Green says hes ordering a comprehensive review of the states response, including why sirens didnt alert maui residents to the danger. Hawaiis Emergency Service Administration Says based on its records, no one at the state or county level attempted to activate the sirens. Our own reporter on the ground said that no one hes spoken to was alerted to the encroaching flames. More on that in just a few minutes. This image comes from the us coastguard, it shows the town burning through the height of the emergency. The burning through the height of the emergency. The emergency. The agency rescued 17 the emergency. The agency rescued 17 people the emergency. The agency rescued 17 people from the emergency. The agency rescued 17 people from the | rescued 17 people from the water and a0 people from the shoreline. Many more are still unaccounted for. Attem pts atte m pts to attempts to flee the devastation and fires were hampered. As flames were fanned by winds coming from hurricane dora. We are now learning the harrowing stories of survival, like this one a man who filmed his own escape. The wind was blowing so fast, it looked like hellfire. Thats the only way to describe it. Just blowing through the wind, catching anything it could to burn. I had been swapping my ears for the past few days and i am still getting black stuff out of my ears. That is how involved we were when we decided to leave. This is between six seven oclock, wind gusts were coming through and clearing the smoke and you could see the sunshine almost, it was very apocalyptic. We will try to head back today, so i am hearing through the grapevine, through local sources but they are letting some local residents in. So i am very hopeful and we will figure it out from there. And it is home to me and i dont plan on leaving, i plan on helping rebuild and the community here is very tight knit and i have met a lot of great people and i feel like i am here for a reason. Am here for a reason. That story coming am here for a reason. That story coming from am here for a reason. That story coming from our am here for a reason. That story coming from our bbc digital team. Earlier i spoke to bbc digital Reporter Max Matza, whos been speaking with other survivors of the disaster. I am here at the War Memorial Stadium which is one of i think five or six temporary shelters that have been set up, it is also important to note that many people are sleeping in cars, sleeping in the shade of trees or at the homes of Good Samaritans but as you said, there is a lot of gratitude, people sharing stories of how theyjust barely made it out. What about those who you have been speaking to who may know that their homes have been destroyed, they may not have anywhere else to go, is there any plan in motion for the many people that will be left homeless by this fire . Yeah, i was very struck by one person who said everybody i know is now homeless. Most people dont know where they are going to go next, they will be at the shelter for as long as it takes. One woman who is now in her 70s but had been living in her car before Finding Housing in lahaina a few years ago, she fears she might have to move back into her caragain, and that would be quite difficult for her as an elderly woman. So i am not aware of any Long Term Plan at the moment. There was also another gentleman who said he is hopeful that they will swiftly rebuild the town. The historical sites there will attract federal funding to help restore it to the way it had been earlier, but considering the remote location it might take a very long time for supplies to reach the city. And max, just briefly if you can, we have been hearing these reports that a Warning System installed across the Island Of Hawaii failed to go off before this wildfire what have you been hearing from people at the shelter about how much warning they had before they had to flee . Nobody i have spoken to got any sort of alert. The winds are the first thing they saw and felt, and that knocked out power. And the next thing they knew there were embers blowing into town, blowing into their windows of their homes, and they were forced to flee. They are highly aware there is nothing left for them there. They witnessed with their own eyes, their houses going up in flames, all of their possessions being lost as they fled. So yeah, it is very tough situation for people here, they dont know what they are going do next. Some harrowing stories being told to our Reporter Max Matza who is in a temporary shelter there in maui, thank you very much for your reporting. Earlier, i spoke to us congresswoman jill tokuda from hawaiis second Congressional District about the federal governments response to the fires, as well as what the government could do to mitigate the effects of Climate Change on Natural Disasters. Thank you for being here in this difficult time, i understand you have just returned to your home state of hawaii. What have you been hearing from your constituents and members of your community that have been affected by these wildfires . I will just tell you that it has been Heart Wrenching and as you can imagine, not being able to get home fast enough adds to the angst but literally, constant