What happened 2018 AD

In 2018, BMW recalled 106,000 diesel vehicles in South Korea with a defective exhaust gas recirculation module, which caused 39 engine fires. The recall was then expanded to 324,000 more cars in Europe.

In January 2018, estimates of North Korea's nuclear arsenal ranged between 15 and 60 bombs, probably including hydrogen bombs. In the opinion of analysts, the Hwasong-15 missile is capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

In January 2018, Bolsonaro abandoned the Social Christian Party and switched to the Social Liberal Party (PSL).

In 2018, HBO produced a documentary about his life and career. Directed by Marina Zenovich, the film, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival. That same year, a mural of Robin Williams was created on Market Street, in San Francisco.

Tesla ranked as the world's best selling plug-in passenger car manufacturer in 2018, both as a brand and by automotive group, with 245,240 units delivered, capturing a market share of 12% of all plug-in cars sold globally in 2018, followed by BYD Auto with 227,152 plug-in passenger cars delivered.

In 2018, Bryant became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and the first former professional athlete to be nominated and to win an Academy Award in any category for his film Dear Basketball.

In 2018, while still in jail, Little opened up to Texas Ranger James Holland, who began to elicit from Little a breathtaking number of confessions. Holland interviewed Little for around 700 hours, during which Little provided details of several killings that had until then only been known to him. Known as an expert interrogator, Holland has described Little as both a genius and a sociopath.

Facebook opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018.

Nirav Modi (Famous designer and jeweler) conspired with employees of the Punjab National Bank to illegally obtain letters of undertaking (LoUs). He then used these LoUs to get short term loans from international offices of other Indian banks. Modi fled India before the scandal broke. At the time of writing, he is still a fugitive. Around 10,000 credit and debit cards belonging to customers of the embattled bank were up for sale on the internet at a shockingly low price of $4-5 percent.

For the fiscal year 2018, Nike reported earnings of US$1.933 billion, with an annual revenue of US$36.397 billion, an increase of 6.0% over the previous fiscal cycle. Nike's shares traded at over $72 per share.

Facebook ranked No. 76 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. Most comes from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned US$20.21 per user from advertising.

In 2018, AirPods were Apple's most popular accessory product, with 35 million units sold.

In 2018, after making almost $3.4 billion donations, Buffett was ranked 3rd in the Forbes' List of Billionaire 2018.

In 2018 League of Legends got a new PvE mode called Odyssey.

In January 2018, Page publicly announced his marriage to dancer and choreographer Emma Portner. The couple met after Page noticed Portner on Instagram. Emma Portner is a Canadian professional dancer and choreographer. Portner was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and began dancing when she was three years old. She started dancing at a competitive studio in Ottawa before spending her summers with The National Ballet of Canada.

In 2018, the DJIA reaches 25,000 for the first time (on January 4).

On 6 January 2018, Immobile scored four goals in the first half away to SPAL, the first Lazio player to score multiple hat-tricks in a season in 16 years; Lazio eventually won the match 5–2.

In January 2018, the Duke and the Duchess visited Sweden and Norway.

In January 2018, locks of the Duchess's hair were reportedly donated to the Little Princess Trust, a charity which makes wigs for children diagnosed with cancer.

The appeal was heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in November 2018, a year after Hernandez's death, by six justices. The attorney representing the Lloyd family, Thomas M. Quinn, III, argued that Hernandez was rightfully convicted of Lloyd's murder and that the conviction was unfairly wiped out. Quinn also argued that Hernandez killed himself knowing of the technicality that would get his conviction thrown out, and that, "He should not be able to accomplish in death, what he never would have been able to do in life." On March 13, 2019, the Supreme Judicial Court reinstated Hernandez's conviction but stated that the trial record would note that his conviction was "neither affirmed nor reversed"; the appeal was rendered moot because Hernandez died while the case was on appeal. The Court, in their ruling, also officially ended the practice of abatement ab initio, ruling that it was outdated, never made sense, and that it was "no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, if, in fact, it ever was." After the ruling, Hernandez's estate vowed to appeal the ruling further.

