2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, Democratic primary, Candidates
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) supported McCready during the primary election. He was among the first 11 candidates added to the DCCC's "Red to Blue" program.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, Democratic primary, Results, By county
McCready won every county by varying margins. Blue represents counties won By McCready.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, Republican primary, Candidates
Harris resigned from his church in June 2017 in order to devote his full attention to the 2018 campaign. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson campaigned for Pittenger during the primary election campaign. Harris criticized  Pittenger for voting in favor of the March 2018 omnibus spending bill, and claimed Pittenger was part of the "Washington swamp".


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, Republican primary, Results, By county
Red represents counties won by Harris. Green represents counties won by Pittenger.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election
Through September 30, McCready reported raising $4.3 million while Harris had raised $1.6 million. President Donald Trump and Second Lady Karen Pence traveled to the district to campaign for Harris, while Representative John Lewis campaigned for McCready.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election
Harris and McCready debated on October 10 on WBTV in Charlotte and October 17 at Spirit Square.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Endorsements
Harris was endorsed by Donald Trump, President of the United States and Libertarian Jeff Scott was endorsed by Christian Cano, 2016 Democratic primary candidate for North Carolina's 9th congressional district.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Results
When all precincts had reported their unofficial counts on Election Day, the race remained too close to call. The next night, trailing by about 2,000 votes, McCready conceded defeat to Harris. After all the votes were tallied, Harris had a 905-vote lead over McCready, making the election the closest race in the district in over six decades.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 9–0 on November 27 not to certify the election results. On November 30, the board voted 7–2 to hold a public hearing on December 27 regarding the tampering allegations. In early December, the North Carolina Democratic Party filed affidavits with the State Board of Elections claiming that Harris had used independent contractors to collect absentee ballots from voters.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
The board opened an investigation around Dowless, a campaign operative with felony fraud and perjury convictions, who was hired by the Harris campaign. Dowless was suspected of electoral fraud in 2014, allegedly mishandling absentee ballots. Dowless had worked for Jim McVicker's campaign for  Sheriff. McVicker won that race  by a narrow margin and did not respond to inquiries about it in 2018. Dowless worked for McVicker again in the 2018 Republican primary and the general election for Sheriff.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
In the 2018 general election, Dowless has been accused of paying workers to illegally collect absentee ballots from voters, after Harris had directed the hiring of Dowless for his campaign, despite the allegations concerning his efforts in prior campaigns. There had been warnings about and concerns raised in 2016 that Dowless used questionable tactics to deliver votes for Todd Johnson in his 2016 Republican congressional primary against Pittinger and Harris. Earlier, Dowless had worked for a Democrat competing in a 2012 state House primary, and ran as a Democrat himself, in a losing race for school board, in 2014. No questions had been raised in those races.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
In Robeson County, the easternmost county in the 9th district, twice as many absentee ballots from African-American voters  were not returned compared to white voters. In neighboring Bladen County, the return rates were the same for the two groups. As of December 2018, the outcome of the election had not been certified, as state election officials continued to investigate alleged fraud. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said it was possible over 1,000 ballots had been destroyed.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
On November 30, the Associated Press retracted its call of the race.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
On December 5, 2018, Buzzfeed News detailed its independent investigative reporting of the alleged vote thefts, a practice that targeted southern rural elderly black voters in the 9th District congressional race. It termed the affair, "...the  most serious federal election tampering case in years." Campaign workers, who included Jessica Dowless, whose husband is distantly related to Leslie McCrae Dowless, revealed that the vote tampering went on in a pervasively chaotic atmosphere. McCrae Dowless tracked votes on yellow pads and used cash to pay his employees, including some family members.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
Some of those workers were said to be under the obvious influence of drugs while on the job. One, said Jessica Dowless, "...was so fucking high the other day she passed out at the fucking computer." Another who picked up absentee ballots was a "pill head." She said McCrae's field workers "...would come to your house, they would get you to fill out an absentee ballot to be sent to your house.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
They would go back and pick it up and then seal it and then find two witnesses," to certify their validity, bringing them to the office and telling her to witness them, She said she told McCrae she didn't want to do that but "...we had no else," to accomplish the task. Such handling of ballots and completed applications by other than board and postal workers is legally prohibited. McCrae provided a car for one gatherer a week after she began working, lending a van to another.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
Jessica Dowless tabulated the number of ballots delivered to the county election board and said McCrae gave the Harris campaign updates on the operation's most recent totals. The interim director of Bladen County's Board of Elections denied her office paid Jessica Dowless, but a public records request revealed that to be untrue. McCrae Dowless was employed by political consultants Red Dome, and received in excess of $428,000 from the Harris campaign. Jessica Dowless said she dropped off completed absentee ballot applications once, and records confirmed she had delivered 185 to the Board. McCrae personally delivered 592 applications before October 31.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
Buzzfeed contacted McCrae's stepdaughter Lisa Britt, who was later indicted for her alleged role in the case. She admitted to being paid in cash for her work. Although she denied physically gathering votes, her account was disputed by Jessica Dowless who also said that McCrae gathered ballots, a prohibited practice, but only from Democratic voters. Britt denied that Democrats were targeted, claiming they only facilitated voting by those without vehicles, though those ballots could have been returned by postal mail.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
McCready withdrew his concession on December 6, and NBC News withdrew its call of the race. McCready prepared to run in a special election.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Refusal of certification
In December 2018, the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill into law that would require new primary elections if a new election were called, overriding a veto by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
Prior to the election, in October 2018, a state court had ruled that North Carolina's nine-member State Board of Elections was unconstitutional due to changes made by the state legislature in 2017. The court allowed the election board to continue operating during the election and subsequent fraud investigation. On December 28, in an unexpected decision, the court dissolved the election board, before it had certified election results, accusing the board of ignoring court instructions. This left the state without certified election results and without an elections board until January 31, 2019, when a new, five-member board was to be seated under a new law taking effect.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
The court's dissolution of the election board prompted responses from all quarters. Republican candidate Harris filed an emergency petition requesting that the board certify the results with him as the winner, but only two of nine board members requested an emergency session, and no action was taken before the board dissolved. Democratic candidate McCready publicly called for the fraud investigation to continue. Cooper attempted to name an interim elections board to serve until January 31, but was overridden by the state's Republican-controlled legislature. Meanwhile, incoming United States House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, announced that the House of Representatives will not seat Harris under any circumstances until the fraud investigation is completed.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
On January 2, 2019, the staff of the dissolved election board announced that they would continue the investigation, but delayed a January 11 hearing until a new election board is seated on January 31. The same day, Harris announced he would seek court intervention to have him immediately certified as the winner with the goal of being seated in the 116th Congress on January 3. On January 3, the 116th Congress was sworn in with North Carolina's 9th Congressional seat vacant. On the same day, Harris was interviewed by investigators from the North Carolina Board of Elections.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
In early January, by refusing to provide the names of Republican candidates for the state elections board, as requested by Cooper, and urging Republicans not to accept seats on the board, North Carolina Republicans blocked the board's intent and ability to hold a scheduled hearing on January 11, 2019, meant for the purposes of investigating the possibility of fraud in the November 9 District election, leaving the District seat in Congress vacant. Republican party officials refused to send Cooper the names of their party's candidates to fill vacancies on the board. Responding to their obstructionism, Cooper said:


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
All North Carolinians deserve to have confidence in a system of voting that ensures honest and fair elections. If politicians and the people they hire are manipulating the system to steal elections, all of us should pull together to get to the bottom of it and stop it — regardless of whether the candidate who finished ahead in a tainted election is a Republican or a Democrat.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
On January 22, 2019, Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway refused Harris's request to order him seated.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
On January 31, the new board, composed of three Democratic and two Republican members, voted to schedule a February hearing on the allegations of election irregularities. On February 4, the new board set the hearing for February 18. On February 18, 2019, the regulator reported that it had found evidence of "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme" that may have involved more than 1,000 ballots or ballot request forms.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
That day, Lisa Britt, the daughter of Dowless's ex-wife, admitted to tampering with ballots on the direction of Dowless – including filling in blank votes to favor Republican candidates and falsifying voter and witness signatures. On February 20, Harris's son, John Harris, a federal prosecutor in North Carolina, testified to the election board that he had repeatedly warned his father not to hire Dowless because Dowless appeared to have previously engaged in illegal tactics to win votes. John Harris also testified that he had expressed similar concerns to his father's chief campaign strategist, Andy Yates. Email records were shown of his discussion of the issue with his father. His father had maintained that he had not been warned of problems with Dowless's reputation and had testified to that effect.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, General election, Election board hearings
On February 21, Harris admitted that he had made inaccurate statements in his testimony, blaming a recent sepsis infection that had affected his memory and caused him to have two strokes. He said that he had concluded that "public confidence in the 9th District has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted." The board unanimously voted to set a new election, with the date to be determined in a later hearing. The board also called for new elections for two local county offices in Bladen County.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, Aftermath
Freeman announced that she would call upon a grand jury to investigate the fraud allegations to determine whether or not to file criminal charges. On February 26, Harris, citing ill health, declared that he would not compete in the new congressional election.