streams of text messages, calls, watching these Video Footage Images and pictures of a town we all love completely wiped out and destroyed. Just in a flash. And i have heard from individuals who lost loved ones, i have heard from individuals who are looking for loved ones and were trying to help find them, connect them up, people who have lost their homes and have nothing but the clothes on their back. The businesses, their livelihoods. There is so much shock and loss i think the one thing that we take away as comfort is we have all pulled together so mightily to support and surround each other, but there is definitely just a deep, deep feeling of loss and pain, and i can tell you that the heartbreak is felt by absolutely every single one of us. You mentioned there that hawaii and maui and all of these communities are so tightknit, it feels like, over there. What have you seen in terms of the response from people coming together to help each other . You know, it doesnt matter what island you are on, where you live, we all have family who live on every island. I trace back my family roots and my grandfather spent his childhood on maui, all of us have some kind of connection and tie to each other. And so were looking at our capital right now, the last two days they have been taking a massive amounts of donations and things coming in. I just got the plane from San Francisco and i will tell you that on the belt with the luggage was literally two or three large boxes taped up that said maui relief donations. And so, just overwhelming response of people giving what they can, supporting people in ways that they can, it is just inspiring, it is moving, but it does also speak to the great need that exists right now in the community in maui. There is a lot of need and there has been a lot of damage, and now tragically we are hearing that this is officially now hawaiis deadliest Natural Disaster as well. In your mind and what you have seen and heard, how prepared do you think the state was for an event like this . You know, when it comes to Hurricane Season we worry about the hurricanes. We dont think about winds whipping up dry conditions and red flag warnings and creating wildfires. Wildfires that in this case literally trapped a community between the fire and the ocean. So it was absolutely catastrophic. The thing is, after we are done really supporting this community, supporting ourfamilies and friends, assessing the damage, there is a lot of work to be done in terms of making sure this absolutely never happens again. If we think back in our history, Hurricane Lane did the same thing but it didnt come after a town, it took out large acreages of dry grass but we have to remember the way our towns are configured, we are along the coastline, this cant happen again and so we need to have as many take away the Lessons Learned from this, because it absolutely must not, must not happen again, it is absolutely tragic. It was a perfect storm of catastrophic events, but that is not going to bring any lives back, thats not going to bring any homes back or businesses back. So bottom line, we have to be better next time and we have two. Crosstalk there was a Warning System in place that there was dozens and hundreds of these Warning Sirens across hawaii, but we have heard from reports and officials there that the sirens didnt go off. Do you have any sense of what might have happened and whether residents were given enough time, enough warning to get to safety . Every person living in hawaii, we are familiar with those Warning Sirens the beginning of every month you hear them go off at noon, like clockwork, to test it out, to make sure it works. So there is going to be a lot, there are a lot of Unanswered Questions into why that Warning Signal did not go out. What kind of failsafes do we have to have, if in fact the situation is that it burnt down . We know that a lot of alerts went out through cellphones, but unfortunately from the day prior as we know, the cellphones were actually out. So these are things that we have to create redundancies for, to make sure at the end of the day every person who needs to be warned to get to safety can get the alerts that they need. So there is still a lot of outstanding questions and i can tell you right now for many of us, the focus is, there is still a huge recovery effort. We are talking about looking for loved ones, with the casualty counts that could definitely go up from here. Really going out there and recovering, assessing the damage and the lost homes and businesses and the entire community stop so a lot of questions, but right now so a lot of questions, but right now we have some very big arms that we have to wrap around our community, that is absolutely suffering and many still dont even know the fate of our loved ones and they are still looking for them. And just briefly, as a congresswoman, what would you like to see the federal government do to try to help states like hawaii and the other states we have seen affected by wildfires, continue to adapt to these disasters and the effects we are seeing from Climate Change . Absolutely. You can ask anyone who lives here it doesnt take a hurricane to bring down