Watson’s paintings circulate regularly at international fairs, including Art Toronto, Art Miami, Hamptons Fine Art, Art Taipei, and in Seattle, where they were featured by Artsy in its list of “10 Works to Collect at the Seattle Art Fair.” Watson’s pieces have been covered by publications such as The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, and House & Home.
Ontario, Canada, August 11, 2023, Prominently featured in Bau-Xi Gallery’s new flagship location is Canadian contemporary artist Janna Watson. Paintings from her recent solo exhibition ‘I Didn’t Eat The Garnish’ are currently on display. This alluring collection was painted in her Toronto studio, just a short block away from the new gallery space on Geary Avenue.
On the corner of Dufferin Street and Geary Avenue (just north of Dupont Street), the Bau-Xi Gallery is located in an area of economic and cultural growth and finds good company with a number of other galleries, artisanal retailers, new residential development, and top-tier Toronto consultants and designers.
This building provides 22,500 sq. ft. of overall space, with approximately 17,500 sq. ft. (across two floors) allocated to the exhibition of painting, photography, and sculpture. The site also boasts a commercial-size kitchen for hosting events, as well as broadening Bau-Xi’s reach within the larger community – while bringing increased visibility.
With this move comes a substantial increase to their framing, shipping/receiving and art handling bandwidth allowing them to streamline processes and increase the level of services that they can offer to both artists and clients. Bau-Xi has been located across from the Art Gallery of Ontario for nearly 50 years, the gallery intends to maintain a presence in downtown Toronto, continuing to engage with the arts community that has blossomed in Toronto.
During a recent interview, Janna Watson commented, “The inspiration for this series is explorative play. I zoom into the micro-level of my compositions, moving beyond negative space to capture a more granular experience. I paint on the ground to contain the gravity of my watery mixes. Larger pieces have a more magnetizing draw with their ingredients; when I am over top of a work unfolding, I am both inside of it and a part of it.”
She continues, “It is this immersive view that inspired the series. The magic of mid-creation and the impending chemical reactions of subduing pigments are humbling. At times they master me, and I aim to capture this vacillant unfolding. Perspective needs space, to float at arm’s length and at a distance. Indulging is equally important. Eat cake! Eat the garnish too!”
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin, 1384 Dufferin St, is open daily from 10 am – 5:30 pm. Bau-Xi Gallery | Dundas,340 Dundas St W, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am – 5:30pm.
I woke up to the braying of donkeys. Opening the window to morning air perfumed by wisteria and honeysuckle, I could see the herd — 16 sweet-eyed animals in all — grazing by the olive groves of La Pescaia, a country estate turned idyllic inn that embodies a fantasy of pastoral happiness for me: life among animals and bird song and olive trees, encircled by the rugged nature of Maremma, in Italy.
The most sparsely settled area of Tuscany, spilling slightly into northern Lazio, Maremma retains vast swathes of nature reserves and uncontaminated woodlands, and over a series of visits,I took a deep-dive into countryside Zen, with horseback trips, hikes, bike rides, swims at protected beaches and improvised field sessions of donkey therapy.
“Here your days follow the cycles of the weather, animals and plants, and that natural rhythm gives life a sense of serenity,” said Margherita Ramella, who owns La Pescaia with her sister Beatrice. The siblings abandoned their careers in Milan to cultivate this rural endeavor.
My own rural mission began on horseback. In Maremma, traveling by horse was the customary way — long the only way — to navigate the dense and swampy territory, and the old horsetrails endure, cutting through secluded woods and overgrown fields, past vineyards, farmland and the occasional quaint medieval village rising among the hills.
The butteri, Maremma’s unique brand of cowboys (and some modern-day cowgirls), are no longer numerous yet remain an active and integral part of the area’s identity. They chaperone packs of the Indigenous lyre-horned Maremmana cows, riding robust, wide-torsoed Maremmano horses in a tradition that some say dates back to the ancient Etruscans — rendering Maremma one of few places to possess such an enduring and vital equestrian link.
Tenuta di Alberese, a farm with 400 Maremmana cows run with support of the region of Tuscany, allows visitors to accompany the butteri on their daily horseback rounds — a task requiring a 7 a.m. start-time and enough expertise to gallop alongside them for several hours as they do the arduous work of herding (far more than what I, one morning’s feeble observer, possessed).
At La Pescaia, once famed for raising racehorses, there are horseback lessons, daylong excursions and nighttime full-moon rides for all levels. One early evening on my first visit there, my group saddled up at the pen and rode uphill through an enchanted-looking copse of gnarled cork trees, with the horses trampling wild mint and everlasting flowers under their hooves that released a balsam and absinthe tang into the damp evening air. Unsullied by city smog, the air was not just clean — it was charged with scent. An hour later, we came to a hilltop olive grove where an aperitivo of white wine and the farm’s own jams, honeys and local cheeses were set on a gingham-covered table. We watched the sun set over reddening wheat fields and forests before we rode back down as cicadas thrummed the arrival of dusk.
Dinner drawn from the land and sea
That night, in Castiglione della Pescaia, a half-hour’s drive towards the coast, a six-course dinner at Posto Pubblico included a spring salad with fresh peas and sea asparagus, a plate of charred octopus marinated in beets, and a dessert of buffalo milk gelato. For its ambitious cuisine, the restaurant sources high-quality, small-production ingredients from independent farmers and winemakers — a growing phenomenon in Maremma.
“A new generation took an interest in farming in the pandemic, and they’re doing it with biodynamic and sustainable methods,” said Alessio Cech, the talented young chef who opened the restaurant in 2016 with his brother Giulio.
Posto Pubblico is a standout gem for those interested in creative cooking, with a prix fixe tasting menu as well as more affordable pizzas, and on the restaurant’s romantic cobblestone piazza of tables (appropriately located on Via dell’Amore), preparations are underway to turn a medieval church depository into a natural wine bar offering casual dining, opening this autumn.
Through the fields on horseback
For an extended horseback journey, I met Piergianni Rivolta at his ranch in Civitella Marittima, from which he runs small group trail riding tours. Rain aborted our planned two-day excursion to the waterfalls of Val di Farma because some of the river crossings risked flooding, but we set out on another path, straddling our Maremmano horses on the cushy, horsehair-stuffed scafarda saddles that the butteri use.
“Maremma has a tradition you can’t find anywhere else today, but it’s fading, and the butteri, the old trails, and the nature here need to be protected and maintained,” said Mr. Rivolta, a rough-hewed, latter-day Robert Redford in a flat-brim fedora. I followed him, riding past a flock of sheep and vineyards of Sangiovese grapes, and then past fields of waist-high wheat and tracts overtaken by crimson clovers, yellow daisies and the amethyst blossoms of wild-growing peas.
We waded through rivers, and through meadows of spindly broom flowers grown thick and taller than our heads, where our horses blindly forged the way through the yellow nebula of blooms. Both days, we rode for hours without seeing a car or another human being, encompassed by nature so vividly bushy after the downpours that it seemed to grow before our eyes.
