Portal:Current events/August 2018

• The Eiffel Tower in Paris shuts down after workers go on a strike over ticketing changes. (Upi)

• 2018 Vietnam floods
  • Two children and a man drown as new floods overflow one bank of the Bui River, engulf several villages, and threaten to submerge parts of Hanoi. (NHK World)
• An intense heat wave hits South Korea, which started at the end of July and is forecast to reach its highest temperature in the coming days. The heat wave kills 27 people, while more than 2,200 are taken to the hospital. (The Straits Times)
• Grenfell Tower fire
  • England announces that the Ministry of Housing will manage Grenfell Tower in London once the investigation into the fire that gutted the building and killed 72 people is complete. (BBC)

• Turkey–United States relations, 2016–present purges in Turkey
  • The White House imposes sanctions on two Turkish officials over the detention of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges. (Al Jazeera)

• An orb and two crowns, part of the Regalia of Sweden, are stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral. (BBC)

• Zimbabwean general election, 2018
  • Violence breaks out in Zimbabwe amid allegations of election-rigging by the ruling Zanu-PF party. (BBC)
• Afghan presidential election, 2019
  • The Afghan government says that it will hold presidential elections on April 20, 2019. (AL Jazeera)

• Researchers from Australia report the success of a plan to use mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria to prevent the spread of dengue fever in an Australian town, stating that they intend to bring the program to other locales. (BBC)
• Reddit reports a data breach consisting of emails and usernames. The site states that the perpetrators had access to information on accounts which were subscribed to their newsletter between the 3rd and 17th of June, as well as those created between 2005 and 2007. (NBC)

• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Battle of Al Hudaydah
  • Alleged Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on a fish market and hospital entrance kill at least 20 people in Al Hudaydah, Yemen. A Saudi spokesman denies that its jets were in the area at the time, and blames rebels instead. (BBC)
• Internal conflict in Myanmar
  • In northern Myanmar, around 300 villagers flee from their homes in Namtu Township, Shan State, after Northern Alliance insurgents take positions in the area, renewing fears of clashes between insurgents and government soldiers. (Radio Free Asia)

• Theology of Pope Francis
  • Pope Francis changes Catholic Church teaching to fully reject the death penalty, saying that it would work to abolish the death penalty worldwide. (The Washington Post)
• Yomiuri Shimbun reports Tokyo Medical University altered entrance examination scores to decrease the number of women attending the school. (BBC)
• Archeologists of the Romano-Germanic Museum report the discovery of the foundations of a Roman library building in Cologne. Dating from the 2nd century CE, it is the oldest library yet discovered in Germany. (BBC)

• List of public corporations by market capitalization
  • Apple Inc. becomes the first public company to be worth US$1 trillion. (BBC)

• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Hector becomes the fourth named hurricane of the eastern Pacific's hurricane season. (TC Palm)
  • Hector is forecast to strengthen into a category 3 storm the next few days. (Hawaii News Now)

• Crisis in Venezuela (2012-present), Colombia-Venezuela relations
  • Departing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos grants 2-year citizenship rights to over 440,000 displaced Venezuelans living in Colombia, giving them certainty in access to medical and financial aid. (United Nations), (ABC News)

• Tennessee gubernatorial election, 2018
  • Former construction executive Bill Lee wins the Republican primary for Tennessee governor. (WSJ)
• 2018 United States gun violence protests
  • Anti-violence protesters take to the streets of Chicago to draw attention to the problem of gun violence in Chicago, which briefly shuts down Lake Shore Drive. Protesters also call for Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down for their handling of racial incidents in communities of color. (The Grio) (VOA News)

• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • Kepler-452b emerges as an exoplanet that might support alien life. (Sky News)
• Greenhouse gas, Plastic pollution
  • A study is published suggesting that loose plastic objects in the ocean release more methane than previously thought. (BBC)
• Tests on the 5,000-year-old burnt human bones of 25 people found at Stonehenge suggest that ten came from more than 100 miles (160 km) away in West Wales. (The Guardian)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • A suicide bomb attack at a Shi'ite mosque in Gardez, Afghanistan, kills at least 29 people and wounds at least 40 others. There is no immediate claim for the attack. (Reuters) (The Express Tribune)

• 2018 Vietnam floods
  • Floods in Vietnam trigger landslides that kill six people, and leave two injured and five missing. (VnExpress)
• 21 people are killed after a boat capsizes in Nigeria's northwestern state of Sokoto. (Xinhua)

• Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston report the first successful transplant of a bio-engineered lung. The lung, taken from a donor pig, was reduced to a protein scaffold, and replaced with the subject pig's own cells over the course of a month. (BBC)
• Phase-out of lightweight plastic bags
  • Chile becomes the first Latin American country to ban the commercial use of single-use plastic bags. (Sky News)
• North Korea warns that the heat wave affecting the Korean peninsula could damage important food crops and lead to shortages. (BBC)

• North Korea–United States relations, Aftermath of the 2018 North Korea–United States summit
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo states in an interview that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will ultimately set the timeline for denuclearization. (CBS News)
• Russia–United States relations
  • The United States imposes sanctions on a Russian bank that facilitated a transaction for a North Korean on an American blacklist. (Reuters)

• Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations
  • Attorneys for Harvey Weinstein seek to throw out sexual assault charges against him. (New York CBS Local)
• Yazidi demonstrators at Calgary City Hall in Calgary, Alberta call for the Canadian government to help with efforts to reunite family members in Canada who fled the genocide perpetrated by ISIL in 2014 with those still living in Iraq. (Calgary Herald)

• Zimbabwean general election, 2018
  • The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declares Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU–PF party the winner of Zimbabwe's 2018 presidential election. (The Guardian)
• Deportation and removal from the United States
  • The wife of a former US Marine and Iraq War veteran whose family publicly pleaded for President Donald Trump to intervene is deported to Mexico. (NBC News)
• Cabinet of Greece
  • Greek Civil Protection Minister Nikos Toskas resigns after a wildfire that killed 88 people and led to wide criticism of the government for its handling of the disaster. (Reuters)

• NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory releases a report officially disclosing a meteor explosion of roughly 2.1 kilotons of force near Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland on July 25. The United States Air Force confirms the explosion, adding that it did not impact operations at Thule Air Base. (The Independent)
• The Space Needle in Seattle unveils the world's first revolving glass floor. (CNN)

• Caracas drone explosions
  • Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro survives what he claims is an assassination attempt involving drones while speaking at a military event in Caracas. Eight people are injured. (BBC)

• An MI-8 helicopter belonging to Russian company Utair crashes in Siberia, killing 18 people. (BBC)

• England's Local Government Association reports that approximately two-thirds of plastic objects which reach recycling facilities cannot be recycled, due to the mix of polymers used by producers. (BBC)

• 2017–18 North Korea crisis
  • A report commissioned by the United Nations Security Council concludes that North Korea has not stopped its nuclear program and that it attempted to sell military supplies to Libya, Sudan and Yemen. (BBC)
  • Ri Yong-ho, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Korea, says that his country will not start denuclearizing unless the United States takes reciprocal actions. (The New York Times)
• Colombia–Venezuela relations, United States–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blames an alleged assassination attempt on Colombia and Venezuelan exiles in the U.S. state of Florida. (The Guardian)

