Biden declares Hawaii wildfires a major disaster

President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Hawaii on Thursday, freeing up federal aid to support the island of Maui's recovery from wildfires that have brought vast destruction and killed at least 36 people.

Federal funds can be used for various initiatives to help impacted communities, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, according to the White House.

Biden said Thursday that he had an extensive phone call with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green Thursday morning, assuring him of his commitment to ensuring the state receives “everything it needs from the federal government.”

"Anyone who's lost a loved one, whose home has been damaged or destroyed is going to get help immediately,” Biden said while delivering remarks about the anniversary of the PACT Act in Utah. “We're working as quickly as possible to fight these fires and evacuate residents and tourists. In the meantime, our prayers are with the people of Hawaii. But not just our prayers: Every asset we have will be available to them.”

Powerful wildfires unexpectedly ignited Tuesday in the historic town of Lahaina on Maui island. The extensive blaze, which has been intensified by powerful winds from Hurricane Dora, has led to mass evacuations and widespread power outages, impacting thousands.

“Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the wildfires in Maui, and our prayers are with those who have seen their homes, businesses, and communities destroyed,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday evening. “We are grateful to the brave firefighters and first responders who continue to run toward danger, putting themselves in harm’s way to save lives.”

That same day, the president directed “all available Federal assets” to help local efforts responding to the wildfires. Biden added that the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy fleets would bolster rescue operations following reports of residents jumping into Lahaina harbor to seek refuge from the fire and smoke. The U.S. Marines were also supplying helicopters to battle the flames, while the Department of Transportation was partnering with airlines to safely evacuate tourists from the Big Island, he said.

Biden’s declaration came a day after Hawaii’s congressional delegation sent a letter urging him to “expedite all federal assistance possible” to support the response to the wildfires.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) thanked the president for moving forward on his declaration Thursday.

“Recovering from these devastating fires will take significant time and resources, and we need all the federal support we can get,” Schatz said in a statement. “It will unlock federal resources and help our state and county governments respond to and recover from these fires and help the people of Maui and Hawaii island.”

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Biden seeking $40B in emergency funds for Ukraine, disaster relief

The Biden administration is asking congressional leaders for about $40 billion in new emergency spending, a request that’s sure to intensify this fall's already arduous government funding fight.

The cash that President Joe Biden requested formally on Thursday includes more than $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, $12 billion to replenish a dwindling pot of federal disaster relief and $4 billion to address issues at the southern border, like shelter and services for migrants and counter-fentanyl efforts.

Biden's emergency aid pitch will almost certainly cause additional angst on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers face a tight timeline to avert a government shutdown by Sept. 30. House conservatives have pushed for further cuts to government funding, already jeopardizing the passage of new spending bills before the White House's request for additional cash.

Lawmakers in both parties have clamored for more Ukraine aid, determined to honor a U.S. commitment to helping the country in its grueling war against Russian aggression that looks likely to continue throughout the rest of the year. But staunch conservatives in both chambers, particularly in the House, are vehemently opposed to giving Ukraine another dime without a fuller accounting of how the $43 billion in assistance already allocated to the country has been spent.

Both Ukraine aid and disaster relief enjoy bipartisan support, however, and the funds could help shore up backing for a stopgap spending bill that averts a government shutdown in October.

In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there’s “strong bipartisan support in the Senate” to fund the issues addressed by Biden’s request.

“We hope to join with our Republican colleagues this fall to avert an unnecessary government shutdown and fund this critical emergency supplemental request,” he said.

But passing a short-term funding patch with emergency cash attached still presents a number of politically tricky hurdles for Congress to clear, given GOP hardliners have already signaled they would reject a stopgap that fails to enact steep spending cuts. Ukraine aid is likely to further alienate that group.

The money will also set Kyiv up for months of continued military operations, as critical supplies of artillery ammunition and other supplies run low due to heavy fighting and stiff Russian resistance along hundreds of miles of front lines.

The $13.1 billion Pentagon portion of the Ukraine proposal includes $9.5 billion more for the military to speed up the replenishment of inventories of weapons and equipment sent to the front lines. It also includes $3.6 billion for military, intelligence and other support for Ukraine.

