breaking news in the investigation into president biden's son, hunter, the u.s. attorney general announcing a special counsel in the case. this is the prosecutor leading the probe signals a trial is now

likely. we're following the legal and political implications. plus a warning to donald trump's legal team from the judge overseeing the election interference case, saying more inflammatory statements will require a quicker start to the trial. we are live outside the court. and the death toll -- as they have yet to even start searching the hundred of burned out buildings. we'll take you live to maui. we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central. another controversial investigation that could have some pretty big repercussions for 2024 is escalating. today a special counsel was designated in the federal probe of hunter biden. attorney general merrick garland named david weiss to the role.

weiss has been leading this investigation. >> yes, he has. he's been leading the investigation into hunter biden for the past five years, in fact. this week he asked himself to be elevated to that role of special counsel. we're following that in realtime. first our correspondent cara scunel is on top of the doj threat and lauren fox up on capitol hill to get the reaction. tell us first how did this come about today? >> we got the surprise announcement from attorney general merrick garland where he said that david weiss, the u.s. attorney in delaware appointed by former president trump and asked to stay on for this very investigation, merrick garland said that weiss had asked him on tuesday to be appointed special counsel, to give him greater authority in this investigation, and garland was saying it was really in the public interest to do this. take a listen. >> i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel.

this appointment confirms my commitment to provide mr. weiss all the resources he requests. it also reaffirms that mr. weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and to continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently based only on the facts and the law. >> now, it's not clear what led weiss to change his mind and decide he did need special counsel status. as you'll remember hunter biden had reached a plea agreement with weiss' office in which he would have pled guilty for two misdemeanors for not paying taxes on time as well as an agreement on a gun possession charge. that fell apart in court last month after a judge asked a number of questions and said she wasn't ready to sign off on it. hunter biden's team had until today to weigh in private where they were in negotiations on whether they were going to revive this plea deal or not, and hunter biden's team had

asked until monday to respond, but then we find out they're appointing a special counsel. so the prosecutors in the court filing telling the judge their negotiations have reached an impasse, and they were going to move ahead towards trial. hunter biden's team was caught off-guard by this. his attorney saying thistill expect a fair resolution in this case, and they say it's hard to understand how they had reached this plea agreement, whether there were any charges they could bring they could successfully win. his team say there aren't. they say the judge has given them until monday to weigh in on this, but certainly a lot of questions still here about the designation of the special counsel. >> let's go to capitol hill now. lauren, you were up there. lawmakers on the republican side they've been calling for a special counsel for some time now. now it's here. and their criticisms have only intensified still. >> yeah, briana, you point out last year a number were kaling for a special counsel to be

called in this case. now they're saying essentially naming a special counsel has changed nothing for them in terms of persowing their own investigations into both lupter biden and his foreign business dealings and also how this investigation played out by david weiss. d you hear from house speaker kevin hy in a tweet just a few moments ago saying, quote, this action by the biden's doj canne used to obstruct congressional investigation or whitewash the biden family corruption. if weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal, he couldn't get approved, how could he be trusted as the special counsel? you have other republicans in the senate like lindsey graham arguing this is little more than a bad political move. here's what he said on fox news. >> what are the political implications for the president and his re-election bid do you believe? >> this is like the dumbest, dumber than dirt political move. on a friday afternoon and anything bad you want to talk about on a friday afternoon,

they make a four-minute announcement we're going to turn weiss into special counsel to remove any and all doubt. there's no ongoing investigation of hunter biden or joe biden. why would you accept a plea to have the case if you were going to continue to investigate the guy for other crimes? nobody ever does that. the only reason we're talking about this is the plea deal blew up because of a good judge. >> reporter: there's also some practical implications of what the effect is going to be because david weiss had been in negotiationwise the house judiciary committee about potentially coming forward arguing he wanted to clear up some things he said just weren't true for allegations that had come from two whistle blowers. now, of course, we're wondering whether or not david weiss will still appear. the house judiciary committee saying they still do expect him to come forward and they haven't heard otherwise. of course we reached out to the department of justice to get

more clarity on whether or not weiss still plan tuesday come to capitol hill some time in the next couple of months. >> kara, these republicans angry that weiss, that the special counsel is not someone new, that simply the u.s. attorney has been designated. do they have a point? how unusual is it that the attorney general stuck with weiss and didn't approve someone else for this investigation? >> i mean it is unusual the requirement under the provisions of the law for a scial counsel is to appoint somee who is impartial and fair. weiss did stay on. he was a trump appointee, someone that was not appointed by biden. of course this is his son under investigation. we have seen in other investigations that they have brought in outsiders, people have not been involved. even in jack smith's case he did keep on a number of the top attorneys who were working on this carb, although it is unusual weiss is staying in this role although he does have five years of knowledge where this investigation has gone already.

