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SAN FRANCISCO — Across ahellish landscape of smoke andash, authorities in Oregon, Cali-fornia and Washington battled tocontain mega-wildfires on Sundayas shifting winds threatened to ac-celerate blazes that have burnedan unimaginable swath of landacross the West.

The arrival of the strongerwinds on Sunday tested the re-solve of fire crews already ex-hausted by weeks of combatingblazes that have consumedaround five million acres of desic-cated forests, incinerated numer-ous communities and createdwhat in many places was meas-ured as the worst air quality on theplanet.

“There’s just so much fire,” saidRyan Walbrun, a fire weather me-teorologist with the NationalWeather Service. “And so muchsmoke.”

The fires, which have killed atleast 24 people in the last weekalone, have engulfed the region inanguish and fear, as fairgroundshave turned into refugee campsfor many who have been forcedfrom their homes. The chokingsmoke cast a dark pall over theskies and created a vision of cli-mate-change disaster that madeworst-case scenarios for the fu-ture a terrifying reality for thepresent.

“I drove 600 miles up and downthe state, and I never escaped thesmoke,” Senator Jeff Merkley,Democrat of Oregon, said Sundayon the television program “ThisWeek.” “We have thousands ofpeople who have lost their homes.I could have never envisionedthis.”

As the West burns there is con-sensus among scientists of therole that climate change is playingin the size and intensity of thefires.

“Fundamentally the science is

RELENTLESS BLAZEENGULFS THE WESTIN SMOKE AND FEAR

Winds Gain Strengthand Risks Increase

By THOMAS FULLERand JACK HEALY

Watching the out-of-controlBear Fire in Big Bend, Calif.

CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA FOR NYT

Continued on Page A17

WASHINGTON — When Presi-dent Trump flies to California onMonday to assess the state’s rag-ing forest fires, he will come faceto face with the grim conse-quences of a reality he has stub-bornly refused to accept: the dev-astating effects of a warmingplanet.

To the global scientific commu-nity, the acres of scorched earthand ash-filled skies across theAmerican West are the tragic, butpredictable, result of acceleratingclimate change. Nearly two yearsago, federal government scien-tists concluded that greenhousegas emissions from burning fossilfuels could triple the frequency ofsevere fires across the Western

states.But the president has used his

time in the nation’s highest officeto aggressively promote the burn-ing of fossil fuels, chiefly by rollingback or weakening every majorfederal policy intended to combatdangerous emissions. At the sametime, Mr. Trump and his senior en-vironmental officials have regu-larly mocked, denied or min-imized the established science ofhuman-caused climate change.

Now, as he battles for a secondterm in the White House, Mr.Trump has doubled down on hisanti-climate agenda as a way ofappealing to his core supporters.At a rally in Pennsylvania last

Trump, a Bold Climate Denier,Confronts a Charred California

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and CORAL DAVENPORT

Continued on Page A16

JERUSALEM — Since itsfounding, Israel has seen itself asa modern-day Sparta, a tinyfortress nation-state in a hostiledesert, whose survival dependedon its internal cohesion and sheermilitary strength.

All around it were Arab andMuslim enemies who denouncedthe Jewish state as a colonizing in-terloper, an outpost of foreign in-truders who were bound to beevicted, sooner or later, like alltheir predecessors back to theCrusaders.

But Israel’s back-to-back agree-ments to normalize ties with theUnited Arab Emirates andBahrain, to be marked in a signingceremony at the White House onTuesday — and the much-buzzed-about possibility that other Arabnations could follow suit — arecausing some Israelis to askwhether a deeper shift may, afteryears in the making, finally be un-derway in the Middle East.

Could their country at last begaining acceptance in the regionas a legitimate member of theneighborhood?

Formal diplomatic relationswill mean a great deal to Israel af-ter its long wait in isolation: theexchange of ambassadors, estab-lishment of direct flights, new des-tinations for tourists once travelbecomes possible again and thestart or acceleration of a host ofother commercial, cultural andscientific endeavors that untilnow could be conducted only inthe shadows.

But Dr. Yitshak Kreiss, directorgeneral of Sheba Medical Center,Israel’s largest hospital, and a for-mer military surgeon general,said that the biggest impact couldbe in changing the way ordinaryIsraelis think about their place inthe region.

Israelis SenseMideast Shift

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Continued on Page A13

New York City’s largest policeunion had not endorsed a candi-date for president in decadeswhen its leader, Patrick J. Lynch,stepped to the lectern last monthat President Trump’s golf club inNew Jersey.

“Mr. President, we are fightingfor our lives out there,” Mr. Lynchsaid, in the all-caps cadence famil-iar to any casual viewer of theNew York nightly news. “We don’twant this to spread to the rest ofthe country. We need your strongvoice across the country.”

Mr. Lynch said his union, thePolice Benevolent Association,was endorsing Mr. Trump be-cause city and state leaders hadbeen relentlessly scapegoatinghard-working police officers and

allowing chaos to reign on thestreets.

But another factor that mayhave played into the P.B.A.’s en-dorsement could be seen in theimagery surrounding him: Join-ing Mr. Lynch before a sea ofmostly white union memberswere three of his top colleagues,each of them a white Republicanfrom conservative strongholds inStaten Island or Long Island.

The tableau of the four unionleaders standing together withMr. Trump reflected a larger truth

about the upper ranks of the city’spolice unions: Even as the PoliceDepartment has become more di-verse and is now less than halfwhite, the unions continue to berun mostly by white conserva-tives who live in the suburbs andincreasingly echo the president’sviews.