• 2018 Bangladesh road safety protests
  • Nationwide student protests following the deaths of two teenagers killed by a speeding bus enter their fifth day, causing the government to shut down thousands of high schools. (The Guardian)
• 2018 United States gun violence protests
  • Advocates of stricter gun control measures protest outside the NRA headquarters in Northern Virginia. (CBS News)

• Oakland Raiders cornerback Daryl Worley is sentenced to three days in jail and two years of probation in June after pleading guilty to firearms and resisting arrest charges stemming from an incident in April. (NFL) (ABC News)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • A Taliban suicide bomber kills three Czech soldiers on a routine patrol in Charikar, Afghanistan. A U.S. soldier and two Afghan troops are also injured in the bombing. (BBC)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Syrian media reports that ISIL has executed one of a number of Druze hostages taken from Syria's government-held city of As-Suwayda in an attack last week. (Haaretz)

• August 2018 Lombok earthquake
  • A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Lombok, Indonesia. A tsunami warning is issued. At least 131 people are killed and more than 238 are injured. (BBC)
• 2018 Ju-Air Junkers Ju 52 crash
  • Police in Switzerland say that all 20 occupants of a World War II-era Junkers Ju 52 plane that crashed yesterday on the flanks of the Piz Segnas mountain are dead. (Whig)
• Police in New Mexico rescue 11 malnourished children being kept in squalid conditions in a remote desert compound. (BBC)
• Five people are killed after a small plane crashes in a Southern California parking lot. (Time)

• Canada–Saudi Arabia relations
  • Saudi Arabia withdraws its Ambassador from Canada, and orders the Canadian counterpart to leave the country in 24 hours, after Canada calls for the release of activists who are in detention in the Middle East nation. (CBC News)

• Caracas drone explosions
  • Venezuelan authorities detain six people involved in what they call an assassination attempt on Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro. (The Hill)

• Englishwoman Georgia Hall wins the 2018 Women's British Open golf championship. (The Guardian)

• 2018 European heat wave
  • A heat wave in Spain kills nine people. (Público)
  • A heat wave in Genoa, Italy, kills seven people. (Genova24)
• Landslides triggered by floods in Nepal kill nine people. (The Himalayan)
• A fuel tanker explodes on the A14 motorway after colliding with a lorry near Bologna Airport in Italy, causing a section of the motorway to collapse. A person dies and 145 others are injured, at least 14 seriously. (ANSA)
• Twelve migrant workers die and three others are injured when a truck collides with a van in Foggia, Italy. (ANSA)
• The Mendocino Complex Fire grows into the largest active wildfire in California history. (BBC)

• Iran–United States relations, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
  • The United States reimposes sanctions on Iran after the US pulled out of the international agreement three months prior. (Reuters)
  • The European Union announces that its blocking statute against the US sanctions will take effect tomorrow, protecting European companies from US sanctions and encouraging them to keep trading with Iran. (The Telegraph)
• Foreign relations of Brazil, Crisis in Venezuela (2012–present)
  • Brazil closes its international border with Venezuela, following a similar move enacted but then rescinded by Colombia earlier in 2018, as a response to an increase in Venezuelans fleeing their country to neighbouring states. (The Guardian)
• Tajikistan–Uzbekistan relations
  • Commercial flights have resumed between the Tajikistan capital, Dushanbe, and the Uzbekistan city of Bukhara amid improving ties. (rferl)

• Caracas drone explosions
  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro skips a rally in Caracas following weekend drone blasts that he called an assassination attempt, surprising and confusing some supporters in attendance. (Reuters)
  • The Colombian Civil Aviation Authority announces a ban on drones within a 2 nautical mile radius and altitude of Plaza Bolívar, Bogotá during the Presidential Inauguration of Iván Duque the following afternoon. (Tele13)
• Second Ivorian Civil War
  • The government of Ivory Coast grants amnesty to former First Lady Simone Gbagbo a week after the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast overturned her acquittal for crimes against humanity. (France 24)

• Facebook removes several InfoWars-related pages from its platform, for what it describes as glorification of violence and dehumanizing language. YouTube deletes Alex Jones's main account for repeated Terms of Service violations. Apple and Spotify pull Jones's podcasts. Editor Paul Joseph Watson calls Facebook's move "political censorship" on Twitter. (NBC News)

• Caracas drone explosions, Colombia–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says that he has "hard evidence" that the Colombian government planned and executed an attempted assassination attack on him on Saturday, and that he will release it later in the day. (Al Jazeera)
• Oromo conflict
  • The government of Ethiopia signs a deal with Oromo Liberation Front rebels in an attempt to end long-running hostilities. (Al Jazeera)
• A police officer dies and five people are injured in three separate FARC attacks in Colombia. (El Español)

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the total population of Australia has hit 25 million. (BBC)

• Crisis in Venezuela (2012–present), Colombia–Venezuela relations
  • Newly inaugurated Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez announces that he will not have an ambassador in neighboring Venezuela. (Diarios Las Américas)
  • Brazil re-opens its northern border with Venezuela which was briefly closed in response to refugees from Venezuela. (BBC)
• 2018 China–United States trade war
  • The Office of the United States Trade Representative publishes its finalized list of 279 Chinese goods, worth $16 billion, to be subject to a 25% tariff from August 23. (Reuters)

• Crime in Germany
  • A German couple is jailed for twelve years each for selling the woman's son to a Spanish pedophile on the dark web, who repeatedly abused him. The couple themselves previously abused the boy and a three-year-old girl, whom they are ordered to pay €42,500 in compensation. The Spaniard is sentenced to ten years. (BBC)

• Ohio's 12th congressional district special election, 2018
  • A special election for Ohio's 12th congressional district is held following the resignation of Republican Representative Pat Tiberi. The Republican candidate is Troy Balderson and the Democratic candidate is Danny O'Connor. (Politico)
• Politics of Colombia
  • Iván Duque Márquez is sworn in as new President of Colombia. (BBC News)
• Arrest of Juan Requesens, Caracas drone explosions
  • Venezuelan politician Juan Requesens is arrested for alleged crimes related to the supposed Maduro assassination attempt, despite having political immunity. (BBC News)

• Academy Awards
  • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces new changes to the Oscars, including possibly a shorter ceremony, and a new category called "Most Popular Film". (Huffington Post)

• August 2018 Lombok earthquake
  • The death toll from the magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia, rises to 131 and nearly 2,500 people are now confirmed seriously injured. (The Washington Post)

• Canada–Saudi Arabia relations
  • Saudi Press Agency reports that all Saudi patients are being transferred from Canadian hospitals to other medical facilities outside Canada. (Al Jazeera)
• Colombia–United States relations, Crisis in Venezuela (2012–present)
  • The United States pledges US$9 million in aid to Colombia to help support Venezuelan migrants in the country. (McClatchy DC Bureau)
• 2018 China–United States trade war
  • China announces 25% tariffs on an additional US$16 billion worth of imports from the United States, effective August 23, matching yesterday's decision by the United States. (Bloomberg)
• International recognition of the State of Palestine
  • The Mission of Palestine in Colombia announces recognition of the State of Palestine as a free and sovereign state. (WAFA)
• Reactions to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
  • The United States imposes new sanctions on Russia after the use of a Novichok nerve agent in the United Kingdom. Yesterday, the UK said that they would seek extradition of suspects from Russia. (BBC) (Sky News)

• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia reports the execution and crucifixion, in Mecca, of a man from Myanmar. The man was sentenced for breaking into the home of a woman and stabbing her, which led to her death, as well as for other crimes. (Bloomberg)
• Insider trading
  • U.S. Representative Chris Collins (R–NY) is arrested on charges of securities and wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to investigators. He is accused of passing nonpublic information about Innate Immunotherapeutics, a biotech company, to his son, who traded on the information and passed it along to others. Collins was a director of the company and also a major investor. (NPR)

• Politics of Slovenia
  • Five center-left political parties nominate Marjan Šarec to become Prime Minister of Slovenia. (Euronews)

• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • At least 43 people, mostly children, are killed in an airstrike on a bus at a market in Dahyan, Sa'da, by the Saudi-led coalition, while more than 60 are injured. The coalition calls the strike a "legitimate military action" against the Houthis, accusing them of using children as human shields. (The Guardian)
• War in Afghanistan
  • At least 40 bodies of Afghan National Army soldiers are found in a military base in Urozgan that Taliban forces stormed last week. (Reuters via Euronews)
• Gaza–Israel conflict
  • Over 180 rockets and mortars are launched toward Israel by Hamas militants, injuring seven people. In retaliation, IDF launches an air assault on 150 targets in Gaza, in which three people are killed, including an 18-month-old child. (CNN)
  • Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV reports that a cease-fire is reached to end the latest round of fighting with Israel. (NBC News)

• Video game censorship
  • Germany lifts a blanket ban on Nazi symbolism in video games, including the swastika. (Deutsche Welle)

• August 2018 Lombok earthquake
  • The death toll from the magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia, rises to 259, and may go higher still. (BBC)
• Hurricane Maria
  • Puerto Rico raises its official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 1,427. (The Kansas City Star)
• Bolivarian diaspora
  • Ecuador declares a state of emergency over increases in migrant entry from Venezuela. (Al Jazeera)
• Toronto sees severe flooding in many parts of the city after some areas receive over 100 millimeters of rain. (Weather Network)

• Abortion in Argentina
  • The Argentine Senate rejects a bill that would have legalized abortion in Argentina. (NPR)
• Illegal drug trade
  • Italian police seize 20 tonnes of hashish in a Panama-flagged, Montenegrin-crewed "research and survey" vessel's fuel tanks. (Deutsche Welle)

• Indonesian general election, 2019
  • Indonesian President Joko Widodo chooses the Islamic cleric Ma'ruf Amin as his running mate in the upcoming presidential election. (Reuters)
• Caracas drone explosions
  • The Venezuelan Constituent National Assembly revokes the immunity of opposition politicians Julio Borges and Juan Requesens after claiming that they were involved in an assassination plot on President Nicolás Maduro. (Al Jazeera)

• War in Afghanistan, Ghazni offensive
  • A large-scale military offensive is launched by the Taliban in a bid to overrun the southeastern city of Ghazni, a provincial capital on the Kabul–Kandahar Highway. They manage to take control of a part of the city. (The New York Times)

• Foreign relations of Colombia
  • Colombia announces its withdrawal from the Union of South American Nations after having suspended its membership in the organization since April 2018. (CNN)
• Turkey–United States relations, 2018–2021 Turkish currency and debt crisis
  • U.S. President Donald Trump authorizes the doubling of Section 232 tariffs on imports of aluminium and steel from Turkey, to 20% and 50% respectively. The Turkish lira further falls to a new record low against the U.S. dollar and Turkish stocks tumble. (CNBC)

• Fredericton shooting
  • At least four people, including two police officers, are killed in a mass shooting in Fredericton, Canada. (BBC)
• Glyphosate § Legal cases
  • A jury in the U.S. state of California awards $289 million to a man who claims that his terminal cancer was caused by Monsanto's glyphosate-containing weed killer. (BBC)
• 2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident
  • An airport mechanic steals a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in the United States, eventually crashing the plane on Ketron Island. (CBS News)

• 2017–2018 Romanian protests
  • 452 people are injured in clashes between protesters and police during an anti-government meeting in Bucharest, Romania. (Știrile Pro TV)
• United Nations Development Group
  • The United Nations General Assembly confirms Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile, to succeed Zeid Raad Al Hussein as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The decision to appoint her for a four-year term, starting September 1, was made by consensus after her nomination by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. (TASS)
• Terrorism in the United Kingdom
  • Lewis Ludlow pleads guilty to financing and planning a terrorist van attack in London, England. (BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Costa Rica rules that a ban on same-sex marriage is illegal, and states that legislators must change the law accordingly within eighteen months. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan, Ghazni offensive
  • Fighting continues around the city of Ghazni. (Reuters)

• The death toll from heavy floods that triggered landislides in Kerala, India, which started on 8 July, rises to 37. (India.com)

• Foreign relations of Uzbekistan, War in Afghanistan
  • A delegation of the Taliban political office in Doha, Qatar, has visited Uzbekistan from 7 to 10 August and met with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both parties "exchanged views of prospects of the peace process in Afghanistan". (The Hindu) (Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

• List of foreign nationals detained in North Korea, Japan–North Korea relations
  • A Japanese man is taken into custody in North Korea with Tokyo trying to gather information about the case. (The Japan Times)
• LGBT rights in Russia
  • According to the Russian LGBT Network campaign group, a 16-year-old person becomes the first minor to be prosecuted under the Russian gay propaganda law. (The Independent)

• Thousands of people protest in Tunis against a government report on gender equality that proposes, among other things, to legalize homosexuality and to make the sexes equal in inheritance matters. (Al Araby)
• U.S. Representative Chris Collins (R–NY) announces that he is suspending his campaign for re-election in the 2018 midterms, intending to serve out the remainder of his term. Collins was arrested by the FBI on August 8 on charges relating to insider trading. (CNN)

• August 2018 Lombok earthquake
  • The BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho confirmed that the death toll from the earthquake in Lombok rises to 436. (Tempo.co)
• A report by the SOHR says that the explosion of an arms depot in Sarmada, Idlib Governorate, Syria, kills at least 69 people, including 17 children. The cause of the blast is "not yet clear". Most of the victims were reportedly family members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants. (Reuters)
• At least 15 people die after a bus falls into a ravine in the western region of Ancash, in Peru. (Xinhua)

• Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea
  • After more than 20 years of negotiations, the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea sign an agreement in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on its shared use and the distribution of its resources. The convention legally defines the body of water as a sea rather than a lake, but with special provisions. (Deutsche Welle)
• Foreign relations of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Foreign relations of South Africa
  • South African President Cyril Ramaphosa meets with President Joseph Kabila of DR Congo in Kinshasa, praising him for his "respect for the constitution" by agreeing to step down and not take part in the upcoming December 2018 Congolese general election. (The South African)

• Moss Side mass shooting
  • Ten people are injured in a mass shooting in Manchester, United Kingdom. (BBC)

