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A massive global outage plunged Facebook, its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms and many people who rely heavily on these services — including Facebook’s own workforce — into chaos Monday.

The company did not say what might be causing the outage, which began around 11:40 a.m. ET and was still unfixed more than six hours later, although scattered users have reported partial restoration of one service or another. Websites and apps often suffer outages of varying size and duration, but hours-long global disruptions are rare.

“This is epic,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik Inc, a network monitoring and intelligence company. The last major internet outage, which knocked many of the world’s top websites offline in June, lasted less than an hour. The stricken content-delivery company in that case, Fastly, blamed it on a software bug triggered by a customer who changed a setting.

For hours, Facebook’s only public comment was a tweet in which it acknowledged that “some people are having trouble accessing (the) Facebook app” and that it was working on restoring access. Regarding the internal failures, Instagram head Adam Mosseri tweeted that it feels like a “snow day.”

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Remember to search and subscribe to the 'Muthaship' podcast! After going national with her story about her diagnosis with stage three colorectal cancer on 'The Today Show,' the 'Muthaship' reached out to Indianapolis news anchor (and busy mother and wife) Lindy Thackston to see if we could share her journey on our podcast. It got off to a rough start; Thackston says she learned of her diagnosis after her screenings were canceled three times due to the pandemic. After experiencing abdominal cramps and tailbone pressure, she knew there were red flags, and a colonoscopy proved it was cancer. At the time of our conversation, the 40-year-old thought she had been through the worst of her battle. But just days ago, she got the devastating news that her colorectal cancer had metastasized to her left lung, and she is now undergoing treatment for stage four lung cancer. Doctors say the diagnosis is not terminal, and Thackston is staying positive - and hoping her journey can help others save lives. 

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Gov. David Ige on Friday extended his COVID emergency proclamation, including the statewide mask mandate and Safe Travels program for trans-Pacific passengers, saying the Delta variant crisis has abated but is not yet over. The proclamation will be in effect for at least 60 more days ― and could stick around even longer. 

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Hawaii on Friday reported 366 new COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths.

The latest infections bring the statewide total number of infections since the pandemic began to 79,572.

The new fatalities bring the death toll to 789.

In September alone, the state had seen 193 COVID deaths. That was more than the number seen in June, July and August combined. Over that three-month period, Hawaii logged 89 COVID deaths.

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Thousands of visitors are flocking to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to catch a glimpse of the dramatic fiery show created by a new eruption at the summit of Kilauea.

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Thousands of visitors are flocking to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to catch a glimpse of the dramatic fiery show created by a new eruption at the summit of Kilauea.

After a months-long pause, the eruption started about 3:20 p.m. Wednesday in a “very rapid onset,” sending up fiery fountains as high as 100 feet and flooding the floor of Halemaumau Crater with lava.

Officials said lava is confined within the crater ― and that the amount of lava output is significant.

By Thursday morning, the lava within Halemaumau had risen over 50 feet.

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Ken Hon, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist-in-charge, told Hawaii News Now the eruption started about 3:20 p.m. Wednesday and that lava is confined within Halemaumau Crater.

At this time, there are no threats to any buildings or nearby communities.

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