2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election, Aftermath
Dowless was indicted on felony charges on February 27, consisting of three counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and two counts of possession of absentee ballots. Four others were also charged in relation to the absentee ballot collection. In March 2019, the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice began to issue subpoenas for a federal grand jury investigation related to the case. Documents were requested for a grand jury proceeding to be held April 16–18, 2019. In July 2019, the Wake County district attorney also announced charges against Lisa Britt, Ginger S. Eason, Woody D. Hester, James Singletary, Jessica Dowless and Kelly Hendrix, and additional charges against Leslie McCrae Dowless.


2018 North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team
The 2018 North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team represents the University of North Dakota during the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by fifth-year head coach Bubba Schweigert and played their home games at the Alerus Center. The Fighting Hawks competed as an FCS independent. They finished the season 6–5.


2018 North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team
North Dakota will leave the Big Sky Conference for all sports except football in 2018 and join the Summit League. Their football program will join the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2020. Although being classified as an independent for football in 2018 and 2019, they will continue to play a full Big Sky schedule and their games will count in the conference standings for their opponents but the Fighting Hawks will be ineligible to win the conference championship.


2018 North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team, Previous season
In their final season as a full member of the Big Sky, the Fighting Hawks finished the 2017 season 3–8, 2–6 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for 9th place.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election
The 2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election occurred on November 6, 2018, to elect the North Dakota Secretary of State, concurrently with various other state and local elections. Six-time incumbent Republican Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger was eligible to run for re-election to a seventh term in office, but withdrew from his party's primary after failing to receive the endorsement. When the primary winner withdrew from the general election race, Jaeger and fellow Republican Michael Coachmaneach gathered and turned in signatures to run as independent candidates.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election
Libertarian Party candidate Roland Riemers failed to get enough primary election votes to make the general election ballot both in an initial count and in a court-ordered recount. Democratic-NPL state representative Joshua Boschee was the only candidate who advanced from the primary and the only candidate that had his party listed on the general election ballot.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Background
North Dakota Secretaries of State are elected to four-year terms, with no limit on the number of terms a candidate may serve. Prior to the election, incumbent Republican Alvin Jaeger had been elected to the office six times and planned to run for a seventh term.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Republican primary, State convention
Delegates to the North Dakota Republican Party state convention held a vote to endorse a candidate for the race on April 7. Though any candidate may submit petitions to be placed on the party's primary ballot, the endorsement brings automatic ballot access. State convention delegates voted to endorse Gardner, and Jaeger withdrew from the race.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Republican primary, Primary election, Disorderly conduct incident
Between the convention and the primary election, North Dakota news outlets reported that Gardner had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for "peeping in numerous female dorm rooms" while working for NDSU in 2006. According to campus security guards on the scene that night, Gardner, who was 29 years old and employed as webmaster for NDSU's libraries at the time, was seen approaching multiple windows of a women's dorm building, attempting to look around window coverings, apparently to see the people inside. When stopped by security guards, the fly of Gardner's pants was unzipped. Gardner was charged with surreptitious intrusion, but accepted a deal from prosecutors where he instead plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct. He received a sentence of 30 days in jail, but that sentence was suspended in its entirety.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Republican primary, Primary election, Disorderly conduct incident
In the aftermath of that incident becoming public, Gardner announced his intention to withdraw from the race for Secretary of State on May 20. Despite that intention, it was too late to withdraw his name from primary ballots or for any other candidate to add his or her name to the race. Write-in candidates had two days to officially declare their candidacy, but none did so publicly.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Republican primary, Primary election, Aftermath
Despite winning the primary election, Will Gardner officially declined the nomination by submitting a letter of withdrawal to the current Secretary of State, Al Jaeger. By doing so, he ensured that his name would be omitted from the general election ballot.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Republican primary, Primary election, Aftermath
After Gardner officially withdrew, the North Dakota Republican Party state committee gave a letter of endorsement to incumbent Secretary of State Al Jaeger. This letter had no meaning in state law and did not allow Al Jaeger to appear as a Republican on the general election ballot.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Libertarian primary, Recount
In order to qualify for access to the general election ballot, a candidate requires 300 votes in the primary election. Libertarian candidate Roland Riemers failed to reach that threshold and so therefore was not slated to appear on the November ballot. Riemers petitioned the North Dakota Supreme Court to require a recount of all ballots; the court agreed and ordered the recount, but in the end, it only found one additional vote for Riemers.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Independent candidates
In order to be placed on the general election ballot, independent candidates must turn in a list of signatures, at least 1,000 of which must be valid North Dakota electors, to the Secretary of State's office by September 14. Candidates who gain access to the ballot in this way appear alongside party-nominated candidates and will not have a party affiliation displayed alongside their name.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Independent candidates, Michael Coachman
Former Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor Michael Coachman turned in signatures on August 14. Since at least 1,000 of those were legal signatures from valid North Dakota electors, he appeared on the ballot.


2018 North Dakota Secretary of State election, Independent candidates, Alvin Jaeger
Shortly after Republican candidate Will Gardner announced his withdrawal from the race, incumbent Republican Alvin Jaeger announced that he would re-enter the race as an independent politician. Jaeger had withdrawn from the race for the Republican party nomination to the office when he failed to pick up the party endorsement. With their candidate having withdrawn his candidacy, the North Dakota Republican State Committee endorsed Jaeger in a letter of support, an instrument that carries no weight of law, but which the party hoped would keep the office out of their rivals' control. On August 9, Jaeger turned in 1,300 signatures. As Secretary of State, Jaeger himself was responsible to certify the validity of those signatures, though Jaeger said he delegated that responsibility to others in his office. Enough signatures were found valid to allow Jaeger to appear on the General Election ballot.


2018 North Dakota State Bison football team
The 2018 North Dakota State Bison football team represents North Dakota State University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by fifth-year head coach Chris Klieman, who also coached his final season with the Bison before heading off to take over for the retiring Bill Snyder at Kansas State. The team played their 26th season in the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota as members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They entered the season as defending National Champions and had won six of the last seven FCS titles.


2018 North Dakota State Bison football team
In 2018, the Bison finished the regular season 11–0, the first undefeated Bison season since the 2013 campaign, and won their eighth consecutive MVFC title. They received an automatic qualifying bid to the FCS playoff tournament and were seeded as the No. 1 team. The Bison then went 4–0 in the FCS playoffs to finish 15–0 and FCS champions.


2018 North Dakota State Bison football team, Previous season
The Bison finished the 2017 season 14–1, 7–1 in MVFC play to win the MVFC championship for the seventh consecutive year. As a result, the Bison received the conference's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs as the No. 2 seed. In the playoffs, they defeated San Diego, Wofford, and Sam Houston State to advance to the National Championship game. There they defeated James Madison 17–13 to win the school's sixth National Championship in seven years.


2018 North Dakota State Bison football team, Preseason, Preseason MVFC poll
The MVFC released their preseason poll on July 29, 2018, with the Bison predicted unanimously to win the MVFC championship.


2018 North Dakota State Bison football team, Preseason, Preseason All-MVFC Teams
The Bison placed eleven players on the preseason all-MVFC teams.


2018 North Dakota elections
North Dakota held two statewide elections in 2018: a primary election on Tuesday, June 12, and a general election on Tuesday, November 6. In addition, each township elected officers on Tuesday, March 20, and each school district held their elections on a date of their choosing between April 1 and June 30.