utility poles, to bring waves over roadways and take out bridges and roadways, we are seeing this all the time throughout the year and in increasing frequency. We are seeing drought conditions, torrential rains, so the reality is we have to start looking at how we are going to mitigate and adapt to this kind of Climate Chaos we are seeing across the country. Hawaii is not unique when it comes to wildfires, when it comes to torrential storms coming out of nowhere in many cases. So this is going to be about how we put resources and support, and change policies, so that we are both adaptive to Climate Change and we prevent this kind of massive loss of life, loss of property, from ever happening again anywhere else. Us congresswomanjill tokuda, thank you so much Forjoining Us during this time. To other news now. In a surprise announcement friday, us attorney general Merrick Garland named a Special Prosecutor in the investigation of president joe biden� s son, hunter biden. Garland named david weiss, a trump appointed us attorney for delaware, who has been leading the inquiry into hunter biden� s business dealings. Now, a Special Counsel Appointment usually comes about when the Justice Department feels it has a Conflict Of Interest or wants to avoid political entanglement. Mr weiss will now be provided with extra resources. Hell also be able to issue subpoenas, Search Warrants and indictments. He can bring further charges beyond the state of delaware, and has already filed papers seeking to do so. Once he concludes his investigation, mr weiss will submit a report explaining any prosecutorial decisions. Earlier, my colleague Caitriona Perry asked our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher about the significance of this move. First of all, it shows that this case is not going away any time soon. There was a certain amount of debate after that plea deal was announced that this would be wrapped up and this is something that would reach a conclusion, even when they had the Plea Deal Hearing just last month. But, in fact, this is going to go on now. And in the court filing where weiss� s Team Announced that they were going to possibly change the venue to someplace else, whether its dc or california, where the crimes occurred, they said that this was because the Plea Negotiations with hunter biden� s legal team had reached an impasse. And its now the investigators the prosecutors belief that this could go or will go to trial. So were looking at an extended investigation that could expand into other charges and then ultimately a trial where the president s son is before a jury, facing what could be a Prison Sentence if hes convicted. So has there been any reaction from the president , from the biden administration, to this latest development . You know, the white house has had a policy of trying not to comment about this investigation ongoing. Now, hunter biden� s legal team, however, has come forward and said that they still view their client as innocent, that he is going to be exonerated once the investigation is concluded and that the framework of the plea deal what he said he was willing to admit to as far as guilt will ultimately prevail. So, they are going to perhaps wait for their day in court now to fight this out. So, what does this all mean, then, for those republican led investigations that weve seen . Has there been any response from anyone in the Republican Party today . Well, theres been concern in republican members of congress, starting with kevin mccarthy, the Speaker Of The House on down that this was an attempt somehow to block the congressional investigations because all of a sudden, now you have a Special Counsel whos going to continue to investigate and he wont be willing to testify because there was Talk About Weiss coming and testifying before Congress Next month. Hes not going to do that now that the investigation is ongoing. And they have said that their investigations are not going to be stymied by the Special Counsel investigation going along alongside it, that they still want to look into any possible ties Betweenjoe Biden and his son hunters business dealings. Now, republicans on the whole, honestly, theyve been pretty sceptical, suspicious of this announcement. They have soured on david weiss. You mentioned that he had been appointed by donald trump originally but they viewed that plea deal as what they call a sweetheart deal, that hes been too easy on hunter biden and that the investigation has not been aggressive enough. So, they think, by and large, that someone else should be put in charge of this investigation, someone who doesnt have the same history as david weiss. They dont think that david weiss is going to be able to bring this fully investigation fully intojoe biden, where they think the real crimes and the real political implications might be. Theres been so much discussion about the politicisation of the department ofjustice, with all the full gamut of investigations that are going on. Whats happened today how does it feed into that . Well, you know, i think that it makes it a little easier for democrats to counter the republican accusations that theres some sort of two tier standard