Biden is also requesting $8.5 billion for the State Department and USAID, including $7.3 billion in economic, humanitarian and security assistance for Ukraine and other impacted countries.

Administration officials said the proposal aims to address Ukraine's needs for the first quarter of the new fiscal year that begins in October, adding that existing funding will suffice until then.

"We won't be bashful about going back to Congress beyond the first quarter of next year if we feel like we need to do that," a senior administration official told reporters. "It's really ... the best estimate we can come up with for what we think we're going to need to support Ukraine, at least for those first three months of the year."

There is currently about $6.2 billion left in a Pentagon account to send existing equipment from U.S. stockpiles to Ukraine, and another $2.2 billion to put weapons and equipment on contract for later deliveries. That money will likely last until early fall, given current U.S. spending rates, meaning a new package will need to be in place soon to allow Ukraine to plan for operations through the winter, which is expected to continue to see heavy fighting as Ukrainian forces continue their push toward Russian-occupied Crimea.

FEMA, meanwhile, has warned that its disaster relief fund is running out of money as natural disasters ramp up in the coming months. Such destruction was evident Wednesday as wildfires ripped through the Hawaiian island of Maui, leading to at least 36 deaths.

An administration official said Thursday that the White House is monitoring the situation in Hawaii, including whether additional funding is needed in the future.

The administration’s request does not include aid to Taiwan’s military, money that had been broadly expected on Capitol Hill. Those funds could have appealed to China hawks, who want to see the U.S. move swiftly to help deter a potential invasion of the island.

A senior administration official told reporters that the funding request was limited to "immediate, emergency funding needs" such as the war in Ukraine, adding that they see "plenty of opportunities" to continue to assist Taiwan's military.

Even before Biden requested more emergency funding from Congress, Senate appropriators decided to add $14 billion in emergency funding to their fiscal 2024 spending bills, padding out both defense and domestic funding amid bipartisan concerns that the budget levels established by the debt ceiling deal earlier this year would hamstring federal agencies.

Of that emergency money, $8 billion goes toward boosting the Pentagon’s budget, including over $1 billion to replenish weapons sent to Taiwan.

But in the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy has criticized the possibility of extra spending beyond the debt ceiling deal, while conservatives push to slash tens of billions of additional dollars from the bipartisan agreement that McCarthy negotiated with Biden. Granting Biden’s request for more emergency cash risks further angering the ultra-conservative lawmakers who could threaten McCarthy’s speakership, though it's been months since any lawmakers have floated an attempt to strip him of the gavel.

In an interview Wednesday, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), a senior appropriator and co-chair of the Ukraine Caucus, said he wanted enough aid to last the allied country an entire year “to send a message to [Vladimir] Putin, and our allies and Ukraine that we’re in this for the long haul.” He predicted that moderate Republicans and Democrats will get the funding over the finish line.

“It’s calculus; there are multiple variables that are intertwined and it comes at a difficult time,” he said. “The guys I talk to in the Republican party, and I’m an appropriator, say, ‘Oh no, we’re going to get this done.’ That’s what gives me hope.”

Joe Gould contributed to this report.

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Iran transfers 5 Iranian-American prisoners to house arrest

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has transferred five Iranian-Americans from prison to house arrest, U.S. officials said Thursday. The move comes after Tehran has spent months suggesting a prisoner swap with Washington in exchange for billions of dollars frozen in South Korea.

Iranian officials at the United Nations confirmed the deal to The Associated Press, saying that the prisoner release “marks a significant initial step in the implementation of this agreement.”

Iran also acknowledged that the deal involved $6 billion to $7 billion frozen in South Korea. The U.N. mission said that money would be transferred to Qatar before being sent onto Iran if the agreement goes through.

The complicated, multinational deal comes amid months of heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. A major American military buildup in the Persian Gulf is underway, with the possibility of armed U.S. troops boarding and guarding commercial ships traveling through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of all oil traded passes.

It remains unclear whether the transfer of the Iranian-Americans guarantees that they will make it home. Iran in past months has overstated progress in talks, likely conducted with mediation from Oman and Qatar, on a potential trade.

The U.S. in March called remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian that a deal for a swap was close a “cruel lie.”

