(NEW YORK) — Ash and lava have begun spewing out of the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island — the largest active volcano in the world.
The activity, which began Sunday and continued into Monday morning, is the first eruption from Mauna Loa in nearly 40 years.
The lava was contained to the summit, and there are currently no threats to populated areas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. However, lava flows are significant enough to be visible from Kona, dozens of miles away.
Mauna Loa is so large it takes up more than half of the Big Island. The last time it erupted was in March and April 1984.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has closed the Mauna Loa Summit Area to visitors as a precaution.
Video posted to Twitter by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory shows thermal footage of the lava flowing out of the volcano’s summit.
In conjunction with the lava flow, were more than a dozen earthquakes in the region of more than 2.5 magnitude early Monday morning, according to the USGS.
Lava was still erupting from the summit and was overflowing from the caldera as of 5 a.m. local time, according to USGS Volcanoes. The National Weather Service issued an ashfall advisory for depositing ash and debris, as well as light accumulation of ash on vessels, until 6 a.m. along the Alenuihaha Channel, Big Island windward waters, Big Island leeward waters and Big Island southeast waters.
The NWS advised that vessels should remain at port or avoid advisory areas, and those with respiratory sensitivities should take extra precautions to minimize exposure.
Falling volcanic ash and debris can also render engines or electronics inoperative, according to the NWS.
Hawaii is home to several active volcanos, including the Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island, one of the most active in the world.
Volcano activity has been recorded all around the globe over the past year.
Major eruptions could be underway from two volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula after clouds of ash and lava began spewing on Nov. 20.
In July, an eruption at the Sakurajima volcano in Japan prompted evacuation orders for residents nearby in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima.
And last week, marine geologists announced that the underwater volcano eruption that occurred on Jan. 15 in the Tongan archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean is the largest ever recorded.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Monday criticized China’s coronavirus containment strategy and said people there have a “right to peacefully protest,” although its comments were notably restrained at a time it is seeking to strengthen relations with Beijing.
The comments follow the most significant demonstrations in China in decades as over the weekend, protesters in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere challenged police in the streets, with some even calling for China’s President Xi Jinping to resign.
“We’ve long said everyone has the right to peacefully protest, in the United States and around the world,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, who requested anonymity, said. “This includes in the PRC.”
The spokesperson used the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
The Biden administration has emphasized the need to manage the United States’ strategic relationship with China, which it this year labeled the United States’ “only competitor with both the intent and, increasingly, the capability to reshape the international order.”
Biden has spoken with China’s Xi half a dozen times since taking office, most recently in person — for the first time since both became president — this month at a summit in Indonesia.
China’s continued strategy of locking down large parts of its cities and subjecting residents to stringent testing and restrictions stands in stark contrast to the approach to COVID in the United States and much of the rest of the world, which have largely returned to life as normal while living with the pandemic.
Since last winter’s omicron wave subsided, Biden has adopted a strategy that eschews large-scale lockdowns or mandatory restrictions on Americans. A significant portion of the American population is now vaccinated against the virus, and the country has increasingly prioritized its economic recovery.
In September said in an interview that the pandemic was “over.”
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, told ABC News’ This Week on Sunday that a better strategy would be to “build up immunity in the population by getting people vaccinated,” as the United States has done.
The spokesperson also said that it would be “very difficult” for China to be able to contain COVID using its current strategy.
“I think it’s going to be very, very difficult for China to be able to contain this through their zero COVID strategy,” Jha said in an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz. “I would recommend that they pursue the strategy of making sure everybody gets vaccinated, particularly their elderly. That I think is the path out of this virus. Lockdown and zero COVID is going to very difficult to sustain.”
(HOUSTON) — Over two million Houston residents are under a water boil notice after a power outage Sunday affected a water treatment plant, officials said.
The water pressure dropped below the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s required minimum of 20 PSI during a power outage at the East Water Purification Plant around 10:30 a.m. local time, according to the agency. Houston schools were closed Monday because of the order.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the water was safe and that the boil order was done to comply with regulations. He tweeted that the city submitted its plan to TCEQ to lift the notice Sunday night.
“Water samples will subsequently follow and hopefully we will get the all clear from TCEQ. The City has to wait 24 hours from that point before the boil water notice is suspended. The earliest would be tomorrow night or very early Tuesday morning,” Turner tweeted Sunday night.
He is scheduled to update the situation at a news conference at 10:30 a.m. local time Monday.
Yvonne Williams Forrest, Houston’s water director, told ABC affiliate KTRK-TV Sunday night that the order the city’s pressure system was never at zero, just below the regulatory limit. That pressure is important because it prevents anything from infiltrating the water system, she said.