2018 North Dakota elections, Primary Election
On Tuesday, June 12, North Dakota voters selected which candidates for statewide and legislative office will appear on the November ballot. Because North Dakota does not have party registration, any eligible voter may vote in any one party's primary election. Though primary elections often include any number of constitutional amendments, initiated measures, or referred measures placed on the ballot by petition, none were included in this particular election.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election
On Tuesday, November 6, concurrent with other statewide elections across the United States, North Dakota voters selected one United States Senator, one United States Representative, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and several other statewide executive and judicial branch offices. Voters in odd-numbered legislative districts also selected their representatives to the North Dakota House of Representatives and North Dakota Senate. Finally, voters faced four ballot measures.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, United States Senator
Incumbent Democratic–NPL Senator Heidi Heitkamp ran for reelection to a second term, but was defeated by Republican United States Representative Kevin Cramer.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, United States Representative
Though incumbent Republican Kevin Cramer had announced that he would run for re-election to a fourth term, he later decided to run for the Senate instead. Republican state Senator Kelly Armstrong defeated Democratic-NPL former state Senate Minority Leader Mac Schneider for the open seat.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, Secretary of State
Six-term incumbent Republican Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger was not re-endorsed by his party to serve a seventh term, so did not run for his party's nomination. When nominated Republican Will Gardner withdrew from the general election, Jaeger collected enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent. No candidate appeared on the ballot with the label of Republican.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, Secretary of State
The incumbent defeated two challengers, including two-term Democratic-NPL state representative Joshua Boschee.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, Secretary of State
Governing magazine projected the race as being a likely victory for Jaeger.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, Attorney General
Incumbent Republican Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem won re-election against his Democratic-NPL challenger, trial attorney David Thompson.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, Other statewide races
All North Dakota voters faced partisan races for Agriculture Commissioner, Tax Commissioner, one full term seat and one partial term seat on the Public Service Commission, and a nonpartisan ten-year term as Justice of the Supreme Court


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, State legislative races
24 seats in the North Dakota Senate and 48 seats in the North Dakota House of Representatives were up for election. Voters in all odd-numbered districts had those races on their ballot.


2018 North Dakota elections, General Election, Measures
Voters faced four measures placed on the ballot by petition. They passed Measure 1, which will establish government ethics rules and an ethics commission; the Secretary of State approved it for the ballot on July 24. They also passed Measure 2, which removes language in the state constitution currently guaranteeing all citizens to right to vote and replaces it with language banning non-citizens from voting; it had been approved on August 10. Measure 3 would have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, but was not passed. They did, however, approve Measure 4, which establishes personalized vehicle plates for volunteer emergency responders.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election
The 2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election took place on 3 May 2018 to elect members of North East Lincolnshire Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Council make up
After the 2018 local election, the  political make up of the council was as follows:


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Council make up
Labour remained in minority control of the authority, with the support of Liberal Democrats. The authority was a target area for the Labour Party, hoping to regain seats that they had lost to UKIP in 2014. However, the Conservatives pulled off some unexpected victories in several wards on the authority, including wins in Freshney and Immingham for the first time since the late 2000s, and in Yarborough, Park and Croft Baker, where they hadn't won seats for over 25 years, long before NELC's creation.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Council make up
Since the 2016 elections, former UKIP councillors Stephen Harness and Matthew Stinson who were sat as Independents at the time, joined the Conservative Party, while two further UKIP councillors, Nick Pettigrew and James Cairns, joined the Conservatives in 2017. Labour councillor Hazel Chase resigned her party and sat as an Independent, and would continue to do so after these elections, when she became the mayor for the 2018/19 municipal year.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Council make up
Liberal Democrat councillor Christina McGilligan-Fell quit her party in 2017 in protest at not being chosen as a parliamentary candidate for either Great Grimsby or Cleethorpes in the 2017 general election, and ran as an Independent in the former - losing her deposit. She rejoined the Liberal Democrats months after, in order to seek re-election under the party banner, but lost her seat nonetheless to the Conservatives. Less than a year after losing her seat, she was seen campaigning with the Conservatives for their candidate in her former ward in the 2019 local elections.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Council make up
Two seats were fought in Immingham, due to the death of councillor Mike Burton in March 2018. Labour's Dave Bolton retained his seat on the authority by 3 votes after several recounts, but only for one year - the remaining term of office Burton had been elected for in 2015. The four-year seat was gained by Stewart Swinburn, a former Conservative councillor for the ward, who had lost his seat to Burton in 2011, and had failed to regain his seat in 2012, 2014 and 2016.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Council make up
Shortly after these elections took place, a by-election was held to fill the vacancy in the Freshney ward in July 2018 due to the resignation of councillor Ray Sutton, following his decision to move out of the area. Labour's Sheldon Mill, who stood in Park in the elections in this set of elections, held the seat by a small margin of 42 votes over the Conservatives, but his win was short-lived and he lost the seat in the 2019 local elections to the Conservatives.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results
Vote share changes are compared with the 2016 elections, with the exceptions of Waltham, West Marsh and Wolds, which are compared with 2015.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Croft Baker
Note: Incumbent Labour councillor Matthew Brown sought re-election in Yarborough having failed to be re-selected by party members here. This was also the first time the Liberal Democrats had not stood in Croft Baker since NELC's creation.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Freshney
Note: There was a recount ahead of the declaration of the result. Incumbent councillor Nick Pettigrew, who had since defected to the Conservatives, sought re-election in Waltham - which his new party had deemed a more likely seat he would win, but the new Conservative candidate narrowly won nonetheless.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Heneage
Notes: Smith had fought this seat as an Independent in 2012 and for UKIP in 2015. O'Flynn quit TUSC only days before the election took place. This was the first time since 1995 that there was no Liberal Democrat candidate in the ward.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Humberston & New Waltham
Note: Harness had been elected as a UKIP councillor for this ward in 2013 and 2014, so an effective hold for him.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Immingham
Note: Two seats were fought in Immingham, due to the death of councillor Mike Burton in March 2018. Labour's Dave Bolton retained his seat after several recounts due to the closeness of the result, but only for one year, which was the remaining term of office Burton had been elected for in 2015. The four-year seat was gained by Stewart Swinburn, a former Conservative councillor for the ward, who had lost his seat to Burton in 2011 and had failed to regain a seat in Immingham in 2012, 2014 and 2016. His wife, Karen, who had been unsuccessful on this occasion, had been a councillor for Immingham between 2006 and 2010.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Park
Note: This was only the second occasion the Liberal Democrats had lost Park since NELC's creation (the first being when Labour gained it in 2012), in addition to being the first time the Conservatives had won Park on NELC.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Scartho
Note: Bailey was formerly a Lib Dem councillor for Yarborough between 2009 and 2012. Incumbent UKIP councillor Henry Hudson chose not to seek re-election.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Sidney Sussex
Note: Rodwell was the only Labour candidate to have won more than 50% vote share on the night.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, South
Notes: Mickleburgh had been a West Marsh councillor since 2014 but was deselected by local members. Batson had previously fought this seat for UKIP in 2015 and fought it for the Conservatives in the June 2016 by-election.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Waltham
Note: Pettigrew had been a councillor in Freshney since 2014 (originally elected as UKIP, having joined the Tories in 2017).


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, West Marsh
Note: Watkin had been a councillor for this ward between 1999 and 2010.


2018 North East Lincolnshire Council election, Ward results, Yarborough
Note: Cairns had been a councillor here since 2014 (originally elected as UKIP, having joined the Tories in 2017), so effectively a hold for him.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team
The 2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team will represent North Greenville University during the 2018 NCAA Division II football season. They will be led by sixth-year head coach Jeff Farrington. The Crusaders will play their home games at Younts Stadium, and are members of the Gulf South Conference.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team
The 2018 season marks as the first season as members of the Gulf South Conference.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team, Preseason, Gulf South Conference coaches poll
On August 2, 2018, the Gulf South Conference released their preseason coaches poll with the Crusaders predicted to finish in 7th place in the conference.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team, Preseason, Preseason All-Gulf South Conference Team
The Crusaders had no players selected to the preseason all-Gulf South Conference team.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team, Schedule
North Greenville 2018 football schedule consists of five home and six away games in the regular season. The Crusaders will host GSC foes Mississippi College, Shorter, West Alabama, and West Florida, and will travel to Delta State, Florida Tech, Valdosta State, and West Georgia.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team, Schedule
The Crusaders will host one of the three non-conference games against Lenoir–Rhyne from the South Atlantic Conference (SAC), and will travel to North Alabama, which is a FCS Independent team and Tusculum from the SAC.


2018 North Greenville Crusaders football team, Schedule
Two of the eleven games will be broadcast on ESPN3, as part of the Gulf South Conference Game of the Week.


2018 North Hertfordshire District Council election
The 2018 North Hertforshire District Council election took place on 3 May 2018 to elect 19 of the 49 members of North Hertfordshire District Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections around the country.


2018 North Hertfordshire District Council election, Summary Result, Where elections took place
The following table shows a summary of the results where elections took place.