>> kara scunel, lauren fox, all over this breaking news. thank you both. let's turn to another special counsel case today. this morning was the first hearing in the trump election subversion indictment. it was focused on setting up rules how trump can handle certain evidence in the case, but the judge also sent out some clear warnings of her own regarding what the former president says publicly about the case. cnn's kaitlan palanz is outside the courtroom in washington. what happened in that courtroom today? >> reporter: there was a clear signal from judge tanya chutkan that there is justice and there is politics and donald trump as a criminal defendant charged with multiple federal crimes, in her court justice is going to have to come first. one of things she said specifically is that the fact is that he, donald trump, is running a political campaign currently hato yield to the administration oice. and if that means he, trump,

can't say exactly what he wants to say in a political speech, that is just how it's going to have to be. those are the judge's words. and the reason she's saying them here, alex, is because she is putting some sort of parameters around what donald trump can do with the evidence he's receiving as his team prepares for trial. the things he will learn specifically about witnesses, searches the justice department conducted, things that are very sensitive to this case that have never been shared with him before. and so as he gets that information, judge tanya chutkan has found that there is law that allows her to say to him you can't share these things widely if they are under my order, that they must be protected going forward to trial. the reason to do that is to make sure that the trial has integrity, that the jury pool isn't tainted, that witnesses aren't intimidated, and then on top of that there are other restrictions for donald trump in that he's out on bail.

and one of the conditions for him not to be sitting in jail awaiting trial is that he can't talk to witnesses about the details of this case, and he also can't publicly try and intimidate them or obstruct them in a way that would hurt the system of justice that is ing to be put in place he as he heads to tal. another quote from the judge about a fair trial, it is a bedrock principle of the judicial process in this country. legal trials are not like elections to be won through the use of a meeting call, the radio, and newspaper. this case is no exception. alex? >> kate polantz at the courthouse, thank you very much. >> let's bring in a contributor and new york staff writer. let's start with the hunter biden part of this year. designation of a special counsel today, what is your reaction to that and really how we got to this point? >> you know, this justice department has done a lot of things that, you know, have been unprecedented including most

notably what they've been doing with donald trump. this is also unprecedented. i think we have to observe that, look, i've never seen a federal criminal case travel this strange path. five years, you know, a u.s. attorney from a prior administration. there's a plea agreement that seemed like it was about to wrap everything up, and now it's falling apart in this dramatic fashion. from here it's unclear where they're going next. related to the tax charges they were supposed to file in delaware, and they now have a right to file more charges than just the ones already part of the plea agreement. >> evan, also in term of the reaction inside biden world, what do you think the president is feeling today? do you think they assumed that this was all going to go away with that plea deal? but now it's clearly going to drag on into this -- into this campaign season. how do you expect them and specifically the president to contend with this?

>> well, alex, you know, there's a very personal element to this and the a political element. the personal element let's call it what it is, very painful. the fact it's his son, a close member of the family, in and out of the white house, traveled with the president on foreign trips recently. and this process which seem to be kind of winding down is now flaring up una way that could drag on for a long time. which for a personal matter is a painful thing for any family. as a political fact, yes, this now establishes this as a piece of the conversations. but i think one of the things you hear clearly from the people in the white house and specifically around the president is there's been a five-year investigation of this matter as we know by a u.s. attorney appointed by donald trump. and it has yet to find a simple example of a case in which hunter biden's efforts to enrich himself. he was trying to take advantage of his connections in politics, that the president actually did anything that would benefit him or the president did anything to

change policy. that fact hasn't change, and now what we're waiting to see is where does this investigation go? anytime you get a special counsel. at the moment the facts on the ground remain the same. there is no evidence joe biden benefitted. >> evan, he mentioned the political side of this. you mention how unprecedent asked how bizarre this whole thing seems to you. how much do you see the political here impacting the legal? >> i think that they're intertwined, right, unfortunately for the justice department you can't take the politics out of the law in this situation. it's a variation the problem they have with the trump prosecutions, too. they want to have a clear delineation between law and politics, but these are political figures, the most prominent political figures in the country. to some extent i would imagine this is aimed at ploicating republicans on capitol hill who insist on having this designation. >> let me ask you about that because they are thoroughly unhappy about this. they say there's a two tier

