A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami waves of up to 16 feet nearby, and sparked evacuation orders in Japan, Hawaii and across the Pacific on Wednesday (July 30).

The earthquake that struck off the coast of Russia late Tuesday registered 8.8 on the Richter scale and ensuing tsunami has raised concerns that the Pentagon could be caught unawares by a natural disaster in a region where thousands of U.

Oprah Winfrey has come under fire again, despite refuting a viral social-media rumor that she kept a private road closed during tsunami evacuation efforts in Hawaii. What began as a logistic concern has since evolved into a broader discussion about non-Indigenous billionaire land ownership on the islands.

If you were to believe some posts on social media, the billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey — who lives in Maui part-time — was accused of callously refusing to let evacuees use her private road to shorten their travel time. But it's typically a bad idea to believe what you see on social media.