U.S.-based lawyer Jared Genser identified three of the transferred prisoners as Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz. Genser, who has represented Namazi, did not identify the fourth and fifth prisoners. The five likely will be held at a hotel under guard until they possibly leave Iran, Genser added.

“The move by Iran of the American hostages from Evin Prison to an expected house arrest is an important development,” Genser said in a statement. “While I hope this will be the first step to their ultimate release, this is at best the beginning of the end and nothing more. But there are simply no guarantees about what happens from here.”

Sharghi’s sister, Neda Sharghi, also acknowledged the transfer.

“My family has faith in the work that President Biden and government officials have undertaken to bring our families home and hope to receive that news soon,” she said in a statement. “Until that point, I hope you can understand that we do not think it will be helpful to comment further.”

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, acknowledged the prisoners’ move to house arrest and described the negotiations for their release as “ongoing and delicate.”

“While this is an encouraging step, these U.S. citizens ... should have never been detained in the first place,” she said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor their condition as closely as possible. Of course, we will not rest until they are all back home in the United States.”

It remains unclear how many Iranian-Americans are held by Tehran, which does not recognize dual citizenship.

The three released prisoners cited by Genser whose identities are known are Namazi, who was detained in 2015 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on internationally criticized spying charges; Sharghi, a venture capitalist sentenced to 10 years in prison; and Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was arrested in 2018 and also received a 10-year sentence.

Comments by U.S. officials in recent months had suggested there could be a fourth detainee in Iran, and an Iranian newspaper in August had reported there was a fifth prisoner, revealing the case amid apparent negotiations for the release.

Iran, meanwhile, has said it seeks the release of Iranian prisoners held in the U.S.

Iranian media in the past identified several prisoners of interest with cases tied to violations of U.S. export laws and restrictions on doing business with Iran.

The alleged violations include the transfer of funds through Venezuela and sales of dual-use equipment that the U.S. alleges could be used in Iran’s military and nuclear programs. Iran has been enriching uranium and stockpiling it as part of its advancing nuclear program.

The deal hinges on Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks due to international sanctions on Tehran. Already, Tehran seized a South Korean oil tanker amid the dispute and threatened further retaliation in August.

“Definitely Iran will not remain silent, and we have many options that could harm the Koreans and we will certainly use them,” said Fadahossein Maleki, a member of Iran’s parliament who sits on its influential national security and foreign policy committee.

Iran and the U.S. have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution. The most recent major exchange between the two countries happened in 2016, when Iran came to a deal with world powers to restrict its nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions.

Four American captives, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, flew home from Iran, and several Iranians in the United States won their freedom. That same day, the Obama administration airlifted $400 million in cash to Tehran.

Iran has received international criticism over its targeting of dual nationals amid tensions with the wider world. A United Nations panel has described “an emerging pattern involving the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of dual nationals.” The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners as bargaining chips in political negotiations, an allegation Tehran rejects.

Negotiations over a major prisoner swap faltered after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear deal in 2018. From the following year on, a series of attacks and ship seizures attributed to Iran have raised tensions. While President Joe Biden entered office with hopes of restarting the deal, diplomatic negotiations on the accord have been stalled for a year.

It remains unclear how any possible deal would affect Biden, who now is ordering the Persian Gulf buildup. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama received withering criticism from Republicans over that prisoner swap, though he already was nearing the end of his second term. Biden will face reelection in November 2024, potentially against Trump.

Those in the U.S. long critical of diplomacy with Iran began questioning the deal immediately after Genser’s announcement.

“Paying $6 billion in ransom payments means the regime will only take more hostages,” said Mark Dubowitz of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which led criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. “This has become a lucrative means of international extortion for Iran’s supreme leader.”

That troop buildup, however, may insulate Biden from criticism from Gulf Arab nations in the Persian Gulf, who rely on American security guarantees. The U.S. also is negotiating with Saudi Arabia over potentially recognizing Israel diplomatically, a deal that may involve further guarantees about military support against Iran. That’s even as Riyadh reached a détente with Iran in March after years of tensions.

