one giant leap for mankind. ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs.

announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> "the context you are watching "the context" bbc news. >> there is a lot of loss here. i think we are going to see significantly higher numbers in the coming days as our professionals from fema and maui fire, police do their jobs. >> we had no warning, no evacuation notice, so a lot of people were not prepared. by the time they fd out it was time to go, it was almost too late. >> run, don't turn around and look for me. she kept on telling me, mom, i can't. please, mom.

>> good evening and think you for joining us. could more people have been saved on the island of maui? hawaii officials confirmed the warning system never sounded. authorities are still combing through hundreds of houses as will those missing starts to fade. more questions for the government here in the u.k. about who is responsible for moving a silent seekers onto the bar before it was given the all clear. further attempt to turn people away from smoking cigarette packs in the u.k. could soon carry anti-smoking messages and advice inside the packet as well as outside, but would be enough to convince smokers to quit? first to the ongoing recovery efforts in hawaii. 96 people are known to have died in wildfires on maui with officials warning that number is likely to rise. governor josh green said more than 2700 buildings were destroyed in historic town of lahaina. hundreds are still missing and

only about 3% of the area has been searched. residents say they had no official warning before they fled for their lives, raising difficult questions about the effectiveness of the emergency response and whether more people could have been saved. early warning sirens failed to sound according to officials, a failure now under investigation by the hawaii attorney general. our correspondent has more details. >> along the coastline, a once bright and busy town laid lifeless and abandoned. historic lahaina is now nothing but ashes and dust. it looks like it has been bombed. officials are still combing through what is left to find the dead. >> there is a lot of loss here. i think we are going to see significantly higher numbers in the coming days as our professionals from fema, maui fire, police do their job. >> [singing] >> for those who survived, hope

can be found in prayer. people have gathered in makeshift churches to provide support. >> before we come to church, why did this happen? today, because of his words, the pastor, it brings me more -- i feel more comfortable and more at peace. >> but questions are being asked why residents were not warned about the fires. were early warning systems used or did they malfunction? >> pretty much everyone is saying the same thing, that we had no warning, no evacuation notice. a lot of people were not prepared. by the time they find out that it was time to go, it was almost too late. >> there is a review underway to work out exactly what happened. it will take years for the island to recover. president biden declared a

disaster last week, releasing federal funds to support people on the ground. >> i want the people of maui to know that we are going to be with you every step of the way. >> we don't know exactly what caused wildfires but many scientists say it's proof of a climate emergency. and that is a top priority for president biden and his white house. his opponents have a different view on climate change. but with much of maui destroyed, the death toll rising, it could be seen as a weaker,. -- wake-up call. >> let's go directly to maui. our correspondent is standing by. bring us up-to-date on what is happening where you are. >> i am here on the roads of lahaina. just take a look over here. it is over that hill that the community of lahaina lies, a community which lies in a state

of utter devastation and destruction. 80% of it now destroyed. what you can see behind me is another roadblock which has popped up. we are seeing a lot of these now because so many people are just trying to get back in, trying to bring much-needed aid, but it is being enforced by the u.s. military right now. at the moment, they are only allowing in emergency workers and contractors. that is because those sensitive, delicate recovery operations go on. we have been hearing about that from the governor. he has been saying that they expect to find up to 20 bodies a day now in these efforts. an utterly devastating death toll which we are seeing right now. he says we may not even know the full extent of how many lives have been lost for at least 10 days. we've also been hearing more updates from fema in terms of what is being deployed on the

ground here. many people are asking, why isn't there more aid coming in from the u.s. mainland? in terms of whether there will be a visit from president biden, fema has been saying they don't have a timeline on that, and they wouldn't want something to distract from the recovery operations. >> we mentioned questions have been mounting about what happened and why people were not warned. what is the latest on that? >> there are questions that continue to grow. sadness goes to frustration, to anger. firstly with regard to the early-morning systems and why they did not sound. we know the attorney general has launched a probe into that. also know about a wider infrastructure on the island as well. you can see some of the power lines. these operated by hawaii electric provide power for 95% of the island. now a class action lawsuit has

been filed against that company, asking essentially why the electricity was not turned off when there was a warning from the national weather service about the very real and deadly prospect of those wildfires. the company says it does not comment on pending litigation. it says it is focusing right now on restoring power on the island. it also said it doesn't have a pro forma operation of turning automatically the power off in these kinds of circumstances. they say it has to be put into an emergency request. i think it's fair to say, as we continue to see this devastating death toll grow, so many unaccounted for, we can expect to see more and more of these questions in the days to come. >> you been hearing some of the heartbreaking stories of people who have been directly affected by these fires. can you share with us what they been telling you? >> people here are utterly traumatized.

i think it is fair to say with that list of missing people, which is around 1000 right now, they are barely able to process what has happened. they can barely comprehend the fact that they have lost absolutely everything. if you take a look down here, what you can see is the port here. this is the harbor. you see a lot of private citizens using any means they can to come out and try to get on boats, use jet skis to get over however they can to get aid in for lahaina. we are talking about food, shelter, clean drinking water. people have lost everything. while i was down there, i met a man named ryan. he was walking his dog. he said he lost everything. what he was trying to do essentially was take his dog around to offer some emotional support to other people, to have time with animal, to feel some love, warmth amid all of this devastation. he is sleeping out in the open.