A tiny town and an exquisite inn
On a later visit, I wentfurther south in Maremma’s interior, whereI found Johnny Petrucci and Elizabeth Silvestri settling comfortably into small-town life after relocating during the pandemic from Rome to minuscule Pereta, a hilltop village of mostly medieval stone dwellings. There, the couple has converted a family home into Locanda Sospesa — a guesthouse of frescos, silk-covered walls and satin brocade curtains that lovingly recaptures the antique interiors of the residence, as if the velvet ropes at one of Italy’s great house museums were lifted to allow visitors to sleep in the display bedrooms.
“Covid gave us the freedom to change everything,” Mr. Petrucci said, as we regarded the hills from the balcony above their gardens. The steep slopes of forests and fields sprawled as far as the eye could see — an unending vista of greenery epitomizing the Arcadian experience of Maremma. “The city always felt like an external force working against me,” Ms. Silvestri said, a tabby cat purring contentedly on her lap in the sunshine. “But here I feel like I’m a part of nature.”
The pair arrange activities designed to give guests greater proximity to the local culture and landscape — hiking and cycling tours, horseback rides, lessons in basket-weaving with Maremman grasses, falconry demonstrations and more. I visited the hot springs of Saturnia, swimming in the bath-warm geothermal river, and tried a bioenergetic massage, but missed my chance to go asparagus hunting with Poldo Cirillo, a Pereta resident known for his foraging expertise.
Mr. Cirillo was busy when I arrived, as was the entire town, with Pereta’s annual festival — a cheese-tossing contest (this year, won by a female cheese-tosser for the first time ever), which was accompanied by bawdy accordion songs, wine served plein-air in plastic cups and a parade of children dressed in Renaissance finery — but ordinarily the sleepy village with just 67 residents in its center is a destination for travelers seeking calm.
The following morning, I set out on a hiking trip with Rudston Steward, a onetime New York party promoter who today leads the Maremma Safari Club, offering multiday hiking tours. We walked for hours, past yellow hills of rapeseed flowers, fields of chestnut trees, abandoned farmhouses and wild-growing asparagus, which Mr. Steward showed me how to pick.
“After Covid, people have become much more open to this kind of trip,” he said. “We evolved to walk and it works at a deep level on our brain. After all, travel should change your mind-state.”
By the time we reached a peak in the town of Monticello Amiata, my head was hushed and unburdened by the looming deadlines that usually haunt it. There, we lodged at Le Pianore, a farm-stay run by a family from Naples who had relocated to the Maremma countryside. They fed me a bountiful risotto dinner before sending me to bed in a new cabin built entirely of biodegradable straw and clay.
To the seashore
In the following day’s sunshine, along a thin tongue of coastal terrain connecting mainland Orbetello with the island of Monte Argentario, I arrived to a pier full of tables where the rustic restaurant I Pescatoriserves fresh fish from the surrounding lagoon. With the water spreading out before me, I lunched on smoked eel and grilled mullet caught by the fishermen in the local cooperative. Since 1946 it has run this eatery as a showcase of the seaside’s simple cuisine, and as a support for small-time fishermen facing competition from fish farms and commercial trawlers.
After lunch, on a rented bike, I pedaled along the cycling path of Orbetello’s land-bridge and circled some of Monte Argentario. The island is a destination for fancy folks docking their yachts and sailboats, and home to the high-end Hotel Il Pellicanoand La Roqqa, Maremma’s much-anticipated new luxury hotel designed by the Milan design studio of Palomba Serafini, scheduled to open this month.
The Feniglia beach, a marine reserve of crystalline sea with pale sand and dunes of resin-redolent mastic brush, is largely free of Italy’s scourge of beach clubs. After a swim, I had to brake on my bike for a 20-strong troop of wild boar crossing the trail in front of me, with the adults shepherding babies along like a well-organized school field trip.
Wild boar is closely associated with Maremma — its outback and its cuisine — and the game meat was a star of the menu at Ristorante Fontanile dei Caprai that evening. Originally founded to provide sustenance to hunters in the nearby fields, today this eateryserves straightforward Maremman dishes in a wood cabin and on its outdoor terrace facing vineyards and the sunset.
My trip closed at the Parco della Maremma, home to the Tenuta di Alberese where I’d previously visited the butteri, and which comprisesan expanse of protected land larger than Manhattan. Bikes, canoes and bird watching tours available are available, but on my last day, I just wanted to walk. From a high path along a rocky slope, I could see the umbrella pines below with their fir tops like fluffy cumulus clouds reaching all the way to the sea.
Accompanied by a chorus of trail-side frogs, I eventually wove my way through the woods to a beach with the Collelungo watchtower, a blocky 16th-century anti-pirate lookout. Underneath, on the long stretch of luminous sand bracketed by juniper bushes, the only man-made structures were makeshift lean-to shelters of sticks that had washed ashore. I took my last swim, gazing back at this dazzling green territory of wild boar and native horses, and tried to fix in my head this transcendence, this feeling of being a part of Maremma’s untamed nature.
If you go
Maremma offers the opportunity for a deep dive into nature, with horseback trips, hikes, bike rides, and swims at protected beaches. Here, places to stay, dine and book your adventures.
La Pescaia Resort in Sticciano is a 16th-century country villa and horse farm transformed into an elegant inn with riding opportunities (rooms from €280 a night, or $307).
Tenuta di Alberese, located in Alberese, is a state-funded farmstead with Maremmana cows offering visitors the chance to accompany its squad of butteri as they tend to the herd on horseback (€60 for an approximately four-and-a-half hour excursion).
Posto Pubblico in Castiglione della Pescaia is an ambitious restaurant with local farm-sourced ingredients which is expanding to include a natural wine bar (six-course tasting menu, €70 plus beverages; pizza from €10; wine from €6 a glass).
Corte di Ardengo, in Civitella Maritima, offers horseback rides from two hours to weeklong journeys with owner Piergianni Rivolta (starting from €50 for a two-hour ride).
Locanda Sospesa, in the hilltop town of Pereta, has turned a family home into a guesthouse with antique interiors (rooms from €180 a night).
Maremma Safari Club, based in Cinigiano, leads mult-day group hiking tours through Maremma and elsewhere with lodgings and meals included five-day hikes, €1,795)
Le Pianore, in Monticello Amiata, is an eco-friendly and family-run farm-stay (doubles from €120 a night).
Cooperativa I Pescatori in Orbetello, a casual restaurant, is run and supplied by a collective of local fishermen (about €25 for two seafood courses, plus beverages).
Ristorante Fontanile dei Caprai, in Marsiliana, originally supplied sustenance to hunters in the area’s woods and now serves traditional cuisine to all comers (about €25 for two courses, plus beverages).
Parco Regionale della Maremma, in Alberese, is a nature reserve set along more than 15 miles of coastline, with hiking, cycling, canoeing, horseback, and bird watching itineraries (entry is €10).