2018 North Hertfordshire District Council election, Summary Result, Overall composition of district council
The following shows the composition and change of the district council overall as a result of the elections.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
The 2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was one of the most active North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons since 1992, with the formation of fourteen depressions and seven cyclones. The North Indian Ocean cyclone season has no official bounds, but cyclones tend to form between April and December, with the two peaks in May and November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
The scope of this article is limited to the Indian Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere, east of the Horn of Africa and west of the Malay Peninsula. There are two main seas in the North Indian Ocean — the Arabian Sea to the west of the Indian subcontinent, abbreviated ARB by the India Meteorological Department (IMD); and the Bay of Bengal to the east, abbreviated BOB by the IMD.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
The official Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre in this basin is the India Meteorological Department (IMD), while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and the National Meteorological Center of CMA (NMC) unofficially release full advisories. On average, three to four cyclonic storms form in this basin every season.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Season summary
The season started with ARB 01 which was formed on March 14 making one of the rarest system formed in March since tropical cyclone development stays relatively low between January and March. It caused heavy rainfall in Maldives, Lakshadweep and Kerala. After a two-month gap, another low formed near the Horn of Africa, which later became Sagar. It became unofficially the strongest cyclone to make landfall until it was broken by Gati in 2020. It caused heavy rainfall in Somaliland and local flooding was reported in the Yemeni coast.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Season summary
The storm made the westernmost landfall surpassing the record of Tropical Storm One. A day after Sagar dissipation, another low pressure formed off the coast of Oman which later organised into Cyclone Mekunu. It then peaked as a Category 3 tropical cyclone according to JTWC and an Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm according to IMD. It caused 30 people dead and heavy rainfall recorded in Salalah, Oman. After that, a low pressure quickly intensified into a deep depression and peaking as a tropical storm made landfall in Myanmar causing heavy downpour. Five monsoonal depression also formed between June and September.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Season summary
Cyclogenesis continued with Cyclone Daye which made landfall in Odisha state. Heavy downpour and flood mainly in Malkangiri district and its outer bands also caused heavy rainfall in West Bengal. Following with Daye, Luban and Titli both formed in the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal respectively, causing heavy damages in Oman and Andhra Pradesh. Gaja on November 10, also formed and caused extensive damage in Tamil Nadu and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The season ended with Cyclone Phethai causing agricultural damage and four dead.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression ARB 01
A trough developed near the equator in the eastern Indian Ocean on March 7. A low-pressure area formed on March 10 to the southwest of Sri Lanka, in an area with warm sea surface temperatures and low wind shear. Moving into the eastern Arabian Sea, the low organized into a depression on March 13 at the low latitude of 5° N. After its formation, the depression encountered cooler, drier air, which prevented the system from strengthening beyond an intensity of 45 km/h (30 mph). Moving northwest, the depression passed between the Maldives and the Lakshadweep islands, and weakened into a remnant low-pressure area on March 15.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression ARB 01
Officials advised fishermen to avoid sailing off India's southwest coast for a few days. The depression produced heavy rainfall across southern India. The coastal port city of Thoothukudi near the southern tip of India recorded 200 mm (7.9 in) on March 13, its highest daily precipitation ever recorded. Minicoy Island in Lakshadweep received 177 mm (7.0 in) of rain from the system. Heavy rainfall also occurred in Aryankavu, Kerala, and Chintamani, Karnataka.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Sagar
A low-pressure area formed on May 14 near Socotra in the western Arabian Sea. The weather system moved northwestward, steered by a ridge to the northeast and the flow of the regional geography. On May 16, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) classified the low as a depression at 12:00 UTC about 200 km (125 mi) northeast of Cape Guardafui, Somalia. On the same day, the JTWC designated the depression as Tropical Cyclone 01A. The IMD upgraded the system to a cyclonic storm on May 17, naming it Sagar.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Sagar
The storm entered the Gulf of Aden that day, gradually intensifying while paralleling the coast of Yemen. Sagar developed an eye on microwave imagery, a sign of an intensifying storm. Late on May 18, the IMD estimated Sagar's peak intensity at 85 km/h (55 mph). Around the same time, the JTWC estimated Sagar attained peak 1 minute sustained winds of 120 km/h (75 mph), while located about 165 km (105 mi) south of Aden, Yemen, or about 95 km (60 mi) north of Berbera, Somalia.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Sagar
Sagar weakened slightly before it made landfall near Lughaya in northwestern Somaliland, with winds of 75 km/h (45 mph) according to the IMD. According to the JTWC, Sagar was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to strike Somalia, with estimated 1-minute landfalling winds of 95 km/h (60 mph). The storm also made the westernmost landfall in the North Indian Ocean, surpassing a tropical storm in 1984, which took a nearly identical track to the east. Sagar rapidly weakened over land, degenerating into a low-pressure area over eastern Ethiopia on May 20.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Sagar
The cyclone first affected Socotra, and later the Yemeni mainland, producing locally heavy rainfall and flooding. High winds from Sagar contributed to a house fire near Aden, resulting in one fatality. In parts of northern Somalia and Somaliland, Sagar dropped a years' worth of heavy rainfall, or around 200 mm (7.9 in), resulting in deadly flash flooding. The floods washed out farms, livestock, boats, and houses, forcing families to evacuate. Roads, medical facilities, and other infrastructure were also damaged. Three people died in Puntland and another 50 people died in Somaliland due to Sagar.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Sagar
In neighboring Djibouti, flooding from the storm damaged about 10,000 houses, with damage in the country estimated at US$30 million. Two people died in the country. In the Somali Region of eastern Ethiopia, Sagar produced strong winds and heavy rainfall, resulting in flooding and landslides. Near the border of SNNPR and Oromia, a landslide killed 23 people.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Mekunu
An area of convection developed to the northwest of the Maldives on May 18. Over the next two days, it became better organized and the IMD reported that it had developed into a low-pressure area on May 20, giving it the identifier ARB 03. The system slowly drifted northwestwards into favorable environment for tropical cyclogenesis and developed good outflow. The JTWC issued a TCFA on May 21 after convective bands began to wrap into the broad low-level circulation center (LLCC). Around the same time, the IMD had announced that the system intensified into a depression.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Mekunu
Over the next 24 hours, the depression continued to drift further northwestwards into warm waters and faced low vertical wind shear. As a result, it continued to intensify and the JTWC began tracking it as a tropical storm. Subsequently, the IMD upgraded it to a deep depression and Cyclonic Storm Mekunu later the same day. Multi-spectral satellite imagery revealed that Mekunu had developed an eye as early as May 23, at which time the IMD upgraded it to a severe cyclonic storm.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Mekunu
Benefiting from favorable environmental conditions, the cyclone became more symmetric, intensifying into a very severe cyclonic storm six hours later. The cyclone continued to track northwestward under the influence of a subtropical ridge. On May 25, it reached its peak intensity as an extremely severe cyclonic storm, with the JTWC estimating peak 1-minute sustained winds of 185 km/h (115 mph), equivalent to a Category 3 storm on the Saffir–Simpson scale.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Mekunu
Under the influence of Mekunu, Socotra received widespread rainfall leading to flash flooding and downed power lines. At least 40 people were initially reported to be missing after two ships were capsized off Socotra. Mekunu made landfall on the Omani coast near the city of Salalah at peak intensity. Gusts of 67 mph (108 km/h) were recorded at the Salalah Airport before the landfall while areas in the Salalah recorded rainfall of 194 mm (7.6 in). As of 31 May, at least 30 people have died in Oman and Yemen due to Mekunu, including 20 on Socotra, four in Yemen, and six in Oman. Insurance claims in Oman reached ﷼108 million (US$281 million).


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Deep Depression BOB 01
On May 28, a low-pressure area formed over the eastern Bay of Bengal, three days after the IMD first mentioned such a possibility. That day, the JTWC noted a low chance for development, before raising it to a medium chance. The system moved northeastward and organized, becoming a depression at 06:00 UTC on May 29. With warm waters and low wind shear, the system strengthened further. The IMD upgraded the system to a deep depression at 12:00 UTC on May 29, estimating peak winds of 55 km/h (35 mph).


