International
Hawaii: Maui Fire Death Toll Reaches 106
August 16|
A mobile morgue unit arrived Tuesday to assist Hawaii officials working hard to identify remains, while Maui County released the names of people who died in the wildfire that nearly incinerated the historic town of Lahaina a week ago and brought the death toll to 106.
The county named two victims, Lahaina residents Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79, and added in a statement that three other victims were identified.
Those names will be released once the county has identified next of kin.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of medical examiners, pathologists and technicians along with examination tables, X-ray units and other equipment to identify the victims and process the remains, said Jonathan Greene, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for response.
“It’s going to be a very, very difficult mission,” Greene said. “And patience is going to be incredibly important because of the number of victims.”
A week after a fire swept through historic Lahaina, many survivors began moving into hundreds of hotel rooms set aside for displaced locals as donations of food, ice, water and other essentials arrived.
Crews using rescue dogs have scoured about 32 percent of the area, Maui County said in a statement Tuesday. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green asked for patience as authorities were overwhelmed with requests to visit the burned area.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier renewed an appeal for families with missing relatives to provide DNA samples. So far 41 samples have been submitted, the county release said, and 13 DNA profiles have been obtained from the remains.
The governor warned that many more bodies could be found. The wildfires, some of which have yet to be fully contained, are already the deadliest in the US in more than a century. Their cause was under investigation.
Asked by Hawaii News Now if children were among the missing, Green said Tuesday, “Tragically, yes…. When the bodies are smaller, we know it’s a child.”
He described some of the sites being searched as “too much to share or see from a human perspective.”
Another complicating factor, Green said, is that thunderstorms with rain and high winds are forecast for the weekend. Officials are considering whether or not to “preemptively shut down for a short period of time, because right now the entire infrastructure is weaker.”
A week after the fires began, some residents were still dealing with intermittent electricity, unreliable cell phone service and uncertainty about where to get help. Some people periodically walked to a seawall, where phone connections were stronger, to make calls. Flying low off the coast, a single-propeller plane used a loudspeaker to broadcast information about where to get water and supplies.
Victoria Martocci, who lost her diving business and a boat, planned to travel to her storage unit in Kahalui from her home in Kahana on Wednesday to hide documents and mementos given to her by a friend whose house burned down. “These are things she grabbed, the only things she could grab, and I want to keep them safe for her,” Martocci said.
The local power company has already faced criticism for not shutting off power when high winds hit a parched area with a high risk of fire. It is unclear whether the utility’s equipment played any role in igniting the flames.
Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. president and CEO Shelee Kimura said many factors played into the decision to shut off power, including the impact on people who rely on specialized medical equipment and concerns that an outage in the area of the fire would have knocked out water pumps.
Green has said the flames reached a speed of 1.6 kilometers per minute in one area, fueled by dry grass and driven by strong winds from a passing hurricane.
The fire that swept through century-old Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000 people. That fire has been 85% contained, according to the county. Another fire known as the Upcountry fire was 60 percent contained.
International
U.S. and Mexico Reach Deal to Address Water Deficit Under 1944 Treaty
The United States and Mexico have reached an agreement to comply with current water obligations affecting U.S. farmers and ranchers and for Mexico to cover its water deficit to Texas under the 1944 Water Treaty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement.
The department уточified that the agreement applies to both the current cycle and the water deficit from the previous cycle.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Mexico of failing to comply with the water-sharing treaty between the two countries, which requires the United States to deliver 1.85 billion cubic meters of water from the Colorado River, while Mexico must supply 432 million cubic meters from the Rio Grande.
Mexico is behind on its commitments. According to Washington, the country has accumulated a deficit of more than one billion cubic meters of water over the past five years.
“This violation is severely harming our beautiful crops and our livestock in Texas,” Trump wrote on Monday.
The Department of Agriculture said on Friday that Mexico had agreed to supply 250 million cubic meters of water starting next week and to work toward closing the shortfall.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, quoted in the statement, said Mexico delivered more water in a single year than it had over the previous four years combined.
Trump has said that if Mexico continues to fall short of its obligations, the United States reserves the right to impose 5% tariffs on imported Mexican products.
Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Minister for North America, Roberto Velasco, said that a severe drought in 2022 and 2023prevented the country from meeting its commitments.
International
Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
Several people were shot on Saturday in an attack on the campus of Brown University, in the northeastern United States, local police reported.
“Shelter in place and avoid the area until further notice,” the Providence Police Department urged in a post on X. Brown University is located in Providence, the capital of the state of Rhode Island.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he had been briefed on the situation and that the FBI was on the scene.
At 5:52 p.m. local time (11:52 p.m. GMT), Brown University said the situation was still “ongoing” and instructed students to remain sheltered until further notice.
After initially stating that the suspect had been taken into custody, Trump later posted a second message clarifying that local police had walked back that information. “The suspect has NOT been apprehended,” the U.S. president said.
International
Colombia says it would not reject Maduro asylum request as regional tensions escalate
The Colombian government stated on Thursday that it would have no reason to reject a potential asylum request from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro should he leave office, as regional tensions persist over the deployment of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean since August.
“In the current climate of tension, negotiations are necessary, and if the United States demands a transition or political change, that is something to be assessed. If such a transition results in him (Maduro) needing to live elsewhere or seek protection, Colombia would have no reason to deny it,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio in an interview with Caracol Radio.
However, Villavicencio noted that it is unlikely Maduro would choose Colombia as a refuge. “I believe he would opt for someplace more distant and calmer,” she added.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also commented on Venezuela’s situation on Wednesday, arguing that the country needs a “democratic revolution” rather than “inefficient repression.” His remarks followed the recent detention and passport cancellation of Cardinal Baltazar Porras at the Caracas airport.
“The Maduro government must understand that responding to external aggression requires more than military preparations; it requires a democratic revolution. A country is defended with more democracy, not more inefficient repression,” Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter), in a rare public criticism of the Venezuelan leader.
Petro also called for a general amnesty for political opponents and reiterated his call for forming a broad transitional government to address Venezuela’s prolonged crisis.
Since September, U.S. military forces have destroyed more than 20 vessels allegedly carrying drugs in Caribbean and Pacific waters near Venezuela and Colombia, resulting in over 80 deaths.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that attacks “inside Venezuela” will begin “soon,” while Maduro has urged Venezuelans to prepare for what he describes as an impending external aggression.
U.S. and Mexico Reach Deal to Address Water Deficit Under 1944 Treaty
Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
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