News & Current Events

Hurricane Lala struck Hawaii Island with 80 mph sustained winds and up to 20 inches of rain, knocking out power to roughly 197,400 customers statewide and prompting a state emergency proclamation. One person, 93-year-old May Doi, was found deceased in the Kaʻū District under circumstances still under investigation. The at-least-100-homes damage figure remains a preliminary gubernatorial estimate, a federal disaster declaration has been requested but not confirmed, and Hawaiian Electric warned that the hardest-hit rural areas could face outages lasting weeks or months.

China's 13th named typhoon of 2026 made two landfalls on the Zhejiang coast on August 9, prompting evacuations of more than one million people across Wenzhou, Taizhou, and Shanghai and the planned cancellation of 1,384 flights at Shanghai's two airports. Rail service on multiple Yangtze River Delta routes was also suspended, and residual circulation continued to bring rain through August 15. A preliminary count from one Zhejiang county recorded one death and three missing from a mudslide; no final nationwide casualty or economic-loss total has been reported.

On August 17, 2026, the DOJ filed an opening brief in the Sixth Circuit asking the court to reinstate human smuggling charges against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, which a district judge dismissed in May after finding the prosecution was tainted by vindictive motive tied to Abrego Garcia's successful civil removal lawsuit. The district court found that the indictment came less than 30 days after investigators reopened a 2022 traffic stop case, following a court order directing the government to facilitate his return to the United States. The Sixth Circuit has not yet ruled, no defense brief has been filed publicly, and no oral argument date has been set.

On August 17, 2026, a Tenth Circuit panel reheard arguments in Mukantagara v. Mullin, a case asking whether federal district courts have jurisdiction to review USCIS decisions terminating refugee status under 8 U.S.C. § 1157(c)(4). The rehearing was triggered by the Supreme Court's June 2026 ruling in Mullin v. Doe, which held that unreviewable final agency action renders subsidiary determinations unreviewable as well. The panel expressed skepticism toward the government's position during argument, but no ruling had been issued as of August 19, 2026.

As of August 17, 2026, wildfires have burned 600,494 hectares across the EU, while JRC data shows half of the EU and UK under some level of drought and western Europe recording its hottest June–July period on record at 2.79°C above average. Seven countries have activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, and JRC crop forecasts have cut grain maize and sunflower yields by 6–7%, with total cereals running 1% below the five-year average. The figures are forecasts rather than final harvest results, and 2026 burn totals remain below the record set by the same date in 2025.