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6 of 20 largest California wildfires were in 2020

11 September 2020
 Dan Ackermann
Heather Marshall stands by the destruction of her home at Coleman Creek Estates mobile home park in Phoenix, Ore., yesterday. Photo: Paula Bronstein

Six of the 20 largest wildfires in modern California history have been this year, the N.Y. Times reports (subscription) in "A Climate Reckoning in Fire-Stricken California."

What they're saying: "It's really shocking to see the number of fast-moving, extremely large and destructive fires simultaneously burning," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, told The Times.

  • "I've spoken to maybe two dozen fire and climate experts over the last 48 hours and pretty much everyone is at a loss of words. There’s certainly been nothing in living memory on this scale."

The context: We can never remind you of this often enough: 18 of the warmest 19 years have occurred since 2001, according to NASA.

  • We just experienced the warmest decade ever.

The latest: 500,000 Oregonians — more than 10 percent of the state's 4.2 million people — have been told to evacuate as flames encroach, AP reports.

  • More than 1,400 square miles have burned in Oregon this week.
  • In Washington state, wildfires have scorched 937 square miles.
  • In a Northern California wildfire, 10 people are confirmed dead, as searchers look for 16 missing people.

Go deeper:Climate change affects what types of trees can be established after fires.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.