Trump’s inauguration to be most frigid since 1985, with coldest air in 2 years moving into Northeast
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The coldest air of the season is moving into the Northeast and a huge part of the U.S., including the Gulf Coast, after a snowstorm.
At least 40 states, from Oregon to Florida and up to Maine, are on cold alerts on Monday morning.
The inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington will be a cold one, the coldest since President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 inauguration.
That one also had to be pushed indoors due to brutal cold, with the temperature at noon at only 7 degrees with wind chills below zero.
The forecast this year calls for temperature in the mid 20s with wind chills in the mid-teens, which isn’t as cold as it was in 1985, but is about 15 degrees colder than normal for Washington, D.C.
The cold expected on the East Coast is nothing compared to what people in the Upper Midwest are dealing with. Wind chills there are dipping as low as 40 to 50 degres below zero.
The bitter cold has reached the Gulf Coast where freeze alerts are issued and temperatures could reach the lower 20s and even teens this week.
The cold alerts follow a quickly moving little snowstorm that is done with, after most major cities from D.C. to NYC got just an inch or two. More fell inland.
Terra Alta, West Virginia, got about a foot of snow, along with 12.5 inches in Grantsville, Maryland. Boston, Massachusetts, had 4 inches so far, while Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, got about 2 inches.
Central Park in New York City saw about 1.6 inches and Washington, D.C., received less than a foot of snow ahead of Monday’s inauguration.
(NEW YORK) — Last July, a prosecutor in California sent a letter to Elon Musk’s SpaceX with an urgent message: The company’s internet satellite dishes are being used by criminal organizations in so-called “scam compounds” across Southeast Asia.
Starlink, which was developed by SpaceX in 2019, provides internet to remote locations, and the company’s satellite systems have been used in war-torn Ukraine, in hospitals in Gaza, and in areas affected by hurricanes.
But over the last several years, according to international officials and intergovernmental organizations, authorities have found Starlink satellite dishes being used in criminally run scam centers, where users perpetrate illegal online schemes to defraud people.
Anti-scam advocates like Erin West, the former deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, California, have been increasingly calling on companies with links to scam centers to help them locate and dismantle the criminal groups that run scam compounds.
“The thing about Starlink is, it is a satellite, it’s covering specific areas,” said West, who sent the letter to Starlink. “And when we can point out that some of those locations are known scam centers, then I want Starlink to turn off the service.”
West and the Santa Clara DA’s office told ABC News that SpaceX never responded to their letter.
ABC News has previously reported on the growing rise of scam compounds in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America, where hundreds of thousands of people are reported to be trafficked and forced to target people in the U.S. and Europe.
According to the FBI, victims of cryptocurrency scams linked to the compounds reported $3.9 billion in estimated losses in 2023.
A report published by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime in October found that Chinese organized crime groups have found ways around “existing security protocols in order to access the remote high-speed internet connectivity made possible” by Starlink’s technology.
“Several recent incidents relating to the use of false base stations and Starlink satellite dishes have been reported by law enforcement authorities in Mekong countries over past years,” the report said.
SpaceX representatives did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
According to officials and the UNODC, online vendors are selling Starlink devices to cyber-enabled fraud operations in remote areas where scam compounds are located.
“In the future, Starlink will reach a transmission capacity of 200G! Come and enjoy a set of Starlink equipment exclusive to you,” said an advertisement posted last week on a Telegram chat that ABC News reviewed.
Benedikt Hofmann, the Deputy Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific for UNODC, who reviewed the Telegram chat, said there are many vendors specifically advertising Starlink access as a “solution for online scam operators” on Telegram-based markets.
Anti-scam groups and intergovernmental organizations have been looking into the Telegram chats as part of their effort to locate and dismantle the scam compounds.
The use of Starlink satellite devices by criminal organizations was first reported by Wired.
Hofmann told ABC News that “Starlink is a growing concern.”
“We’ve seen increasing cases of devices being seized en route to Myanmar, usually coming from other parts of the region where they can be legally purchased,” Hofmann said. “There is a clear link to the scam industry.”
Kīlauea volcano erupts in in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on Jan. 22, 2025. Image via USGS.
(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.
(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani reached a settlement agreement with two former election workers he was found to have defamed, a joint letter from both parties said Thursday.
The former New York City mayor had been a no-show to his non-jury civil trial that was set to begin Thursday in Manhattan federal court. The proceedings had been adjourned until Tuesday.
“All parties reached a resolution,” Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Cammarata, said outside court.
He read a statement from Giuliani that said the settlement does not include an admission of guilt.
Giuliani’s statement said he gets to keep his New York co-op and Florida condominium along with all his personal belongings. He has agreed not to talk about Freeman and Moss in a defamatory way.
Andrew Giuliani said he will retain possession of the World Series rings, which he has said his father gifted to him.
Giuliani was scheduled to be the first witness in the case, which was to decide whether he must turn over his Florida condo to the two Georgia election workers.
When ABC News asked whether Giuliani was coming to court on Thursday morning, his attorney said “I’m not going to comment on anything right now.” Asked whether Giuliani was OK, the attorney responded “yes.”
A jury found Giuliani liable in 2023 for defaming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss by falsely accusing them of tampering with the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia, and awarded the two election workers a $148 judgment.
The former New York City mayor has already turned over a Mercedes and other assets to the women, but is fighting to keep the condo, which he claims as his permanent residence.
Giuliani has been disbarred in New York and in Washington after his law license was stripped over his efforts aiding former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
He has been held in contempt twice this month by two different federal judges, and is also fighting to keep three Yankees World Series rings that he owns.