Also long missing in Iran is retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished on the Iranian island of Kish in 2007. A 2013 Associated Press investigation revealed he had been sent on an unauthorized CIA mission. The U.S. alleges he was abducted by Iranian government agents. Iran has denied arresting Levinson or knowing his whereabouts.

He is presumed to have died in Iranian custody. He would be 75 years old now.

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AI, surveillance and robotics are transforming police departments — and alarming privacy advocates

NEW YORK — On a Harlem street this summer, New Yorkers caught a glimpse of the future.

Strutting between a logjam of NYPD vehicles blocking an intersection was one of the NYPD’s newest recruits: a robotic canine called Digidog that was emblazoned with the department’s blue and white colors and outfitted with a number of high-tech accessories.

The funds to purchase the cybernetic hound did not go through the standard budgeting process, which requires oversight and a vote from the New York City Council. Instead, police brass received cash directly from the federal government under something called the Equitable Sharing Program, which supplements the budgets of local police departments with money and property forfeited in the course of criminal investigations.

The multi-billion dollar initiative has helped law enforcement agencies pay overtime and arm themselves with equipment and sophisticated weaponry since the Reagan era. But the program is now entering a new phase as it provides access to a futuristic era of high-tech policing tools that have raised fresh questions about the balance between privacy and public safety along with biases inherent in supposedly neutral algorithms.

Advances in artificial intelligence, surveillance and robotics are putting the stuff of yesteryear’s science fiction into the hands of an ever-growing list of municipalities from New York City to Topeka.

Privacy advocates are worried.

“More departments are using more tools that can collect even more data for less money,” said Albert Fox Cahn, head of the New York City-based watchdog group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “I’m terrified about the idea that we’ll start seeing decades of work to collect massive databases about the public being paired with increasingly invasive AI models to try to determine who and who isn’t a threat.”

A key asset

Between fiscal years 2018 and 2021, the Department of Justice deposited nearly $6.5 billion in its Assets Forfeiture Fund, which is fueled by cash and property that federal prosecutors seize in the course of litigating crimes, according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that argues for changes to the forfeiture process.

Of that sum, more than $1 billion was doled out to state and local governments, which along with similar streams of cash from the Department of the Treasury and local district attorneys have created a rich source of funding used to purchase emerging technology. Cities in Kansas, Illinois, California and Michigan have spent federal forfeiture money on license plate reading systems. Broward County, Fla. purchased an audio gun detection system and the district attorney in Allegheny County, Penn., spent $1.5 million over the last several years upgrading a Pittsburgh surveillance network.

New York City has spent north of $337 million in federal and state forfeiture funds over the last decade, according to statistics from the city Comptroller, and had a balance of more than $42 million as of last summer.

According to the NYPD, under longstanding rules the department is eligible to apply for a share of the forfeiture proceeds whenever it participates in an investigation with state and federal partners.

“The Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury Asset Forfeiture Programs are, first and foremost, law enforcement programs,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “They remove the tools of crime from criminal organizations, deprive wrongdoers of the proceeds of their crimes, recover property that may be used to compensate victims, and deter crime.”

Recently, the NYPD drew down $750,000 to purchase two Digidogs, which police officials say will be ideal for hostage situations or entering radioactive or chemically hazardous areas that would be too dangerous for a human.

Under a previous (but short-lived) pilot during the Bill de Blasio administration, a Digidog was deployed during at least two standoffs and, in one instance, was used to deliver food to hostages. In April this year, firefighters deployed a separate Digidog to search for survivors at a lower Manhattan building collapse.

The city’s most recent robot purchase is part of a broader push from Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat and retired police captain, to incorporate high-tech policing tools into the NYPD’s arsenal, no matter the source of funding.

After taking office, the mayor touted new technology that could scan for guns in a crowd or at schools and promised to increase the department’s use of facial recognition and other types of surveillance. Earlier this month, when the president of Israel visited an NYPD command center, police officials told him the department has access to 60,000 cameras, which a dedicated team uses to track suspects via video feed around the city. And this month, a New York Post report noted the NYPD recently purchased new drones and is exploring the idea of sending them to 911 calls before first responders and blasting out messages to the public.

