Hawaii

NAVAL STATION PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — In his first major speech as Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin on Friday called for developing a “new vision” for American defense in the face of emerging cyber and space threats and the prospect of fighting bigger wars.

Reflecting President Joe Biden’s promise to put diplomacy first in dealing with foreign policy problems, Austin said the military should provide leverage that diplomats can use to prevent conflict. His comments suggested a contrast with what critics call the militarization of U.S. foreign policy in recent decades.

HONOLULU (AP) — Catastrophic flooding from a stream swollen by heavy rains prompted officials to order evacuations from a town north of Honolulu on Tuesday, just one day after fears of a dam breach resulted in the same on the island of Maui.

The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management directed people to leave Haleiwa town on Oahu’s North Shore, an area famed for big-wave surfing, immediately.

Torrential rains have inundated parts of Hawaii for the past several days.

HONOLULU (AP) — Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island roared back to life Sunday night as lava went shooting into the air, boiling away a water lake and sending a massive plume of steam, gas and ash soaring into the atmosphere.

In the first hours of the eruption, lava mixed rapidly with water in the summit’s crater lake to create steam. The sky above the eruption turned shades of orange and red as people lined up to watch the billowing column of gas and vapor rise above the volcano in the middle of the night.

HONOLULU (AP) — When Japanese military leaders climbed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, the battleship was packed with U.S. sailors eager to see the end of World War II.

On Wednesday, the 75th anniversary of the surrender, some of those same men who served the United States weren’t able to return to the Missouri in Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor because of the world’s new war against the coronavirus.

HONOLULU, June 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi held a dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the latter’s request on Tuesday and Wednesday local time in the US state of Hawaii.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, conducted in-depth exchanges with Pompeo on China-U.S. relations as well as global and regional issues of mutual concern.

HONOLULU (AP) — Joe Biden won the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s party-run presidential primary on Saturday, which was delayed by more than a month because of the coronavirus.

Biden defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 63% to 37%.

Biden won 16 of Hawaii’s delegates and Sanders will take eight. Biden has a total of 1,566 delegates to the party’s national convention, according to the count by the Associated Press. He needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination, a threshold he is projected to reach in June.

(AP) --- The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

TOP OF THE HOUR:

— Hawaii reports no new virus cases for the first time in nearly two months

— Louisiana to hire at least 250 contact tracers.

— U.S.-China dispute disrupts U.N. resolution on the pandemic.

— COVID-19 deaths spike in Ohio nursing homes.

HONOLULU (AP) — The cost to build a giant telescope that’s unpopular among many Native Hawaiians is now estimated to have ballooned by a billion dollars.

“While an exact updated project cost will depend on when and where on-site construction begins for the Thirty Meter Telescope, the latest estimate for the TMT project is in the range of $2.4 billion in 2020 dollars,” Gordon Squires, TMT vice president, said in a statement this week.

HONOLULU (AP) — Bail will remain at $5 million for a mother arrested in Hawaii over the disappearance of her two Idaho children, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Lori Vallow wore an orange jumpsuit in court on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a hearing on her request to reduce bail. After the judge denied the request, her defense attorney, Craig De Costa, said she is waiving an extradition hearing, which had been scheduled for March 2.

HONOLULU (AP) — Family members used to describe Lori Vallow as an attentive mother who had her kids’ best interests at heart.

But that was before she reportedly declared herself a god sent to prepare the world for an imminent apocalypse. Before three untimely deaths of people surrounding her. Before her children went missing.