“There are a number of steps in the regulatory process before you issue a boil water notice and we didn’t want to unnecessarily alert the city if we did not have to issue a boil water notice,” she told KTRK.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Alleged Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron pleaded guilty to state charges stemming from the Tops supermarket shooting in a predominantly Black neighborhood of East Buffalo.
Gendron pleaded guilty to 15 charges in all, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, murder and attempted murder. He still faces more than two dozen federal charges, some of which carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Gendron fatally shot 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket “because of the perceived race and/or color” of the victims, according to the indictment by the Erie County district attorney.
Gendron is charged with carrying out a “domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate” along with 10 counts of murder in the first degree, 10 counts of murder in the second degree as a hate crime, three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.
He is the first to be charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate in New York under a 2020 statute, which was implemented following an El Paso, Texas, shooting targeting Latinos in 2019.
“That charge only has one sentence if the defendant is found guilty of that charge: life in prison without parole,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said at the time the indictment was unsealed.
He has been charged by federal prosecutors with a total of 26 counts of committing a hate crime resulting in death and a hate crime involving bodily injury. He’s also charged with using a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence. In July, Gendron’s public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
White supremacist rhetoric online, including the promotion of racist conspiracy theories, has been linked to Gendron and his alleged motive behind the Buffalo attack, ABC News has previously reported. Gendron traveled from his home near Binghamton, New York, to carry out the shooting, according to officials.
The families of Buffalo victims are expected to speak following the hearing.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Authorities are receiving an influx of 911 calls from the fearful University of Idaho community weeks after four students were stabbed to death in an off-campus house.
The students — Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 — were killed in the early hours of Nov. 13. No arrests have been made.
Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves were roommates. Chapin was sleeping over with Kernodle, his girlfriend.
Moscow police said Sunday that, since the killings, they’ve received 78 “unusual circumstances” calls and 36 welfare check requests — up from 70 calls and 18 requests, respectively, for all of October.
Police, who have been asking the community for help, also noted that residents have uploaded over 488 digital media submissions to the case’s FBI page.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has directed up to $1 million in emergency funds for the ongoing investigation, according to police.
Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell told ABC News on Sunday that concerns from the victims’ families over the case going cold are “legitimate,” but he added, “our concern is a successful prosecution.”
“Justice is the end result — we have to do what we are doing [out of public view],” Snell said.
Two other roommates were in the house at the time of the murders and survived, appearing to have slept through the crimes, according to police. The surviving roommates are not considered suspects, police said.
As students return to campus following the Thanksgiving break, the university is gearing up for a candlelight vigil for the four victims, set for Wednesday.
Anyone with information can upload digital media to fbi.gov/moscowidaho or contact the tip line at tipline@ci.moscow.id.us or 208-883-7180.
(NEW YORK) — Lisa Niemi Swayze is reflecting on her late husband Patrick Swayze’s battle with pancreatic cancer 13 years after the actor’s death from the disease.
Speaking to Good Morning America for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, Niemi Swayze said Swayze “did not want to become the poster boy for cancer” but his “huge heart” kept him from sitting idly by and not stepping up to do what he could to help.
“I used to always say, particularly with the kinds of roles that Patrick liked to play, he always liked to be the hero. I always said, ‘You give him a sword, a cape and a horse and he’s a happy man,'” she said. “But I tell you what, when it came to him fighting his illness, this disease, you really saw he really was a hero.”
The Dirty Dancing star was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in January 2008. Following what Niemi Swayze called a “heartfelt, grueling, tough, determined fight for 22 months,” the actor died in September 2009. He was 57, with 34 of those years spent married to his beloved wife.
Niemi Swayze said playing even a small part in helping change the lives of those who are fighting the disease — or their loved ones — for the better is a “great honor.”
“Just because Patrick passed on … didn’t mean that fight was over, and I was carrying that on for him,” she said.
Reflecting on Swayze’s pancreatic cancer battle
Niemi Swayze said she could vividly recall a day when she and Swayze, during his battle with pancreatic cancer, were walking on their ranch in New Mexico and he grabbed her hand.
“It was a beautiful day and his eyes glistened and he said, ‘I want to live,’ ” she remembered. “I know that everybody else out there that is dealing with this disease and their families feel exactly the same.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists pancreatic cancer as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths, behind only lung cancer and cancer of the colon and rectum. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 62,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2022 and nearly 50,000 will die from the disease this year.
Niemi Swayze said this fight brought out the side of her husband “he always wanted to be,” which was a “truly courageous, humble, loving, determined [and] strong” person. She looked on with “such awe and admiration with how he did it.”
“He had his moments,” she said. “But, of course, Patrick was always aware that he was the one who would pay the ultimate price. You know, it’s just not fair that he had to be taken so soon in life. I don’t want to see that happen for other people.”
“The fact that November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month is so important,” Niemi Swayze said. “… The only way we’re going to stop it is by funding and research and better treatments and early detection.”
