Japan dropped its highest-level tsunami alert, issued following a series of major earthquakes, but told residents of coastal areas not to return to their homes as deadly waves could still come.

Lisala Folau told a local broadcaster about his swimming journey, which lasted more than a day and took him to three islands. Social media users hearing his story are calling him "real-life Aquaman."

Significant damage is being reported on the Pacific island of Tonga and thick ash on an airport runway is preventing aid from arriving.

An undersea volcano erupted near the Pacific nation of Tonga, sending tsunami waves crashing across the shore there and around the Pacific, including a surges along the U.S. West Coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake Wednesday evening was magnitude 8.2 and struck 56 miles east southeast of Perryville, Alaska, off the state's peninsula.

Fukushima was forever changed by a nuclear disaster in 2011. What does recovery mean for the region? It's an answer filled with resilience, reinvention and regret.