justice system, they wanted a special counsel, but then the whistle blowers came and they insisted david weiss said he wanted to be special counsel but couldn't, but even no david weiss said in a letter that's not what happened. now they're saying no, they and don't really like him. what do you make of that? because this certainly doesn't seem like something good for president biden and democrats candidly. >> personally i think they want this to go on as long as possible through the 2024 election. weiss has all the institutional knowledge, right. if you brought in someone else to take it over they'd have to get entirely up to speed, they'd have to relearn everything. they might need to revisit, and that's time, resources, and i think, you know, what we've seen on capitol hill this year surrounding hunter biden suggests that republicans really like this to be front and center on the news. >> evan, you did touch on the personal side of this and how

president biden would be seeing this. do you think that there's any regret on the president's part for running not just the first time but now running for re-election because it does put such a heavy spotlight on his son's troubles. >> well, this has been a fact of his life for a long time. you know, the rallies -- joe biden's been in politics for decades as you know. he knows when you run, it's not just yourself, but your family run. he would not have run for president in 2020 or indeed 2024 were it indeed not something hunter biden and hunter biden's kids were willing to go through. this is family affair when it comes to the biden family, and i think they knew what they were getting into it. biden talked about it explicitly before. i think the thing to keep in mind there's going to be a sustained effort to try to generate what is in effect a counter scandal to balance out

what is happening around trump, who is after all the republican candidate here. hunter biden is not running for president, so for the moment this is a painful matter for the president painful and has political implications, but this is a different fact than having a republican candidate who's in fact facing his own special counsel. >> it is different, of course, but certainly as voters see it, i don't know, it creates sort of something or allows an opportunity to try to create the idea there isn't, and i think that's what we're going to see republicans do. thank you so much to both of you for coming in. we appreciate it. and ahead this hour on cnn news central, we're going to take you live to maui where people are desperately trying to leave the island including one man who says he lost everything. plus, worrying new signs americans are struggling to pay the bills. and salacious new allegations against phil mickelson including claims he lost close to $100 million betting. that's my boy. ♪

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soon residents of the decimated town of lahaina will be able to go back home. the state's governor just telling a local television station that people should brace themselves, though, because, quote, they will see destruction like they've not ever seen in their lives, and that is really the truth when you look at these pictures. maui's mayor expected to make the official announcement residents can return to lahaina or to be honest what is left of it later today. in the meantime the white house says its emergency response is ramping up. the federal government just releasing enough food and water for 5,000 people for five days. and at this point at least 55 people are dead from the devastating wildfires. that number, though, is expected to keep climbing substantially. we have cnn's veronica miracle at the airport for us. i know it's always busy there, but it's busier than usual, veronica. tell us what you're seeing.

>> reporter: that's exactly right, briana. this airport has seen its fair share of very busy summer travel days especially with everything that's been going on with airlines, but this is at another level. you can see right here the lines behind me. but during this live shot i'm going to try to walk the entire length of the line to get into tsa, and we'll see if we can get to the line as i'm talking. so a lot of people have been trying to get out. in fact, the government, the county is asking people to leave to save resources for those who have been impacted by the fire in lahaina, the three fires that have been burning here. in fact, we spoke to one man who with his wife they came here on vacation from sydney, australia. they were in there hotel on monday. they saw the fires burning. they got stuck. they had not been able to communicate with the airlines or really the outside world, and they've been subsitting off of berries and fruit and a sandwich that they were able to get from aid workers.

take a listen to what he had to say. >> we're living primarily because we're just using our food and resources that the locals need. can't say we're glad to be leaving because we love maui, but we have to. tee have to do the right thing and leave the resourcess to the people who need them. but we'll be back. >> reporter: so many people that we have spoken to recognize that this is obviously an incredibly dire situation for the people that live here, but vacations, of course, have been absolutely destroyed. so many people who spent thousands of dollars have been impacted. we're coming up against a bench here, but i'm just going to turn over this way. the line continues. the line goes on and on and on and this has been happening all week. you see people camping out, people sleeping with sleeping bags, people bringing around water. all over the county whether you're impacted by the fires or

you're a traveller here who had your vacation interrupted, it's been a real mess. >> certainly has. we talked to a state senator who represents lahaina yesterday, and he said they need food, they need fuel, and they need tourists to turn back around. and i think that man who's heading back to australia said it best, you need to leave the resources for those who need them. veronica miracle, live for us, thank you. alex? >> thanks, briana. we want to speak now about this with lafina davis who lost her home in maui. thank you for joining us today. we can only begin to imagine what a difficult time this is for you and how you're processing what you've been through. we understand you lost your home that was on front street in lahaina itself. if you wouldn't mind tell us and our viewers what you were feeling, what you saw as the fires approached your home.