For the first time since the moon race with the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, Russia is set to launch a moderate-size robotic lander, Luna-25, that will be headed to the moon’s south polar region. The mission has been in development for years before Russia invaded Ukraine, but is also occurring at a moment when President Vladimir V. Putin is looking to space as one way to signal Russia’s return to great-power status.
When is the launch and how can I watch it?
Launch is scheduled for Thursday at 7:10 p.m. Eastern time from Vostochny, a spaceport in the far eastern part of Russia. (It will be Friday morning in Russia, 9:10 a.m. at Vostochny and 2:10 a.m. in Moscow.) Earlier in the day, the TASS news service reported that approval had been given to begin fueling of the rocket that will carry Luna-25 to orbit. About an hour before launch, a video feed from a cloudy launch site showed signs that propellants were being loaded to the vehicle. A report from mission control about 15 minutes ahead of the flight said that the vehicle’s systems were normal and ready for an on-time liftoff.
The Russian television network RT has started streaming live coverage of the launch beginning, as is Roscosmos, the Russia space agency, on its YouTube channel. Or you can watch the Russian-language stream embedded in the video player above.
Why is Russia going to the moon?
After the success of NASA’s Apollo moon landings from 1969 through 1972, the world’s space agencies largely lost interest in the moon. Russia completed several robotic landings after the Apollo program’s conclusion, ending with the Luna-24 mission in 1976.
In the decades that followed, attention shifted to more distant destinations in the solar system. But the discovery of water ice in the shadowed craters in the moon’s polar regions has resurrected interest.
Russia has been attempting to revive its lunar program for the last quarter-century, and Russian officials have talked of sending Russian astronauts there too.
“The architecture of the lander is very similar to what the Soviet Union used to build for landing on the moon in the 70s,” said Anatoly Zak, who publishes RussianSpaceWeb.com, which closely tracks Russian space activities.
”However, it’s a scaled-down version” that takes advantage of some modern technological advances, Mr. Zak said. “When they decided to call it Luna-25, it’s kind of fair, because, in fact, it’s a continuation of the Soviet legacy.”
However, the Russian space program has been hampered by limited financing, economic sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine and technological limitations, particularly for electronics. Some Russians have even expressed doubts about the prospects of the Russian moon exploration program.
“The Russian government is looking for any ‘victories’ to show how much they don’t care about sanctions,” said Denis Shiryaev, a Russian blogger who writes about technology. He added, “The news is most likely released for that, not for the actual launch.”
What will happen during the flight?
Luna-25 will launch on top of a Soyuz rocket that will put it into orbit around Earth. The rocket’s upper stage will then fire, propelling the lander on a journey of about five days to the moon.
Once at the moon, the Luna-25 lander will enter into a circular orbit 60 miles above the surface. The lander will spend about seven days nudging itself into an elliptical orbit that dips within a dozen miles of the surface. Roscosmos has not announced a planned landing date.
If Luna-25 lands successfully, it is to operate for at least a year. Its primary landing target is north of Boguslawsky crater, located at a latitude of about 70 degrees south. Planned experiments include scooping up soil and analyzing what it is made of. It could dig up some water ice below the surface.
Who else has gone to the moon?
Landers from several countries have sent robotic spacecraft to the moon in recent years. Only China has succeeded, going three for three.
Last month, India launched its latest moon mission, Chandrayaan 3. Taking a circuitous, energy-efficient route, Chandrayaan 3 entered orbit around the moon on Aug. 5, and its landing attempt, in a location in the south polar region, is scheduled for Aug. 23 — just about the same time as Luna-25.
What else is happening with Russia’s space program?
Luna-25 is planned to be the first in a series of increasingly ambitious robotic missions headed to the moon. Luna-26 is to be an orbiter, while Luna-27 is a bigger, more capable lander.
Russian cooperation with NASA on the International Space Station continues, but Russia declined to join NASA’s Artemis program that is to send astronauts back to the moon. Instead, it announced it was working with China to build a lunar base in the 2030s.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led the European Space Agency to end its collaboration with Roscosmos on planetary missions. A European-built experimental navigation camera was removed from Luna-25. ESA also ended cooperation on the ExoMars mission; its Rosalind Franklin rover was to launch on a Russian rocket and then be taken to the surface of Mars via a Russian landing system.
Anton Troianovski, Alina Lobzina and Milana Mazaeva contributed reporting.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge on Thursday allowed a civil lawsuit filed against 10 fake electors for former President Donald Trump and two of his attorneys to proceed, rejecting a move to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit is moving ahead in Wisconsin after Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges on July 18 against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump, accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
The fake elector plan was central to the federal indictment filed against Trump earlier this month that alleged he tried to overturn results of the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors said the scheme originated in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has signaled that he is relying on federal investigators to look into what happened in Wisconsin, while also not ruling out a state probe.
The pending civil lawsuit, filed by two Democratic electors and a voter, seeks $2.4 million from the fake GOP electors and two of Trump’s attorneys, alleging they were part of a conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential race. It also seeks to disqualify the Republicans from ever serving as electors again.
Wisconsin Republican Party Executive Director Mark Jefferson said in a statement that he was confident it will “come up short.”
He repeated the claim from the fake electors that they were acting as an “alternate slate” in order to “preserve an ongoing legal strategy.” Wisconsin Republicans were not told of any other purpose “and would not have approved any other use,” Jefferson said.
Scott Thompson, one of the attorneys who brought the lawsuit, said he was pleased with the order that will allow attorneys to “fully investigate and present our case in court.”
“Our democracy matters,” Thompson said. “So, we must seek accountability for those who attempt to undermine it.”
Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington has scheduled the case to go to a trial by jury in September 2024, two months before the presidential election.
Fake electors met in Wisconsin, Michigan and five other battleground states where Trump was defeated in 2020 and signed certificates that falsely stated Trump won their states, not Biden. The fake certificates were ignored, but the attempt has been subject to investigations, including by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Republicans who participated in Wisconsin said they were trying to preserve Trump’s legal standing in case courts overturned his defeat.
Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.
Democrats who brought the lawsuit in Wisconsin are represented by the Madison-based Law Forward law firm and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center.
In May, Remington also revived a complaint brought by Law Forward against the fake electors filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That complaint sought sanctions against the fake electors.
In that ruling, Remington said the complaint must be heard again because a commissioner who considered the complaint last time should have recused himself. That commissioner, Robert Spindell, also served as a fake elector and is one of the defendants in the lawsuit seeking damages.
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by nearly 21,000 votes, a result that has withstood recounts, partisan-led investigations, a nonpartisan audit and multiple lawsuits.
False Electoral College certificates were submitted declaring Trump the winner of Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Walking toward a tee box in Virginia in May, former President Donald J. Trump offered an awfully accurate assessment of the way many golf executives viewed him.
“They love the courses,” he said, forever the salesman for his family company’s portfolio of properties, “but I think they probably consider me a little bit controversial right now.”
