Category: National

(KILAEUA, Hawaii,) — The world’s most active volcano, located in Kilauea, Hawaii, resumed its latest eruption on Wednesday.

Volcanic activity was noted just before 3 p.m. local time in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The activity marked the fifth episode from the Kilauea volcano since it started to erupt on Dec. 23, 2024.

“Weak, intermittent spatter” was observed earlier in the day, but it was not until 2:57 p.m. that “small spatter fountains” of lava could be seen, marking the beginning of a new phase of the eruption, according to the United States Geological Survey, which assesses the risk of volcanic hazards in the U.S.

Such activity can be monitored through the agency’s volcano livestream on YouTube.

“Small lava dome fountains in the north vent are feeding short lava flows in the southwest part of the caldera,” the USGS wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “Volcanic gas emissions are elevated compared to during the eruptive pause.”

The USGS noted that observable lava flow began at 2:59 p.m. and “seismic tremor” increased at 3:00 p.m.

In an advisory notice posted Wednesday, the agency wrote that “significant hazards” of the eruption include “wall instability, ground cracking, and rockfalls.” It noted that these hazards could be enhanced by earthquakes, which would endanger members of the public that ventured too close to the volcano within the national park.

“This underscores the extremely hazardous nature of Kilauea’s caldera rim surrounding Halemaʻumaʻu crater, an area that has been closed to the public since late 2007,” the USGS wrote.

It also said that it “continues to closely monitor Kilauea and will issue an eruption update tomorrow morning unless there are significant changes before then.”

The fourth and most recent eruption episode began on Jan. 15, but it had paused over the weekend on Jan. 18.

“Each episode of lava fountaining since December 23, 2024, has continued for 14 hours to 8 days and episodes have been separated by pauses in eruptive activity lasting less than 24 hours to 12 days,” the USGS advisory said.

There are about 170 potentially active volcanoes in the U.S., according to the USGS.

ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — An alleged portrait is beginning to emerge of the 17-year-old boy who opened fire at his Nashville high school on Wednesday, killing one student and wounding a second student, according to police.

Solomon Henderson, who was armed with a pistol, fired multiple shots in the cafeteria at Antioch High School around 11:09 a.m., Nashville police said.

Henderson confronted a 16-year-old girl, Josselin Corea Escalante, in the cafeteria and shot and killed her, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference.

Another victim, a 17-year-old boy, was injured with a graze wound and has been treated and released from the hospital, Drake said.

The suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head while he was in the cafeteria, police said.

Another student was transported to the hospital after suffering a facial injury from a fall, police said.

The suspect rode the bus to school Wednesday morning and later went to the bathroom to “retrieve his weapon,” Drake said.

A motive is not known, police said.

“There are some materials on the internet that we’re looking at,” Drake said.

According to a detailed analysis conducted by SITE Intelligence, the suspected shooter praised mass shooters and showed an affinity for extremist views.

Online material allegedly written by Henderson “detailed the individual’s apparent far-right politics, shaped by fringe online forums,” SITE reported.

“Henderson was highly in fringe online communities, including several known neo-Nazi venues. Across these sites and his writings, Henderson expressed admiration for far-right and incel mass shooters,” SITE reported.

According to the intelligence group, Henderson claimed online that the school shooter in the Abundance Life Christian School attack in December, Samantha Rupnow, followed him on his X accounts. Additionally, documents online allegedly written by Henderson “detail his admiration” of Christchurch, New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant, the suspect in the Slovakian gay bar shooting in 2022 and other mass shooters, according to SITE.

The intelligence group reported that Henderson also appeared to “post photos of himself in attire commonly associated with neo-Nazis.”

As the investigation into the school shooting continues, officials said Wednesday it’s not yet clear where the suspect obtained the gun. Police have reached a parent of the suspect, the police chief said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee wrote on social media, “I’ve been briefed on the incident at Antioch High School and am grateful for law enforcement & first responders who responded quickly. … I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families & the school community.”

The White House said it had been monitoring the shooting.

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(NEW YORK) — Steve Bannon wants more aggressive lawyers to represent him when he stands trial on charges he defrauded donors to an online campaign to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, he argued in a court hearing Wednesday.

“I’ve been smeared by a political prosecution, persecution, for years and going to trial I need people who are more aggressive and will use every tool in the toolbox to fight this,” Bannon said.

Bannon, who was a White House strategist during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, pleaded not guilty in 2022 to charges he defrauded donors to the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising effort.

Prosecutors saw Bannon’s request on Wednesday as a gambit to delay trial.

“If there’s going to be request for delay because of the new attorneys coming in then we would oppose their entry,” prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson said.

