Hurricane Iota pummels Nicaragua as Category 5 storm
17 November 2020
Hurricane Iota was slamming Nicaragua as a Category 5 storm Monday night, per the National Hurricane Center.
Why it matters: The first Category 5 hurricane of this year's record-setting Atlantic hurricane season was bringing "catastrophic winds life-threatening storm surge, and torrential rainfall" over Central America, as the Western Eyewall of the storm moved over Nicaragua, the NHC said.
- It comes less than a week after the Category 4 Hurricane Eta damaged the area and forced over 30,000 people to evacuate. Much of Central America is still reeling from the damage caused by Eta.
- Hurricane warnings were in effect for Nicaragua's coast, from the border with Honduras to Sandy Bay Sirpi and for the coast of northeastern Honduras, from Punta Patuca to the border with Nicaragua.
The big picture: Iota is the 13th hurricane of the 2020 hurricane season. More Atlantic storms could see similar rapid expansion as seas warm because of climate change, the Washington Post notes. Typical seasons produce five or six named hurricanes.
A closeup look at the eye of Hurricane Iota and the lightning within the eyewall detected by the #GOES16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper. https://t.co/6yYTZjRSae
— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) November 17, 2020
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly 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.