As much as some leaders of men’s golf are trying to patch the rupture created by the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, a tour Trump has championed, they seem to be in no rush to end the former president’s exile from their sport’s buttoned-up establishment. Even in an era of gaudy wealth and shifting alliances in golf, Trump remains, for now, a measure too much for many.
The consequences have been conspicuous for a figure who had expected to host a men’s golf major tournament in 2022. Now, his ties to the sport’s elite ranks often appear limited to LIV events and periodic rounds with past and present professionals. Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion, caused a stir in April when he publicly stopped short of again endorsing a Trump bid for the White House.
Nevertheless, on Thursday, when he was playing a LIV pro-am event at his course in Bedminster, N.J., Trump insisted he was in regular conversations with golf executives about top-tier tournaments.
“They think as long as you’re running for office or in office, you’re controversial,” he said.
Golf has been a regular respite for Democratic and Republican commanders in chief. But no American president has had a more openly combustible history with the sport than Trump, and perhaps no president besides Dwight D. Eisenhower, who is thought to have averaged about 100 rounds annually when he was in the White House, has had so much of his public image linked to golf.
In the years before Trump won the presidency, he had at last started to make significant headway into the rarefied realms of golf.
In 2012, the U.S. Golf Association picked the Bedminster property for the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open. Two years later, the P.G.A. of America said it planned to take the men’s P.G.A. Championship to the course in 2022. Also in 2014, Trump bought Turnberry, a mesmerizing Scottish property that had hosted four British Opens, and he imagined golf’s oldest major championship being contested there again.
Once in the White House, Trump played with a parade of golf figures (though some of them appeared more attracted to the magic of the presidency than to Trump himself): Tiger Woods; Rory McIlroy; Ernie Els; Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour; and Fred S. Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club.
Trump’s 2016 campaign and presidency had given some in golf heartburn. But it was the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol that most clearly chiseled away at his golf dreams. The P.G.A., which is distinct from the PGA Tour, which has dueled with LIV for supremacy over men’s professional golf, immediately moved its 2022 championship from Bedminster. The R&A, which organizes the British Open, made clear that it would not be bound for Turnberry anytime soon.
LIV soon emerged as something of a life raft, an insurgent league with a craving for championship-quality courses and plenty of money to spend. It did not hurt that Trump had been strikingly cozy with the government in Riyadh whose wealth fund was ready to pour billions of dollars into LIV — and let some of those dollars, in turn, roll toward the Trump Organization for reasons that have been the subject of widespread speculation.
Trump became a fixture at LIV events held at his courses, routinely jawing about the PGA Tour with variable accuracy. (He did, however, predict something like the planned transaction between the wealth fund and the PGA Tour.) This week’s event in New Jersey is his family’s fourth LIV tournament, and a fifth is planned for the Miami area in October.
But the budding détente between the Saudis and the PGA Tour does not seem to be leading to an immediate one between Trump and the broader golf industry, which the Saudis could have enormous sway over in the years ahead.
The PGA Tour has not publicly committed to maintaining the LIV brand if it reaches a conclusive deal with the wealth fund, and the tentative agreement says nothing about the future of men’s golf’s relationship with Trump. The PGA Tour has a history with Trump but ended its relationship with his company during the 2016 campaign. Tim Finchem, who was the tour’s commissioner then, denied at the time that the decision was “a political exercise” and instead called it “fundamentally a sponsorship issue.”
To no one’s surprise, the tour’s 2024 schedule, which the circuit released on Monday, features no events at Trump properties. And although Trump said a few months ago that he thought the Irish Open might be interested in his Doonbeg course, the DP World Tour, which is also a part of the agreement with the Saudi wealth fund, has said the course is not under consideration.
Other top golf figures who are not bound by any deal with the Saudis somehow appear even less interested.
“Until we’re confident that any coverage at Turnberry would be about golf, about the golf course and about the championship, until we’re confident about that, we will not return any of our championships there,” Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, said on the same day last month when he signaled that the Open organizer might be willing to accept a Saudi investment.
Seth Waugh, the P.G.A. of America’s chief executive, declined to comment this week, but the organization has given no signal that it is reconsidering its thinking about Trump courses. The U.S.G.A. said it did not have a comment.
Some players, many of whom at least lean conservative, have suggested they would like to see Trump courses be in the mix for the majors.
“There’s no reason you couldn’t host P.G.A.s, U.S. Opens out here,” said Patrick Reed, who won the Masters Tournament in 2018 and played with Trump on Thursday. “I mean, just look at it out here: The rough is brutal.”
Even a sudden rapprochement, which would require executives setting aside the views of players like Reed that politics should not shape sports decisions, would almost certainly not lead to Trump’s strutting around a major tournament in the near future.
The next U.S. Open in need of a venue is the one that will be played in 2036; Trump would turn 90 on the Saturday of that tournament. P.G.A. Championships are booked through 2030. Between last month’s announcement that the 2026 British Open will be held at Royal Birkdale and the R&A’s sustained public skepticism of Trump, the last major of the calendar year seems unlikely to head to a Trump property anytime soon. And the Masters, which is always played at Augusta National in Georgia, is not an option.
Women’s golf offers a few more theoretical possibilities since its roster of venues is not as set, but Trump would face much of the same reluctance.
Trump has mused about the financial wisdom of golf’s keeping its distance from him. A few months ago, he argued that avoiding his courses was “foolish because you make a lot of money with controversy.”
He may be right.
But it seems golf is reasoning that it is making plenty of money anyway. Its political bent, some figure, might be better managed outside the glare of its major tournaments — and, moreover, beyond the shadow of Trump.
The Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to consider the government’s challenge of a bankruptcy settlement involving Purdue Pharma, putting on pause a deal that would have shielded members of the wealthy Sackler family from civil opioid lawsuits in exchange for payments of up to $6 billion to thousands of plaintiffs.
In doing so, the court sided with the Justice Department, which had requested the court put the settlement plan on hold while it considered reviewing the agreement. The government has argued that the family behind Purdue Pharma, maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, should not be able to take advantage of legal protections meant for debtors in “financial distress.”
The court’s order, which was unsigned, gave no reasons and included no public dissents, adds to the uncertainty around the plan to compensate states, local governments, tribes and individuals harmed by the opioid crisis while offering protection for the Sackler family. The order specified that the justices would hear arguments in the case in December.
The court’s decision to take up the challenge to the bankruptcy agreement is the latest twist in the yearslong legal battle over compensation for victims of the prescription drug crisis.
In May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit approved the settlement plan as part of a court review of bankruptcy restructuring for Purdue Pharma. The company had filed for bankruptcy protections in September 2019. At the time, both the company and members of the Sackler family were facing lawsuits connected with the opioid crisis.
Although it is routine for companies who seek bankruptcy protection to be shielded from legal claims, the unusual part of this agreement was that it extended that liability protection to the company’s owners. Sackler family members have said they would not sign onto a settlement without an agreement protecting them from lawsuits.
