for more information how you can help victims of hawaii wildfires go to cnn.com/impact or text hawaii to 707070 to donate. the lead with jake tapper starts right now. a brand new special counsel now focused on hunter biden. the lead starts right now. the attorney general s surprise announcement. the prosecutor who was overseeing the hunter case is now being elevated to a special counsel. what will this mean for the president s son? what will this mean for the president? and donald trump might be told to zip it. the judge in the 2020 election fraud case signaling that she is going to be willing to restrict sensitive evidence as she tells trump s attorneys the former president s right to free speech is not absolute. and hawaii s catastrophe sadly getting worse. historic towns gone, homes burned to the ground, 55 lives confir confirmed lost, and that number is sadly expected to climb. welcome to the lead i m jake tapper. and we start with our law and justice lead
hamas makes a big demand in talks with israel as israeli troops find the body of another hostage. details on that just ahead. plus, president biden ramping up his attacks on his predecessor. he s calling donald trump a loser and a danger to the country. will the tougher tone help biden in the polls? and hate on campus. the department of education has launched investigations into seven schools over complaints of anti-semitism and islamophobia. we re following these stories and many more coming in right here to cnn news central. sources tell cnn that hamas is demanding that israel stop flying surveillance drones over gaza as a condition for freeing hostages held by the terrorist group. it s part of hamas push for israel to pause its military operations in exchange for people it s holding captive. it comes after the idf says two hostages were found dead near al shifa hospital. israel said today the body of 19-year-old noa marciano, a corporal in the israeli military, has
Hello, i m tadhg enright. president biden says he will travel to hawaii next week to inspect the response to the deadly wildfires on the island of maui. he s been criticised by his political opponents, who ve said he s been slow to see the devastation. he ll meet the survivors and emergency workers. the white house says he ll visit scenes of wildfire damage and discuss next steps in the recovery operations with officials. so far, officials have confirmed that 110 people have died in the fires, but that number is expected to rise as the search continues. only 38% of the affected area has been searched, and just a handful of victims have been identified.
Weiss himself, look, it s an investigation, i can t come and jeopardize an ongoing investigation, and it slows down the gears of chairman comer s investigation. i think the bigger issue here you were getting out as you were quizzing people trying to figure this out is we have no real reliable narrators anywhere here. garland isn t telling us all the facts they have. weiss isn t telling us all the facts they have. joe biden s made it clear his preference is to back his son to the hilt even when the facts go the other way. the manucuser against hunter biden is obviously a corrupt and his manucuser is in the same business under investigation for all sorts of other things. there s no one here to really say this is straight shooter, this is what s going on, so it s very hard to parse. you don t think hunter biden is appreciate it. we re going to go live to hawaii