Volcano erupts in Hawaii

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on the Big Island erupted and shot a steam and ash cloud into the atmosphere that lasted about an hour, an official with the National Weather Service said early Monday.

The eruption began late Sunday within Kilauea’s summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The crater, named Halemaumau, is located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and was home to a longstanding lava lake that was present for years before a 2018 eruption caused it to drain.

Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Hawaii, said lava interacted with a pool of water that had accumulated inside the crater, leading to a short-lived but fairly vigorous eruption.

When lava interacts with water it can cause explosive reactions.

Russia’s Navalny: Agent confessed to poison plot

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putin, said he tricked one of his would-be assassins into confessing to the attempt on his life.

Mr. Navalny, posing as an adviser to Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, recorded a conversation with what he said was one of the Federal Security Service (FSB) agents he has accused of organizing the poisoning.

The 45-minute conversation posted on YouTube is the latest twist in the case after a report by the investigative website Bellingcat last week alleged that a clandestine FSB unit specializing in poisons had followed Mr. Navalny since January 2017.

Mr. Putin denied the government was behind the poisoning last week during his annual news conference, saying that if the authorities had wanted to kill Mr. Navalny they would have succeeded.

The Russian leader said Mr. Navalny was under surveillance and called the Bellingcat report evidence that the anti-Kremlin activist was cooperating with U.S. spy services.

Nicaragua cracks down on election opposition

Nicaragua’s ruling partydominated Congress passed a law Monday that would essentially ban opposition candidates from running in the 2021 presidential elections.

The law gives the government of President Daniel Ortega the power to unilaterally declare citizens “terrorists” or coup-mongers, classify them as “traitors to the homeland” and ban them from running as candidates.

Given that Mr. Ortega has already applied those terms to virtually the entire opposition and the leaders of massive 2018 protests against his regime, the law approved Monday appears aimed at sweeping aside the last roadblock to Mr. Ortega’s continuing his near-perpetual rule over the Central American nation.

The law bans candidates “who lead or finance a coup ... encourage foreign interference, ask for military intervention ... propose or plan economic blockades, applaud and champion the imposition of sanctions against Nicaragua or its citizens.”

So far, the United States has imposed sanctions on about 27 people close to Mr. Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, including Ms. Murillo herself and three of her children with Mr. Ortega, in an effort to bring about free elections.