ofjustice, that donald trump has a Special Counsel who has been investigating him and has brought now multiple indictments against donald trump Whilejoe Biden and his family have been treated differently. Now theres a Special Counsel, with all the powers that you discussed of Special Counsels, investigating. Not joe biden directly, but, i mean, it could lead up to him if they find something, but hunter biden, the president s son, and his business dealings, and hunter biden very clearly was talking about his connections to his father when he was making these business deals. So, maybe that makes it a little easier for the democrats to say, no, look, theJustice Department has handed all these off, the investigations are all happening independently, but its still going to be a headache for the white house. Its still going to be a distraction. This is going to drag on now clearly into 202a, the president ial election cycle, maybe even after the election. Its going to be something that theyre going to have to deal with for the time forward. A planned meeting by west African Defence leaders to discuss the coup in niger has been postponed at short notice. The talks, called by the regional bloc, ecowas, had been expected to take place in ghana saturday. No reason has been given for the delay. Large crowds of supporters of last months coup gathered near a French Military base in niamey friday to denounce ecowas and france. Heres our africa correspondent catherine byaruhanga. The fallout from nigers coup is starting to bite. Sanctions have cut off imports, causing the prices of popular staples to go up. Zara kadar owns a Small Business selling food in the capital niamey. Translation the price of rice has increased but also that of cooking all an increase of us a injust one week. This causes us problems because if i prepare the rice, i cant sell it. No profit, only losses. Nigers soldiers seized power two weeks ago. Rallies like this one at the National Stadium suggest they have widespread support. And look some in the crowd are waving russian flags. Moscows propaganda promotes russia as a better partner for africa than the old colonial powers. Ibrahim suleiman is a tailor and says he has been inundated with orders. Translation it was with | the advent of the coup that i started sewing flags, especially russian flags. People come to buy them a lot because they use them to support our soldiers whove taken power. People buy them because we are in conflict with france. For years, france has only caused us problems and the military wants to put an end to it. France sees its former colony niger as an important Security Partner but its been accused of having too much influence in the country and the Military Takeover has unleashed anti french sentiments. Its embassy was attacked during demonstrations. Niger is only the latest to experience this. Six african countries have had coups since 2020. Five of them are former french colonies. West african states have been pressuring the junta to restore the democratically elected president mohamed bazoum. They say they will use force if necessary. Any time from now, the force could be deployed. And for operational reasons, we have to maintain the strategic ambiguity, when we are going to deploy the force. The worry is that should another Military Takeover in africa succeed, it will encourage other ambitious soldiers. Catherine byaruhanga, bbc news. Ukraines president zelensky ordered the dismissal of all the directors of Regional Military Recruitment Centres amidst concerns about corruption. Heres our correspondent james waterhouse. This is quite the clampdown from president zelensky. In an announcement that few predicted, 33 Regional Recruitment heads from every province in ukraine has been fired. Now, the allegations president zelensky makes are quite serious. He accuses them of accepting bribes, through either cash or cryptocurrency, in exchange for helping men whove been mobilised be smuggled across the border. Now, there is a bit of tension here when it comes to ukraines Military Recruitment centres because weve spoken to those involved, and they say they feel like theyre doing the dirty work of the military, the unpopular side of things, and that the whole process in general needs modernisation. But as far as the governments concerned, they say, that is an unpopular decision. And now, we have these allegations from president zelensky. With this clampdown, it seems the government might be engaging on these issues but weve heard allegations of heavy handed tactics being used, where men have been physically smuggled to Recruitment Centres. And so, this is a delicate issue as well because, yes, there are sizeable proportions of the population who are motivated to fight. They have either volunteered or they have become professional soldiers. But the issue of mobilisation is a tricky one because there are those who dont want to fight, who have tried to avoid the draft and so, there is a conflict between the state and its population in some areas. And its notjust about soldiers getting called up to replace those who have been killed, its also about ukraine replacing those who have been fighting on the frontline in