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Deep Depression BOB 01
The JTWC meanwhile estimated peak winds of 85 km/h (55 mph), designating the system as Tropical Cyclone 03B; however, the agency did not issue any advisories on the cyclone in real time. Late on May 29, the deep depression moved ashore northern Myanmar near Kyaukphyu, and it rapidly weakened over land, degenerating into a low on May 30.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Deep Depression BOB 01
While in its formative stages, the depression brought heavy rainfall to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with a peak daily total of 230 mm (9.1 in) recorded in Port Blair. The storm later brought heavy rainfall to northeast India. Ahead of the depression's landfall, Myanmar's Meteorology and Hydrology Department issued a red-code emergency alert warning. High winds and heavy rains destroyed more than 500 homes in the Yangon region, with shelters opened for residents left homeless. The strong wind knocked down trees, cutting power supply in areas.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression BOB 02
A monsoonal low formed in the northern Bay of Bengal on June 8, which was anticipated by the IMD as early as June 3. Low wind shear and warm waters fueled development as the system moved to the north-northwest. On June 10, the system organized into a depression near the coastline of Bangladesh, with peak winds of 45 km/h (30 mph). A few hours after its formation, the depression moved ashore the country south of Feni. Due to land interaction, the system weakened into a low at 00:00 UTC on June 11.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression BOB 02
The depression brought heavy rainfall to Bangladesh and across eastern India. Sabroom in northeastern India recorded 440 mm (17 in) of rainfall over two days. In Bangladesh, two-day rainfall totals reached 150 mm (5.9 in), causing flooding and landslides. The flooding closed some roads and forced more than 29,000 people to be evacuated. At least 12 people died related to the floods, including two people in Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. Nearly 900 refugee camps were damaged, along with 200 latrines, two health facilities, and two food distribution centers. Heavy rains also caused flooding in the port city of Chittagong.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression BOB 03
A monsoonal low formed on July 19 in the northern Bay of Bengal. With favorable conditions such as warm water temperatures, the system gradually organized, becoming a depression on July 21 just off the coast of eastern India. The system only attained peak winds of 45 km/h (30 mph), as it soon after moved ashore the Indian coastline near the borders of Odisha and West Bengal. Continuing to the northwest, the depression maintained a flow of moisture that helped sustain its intensity for 36 hours over land, before the system weakened into a low on July 23 over Jharkhand. The depression dropped torrential rainfall over eastern India, reaching as far west as Rajasthan. The highest 24 hour total was 620 mm (24 in) in Burla in Odisha, resulting in flooding. Flood-related incidents killed five people in Odisha.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression BOB 04
A monsoonal low formed in the northwestern Bay of Bengal on August 6. With low wind shear and high water temperatures, the system quickly organized into a depression by August 7, located a short distance off eastern India. The system soon after moved ashore near the border of Odisha and West Bengal, failing to intensify beyond winds of 45 km/h (30 mph). The depression moved across northern Odisha and weakened into a low on August 8 over Chhattisgarh. Heavy rainfall accompanied the depression across India, reaching as far west as Rajasthan. The highest 24 hour rainfall total was 390 mm (15 in) in Puri.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Depression BOB 05
On August 13, a low formed in the northwestern Bay of Bengal from a circulation that was present for the prior four days. The system organized as it moved west-northwestward toward the Indian coastline, becoming a depression on August 15 near the coastline of Odisha, with winds of 45 km/h (30 mph). The depression progressed across central India, weakening into a low on August 17 over Madhya Pradesh. Along its path, the depression dropped heavy rainfall, with a peak 24 hour total of 400 mm (16 in) in Bhopalpatnam in Chhattisgarh state. In Odisha, the heavy rainfall prompted the cancelation of Independence Day activities at schools.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Deep Depression BOB 06
A low-pressure area formed in the northern Bay of Bengal on September 5. With low wind shear and high water temperatures, the system organized further, becoming a depression on September 6, just off the coast of West Bengal. The depression quickly intensified into a deep depression, reaching winds of 55 km/h (35 mph) before moving onshore eastern India. Continuing westward, the deep depression moved across northern Odisha and weakened, degenerating into a low over Chhattisgarh on September 7. The low continued across India and dissipated over Rajasthan. Throughout much of India, the deep depression brought heavy rainfall, with a peak 24 hour precipitation total of 410 mm (16 in) in Paradeep, Odisha.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Daye
On September 19, a depression formed over the east central Bay of Bengal, receiving the designation BOB 07. Soon afterward, the JTWC has issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA). Early on September 20, the storm intensified into a deep depression over the west central Bay of Bengal. The system intensified further, becoming Cyclonic Storm Daye later that day, while situated over the northwestern Bay of Bengal.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Daye
Early on September 21, Daye made landfall on south Odisha, also impacting the adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast near Gopalpur, during the morning, local time, resulting in heavy rains and strong winds of 65 to 75 km/h in various districts in the regions. Upon its landfall, Daye brought heavy to very heavy rainfall in various districts of Odisha. Following landfall, Daye weakened into a depression. Over the next two days, Daye continued moving westward, while dropping heavy amounts of rain across India. On September 22, Daye weakened into a well-marked low, with the IMD issuing its final advisory on the system.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Daye
Prior to the cyclone's landfall at midnight, local time, on September 21, the government of Odisha deployed emergency teams in Malkangiri, with more teams on standby in Rayagada, Gajapati, and Puri. One NDRF team had each been deployed in Kalahandi, Rayagada, Gajapati, Puri, Nayagarh, and Kandhamal districts, with 17 boats and other emergency equipment. Local cautionary Signal Number LC-III had been kept hoisted at all ports of Odisha when the cyclone was a deep depression.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Daye
Malkangiri was worst affected, with many houses submerged. Several parts of outer Malkangiri city and rural areas of the district reportedly received heavy cyclonic rains. Several houses had submerged into water, leaving many people homeless. According to reports, a maximum rainfall total of 284 mm was recorded at Malkangiri by the India Meteorological department (IMD). In Balasore District, the water was flowing above the danger level in the Jalaka River. Water level increased in the Kolab Dam and two gates were opened.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Daye
The outer rainbands of the storm dropped extremely heavy rain in the southern parts of West Bengal. Digha recorded 229 mm of rain, Contai received 331 mm of rain, Diamond Harbour recorded 66 mm of rain, Midnapore received 79 mm of rain, and Halisahar recorded 51 mm of rain. Torrential rains and flash floods were also reported in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, resulting in at least 25 deaths. The floodgates of the famous Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh were opened, for the first time in 10 years.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Cyclonic Storm Daye
As Daye weakened into a low-pressure area, the storm interacted with another western disturbance to the north, leading to widespread rainfall in the northern Himalayas and the plains to the south, from September 22–24. Delhi received heavy rains between September 22–24 totaling 58.6 mm, resulting in severe waterlogging. Maximum temperatures in Delhi were up to 6 Degrees Celsius below normal. Amritsar in Punjab received large amounts of rainfall ending early on September 24, with a total of 203.0 mm, while Karnal in Haryana received one of its highest 24-hour rainfall totals in September, with a total of 142.0 mm.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Luban
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Luban was the third tropical cyclone to affect the Arabian Peninsula during the 2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, after cyclones Sagar and Mekunu in May. Luban developed on October 6 in the central Arabian Sea, and for much of its duration, maintained a general west-northwestward trajectory. On October 10, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) upgraded Luban to a very severe cyclonic storm – equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane – and estimated maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (100 mph). On October 14, Cyclonic Storm Luban struck Yemen in the midst of a civil war and a cholera outbreak. The storm quickly weakened over the dry, mountainous terrain of the Arabian Peninsula, before dissipating on October 15.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Luban
Upon moving ashore, Cyclone Luban produced flooding rains in Somalia, Oman, and Yemen. Luban forced 2,203 families to leave their houses, utilizing 38 schools for shelter. The storm killed 14 people in the country, and injured another 124 people, with 10 people still being missing. Heavy rainfall cut off villages and damaged roads. Damage in the country was estimated at US$1 billion. In Oman, desert rainfall caused a small locust outbreak. Luban coexisted with Cyclone Titli in the Bay of Bengal, marking the first time since 1977 that two storms of such intensity were active at the same time in the North Indian Ocean.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Titli
On October 6, a low-pressure area formed in the Andaman Sea. Over the next two days, the disaster entered the Bay of Bengal and became a depression on October 8, receiving the designation BOB 08 from the IMD. Afterward, the storm rapidly strengthened, becoming a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm on October 9, with the strength of a Category 3 major hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale (SSHWS).


