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Monday, May 18, 2026
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Good Morning! On this day in 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in southwestern Washington state in the most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. The blast flattened 230 square miles of forest, killed 57 people, and dropped the mountain’s summit by more than 1,300 feet.
In our Science section today, we’ve got the story of how art critics on X spent last week tearing apart a “lousy” AI painting, only to learn they’d been roasting a real Monet.
Today’s sponsor is Cozy Earth. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your sleep setup, this is one of the best times to do it. Their Memorial Day Sale starts TODAY, and The Flyover readers can now use code FLYOVER for 30% off. Their bamboo sheets remain one of the most talked-about home upgrades we’ve featured.
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 Navy Jets Collide at Idaho Air Show
Two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler jets collided midair during an aerial demonstration at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at Idaho’s Mountain Home Air Force Base on Sunday afternoon. All four crew members ejected and were being evaluated by medical personnel.
Video shared by spectators shows the two electronic warfare jets flying close together before locking together in midair, pitching upward, and cartwheeling to the ground as four parachutes deploy. The aircraft exploded on impact about two miles northwest of the base. Watch the video here.
The jets were part of the Navy’s Growler Demonstration Team, based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state.
The base was briefly locked down, and the rest of the show was canceled. It was the first Gunfighter Skies event in eight years.
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Grads Boo AI Talk at Commencements
Graduating students at multiple universities have spent the past week booing commencement speakers who tried to celebrate artificial intelligence.
At the University of Central Florida, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield was interrupted by jeers when she called AI “the next industrial revolution.” Stunned, she turned to the other speakers on stage and asked, “What happened?”
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt got an even rougher reception at the University of Arizona on Saturday, where boos grew loud enough to drown him out when he told graduates they would “help shape artificial intelligence.”
The pushback reflects growing anxiety about AI’s impact on the entry-level job market, with critics warning the technology could obliterate opportunities for new graduates. A recent Gallup poll found only 43% of Americans aged 15 to 34 think it’s a good time to find a job locally, down from 75% in 2022.
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Oldest English Poem Found in Roman Library
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have identified a 9th-century manuscript in Rome’s national library as the third-oldest surviving copy of Caedmon’s Hymn, widely considered the first poem written in English.
Dated to between 800 and 830, it’s the oldest known version where Old English appears in the main body of the text, rather than scrawled in the margins.
The nine-line hymn praises God for creating the world and is said to have been composed in the 7th century by Caedmon, an illiterate Northumbrian cowherd who, according to legend, was given the gift of song in a dream and sang the verses on the spot.
The book was transcribed in a northern Italian abbey, then had vanished for centuries, and passed through European collectors and a New York rare-book dealer before Italy bought it back in 1972. Read the poem here.
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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Meet Flyover UpdatesBy the time you finish reading this morning’s edition of The Flyover, the world has kept on moving. Headlines change. Markets react. Politicians speak. Big stories develop throughout the day, and until now, you’ve had to wait until tomorrow morning to get caught up. We think there’s a better way. That’s why we created Flyover Updates, a new afternoon text alert designed to keep you informed on the day’s biggest breaking stories while they’re still unfolding. No apps to download. No doom-scrolling. No constant notifications. Just a simple afternoon message with the three most important stories developing since this morning’s edition, delivered in the same clear, fact-based Flyover voice you already trust. Flyover Updates is built for readers who want to stay informed without spending all day chasing headlines. Quick to read. Easy to follow. And designed to help you stay ahead of the news cycle without the noise. We officially launch in June, and you can join the early access list starting today. Be among the first to receive Flyover Updates—sign up today! The news doesn’t stop at 9 a.m., and now, neither do we.
