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Rain threatens to wash over Camp Fire victims in Northern California; an estimated 85,000 children have starved to death in Yemen.
Note: Sentences is taking a Thanksgiving break starting Thursday — we will return with the top news of the day on Monday, November 26.
It’s raining in Paradise
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- The Camp Fire has torched more than 150,000 acres of land in Northern California. Now a series of storms is set to wash over the area through Friday, partly relieving firefighters of their strenuous duty but also threatening residents with dangerous mudslides and flash floods. [CNN / Nicole Chavez]
- What’s more, officials fear the floods may cover or displace the remains of the fire’s victims. So far, search teams have discovered 81 bodies; some 870 are still missing. [LA Times / Ruben Vives, Corina Knoll, and Alene Tchekmedyian]
- The Camp Fire has killed more people than the three previous worst fires combined (the Tubbs Fire in 2017 was the most recent one). And it’s destroyed nearly 17,150 structures, more than the six previous worst fires combined. [USA Today / Jim Sergent, George Petras, Karl Gelles, and John Bacon]
- Despite the grave destruction, the California fires didn’t dominate cable news the way Hurricane Michael or other such natural disasters did earlier this fall. The Washington Post’s Philip Bump attributes this to a series of factors, including the lack of forecasting, the single-state scale, and, of course, reporting bias. [Washington Post / Philip Bump]
- Plumes of smoke from the fire have traveled more than 3,000 miles toward the East Coast. Photos of New York City on Monday confirmed that the smoke was visible. [CNN / A.J. Willingham]
- Firefighters have been on heavy duty since the Camp Fire broke out in Butte County on November 8. The National Fire Interagency Center estimates that the cost to fight it has reached $82.2 million. [Record Searchlight / Jim Schultz]
Yemen’s famine has cost tens of thousands of children’s lives
- Some 85,000 children under the age of 5 are said to have died from starvation in Yemen in the past three years during the massive humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s poorest nation. [Al Jazeera]
- According to information gathered by Save the Children, an NGO that promotes children’s rights, an estimated 400,000 more children are likely to suffer from malnutrition in 2018, more than the previous year. [CNN / Kara Fox]
- The United Nations warned last month that 13 million people — nearly half of the country’s population — are at risk of dying from starvation by early 2019 due to the ongoing civil war. What’s more, upward of 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions more have been displaced to other countries. [BBC]
- As recently as Monday, though, Islamic Houthi rebels said they’re ready for a ceasefire, and that they will stop firing rockets into Saudi Arabia in an effort to finally enter peace talks. The Saudis, who back the Yemeni government, have taken over the main port, blocking food from coming in. [AP / Ahmed Al-Haj and Brian Rohan]
Miscellaneous
- Glamour magazine, which has been publishing since 1939, is the latest in a string of titles to disappear from newsstands and continue as a web-only presence. [Variety / Todd Spangler]
- Without Toys R Us around this year, Walmart, Amazon, and Target are dominating the toy market in the days leading up to Thanksgiving and Black Friday. [CNN / Nathaniel Meyersohn]
- If you’re still flipping through cookbooks searching for Thanksgiving dinner ideas, look no further. A recipe for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos turkey is making the rounds on the internet, and is sure to ... spice up your meal. [USA Today / Rasha Ali]
- Speaking of turkeys, the White House has selected two candidates to pardon. Their names: Peas and Carrots. [Politico / Matthew Choi]
Verbatim
“Sorry for drawing focus...” [Larry, the 10 Downing Street cat and Chief Mouser in the British cabinet, briefly grabbed the attention of a Sky News crew member as a police officer helped him get inside the building / Twitter]
Watch this: Why your Netflix thumbnails don’t look like mine
A thumbnail is worth a thousand words. [YouTube / Gina Barton]
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