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Titli
Between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. IST on October 11 (23:00–00:00 UTC on October 10–11), Titli made landfall near Palasa, Andhra Pradesh, at peak intensity.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Titli
Titli killed at least 77 people in Odisha and left a couple of others missing, due to heavy flooding and landslides, and caused another 8 deaths in Andhra Pradesh. The storm weakened into a depression before entering West Bengal, wreaking havoc in some parts of South Bengal, and bringing torrential rain and gale-force wind. Damage from flooding caused by Titli totaled at ₹3,673.1 crore (US$507 million) in Andhra Pradesh, and ₹3,000 crore (US$413 million) in Odisha. The storm also caused serious damage to the East Coast railway.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Gaja
On November 5, a low-pressure system formed over the Gulf of Thailand. The system crossed through Southern Thailand and the Malay Peninsula on November 8. On the next day, it crossed into the Andaman Sea and lingered there, organizing further throughout the day, before intensifying into a depression over the Bay of Bengal on November 10, with the IMD designating the system as Depression BOB 09. Soon afterward, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA) on the system.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Gaja
At 00:00 UTC on November 11, the deep depression strengthened into a cyclonic storm, and was named Gaja. After tracking west-southwestward for a number of days, it made landfall in Tamil Nadu, on November 16. The storm survived crossing over into the Arabian Sea later that day; however, it degenerated into a remnant low in hostile conditions only several days later, on November 20. On the next day, the storm's remnants dissipated near Socotra.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Gaja
In India, 52 people were killed by the storm. Damage nationwide was about ₹5,400 crore (US$775 million).


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Severe Cyclonic Storm Phethai
An area  of convection developed in the southern Bay of Bengal on December 13. The disturbance was forecasted having little chance to develop; however, the storm's convection persisted and organized, resulting in the storm being classified as Depression BOB 10. The depression gradually organized and intensified into a deep depression on December 14. Within 24 hours, the deep depression attained 3-minute sustained winds of 40 mph, and the storm was named Phethai. Phethai steadily strengthened and on December 16, Phethai peaked with 65 mph winds and at severe cyclonic storm status. The storm steadily weakened and made landfall at Katrenikona on December 17, with 3-minute sustained winds of 50 mph. Phethai rapidly weakened as it traversed Andhra Pradesh, and finally dissipated over a tropical rainforest south west of Kolkata.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Systems, Severe Cyclonic Storm Phethai
Eight people were reported dead after Phethai, and the agricultural damage in Andhra Pradesh was estimated at ₹294.54 crore (US$41.1 million).


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Storm names
Within this basin, a tropical cyclone is assigned a name when it is judged to have reached Cyclonic Storm intensity, with winds of 65 km/h (40 mph). The names were selected by members of the ESCAP/WMO panel on Tropical Cyclones between 2000 and May 2004, before the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in New Delhi started to assign names in September 2004. There is no retirement of tropical cyclone names in this basin, as the list of names is only scheduled to be used once before a new list of names is drawn up. Should a named tropical cyclone move into the basin from the Western Pacific, then it will retain its original name. The next eight available names from the List of North Indian Ocean storm names are below.


2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Season effects
This is a table of all storms in the 2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. It mentions all of the season's storms and their names, duration, peak intensities (according to the IMD storm scale), damage, and death totals. Damage and death totals include the damage and deaths caused when that storm was a precursor wave or extratropical low, and all of the damage figures are in 2018 USD.


2018 North Korea Census
The Government of North Korea had planned to hold a census in the country in 2018, ten years after the 2008 Census. However, the census was reportedly canceled because South Korea had stopped funding the project (because such funding would be in violation of international sanctions, specifically Resolution 2371 which sanctions the nation's Foreign Trade Bank).


2018 North Korea Census
Before it was canceled, it was expected that the census would show a moderate increase in population, with growth lower than in previous decades. This is because the Total Fertility Rate stayed constant at about 1.9 births/woman between 2008 and 2018, slightly below the replacement rate of 2.1.


2018 North Korea Census
In 2019, North Korea reportedly told the UN that it planned to hold a census that year, but without UN funding. This is reportedly because few nations wanted to give North Korea the funding because they feared violating sanctions. The UN believed that the data will be less reliable, which would hurt aid efforts in the country. Despite the North's claim, the results of the census were never made public internationally, so it is unknown whether or not it actually took place. A similar situation occurred with the 2008 Census, whose results were not made public until 2010.


2018 North Korea bus accident
On 22 April 2018, a bus in North Hwanghae Province, North Korea transporting Chinese tourists fell off a bridge, killing thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans. The cause of the accident was not immediately disclosed.


2018 North Korea bus accident, Accident
The bus was traveling from Kaesong to Pyongyang, when the bus went off of the bridge in the North Hwanghae Province.


2018 North Korea bus accident, Reaction
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang to express his condolences regarding the accident.


2018 North Korean floods
The 2018 North Korean floods began on 28 August 2018, killing at least 76 people, leaving around 75 more missing, destroying more than 800 buildings, and causing about 10,700 people to become homeless.


2018 North Korean floods
The most affected area were the North and South Hwanghae provinces, where volunteers from the national Red Cross conducted search and rescue operations. Landslides also occurred after the floods, and thousands of people were in need of health services, shelter, food, safe drinking water and sanitation.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit
The 2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, commonly known as the Singapore Summit, was a summit meeting between North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, held at the Capella Hotel, Sentosa, Singapore, on June 12, 2018. It was the first-ever meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States. They signed a joint statement, agreeing to security guarantees for North Korea, new peaceful relations, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, recovery of soldiers' remains, and follow-up negotiations between high-level officials. Both leaders also met separately with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit
Immediately following the summit, President Trump announced that the U.S. military would discontinue "provocative" joint military exercises with South Korea, and stated that he wished to bring the U.S. soldiers back home at some point, but he reinforced that it was not part of the Singapore equation. On August 1, 2018, the U.S. Senate passed the military budget bill for 2019, forbidding funding the reduction of active USFK personnel below 22,000; significant removal of US forces is considered a non-negotiable item in denuclearization talks with the North.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit
After a period of heightened conflict that included North Korea successfully testing what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb and the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in late 2017, tensions began to de-escalate after Kim Jong-un announced his desire to send athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics being held in South Korea. During the games, Kim proposed talks with South Korea to plan an inter-Korean summit. On March 8, the South Korean delegation returned from the talks and traveled to the United States to deliver an invitation by Kim Jong-un to Donald Trump for a meeting.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit
High-level exchanges between the two sides then took place, including a visit by then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang and a visit by Kim Yong-chol, Vice Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, to the White House. Both sides threatened to cancel the summit after a round of joint military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea, with Trump even delivering a formal letter to Kim to call off the meeting; however, the two sides eventually agreed to meet. A second meeting was held between Trump and Kim in February 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
Korea has been divided since 1945. The Korean War of 1950–1953 ended with an armistice agreement but not a peace settlement. A sporadic conflict has continued, with American troops remaining in the South as part of a mutual defense treaty. The North began building a nuclear reactor in 1963, and it began a nuclear weapons program in the 1980s. North Korea first committed to denuclearization in 1992 in the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
In a speech authored by David Frum, President George W. Bush referred to North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" during his 2002 State of the Union address, but in the 2005 Joint Statement of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks, North Korea reaffirmed the 1992 Joint Declaration and the goal of verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In 2008, North Korea voluntarily gave information on its nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief, and they were taken off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
Despite this, nuclear inspectors were barred from surveying any North Korean weapons facilities. The Obama administration had a policy of "strategic patience", in which perceived North Korean provocations would not be "rewarded" with presidential attention or the sending of high-level envoys but instead be punished with sanctions and greater military coordination with South Korea and Japan. More nuclear tests were conducted in the succeeding years, and the 2010 bombardment of Yeonpyeong markedly raised tensions between North Korea and South Korea. The escalation of North Korea's nuclear program advanced particularly under the rule of Kim Jong-un, who became the leader in December 2011, after his father Kim Jong-il died.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
Donald Trump was elected US president in 2016 with a position of opposition to Barack Obama's policy of "strategic patience" towards North Korea. While advocating a tough stance, he also expressed openness to dialogue, saying he would be prepared to "eat a hamburger" with Kim. He put himself at odds with military allies, saying that it would be better if South Korea and Japan protect themselves. In return, a pro-North Korean website, DPRK Today, described him as a "wise politician". The editorial suggested that Trump might make the slogan "Yankee go home" a reality. In 2017, Moon Jae-in was elected President of South Korea with a promise to return to the Sunshine Policy of friendly relations with the North.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
During a period of heightened tensions with the United States, North Korea successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), named Hwasong-14, in July 2017. In response to heightened North Korean rhetoric, Trump warned that any North Korean attack "will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before". In response, North Korea announced that it was considering a missile test in which the missiles would land near the US territory of Guam. North Korea tested what some sources argued may have been its first hydrogen bomb on September 3.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
The test was internationally condemned, and further economic sanctions were put on North Korea. The United States also added North Korea back to its State Sponsors of Terrorism list after nine years. On November 28, North Korea launched the Hwasong-15, which, according to analysts, would be capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. The United Nations responded by placing further sanctions on the country.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
After North Korea claimed that the missile was capable of "carrying [a] super-heavy [nuclear] warhead and hitting the whole mainland of the U.S.", Kim-Jong-Un announced that they had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force", putting them in a position of strength to push the United States into talks.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
In his New Year address for 2018, North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un celebrated completing their nuclear capabilities and proposed talks for sending a delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea. In January a false missile alert alarmed Hawaii. The Seoul–Pyongyang hotline was reopened after almost two years. North Korea sent an unprecedented high-level delegation, headed by Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong-nam, and including performers like the Samjiyon Orchestra. The delegation passed on an invitation to President Moon to visit North Korea.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Background
The United States was represented by Vice President Mike Pence. After arriving late to a dinner hosted by President Moon, he was asked to greet the other dignitaries, but he shook hands with everyone except Kim Yong-nam and left early. North and South Korean athletes marched together in the Olympics opening ceremony and fielded a united women's ice hockey team.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Announcement
On March 5, 2018, South Korea's special delegation agreed to hold the third inter-Korean summit at Inter-Korean Peace House in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018. On March 6, after returning to South Korea, the national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, and National Information Director Suh Hoon traveled to the United States on March 8 to report to Trump about the upcoming inter-Korean summit and relayed to President Trump the North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un's invitation. Trump endorsed the North Korea–United States summit about an hour after receiving the report. The South Korean National Security Adviser (SKNS), Mr. Jeong briefed the public that the North Korea–United States summit would be held sometime in May 2018.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Announcement
The White House announced that the UN Sanctions would remain in place until an agreement between the United States and North Korea is reached. On March 6, Sarah Sanders said that the White House would need to see "concrete and verifiable steps" toward the denuclearization of North Korea before Trump would meet with Kim Jong-un. Later that day, an unidentified Trump official told The Wall Street Journal that Trump had still accepted Kim Jong-un's invitation.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Announcement
South Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong visited China on March 12 to meet with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, of the foreign officials and report on the planned inter-Korean summit as well as the North Korea-United States summit and asked their advice. Russia on March 14, 2018, for explaining North Korea and the United States Visit Summary, seeking guidance for upcoming 2018 inter-Korean summit. National Information Director Suh Hoon visited Japan and had a consultation with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe including the foreign officials about the denuclearization and Permanent Peace on the Korean Peninsula.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Preparatory talks
South Korea's foreign ministry announced on March 18 that selected informal delegations from North Korea, South Korea, and the US would meet for denuclearization discussions in April in Vantaa, Finland. (This type of discussions, as held previously, had sometimes been referred to as track-2 talks.) According to South Korea's Yonhap news, Choe Kang-il, a deputy director general for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, would also attend the event, which Yonhap termed "track-1.5 talks".


