Ahead on cnn newsroom. It looks like a war zone out there, really looks like somebody came along and bombed the town. Billions of dollars and losses, dozens dead, the scope of the fires in hawaii is becoming clear. Gop president ial hopeful campaign at the Iowa State Fair ahead of their first debate, front runner donald trump refuses to comply with one requirement to qualify for the event. And Five Americans have been released from irans most notorious prison, what it will take to bring them the rest of the way home. Live from cnn center this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. The catastrophic wildfires scorching the Hawaiian Island of maui have killed at least 53 people, it is feared the death toll will keep rising as emergency crews reach more areas turn to ash. Power and cell service are still out in western maui, and the main Tourist District of lahaina which is making it difficult to determine how many people are still missing. The white government up 1700 buildings there were destroyed, the wildfires not the second deadliest in the u. S. In the past century, the governor says the fire is likely the largest Natural Disaster in hawaiian history. One resident describes the terrifying moments of her escape. Here she is. When the pump trees that are 40 feet up in the air, the fire hit it and the heat hit us, it was maybe 50 to 100 yards away, we said we have to go. We ran out in panic mode and we said lets Stay Together but there was no time to wait for anybody, i jumped in my truck and the smoke, it was four or 5 00 in the afternoon, it was pitch black the smoke was so thick and black. It was panic, people were crying on the side of the road begging, there was a man i will never forget he just laid in the road and pleaded to jesus that we were going to be safe. Much of the fire is now contained u. S. President joe biden has Greenlit A Disaster Declaration that will free of federal aid for hawaii. Veronica miracle reports from maui. Is anybody still out here . It is time to go. Chaos and panic as the relentless wildfires continue to ravage the Paradise Island of maui, leaving loss and destruction in its wake. Oh my god. Some residents escaping by boat, watching the flames engulf their town as they sailed away. Historically lahaina essentially gone as the fire torched hundreds of houses, cars, and businesses. We caught up with volunteers today in the harbor, while there are Loading Supplies to be taken to a nearby area. We have had firebombs so big they were sucking oxygen out of the air. People didnt have oxygen to breathe. I think this is an absolutely top level nationalist. Are we have never seen anything like it in 32 years. The before and after images show the horrific scene left behind and fears of a rising death toll. What we are seeing is just this wide spread devastation across many different neighborhoods in maui. For some who escaped, like florian doyle, who was able to get out with his kids and dog, a feeling of guilt that he could not do more to help others. There are a lot of people, more than 36 people who didnt make it. I tried to warn as many people as i could. We tried. There was a lot of people. I think it was just so chaotic that nobody knew. There were no phone connections. As much as i was trying to save it and let people know there are no options, i just had to go and get my kids. And now i have the news that there are friends that the coast guard pulled more than 50 people from the ocean who had jumped in to escape the flames. We still get dead bodies in the water floating and on the seawall. Nearly 11,000 customers remain without power, more than 2000 residents are in shelters, and thousands of travelers are still stranded on the island. The National Guard reports that they dropped 150,000 gallons of water over the fires wednesday to help suppress the flames and wildfires still rage, on the research and rescue efforts continue. The primary focus is to save lives. And to prevent human suffering, and mitigate great property loss. Lieutenant governor sylvia lake toured the damage by helicopter on wednesday was shocked by what she witnessed. It looked as if it is just the whole town was devastated. The one road into lahaina remains closed, people can leave, but they cannot go back in. And others have been waiting on the side of the road, hoping that the moment that this road opens up they can go see their homes and community. But the governor of hawaii saying earlier today that he estimates about 80 of lahaina has been decimated. There is a glimmer of good news, that fire that decimated lahaina, it is now 80 contained. Firefighters have been able to make progress despite these conditions. Veronica miracle, cnn, maui, hawaii. Attorneys for donald trump in the Special Counsel will be in Court In Washington in the coming hours. U. S. District judge tonya will hold a hearing on how to handle evidence in the election subversion case, she expects to weigh in on what trump can say in public, especially in the wake of his inflammatory media posts. It comes as the Justice Department is proposing an aggressive timeline for the former president s trial, on obstruction and conspiracy charges. Cnns Kaitlan Poland has the details. The Justice Department now has their hopes for a trial schedule, outlined in a new filing in Federal Court On Thursday for donald trump. What the Justice Department prosecutors want to do they want to take donald trump to trial in the criminal case in Federal Court by january. They would like a Jury Selection in december and then the case kickoff with evidence being presented beginning on january 2nd of 2024. Now up, that is the day donald trump and his lawyers are almost certainly going to be pushing back on quite harshly, they are not going to have to respond in court to this until next week. When they do, they have signaled that they are very likely going to want to claim that they have a lot of legal arguments to make that are not going to allow for a trial that quickly in 4 to 5 months from now. Things about president ial immunity, the First Amendment, also theyve argued in other cases and hear that donald trump is a busy individual right now, who is running for president. Not only is january in february going to bring about the beginning of voting in the 2024 primaries for president , he will be running their, Iowa Caucuses will be on the calendar. But also, there are other things that he needs to do at the beginning of the year, including prepare for other trials, both lawsuits that are taking him to trial, there is one scheduled in mid january, e. Jean carroll the columnist in new york taken him to trial on a Defamation Case for the second time. And then other criminal trials that he is preparing for now that he has been indicted, multiple times, in multiple courts. So, that is going to get hashed out. It is not going to get hashed out right away though. On friday morning, there will be a Court Hearing in this case, the federal criminal case against donald trump related to the 2020 election. And in that hearing there will be the first before federal judge in the d. C. District court, she will be talking to the lawyers about how evidence should be handled in this case. There have been disputes over that. How much donald trump will be able to share, publicly, as he learns information that the Justice