On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that it would change the News Feed to prioritize friends/family content and de-emphasize content from media companies.

On 16 January 2018, Ronaldinho confirmed his retirement from football.

On 19 January 2018, Nokia signed a deal with NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile operator, to provide 5G wireless radio base stations in the country by 2020.

In January 2018, the House of Commons voted for both houses to vacate the Palace of Westminster to allow for a complete refurbishment of the building which may take up to six years starting in 2025. It is expected that the House of Commons will be temporarily housed in a replica chamber to be located in Richmond House in Whitehall and the House of Lords will be housed at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Parliament Square.

Weah was sworn in as president on 22 January 2018, making him the 4th youngest serving president in Africa, marking Liberia's first democratic transition in 74 years.

According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumble bee in third place.

On January 22, 2018, Amazon Go, a store that uses cameras and sensors to detect items that a shopper grabs off shelves and automatically charges a shopper's Amazon account, was opened to the general public in Seattle.

On January 22, 2018, the company crossed $100 billion in market capitalization, becoming the largest digital media and entertainment company in the world, bigger than every traditional media company except for AT&T, Comcast and Disney and the 59th largest publicly traded company in the US S&P 500 Index.

On 25 January 2018, the Appeal Court of Porto Alegre found Lula guilty of corruption and money laundering and sentenced him to 12 years of prison, for one of the nine law processes, as the other eight are still in course.

Founder Ingvar Kamprad died on 27 January 2018.

Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported in April 2018 that Trump, using a pseudonym "John Barron", called him in 1984 to falsely assert that he owned "in excess of ninety percent" of the Trump family's business, in an effort to secure a higher ranking on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans. Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly overestimated Trump's wealth and wrongly included him on the Forbes 400 rankings of 1982, 1983, and 1984.

Bitcoin prices were negatively affected by several hacks or thefts from cryptocurrency exchanges, including thefts from Coincheck in January 2018, Coinrail and Bithumb in June, and Bancor in July. For the first six months of 2018, $761 million worth of cryptocurrencies was reported stolen from exchanges. Bitcoin's price was affected even though other cryptocurrencies were stolen at Coinrail and Bancor as investors worried about the security of cryptocurrency exchanges.

On 29 January 2018, Nokia introduced the ReefShark line of 5G chipsets, claiming that it triples bandwidth to 84 Gbit/s. It will be released by Q3 2018. It also incorporates artificial intelligence technologies from Bell Labs.

On 29 January 2018, in his first annual message to the national legislature, he reduced his salary and other benefits by 25% with immediate effect. "With the assessment that I gave you earlier of the poor condition of our economy, I believe that it is appropriate that we should all make sacrifices in the interest of our country. According to Article 60 of the Constitution, the salaries of the President and the Vice President are established by the Legislature, and cannot be increased or reduced during the period for which they are elected. However, in view of the very rapidly deteriorating situation of the economy, I am informing you today, with immediate effect, that I will reduce my salary and benefits by 25% and give the proceeds back to the Consolidated Fund for allocation and appropriation as they see fit."

On January 31, 2018, Xerox announced that Fujifilm had agreed to acquire a 50.1% controlling stake in the company for US$6.1 billion, which was to be combined into their existing joint venture Fuji Xerox (having a value of $18 billion post-acquisition).

China banned trading in bitcoin, with the first steps taken in September 2017, and a complete ban that started on 1 February 2018.

In February 2018, Papa John's and the NFL mutually agreed to end their sponsorship agreement, making Pizza Hut the new official sponsor of the NFL.

In February 2018, Tesla announced that they would unveil Model Y production plans within the next 3–6 months and posted open positions for Model Y production and design.

