Today is Monday, May 18, the 138th day of 2026. There are 227 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state erupted, leaving an estimated 57 people dead or missing.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – An intrepid sea lion nicknamed Chonkers is waddling his way into the hearts of tourists and locals who have flocked to San Francisco’s Pier 39 for a glimpse of the massive pinniped.

NEW YORK (AP) – Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and now first-ever trillionaire, controls a lot of different businesses. Electric vehicles. Brain implants. Underground tunnels. A social media platform once called Twitter. And a rocket maker that blasted off its trading from Wall Street this week.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump marks turning 80 on Sunday with a birthday celebration that once would have seemed unfathomable: a cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House. This week, the hard realities of the office have threatened to overshadow the ostentatious UFC mixed martial arts extravaganza.

NEW YORK (AP) – Jessica Mann once had reason to think she was done being publicly grilled about Harvey Weinstein.

Crude oil pumped from the depths of the Pacific Ocean is flowing for the first time in more than a decade through a pipeline that crosses California state park land after the Trump administration defied state officials to restart drilling off Santa Barbara, calling it essential to national security.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) – Junelle Lewis was on the hunt for a reprieve from Seattle-area gas prices driven high by the Iran war when an app on her phone gave her the answer: the Tulalip Reservation north of the city, almost half an hour from her home.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will meet over dinner at the glittering Palace of Versailles near Paris after the G7 summit of leading industrialized nations next week in France, their governments announced Saturday.