At a press briefing in Times Square in April, when Adams unveiled the Digidogs, he also announced two other pieces of new tech: An autonomous robot resembling a Star Wars droid that will patrol Times Square, and a tracking device that can be fired by an officer at a fleeing car to avoid a high-speech chase. Both were purchased with funds from the city’s own budget, according to the NYPD.

“We are scanning the globe on finding technology that would ensure this city is safe for New Yorkers, visitors, and whomever is here in this city,” the mayor said at the event. “This is the beginning of a series of roll outs we are going to do, to show how public safety has transformed itself.”

Policing experts have extolled emerging technology as ways to ensure law enforcement solves more crimes with speed and accuracy, in part by automating evidence that was previously collected under less reliable circumstances.

“Critics like to portray such policing technologies as DNA databases, photo-recognition software, automatic license-plate readers, and, in New York City, the gang database as instruments of Orwellian government surveillance,” Bill Bratton, former police commissioner in New York City and Los Angeles, wrote in The Atlantic last year. “They are nothing of the kind: DNA, photo recognition, and license-plate readers are all more reliable identification tools than the traditional reliance on eyewitnesses.”

Caveat emptor

While recognizing that technology can sometimes be a helpful tool to fight crime, privacy advocates nevertheless worry about a lack of ethical guardrails for police departments using robots, facial recognition and increasingly broad local surveillance networks.

At the end of a press release announcing the purchase of the Digidogs, for instance, the NYPD sought to assuage a concern grimly indicative of this new era.

“Under the NYPD’s protocols, officers will never outfit a robot to carry a weapon and will never use one for surveillance of any kind,” the department wrote.

It turns out, that’s an important disclaimer.

Companies like Ghost Robotics have already attached sniper rifles to quadruped robots. And in November, the San Francisco legislature voted to give law enforcement robots the authority to use lethal force. The proposal — which would have allowed police to place explosives on automatons in limited circumstances — was reversed after public outcry. But the legislature left the door open to reconsidering the initiative in the future.

Other technology seems to have biases baked into its foundation, with serious implications for communities of color. Facial recognition, for example, has proven to be more susceptible to false identifications when the subject is Black.

Earlier this year, a Detroit woman was arrested and charged with robbery and carjacking based on what authorities later determined was an incorrect facial recognition match. Before the charges were dropped, the woman — who is Black and was eight months pregnant at the time — was arrested in front of her house and held in a detention facility for 11 hours before posting a $100,000 bond. She had to appear in court twice.

And vast amounts of biometric data, along with license plate readers that can pinpoint the location of a particular vehicle, are creating the capability for broad surveillance of the citizenry.

As recently as last year, the New York State Police were using a social media monitoring platform that aims to identify potential criminals by their internet activity in what is known as “predictive policing.”

“In our country, the police should not be looking over your shoulder, literally or figuratively, unless they have an individualized suspicion that you are involved in wrongdoing,” Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union said in an interview. “They can’t just watch everybody all the time in case you commit a crime.”

Alongside the new concerns that come with each technological advancement, the money underwriting some of these products is also under increasing scrutiny.

Paying the tab

In October, 2020, police in Rochester, N.Y. raided the apartment of Cristal Starling after suspecting her then-boyfriend of dealing drugs. In the course of searching her home, officers found no illicit substances, but seized more than $8,000 and transferred it to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Starling’s partner was later acquitted. The DEA kept the money.

The incident highlights a longstanding dichotomy of asset forfeitures cases, which are often pursued in civil court separate from any criminal proceedings that triggered the seizure in the first place — if there even is a criminal proceeding.

The two-track system can sometimes result in Kafkaesque cases like Starling’s — she herself was not accused of any wrongdoing, and was denied a chance at recouping her money after missing a deadline.

While Starling appealed and recently had her claim reinstated by a federal court, many people are unable to afford a lawyer — or the cost of litigating exceeds the value of what was taken — and simply let the government keep the money.

For the Institute for Justice, which represented Starling in her case, there exists an inherent conflict of interest in the process. Not only does asset forfeiture incentivize a focus on cash-rich cases, but law enforcement entities are able to allocate funds to themselves without the input of the legislative branch.

