January 20 – Turkish President Recep Tayyab Erdogan announces that his country will begin a military offensive into Northern Syria to capture certain areas from Kurdish forces in the wake of the Turkish-Kurdish conflicts.
March 4 – Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England.UK counter-terrorism police investigate amid speculation the Kremlin was behind the incident.
March 9 – President Trump accepts an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a meeting in May to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea.
March 11 – China’s government approves a constitutional change that removes term limits for its leaders, granting Xi Jinping the status of “President for Life”.
March 19 – The world’s last male northern white rhinoceros dies in Kenya, making the subspecies functionally extinct.
April 8 – Syrian Civil War: At least 70 people are reported to have died and hundreds suffering injuries after a sarin chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta.
April 30 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Iran of not holding up its end of the Iran nuclear deal after presenting a cache of over 100,000 documents detailing the extent of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran denounces Netanyahu’s presentation as “propaganda”
May 8 – U.S. President Donald Trump announces his intention to withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement.[45] In a statement, former U.S. President Barack Obama calls the move “a serious mistake”.
June 12 – The 2018 North Korea–United States summit is held in Singapore. It is the first summit between a United States President and the North Korean leader
June 19 – The United States announces it will withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
June 24 – Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.
July 26 – The share price of Facebook drops by almost 20 percent after the company warns investors that user growth has slowed following the data leak scandal. Over $109 billion is wiped from its market value, the largest single day loss in corporate history.
August 7 – The United States reimposes sanctions on Iran.
September 6 – The Supreme Court of India decriminalises homosexuality.
October 20 – 700,000 people march through central London demanding a second referendum on the final Brexit deal.
December 1–8 – France experiences its worst civil unrest since the protests of 1968 due to the yellow vests movement. Protests in Paris morph into riots, with hundreds of people injured and thousands arrested