• Unite the Right 2
  • Around twenty white nationalists hold a protest march in Washington, D.C. on the first anniversary of the Unite the Right rally, with thousands of counter-protesters. (AP via CBC News)

• NASA launches the Parker Solar Probe, an unpiloted spacecraft designed to study the sun. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan
  • More than 100 Afghan soldiers and police, 13 civilians and hundreds of Taliban are killed during the ongoing offensive in Ghazni. (BBC)
  • The Taliban captures Camp Chenaya, an Afghan Army base in Ghormach District, Faryab Province. (Voice of America)
• At least 40 people are killed by paramilitary forces in eastern Ethiopia, in the latest spate of violence driven by ethnic divisions. (Voice of America)

• Turkish currency and debt crisis
  • Asian stock prices sink as Turkey’s financial turmoil fuels fears contagion might spread to other emerging markets. (Market Watch)

• 2018 Laos dam collapse
  • The death toll from a dam collapse in Laos on 23 July rises to 36, while 98 people are still missing. (Business Standard)
• Authorities in India confirm that 774 people have been killed so far during monsoon rains. (Financial Express)
• Nine people are killed and 16 others injured after a fire breaks out in a ward on the seventh floor of a hospital in New Taipei City, Taiwan. (BBC)
• More than 300 people are injured, five seriously, after a section of wooden jetty collapsed at an urban sports and music festival in Vigo, Spain. (BBC)
• Twelve fans of Ecuadorian football team Barcelona S.C. are killed and 30 others are injured after the bus they were traveling on overturns in Azuay, Ecuador. (Xinhua)
• Three Russian climbers and two Tajik pilots die while 12 other people are injured in a helicopter crash in Tajikistan. (Tampa Bay Times)
• 41 people are injured when a coach overturns in Kent, England, United Kingdom. (Kent Live)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • North Korea and South Korea officials begin high-level negotiations, with reports suggesting that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in could be planning for a summit in Pyongyang later this month. (Reuters)

• Mueller special counsel investigation
  • The lawyer of Peter Strzok, a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was removed from Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation, announces that his client has been fired by the FBI. (The Washington Post via MSN)

• Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora, a recently elected member of the Congress of Mexico, is kidnapped by gunmen in Hidalgo State. (BBC)

• Ponte Morandi § Collapse
  • The Ponte Morandi viaduct collapses on the A10 motorway in Genoa, Italy. 38 people are confirmed dead, 16 others are seriously injured, 5 are missing and 632 displaced. 35 cars and three heavy vehicles are involved in the accident. Several homes are also damaged and people inside them also injured. (TGCom)
• A road accident in Quito, Ecuador involving a bus and a truck leaves 24 people dead and 18 others injured. (CNN en Español)
• Ten people are killed and another injured in a fire at a care home in Chiguayante, Chile. (24 Horas)

• Following a period of quiet, Israel reopens the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. (BBC)

• Grand jury investigation of Catholic Church sexual abuse in Pennsylvania
  • A grand jury report alleging that more than 300 priests abused over 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania Catholic diocese -- Allentown, Scranton, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, and Erie -- is released by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. (Washington Post) (Times Leader)
• 2018 Westminster car crash
  • A man is arrested near the Palace of Westminster in London after a Ford Fiesta hit pedestrians, cyclists and a security barrier. (The Daily Telegraph)
• Stand-your-ground law in Florida
  • Michael Drejka is charged with manslaughter by a state attorney after a reversal of an earlier decision made by police. The case stems from a controversial video that shows Drejka shooting another man over a handicapped parking space and claiming self defense. (NBC)
• Capital punishment in Nebraska
  • Nebraska executes convicted murderer Carey Dean Moore, becoming the first U.S. state to execute an inmate with fentanyl, and what is also the state's first execution in 21 years, and its first by lethal injection. (BBC)

• European migrant crisis
  • Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Luxembourg agree to take in 141 migrants, 67 of them unaccompanied children, who were rescued on Friday by the MV Aquarius; Malta allows the ship to dock. (The Guardian)
• Kansas gubernatorial election, 2018
  • Incumbent Governor of Kansas Jeff Colyer concedes defeat to Republican challenger Kris Kobach in the primary election. (CNN)

• War in Afghanistan
  • At least 48 people, mostly students, are killed and a further 67 are injured in a suicide bomb attack at an education centre in Kabul. The Taliban denies any involvement. (BBC)
  • The Taliban attacks two units of Afghan security forces in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan Province, killing at least 39 soldiers and police officers. (SFGate)

• Me Too movement § China
  • Following accusations by fellow monks of sexual misconduct and embezzling funds—accusations which were subsequently posted on social media—the Buddhist Association of China announces Shi Xuecheng's resignation from the office of president of that organization. Xuecheng had dismissed the records as a fabrication. (The Guardian)

• Automotive industry in South Korea
  • The government of South Korea announces that it will ban 20,000 BMW vehicles following engine fires. (BBC)
• Economy of New Zealand
  • New Zealand's parliament votes to ban the sale of homes to non-resident foreign nationals amid a housing affordability crisis. Australians and Singaporeans are exempt due to free-trade deals. (BBC)

• 2018 California wildfires
  • Officials lift all mandatory evacuation orders for the deadly Carr Fire in Northern California that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and killed eight people. (KHQ) (ABC News)
• 22 children and a woman drown after their boat sinks in the Nile in Sudan while travelling to school. (Business Standard)

• Foreign relations of South Korea
  • South Korean President Moon Jae-in announces plans to create a Northeast Asian railroad community with North Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and Mongolia. (CNBC)

• Transgender rights in Germany
  • The Cabinet of Germany approves a third gender option for official identification records. The change will come into force by the end of the year. (Deutsche Welle)
• Caracas drone explosions
  • Venezuelan authorities arrest a military general, a colonel, and a dozen others in connection to a failed assassination attempt on President Nicolás Maduro. (UPI)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
  • Omar Ameen, an ISIL member who lived in California as a refugee, is arrested in Sacramento for a 2014 murder in Rawa, Iraq. (The New York Times)

• President Donald Trump revokes the security clearance of former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan, and the White House announces clearance reviews for other current and former national security officials. (ABC News)

• Indian Space Research Organisation
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India will launch its first manned space mission by 2022, which would make it the fourth nation to do so after Russia, the United States, and China. (Reuters)
• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • Scientists observe the signal of iron and titanium atoms in the atmosphere of KELT-9b, an exoplanet located 600 light-years from Earth. (Gizmodo)

• 2018 Washington Veterans Day Parade
  • The United States Department of Defense postpones President Donald Trump's military parade, which was slated to take place on 10 November, until 2019. The estimates for the parade's cost have risen from $12 million to $92 million. (ABC News) (Market Watch)
• Freedom of the press in the United States
  • In coordinated editorials defending press freedom, hundreds of U.S. newspapers rebuke President Donald Trump's repeated accusations that the news media reports "fake news" and that journalists are "enemies of the people". (RTÉ News)
• American soul singer and songwriter Aretha Franklin dies at the age of 76. (CNN)

• Constellation Brands, the owner of Corona Beer, announces plans to invest in Canadian marijuana producer Canopy Growth. (BBC)

