1^st August –

• Malta: Court ruling over domestic violence case angers human rights advocates
• Mexican Passenger plane chases with no deaths
• Trump proposes 25% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese imports
• Violence in Zimbabwe as opposition claims election was heavily rigged
• President Donald Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end a federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election

2nd August –

• Malta: PA ‘puts off’ decision to build a new fuel pump in an ODZ area
• Malta: Tourist arrivals up by 11.6% when compared to previous month
• Malta: Water slime is blamed on Tuna Farms
• Vatican officially opposes death penalty in any and all cases

3^rd August –

• 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
• Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn says party is ‘working to overcome’ anti-semitism problem within Britain’s Labour Party

4^th August –

• Eighteen people killed in helicopter crash in Siberia
• Europe faces hottest day ever as temperatures soar to 48°C

5^th August –

• Drone ‘assassination attempt’ targets Maduro during his speech
• 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

6^th August –

• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones dumped by Apple, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify as they pull ‘Infowars’ podcast and channels from their social networks
• European heat wave kills 9 in Spain and 7 in Italy

7^th August –

• Ethiopian Government Signs Deal With Oromo Rebels to End hostilities

8^th August –

• Malta: Karozzin horse collapses and dies in Floriana
• New Mexico Compound found to be training children to commit school shootings.
• Indonesia’s Lombok island quake reaches a death toll of 131 with thousands displaced

9^th August –

• Argentina Senate narrowly rejects measure to legalise abortion
• Mike Pence launches plans for sixth military service, the Space Force

10^th August –

• Malta: Three white storks illegally shot down over Malta in the middle of the night
• Aquarius rescued 141 migrants in its first mission since it was caught in standoff with Italy and Malta over their refusal to let rescued migrants ashore
• Omarosa’s New Book on Donald Trump reveals shocking claims

11^th August –

• Heavy bombardment aimed at opposition-held area killed nearly 30 civilians across northern Syria
• 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

12^th August –

• Splits deepen over British minister Johnson’s burqa comments
• NASA launches the Parker Solar Probe, an unpiloted spacecraft designed to study the sun

13^th August –

• Malta: Around 120 migrants found living in cow stalls in Qormi, paying around €200 a month
• Maltese company named in investigation by U.S. authorities on money laundering
• North and South Korea agreed on Monday to hold a summit in North Korea in September

14^th August –

• Maqluba, Qrendi fire starts after stray fireworks petard waslet off in close proximity to the site
• Genoa motorway bridge collapse leaves at least 42 dead
• Driver arrested after car mows down cyclists and ploughs into Parliament barrier

15^th August –

• Catholic priests in Pennsylvania found out to have sexually abused thousands of children over a 70-year period
• 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

16^th August –

• Japan’s emperor expresses ‘deep remorse’ over WWII
• Aretha Franklin dies at 76
• British police carry out raids after London attack as motive is still unknown
• Coordinated campaign fights back against Donald Trump’s media attacks

17^th August –

• Trump cancels military parade due to high costs
• 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.

18^th August –

• India’s worst flood in a century hits Kerela, at least 324 dead
• Former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan dies at 80

19^th August –

• Italy Interior Minister Matteo Salvini threatens to return 177 migrants who have been aboard an Italian coast guard ship for days to Libya

20^th August –

• Italy allows docking of Diciotti ship with migrants, ending yet another standoff with Malta
• Greece bailout formally ends
• Venezuela lops five zeros off its currency in bid to tackle hyperinflation
• Australian PM survives leadership challenge but threat remains
• Brazil deploys troops to border town of Pacaraima where Venezuelan migrant camps were attacked and set ablaze
• Several gunshots fired at the US embassy with no casualties
• At least 10 dead as white-water creek in southern Italy swelled after heavy rain
• Pope Francis has acknowledged “with shame and repentance” the Catholic Church’s failure to act over sexual abuse by clerics against minors going back decades

21^st August –

• 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

• Stefán Karl Stefánsson, LazyTown’s Robbie Rotten, dies of cancer at age 43

• Ice is confirmed at the Moon’s poles

22^nd August –

• Malta: Only one stork left from the flock of 18
• Hurricane Lane strengthens to a Category 5 hurricane for around three hours as it heads toward Hawaii, before returning to Category 4
• 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”

23^rd August –

• Knifeman kills his mother and sister in Paris after stabbing rampage

• El Salvador recognizes Bejing, leaving Taiwan with only 17 formal diplomatic allies left in the world

24^th August –

• Scott Morrison is Australia’s new PM after Malcolm Turnbull is forced out by party rivals
• 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

25^th August –

• “The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community” The Pope went off script on a heartfelt speech in Dublin Castle after Irish PM delivered a strong warning to the Pope to take action against clergy involved in child abuse.
• A hotel fire in Harbin, China, kills 19 people while 23 are injured. The fire broke out at the four-story Beilong Hot Spring Hotel in Harbin’s Sun Island recreation area and 105 firefighters were involved
• John McCain, Senator of the United States, dies at age 81
• Hurricane Lane pummels Hawaii with floods and fire as thousands lose power

26^th August –

• Theresa May orders space race against EU after Brexit, already signed of £100 million in plans to develop an entirely new SatNav system to rival the EU’s Galileo, in a show of strength as Brussels threatens to block the UK from its project
• Many threats followed from UK government to initiate plans to structure an entirely new system with Australia if their access is deprived
• The EU has said it will not negotiate under threat

• Two killed in shooting at Jacksonville video game tournament

• Malta: People gather in Valletta to honour slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in what would have been her 54th Birthday

27^th August –

• Boat full of migrants lands on packed Spanish beach

• Trump orders flags lowered to honor Sen. John McCain after public outrage

• 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.

28^th August –

• 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
• Peru declares a 60-day public health crisis in northern provinces bordering, with concern of the Venezuelan migrants spreading diseases

29^th August –

• 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
• 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

30^th August –

• Donald Trump threatens to leave the World Trade Organization
• European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström proposes to reduce all European Union import tariffs, also on automobiles, to zero if the United States reciprocates
• The US Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert warning consumers about the potential dangers of eating food prepared with liquid nitrogen

31^st August –

• Coca-Cola buys Costa Coffee for $5.1 billion
• US – Canada talks heading into their final day with no deal in sight
• 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

• Trump cancels pay raises for federal employees

•  Malta: Major fire at Magħtab waste facility casts dark cloud