“Only elected officials should be able to raise and appropriate funds,” Lee McGrath, senior legislative counsel at the institute, said in an interview. “Members of the executive branch should not have that power.”

That concern is amplified when forfeiture cases are pursued through the civil courts, which can ensnare people with only ancillary connections to a crime. Increasingly, local governments are taking notice.

“This is a way that municipalities, an especially police departments, can help offset some of their expenses, but it is not tracked in the way it should be, and it costs a lot of money if someone wants to bring a case to get their belongings back,” state Assembly Member Pamela Hunter, who represents Syracuse, said in an interview. “Usually, this affects disproportionately low-income people who don’t have the means to hire an attorney.”

In January, Hunter introduced a bill that would end the civil forfeiture process on the state level.

Under the legislation, similar versions of which were passed in New Mexico and Maine, law enforcement would only be able to pursue asset forfeiture through the criminal courts — an option that already exists for federal prosecutors — in cases where a conviction is secured. The idea being that the forfeited property would have a closer nexus to the crime at hand.

The bill would also qualify defendants for pro bono legal representation and would mandate any money seized would go into a general fund, rather than the coffers of law enforcement.

Without diverting the stream of money, Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project warned that the system has the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Clearly we are seeing this huge growth in police surveillance, across the board data collection and the use of AI,” he said. “What I fear is that it will become a vicious cycle where police purchase more surveillance software to seize more assets to fund even more surveillance.”

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Presidential candidate in Ecuador shot to death at campaign event

QUITO — Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed Wednesday by an unidentified gunman while at a political rally in the country’s capital of Quito, President Guillermo Lasso said.

The killing comes amid a startling wave of violence in the South American nation, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise.

“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”

Videos on social media appear to show the candidate walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows Villavicencio entering a white truck followed by gunfire.

The politician, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement. He was one of eight presidential candidates for the late August election.

He was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former President Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017. He filed many judicial complaints against high ranking members of the Correa government.

Early accounts show that several others were injured in the attack, though authorities did not confirm how many.

He was married and is survived by five children.

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Wildfire on Maui kills at least 6 as it sweeps through historic town

KAHULUI, Hawaii — A wildfire tore through the heart of the Hawaiian island of Maui in total darkness Wednesday, reducing much of a historic town to ash and forcing people to jump into the ocean to flee the flames. At least six people died, and dozens were wounded.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke said the flames “wiped out communities,” and urged travelers to stay away.

“This is not a safe place to be,” she said.

The wind-driven conflagration swept into coastal Lahaina with alarming speed and ferocity, blazing through intersections and leaping across wooden buildings in the town center that dates to the 1700s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Aerial video revealed entire blocks of homes and businesses flattened, including on Front Street, a popular shopping and dining area. Other images portray a scene of near-complete devastation. Smoking heaps of rubble lay piled high next to the waterfront and gray smoke hovered over the leafless skeletons of scorched trees.

“It was apocalyptic from what they explained,” Tiare Lawrence said of 14 cousins and uncles who fled as the inferno descended on the family’s hometown. “The heat. Smoke and flames everywhere. They had to get my elderly uncle out of the home.”

The relatives took refuge in Lawrence’s house in Pukalani, east of Lahaina. She was also frantically trying to reach her siblings Wednesday morning, but there was no phone service.

Lahaina resident Keʻeaumoku Kapu was tying down loose objects in the wind at the cultural center he runs in Lahaina when his wife showed up Tuesday afternoon and told him they needed to evacuate. “Right at that time, things got crazy, the wind started picking up,” said Kapu, who added that they got out “in the nick of time.”

Two blocks away they saw fire and billowing smoke. Kapu, his wife and a friend jumped into his pickup truck. “By the time we turned around, our building was on fire,” he said. “It was that quick.”

Crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the tourist destination on the western coast and an inland, mountainous region. In West Maui, 911 service was out and residents were directed to call the police department directly.

“Do NOT go to Lahaina Town,” the county tweeted hours before all roads in and out of the community of 12,000 residents were closed to everyone except emergency personnel.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles, was partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph that knocked out power, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. Aircraft resumed flights Wednesday as the winds diminished somewhat.

