Hard questions on maui. How did this wildfire start . How did it grow so fast . Destroy lives all with so little warning . Now a top official in charge of the response to that crisis has quit even as he stands up for how his agency handled the disaster. Plus a historic hurricane. Hilary is now a huge category four storm. It could be the first storm of its kind to hit california in some 84 years. Some areas could get a years worth of rain in just one day. And justice deferred. Donald trumps legal team trying to push one trial years into the future. While the former president backtracks his plans to hold an explosive News Conference monday. Were following these developing stories and more right here all coming in to cnn news central. The origin and the response to the deadly maui wildfires are both under growing scrutiny. Just a couple of hours, residents of the devastated town of lahaina are set to hold a News Conference to address how officials responded to the disaster. It comes after
announce another big interest rate hike spurring fears of a recession. hello, and welcome. it s wednesday, september 21st. 9 a.m. here in london. 11 a.m. in moscow where we re following a potentially drastic escalation of russia s war on ukraine. vladimir putin is ordering a partial mobilization to boost his military fight. the russian president says it begins today. those in the reserve and with previous military experience will be subject to it. cnn s covering the story from every angle. we re joined in london and nick peyton walsh is standing by. nick, to you first. this announcement of a move, partial prescription isn t entirely unexpected given the losses we re seeing russia suffer on the battlefield. what does this mean? reporter: what s startling is how fast this will go into action but i think it s fair to say relatively limited. for 12 hours we have been awaiting really a speech from the kremlin head and talk had been possibly he might call for mass mobilization
of ian s destruction. look at the pictures in front of you. this is what it looks like, including in lee county, where rescue crews, this is a live look now, a live look at that location, rescue crews are trying to get to people, with millions of floridians without power and water. we re going to take you live to the hardest-hit areas including lee county, which you re looking at now, for what is expected to be obviously a years-long recovery. i m halle jackson in washington. let s get to shaq brewster live for us in charleston, south carolina, nbc news meteorologist janice is with us today. shaq ian has made landfall in the last 40 minutes. tell us what you re seeing. the landfall was several miles up here from charleston, and that does not mean that charles was not impacted by this storm. throughout the afternoon and into the morning, and throughout the afternoon, we saw heavy rain bands, heavy wind bands. that tropical storm weather, that was expected for many people her
this is absolutely nuts. ainsley: that is new video already showing the storm s power as it brings devastating floods down it the key west area. we expect to see more of those, tossing planes around like toys. todd: we have team coverage now. fox weather correspondent nicole valdez. we start with fox weather correspondent robert ray in fort myers. robert? ainsley: trouble obviously with his microphone. we can t hear you, robert. right now, it does look bad. fox weather correspondent nicole valdez continues our coverage, she is in tampa. we are only starting to rapidly see conditions deteriorating here for the tampa bay area as hurricane ian, that now category 4 storm. you just mentioned with winds at 155 miles per hour. it is teetering on a category 5 storm. you heard governor ron desantis there saying our emergency management officials are planning and preparing to see a category 5 storm. that is how seriously they are taking this situation knowing what we could se
also at this hour, hurricane hunters are flying into the eye of the storm right now and they will be talking with us live. what they re seeing right now with this hurricane. they are the noaa team sending real-time data back. and they re joining us tonight. the other news this tuesday night, the first results coming in from vladimir putin s referendums in eastern ukraine. russia tonight saying 96% of people are in favor of becoming part of russia. we saw the images, pro-russian soldiers armed with assault rifles going door-to-door to pick up ballots. tonight, the u.s. calling this referendum a sham. the new satellite images showing the mass exodus from russia. russian men looking to avoid the new draft. the line, ten miles long. and when putin is now set to address the russian people. ian pannell in ukraine tonight. back here at home, the january 6th rioter convicted of attacking an officer. the world has seen those images. tonight, sentenced to more than seven years in p