Portal:Current events/2018 August 21

• War in Afghanistan
  • Mortars are fired at the diplomatic quarter of Kabul during a speech by President Ashraf Ghani. After several hours of fighting, including a helicopter attack on a building behind the Id Gah Mosque, police say the attackers are dead and four people are wounded. (BBC)

• 2018 Venezuela earthquake
  • A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes off the coast of Venezuela, prompting building evacuations in Caracas. Buildings shake across Caribbean and South America's North coast. Several buildings are destroyed. (The Guardian) (Newsweek)
• 2018 lower Puna eruption
  • Footage from the United States Geological Survey shows lava activity at Kīlauea slowing down. (KHQ)

• El Salvador severs diplomatic relations with Taiwan, opting to instead establish ties with China. (Financial Times)
• Russia–United States relations
  • The United States imposes sanctions on two Russian shipping companies and six vessels for involvement in oil transfer to North Korea. (Reuters)

• Grand jury investigation of Catholic Church sexual abuse in Pennsylvania
  • The University of Scranton removes the names of three former Catholic bishops (James Timlin, J. Carroll McCormick and Jerome Hannan) implicated in a grand jury report on abuse in Pennsylvania from its campus buildings. (Times-Tribune) (CNN)
• Pursuit of Nazi collaborators
  • Jakiw Palij, a 95-year-old suspected Nazi Trawniki concentration camp guard in 1943, is deported from the United States to Germany. (Time)
• Michael Cohen, the ex-lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, pleads guilty to eight felony financial charges. He admits that a $150,000 hush money payment in August 2016, "at the direction" of an unnamed candidate, was for the "principal purpose of influencing" the 2016 presidential election. He is released on $500,000 bail until his sentencing on December 12. He faces up to 65 years, though prosecutors recommend 46 to 63 months. (NBC News)
• Trials of Paul Manafort
  • Former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is found guilty on eight charges for false tax returns and bank fraud. (The Guardian)
• U.S. Representative Duncan D. Hunter (R–CA) and his wife are charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy. In the indictment unsealed today, federal prosecutors allege that the Hunters illegally used campaign funds to pay personal bills. (CNN)
• In the United States, inmates in 17 states go on strike to protest prison labor conditions. (The Guardian)
• A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City begins the trial of twelve people, including two Vietnam-born Americans, on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. (Los Angeles Times)

• Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill, 2018
  • Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survives a challenge by conservative Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for leadership of the Liberal Party, with 48 votes to 35. (The Guardian)

• Ice is confirmed at the Moon's poles. (BBC) (Independent) (The Guardian)
• The mass of exoplanet Beta Pictoris b is measured directly for the first time through astrometry, giving it a mass of 11±2 Jupiter masses, and marking one of the first times an exoplanet was detectable through measuring its effect on the host star's location. (Phys.org)

• Swimming at the 2018 Asian Games
  • Liu Xiang breaks the 50-metre backstroke swimming world record, setting it at 26.98 seconds, to win the women’s gold medal at the Asian Games. (ESPN) (Reuters India)