On 2 February 2018, Ardern traveled to Waitangi for the annual Waitangi Day commemoration; she stayed in Waitangi for five days, an unprecedented length. Ardern became the first female prime minister to speak from the top marae. Her visit was largely well-received by Māori leaders, with commentators noting a sharp contrast with the acrimonious responses received by several of her predecessors.

In February 2018, KFC had to temporarily close 575 of its UK outlets, and restrict menus and opening hours in other branches, as a result of its newly-contracted distributor, DHL, failing to deliver chicken to the outlets.

In February 2018, Vodafone Europe agreed to sell its stake in the Qatar joint venture.

On February 5, the DJIA dropped 1,175 points, making it the largest point drop in history.

In February 2018, the Duchess became the patron of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, a professional association based in London, United Kingdom. Its members, including people with and without medical degrees, work in the field of obstetrics and gynecology (O&G), that is, pregnancy, childbirth, and female sexual and reproductive health.

On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others. Witnesses identified Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the school, as the assailant. Cruz fled the scene on foot by blending with other students. He was arrested without incident about an hour later in nearby Coral Springs.

Pearl Fernandez plead guilty on February 15, 2018 to her charge as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

In February 2018, Eilish embarked on the Where's My Mind Tour, which concluded in April 2018. For Record Store Day 2018, Eilish released a 7" vinyl featuring an acoustic version of her song "Party Favor" and an acoustic cover of Drake's "Hotline Bling".

On 20 February, Xiaomi opened its first Mi Store in the Philippines.

On 21 February 2018, Weah made his first official visit outside Africa, to France, meeting French President Emmanuel Macron. The meeting focused on improving the relationship between France and Liberia and also sought French help for a sports development project in Africa.The meeting was also attended by Didier Drogba, Kylian Mbappé and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

On 22 February 2018, Immobile scored a hat-trick in the Europa League round of 32 second leg home to Steaua București in a 5–1 win, which allowed Lazio to qualify, 5–2 on aggregate, to the round of 16.

In February 2018, Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Ryan accusing Republicans with having waged a "cover-up campaign" to protect Trump and cited last minute changes to the memo after a vote for its release as dangerous and violating House rules, saying, "House Republicans' pattern of obstruction and cover-up to hide the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal represents a threat to our intelligence and our national security. The GOP has led a partisan effort to distort intelligence and discredit the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities." She charged House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes with partaking in "deliberately dishonest actions" and called for his immediate removal from his position.

However in March 2018, the government of Myanmar violated the agreement by sending 400 Tatmadaw soldiers into KNU-held territory to build a road connecting two military bases. Armed clashes erupted between the KNU and the Myanmar Army in the Ler Mu Plaw area of Hpapun District, resulting in the displacement of 2,000 people.

On March 1, 2018, the company announced that it would shut down its 250 standalone Best Buy Mobile stores in the United States by the end of May, due to low revenue and high costs. The Best Buy Mobile stores were reported to account for 1% of the company's revenue.

In March 2018, Google's parent company Alphabet bought the nearby Chelsea Market building for $2.4 billion. The sale is touted as one of the most expensive real estate transactions for a single building in the history of New York.

The initial Oculus headsets, produced under the "Oculus Rift" brand, are traditional VR headsets that require a PC to operate. In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the original Oculus Rift "CV1", Oculus Go (a lower-end standalone headset released in 2017), and first-generation Quest were the company's first generation of products, and expected new iterations of the three to be developed for a second generation of the company's technology.

In the March 2018 Legislative Council by-elections for the four seats left vacant by the disqualified legislators over the oath-taking controversy, three candidates were disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) returning officers, including Demosistō's Agnes Chow on the basis of that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]".

In March 2018, Kensington Palace announced the Duchess of Cambridge would become the first royal patron of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

On 13 March 2018, Solidium, the investment arm of the Finnish government, purchased a 3.3% stake in Nokia valued at €844 million.

Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England, on 14 March 2018, at the age of 76.

