May 16, 2018 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- Battle of Farah
- Taliban forces claim to have taken control of the western city of Farah after two days of fighting. It is the second provincial capital to be temporarily taken over, after a similar assault on Kunduz in 2015. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Battle of Farah
Business and economy
- Economy of the United Kingdom
- The British government renationalises the Virgin Trains East Coast-operated East Coast Main Line. The Department for Transport will run the rail service until 2020. (Reuters) (BBC)
Disasters and accidents
- Five people are confirmed dead as thunderstorms hit the Northeastern United States. (ABC News)
- The Luxembourg Green Party politician and government secretary Camille Gira dies after he collapsed while delivering a speech to parliament. (Delano)
International relations
- 2017–18 North Korea crisis
- North Korea–South Korea relations
- North Korea cancels high-level talks with South Korea in protest of United States–South Korea joint military exercises. (Bloomberg)
- 2018 North Korea–United States summit
- North Korea warns that it might cancel talks with the United States if the U.S. keeps insisting that North Korea will "unilaterally" abandon its nuclear weapons program, similar to the disarmament of Libya. The White House says it is hopeful the planned summit will still happen. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
- North Korea–South Korea relations
Law and crime
- USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal
- Michigan State University announces that it will settle with sexual assault victims of Larry Nassar for over $500 million. (AP via WKAR)
- Five people are shot dead and another is injured in a shooting at a house in Ponder, Denton County, Texas. The Denton County Sheriff's Office believe the shooter is among the dead. (NBC)
- A mass grave containing the bodies of 12 people is discovered in The Gambia. The victims were allegedly killed in 2005 by paramilitary forces controlled by former president Yahya Jammeh, according to human rights groups. (The Guardian)
- Media of Kenya
- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signs a law outlawing cyber-espionage, cyber-bullying, and the "publication of false information." (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- Politics of Malaysia
- Malaysian longtime opposition figure and leader of incumbent government party Pakatan Harapan, Anwar Ibrahim is released from prison after obtaining a full royal pardon from King Muhammad V. Anwar was imprisoned in 2015 during the tenure of Najib Razak for charges widely considered to be politically motivated. (Reuters) (MalaysianDigest)
- 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
- A Belgian judge withdraws the European Arrest Warrant against Toni Comín, Lluís Puig and Meritxell Serret amid procedural defects and irregularities. The Supreme Court of Spain criticizes the decision as a "lack of commitment to Spain" from the Belgian justice. (La Vanguardia) (La Vanguardia2)
- Trump campaign–Russian meetings
- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee releases 2,500 pages of documents related to a June 9, 2016 meeting between Donald Trump campaign officials and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. (NPR)