The U.S. Trustee Program, an office in the Justice Department that oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases, has long argued that bankruptcy judges do not have the power to permanently block lawsuits against company owners if those owners haven’t sought personal bankruptcy protection.
The government has argued that federal appeals courts are split on this issue and that the settlement agreement may set a troubling precedent.
“Allowing the court of appeals’ decision to stand would leave in place a road map for wealthy corporations and individuals to misuse the bankruptcy system to avoid mass tort liability,” the solicitor general, Elizabeth B. Prelogar, wrote in a brief for the government.
The appeals court, Ms. Prelogar wrote, had “pinned itself firmly on one side of a widely acknowledged circuit split about an important and recurring question of bankruptcy law.”
Ms. Prelogar called the agreement “a release from liability that is of exceptional and unprecedented breadth.” She argued that the deal “applies to an untold number of claimants who did not specifically consent to the release’s terms,” a deal that “constitutes an abuse of the bankruptcy system, and raises serious constitutional questions.”
In a statement released after Thursday’s decision, a spokeswoman for Purdue Pharma said the company was “confident in the legality” of the bankruptcy plan.
Members of the Sackler family are no longer on the board of the pharmaceutical company. When the bankruptcy is finalized, they will no longer be owners of the company, which would be renamed Knoa Pharma and owned by its creditors. However, the family still remains wealthy. Some estimates put their fortune at $11 billion, much of it in offshore holdings.
Victims’ groups have expressed frustration at the government’s position, raising concerns that it would further delay payments to those harmed.
“Regardless of how one feels about the role of the Sackler family in the creation and escalation of the opioid crisis, the fact remains that the billions of dollars in abatement and victim compensation funds hinge on confirmation and consummation of the existing plan,” a brief filed on behalf of a victims’ group said. “These funds, which the Sackler family members are providing in exchange for releases, are critically needed now.”
Two digital collectibles are launching on Saturday, 12th August at 9AM PT, only on ElmonX.com
London, United Kingdom, August 9, 2023, Meticulously crafted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1500, the Salvator Mundi is a mesmerizing masterpiece portraying Christ as the Savior of the World. With transcendent grace, Christ’s left-hand cradles a crystal orb, while his right bestows a benevolent blessing. Initially dismissed as a copy, the artwork’s true magnificence was unveiled through extensive restoration and scholarly inquiry. The precision of Christ’s features and the delicate orb are attributed undeniably to Leonardo, placing the painting among his masterpieces.
This 21st-century artistic treasure has enraptured art enthusiasts worldwide, culminating in a remarkable auction where it commanded a staggering USD 450,312,500. This price underscores the art world’s acknowledgment of its historical and artistic significance, solidifying its place as an iconic piece of artistic heritage with immeasurable worth.
As the gavel fell, the Salvator Mundi not only reaffirmed its peerless status but also highlighted art’s enduring ability to captivate and inspire across generations, poised to continue dazzling the world anew.
There will be two drops:
Leonardo da Vinci | ElmonX Salvator Mundi Original
Leonardo da Vinci | ElmonX Salvator Mundi Artist Proof
Leonardo da Vinci | ElmonX Salvator Mundi Original:
660 Digital Collectables will be available to purchase for £150.00 via credit card and ETH*, available only via public sale while supplies last at www.ElmonX.com
Key Information:
Public Sale: Saturday, 12th August 9AM PT Price: £150.00 Editions: 660 (55 Reserved) License: Bridgeman Images Available: Globally at ElmonX
Leonardo da Vinci | ElmonX Salvator Mundi Artist Proof:
13 Digital Collectables will be available to purchase for £1100.00 via credit card and ETH*, available only via public sale while supplies last at www.ElmonX.com
Artist Proof Physical:
Purchase of the Leonardo da Vinci | ElmonX Artist Proof edition unlocks a matching physical museum quality pictorial depth print. The print measures 65.7 x 45.7 cm, the same size as the original Salvator Mundi. The physical AP print: uses rich blacks, vibrant hues, dramatic contrasts, and perfect reproduction of intricate details.
Artist Proof editions physical and digital are individually numbered on the back of the Salvator Mundi.
After purchasing the artist proof, support@elmonx.com will email buyers to confirm their shipping address.
Prints will be shipped within four weeks of the purchase date. Free shipping is included worldwide. Purchaser is liable for any customs taxes or local import costs that may occur.
How to Purchase:
The NFT collection is available for purchase at https://elmonx.com/ on a first-come, first-served basis. Each person is entitled to purchase one of each NFT.
As buyers proceed with the checkout process, they will be required to input their Ethereum (ETH) address and then mark the checkbox to make the payment using a card or ETH. After making their selection, a popup will emerge for them to finalize the payment for their NFT. Following a successful payment, this NFT will be minted into their wallet, undergoing a brief waiting duration for the transaction to confirm on the blockchain.
*Please note that currently, only MetaMask is available for ETH transactions. Transactions will incur an added gas fee which will fluctuate.
Buyers must be logged into the ElmonX.com website with a registered account. This will be the same as their app login username and password. The ElmonX team suggests setting up an account before the launch and confirming buyer’s email.
Please note that ElmonX cannot be held responsible if buyers mistakenly enter an incorrect ETH address during checkout.
Important Website Information:
The current ElmonX.com website will be moved to ElmonX.dev temporarily, this site will be available to use the AR functionality whilst they complete the full migration to the new ElmonX.com.
The existing ElmonX.com will transform into the new, enhanced, and updated website this week, before the launch takes place. This is where the drop will occur.
Additional Information:
ElmonX will retain mints 1–5 and 50 other randomly assigned mints. The distribution of mint editions is random and not based on the order of purchase.
ElmonX 3D / Augmented Reality:
The purchase of any Salvator Mundi edition unlocks exclusive access to view buyer’s NFT in augmented reality by connecting their wallet to ElmonX.com. This feature is only accessible to holders of the NFT. Holders can scan a barcode to view the AR / 3D NFT on mobile as well as desktop.
About Bridgeman Images:
ElmonX has partnered with Bridgeman Images, secured with explicit permission, to introduce Salvator Mundi. Bridgeman Images stands as a global frontrunner in the distribution of art, cultural, and historical images, along with footage for reproduction. With a rich history of five decades, they have been delivering images from the world’s most esteemed museums, collections, and artists.
Their extensive collection spans centuries, diverse specializations, geographical regions, and artistic mediums, encompassing contemporary and fine art, photography, textiles, sculpture, maps, documentary footage, and more.
It’s important to note that while platforms like OpenSea and other secondary marketplaces might compress high-resolution quality within their 3D viewers, Salvator Mundi will proudly showcase its high-resolution nature within the ElmonX viewer and AR format.
About ElmonX:
ElmonX seamlessly integrates with an unalterable and highly secure distributed database of digital assets. By leveraging decentralized and immutable blockchain systems, ElmonX ensures transparent tracking of product origins and traceability across the entire supply chain. Collectors can utilize augmented reality to visualize and engage with the NFTs, adjusting the scale of the assets to perfectly suit their surroundings.