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Kim Jong-un's meeting with Xi Jinping
North Korea's supreme leader Kim was in Beijing on March 25–28, 2018, arriving by special train for talks with China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, Kim's first known out-of-country excursion since taking power six years previously. China stated that North Korea was "committed to denuclearization" and willing to hold a summit with the United States. It was organized by the invitation of Xi. During the meeting between two leaders, Kim officially invited Xi to the North Korean capital Pyongyang when it was convenient in his schedule, and Xi accepted the invitation.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Kim Jong-un's meeting with Xi Jinping
Xi urged Kim to strengthen the strategic and diplomatic future partnership between China and North Korea. Kim stressed to Xi that North Korea and China are communist countries and that there are many ways to cooperate in various aspects in the future. Kim and Xi met again on May 7, 2018, in the city of Dalian, China.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Announcement within North Korea
According to North Korea's state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim led a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's political bureau on April 9, 2018, where he spoke about the planned summit with Trump for the first time.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Proposed conditions by North Korea
On April 11, North Korea presented five entreaties as conditions for the dismissal of their nuclear-capable ICBMs:


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Proposed conditions by North Korea
Although North Korea was previously expected to request the withdrawal of United States Forces Korea (USFK) from South Korea, North Korea publicized they would embrace the continuous deployment of 25,000 USFK troops in South Korea as long as the security of North Korea is guaranteed.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, April 2018 inter-Korean summit
At an inter-Korean summit on April 27, 2018, held at the Peace House in Panmunjom, the leaders of North and South Korea agreed to formally end the Korean War before the end of the year and confirmed the goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through denuclearization.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Release of the American detainees
On May 10, 2018, three Americans held by North Korea were released following negotiations between the Trump administration and the North Korean regime. Some have speculated that their release was part of an attempt of the regime to motivate the US to continue the negotiations and perhaps ease the pressure upon the North Koreans. Nevertheless, their release has managed to ease the tensions between the Trump administration and the North Korean regime, enabling both sides to proceed to further negotiations, possibly leading to the 2018 North Korea–United States summit.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Release of the American detainees
The three Americans Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Hak-song left North Korea accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and were greeted by the president and the first lady upon their landing on US soil at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
American Vice President Mike Pence said on May 21, 2018, that "this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn't make a deal" to "dismantle his nuclear weapons program". Trump had made similar remarks on May 17, as he described that Libya's fate is "what will take place if we don't make a deal". These comments were in reference to the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after military intervention by Americans and Europeans in 2011. After a NATO airstrike prevented Gaddafi's escape, the Libyan rebels captured, assaulted, sodomized, and executed Gaddafi. However, Libya under Gaddafi had already in 2003 voluntarily ended its nuclear weapons program and complied with conditions set by Western powers. As a result, North Korean vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui called Pence's remarks "ignorant and stupid" and threatened a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown".


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
Trump canceled the summit on May 24, 2018, via a letter to Chairman Kim, writing that "based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting ... You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used." Even though it was Trump who decided to cancel, Trump told Kim, "If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write."


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
South Korean President Moon was left "very perplexed" by Trump's cancellation, while the South Korean minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs Cho Myoung-gyon said that North Korea "remains sincere" on "efforts on denuclearization and peace building".


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
In response to Trump's cancellation, North Korean vice foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan expressed his country's "willingness to sit down face-to-face with the US and resolve issues anytime and in any format", being "open-minded in giving time and opportunity to the US" for the "peace and stability for the world and the Korean Peninsula". Trump's cancellation had come on the day North Korea had detonated explosives at its only known nuclear test site, at Punggye-ri in front of international journalists; North Korea claimed that this would have demolished the test site.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
On May 25, however, Trump announced that the summit could resume as scheduled following a "very nice statement" he received from North Korea and that talks were now resuming.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
The following day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed in a statement that a "pre-advance team for Singapore will leave as scheduled in order to prepare the summit should take place". The team, consisting of about thirty staffers from both the White House and State Department, met with North Korean counterparts over Memorial Day weekend.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
On May 30, North Korean general Kim Yong-chol arrived in New York City to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Negotiations between Kim and Pompeo continued the next day, and Pompeo later stated at a press conference that "good progress" had been made. Kim Yong-chol, who is the Vice Chair of Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, is the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the US since 2000 (when Jo Myong-rok met with US President Bill Clinton in Washington, D.C.).


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Tensions, cancelation, and reinstatement
On June 1, Trump announced the summit would resume as scheduled for June 12 after he met Kim Yong-chol at the White House. Kim Yong-chol delivered a letter from Kim Jong-un to Trump, of which Trump first told reporters that it was "a very nice" and "a very interesting letter", yet eight minutes later said "I haven't seen the letter yet. I purposely didn't open the letter".


