HONOLULU (AP) — Communities still recovering from last weekend’s hurricane in Hawaii could get pounded again in coming days from another tropical system gaining strength over warm Pacific waters.
Hurricane Lala tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, covered roads in mud and rock and left many households without electricity. With thousands of homes and businesses still in the dark Thursday, forecasters warned another tropical cyclone is likely to form southeast of the islands soon.
A depression moving west and northwest could become a tropical storm later Thursday and pass near or south of Hawaii's Big Island over the weekend, according to the U.S. Central Pacific Hurricane Center. That system could dump up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain across the Big Island and trigger life-threatening flooding, mudslides and rip currents, the hurricane center added.
Forecasters said the disturbance was located about 960 miles (1,545 kilometers) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. But while it is expected to continue strengthening into the weekend, it was still too soon to forecast its exact path or the magnitude of its impacts.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other state officials planned a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss preparations for the approaching system as well as ongoing recovery efforts from Lala, which has been blamed for two deaths.
Residents found the body of a man in his 60s in a pasture Tuesday, a day after authorities recovered the body of May Doi, 93, whom neighbors said was trying to escape from floodwaters in her home. Doi was a beloved former kindergarten teacher who taught generations of residents in a small town on Hawaii’s Big Island.
“She taught grandkids of her students,” said ʻĀina Akamu, a former student of Doi who is now a vice principal at a local school. “She was a fixture in this community.''
Lala's heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), occurred on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said. Dozens of homes were washed from foundations, bridges were damaged and about 13,200 customers on the Big Island remained without power Thursday.
Efforts to restore power in the hard-hit areas of the Big Island could take at least two weeks, the Hawaiian Electric utility said.
Lala is the first major hurricane of 2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean. Now well west of Hawaii’s main islands, Lala had top sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) on Thursday and was spreading hurricane conditions across parts of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The first impacts were being felt between Lisianski Island and Maro Reef, authorities said.
Forecasters said Lala would continue to cross waters of the marine national monument for a few days and remain at hurricane strength through the weekend.
Even in that vast and remote area, people were seeking safety. A charter boat carrying a 16-member crew dedicated to removing marine plastics and abandoned fishing nets from the shores of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands got out of Lala’s projected path this week.
Kevin O’Brien, president of the nonprofit Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project, said the vessel left Lisianski Island on Monday and headed hundreds of miles (kilometers) out to sea.
“We were ready for it,” O’Brien said. “We keep on our toes out here during hurricane season.”
Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Lala on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Hawaii. (NOAA via AP)
Iran on Thursday dismissed threats by U.S. President Donald Trump of economic pain and isolation for the country, while the U.K. and other nations condemned Israel over a settlement project.
Doctors Without Borders criticized the decision by Israel's military not to investigate two fatal attacks on the medical humanitarian organization's staff, and in Gaza City, a mass funeral was held for 50 people killed in Israeli airstrikes nearly three years ago but whose remains were just recovered.
Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Thursday. Full coverage can be found here.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has rejected the economic threats made against his country, saying that such “failed policies” will stir more hostility among Iranians and “bring more failures.”
Araghchi's comments came a few hours after Trump threatened “crushing economic measures” against Iran. The U.S. president promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” but provided few details.
In a social media post, Araghchi maintained that the threats aim to divert the attention of the U.S. public from domestic financial problems, saying that U.S. “economic terrorism threatens the global economy and the national sovereignty of countries around the world.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Iran will face the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world."
In a CNBC interview, Bessent threatened secondary sanctions on nations and companies that conduct business with Iran, saying it's time for U.S. allies to make a decision on where they stand.
China's government and India are major buyers of Iranian oil, though Bessent didn't call them out by name.
Doctors Without Borders said that the decision by Israel's military not to open a criminal investigation into two strikes that killed four people shows the country won't take responsibility for attacking civilians.
The international aid group now wants an impartial investigation into the deaths, but didn't specify who should lead the effort.
Doctors Without Borders asked Israel's military to investigate an attack on a Gaza City convoy in November 2023 and a strike on the organization's shelter in Khan Younis in February 2024. Israel’s announcement on Wednesday said that it wouldn't launch criminal investigations into two cases, in which troops killed the organization's employees.
The decision by Israel's military shows “there is no prospect of accountability within the Israeli legal system for the killing of our staff, just as there has been no accountability for Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that cited 15 staff and 1,700 healthcare workers killed in Gaza since October 2023.
Israel denies accusations of genocide and war crimes and says it's targeting Hamas after the militant group's attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because it operates in populated areas in the tiny, overcrowded Gaza Strip.
Several countries condemned the latest development in a contentious Israeli settlement project near Jerusalem that would effectively cut the occupied West Bank in two.
Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing issued a tender for constructing several compounds with more than 1,200 homes in total in an open tract of land east of Jerusalem. It’s the latest step in a project under consideration for more than two decades, which critics say would prevent the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state in the territory.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband called the publication of the tender “an unacceptable and destructive act” and denounced “settler violence and terrorism.” In a statement released on Wednesday, he said that the British government “demanded an immediate reversal” and had summoned the Israeli chargé d’affaires.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned Israel’s move.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded on Thursday by defending “the historic right of the Jewish people to reestablish their national home in the Land of Israel — including in the area in question.” Saar criticized the U.K. government for “blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism.”
A mass funeral Thursday in Gaza City remembered 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the opening months of the Israel-Hamas war, but whose remains were only recently recovered from under rubble.
Dozens of mourners carried the remains, draped in Palestinian flags, through debris-strewn streets before lowering them into graves. Some held portraits and posters with photos of the deceased.
“We were able to recover them after three years of war, after three years of anguish, pain and torture. We were able to recover them, and dignify them in their final resting place. We were able to pray over them and bury them,” said Lina Karam, who lost her father and other members of her family.
The 50 bodies were from three families who were killed in airstrikes in November and December 2023.
The nearly three-year war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of the toll.
Turkey has denied that a Turkish military delegation had visited an air base in northern Syria that was hit by Israeli airstrikes, and vowed to continue supporting Syria in its efforts to rebuild its military.
The Israeli strikes targeted the Abu Duhur base early on Tuesday, causing damage but no casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had attacked the base because Syria was “on the verge of breaching” an agreed-upon “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.
Syrian officials have said that a Turkish delegation visited the base before the Israeli strike to review rehabilitation work underway there.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani arrived in Islamabad for talks expected to focus on regional issues, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The visit comes days after Israeli airstrikes targeted an air base in northern Syria, causing damage but no casualties.
Pakistan's officials say the country's political and military leadership remains in contact with both Iran and the United States over efforts to de-escalate tensions and push for the resumption of talks, after a 60-day deadline under a June memorandum of understanding expired. The agreement was brokered by Pakistan with help from regional countries.
The bodies of two Pakistanis killed in last week’s Houthi attack on a Tanzanian-flagged commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have been repatriated to Pakistan.
Six Pakistani sailors who were wounded in the attack have also safely returned to the country, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a post on X.
Mourners carry the flag-draped bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners carry the flag-draped bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners attend the funeral Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners carry the flag-draped bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
In this photo released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, shakes hands with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar before their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)