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The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes. Clicking the links will take you directly to these stories:
➤ A small plane carrying pickleball players to a Texas tournament broke apart midair after its airspeed instrument iced over. (Listen Now)
➤ A Manhattan community leader was convicted of running a secret Chinese police station above a ramen shop. (Hear More)
➤ American researchers spent five years engineering identical natural grass for all 16 World Cup stadiums across three countries. (Podcast Available)
  
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➤ Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., lost his primary Saturday after a Trump-backed challenge over his 2021 vote to convict the president on Jan. 6 impeachment charges. Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming will advance to a June 27 runoff. (More)
➤ The Senate parliamentarian ruled Saturday that a Republican bill including $1 billion in White House security funds, part of it tied to President Trump’s new ballroom, must be rewritten or face a 60-vote threshold to pass. (See Details)
➤ Thousands gathered on the National Mall on Sunday for a White House-backed prayer rally called Rededicate 250, marking America’s 250th anniversary. President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Sen. Tim Scott were among the speakers. (More)
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➤ Aaron Rai shot a 5-under 65 on Sunday to win the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania, becoming the first English-born player to capture the major since 1919. Rai sealed the victory with a lengthy birdie putt on the 17th hole. (More)
➤ A shirtless fan section in right field drew praise from Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol after Friday’s walk-off win over the Royals in St. Louis. Yohel Pozo delivered the game-winning hit in the 11th inning as the Cardinals secured their fourth walk-off victory of the season. (More)
➤ Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover on Sunday, leading 103 laps and earning the $1 million prize. Chase Briscoe finished second, while Erik Jones completed a Toyota sweep of the top three in the crash-filled race. (More)
➤ Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his second straight NBA MVP award after leading Oklahoma City to a league-best 64-18 record. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points and 6.6 assists per game during the regular season. (More)
➤ Yesterday’s Results: NBA | MLB | WNBA | NCAAB | Soccer | PGA Championship | NASCAR
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➤ Fidelity Investments agreed to a $2.5 million class-action settlement over a 2024 data breach that hit roughly 77,000 accounts. Eligible customers can claim up to $5,000 in documented losses or about $100 by default, with a July 27 filing deadline. (See Details)
➤ Straus Family Creamery is voluntarily recalling select pints and quarts of its organic ice cream in 17 states over possible metal fragments. Affected flavors include vanilla bean, strawberry, cookie dough, Dutch chocolate, and mint chip. (More)
➤ Kansas-based Daland Corporation, a major Pizza Hut franchisee, is converting 80 of its locations into nostalgic “Pizza Hut Classic” stores, with red vinyl booths, Tiffany-style lamps, salad bars, and Pac-Man machines. President Tim Sparks says he wants to rebuild family dine-in spaces. (More)
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➤ A newly discovered asteroid roughly the size of a blue whale will pass within about 56,000 miles of Earth today, or a quarter of the way to the moon. A free livestream from telescopes in Italy begins at 3:45 p.m. ET, weather permitting. (Watch Live)
➤ Nearly 47% of tracked objects in Earth orbit are now inactive or uncontrollable space junk, a new report found, with the count of trackable objects up roughly 10,000 since 2020. Researchers warn that the buildup raises collision risks that could jeopardize future space travel. (More)
➤ A social media user passed off a real Monet Water Lilies painting as AI art last week and asked critics to roast it. Dozens did, picking apart its “muddled” colors and “vague” reflections before quietly deleting their posts. (More)
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Beyond Our Borders is brought to you by:
➤ Three Finnish cave-diving specialists arrived in the Maldives on Sunday to remap the recovery of four Italian divers believed dead some 160 feet down inside an underwater cave near Vaavu Atoll. (More)
➤ Thirty-six countries and the EU signed on Friday in Moldova to launch the Hague-based Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which aims to hold Russian officials accountable for the 2022 invasion. The U.S. is not part of the tribunal. (More)
➤ Timmy the humpback whale, who became a German rescue celebrity after being towed to the North Sea on a flooded barge earlier this month, was found dead this week off a small Danish island. A tracking device confirmed it. (More)
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➤ Residents of a northwest Atlanta neighborhood say dozens of empty Waymo robotaxis have been circling their cul-de-sacs, with one neighbor counting 50 cars in a single hour between 6 and 7 a.m. Waymo says it has corrected the routing issue. (Watch Report)
➤ Bulgarian singer Dara won the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with her dance track Bangaranga, Bulgaria’s first-ever title. Israel placed second amid a five-country boycott over its participation in the contest. (More)
➤ Glenn Walsh, a 58-year-old fence builder from Hampshire, England, who openly dislikes watercress, was set to defend his World Watercress Eating title for an 18th straight year Sunday by speed-eating a 2.8-ounce bag. (More)
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 Daily Quote
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“There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating … that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.”
— Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, during his commencement speech at the University of Arizona
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 Today’s Trivia
What’s the most commonly used letter in the English language?
Show me the answer
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