• 2018 California wildfires
  • Analysis shows that a rare fire tornado that barreled into the city of Redding on July 26 during the Carr Fire was responsible for the death of a firefighter as he raced towards a neighborhood in flames. (Los Angeles Times)
• 2018 Kerala floods
  • Authorities in India say that 350 people are confirmed dead in the heavy floods in Kerala. (Times of India)

• Mexican Drug War
  • The Mexican government announces that they are offering up to MXN$30 million (equivalent to US$1.56 million) for anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (alias "El Mencho"), the suspected leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and one of Mexico's most-wanted. (El Universal)
• The government of DR Congo issues an international arrest warrant for opposition leader Moïse Katumbi, who was hoping to take part in the upcoming December 2018 Congolese general election. (Zambia Reports)

• Elections in Canada, Premiership of Justin Trudeau
  • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismisses speculation that he would call an early election this fall and states that his government remains focused on renegotiating NAFTA and strengthening the economy. (Reuters)
• Dog meat consumption in South Korea
  • Animal rights groups hold protests against dog meat consumption in Seoul. (UPI)
• Amid controversy, the Trump Administration of the United States revokes the security clearance of former CIA chief John Brennan. (BBC)

• 2018 Major League Baseball season
  • The Texas Rangers pull off a triple play against the Los Angeles Angels without retiring the batter, the first such triple play in MLB since 1912. (HuffPost)

• 2018 Gaza border protests
  • Around 20,000 Palestinians protest near the Israel–Gaza barrier. Medical sources say that Israel Defense Forces killed two people and wounded at least 270 others, 50 of them with live bullets. (Reuters)

• XiamenAir Flight 8667
  • A Boeing 737 skids off a runway at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Philippines, while landing in a downpour. All aboard are unharmed but the aircraft is severely damaged with one engine and some of the landing gear being ripped away. (Fox News)

• United States foreign policy in the Middle East, Syrian Civil War
  • The U.S. Department of State announces that it will redirect approximately US$230 million in stabilization funds for Syria to "other key foreign policy priorities." Career Ambassador James Jeffrey is appointed as "special representative for Syrian engagement". (AP via Chron)

• A high court in İzmir, Turkey, rejects an appeal to release U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson. (USA Today)
• Amnesty International releases a report accusing Indonesian police of fatally shooting at least 77 suspected petty criminals since January 2018, in the lead-up to the 2018 Asian Games. Authorities insist that lethal force is used when the suspects resist the police. (BBC)

• Pakistani general election, 2018
  • Imran Khan, the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)

• Russian president Vladimir Putin attends the wedding of Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl (FPÖ) and businessman Wolfgang Malinger. (BBC)
• History of cheese
  • Archeologists from the Cairo University and the University of Catania report the discovery of one of the oldest known examples of cheese. Discovered at a tomb in the Saqqara necropolis, it is the first known evidence of ancient Egyptian cheese production. (BBC)

• Ponte Morandi § Collapse
  • The death toll from the Ponte Morandi collapse in Genoa, Italy, rises to 43. (Adnkronos)
• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Lane enters the central Pacific as a category 4 hurricane. (Honolulu Star-Adviser)

• School violence
  • A school official in Bicol Central Academy, a school in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, Philippines burned students' bags and other personal belongings as a punishment for students who violated the no-bag policy set for the school's event during that time. It was met with huge outrage from the netizens. (Rappler)

• Politics of Belarus
  • Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko reshuffles his government in the wake of a corruption scandal. Andrei Kobyakov is replaced by Sergei Rumas as Prime Minister of Belarus. (The Guardian)
• 6th Justice and Development Party Ordinary Congress
  • At the 6th Ordinary Congress of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected as the party's chairman, receiving 1380 of 1381 votes. (Anadolu)
• Protests against Rodrigo Duterte
  • Vice President Leni Robredo protests President Rodrigo Duterte's remark that her hometown Naga City is a "hotbed of shabu." (CNN Philippines) (Rappler)

• 2018 Asian Games
  • The opening ceremony of the Asian Games takes place. (NDTV Sports)

• Earthquakes in 2018
  • A deep-focus earthquake of magnitude 8.2 (the strongest recorded in 2018) strikes the South Pacific Ocean near Fiji. No threat of tsunami is immediately detected. (KATU)
• 19 August 2018 Lombok earthquake
  • A 6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Lombok, killing 14. (The Guardian)
• 2018 Pacific typhoon season
  • Tropical Storm Rumbia kills nine people in Anhui and Henan provinces, China. (Xinhua)
• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Lane weakens to a Category 3 storm and is expected to pass south of Hawaii throughout the next few days. (CBS News) (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)

• European migrant crisis
  • Italy Interior Minister Matteo Salvini threatens to return 177 migrants who have been aboard an Italian coast guard ship for days to Libya. (Time)
• War In Afghanistan
  • Afghan President Ashraf Ghani calls for a conditional cease-fire with Taliban insurgents for the duration of the Eid al-Adha holiday. (Fox News) (Al Jazeera)
• Bolivarian diaspora
  • Brazilians attack Venezuelan migrants at a border camp, the Brazilian military is deployed to stem the conflict. (The Telegraph)
  • Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile tighten border controls for Venezuelan migrants. Over 7% of Venezuela’s total population has fled the nation in two years. (The Guardian)
• Colombia-Venezuela relations
  • The Venezuelan armed forces send two attack helicopters and a brigade of 30 soldiers across the Colombia-Venezuela border. Colombia denounces the "violation of sovereignty" but takes no further action against the country. (NTN24)
• Premiership of Justin Trudeau, Illegal immigration to Canada
  • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuts down a woman who heckled him about illegal immigration, telling her that “racism has no place” in Canada. (The Hill)

• 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final
  • In hurling, Limerick defeat Galway in the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final at Croke Park to win the Liam MacCarthy Cup for the first time since 1973. (BBC Sport) (Sky Sports)
• Cincinnati Masters
  • Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer in Cincinnati, becoming the first player to win singles titles in all nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in his career. (The Star)

• Terrorism in Europe
  • An officer fatally shoots a man in Cornellà, Barcelona, Spain, after he storms into a Mossos d'Esquadra police station with a knife. Police are treating the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. (BBC)
• Suspected Boko Haram militants raid and burn the village of Mailari in Borno State, Nigeria, killing six people. (BBC)

• Me Too movement
  • American actor Jimmy Bennett accuses Italian actress Asia Argento of having sexual relations with him when he was 17 years old and then paying him $380,000 to keep silent. (The Hollywood Reporter)
• 2018 MTV Video Music Awards
  • Camila Cabello wins Artist of the Year and "Havana" wins Video of the Year in Radio City Music Hall at the MTV Video Music Awards. (CBS News) (MTV)
  • Singer Madonna's speech invoking Aretha Franklin is criticized by singer Cynthia Erivo and draq queen Tatianna as self-centered. (CBS News)

• PepsiCo announces its intent to buy SodaStream, a manufacturer of products for in-home soft drink production, for US$3.2 billion. The deal awaits approval by regulators. (BBC)
• Crisis in Venezuela
  • The Venezuelan bolívar fuerte is replaced with the "Sovereign Bolivar" in an attempt to curb inflation. Venezuela announces that the new currency will be linked to the petro, a form of cryptocurrency operated by the country. (BBC)

