--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Friday, August 18th. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: 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 League's Cup. But first, as Hawaii searches for wildfire victims and prepares to rebuild, there are major questions of accountability.
--:-- Herman Andaya: [Resigned as Maui's emergency management chief]
Herman Andaya: I'm not available for comment.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Herman Andaya was heavily criticized for not activating the siren system on the island when the flames got worse. People want answers about how the wildfires that killed at least 111 people started. The utility company Hawaiian Electric faces multiple lawsuits.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: [General Energy reporter]
Catherine Blunt: 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.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: 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. But Blunt says the company made very little progress.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: As with most regulatory proceedings, which all utilities are involved in as they propose 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.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: Blunt says Hawaiian Electric was more focused on meeting a state mandate to convert to fully renewable energy by 2045. People close to the utility simply described 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.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: 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.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: The warming planet is making all kinds of severe weather worse and more common. Blunt says that some companies are better prepared than others. 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 sort of mitigate some of the risks.
--:-- Catherine Blunt: 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.
--:-- Mark Garrison: 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.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And on the Spanish island of Tenerife, officials say they're fighting the most complicated wildfires in nearly half a century. There's also severe weather threatening Mexico and California. Hurricane Hillary strengthened overnight.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Southern California and Nevada could see heavy flooding. If Hillary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it would be the first one to hit the state in more than 80 years.
--:-- Mark Garrison: 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.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And in personal finance news, the average 30 fixed mortgage is now at 7 in the U.S. That is 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.
--:-- Jose Torres: [Interactive broker senior economist]
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.
--:-- Jose Torres: So that's constraining transactions in the existing home sale market. 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.
--:-- Mark Garrison: 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 League's Cup final.
--:-- Shaker Saman: [Apple News Sports editor]
Shaker Saman: 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 like tiki-taka, beautiful game kind of style that was honed under Pep Guardiola on the men's side.
--:-- Shaker Saman: 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.
--:-- Shaker Saman: 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. England's looked really good without her.
--:-- Shaker Saman: The big kind of question for England is, will superstar manager Serena Wegman 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?
--:-- Shaker Saman: 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.
--:-- Shaker Saman: 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.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Now to the League's 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.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Saman says they wouldn't be in the final without Messi. Nashville has been one of the best teams in MLS all year. They've looked really complete. They're towards the top of the conference. They're a really solid team.
--:-- Shaker Saman: 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. But when you give the worst team the best player, things can turn around fast.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Inter-Miami played 22 games in MLS before the League's Cup started. They scored 22 goals. Since the League's Cup has started, they've played six games. They have 21 goals. What Messi is doing in Miami is unfathomable.
--:-- Shaker Saman: 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 them down.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Nashville's solid. They have one of MLS's best goal scorers up front, but Miami is going to win. End of story. Messi season.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can follow all the 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 Basu: [Host]
Shumita Basu: 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 Gross about parenthood and how to mentally process everything that comes with a new baby.
--:-- Jessica Gross: [New York Times columnist]
Jessica Gross: 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.
--:-- Jessica Gross: It's normal.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The full episode is queued up to play for you next. Have a peaceful weekend, and we'll be back with the news on Monday.