The ElmonX mobile apps are now available in beta, allowing collectors to reserve their username and join the waitlist. With a particular emphasis on licensed products, ElmonX aims to enhance the NFT collecting experience, particularly in the realm of art, through various offerings such as digital products, animation, and immersive experiences.
ElmonX will plant a tree for every sale made. They can be viewed their virtual forest here: https://ecologi.com/ElmonX
The back story of Breac House, a tiny hotel in northwest Ireland’s County Donegal, sounds like a cautionary tale: Two city-slickers, accountants from Dublin, who’d never worked at a hotel or served a scone, decide to open a custom-built, designer property on a remote, windswept peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Cue the wizened locals ready to fleece them, the natural and man-made catastrophes, and you have all the makings of a bad sitcom, with Monocle meets Fawlty Towers as the log line.
The reality is different: Cathrine Burke, 51, and Niall Campbell, 51, have managed to create a remarkable hotel, not by flying in a starchitect from London, stocking the place with fancy products and serving globalized cuisine, but by staying resolutely Donegal. Their guiding principle in selecting materials, products, craftspeople and foodstuffs has been “from Donegal, when it’s the best.”
Underpinning the success of their four-room hotel, which is already full for their 2023 season and quickly filling up for next year, are the local chefs, chandlers, farmers, designers, weavers, potters and soapmakers they work with.
In a place known as Ireland’s “forgotten county” — largely because of its position in the far northwest of the Republic of Ireland, next to Northern Ireland and far from tourist draws like Dublin or Galway — there’s a flourishing and robust ecosystem of great contemporary food, design and craft just starting to become known to the rest of this island nation and to the world. The people behind this are young and old, longtime residents and newcomers, business neophytes and seasoned entrepreneurs.
Take Bernie Murphy, a fashion designer who spent over 20 years working for a local Fruit of the Loom factory, lost her job then struck out on her own, launching collections that have landed her high praise from influential fashion critics. Or Isobel Sangha, a bioengineer who moved home after years in Dublin, and launched the Donegal Natural Soap Company, which incorporates foraged Donegal materials, originally as a way to aid her son, who had infant eczema. Hannah McGuiness is a designer who makes striking and colorful jewelry while also running a design collective and store called Donegal Designer Makers. And then there’s Ciaran Sweeney, a chef from Downings who enjoyed great success in Dublin, then came back home to cook at the Olde Glen Bar, sharing with diners some of his culinary memories from a childhood spent here, next to the sea, with a fisherman grandfather.
Though they are a diverse bunch, there are some common forces at work. Ireland has lurched from boom to bust and back again over the past 30 years. “There’s nothing like a recession to focus the mind,” said Mr. Campbell of Breac House. “It makes people think ‘If I really want to do this, I need to do it right now.’”
Natural inspiration
There is also the inspiration of the land, with its craggy coastlines, broad sandy beaches, gray stone mountains and colorful wildflowers, moss and seaweed. From Breac House’s hillside vista nearly all these elements are visible: To the far left is Dunfanaghy’s Killahoey Beach, which leads to a saltwater inlet that, at low tide, is crossed by horseback riders. Tracking right, after the town center, a small stone bridge connects Breac’s landmass, the Horn Head Peninsula, to the mainland. Finally, all the way southwest, steep dunes lead to Tramore Beach, accessible only by a mile-long hike. The colors and contrasts of the landscape are the obvious inspiration for the region’s most famous product, Donegal tweed.
“What’s distinctive about our tweed is that a more neutral base color is decorated with small flecks of bright colors,” said Kieran Molloy, 37, who, along with his father, runs Molloy & Sons, a tweed-maker in Ardara. “Traditionally these bright colors were made from natural dyes that came from flowers, moss, seaweed and berries that were found here.”
Mr. Molloy studied industrial design in Dublin at the National College of Art and Design, one of the country’s most prestigious design schools, worked in the big city, then lost his job in 2009, when the recession hit hard. His mother had always threatened, “If you don’t go to college, you’ll be stuck out in the shed, weaving like your father.” And, indeed, Mr. Molloy, though college-educated, found himself home anyway and stuck out in the shed. So he and his father joined forces, spun off their own business from the larger family enterprise, and created tweeds that are lighter, brighter and made for today’s consumers, not designed for an era before central heating. They now export their fabric all over the world.
Tony Davidson, 38, worked as a chef in fine restaurants in Belfast for four years. He and his Swedish partner, Lina Reppert, 36, who managed restaurants in Belfast, always dreamed of opening a small place of their own in Donegal. On a visit to Mr. Davidson’s family’s vacation home here a few years ago, they saw a tiny building, part of a pub, that was empty and had a great view of the horseshoe-shaped beach at Downings. After Tony hosted a successful seafood pop-up there, he convinced the owner to rent them the space.
When they opened Fisk Seafood Bar, a local friend said to Mr. Davidson, “You’re only selling fish? Are you out of your mind?” He didn’t mean it as a joke. For years Ireland sent most of its best seafood abroad.
But with places like Fisk cooking direct, delicious, creative food using Donegal’s bounty, all that is starting to change. “We have some of the best crabs in Europe just down the road,” said Mr. Davidson. “We have a guy who dives for amazing scallops and collects them by hand. We have great mussels, oysters and all kinds of fish. People abroad have been buying our products for years, but locals are just starting to rediscover what’s right here, all around them.”
Local touches
Breac House is a kind of living museum of this kind of local food, craft and design. They’ve hosted pop-ups helmed by Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Davidson and other Irish chefs. Their soap comes from Isobel Sangha’s company. Their tweed blankets and couch coverings are handwoven by Eddie Dougherty, one of the last hand-weavers of tweed left in the region — and the world.
Beyond these more obvious local touches, there are also subtle design choices almost impossible to perceive by visitors, but important to Ms. Burke and Mr. Campbell, who live on the premises. Though one facade of their building is thoroughly modern, the proportions of their doors and windows on the entry side are based on a historical longhouse design. Their two-person, wood-fired sauna, which appears modern, sleek and Scandinavian, shares all the defining elements of a traditional Irish sweathouse: a window with a view of the land, a living grass roof and a dark interior.
Though all four guest rooms at Breac House share a subtle and attractive aesthetic, with tan wood, clean lines and comfortable furnishings, it’s the expansive bay, mountain and farmland views from the hillside perch, framed by floor-to-ceiling windows, that dominate the design. There is a small, wooden bench at the window, from which to sit and gaze outside, as well as a terrace attached to each room. (Rooms rent for 355 euros a night, or about $389, breakfast included.) A special two-way compartment allows breakfast to be delivered without opening the door.
These details point to something significant about Breac House: Unlike most businesses the world over, Ms. Burke and Mr. Campbell didn’t design the hotel with a particular demographic or ideal customer in mind. They said they simply built what they thought would be great, and let the customers come if they would.