• Yosemite National Park officials say the Ferguson Fire in California is now fully contained. (BBC)
• Heavy floods in Civita, Italy, kill 10 people and injure 23. (Rai News)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • Eighty-nine South Koreans are selected via lottery to be reunited for three days with North Korean relatives they were separated from in the Korean War six decades earlier. (UPI)

• Arrests of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo
  • The judge in the trial of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar announces that he will deliver his verdict on August 27, in a test of press freedom in the country. The journalists were investigating mass graves at the village of Inn Din and the massacre that took place there when they were arrested for allegedly obtaining "secret documents". (Reuters)
• Crime in Chicago, Gun violence in the United States
  • Sixty-one people are shot over the weekend in Chicago, including twelve in two mass shootings. Eight die, including five teenagers. Police arrest three people in connection with the shootings and 29 on other firearms charges, and seize 83 guns. (CBS News)
• Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014)
  • Omar Ameen, a man arrested in Sacramento on suspicion of a 2014 Iraqi murder linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, faces a judge at an extradition hearing. He is denied bail. (CBS Sacramento) (KCRA)
• Two men are detained in Ankara, Turkey, after shots are fired at the United States embassy. (ABC News)
• An American woman shoots two employees at a food distribution plant in Houston, Texas, killing one person and injuring the other, before killing herself. (CNN)
• The South African government begins the process of seizing land from white farm owners. (NZ Herald)

• 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)

• Senior industry sources say that the previously announced initial public offering of Saudi Aramco has been halted. (Reuters)

• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Lane strengthens to a Category 5 hurricane for around three hours as it heads toward Hawaii, before returning to Category 4. (CNN)
• 2018 Venezuela earthquakes
  • A 5.8 magnitude earthquake hits close to yesterday's 7.3 earthquake, this one inland near Yaguaraparo, Venezuela. (AP)
  • It is revealed that 5 people died from heart attack due to shock in yesterday's earthquake. (AP)
• Earthquakes in 2018
  • A 6.2 earthquake, 100 miles from the Oregon coast, rocks the Western States of America. (The Independent)

• Legal affairs of Donald Trump
  • List of lawsuits involving Donald Trump
    • The lawyer of Michael Cohen, ex-lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump who pleaded guilty to eight felonies a day prior, says his client would refuse to accept a presidential pardon. (The Independent)
  • Donald J. Trump Foundation § Investigations by New York State
    • New York state investigators subpoena Michael Cohen as part of their investigation into the Trump Foundation. (AP)
• Terrorism in Germany
  • In Berlin, police raid an apartment and arrest a suspected Russian Islamic extremist who had allegedly stored a large amount of TATP in October 2016 and plotted with a Frenchman to bomb an unspecified public place in Germany. (Reuters)
• Human rights in Saudi Arabia
  • According to human rights campaigners, Saudi Arabian prosecutors seek the death penalty for six activists for inciting anti-government protests and morally supporting rioters. (NBC News)
• Killing of Mollie Tibbetts
  • Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a Mexican man accused of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts after entering the U.S. illegally, appears in a Poweshiek County court for arraignment on first-degree murder. His bail is set at US$5 million. If released by local police, he may be arrested by ICE. (CNN)
• Corruption in Venezuela, Crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela
  • The Venezuelan National Assembly supports and enforces a ruling made by exiled members of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, sentencing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to 18 years and 3 months in prison for a litany of charges largely related to corruption. The Maduro government calls the court "illegitimate". (El Telégrafo)

• Crisis in Venezuela
  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says that the wages for workers in Venezuela must be linked to the petro. (El Nacional) (El Universal)

• Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
  • A bone fragment found in Denisova Cave, Denisova 11, is identified as that of a girl who died 50,000 years ago aged at least 13. Genome-wide signatures tell that she had a Neanderthal mother and a mostly-Denisovan father. This first find of a prehistoric first-generation mixed offspring shows that different archaic human subtypes sometimes migrated, and then mixed more frequently than previously thought. (NBC News) (Live Science)
• 2018 in spaceflight, Living Planet Programme
  • The European Space Agency's ADM-Aeolus global wind mapping satellite is successfully launched via a Vega rocket from Guiana Space Centre. (BBC)

• 2018 China–United States trade war
  • American tariffs of 25% on approximately $16 billion worth of Chinese goods come into effect. China immediately responds with equivalent tariffs of its own. (Reuters)
• Brexit
  • The government of the United Kingdom publishes the first 25 of 80 planned "technical notices" providing practical guidance to businesses in case of a no-deal Brexit. (Fortune)
  • Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, expresses interest in avoiding a hard Brexit. (Reuters)

• 2018 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Lane causes flash flooding, and threatens a direct hit towards Hawaii as it passes through Oahu. Over 19 inches (48 cm) of rain has already fallen in some areas. (CNN)

• South Africa–United States relations, South African farm attacks, Fox News controversies
  • The government of South Africa rejects a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump as "based on false information", in which he appeared to respond to a Fox News report stating that the South African government is "now seizing land from white farmers." (CNN)
• Crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela
  • Ecuador–Venezuela relations, Bolivarian Alliance
    • Ecuador leaves the Bolivarian alliance of nations run in Latin America, citing the behaviour of the Venezuelan government in several areas including attempting to impose Chavism in America, creating major crises, and ineffectual control of migration. (ABC News), (El Comercio)
  • Colombia-Venezuela relations
    • In response to the Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guard's armed infiltration of Norte de Santander, Colombia four days ago, Venezuela releases a statement calling it "supposed" and "fake news", despite clear video of Venezuelan helicopters in Colombian territory. (NTN24)
  • Bolivarian diaspora, Venezuela–Colombia migrant crisis
    • Colombia announces that it will host a summit in Bogotá with migration officials from Peru and Ecuador in an attempt to seek a solution for the growing illegal immigration of Venezuelans through their nations. (Reuters)

• 2018 California wildfires
  • Authorities arrest 32-year old John Colin Eagle Skoda after investigators concluded that a debris fire he started turned into a 60-square-mile blaze that killed one person and destroyed 35 homes. (ABC News)

• Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill, 2018
  • Australian MP Peter Dutton claims that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has lost the support of the majority of the Liberal Party and calls for another leadership vote. Turnbull states that he will resign if another spill is called. (ABC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Reuters)

• The Spanish government passes a decree which amends the Historical Memory Law to allow the government to exhume Francisco Franco's remains from the Valle de los Caídos. (The Independent)

• Two weeks after Elon Musk expressed his intentions of making Tesla, Inc. private, he and the company's board announce that the company will remain publicly listed. (NPR)

• A bus plunges off a bridge onto a train track due to a malfunction near Kuopio, Finland, killing four people and injuring 20 others. (Yle News)

• 2017–18 North Korea crisis, North Korea–United States relations
  • U.S. President Donald Trump asks his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned trip to North Korea, citing the country's insufficient progress in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. (CNBC)"
• Palestine–United States relations
  • The United States Department of State redirects more than $200 million in aid for the Palestinian National Authority to "high priority projects elsewhere". The Palestine Liberation Organization denounces the "use of cheap blackmail as a political tool". (Fox News)