Department gathered and handed over to him. His team can prepare for trial. She will be determining that, and she also may be responding to some of the things both trumps lawyers and the Justice Department has said in Court Filings so far as far as his social media posts. He has been aggressive on social media, talking about mike pence, talking about the judge, talking about the prosecutors. So a lot to watch for exactly how the judge responds, and what the tone will be in this very first hearing before the federal judge who will oversee the trial of donald trump related to the 2020 election. Kayla pullens, cnn, washington. The Iowa State Fair open on thursday, it was the place to be for Many Republican candidates still scrambling to catch fire with voters, gops first debate is less than two weeks out and the fair has always been a natural stumping ground for the rich large diverse crowd. Donald trump is expected there on saturday but we still dont know if he plans to appear on the milwaukee stage. So far he is blocked at the parties required loyalty pledged, to endorse whoever the nominee turns out to be. Listen to this. I wouldnt sign the pledge, why would i sign a pledge, there are people there that i wouldnt have. I wouldnt have certain people as, you know, somebody who i would endorse. Four candidates however including ron desantis and former u. N. Ambassador nikki haley have taken the oath. Heres how desantis described it afterwards. I signed the pledge to support the team, Going Forward in 2024, ive always said that that is what you do there is no way i would just take my ball and go home and out. You have to continue to fight, and fight for what you believe in. All right, for more on this i want to bring in ron brownstein, who is cnn senior political analyst and a Senior Editor for the atlantic, he joins me from los angeles. Good to see you again, ron. What is going to happen . Do you think a trump plus debate . He said not only that he wouldnt support the other candidates but also, he has nothing to gain by debating them. Well, on the latter point he is right at this point, i think he wants to make a point to fox, i most people would be surprised to see him there at the first debate. Maybe even at the second debate, that fox is hosting again, fox business at the Reagan Library in september. Once the debates move to the early caucus primary states, the calculation will be different. People will remember that right before the 2016 caucus in iowa he skipped a fox debate in iowa and he held a counter programming event. He ended up losing the caucus, some what surprisingly, he will feel more pressure to participate in the debate in those early stages, for which absence could be seen as a slight i think he most people believe he will make his point, and keep us marbles and go home as rhonda scent is said. If he doesnt show, i mean is that an opportunity for the other candidates to rise above the others free from the pool of trumps gravity . Interesting question. Look, there will be fewer eyeballs on the debate and ultimately, you know, this is a race above finding an argument against on the trump, at this point. The republican, the other republicans on the field more or less, although desantis has moved towards little sharper criticism of trump more or less they are replicating the strategy of 2016 which was hoping, somehow, some external event, as i like to say a Meteor Striking the earth, Dislodges Trump support in the Republican Party and they will be there to pick it up, if they have alienated his voters in the meantime by talking to harshly to him, or challenging him to directly, the strategies and work in 2016, its not working now. They have to give voters a better reason than they have done so far to bypass trump. And we will see whether with him not on the stage they are willing to go further in that that they havent, i think it will be a wet blanket over the whole debate. I imagine, lets talk about iowa, the republican candidate swapping the state fair, what is at stake for them . How important is this and do they actually have a window there . I mean trump has a big lead there even though he has barely visited. Necessary but not sufficient really applies to the iowa caucus and any other republican candidates, necessary for one of them to be trump or post a very strong second, because if trump wins that convincingly, it is likely i think people in the other Campaign Even agreed to steam roll to the nomination, he has been stronger in New Hampshire than in iowa and if he wins iowa and New Hampshire he will likely win South Carolina and, you know someone who wins all three of those early contest is not going to be beaten. Not sufficient, however, because the last big winners of the iowa caucus, and ted cruz in 2016, did not win the republican nomination, all of them failed to build a broad enough coalition, you can win iowa by really digging in deep among the states Evangelical Christians who are significant majority of the republican electorate but beyond that it is hard to win a nomination. So, i will be looking for two things in iowa. Whether anyone can put a dent in trump or beat him, which still seems possible in iowa, to me. But also in the course of doing that can they demonstrate the breath of peel right out of the gate that will be necessary to beat him. Rhonda centers has been practically living there, about the polls and history, as you suggest, seem to be against him there. So, hanging over all of iowa, in a different way the president s mounting problems as the Court Calendar starts to take shape as we heard there from kaitlan collins. The Justice Department trying to start one of the trials in early january, possibly during the iowa caucus, so how distracting might all of this before Trumps Campaign . And defending himself in court at the same time, or conversely how useful might it be for his reelection as a way to fire up his base . Well, you know, no matter how politically powerful or popular you are, you cant be in two places at once, right . So if in fact any of these trials do begin during the primary season, that is going to be a complication for trump in one sense, he is not going to be able to be out there in iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and the other early states. On the other hand, as we have seen, he has been able to convince his electorate, within the Republican Coalition that this is all some, you know, multi prong to deny him the nomination and he can shift attention to that can benefit him but i think theres a real cost for anyone in being in multiple criminal trials. 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It happened on thursday, in the city of zaporizhzhia, ukraine says one person was killed and 16 others were wounded. Childrens day camp who close during the day an hour before the strike. Ukraine has ordered an evacuation of civilians from the city of kupiansk which is under Russian Military pressure. In the south the front lines are holding despite reports of heavy fighting amid ukraines counteroffensive. Moscows rushing reinforcements from crimea. For more on this we are joined by Stuart Crawford defense analyst and former Lieutenant Colonel in the british army, hes speaking with us from andorra. Thank you so much for being here with us. We have been reporting that officials both insid