August 12, 2018 (Sunday)
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 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)
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
- Moss Side mass shooting
- Ten people are injured in a mass shooting in Manchester, United Kingdom. (BBC)
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
- NASA launches the Parker Solar Probe, an unpiloted spacecraft designed to study the sun. (BBC)