In a company public announcement on March 15, 2018, Parker said Trevor Edwards, a top Nike executive who was seen as a potential successor to the chief executive, was relinquishing his position as Nike's brand president and would retire in August.

Millard's song "I Can Only Imagine" was inspired by his father's death, and was made into a film also titled I Can Only Imagine. The film was released on March 16, 2018.

With her improved ranking, Kenin was able to play primarily on the WTA Tour in 2018. She began the year by reaching her first WTA quarterfinal at the Auckland Open. After losing her first-round match at the Australian Open, Kenin produced good results at both Premier Mandatory events in March. She entered the top 100 by reaching the second round of the Indian Wells Open as a qualifier. She then qualified for and reached the third round of the Miami Open, where she upset No. 11 Daria Kasatkina.

In March 2018, the last court decision, concerning the dispute between Google and Oracle, was overturned by the Appeals Court, which sent down the case of determining the damages to federal court in San Francisco.

On March 20, 2018, Oracle released Java SE 10.

On 23 March 2018, Ibrahimović signed for Major League Soccer (MLS) club LA Galaxy.

Facebook customer Global Science Research sold information on over 87 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, a political data analysis firm. According to The Guardian both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica threatened to sue the newspaper if it published the story. After publication, Facebook claimed that it had been "lied to". On March 23, 2018, The English High Court granted an application by the Information Commissioner's Office for a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's London offices, ending a standoff between Facebook and the Information Commissioner over responsibility.

On March 25, Facebook published a statement by Zuckerberg in major UK and US newspapers apologizing over a "breach of trust".

On 26 March 2018 the Supreme Federal Tribunal of Brazil upheld the sentence of the Appeal Court, thus ending the case.

On March 26, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into the matter. The controversy led Facebook to end its partnerships with data brokers who aid advertisers in targeting users.

On 31 March 2018, Immobile scored twice in Lazio's 6–2 home win over Benevento, his 36th goal of the season, breaking Giorgio Chinaglia's previous record for most goals scored by a Lazio player in a single season, by two goals.

In April 2018, Nintendo announced that Kimishima would be stepping down as company president that June, with Shuntaro Furukawa, former managing executive officer and outside director of The Pokémon Company, succeeding him.

In March 2018, a 21-month transition period and the terms for it were provisionally agreed.

In early April 2018, Jeenbekov dismissed two high ranking officials in the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) who are considered to be close to Atambayev. The move was seen as an apparent jab at Atambayev and his former government.

On 3 April 2018, Philip was admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital for a planned hip replacement, which took place the next day. This came after the Duke missed the annual Maundy and Easter Sunday services. On 12 April, his daughter, Princess Anne, spent about 50 minutes in the hospital and afterward said her father was "on good form". He was discharged the following day.

On 5 April 2018, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) voted 6–5 to deny Lula's habeas corpus petition.

Following Judge's Moro issuing of an arrest warrant for the ex-president, on April 6, 2018, Lula appealed to the UN"s Human Rights Committee to ask the government to prevent his arrest until he had exhausted all appeals.

On April 10 and April 11, 2018, Zuckerberg began testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding the usage of personal data by Facebook in relation to the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data breach.

Barca had a sad night losing 3–0 to Roma. Goals from Džeko, De Rossi, and Manolas allowed the Italians to turn around a three-goal deficit and qualify for the semi-finals on the away goals rule.

In April 2018, Branson announced the acquisition of the Las Vegas-based Hard Rock Casino-Hotel with plans to re-brand the property under his Virgin Hotels business. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas opened on March 25, 2021.

Algerian Air Force Il-76 transport plane crashed shortly after take-off from Boufarik Airport, On April 11, 2018, killing all 247 passengers and 10 crew on board.

On 17 April 2018, Brazilian senators who were members of the legislature's Human Rights Commission, the Argentinian Nobel Prize laureate, Adolfo Perez Esquivel and the former president of Uruguay, José Pepe Mujica were not allowed to visit Lula in prison to acquire information of violation of Lula’s human rights.

