Iran closes Strait of Hormuz as Israel strikes Lebanon

        June 21, 2026

Iran closes Strait of Hormuz as Israel strikes Lebanon

Also: Solid-state transformer startups raise $140 million to replace iron-and-copper grid equipment with silicon‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

                X-Risk Daily

                Sunday 21 June 2026

Geopolitics & Conflict

Iran closes Strait of Hormuz as Israel strikes Lebanon

Iran has again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed on 20 June in response to continued Israeli military operations in Lebanon, marking the latest escalation in a volatile diplomatic process that has seen the critical waterway repeatedly shuttered and partially reopened since late February.

            Also in this issue

Transformative AI

Solid-state transformer startups raise $140 million to replace iron-and-copper grid equipment with silicon

Geopolitics & Conflict

Trump faces Israeli backlash over memorandum of understanding with Iran

Transformative AI

Senate and House NDAA drafts include restrictions on AI in nuclear weapons and lethal force

Transformative AI

Z.ai releases MIT-licensed GLM-5.2 claimed to match frontier performance

Research

Frontier AI models demonstrate superhuman persuasion capabilities in Oxford study

Research

Google DeepMind finds text diffusion model DiffusionGemma nearly as transparent as standard language models

            … and 47 more in the full briefing

Read today's briefing →

            Prefer a weekly digest? Click ‘manage your subscription’ below.

            Got thoughts on today’s briefing? Just reply to this email — I’ll read and reply!

            Generated automatically from 11 sources including Transformer, Sentinel,
            Epoch AI, LessWrong, and EA Forum.

                                Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to X-Risk Daily:

                        Name (required)

                        Frequency

            Email address (required)