>> thank you so much for this opportunity to speak on the behalf of my family, my ohana, and my community and our town we've lived in for generations. you know, it's hard to describe because most of -- most of the feelings and emotions at that moment had to be suppressed in order to be quickly moving and to gather our families, gather our things and get out. i was fortunate enough to leave when i saw the dense, black smoke ensue and consume -- come from the mountain side and consume down to the ocean, and then quickly approach our home. even at that time i -- i still was in disbelief it would ever

reach our house. we were unable to like gather any of our personal belongings. i got my computer and my important documents, but that was it. we later tried to return to only watch our entire house burn to the ground. and not just our home but our entire neighborhood and community. so the emotions at that time were numbing, shocking. it's been several days. i've been able to decompress. i was relieved to find out that all of my family was accounted for and evacuated as of yesterday afternoon. so that's allowing me to, you know, have a little bit more confidence and unravel and unpack the emotions that we are -- that i and my family are going through right now. >> that is a huge relief, and of course we're extremely happy for you. we're also looking at these

incredible scenes of devastation in lahaina right now. we have heard some criticisms for the authorities about lack of warning, question about sirens and evacuation orders. you yourself have criticized the mayor of miami and the police department saying they failed your community. what do you think they should have done that they didn't? >> so i want to start off by recognizing our government's efforts, commending the national guard, the maui fire department, the maui police department, and the community of local individuals on the ground who are making a difference right now. the initial -- the initial impression of the community of lahaina is that we were not evacuated, that we were not given any warning.

you know, the community is angry. they're hurt. but with new information as it's coming out, i learned that the maui police department were on foot going from door-to-door getting people out the best that they could. all communications were down. there was no way to get information in our out. and the civil defense was not operational at that time, so i don't believe that it was possible for that to happen. i believe the fire department was, you know, doing their best. the maui police department did their best, and the local community also was doing their best. new information and, you know, from my close friends and families. they were woken, they had to flee on foot. they had to jump into the river to escape the flames. they grabbed their neighbors and

threw them in the river to escape the flames. the same thing down at lahaina harbor on front street. so i've reconsidered my initial hurt and anger towards the communications that was going into lahaina. for myself i was frustrated. i did go up to the highest point to get phone service so i could reach those that i know in media and in communications on the island to get out word that the actual situation. because what was coming over the airways just wasn't enough information for the residents to be able to evacuate and escape. i feel like there's going to be a lot more -- there's a lot of unaccounted for people, and we're going to find a lot more of our friends and family. >> we have heard that from the mayor today that the death toll

is only those who have been found outside and that searches still need to be carried out inside. thank you so much for sharing your time with us. we know how difficult this is, and we really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and the stories of others, such dramatic stories of escape and survival we've been hearing over the course of the past few days. of course our thoughts are with you, your family, and the entire maui community, so thank you for coming on. >> thank you for the opportunity and all of your efforts. >> all right. and for more information about how you can help hawaii wildfire victims, you can go to cnn.com/impact or just text hawaii to 707070 in order to donate. okay. i'll work on that. save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart t bed. plus, 36 month finanancing on select smart beds. shop now only at sleep number.

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americans are feeling the pinch of inflation, and family budgets they have the bruises to prove it. according to moody's analytics the higher prices are forcing families to spend $709 more each month compared to two years ago. cnn's mattegen is joining us to break this down. that adds up to $$8,500 a year.

that is a huge increase. >> it's massive, and it really explains why some families having such a hard time getting by right now. inflation has cooled off considerably. we've gotten two big inflation reports in the last two days, and both of them make that obvious. we're nowhere near those inflation levels of last summer, and yet inflation can be cumulative. there is a snowballing effect here of two years of price spikes, and so americans are spending a lot more in a lot of different areas including, of course, housing and anybody trying to buy or rent right now knows that. people are spending more at the grocery store, on recreation on things like streaming and buying tickets and also on cars, on buying cars and insuring them. both things can be true. inflation has cooled off and it's also done a lot of damage over the last two years. >> two things can be true at once very much. matt egen, thank you very much for that.