In April 2018, Bank of America announced that it would stop providing financing to makers of military-style weapons such as the AR-15 rifle.

Miguel Díaz-Canel took over as President of Cuba (President of the Council of State) on 19 April 2018. Raúl Castro remains First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

On 19 April 2018, Jeenbekov fired his Prime Minister Sapar Isakov and the government following a vote of no confidence from Kyrgyzstan's parliament.

On 20 April 2018, Ardern attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 in London, where she was selected to deliver a toast to the Commonwealth at a state banquet of world leaders. She also had her first private audience with Queen Elizabeth II.

On 20 April, Ronaldo played in the scudetto clinching game against Fiorentina, as Juventus won their eighth successive title after a 2–1 home win, thereby becoming the first player to win league titles in England, Spain, and Italy.

On 22 April 2018, Salah was awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, having earlier been named in the PFA Team of the Year for the Premier League.

After Huffman rejoined Reddit as CEO, he launched Reddit's iOS and Android apps, fixed Reddit's mobile website and created A/B testing infrastructure. The company launched a major redesign of its website in April 2018.

The company launched a major redesign of its website in April 2018.

Reddit announces the rollout of a new design for the site and its logo Snoo.

On 23 April 2018, Middleton's third child, Prince Louis, was born at St Mary's Hospital.

On 27 April 2018, it was announced that North Korea and South Korea agreed to talks to end the ongoing 65-year conflict. They committed themselves to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

As of April 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, according to a running tally by USA Today.

In April 2018, he announced missile strikes against Assad's regime, following a suspected chemical attack near Damascus.

The 2018 biopic of Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody, received criticism for its portrayal of Mercury's sexuality, which was described as "sterilized" and "confused", and was even accused of being "dangerous".

In May 2018, the government of Papua New Guinea announced that it would ban Facebook for a month while it considered the impact of the website on the country, though no ban has since occurred.

In an address to journalists in May 2018, Jeenbekov promised to fight against tribalism being imposed on the country saying that "We will take measures against those, who impose a "north-south" issue in the society."

In May 2018, BYD's shares had a substantial fall with a total net investment loss of $9 billion. This was Buffett's worst investment in China.

DC Universe is a video on demand service operated by DC Entertainment. It was announced in April 2017, with the title and service formally announced in May 2018. DC Universe is expected to offer more than video content through the inclusion of an immersive experience with fan interaction that encompasses comics in addition to television.

In May 2018 at F8, the company announced it would offer its own dating service.

On May 1, 2018, it was announced that Chairman Robert Keegan and CEO Jeff Jacobson and four other directors would resign as part of a deal with investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, who had mounted a proxy fight to oppose the Fujifilm deal. On May 4, Xerox backed away from the deal after stipulations about ceasing litigation were not met.

In 2018, BMW recalled 106,000 diesel vehicles in South Korea with a defective exhaust gas recirculation module, which caused 39 engine fires. The recall was then expanded to 324,000 more cars in Europe.

In January 2018, estimates of North Korea's nuclear arsenal ranged between 15 and 60 bombs, probably including hydrogen bombs. In the opinion of analysts, the Hwasong-15 missile is capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

In January 2018, Bolsonaro abandoned the Social Christian Party and switched to the Social Liberal Party (PSL).

In 2018, HBO produced a documentary about his life and career. Directed by Marina Zenovich, the film, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival. That same year, a mural of Robin Williams was created on Market Street, in San Francisco.

Tesla ranked as the world's best selling plug-in passenger car manufacturer in 2018, both as a brand and by automotive group, with 245,240 units delivered, capturing a market share of 12% of all plug-in cars sold globally in 2018, followed by BYD Auto with 227,152 plug-in passenger cars delivered.

In 2018, Bryant became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and the first former professional athlete to be nominated and to win an Academy Award in any category for his film Dear Basketball.

