Portal:Current events/2018 August 12

August 12, 2018 (Sunday)

Arts and culture

Hundreds of people assist at the unveiling of a headstone marking the exact location of English poet William Blake's resting place in Bunhill Fields, London. (ITV)

Disasters and accidents

August 2018 Lombok earthquake
- The BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho confirmed that the death toll from the earthquake in Lombok rises to 392. (Tempo.co)

A report by the SOHR says that the explosion of an arms depot in Sarmada, Idlib Governorate, Syria, kills at least 39 people. The cause of the blast is "not yet clear". Most of the victims were reportedly family members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants. (NDTV)

International relations

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)

Law and crime

Politics and elections

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)

Science and technology