Portal:Current events/2018 August 8

• 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)