In 2018, while still in jail, Little opened up to Texas Ranger James Holland, who began to elicit from Little a breathtaking number of confessions. Holland interviewed Little for around 700 hours, during which Little provided details of several killings that had until then only been known to him. Known as an expert interrogator, Holland has described Little as both a genius and a sociopath.

Facebook opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018.

Nirav Modi (Famous designer and jeweler) conspired with employees of the Punjab National Bank to illegally obtain letters of undertaking (LoUs). He then used these LoUs to get short term loans from international offices of other Indian banks. Modi fled India before the scandal broke. At the time of writing, he is still a fugitive. Around 10,000 credit and debit cards belonging to customers of the embattled bank were up for sale on the internet at a shockingly low price of $4-5 percent.

For the fiscal year 2018, Nike reported earnings of US$1.933 billion, with an annual revenue of US$36.397 billion, an increase of 6.0% over the previous fiscal cycle. Nike's shares traded at over $72 per share.

Facebook ranked No. 76 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. Most comes from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned US$20.21 per user from advertising.

In 2018, AirPods were Apple's most popular accessory product, with 35 million units sold.

In 2018, after making almost $3.4 billion donations, Buffett was ranked 3rd in the Forbes' List of Billionaire 2018.

In 2018 League of Legends got a new PvE mode called Odyssey.

In January 2018, Page publicly announced his marriage to dancer and choreographer Emma Portner. The couple met after Page noticed Portner on Instagram. Emma Portner is a Canadian professional dancer and choreographer. Portner was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and began dancing when she was three years old. She started dancing at a competitive studio in Ottawa before spending her summers with The National Ballet of Canada.

In 2018, the DJIA reaches 25,000 for the first time (on January 4).

On 6 January 2018, Immobile scored four goals in the first half away to SPAL, the first Lazio player to score multiple hat-tricks in a season in 16 years; Lazio eventually won the match 5–2.

In January 2018, the Duke and the Duchess visited Sweden and Norway.

In January 2018, locks of the Duchess's hair were reportedly donated to the Little Princess Trust, a charity which makes wigs for children diagnosed with cancer.

The appeal was heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in November 2018, a year after Hernandez's death, by six justices. The attorney representing the Lloyd family, Thomas M. Quinn, III, argued that Hernandez was rightfully convicted of Lloyd's murder and that the conviction was unfairly wiped out. Quinn also argued that Hernandez killed himself knowing of the technicality that would get his conviction thrown out, and that, "He should not be able to accomplish in death, what he never would have been able to do in life." On March 13, 2019, the Supreme Judicial Court reinstated Hernandez's conviction but stated that the trial record would note that his conviction was "neither affirmed nor reversed"; the appeal was rendered moot because Hernandez died while the case was on appeal. The Court, in their ruling, also officially ended the practice of abatement ab initio, ruling that it was outdated, never made sense, and that it was "no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, if, in fact, it ever was." After the ruling, Hernandez's estate vowed to appeal the ruling further.

On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that it would change the News Feed to prioritize friends/family content and de-emphasize content from media companies.

On 16 January 2018, Ronaldinho confirmed his retirement from football.

On 19 January 2018, Nokia signed a deal with NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile operator, to provide 5G wireless radio base stations in the country by 2020.

In January 2018, the House of Commons voted for both houses to vacate the Palace of Westminster to allow for a complete refurbishment of the building which may take up to six years starting in 2025. It is expected that the House of Commons will be temporarily housed in a replica chamber to be located in Richmond House in Whitehall and the House of Lords will be housed at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Parliament Square.

Weah was sworn in as president on 22 January 2018, making him the 4th youngest serving president in Africa, marking Liberia's first democratic transition in 74 years.

According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumble bee in third place.

On January 22, 2018, Amazon Go, a store that uses cameras and sensors to detect items that a shopper grabs off shelves and automatically charges a shopper's Amazon account, was opened to the general public in Seattle.