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, US–South Korea summit
On May 22, 2018, South Korea President Moon Jae-in visited the United States to meet President Trump, to promote Trump-Kim summit progress, and to coordinate the two countries' common strategy regarding the upcoming summit, following harsh rhetoric from North Korea towards Washington.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Closure of Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site
On 12 May 2018, North Korea announced the closure and planned dismantlement of its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, and invited journalists to witness the destruction of its tunnels and other testing infrastructure. On 24 May 2018, reporters witnessed explosions to purportedly close those tunnels, although independent inspectors were not present. Those explosions destroyed the portals to several test tunnels, but the extent of the damage to the tunnels themselves was not clear.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Replacement of North Korean generals
On June 3, North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong-un replaced three general officers responsible for the development of North Korea's ICBM nuclear weapons.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, May 2018 inter-Korean summit
Two leaders of North and South Koreas exchanged their opinions about the issues and solutions for the Trump-Kim summit as Trump abruptly cancelled the upcoming US-North Korea summit on 12 June. The principal agenda of the meeting was trying to get U.S. summit back on track and keep progressing the denuclearization talks. The second 2018 summit was established by Kim Jung-un's suggestion within a whirlwind 24 hour notice, but Moon Jae-in accepted Kim's invitation as per the critical nuclear agenda between North and South Korea. Moon Jae-in had expressed his belief, and he discussed with Kim Jong Un about Kim's willingness to join nuclear interventions with Trump. Both leaders also agreed to accelerate the implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration and meet again at "anytime and anyplace" without formality.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Potential denuclearization process
During President Donald Trump's meeting with North Korea envoy, the former spy chief Kim Yong-chol at the White House, Trump said that he would choose the "denuclearization process" in North Korea. The nuclear warheads and the ICBM nuclear missiles completed in North Korea could be transferred outside of North Korea and economic sanctions on North Korea could be partly alleviated. The next step would be comprehensive inspections on North Korea's nuclear facilities and nuclear ICBM weapons program by IAEA.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Potential denuclearization process
On July 7, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha met in Tokyo, where they reaffirmed their unity in urging North Korea to denuclearize as promised. The ministers stressed the need to call on North Korea to take concrete steps toward denuclearization and to keep existing U.N. economic sanctions in place. Ten days later, Donald Trump said there is "no time limit" for North Korea to denuclearize and that there is no need to rush the process.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Logistical preparations
On June 3, a "special event area" was declared by the Ministry of Home Affairs around the area surrounding the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore and stringent security measures will be in force from June 10–14. On the same day, a smaller segment within the "special event area" was declared a "special zone" by the Singapore Police Force where enhanced police powers will be in effect during the same period. On June 5, the Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore) declared the whole of Sentosa Island, including waters off its south-west beaches, a "special event area" from June 10–14. The summit venue Capella Singapore sits on the "special event area". The government also issued an order exempting four bulletproof and bombproof vehicles from certain traffic rules for the purposes of conveying "non-citizen" individuals for the summit from June 5–30.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Logistical preparations
The F1 Pit Building has also been designated as the summit's International Media Centre for international journalists to cover the summit and will be operated from 10 am on June 10 to 10 pm on June 13.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Logistical preparations
On June 6, Singapore's aviation authorities announced that temporary airspace restrictions will be put in place for parts of June 11, 12 and 13. Aircraft arriving at Singapore Changi Airport will be required to reduce speed and some restrictions are placed on runway use. Aviators are also informed to stay away from Paya Lebar Air Base, a facility used by US Presidents on their previous visits to Singapore.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Logistical preparations
The Singapore Mint also released three commemorative medallions to mark the summit. They are available in gold proof, silver proof, and nickel plated zinc proof.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Logistical preparations
On June 9, the Singapore Police Force and the Land Transport Authority announced that security measures, such as road closures and security checks, will kick in. Some bus stops in the Tanglin area will be skipped and security checks will be conducted along stretches of roads around the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore and the St Regis Hotel Singapore, the two hotels Trump and Kim are believed to be staying in. Bag searches and other security checks may be conducted for visitors entering Sentosa Island.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Logistical preparations
On June 11, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan announced that the Singapore government would be paying for the North Korean contingent's hotel bill, forming part of the total US$20 million expenditure for the summit, as it was "hospitality that we would have offered them". On June 25, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced that the summit cost S$16.3 million, lower than the initial planned cost mentioned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Diplomatic preparations
In preparation for the summit, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan visited the United States on a working visit and met with the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John R. Bolton. He visited North Korea and met with North Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-ho and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong-nam to further lay the groundwork for the Trump-Kim summit.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Diplomatic preparations
The United States did not convene a Cabinet-level National Security Council meeting to discuss the summit with North Korea. Trump said: "I think I'm very well prepared ... I don't think I have to prepare very much ... this isn't a question of preparation, it's a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we'll know that very quickly."


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Preparations, Media center
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited the summit's International Media Centre on June 10 when it opened. At a media conference, Lee mentioned that the summit cost S$20 million, with security costs taking up S$10 million and the setting up of the International Media Centre costing S$5 million, but it is a cost that Singapore is "willing to pay". The media center opened to journalists and they were given customized items, including a bottle of water, a fan, and a notebook. The center hosted more than 2500 local and international journalists.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Background
On March 31 and possibly also April 1, then-CIA director Mike Pompeo had secretly met with Kim in Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for the summit, including their discussing possible venues. On April 17, on the day of a meeting at Mar-a-Lago of Trump with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe, sources revealed to reporters the identities involved in the discussions in Pyongyang.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Locations considered
Trump administration sources said on April 28 that the meeting would be held in either Singapore or Mongolia. On April 30, Trump remarked on a possibility the Peace House and inter-Korean House of Freedom (Joint Security Area) in Panmunjom would serve as venues. Trump believed that Panmunjom in DMZ would be the reasonable location for the meeting to remove nuclear weapons and to sign the preparatory peace treaty on the Korean peninsula.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Locations considered
The inter-Korean Peace House was where the 2018 inter-Korean summit was held earlier in April. Singapore was the site of a recent China–Taiwan summit. Mongolia has sponsored a number of talks in recent years involving regional and international players and is accessible by train from North Korea.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Locations considered
On April 30, Trump confirmed that Singapore, the Peace House and the inter-Korean House of Freedom were under consideration.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Locations considered
American officials said the most likely mutually-agreed-upon choice of venue would be in Southeast Asia or Europe, especially from among the choices of Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Switzerland (where Kim and his two siblings had some schooling), or Sweden (whose embassy acts as intermediary for Americans traveling in North Korea). Another possible location of the summit would be Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Locations considered
Additionally proposed venues included Pyongyang, North Korea (favored by Kim); the Inter-Korean Peace House in Panmunjom near the boundary of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea (site for the April 27, 2018 inter-Korean summit; a site possibly favored by Kim for the summit with the US as well); the Russian port city of Vladivostok (accessible to Kim by land or sea and nearby Vyatskoye, Kim's predecessor and father Kim Jong-il's February 16, 1941 birthplace); a Chinese city such as Shenyang, Changchun, or Beijing (favored by China); Seoul or South Korea's Jeju Island; or, aboard a US ship in international waters.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Announcement on holding the talks in Singapore
CNN reported on May 9 that Singapore will be hosting the meeting on June 12. As per CNBC, a White House official said Singapore was chosen as it has diplomatic relations with both United States and North Korea, and was one of the few countries that have relationships with both countries. Trump confirmed the location on May 10 and announced that the summit is set for June 12. At 4,700 kilometres (2,900 mi) from Pyongyang's Sunan airport, Singapore is easily within the range of Kim's Soviet-made Il-62M aircraft.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Announcement on holding the talks in Singapore
Local media reported that the most likely choice of venue would be the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore near Orchard Road, known for hosting the annual Shangri-La Dialogue and the 2015 Ma–Xi meeting. A South Korean report also cited The Istana, the official residence of the President of Singapore, as a possible venue to host the summit.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Announcement on holding the talks in Singapore
Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs further provided information on the summit stating that "Singapore is pleased to host the meeting between President of the United States Donald J. Trump and Democratic People's Republic of Korea State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un on 12 June 2018. We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula". However, the ministry did not provide any details on the venue and the arrangements.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Announcement on holding the talks in Singapore
Following Trump's renewed commitment to the summit on June 1, Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen welcomed the move and stated that Singapore would cover some of the costs of the summit. Advance team members of the American and North Korean delegations that were meeting in Singapore in prior weeks were believed to have been staying in Capella Singapore on Sentosa, and the Fullerton Hotel Singapore in the city's Downtown Core respectively, both of which were additional venue options for the summit.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Announcement on holding the talks in Singapore
The White House announced on June 4 that the meeting will take place at 9:00 am (SGT), and confirmed the next day that Capella Singapore will be the venue for the June 12 summit. The US clarified that they would not pay for North Korea's officials' accommodation. They also affirmed that they would talk with the South Korean and Japanese governments if asked about the possible declaration of the end of the Korean War during the summit.


2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, Meeting location, Announcement on holding the talks in Singapore
On June 9, 2018, at a press conference at the G7 Summit in Quebec, Trump estimated that the interpersonal chemistry between him and Leader Kim Jong-un would be a deciding factor in the success of the Summit in Singapore and that this would be a one-time chance for North Korea to strike a deal.