Judge April Newbauer did not immediately relieve Bannon’s previous attorneys, but agreed to delay the trial by one week — to March 4 — to give Bannon’s new attorney, Arthur Aidala, time to get up to speed.

“This does not seem to upset anyone’s apple cart,” Newbauer said. “It does give new counsel a bit more time to prepare.”

Aidala pledged to be ready for trial by the date set.

“We will roll up our sleeves and get it done,” Aidala said.

The trial is expected to last about three weeks.

Bannon is accused of defrauding New York-based donors to the online fundraising campaign to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Bannon was initially charged with federal crimes, but received a pardon at the end of Trump’s first term.

He is expected back in court on Feb. 11.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) —  A 17-year-old boy opened fire at a Nashville high school on Wednesday, killing one student and wounding a second student, according to police.

The teenager, who was armed with a pistol, fired multiple shots in the cafeteria at Antioch High School around 11:09 a.m., Nashville police said.

The suspect then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

One female student was killed. A second female student suffered a graze wound to the arm and is in stable condition at a local hospital, police said.

A male student was also injured in the incident but was not shot, police said. The cause of the injury was not clear.

A motive is not known, police said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Antioch High School in Nashville is on lockdown after shots were fired inside the school, according to Metro Nashville Public Schools.

At least two students were shot in the cafeteria, according to Nashville police. The shooter then shot himself, police said.

The shooter “is no longer a threat,” the school district said in a statement.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Much-anticipated rain could be headed to drought-stricken Southern California this weekend — but rainfall also brings the threat of landslides in the wake of Los Angeles County’s devastating fires.

Rain and mountain snow are expected in Southern California on Saturday and Sunday.

Rainfall rates are expected to be light, up to 1 inch over the course of the weekend.

But thunderstorms are possible; lightning could spark new fires and the thunderstorms would cause heavier rainfall.

Heavy rain over the vulnerable wildfire burn scars would be extremely dangerous because it could lead to landslides.

The extreme burn scars are the result of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which erupted on Jan. 7. The wildfires ripped across the LA communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, destroying neighborhoods, claiming more than two dozen lives and forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate.

“We’ve never seen a burn scar in an urban area of this scope and magnitude,” LA City Council member Traci Park said Tuesday.

“I normally pray for rain. God knows, we generally need it,” Park said during a news conference. “But right now, let me point out the obvious: The burn scar of the Palisades Fire not only sits feet from the ocean itself, but already on hillsides that are already prone to slide, and which have already absorbed a tremendous amount of water from firefighting, broken pipes and melted pools.”

“Adding water to this mess and saturated, unstable hillsides is the last thing we need,” she continued. “But we already know at some point, it’s going to happen. And let me remind folks burn scars don’t absorb water at a normal rate. They simply add to the risk of floods, landslides and debris flow.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order on Tuesday to shore up the burn areas ahead of the rain.

“This is to prevent additional damage to areas already ravished by fire, and also to protect our watershed, beaches and ocean from toxic runoff,” Bass said during the news conference. “The action plan I have directed our city Public Works bureaus to implement includes the installation of barriers, debris removal and diverting runoff from our stormwater system and into our sewer system where it can be treated.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he’s deploying specialized debris flow teams to Southern California ahead of the rain.

Among the state resources will be more than 400 California Conservation Corps members who’ll “be working on watershed protection at firestorm burn scar areas to place silt fencing, straw wattles, and compost socks to act as physical barriers to filter contaminants found in rainwater runoff,” the governor’s office said. “More Corpsmembers will be trained to augment capacity in the coming days.”

More than 80 California National Guard service members are also headed to the scene “with 2 dozers, 1 excavator, 1 loader, 4 dump trucks and other engineering assets to haul 527,000 cubic yards of materials in local debris basins,” the governor’s office said.

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(NEW YORK) — A Florida man who prosecutors alleged attacked police with an explosive device during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — and whose case was dropped following President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations issued Monday, was arrested Wednesday on pending federal gun charges, according to court records.

Daniel Ball, 39, was taken into custody Wednesday morning, according to an arrest warrant, on a separate indictment returned by federal prosecutors in Florida last summer that charged him for unlawfully possessing a gun as a felon.

He had at least three previous felony convictions — one dating back to 2017 for domestic violence battery by strangulation and two in October of 2021 — nine months after the Jan. 6 riot, for resisting law enforcement and battery on a law enforcement officer.

Ball was among the few defendants being held pretrial in connection with his Jan. 6 case, after prosecutors accused him of using an explosive device to assault officers trying to protect the Capitol in the Lower West End Tunnel.