The Coast Guard on Tuesday rescued 14 people, including two children, who had fled into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, the county said in a statement.

Fires killed six people on Maui, but search and rescue operations continued, and the number could rise, County of Maui Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said at a Wednesday morning news conference. He said he had just learned the news and didn’t know the details of how or where the deaths happened.

Six patients were flown from Maui to the island of Oahu on Tuesday night, said Speedy Bailey, regional director for Hawaii Life Flight, an air-ambulance company. Three of them had critical burns and were taken to Straub Medical Center’s burn unit, he said. The others were taken to other Honolulu hospitals. At least 20 patients were taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, he said.

Authorities said earlier Wednesday that a firefighter in Maui was hospitalized in stable condition after inhaling smoke.

Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Gov. Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the Hawaii National Guard to assist.

“Certain parts of Maui, we have shelters that are overrun,” Luke said. “We have resources that are being taxed.”

There’s no count available for the number of structures that have burned or the number of people who have evacuated, but officials said there were four shelters open and that more than 1,000 people were at the largest.

Kahului Airport, the main airport in Maui, was sheltering 2,000 travelers whose flights were canceled or who recently arrived on the island, the county said.

Officials were preparing the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in up to 4,000 of displaced tourists and locals.

“Local people have lost everything,” said James Tokioka, director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals.”

Kapu, the owner of the Na Aikane o Maui cultural center in Lahaina, said he and his wife didn’t have time to pack up anything before being forced to flee. “We had years and years of research material, artifacts,” he said.

Alan Dickar said he’s not sure what remains of his Vintage European Posters gallery, which was a fixture on Front Street in Lahaina for 23 years. Before evacuating with three friends and two cats, Dickar recorded video of flames engulfing the main strip of shops and restaurants frequented by tourists.

“Every significant thing I owned burned down today,” he said. “I’ll be OK. I got out safely.”

Dickar, who assumed the three houses he owns are also destroyed, said it will take a heroic effort to rebuild what has burned.

“Everyone who comes to Maui, the one place that everybody goes is Front Street,” he said. “The central two blocks is the economic heart of this island, and I don’t know what’s left.”

The fires weren’t only burning on Maui.

There have been no reports of injuries or homes lost to three wildfires burning on Hawaii’s Big Island, Mayor Mitch Roth said Wednesday. Firefighters did extinguish a few roof fires. One blaze is “pretty much under control,” he said. Another was 60% contained, and the other near Mauna Kea Resorts continued to have flareups, he said.

There are 30 power poles down around Lahaina, leaving homes, hotels and shelters without electricity, Bissen said. About 14,500 customers in Maui were without power early Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us.

“It’s definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it’s multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas,” County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said.

In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1.7 square miles, Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.

Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.

Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.

A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

Lahaina is often thought of just a Maui tourist town, Lawrence said, but “we have a very strong Hawaiian community.”

“I’m just heartbroken. Everywhere, our memories,” she said. “Everyone’s homes. Everyone’s lives have tragically changed in the last 12 hours.”

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Utah man suspected of threatening Biden is shot and killed as FBI served warrant

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man accused of making threats against President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state Wednesday, authorities said.

Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m., the FBI said in a statement.

Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and “clean the dust off the m24 sniper rifle,” according to court documents.

In another post, Robertson refers to himself as a “MAGA Trumper,” a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

The posts indicated he did appear to own a long-range sniper rifle and numerous other weapons, as well as camouflage gear known as a “ghillie suit,” investigators said in court records. Robertson was charged under seal Tuesday with three felony counts, including making threats against the president, court documents show.

Robertson also referenced a “presidential assassination” and made other threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Tish James, court documents state.

“The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” authorities say Robertson wrote in a September 2022 Facebook post included in the filings. No attorney was immediately listed for Robertson in court documents.

No further details were immediately released about the shooting, which is under review by the FBI.

Biden is in the middle of a trip to the Western United States. He spent Wednesday in New Mexico, where he spoke at a factory that will produce wind towers, and is scheduled to fly to Utah later in the day.

On Thursday, he’s expected to visit a Veterans Affairs hospital to talk about the PACT Act, which expanded veterans benefits, and hold a reelection fundraiser.

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