How she changed her relationship with grief and found love again
After Swayze died, Niemi Swayze grappled with grief, something she wrote about in her 2012 book Worth Fighting For: Love, Loss, and Moving Forward.
“Grief really sucks, and [it’s] very difficult to deal with,” she said. “As time goes on, it never goes away. It’s kind of like a wound and it heals over, but there’s always that scar. And it may not be as visible, but it’s always there and you never know when it will raise its head again.”
Niemi Swayze said this year in particular was a difficult one for her, with the timing of what would have been Swayze’s 70th birthday.
“…It all came back to me,” she said. “But you know what? It resolves, and I’ve learned to take the good with the bad. And, you know, the bad parts are the price of having a wonderful, great love — and I’ll take that any day of the week. I’d do it all over again.”
In the years following Swayze’s death, Niemi Swayze found love again. In May 2014, she married Albert DePrisco.
“I love Patrick so deeply — and it’s interesting, because that hasn’t changed in finding new love,” she said, adding that one of her “widow friends” reasoned that this is because “love comes from the same well.”
“Just because you lose someone doesn’t mean love stops,” she said, adding that both she and DePrisco “felt so blessed to find each other because we still have a lot of love to give, and it’s wonderful to find someone to give it to.”
Niemi Swayze’s message to those fighting pancreatic cancer — and their families
Having been by Swayze’s side throughout his pancreatic cancer battle, Niemi Swayze knows the toll of being a caregiver for a loved one with pancreatic cancer.
“The patient gets a lot of attention — and for good reason,” she said, noting that the charity group PanCAN — the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network — offers support for both those battling the disease and their caregivers “because it happens to everyone in the family. Pancreatic cancer is happening to everyone.”
Niemi Swayze reflected on her time as a caregiver, saying her biggest mistake was not taking better care of herself. “If you want to be in it for the long haul, you gotta take breaks here and there, and I couldn’t allow myself to do that for quite some time,” she said.
As for her message to other caregivers, she said, “Be good yourself … and talk to people who are going through it.”
Niemi Swayze found just that in two female friends, both of whom had also lost their husbands to pancreatic cancer. “We called ourselves The Widows of Eastwick,” she said, referencing the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick.
“More than once we talked each other off the ledge, and there’s nothing like somebody else who’s going through what you are going through that really helps give you that support [and] makes you not feel so alone,” she said.
Niemi Swayze also urged those facing the disease and their loved ones to “be brave together.”
“Hold each other’s hands and go through this,” she explained. “Look each other in the eye, because this is an opportunity for a closeness beyond what you ever imagined.”
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Alleged Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron is expected to plead guilty to state charges Monday morning.
Gendron fatally shot 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black community “because of the perceived race and/or color” of the victims, according to the indictment by the Erie County district attorney.
Gendron is charged with carrying out a “domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate” along with 10 counts of murder in the first degree, 10 counts of murder in the second degree as a hate crime, three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.
He is the first to be charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate in New York under a 2020 statute, which was implemented following an El Paso, Texas, shooting targeting Latinos in 2019.
“That charge only has one sentence if the defendant is found guilty of that charge: life in prison without parole,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said at the time the indictment was unsealed.
He has been charged by federal prosecutors with a total of 26 counts of committing a hate crime resulting in death and a hate crime involving bodily injury. He’s also charged with using a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence. In July, Gendron’s public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
White supremacist rhetoric online, including the promotion of racist conspiracy theories, has been linked to Gendron and his alleged motive behind the Buffalo attack, ABC News has previously reported.
The families of Buffalo victims are expected to speak following the hearing.
(LONDON) — The Prince and Princess of Wales are coming to America.
Prince William and Kate will travel to Boston this week, marking their first visit to the United States since 2014, when they visited New York City and famously shook hands with Beyoncé and Jay-Z at a New York Knicks game.
This will be their first overseas trip since the death of William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September.
The royals will arrive in Boston on Wednesday, two days ahead of the second annual awards ceremony for the Earthshot Prize, an initiative William launched in 2019 to create solutions for environmental problems.
Their itinerary in the city includes everything from meeting Caroline Kennedy to visiting Harvard University.
“The Prince and Princess are looking forward to spending time in Boston, and to learning more about the issues that are affecting local people, as well as to celebrating the incredible climate solutions that will be spotlighted through The Earthshot Prize,” Kensington Palace said in a statement.
Here is what to watch on each day of William and Kate’s three-day visit.
Wednesday: Welcome celebration in Boston
William and Kate will be welcomed to Boston on Nov. 30 in a ceremony at City Hall attended by Kennedy and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who made history last year as the first woman and first person of color to be elected mayor.
