Portal:Current events/2018 August 8
< Portal:Current events
August 8, 2018 (Wednesday)
Arts and culture
- 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)
Disasters and accidents
- 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)
International relations
- 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)
Law and crime
- 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 and elections
- Politics of Slovenia
- Five center-left political parties nominate Marjan Šarec to become Prime Minister of Slovenia. (Euronews)