sanae Takaichi's premiership.
- 3
CrimeWar crimes in the Gaza war
Turkish justice minister Akın Gürlek announces that Turkey has issued an Interpol arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his role in attacks on activists seeking to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
- 4
- 5
News
Five people are reported missing and eight others are injured after a fire at a restaurant with apartments in Thusis, Grisons, Switzerland.
- 6
NewsKryvyi Rih strikes
Russian drone strikes on a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, kill at least 16 people and injure more than 130 others, including 22 children.
- 7
NewsMykolaiv strikes
A Russian strike on a neighborhood in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine, kills four people, including three children, according to Ukrainian interior minister Ivan Vyhivskyi.
- 8
NewsInsurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Pakistani forces raid multiple militant hideouts, killing 12 suspected Pakistani Taliban militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 37 suspected Baloch separatist militants in Balochistan.
- 9
NewsMyanmar civil war
Resistance fighters and a local activist say Myanmar's military deployed hundreds of troops around the proposed Dawei Special Economic Zone in the Tanintharyi Region, burning villages and pushing resistance groups back as the government seeks to revive the project.
- 10
NewsMyanmar civil war
At least 14 people are reportedly killed and 20 others are injured after Myanmar's military launched an airstrike on a Buddhist monastery compound in Myaung Township during a religious gathering.
- 11
CultureEthiopian civil conflict
The annual Ashenda festival in Mekelle, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, is cancelled over drone strike fears.
- 12
News
The death toll of a boat capsizing off the coast of Zambezia Province, Mozambique from August 16 rises to 12 after five bodies of those unaccounted for are found by search teams.
- 13
Politics
In Mexico, Sinaloan governor Rubén Rocha Moya resumes office after a four-month suspension while contesting U.S. drug-trafficking charges and an extradition request. Mexican prosecutors say they find insufficient evidence linking him to criminal conduct.
- 14
Crime2026 Fagersta school stabbing
A person is killed and three other people are injured in a mass stabbing, carried out with a sword, at a high school in Fagersta, Sweden. The perpetrator is arrested at the scene.
- 15
CrimeLawsuits involving TikTok
TikTok agrees to pay $400 million to settle a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging violations of federal children's privacy law through the collection of personal data from users under 13 without parental consent.
- 16
ScienceProject Elephant
India's Supreme Court orders states to protect elephant corridors, identify and remove obstructions, and prohibit groups from using fire to drive wild elephants away amid increasing habitat loss and human-elephant conflict.
- 17
Money
The Panama Canal announces it will limit the number of ships allowed to cross the passage over the next month due to El Niño causing droughts in the region.
- 18
Crime
The Hong Kong Court of First Instance convicts Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung of incitement to subversion over their leadership of a group that organized annual Tiananmen crackdown vigils. They face up to 10 years in prison.
- 19
Crime
The Russian justice ministry designates independent news outlet Mediazona a "foreign agent" for a second time, accusing it of publishing false information about law enforcement.
- 20
Sport2026–27 Malaysia Super League
In association football, Johor Darul Ta'zim claims a world record for the longest unbeaten run in top-flight league play, reaching 109 matches after defeating Kuching City 3–0 in Malaysia's Super League.
- 21
Sport2026–27 DFB-Pokal
85 people were injured, including 35 police officers, after Kaiserslautern fans launched flares towards the main stand, while Mannheim fans stormed the pitch, causing the match between Kaiserslautern and Mannheim to be temporarily interrupted.
- 22
Science
Around 16 people in Sudan's Red Sea state have reportedly died from a heat stroke amidst a rise in temperatures in the state.
Stories adapted from Wikipedia’s Current events portal for 21 August 2026, by Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0.