and this just in sam bankman freed, has been ordered back into custody after violating the conditions of his bail. kara, one of the allegations is that he was tampering with witnesses. >> yeah, alex, that's right. and the judge finding today that there was probable cause to believe that bankman freed attempted to tamper with witnesses twice. that visual you see on the screen is bankman freed arriving to the courtroom today. that is the last time he'll be walking as a free man. he's expected to go to trial october 2nd, but the judge revoking bail and prosecutors asking for this because the tipping point seemed to be bankman freed spoke to "the new york times" about a person in this case. this is a top executive at ftx

and the sister hedge fund. he said that was an attempt to tamper with witnesses and potentially intimidate her from testifying at trial. she's pleaded guilty to numerous serious crimes and is going to be one of the government's star witnesses. so he'd been out on $250 million bond, staying at his parents home in palo alto, california. the judge revoking that today. and interesting to note his parents were in the courtroom today. according to my colleague they've not come to a number of court appearances, so definitely a sign they were prepared for this to happen. now they'll likely not see their son until the trial date. the bankman fried attorneys asked him to stay out until they could approve this ruling but the judge said no, they didn't know what kind of mischief he could get into during that time. >> thank you very much. brianna? still to come on cnn news central, a 17-year-old just entered a not guilty plea in the

deadly stabbing of a gay dancer at a brooklyn gas station. ahead what his attorney says may be his defense. and the illinois state supreme court ruled on whether to uphold a ban on assault style weapons. stay with us. rude. who o are you? i'm an investor in a fund that helps advance innovativive sports tech like this smart fitntness mirror. i'm also mr. leg day...1989! anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq-100 innovations. i go through a lot of pants. before investing carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com. you tried. limiting when it was okay. no th behind closed doors. it's not your fault. alone you can't stop it.

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the president, hunter biden after investigation of a plea deal stalled. now republicans are blasting trump's appointment for the job, david weiss, saying they don't trust him to be impartial and presidential candidate ron desantis said this before an audience in iowa. >> and it's like if he were -- the special counsel, if he were republican he'd be in jail right now and we all know that. >> let me bring in cnn anchor of "the lead" jake tapper who's also our chief washington correspondent. what do you make of these criticisms? >> i think there are some legitimate questions about this whole situation. first of all, i do think it's fair to question why would u.s. attorney weiss be appointed to special counsel? usually a special counsel is an outside attorney. it has happened before. durham came from inside, and the attorney general has the right to do that, but it is odd. second of all, this was a -- this plea deal was picked apart by the judge, so one could ask why would you stick with the

u.s. attorney if he -- you know, this was a failure, a colossal failure. the two sides had not even eagreed upon what was in that plea deal. and there are questions about whether it was harsh enough this plea deal, whether it was strong enough. beyond that there are some other questions i have which include the u.s. attorney weiss, now special counsel so one of the reasons to make him a special counsel supposedly is so he has to ability to charge in other venues outside delaware. but i believe he had previously argued publicly that he had the right to do whatever he wanted, and then the whistle-blower said, well, behind the scenes weiss was complaining he couldn't do that, he wasn't able to do that, and the justice department and weiss denied what the whistle blowers were saying, but this move makes it seem as though, well, maybe the whistle blowers were right. maybe what they were alleging is true, and he didn't have the ability to charge whatever he

wanted to charge, and now he does. so i do have a lot of questions about that, and i do think some of the political questions being raised by republicans have merit. weiss was kept on by the biden administration. they could have gotten rid of him, but he was kept onto negate this argument of impropriety. and so it -- do you think the democratic argument that we're going to hear now that he was nominated or confirmed under the trump administration is going to be forceful enough of a response for that? >> it's a completely legitimate argument to make, that this u.s. attorney was appointed by trump and the biden administration to their credit kept him on because he was doing this investigation and they didn't want any allegations of conflict of interest. but there are also questions about the u.s. attorney now special counsel weiss' decisions since then. and we can't pretend that there are not political pressures and political wins out there. there are. all i'm saying is i do have

questions about all of this, and i understand some of the questions being raised by republicans although again at the end of the day the evidence of crimes needs to be presented, whether it's evidence against hunter biden, not just the misdemeanor crimes that were part of the plea deal, but if there are bigger or stronger ones, then let's see the evidence. >> it'll be very interesting to see if that trial widens the scope beyond what was discussed in that plea deal. >> now it merits a special counsel, so does he know of stuff that should be in a special counsel investigation that wasn't in that plea deal? maybe he does, but then why do that plea deal? it's all very suspicious. >> fascinating. and i'm sure you're going to be having terrific discussions on the show. jake where tapper, thank you very much. and be sure to join jake at the top of the hour on "the lead." we certainly will. and allegations phil mickelson was considering betting on a

