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Deadly wildfires have Hawaiian Electric under scrutiny · Apple News Today

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  Mark Garrison, Narrating: Good morning! It’s Friday, August 18th. I’m Mark Garrison in for Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today’s show… more severe weather, with raging wildfires, and a hurricane headed for California, mortgage rates hit levels not seen in decades, and a big weekend for soccer, with finals for the World Cup, and the Leagues Cup.
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  But first, as Hawaii searches for wildfire victims and prepares to rebuild, there are major questions of accountability. Maui’s emergency management chief has resigned. Herman Andaya was heavily criticized for not activating the siren system on the island when the flames got worse.
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  People want answers about how the wildfires that killed at least 111 people started. The utility company, Hawaiian Electric, faces multiple lawsuits. There are accusations that sparks from its power lines may have played a role in igniting the fire, a common way that wildfires start. Power lines ignited the 2018 fire that killed 84 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Before the Maui fire, that was the deadliest fire in modern American history.
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  Lawyers for Lahaina residents say the company’s equipment wasn’t strong enough to stand up to powerful wind, and it should’ve switched off power when there were signs of trouble. Hawaiian Electric says it’s investigating, and it’ll cooperate with the state attorney general’s probe of the wildfire.
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  "The Wall Street Journal" reports that Hawaiian Electric knew about potential wildfire threats for years. After one of Maui’s worst fire seasons in 2019, the company said it planned to spend nearly $200 million to prepare for climate change-related dangers, including higher risk of wildfires. That included better insulation to minimize dangerous sparks. The company also said it would apply fire retardant to poles, and consider adding cameras to monitor weather conditions.
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  But “Journal” energy reporter, Katherine Blunt, tells us the company made very little progress.
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  Katherine Blunt: As with most regulatory proceedings, which, you know, all utilities are involved in as they proposed large spending plans. It's been slow to advance, it's still ongoing and the company hasn't received the approval to invest this money in wildfire risk and then recover it from customers through rates.
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  Blunt says Hawaiian Electric was more focused on meeting a state mandate to convert to fully renewable energy by 2045.
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  Blunt: People close to the utility simply describe the fact that this was a large focus of the utility and as a result, it perhaps didn't recognize the extent that it could face operational risk related to climate change as well, right? It was kind of focused on long-term climate mitigation in bringing clean power online and not as focused on the fact that climate change was also creating real operational risks that it probably needed to address sooner than it did.
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  The warming planet is making all kinds of severe weather worse, and more common. Blunt says that some companies are better prepared than others.
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  Blunt: Utilities all across the United States are grappling with what climate change means for them. And some utilities have been thinking about this longer and might have done more to mitigate some of the risks. But there is certainly a range in terms of preparedness and overall attention paid to the fact that climate risks are really creating some operational challenges in the present.
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  Let’s take a brief look at more stories in the news. Right now, several other countries are dealing with severe wildfires. Tens of thousands of people are evacuating Canada’s Northwest Territories, where out-of-control fires are likely to threaten more cities and towns unless there’s rain soon.
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  And on the Spanish island of Tenerife, officials say they’re fighting the most complicated wildfires in nearly half a century.
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  There’s also severe weather threatening Mexico and California. Hurricane Hilary strengthened overnight. Southern California and Nevada could see heavy flooding. If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it would be the first one to hit the state in more than 80 years.
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  In Ecuador, voters will cast ballots in the presidential election on Sunday. Candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed at a political rally just a few days ago. Violence has escalated in the country recently, with foreign gangs fighting for control of the drug trade that flows through Ecuador’s ports.
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  And in personal-finance news, the average 30-year fixed mortgage is now at 7.09% in the U.S. That’s the highest rate in more than two decades. That makes homes harder to buy in two ways. One, it makes it more expensive to finance a purchase. But it also means fewer homes on the market. Interactive Brokers senior economist, Jose Torres, talked about this on "Yahoo Finance."
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  Jose Torres: Unfortunately, rates this high, what it does is that it constrains the housing market. And right now, you have existing homeowners, they’re stuck with low rates and they don’t want to sell and then have to go assume thousands more in monthly payments on another property. So, that’s constraining transactions in the existing home sale market.
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  Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs changed its housing forecast. It now sees a slight gain in prices, in part because of tight supply of existing homes.
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  We are headed into a major weekend for soccer. We have two finals… The World Cup early on Sunday, where England takes on Spain for the title. And in the U.S. on Saturday night, it’s the Leagues Cup final.
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  Let’s start with the women’s matchup. “Apple News Sports” editor, Shaker Samman, says it’s shaping up to be a good one.
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  Shaker Samman: So, England and Spain have looked like two of the best teams in the world since the World Cup started. And they've done it in very different ways. Spain plays that very tiki-taka, beautiful game kind of style that was honed under Pep Guardiola on the men's side. And for England, they play a little more rigidly. They're very disciplined defensively. You know, axe to the grindstone kind of stuff that wins you games. And it's kind of a clash of styles that should be really interesting.
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  He walked us through the factors to watch. For England, a big question is Lauren James. She was suspended for stepping on a player in the game with Nigeria earlier in the tournament.
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  Samman, Narrating: England's looked really good without her. The big question for England is, will superstar manager Sarina Wiegman bring her back for the final, or do you just not touch the lineup and say what we've got is working and let's just run with it. On Spain's side, Spain has had serious issues with its manager. The players and the manager hate each other. They threatened to boycott the tournament before the tournament. There's a chemistry issue there, where on England's side you have maybe the best manager in the world who is vibing and jiving perfectly with her team. They're in perfect harmony. You have a Spain team that might be a little more talented, has a little more star power, but there's a tactical disconnect.
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  Garrison: Now to the Leagues Cup. That pits Nashville against Inter-Miami, led by Lionel Messi. Since coming to play in America, he’s instantly turned Miami into a contender. Samman says they wouldn’t be in the final without Messi.
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  Samman: Nashville has been one of the best teams in MLS all year, they've looked really complete. They are towards the top of the conference. They're a really solid team. And on the other hand, you have Inter Miami. Inter Miami, and I mean this as nice as I can, before Messi came, were the worst team in major league soccer.
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  But when you give the worst team the best player, things can turn around fast.
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  Samman: Inter-Miami played 22 games in MLS before the Leagues Cup started. They scored 22 goals. Since the Leagues Cup has started, they've played six games. They have 21 goals. What Messi is doing in Miami is unfathomable. Messi is a game changing, league-changing phenomenon and I really feel bad for any of these other defenders who are now tasked with trying to slow him down. Nashville’s solid. They have one of MLS's best goal scorers up front. But Miami is gonna win end of story. Messi season.
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  You can follow all the action soccer action, and all the major stories throughout the weekend, on the Apple News app. And if you’re already listening in the News app right now, our weekly interview show, “In Conversation,” is coming up. Shumita’s doing a special series called “Think Again,” about life’s big transitions. This time, she’s talking with “New York Times” columnist, Jessica Grose, about parenthood and how to mentally process everything that comes with a new baby.
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  Jessica Grose: So, if we can just accept that we have all of the feelings, and access to all of the feelings, we had before we became a parent, and not feel that additional layer of guilt, that's even a big step in the right direction. Because you shouldn't feel bad about feeling bad. It's normal.
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  The full episode is cued up to play for you next. Have a peaceful weekend, and we’ll be back with the news on Monday.
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