Ball further was allegedly seen on video joining rioters in an unsuccessful attempt to break through a police line, before retreating to throw “dangerous weapons” at the line of officers, according to court records.

A federal judge ordered Ball detained in May of 2023 after determining he posed a serious ongoing danger to the general public if released, and to members of law enforcement in particular.

Ball has not entered a plea to the weapons charge and ABC News has reached out to an attorney listed as representing him for comment.

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(NEW YORK) — In the days since President Donald Trump assumed office, many people online have begun expressing alarm to find they were unwittingly following Trump on Instagram and Facebook.

Across social media, posts have proliferated by people concerned after discovering they were automatically following accounts for Trump, as well as Vice President JD Vance, first lady Melania Trump and the White House.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, denied claims they forced users to follow the accounts.

The accounts are managed by the current presidential administration, and switch over when a new administration takes office, a spokesperson for Meta said.

Former President Joe Biden’s account remains archived under another handle, @potus46archive.

“People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on Threads. “Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes. This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition.”

Stone also addressed concerns that people were unable to follow the accounts, saying, “It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”

The company made the same transition in 2021, handing the Facebook and Instagram accounts for the president, vice president, first lady and White House from Trump’s administration to that of President Joe Biden.

The same process took place in 2017, when President Barack Obama’s administration passed its accounts on to the Trump administration.

“In 2017, we worked with both the Obama Administration and incoming Trump Administration to make sure the transition of their Facebook and Instagram accounts was seamless on January 20th, and we expect to do the same here,” Meta, then known as Facebook, told Reuters in 2020.

Instagram users also expressed concern they were temporarily unable to search for the words “Democrat” or “Democrats.”

Meta said they were aware of the issue, and said it was a glitch affecting “a number of different hashtags on Instagram — not just those on the left.”

“We’re working quickly to resolve this,” Stone, the Meta spokesperson, said in another post.

The online uproar comes on the heels of the inauguration, where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — along with several other high-profile tech CEOs — were in attendance.

Meta announced earlier this month they would end fact-checking on their platforms, which was put in place after the 2016 election.

Critics have accused the recent move of being a partisan effort to appease Trump, who has repeatedly slammed the company for alleged anti-conservative bias.

In a video posted by the company, Zuckerberg said fact-checking had proven to be “too politically biased” and had destroyed “more trust than they’ve created.”

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg added.

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(NEW YORK) — The Gulf Coast is digging out from a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm that struck from Texas to Florida, closing airports and crippling roadways.

Over 2,000 flights were canceled on Tuesday and more than 1,300 flights have been canceled on Wednesday.

Multiple fatalities have been reported due to car crashes and hypothermia.

In the Atlanta area, DeKalb County officials declared a state of emergency on Wednesday and are urging all residents to shelter in place due to the severe winter weather. Over 100 cars have been reported stranded on roadways, keeping crews from responding to emergencies, officials said.

Many areas saw more snow than they have in at least 130 years.

Florida saw its most snow on record, with a preliminary 8.8 inches of snow observed in Milton, north of Pensacola.

The southeast part of Houston saw over 4 inches, making it one of the top snowstorms to impact the area.

Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, saw all-time record highs with 7.5 inches and 7.6 inches respectively.

In Louisiana, Baton Rouge saw 7.6 inches, New Orleans saw 8 inches and Lafayette recorded 9 inches.

New Orleans demolished its most recent highest snow total, which was 2.7 inches in 1963.

Snow is still falling early Wednesday in Georgia, Florida and the coastal Carolinas.

About 5 inches have so far been reported in parts of coastal North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

The snow is expected to end this morning but rain will continue in Florida.

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(NEW YORK) — Cellphones will no longer be allowed in New York schools if Gov. Kathy Hochul gets her way.

The New York governor announced on Tuesday a proposal to ban smartphones from hallways, classrooms and during lunchtime.

“We are not developing the skills we need because kids are distracted by cellphones,” Hochul said during a budget address in Albany. “I am announcing today a proposal that will transform our classrooms, return them to a place of learning.”

By restricting the use of devices from “bell to bell,” Hochul said schools will be distraction-free, allowing students to focus solely on learning.

“Our kids will be finally free from the endless disruptions from social media and all the mental health pressures that come from it,” Hochul said.

Students who have medical needs or are non-English speakers will still be permitted to use their cellphones at school. If approved, the governor said school districts will have the flexibility on how they interpret the policy.

The proposal will require approval by the state Legislature, since Hochul introduced it during her state budget instead of issuing an executive order.

Previously, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks said he was exploring a cellphone ban for city public schools, but Mayor Eric Adams said it required more study.

Eight states have already implemented cellphone restrictions to some degree in schools, including California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia, according to The Associated Press.

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