Mr. Campbell’s hand-drawn map guided me around the peninsula on my morning runs and afternoon bike rides. Ms. Burke’s homemade breakfasts, which include bread she bakes, yogurt she ferments, honey she buys from a beekeeper across the way, and goose eggs from a farmer down the road, are her personal ideal of what guests ought to eat.
During pandemic-induced downtime, Mr. Campbell and Ms. Burke added a fourth room to the hotel, which they believe is the biggest they can become while still staying true to their ideal of a hotel run completely hands-on, by them. They have also added multiday chef-driven experiences to replace the one-night pop-up dinners they previously hosted. Breac House visitors can now meet guest chefs not just for a few words after dinner, but over the course of three days, visiting nearby farms together, eating meals and sharing drinks. (The cost for two nights lodging and breakfast, as well as two dinners and excursions, is 2,950 euros for two.)
One dinner I had, cooked by the chef Cuan Greene, 30, who worked at Noma and was later head chef at a renowned Dublin restaurant, Bastable, focused on local products like oysters, turbot, ramson and rhubarb.
Breac House’s success, so evident at this meal, presents a perhaps unsolvable dilemma: How to provide this level of engagement and intimacy to the many more guests who want it, without compromising the essence of what a place like Breac House has created.
But, said Mr. Campbell, “After two years of Covid shutdowns and interruptions, there are much worse problems we can imagine.”
Large wildfires burning across the islands of Maui and Hawaii, fueled by intense winds, turned scenic beach destinations into smoky, catastrophic scenes on Wednesday. The fast-moving flames have scorched hundreds of acres, destroyed homes and businesses, and prompted a series of evacuation orders, road closures, and power and cellphone service outages. At least six people have died.
The fires are most intense along the western coast of Maui, according to local news reports, with the historic town center of Lahaina severely damaged.
Declaring a state of emergency in all counties, the Hawaiian state government has asked travelers to leave West Maui as soon as possible and is discouraging travel to the affected areas.
Here’s what travelers need to know.
Where are the fires?
According to the local news outlet Hawaii News Now, at least three wildfires are burning on Maui, including one in Lahaina, a major tourist destination on Maui, and the upcountry section of the island. There are at least three blazes on the Big Island, in North Kohala and South Kohala, which includes the Mauna Kea beach area, according to Big Island Now.
Can you fly to Maui and the Big Island?
Nonessential air travel is being discouraged by the Hawaiian authorities. Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke issued two emergency proclamations authorizing several actions, including activating the National Guard.
All travelers should monitor their flight status online or using the airline’s app before departing for the airport.
As of early Wednesday morning local time, Kahului Airport on Maui remains open and was sheltering about 1,800 travelers, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said. On Wednesday, most flights were operating as scheduled, according to FlightAware, an aviation tracking site, but some carriers are reporting inbound cancellations and delays. The two airports on the Big Island, Hilo International Airport and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport, also remain open.
United Airlines, according to Josh Freed, a company spokesman, canceled all reservations on its inbound flights to Kahului Airport, “so our planes can fly empty to Maui and be used as passenger flights back to the mainland.”
“Our teams are monitoring the situation closely and adjusting our schedule so we can keep serving our customers under difficult conditions,” he wrote in an email. United is offering refunds for passengers who want to cancel their flights.
American Airlines has also canceled reservations on inbound flights to Kahului Airport, said Curtis Blessing, a company spokesman. The carrier is rebooking passengers at no charge, as long as certain conditions are met.
Other major carriers were operating their scheduled flights but are offering a variety of options to affected travelers who want to revise their plans.
Passengers on Hawaiian Airlines can change their flight plans or get refunds, said Marissa Villegas, a company spokeswoman. The airline operates more than 80 flights daily in and out of Maui. It is also offering special $19 fares from Maui for urgent travel needs.
Southwest Airlines operates at least 90 daily flights in Hawaii, 60 of them within the state. Those who booked with Southwest traveling from or to Maui on Wednesday or Thursday can rebook at no charge, but refunds are available only if your flight is canceled by the airline.
Travelers who booked with Alaska Airlines can change their flights but must travel before Aug. 31. According to a company spokesperson, the eight daily flights to Maui are operating, some with delays.
What’s the latest with travel on and between the islands?
The Hawaii Department of Transportation is providing timely information on road conditions, highway closures and airport status updates through social media. All nonessential travel to Maui is discouraged, the department said.
Hawaiian Airlines has added six more flights on Wednesday between Honolulu and Kahului.
Those flying between islands should monitor their flight status on their carrier’s app or website and be aware that changes may come unexpectedly.
Numerous road closures were announced for both Maui and the Big Island, according to The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, with the Honoapiilani Highway on the west coast of Maui remaining open to outbound traffic only.
Can I get a refund from my hotel or short-term rental?
The Hyatt, along with several other major resorts in the area, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Most of the major hotel chains have already instituted more flexible cancellation policies because of the pandemic, but Marriott, Hilton and others did not respond to requests for comment on their specific policies related to the wildfires.
For those travelers who booked accommodations with Airbnb, the company has activated its “extenuating circumstances policy” for parts of Maui. Eligible guests with reservations will receive a full refund, and both hosts and guests can cancel bookings penalty-free, the company said on Wednesday.
According to Vrbo, wildfires and other natural disasters do not override typical cancellation policies. However, for bookings on Maui and parts of the Big Island between Aug. 9 and 16, the company said, “Vrbo has already waived host penalties for cancellations, which means hosts can cancel and refund their guests without worrying about how it will affect their listing performance in future guest’s searches.”
Vrbo recommends that guests reach out to the hosts of their bookings for more information, as well as their travel insurance provider if they bought trip protection.
Would travel insurance help?
Most travel insurance policies have trip cancellation coverage for natural disasters, but it’s important to read the fine print of your policy to see if wildfires are covered under the reasons for trip cancellation or interruption.
In most cases, travelers will have coverage if their destination is made uninhabitable or if they are forced to evacuate with at least 50 percent of their trip remaining, according to Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison site. If a hotel or holiday rental cancels your reservation before your arrival because of damage caused by a wildfire, most travel insurance plans provide coverage.
Policies with “cancel for any reason” coverage do not require travelers to state a reason for their cancellation, but some travel insurers apply restrictions to the benefit. For most policies that include coverage for wildfires, the policy must be purchased before the event occurs.
At least six people have died as a result of the fires that are continuing to ravage parts of Maui, the island’s mayor, Richard Bissen Jr., said at a Wednesday morning news conference.
“I’m sad to report that just before coming on this, it was confirmed we’ve had six fatalities,” he said. “We are still in a search and rescue mode.” He did not offer further details about the deaths.
More than a dozen people had to be rescued from the ocean, among them two young children, officials in Maui County said.
Several people are also unaccounted for, Bissen added.