On January 22, 2018, the company crossed $100 billion in market capitalization, becoming the largest digital media and entertainment company in the world, bigger than every traditional media company except for AT&T, Comcast and Disney and the 59th largest publicly traded company in the US S&P 500 Index.

On 25 January 2018, the Appeal Court of Porto Alegre found Lula guilty of corruption and money laundering and sentenced him to 12 years of prison, for one of the nine law processes, as the other eight are still in course.

Founder Ingvar Kamprad died on 27 January 2018.

Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported in April 2018 that Trump, using a pseudonym "John Barron", called him in 1984 to falsely assert that he owned "in excess of ninety percent" of the Trump family's business, in an effort to secure a higher ranking on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans. Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly overestimated Trump's wealth and wrongly included him on the Forbes 400 rankings of 1982, 1983, and 1984.

Bitcoin prices were negatively affected by several hacks or thefts from cryptocurrency exchanges, including thefts from Coincheck in January 2018, Coinrail and Bithumb in June, and Bancor in July. For the first six months of 2018, $761 million worth of cryptocurrencies was reported stolen from exchanges. Bitcoin's price was affected even though other cryptocurrencies were stolen at Coinrail and Bancor as investors worried about the security of cryptocurrency exchanges.

On 29 January 2018, Nokia introduced the ReefShark line of 5G chipsets, claiming that it triples bandwidth to 84 Gbit/s. It will be released by Q3 2018. It also incorporates artificial intelligence technologies from Bell Labs.

On 29 January 2018, in his first annual message to the national legislature, he reduced his salary and other benefits by 25% with immediate effect. "With the assessment that I gave you earlier of the poor condition of our economy, I believe that it is appropriate that we should all make sacrifices in the interest of our country. According to Article 60 of the Constitution, the salaries of the President and the Vice President are established by the Legislature, and cannot be increased or reduced during the period for which they are elected. However, in view of the very rapidly deteriorating situation of the economy, I am informing you today, with immediate effect, that I will reduce my salary and benefits by 25% and give the proceeds back to the Consolidated Fund for allocation and appropriation as they see fit."

On January 31, 2018, Xerox announced that Fujifilm had agreed to acquire a 50.1% controlling stake in the company for US$6.1 billion, which was to be combined into their existing joint venture Fuji Xerox (having a value of $18 billion post-acquisition).

China banned trading in bitcoin, with the first steps taken in September 2017, and a complete ban that started on 1 February 2018.

In February 2018, Papa John's and the NFL mutually agreed to end their sponsorship agreement, making Pizza Hut the new official sponsor of the NFL.

In February 2018, Tesla announced that they would unveil Model Y production plans within the next 3–6 months and posted open positions for Model Y production and design.

On 2 February 2018, Ardern traveled to Waitangi for the annual Waitangi Day commemoration; she stayed in Waitangi for five days, an unprecedented length. Ardern became the first female prime minister to speak from the top marae. Her visit was largely well-received by Māori leaders, with commentators noting a sharp contrast with the acrimonious responses received by several of her predecessors.

In February 2018, KFC had to temporarily close 575 of its UK outlets, and restrict menus and opening hours in other branches, as a result of its newly-contracted distributor, DHL, failing to deliver chicken to the outlets.

In February 2018, Vodafone Europe agreed to sell its stake in the Qatar joint venture.

On February 5, the DJIA dropped 1,175 points, making it the largest point drop in history.

In February 2018, the Duchess became the patron of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, a professional association based in London, United Kingdom. Its members, including people with and without medical degrees, work in the field of obstetrics and gynecology (O&G), that is, pregnancy, childbirth, and female sexual and reproductive health.

On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others. Witnesses identified Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the school, as the assailant. Cruz fled the scene on foot by blending with other students. He was arrested without incident about an hour later in nearby Coral Springs.