In honor of the Earthshot Prize’s focus on the environment, landmarks across the city, including City Hall, will be lit up in the color green.
Thursday: Visiting with high-risk youth
The royal couple will start their second day in Boston with a visit to Greentown Labs, a climate technology start-up incubator, in nearby Somerville, Massachusetts.
According to Kensington Palace, William and Kate will learn during the visit about “climate innovations” being incubated in Boston.
From there, the couple will travel just a few miles to Chelsea, where they will visit Roca, nonprofit organization that focuses on helping high-risk young people between the ages of 16 and 24, according to the palace.
William and Kate will meet with leaders of the organization and with participants in the young mothers’ and young men’s programs.
Friday: Earthshot Awards at MGM Music Hall
Friday’s main event will be the 2022 Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony, which will be held Friday night at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, located close to Fenway Park.
The ceremony, which will air around the world on Dec. 4, will see five winners awarded $1 million grants each to scale their solutions to help repair planet Earth.
The ceremony will also include live performances by Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe.x.Halle, and will feature actors including Rami Malek, Catherine O’Hara, Shailene Woodley and Daniel Dae Kim as hosts and presenters.
Earlier in the day Friday, Kate and William will each attend separate events.
Kate, who has made early childhood education a focus of her royal work, will meet with researchers at The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
William plans to tour the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum along with Caroline Kennedy.
William has said that President John F. Kennedy’s “moonshot” challenge in 1962 to land a man on the moon within 10 years was the inspiration behind his Earthshot Prize, which has a goal to find solutions to repair the planet within the next 10 years.
The John F. Kennedy Foundation partnered with Earthshot Prize to bring this year’s awards ceremony to Boston, according to the organization.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is poised to sign a memorandum boosting the U.S. government’s opposition to conflict-related sexual violence in an effort to further combat rape as a weapon of war.
Biden is expected to sign the memo, which will clarify that an act of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) may constitute a serious human rights abuse, on Monday, according to the White House.
The memo is intended to give CRSV an “equal consideration alongside other serious human rights abuses in developing designations under existing sanctions authorities,” the White House said.
It also directs the State and Treasury departments, as well as other federal agencies, to use additional tools to hold CRSV offenders accountable.
Biden is releasing the presidential memorandum in conjunction with the United Kingdom’s international ministerial conference on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, “at a time when CRSV persists with impunity around the world, including in Russian-occupied Ukraine and Ethiopia,” the White House said
A report released by the United Nations in October said that Russian troops have committed war crimes, including rape and sexual violence, against Ukrainian civilians.
“You only need to see a snapshot from what is happening in Ukraine to know how important this presidential memorandum can be in focusing on accountability for conflict related sexual violence,” a senior Biden administration official said on a call with reporters Sunday. “It will provide guidance and direction to facilitate targeting the perpetrators of these horrendous acts and bringing them to justice.”
The United Nations estimates that 10 to 20 CRSV cases go undocumented for each one reported in connection with a conflict.
A 2021 report by the U.N. Secretary-General found 3,293 U.N.-verified CRSV cases across 18 countries — 97% of which were targeted toward women and girls.
That number was about 800 more than what was verified by the U.N. in 2020.
The memorandum pledges an additional $400,000, on top of the $1.75 million annual contribution, toward the Office of the U.N. Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, as well as an additional $5.5 million over the next two years to help the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor investigate and document acts of CRSV.
The memo also aims to deliver services and support for survivors of gender-based violence in emergency and conflict settings, as well as increase access to justice, protection, and services to survivors of gender-based violence, according to the White House.
“Together with today’s Presidential Memorandum on Promoting Accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, these initiatives signal President Biden’s ongoing commitment to confront gender-based violence — in all of its forms — around the world,” the White House said.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden will unveil this year’s White House holiday theme and seasonal decor on Monday morning.
She will be joined by members and leadership of the National Guard along with their families, as part of her Joining Forces initiative to support and promote the sacrifices and needs of military families, according to the office of the first lady.
After previewing the holiday decorations, the first lady — who holds a doctorate in education — will join National Guard families and state adjutants generals for a roundtable discussion on education for military-connected children at 11:30 a.m. ET.
“As a fellow National Guard mother, Dr. Biden wanted to show appreciation for, and honor, the special role the National Guard plays in serving our country,” the office of the first lady said in a statement.
The first lady will then deliver remarks at 12:30 p.m. ET “to offer a holiday message of unity and hope and thank the volunteers from across the country who helped decorate the White House for the 2022 season,” according to her office.
Last year’s holiday theme was “Gifts from the Heart,” intended to honor those who have persevered through hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 volunteers decorated the White House with approximately 25 wreaths, 41 Christmas trees, 300 candles, 6,000 feet of ribbon, 10,000 ornaments and nearly 80,000 holiday lights, according to the office of the first lady.