he tells me he lost everything. he says, right now, i just feel helpless. that was his parting message. despite that feeling of helplessness, the other thing that you notice here -- and it is difficult to communicate how much people feel this. but they are so resilient and they keep on saying maui is strong, we will rebuild. local people here are looking after each other, doing whatever they can even if they have lost everything. it's incredible to watch. >> thank you so much for reporting on the story for us. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's look now at some other stories making news. police say two men who were stabbed in south london on sunday were the victims of a homophobic attack. a man in his 20's and a man in his 30's were attacked outside a nightclub. they have since been discharged

from the hospital. no arrests have been made. a five-year-old girl suffered significant facial injuries after being attacked by a dog outside of a corner shop. the attack happened in norton on saturday evening. cleveland police say the child was taken to the hospital for treatment, and a dog had been seized. a spokesperson said the owner of the dog remained at the scene after the attack. scotland's biggest teaching union says new recruits are leaving the profession because they are not being offered secure jobs. the educational institute of scotland is urging many newly qualified staff are only giving short contracts. it urges the government to increase council funding to pay for more permanent jobs. you are watching bbc news. staying in the u.s., there has been confusion in georgia today.

a court in fulton county is looking into election interference in the state and your wrist could hand on against former president trump. according to the reuters new agency, a charging document was placed online and then quickly removed from the fulton county court website. afterward, a spokesperson for this are the attorney's office said the reuters report that those charges were filed is inaccurate. beyond that we cannot comment. it is still unclear what happened and when we might have an official update from the court, but the fulton county district attorney fani willis is widely expected to ask a grand jury to charge this to trump ove efforts to overturn the election in georgia. mr. trump has called investigations politically motivated and a witchhunt. officials have heightened security in atlanta, erecting barricades outside the court. mr. trump has already been indicted three times, once in the state of new york and twice on federal charges. the georgia investigation has been going on for two and a half years. you might remer this now infamous audio recording of the former president colony georgia

secretary of state on january 2, 2021. >> you can't lett happen and you are letting it happen. i am notifying you that you are letting it happen. look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. >> joining me now is a former federal prosecutor in the state of new york, and public opinion pollster. sarah, there is a lot of anticipationo see what will happen. we understand the grand jury is hearing more testimony in the case. what can we expect to see? >> i think it is pretty clear we will see an indictment comi out of georgia sometime this week. the messaging has been clear out of the district attorney's office. we had that little thing from

them where they appeared to post something related to the charges, then taking it down. it very much looks like we will see those charges sometime this week, perhaps the next few days. >> a lot of the evidence related to the georgia case we have seen much of it,n the january 6 committee in the house of representatives, the hearing they held, and in the other, second federal indictment over efforts to overturn the election results. what do you think we will see the grand jury and prosecutors here present? >> what i am really looking for is to see if there were other individuals charged. that's a real possibility here, that other members of trump's team, his agents in georgia, charged in connection with this case. i'm also interested in what statutes they are using. talks about the racketeering

statute, the flexibility of those statutes as applied to this set of facts. as you aptly noted, they have a pretty good idea of what the facts are. it will just be interesting to see how the district attorney's office uses what laws to apply here. >> john, we know according to georgia law, if a judge approves these proceedings, if there is a trial, it could be televised. from the perspective of the former president, we have seen the previous three indictments he has faced actually strengthen his position in the polls. does it help them to have a trial televised possibly? >> absolutely. if we are talking about the republican primaries, that is what he wishes to be, the star on television. be a victim on the core republican base. independents, moderates --

on a national level, the head to head, joe biden, donald trump is stuck in the low 40's. americans don't really care for either. in that vein, it does not help donald trump beyond trial generally. >> w spoke to a pollster last weekend, and he told us on the extremes of the political spectrum,mericans do care about this case. but around 60% of the middle don't really care. have you found that to be the case? >> absolutely. do not care is probably the correct wording. it is mainly that they have other concerns. it is not just the obvious, supermarket, fuel at the pump, education, that sort of thing. there are so many vast

technological changes that are taking place. a lot of people are worried about what is next, about security. they are worried about the climate, the weather, let alone the climate, once they see events like maui or california burning, or phoenix, arizona at 110 degrees for an entire month. in that vein, there are a lot of folks -- we have the numbers to show it, 60%. but what they are saying is what does this have to do with me? >> regardless, we will see lot of attention, media attention on the possible trials coming out of georgia. we know that there have been three indictments. we have already been talking about the fact that it wi be really difficult to schedule all of these trials in the middle of an election campaign. where does another state trial in georgia possibly fit into that? >> is going to be really hard to

slot this case and with all of the other cases. the schedules that have been set, proposed in the other matters -- i know two schedules have been set, another proposed -- are very ambitious. to insert a fourth criminal case in here makes things very difficult for scheduling purposes. you have to think, the are incredibly important things at stake. there is the schedule, has to be designed to sort of favor the defendant in these types of cases. that is just what happens. the case cannot be pushed forward unless it will infringe on the defendant's constitutional rights. >> you say there is every indication that the prosecutor's office appears ready to indict, what we expect to see this week. if that is the case, what do you