“As a result of three fires that have occurred that are continuing here on our island we have had 13 evacuations from different neighborhoods and towns, we’ve had 16 road closures, we’ve opened five shelters,” Bissen said, noting more than 2,000 people were staying at shelters.
“We’ve had many dwellings – businesses, structures – that have been burned, many of them to the ground,” the mayor said, adding most were in the western town of Lahaina.
Bissen said helicopters that could not safely fly a day earlier due to high winds were in the sky Wednesday and using water drops to help suppress the flames. It will be impossible to estimate the extent of the damage until the blazes are put out, he added.
The flames have torched hundreds of acres and are still not contained.
“Local people have lost everything,” said James Kunane Tokioka, the state’s business, economic development and tourism director, at the news conference. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals and it’s devastating.”
Video footage shot by Air Maui Helicopter Tours over parts of the Lahaina area shows entire blocks were decimated by the flames, with little but ruins and ashes left, and everything still engulfed in a thick, hazy smoke.
“We were not prepared for what we saw. It was heartbreaking, it looked like an area that had been bombed in the war,” Richie Olsten, the director of operations for the tour agency, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday. “It’s just destroyed.”
“In my 52 years of flying on Maui, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Olsten added.
Hawaii’s governor, who was on a personal trip this week, said he was rushing back to the state Wednesday.
No cell service and hospitals inundated
The true scope of devastation on the idyllic Hawaiian island remains unknown.
That’s because the infernos have knocked out cell service, hindered emergency communications and trapped residents and tourists on the island, which is home to about 117,000.
The wildfires – fueled in part by Hurricane Dora churning some 800 miles away – have cut off 911 service and other communications in many parts of Maui.
“911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday.
“Our hospital system on Maui, they are overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation,” she said. “The reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support because Maui hospital cannot do extensive burn treatment.”
The disaster also has wiped out power to more than 12,000 homes and businesses in Maui, according to PowerOutage.us.
Tourists are being discouraged from going to Maui, Luke told reporters Wednesday.
“Today we signed another emergency proclamation which will discourage tourists from going to Maui,” she said. “Even as of this morning, planes were landing on Maui with tourists. This is not a safe place to be.”
In certain parts of the island, there are shelters that are overrun, Luke added: “We have resources that are being taxed.”
Hawaii isn’t the only US state grappling with devastating wildfires – a trend some experts had predicted for this season. Parts of Texas are under a critical fire risk Wednesday, a day after a brush fire engulfed an apartment building in the Austin area.
But the crisis unfolding in Maui is extraordinary, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor said.
“We never anticipated in this state that a hurricane which did not make impact on our islands, will cause this type of wildfires,” Luke told reporters at Wednesday’s news conference. “Wildfires that wiped out communities, wildfires that wiped out businesses, wildfires that destroyed homes.”
A harrowing escape to a rainforest
Alan Dickar just learned one of his rental properties went up in flames when he saw Lahaina, an economic hub, get swallowed by wildfire.
Flames shoot toward the sky Tuesday night at the intersection of Hokiokio Place and Lahaina Bypass in Maui, Hawaii. – Zeke Kalua/County of Maui
“Front Street exploded in flame,” Dickar told CNN Wednesday.
Dickar, who has lived in the area for 24 years, said there was little time to flee.
“I grabbed some people I saw on the street who didn’t seem to have a good plan. And I had told them, ‘Get your stuff, get in my truck,’” he said.
“And there’s only one road that leads out of Lahaina, so obviously it was backed up,” Dickar said. “I dropped everybody else off and then I went to a place in another part of Maui that’s far away. And as soon as I got there, that whole area had to evacuate because of a totally different fire. … Just as I arrived, that whole area got evacuated.”
Dickar eventually fled to a remote part of Maui. “I figured that was enough, and I’m safe here at least from a fire evacuation because it’s a rainforest,” he said.
Clint Hansen took drone video Tuesday night that showed wildfires spreading just north of Kihei.
Clint Hansen shot this footage of catastrophic blazes on the island of Maui. – Clint Hansen of Maui Real Estate Radio
“Lahaina has been devastated,” Hansen told CNN. “People jumping in the ocean to escape the flames, being rescued by the Coast Guard. All boat owners are being asked to rescue people. It’s apocalyptic.”
And it’s not clear where the disaster will head next.
Maui fire officials warned that erratic wind, challenging terrain, steep slopes and dropping humidity, plus the direction and the location of the fire conditions make it difficult to predict path and speed of a wildfire, according to Maui County officials.
“The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,” Maui County Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said. “Burning airborne materials can light fires a great distance away from the main body of fire.”
Lost communications and stranded tourists
State officials are working with hotels and a local airline to try to evacuate tourists to another island, Luke said. But severed communications have hindered efforts.
“Resorts and visitors and commercial districts have lost communication due to downed cell towers and landlines that only work within very local areas. “As a result, 911 service is currently down,” said Mahina Martin, chief communications officer from Maui Emergency Management Agency.
Maui County officials have not been able to communicate with many people on the west side – including those in the Lahaina area, Luke said.
Satellite phones have been the only reliable way to get in touch with some areas, including hotels, the lieutenant governor said.
The Kahului Airport was sheltering about 1,800 travelers from “canceled flights and flight arrivals,” the Hawaii Department of Transportation posted on social media.
Members of a Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources wildland firefighting crew battle a fire Tuesday in Kula, Hawaii. – Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP
Members of the Hawaii National Guard are assisting with the calamity in Maui – with more on the way.
“Hawaii National Guardsmen have been activated and are currently on Maui assisting Maui Police Department at traffic control points,” Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, Hawaii’s adjutant general, posted on Facebook.
The overnight deployment was hastened by the dynamic fire conditions, Hara wrote, adding more National Guard personnel would arrive in the counties of Maui and Hawaii later Wednesday.
Hurricane Dora’s impact on the wildfires
Dora, a powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph, was about 795 miles southwest of Honolulu as of Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
Smoke rises from a wildfire Tuesday in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. – courtesy Sam Posthuma
As Dora travels south of the islands, a strong high-pressure system remains in place to the north. The area of high pressure in combination with Dora is producing “very strong and damaging winds,” the National Weather Service said.
Winds as high as 60 mph are expected through the overnight in Hawaii, then will begin to diminish through the day on Wednesday.
“These strong winds coupled with low humidity levels are producing dangerous fire weather conditions that will last through Wednesday afternoon,” the weather service said.
By Wednesday afternoon, the area of high pressure, as well as Dora, will both drift westward, allowing the winds to subside.
Two brushfires were burning Tuesday on the Big Island, officials said in a news release, one in the North Kohala District and the other in the South Kohala District. Some residents were under mandatory evacuation orders as power outages were impacting communications, the release said.
Plumes of smoke billow Tuesday from a fire in Lahaina, Maui County. – Jayson Duque
CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Derek Van Dam, Robert Shackelford, Aya Elamroussi, Kara Nelson, Cheri Mossburg, Jennifer Gray, Eli Masket, Ross Levitt and Kelly McCleary contributed to this report.
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