• Liberal Party of Australia leadership spills, 2018
  • Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull loses spill motion and resigns. (Sky News)
  • Treasurer Scott Morrison wins the second leadership spill, 45 votes to 40 against Peter Dutton, and becomes Prime Minister. (ABC)
• European migrant crisis
  • Representatives from 12 European Union countries do not reach an agreement on Italy's request to take in the 150 migrants still remaining on the Diciotti-class vessel in Catania, Sicily, after their rescue by the Italian Coast Guard nine days ago. (Deutsche Welle) (ANSA)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo general election, 2018
  • The electoral commission publishes the list of approved candidates. Jean-Pierre Bemba and two former prime ministers are excluded. (Reuters via Business Insider)
• Corruption in Venezuela, United States–Venezuela relations
  • A United States court case gains new evidence and a guilty plea in relation to investigations of corruption and money laundering in Venezuela, adding a group who are suspected to be relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to the list of suspected accomplices. (Business Insider) (ABC News)
• U.S. Senator John McCain (R–AZ) has announced that he will not continue his cancer treatment. (CNN)

• A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is sold for $48.4 million at an auction in California, making it the most expensive car ever sold through auction. (Bloomberg)

• 2018 Harbin hotel fire
  • A hotel fire in Harbin, China, kills 19 people and injures 23 others. The fire broke out at the four-story Beilong Hot Spring Hotel in Harbin's Sun Island recreation area. (Xinhua)
• The collapse of three buildings in Mashhad, Iran, kills ten people and injures nine others. (Mehr News Agency)
• A bus falls into the Iskar Gorge near Svoge, Bulgaria, leaving 17 people dead and 17 injured. (BGNES)

• European migrant crisis
  • Thirteen sick people are taken off the stranded Diciotti vessel in Catania, Italy. Albania offers to take in 20 migrants. (Reuters)
  • Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini is placed under investigation for possible illegal detention and kidnapping. He subsequently gives permission for the remaining 134 migrants to disembark. Ireland will take 25 migrants, Albania 20. The Italian church says it will take in the others. (The Guardian)

• U.S. Senator and 2008 presidential nominee John McCain (R–AZ) dies at the age of 81. (The New York Times)

• 2018 Challenge Cup
  • In the Rugby League, the Catalans Dragons beat the Warrington Wolves in the 2018 Challenge Cup Final. It is the first time a team that is not from Northern England has won the competition. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan
  • Afghan authorities say that, in a joint ground and air operation on Saturday night, Afghan and foreign forces killed the head of ISIL/K, along with ten other members of the militant group. (Reuters) (CNN)

• Pope Francis's visit to Ireland
  • Pope Francis holds Sunday Mass at Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, for the World Meeting of Families. (CNN)
  • Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò accuses Pope Francis of covering up sexual abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick. Pope Francis declines to comment on Viganò's accusations. (ABC News)
  • After returning from his visit, the Pope says that, when parents discover their child is homosexual, they should not judge or condemn them. However, he also remarks that "many things can be done by psychiatry". (Belga via Het Laatste Nieuws) (The Washington Post)

• 2018 Kerala floods
  • The death toll from the Kerala floods rise to 445, while 15 remain missing. (Gulf News)
• A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, killing at least two people and injuring more than 200 others. (Deutsche Welle)
• Eight people die in a house fire in Chicago, Illinois. (Chicago Tribune)

• Jacksonville Landing shooting
  • The sheriff's office reports a mass shooting at a Madden 19 tournament at the Jacksonville Landing shopping mall in Jacksonville, Florida. Two attendees are killed, and nine others are taken to nearby hospitals. The suspected shooter is reported dead at the scene. (Twin Cities Pioneer Press) (BBC)
• 2018 Chemnitz stabbing attack
  • One man is killed, two more are seriously injured and partly violent protests erupt after a stabbing attack in Chemnitz, Germany. (Deutsche Welle)

• 2018 Zimbabwean general election
  • Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as the President of Zimbabwe, after an assassination attempt two months earlier. (Al Jazeera)
• 2018 Colombian anti-corruption referendum
  • Colombia holds its first referendum since amending its constitution in 1991 and fails to pass anti-corruption measures due to low voter turnout. (The Washington Post)
• Iran's finance minister Masoud Karbasian is sacked after an impeachment attempt by parliament. This is the second impeachment this month, after Ali Rabiei's on 8 August. (Telegraph)

• United States free-trade agreements, Mexico–United States relations
  • The United States and Mexico reach common ground on key trade terms in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada has yet to sign off on the agreement. (BBC) (Reuters)

• A United Nations Human Rights Council report based on 875 interviews recommends Min Aung Hlaing and five other generals in Myanmar be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes since the 1960s. (UPI)
• Aftermath of the Sri Lankan Civil War
  • Forensic anthropologists from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, report that more than 90 sets of human remains have been discovered near the town of Mannar. The mass grave is situated in an area that saw heavy fighting during the country's civil war. (BBC)
• 2018 Chemnitz protests
  • Violent protests break out across Germany after a stabbing attack the day before. Several instances of racial violence are reported, and riot police have been attacked. (Deutsche Welle)

• Politics of the United Kingdom
  • Home Secretary Sajid Javid comes under criticism for describing Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn on Twitter as "one of the biggest threat's [sic] to our national security". (Talk Radio UK)

• Moro conflict
  • A suspected improvised explosive device planted by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters explodes at a town festival in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, Philippines, killing two people and injuring 35 others. (Rappler)
  • A Catholic priest held hostage for almost four months by Muslim militants in Marawi city in the southern Philippines says he still believes in inter-religious dialogue despite experiencing horrors that included seeing a fellow captive gunned down in crossfire and another one killed during an airstrike. (BenarNews)

• The European Space Agency (ESA) unveils two titanium plaques etched with artwork, which will be part of the outside of the CHEOPS exoplanet-characterization satellite during its orbit around Earth. (Phys.org)

• Irish paper production and packaging firm Smurfit Kappa release a statement explaining that one of its production facilities was seized a week earlier on August 21 by the Venezuelan government and its managers were arrested, with the company accused of not setting their prices at government-approved levels and smuggling. It says that the government have taken over operation of the plant. (BBC)

• Hurricane Maria death toll controversy
  • A study from the Milken Institute School of Public Health finds that a total of 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria, bringing the official death toll up from 64. (ABC News)
• Seven states in Venezuela are affected as the Orinoco River floods. (Voice of America)

• Water supply and sanitation in Iraq
  • Health officials state that the Iraqi city of Basra has recorded 17,000 infection cases due to water contamination. A cholera outbreak is feared as salinity rates continue to increase in the unprocessed water. (Iraqi News)
• Phase-out of lightweight plastic bags
  • Anchorage, Alaska, passes a strict ban on plastic shopping bags, and imposes a fee on the use of store-issued paper bags. The law goes into effect on March 1, 2019. (Anchorage Daily News)

• Bolivarian diaspora
  • The Brazilian government sends armed forces to be stationed along its Venezuelan border for two weeks, due to a large increase in migrants from Venezuela. (BBC)
  • Peru declares a 60-day public health crisis in its northern provinces, with concern of the Venezuelan migrants spreading diseases. (BBC), (Bloomberg)