unimaginable conditions for several months now. A well known Norwegian Mountaineer has denied accusations that her team climbed over an injured guide during a bid to break a world record. The porter, mohammed hassan, had fallen off a ledge on the worlds second highest mountain, k2, in pakistan, injuly. Video on social media appears to show a group past by mr hassan, who died reportedly a few hours later. Bethany bell reports. K2 is one of the worlds most dangerous and challenging mountains. The norwegian climber Kristin Harila went there in a bid to secure a world record the fastest climber of all the highest peaks. But tragedy struck. Mohammed hassan, a porter on the mountain, fell off a ledge. You can see him here, his body lying on the narrow ridge known as the bottleneck. Someone is with him. Two climbers from austria and germany were on the mountain that day, taking some different footage with a drone for a documentary. One of them, wilhelm steindl, says their pictures show that no one tried to Rescue Mohammed and take him down the mountain. We saw the drone shots and suddenly, we were seeing this guy alive, people stepping over him, and nobody started a rescue mission. How did that make you feel . Really sad and also a little bit angry, because you dont behave like this on the mountain. But Kristin Harila said she and her team tried for hours to help mohammed in treacherous conditions. She says it would have been too dangerous to turn the whole team back. So, he wasnt left alone and not from our team and when this thing is filmed and its from many hours after that. And its not like its possible to just turn everyone around there. Its very hard to do a rescue up there and its notjust like to carry him down from there. Mohammed worked as a porter to earn money to educate his children. Wilhelm went to visit them and is trying to raise money to help them, now that their father is gone. Bethany bell, bbc news. Plenty more news coming up at the top of the hour. Im carl nasman here in washington. Stay with us here on bbc news. Hello. It is shaping up to be yet another unsettled weekend of weather but that doesnt mean its going to be raining all the time far from it. While it will be showery and quite breezy, therell be some drier spells, too. In fact, parts of the south and the east are going to see the driest of the weather, furthest away from the centre of this area of low pressure that is what will be driving the showers over the weekend. And see all the white lines, the isobars squeezing together . That shows that we are going to have some quite brisk winds, particularly around western coasts. A band of rain through the morning pushing its way northwards and eastwards across scotland. Northern england seeing some of that, maybe parts of wales. Behind that, sunny spells and showers, some of them heavy and thundery. A few showers breaking out down towards the South East Corner but actually, a decent amount of dry weather to be had here. So, theres confirmation of what will be a breezy, indeed quite windy day around some western coasts. Temperatures a little down on where they have been. The warmest weather in Eastern England at 2a degrees, more generally around 16 22. And then, as we head through saturday evening, well continue to see some showers, particularly across the north and the west of the uk. Some areas of cloud, some clear spells, too, and another relatively warm night 12 15 degrees. So, for sunday, our area of low pressure just continues to swirl, centred close to the north west of scotland, so that will be driving the showers. This frontal system here to the south west, thatll be running in later in the day. So, some spells of sunshine to be had but also some showers, maybe some longer spells of rain at times for Northern Ireland and western parts of scotland. And then, late in the day, some cloud and perhaps some rain into the far south west of england, maybe the far south west of wales. Temperatures between 18 and 23 degrees. Breezy again perhaps not quite as windy as on saturday. Now, through the coming week, low pressure will be with us initially but then, it looks like High Pressure will build for a time and, actually, as that high shifts eastwards, it may be that we start to pick up a feed of slightly warmer air from the near continent. The big question mark is about how quickly this area of low pressure then swirls in from the west to turn things unsettled once again. But signs are that as we head through the coming week, there will at least be some drier and warmer weather on the way for many of us. Voiceover this is bbc news. Well have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. Laughter. My name is Godfrey Henry 0liver palmer, and i was born injamaica, in i9a0. Henry oliver palmer, and i was born in jamaica, in 1940. Born in jamaica, in 1940. Carol azmi, e s born in jamaica, in 1940. Carol azmi, e 5 me. Born in jamaica, in 1940. Carol azmi, e 5 me. Alexander born in jamaica, in 1940. Carol| azmi, e 5 me. Alexander reid, born in may. Azmi, e 5 me. Alexander reid, born in may, 1931, azmi, e 5 me. Alexander reid, | born in may, 1931, manchester, jamaica
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