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now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. the illinois supreme court has ruled the state's assault weapons ban is constitutional. a republican lawmaker sued to stop the law saying it violated equal protection rights. but in a 4-3 ruling today the court disagreed. the law was signed after last year's highland park mass shooting. also today a teenager pleaded not guilty to stabbing and killing a gay man who had been dancing to beyonce at a gas station in brooklyn. the 17-year-old suspect was

arraigned this morning on a charge of second degree murder as a hate crime. prosecutors allege he stabbed 28-year-old professional dancer o'shea sibly who they say was defending his friends from homophobic and anti-black slurs. and a total of five republican presidential candidates have qualified for the upcoming primary debate after signing onto the required loyalty pledge from the rnc. the pledge declares that candidates will support the party's eventual nominee and forego a third party bid of their own. as of today donald trump, chris christie and mike pence have met the requirement but yet not signed the party pledge. now to the exclusive allegations rocking the golfing world, claims three time masters champion phil mickelson is a prolific gam br. that may not surprise you, but

this may has lost close to $100 million in bets. the accusation made in an upcoming book, even alleged at one point mickelson considered betting on the ryder cup, a competition he was playing in. we have patrick snell, the host of "cnn world sport" with us. >> this is absolutely the talk of the golf world. phil mickelson one of the most popular and successful golfers in the history of the sport. he did cause controversy i will say last year when he joined the saudi-backed liv golf series. these allegations are according to a book released later this month by a professional gambler, billie walters. he was in what he described as a gambling partnership. the total losses likely close to 100 million and he's waging $1 billion over the last 30 years.

citing his own betting records and additional records provided by unnamed sources walters alleges between 2010 and 2014 mickelson made over 7,000 wagers on football, on basketball, and baseball. an excerpt published saying that mickelson in 2011 alone he made 3,154 bets, an average of nearly nine per day. i will say cnn has not been able to independently verify these claims. walters himself was convicted of insider trading back in 2017 and sentenced to five years in federal prison. president trump commuted his sentence in 2021. and i want to get to this because this is one of the more stunning allegations that walters makes is that mickelson asked him to bet $400,000, brianna, on the u.s. team to beat tim europe, back in 2012. he was part of the team that lost that final day.

walters wrote he doesn't know if mickelson ever placed that bet. mickelson denies gambling on that year's ryder cup. meantime i do want to get this from the four-time major winner rory mcllroy, the northern irishman reacting to the book's allegations and take a listen, not holding back in any way. >> the talk of the golf world is this book excerpt that came out about phil mickelson. i'm curious what your reaction, what the reaction in there was when you read about it. >> i mean at least he didn't bet of the ryder cup this year because he won't be a part of it. >> i think rory was ready for that question. he certainly delivered. back to you. >> wow, i mean no love lost between those two for sure, patrick. what is mickelson saying here? >> mickelson taking to social media to deny the allegations. the 53-year-old posting this. "i never bet on the ryder cup.

while it's well-known i always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, i would never undermine integrity of the game. i've also been very open about my gambling addiction. i've previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, i've gotten help. i've been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me, and i feel good about where i am now." needless to say, brianna, this is one we're going to follow any developments and more fall out because there could be more. back to you. >> i think there will be. patrick snell, thank you for that. a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in maui amid concerns the death toll will continue to rise. a live areport ahead on cnn. but first a look at this week's cnn hero, a man who after watching his aunt and grandmother struggle and die from preventable diseases is dedicated to bringing health care to remote areas of ghana. >> we've been to communities where they haven't seen a doctor

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before we go, we do want to highlight a video from the devastation on maui, and that is lahaina's banyan tree. this is now ordinary tree. it is one of the city's most beloved landmarks. >> such a gorge tree. it was planted back in 1873, so 150 years ago as an 8 foot sapling that came from india and grew to shade nearly two-thirds of an acre. for generations it has been a meeting place there in lahaina, a place of rest and sanctuary, stretches a full city block and is now more than 60 feet tall. >> this is video that was actually shot, this one we're showing you here by hawaii senator brian shakt. and while the tree is still standing you can see the damage to it. it's not clear at this point if it's going to survive fully. >> it's not the worst loss of this fire that has claimed dozens of lives but the fact it is still standing and still may live is much needed sign of hope for the town, for that island,

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