• Former Texas police officer Roy Oliver is found guilty in the murder of 15-year old Mesquite High School freshman Jordan Edwards. (NBC News) (Star Local Media)

• Politics of France
  • Nicolas Hulot resigns as Minister of Ecology during a live interview on France Inter radio, citing French President Emmanuel Macron's record on environmental issues and his own frustration over feeling alone in prioritizing reform. (The Independent)
• Politics of Iran
  • The Parliament of Iran questions President Hassan Rouhani on weak economic growth, banking restrictions and rising prices. It is not satisfied by four of his five answers and refers the case to the judiciary. He chiefly blames the United States' sanctions, and vows the "plot" will not succeed. (Reuters) (Tehran Times}

• The world's first autonomous taxi service begins operating in Tokyo, Japan. The pilot project will run until September 8, with full commercial operations expected to start in 2020, when the city hosts the 2020 Summer Olympics. (The Guardian) (Reuters)
• For the first time, scientists observe the Higgs Boson decay into bottom quarks. This supports a prediction in the Standard Model of particle physics. (Phys.org)

• A 7.1 magnitude earthquake hits the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. (Stuff)
• The Swar Chaung dam bursts in Yedashe Township, Bago Region, Myanmar, flooding around a hundred villages and forcing roughly 50,000 people to flee their homes. One person is missing and the country's main highway is flooded. (The Guardian)
• The Philippine Navy's Gregorio del Pilar-class frigate BRP Gregorio del Pilar (FF-15) runs aground on the disputed Half Moon Shoal in the South China Sea. (ABC News)

• Germany–Namibia relations
  • Germany hands over to Namibia the human remains—19 skulls, a scalp and bones—of Herero and Nama tribespeople among the tens of thousands killed by the German Empire between 1904 and 1908. (Al Jazeera)
• Bolivarian diaspora
  • A meeting is held in Lima attended by representatives from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil, to develop requests for aid in regards to Venezuelan immigrants, which will be sent to organisations including the United Nations and International Red Cross. Yesterday, there was a similar meeting in Bogotá. A larger meeting has been set-up to be held in Quito in early September, to be attended by representatives from 14 countries and 10 international organisations. (Bloomberg)

• Air Canada reports a data breach in which passport information was accessed. (BBC)

• Pension Fund of the Russian Federation
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a softening of the pension plan presented in June. The plan's original announcement has led to protests and a dip in Putin's approval ratings. (AP via News 13)

• 2018 NFL season
  • The Cleveland Browns release linebacker Mychal Kendricks following charges of insider trading. (Bleacher Report) (CBS News)

• Economy of Argentina
  • Argentina hikes interest rate to 60%, the highest in the world, as its currency plunges. (CNN)
• Economy of the United Kingdom
  • Panasonic announces their intent to move their European headquarters from London to Amsterdam, citing concern over Brexit. (BBC)
  • Wonga, the largest payday lender in the United Kingdom, collapses into administration. (BBC)
• Crisis in Venezuela
  • The petro, a Venezuelan government-backed cryptocurrency, has not been trading and is not publicly accessible, despite government claims that it has sold $3.3 billion worth of units and the fact that it is linked to the nation's physical currency and wages. (Reuters)
• United States–European Union relations
  • European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström proposes to reduce all European Union import tariffs, also on automobiles, to zero if the United States reciprocates. President of the United States Donald Trump threatens to quit the World Trade Organization. (Le Soir)

• A military helicopter crashes in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, killing 18 people. (FANA BC via Koaci)
• A bus crash in Karoo, South Africa, leaves ten people dead and 30 injured. (The South African)
• 2018 Atlantic hurricane season
  • The National Hurricane Center issues advisories for what forecasters call a Potential Tropical Cyclone Six. If it strengthens to a tropical storm, it would be known as Florence. (Sun Sentinel)
• At least eight people are reported dead and many sent to hospitals after a bus crash on a New Mexico highway. (BBC)

• The Trump administration is considering sending captured ISIL fighters to a prison in Iraq, as well as sending "high-valued fighters", who participated in the murder of Americans and other Western hostages, to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Human rights groups and the Democratic Party are opposed to holding these people indefinitely without charges and say they should be tried in federal courts. (NBC News) (NBC San Diego)

• Protesters against Mayor of London Sadiq Khan plan to fly a balloon of him in which he is wearing a yellow bikini over Parliament Square, London on 1 September in the same spot where the Donald Trump baby balloon was flown on 13 July. (Chicago Suntimes) (Inquistr)
• Trans Mountain Pipeline, Premiership of Justin Trudeau
  • A Canadian court overturns Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline. (The Guardian)

• The Japanese space agency announces their schedule for the exploration of 162173 Ryugu by their Hayabusa2 probe. (BBC)

• War in Donbass
  • The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, is killed in a blast at a café in Donetsk. (BBC)
• 2018 Amsterdam stabbing attack
  • Two U.S. citizens are seriously wounded after a knife attack in Amsterdam Centraal station. The attacker was shot and wounded by the police. (The Telegraph)

• Catholic bishops in Australia reject a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that would force priests by law to report abuse to the police when they hear about it in confession. (Reuters)

• The Coca-Cola Company agrees to buy British multinational coffeehouse Costa Coffee for £3.9 billion. (BBC)

• Ahead of an expected U.S. announcement that it will cut all aid to the UNRWA, which supports more than 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, Germany calls on European Union states to help bridge the expected US$217 million deficit. Yesterday, Jordan made a similar appeal to the Arab League. (Ynetnews)
• The President of the unrecognized Republic of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, announces a visit to Moldovan President Igor Dodon for talks on 6 September. (TASS)
• Crisis in Venezuela
  • The European Union announces an aid package of €35 million ($40.6 million) for Venezuelans, both inside the country and for those displaced in neighbouring countries. (Yahoo News)

• A court in Cambodia sentences Australian film director James Ricketson to six years in prison after he was found guilty of espionage for flying a drone at a Cambodia National Rescue Party rally. (Reuters)

• Summer Time in Europe
  • The European Commission is proposing to end the practice of adjusting clocks by an hour in spring and autumn after a survey found most Europeans opposed it. The Commission proposal requires support from the 28 national governments and MEPs to become law. (BBC)
• Government of Jimmy Morales
  • Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announces that he will not renew the mandate of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and orders the immediate transfer of functions to the Public Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior. The mandate of the UN anti-corruption commission ends on September 3, 2019. (Reuters)
  • President Morales deploys the armed forces near the headquarters of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. (ABC News)
  • The third impeachment against President Jimmy Morales for illicit electoral financing during his electoral campaign in 2015, is discussed in the Congress. It is the third impeachment that was requested by the Attorney General and the CICIG. (Insight Crime)
• Brazilian general election, 2018
  • The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil rules that former President and Workers' Party (PT) presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cannot run in the election because he does not qualify under the Clean Slate law. The Court also ruled that PT cannot run political ads featuring Lula. (The New York Times)

• Trans Mountain Pipeline, Premiership of Justin Trudeau
  • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirms his support for the Trans Mountain expansion project after the Federal Court of Appeal rules suspension of the project. (Cheknews) (CBC CA)