think the trump team's strategy will be here, similar to other cases, to delay the possibility of a trial? >> i think they will try to delay the trial. they will try to run this case simultaneously to the washington case, the special prosecutor, special counsel is trying to push the case forward very quickly over the proposed januartrial date. if you are on trump's team, your mantra has to be delay, delay, delay. they are reasonable delays given the amount of evidence, number of criminal cases that are mounting here. >> interesting point. john, looking at the bigger picture, we saw all of the republican candidates more or less for the presidential nomination descending on the iowa state fair, including the former president on saturday. how do you think the other

candidates are looking at this, perhaps trying to gain traction from the former president's legal troubles? >> i will tell you what i'm looking for and i wonder if i will see. one of the main front runners -- and i'm not including chris christie or asa hutchinson. but ron desantis or tim scott, i wonder what they may start to say? is it time to break away from donald trump? they will say i know that he has that maga crowd on his side, but at one point do they differentiate from that base and say we have to move forward to a different kind of message? >> really interesting conversation with you, john and sarah. great to talk with you. here in the u.k., the health secretary says the government

took instant action to move asylum-seekers from the stockholm barge after legionella bacteria was found last week. steve barkley was question over why people removed and when officials knew tess were being conducted. he told the bbc no one was harmed. the government plans to house up to 500 people on the vessel off thcoast of england while they wait for the outcome of their assignment applications. the barge was billed as a cheaper alternative to hotels. the u.k. health security agency did not recommend evacuation until thursday night. peter walsh is the senior researcher at the oxford university migration observatory. great to have you on. if you look at what the government said, ministers responded, acted quickly as soon as it was known that legionella was detected. what do you know about the government's response? >> we know that it has been deficient, and it will become clear whether there is some malpractice on their par as the

details come forward. at the moment, the evidence is suggesting that they may have jumped the gun here and put people on the barge before getting those all-important test results back. >> if you look at what the health secretary steve barclay said, he says progress is being made on the migrant policy. i would take it you don't agree with that? >> i think it is too early to say. about 16,000 people have crossed in small boats so far this year. that is down from last year by about 10% or so. but the weather in july was not ideal for boat crossings, of course, during the summer months when the weather is better, when water is calmer, skies are clear when we see the big uptick in arrivals. the ju is still out on this and we will have to wait and see over the coming months. that, in my view, will be the real test. >> the government says hotels

are costing 6 million pounds a day, that they need to find a sustainable solution. what would be a sustainable solution in your mind? >> i don't have any easy solutions, i'm afraid. there are questions about whether housing asylum-seekers on barges and other boats is a sustainable solution. we know the two-year contract and other ships cost 1.6 billion pounds. no one is on any of these accommodations yet but there are real questions about whether this will be better value for money than holding people in hotels. the stockholm has capacity for about 500 individuals. that would barely put a dent in the 50,000 or so, just 1%, of those currently being accommodated in hotels. >> the bigger question is about the asylum system and why that isn't really working. how can that be addressed?

>> the big issue here is the asylum backlog which is over 170,000 individuals at last count. that has beeallowed to build because asylum decision-making is very slow. productivity is about a quarter today than it was just five years ago. there are some explanations for this. look at the home office bureaucracy. people are going into these roles with no experience of the asylum system in many cases. morale is low and staff turnover is high. these are not conditions that are proficient to making timely and accurate asylum decisions. no doubt about it, the backlog is a big government priority. >> what does this backlog mean effectively for people who are seeking asylum in the u.k.? >> imeans they will have to wait an average of two years. that is the meantime it takes for a person to receive a decision on their asylum claim.

generally people are not allowed to work here in this period. that is not good for their integration. not good for the state because we have to support them with accommodation and financial support. it is really not good for anyone concerned. >> final question. with this backlog, what do you think the government might do at this point to address specifically this issue? even if the question of the barge is then cleared, if migrants are allowed to board again, the backlog has not been. >> no. now, the government has been putting a lot of investment into clearing the backlog, so they have worked on decision-making over the last six months. at least two times more decision-makers, maybe even more, two and a half times now, and that has increased productivity. however, remember, rishi sunak made his goal to clear 100,000

cases by the end of the year. the government is not on target. it would need to double productivity to make good on that. >> peter walsh, thank you for your insights. sicily's mount etna, the most active ok now in europe erected sunday night. mount etna frequently erects, but on this occasion, it forced the closure of the catania airport. to give you an idea of the disruption it was causing, the airport was scheduled to be the sixth busiest in italy today with 235 flights scheduled to depart and arrive. some of those flights may yet make it as the airport is currently scheduled to reopen at 8:00 tonight local time. you see those pictures don't make it particularly likely that that will happen. thank you for watching "the context." we are coming back in just a short while to look at new

packaging for cigarettes in the u.k. stay with narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs.

announcer: and now, "bbc news".