Pearl Fernandez plead guilty on February 15, 2018 to her charge as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

In February 2018, Eilish embarked on the Where's My Mind Tour, which concluded in April 2018. For Record Store Day 2018, Eilish released a 7" vinyl featuring an acoustic version of her song "Party Favor" and an acoustic cover of Drake's "Hotline Bling".

On 20 February, Xiaomi opened its first Mi Store in the Philippines.

On 21 February 2018, Weah made his first official visit outside Africa, to France, meeting French President Emmanuel Macron. The meeting focused on improving the relationship between France and Liberia and also sought French help for a sports development project in Africa.The meeting was also attended by Didier Drogba, Kylian Mbappé and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

On 22 February 2018, Immobile scored a hat-trick in the Europa League round of 32 second leg home to Steaua București in a 5–1 win, which allowed Lazio to qualify, 5–2 on aggregate, to the round of 16.

In February 2018, Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Ryan accusing Republicans with having waged a "cover-up campaign" to protect Trump and cited last minute changes to the memo after a vote for its release as dangerous and violating House rules, saying, "House Republicans' pattern of obstruction and cover-up to hide the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal represents a threat to our intelligence and our national security. The GOP has led a partisan effort to distort intelligence and discredit the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities." She charged House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes with partaking in "deliberately dishonest actions" and called for his immediate removal from his position.

However in March 2018, the government of Myanmar violated the agreement by sending 400 Tatmadaw soldiers into KNU-held territory to build a road connecting two military bases. Armed clashes erupted between the KNU and the Myanmar Army in the Ler Mu Plaw area of Hpapun District, resulting in the displacement of 2,000 people.

On March 1, 2018, the company announced that it would shut down its 250 standalone Best Buy Mobile stores in the United States by the end of May, due to low revenue and high costs. The Best Buy Mobile stores were reported to account for 1% of the company's revenue.

In March 2018, Google's parent company Alphabet bought the nearby Chelsea Market building for $2.4 billion. The sale is touted as one of the most expensive real estate transactions for a single building in the history of New York.

The initial Oculus headsets, produced under the "Oculus Rift" brand, are traditional VR headsets that require a PC to operate. In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the original Oculus Rift "CV1", Oculus Go (a lower-end standalone headset released in 2017), and first-generation Quest were the company's first generation of products, and expected new iterations of the three to be developed for a second generation of the company's technology.

In the March 2018 Legislative Council by-elections for the four seats left vacant by the disqualified legislators over the oath-taking controversy, three candidates were disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) returning officers, including Demosistō's Agnes Chow on the basis of that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]".

In March 2018, Kensington Palace announced the Duchess of Cambridge would become the first royal patron of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

On 13 March 2018, Solidium, the investment arm of the Finnish government, purchased a 3.3% stake in Nokia valued at €844 million.

Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England, on 14 March 2018, at the age of 76.

In a company public announcement on March 15, 2018, Parker said Trevor Edwards, a top Nike executive who was seen as a potential successor to the chief executive, was relinquishing his position as Nike's brand president and would retire in August.

Millard's song "I Can Only Imagine" was inspired by his father's death, and was made into a film also titled I Can Only Imagine. The film was released on March 16, 2018.

With her improved ranking, Kenin was able to play primarily on the WTA Tour in 2018. She began the year by reaching her first WTA quarterfinal at the Auckland Open. After losing her first-round match at the Australian Open, Kenin produced good results at both Premier Mandatory events in March. She entered the top 100 by reaching the second round of the Indian Wells Open as a qualifier. She then qualified for and reached the third round of the Miami Open, where she upset No. 11 Daria Kasatkina.

In March 2018, the last court decision, concerning the dispute between Google and Oracle, was overturned by the Appeals Court, which sent down the case of determining the damages to federal court in San Francisco.

On March 20, 2018, Oracle released Java SE 10.

On 23 March 2018, Ibrahimović signed for Major League Soccer (MLS) club LA Galaxy.