Nearly 90 percent of the policeunions’ leaders — officers,trustees, financial secretaries —are white and even more are men,according to an analysis of publicrecords by The New York Times.Close to 70 percent are registeredRepublicans and more than 60percent live on Long Island or incounties north of New York City,the analysis found.

The demographic gap helps ex-plain the political spectacle andcultural gulf on display in recent

How New York’s Police Unions Embraced TrumpBy ALAN FEUER Leadership That Does

Not Reflect Diversityof Lower Ranks

Continued on Page A18

MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Thousands are stranded in Lesbos, Greece, after fire razed their squalid refugee camp. Page A10.Living in Misery and Afraid of the Future

The morning after the worldlearned that a closely watchedclinical trial of a coronavirus vac-cine had been halted last weekover safety concerns, the compa-ny’s chief executive disclosed thata person given the vaccine had ex-perienced serious neurological

symptoms.But the remarks weren’t public.

Instead, the chief executive, Pas-cal Soriot of AstraZeneca, spoke ata closed meeting organized by J.P.Morgan, the investment bank.

AstraZeneca said on Saturdaythat an outside panel had clearedits trial in Britain to begin again,but the company still has not giv-en any details about the patient’s

medical condition, nor has it re-leased a transcript of Mr. Soriot’sremarks to investors, which werereported by the news outlet STATand later confirmed by an analystfor J.P. Morgan.

Another front-runner in thevaccine race, Pfizer, made a simi-larly terse announcement on Sat-urday: The company is proposingto expand its clinical trial to in-

clude thousands more partici-pants, but it gave few other detailsabout its plan, including how itwould determine the effective-ness of the vaccine in its largerstudy.

It’s standard for drug compa-nies to withhold details of clinicaltrials until after they are com-pleted, tenaciously guarding their

Scientists Urge Transparency on Vaccines to Increase Public TrustBy KATIE THOMAS

Continued on Page A8

Ash fell from an apocalyptic or-ange sky as Jennifer Willin drovehome last week from the onlyschool in tiny Berry Creek, Calif.,where she had picked up a pair ofWi-Fi hot spots for her daughters’remote classes. Hours later, hercellphone erupted with an emer-gency alert: Evacuate immedi-ately.

By the next morning, what oneofficial described as a “massivewall of fire” had swept through theentire Northern California town ofabout 1,200 people, killing nineresidents, including a 16-year-oldboy, and destroying the school andalmost every home and business.

Ms. Willin and her family es-caped to a cramped hotel room 60miles away. In her panic, she hadforgotten to grab masks, but shehad the hot spots, along with herdaughters’ laptops and schoolbooks. On Monday, the two girlsplan to meet with their teacherson Zoom, seeking some comfortamid the chaos.

“They’re still able to be inschool,” Ms. Willin said, “eventhough the school burned to theground.”

As the worst wildfire season indecades scorches the West amid astill raging pandemic, familiesand educators who were alreadystarting the strangest and mostchallenging school year of theirlifetimes have been traumatizedall over again. Tens of thousandsof people have been forced to fleetheir homes, with some mourningthe loss of their entire communi-ties.

But amid the twin disasters, theremote learning preparations thatschools made for the coronavirusare providing a strange modicumof stability for teachers and stu-dents, letting many stay con-nected and take comfort in an un-expected form of virtual commu-nity.

“The pandemic has actuallyhelped,” said Patsy Oxford, theprincipal of Berry Creek Elemen-tary.

Schools in other towns mostdamaged by the fires appear tohave survived the flames, but asin Berry Creek, their studentshave been scarred and scattered.The fires prompted some WestCoast schools to delay or cancelclasses, and educators acrossparts of California, Washingtonand Oregon have spent recentdays tracking down students tocheck on their safety.

Some schools have continuedteaching remotely or are prepar-

Schools Adapt Plansfor a Second Crisis

By DAN LEVINand KATE TAYLOR

Wildfires in California destroyed Berry Creek Elementary School last week, but students were already equipped for remote learning.MAX WHITTAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

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A campaign using posters to condemndomestic violence has become a ubiqui-tous tool to raise awareness. PAGE A12

INTERNATIONAL A10-13

Stark Messages Covering Paris

Some N.F.L. players raised fists for thenational anthem, while some teamsstayed in their locker rooms. PAGE D1

Nods to Unrest Take the Field

A New Jersey-based musician lost hisposition after a pig emoji he posted onsocial media was mischaracterized asinsulting to the Chinese people. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

A Violinist at Odds With China

Fever checks are becoming de rigueurin many workplaces and restaurants,even though federal health officials saythey are of limited value. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-9

Cold Comfort at the DoorWhen borders closed, seafarers onships around the world suddenly had noway home. Half a year later, there’s nosolution in sight. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Exhausted and Trapped at Sea

The state was a near miss for DonaldTrump in 2016. New polling shows himwell behind this time around. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A14-18

Trump’s Minnesota Hopes Dim

Florence Howe created a literary non-profit dedicated to promoting socialjustice and amplifying overlookedvoices. She was 91. PAGE A20

OBITUARIES A20-21

‘Mother of Women’s Studies’

Charles M. Blow PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

Delays, discrepancies and abrupt leapsin coronavirus case counts have baffledresidents and sown distrust. PAGE A8

Conflicting Virus Data in Texas

Female workers remain shut out ofmanagement jobs, despite the govern-ment’s promise of change. PAGE A13

Battling Glass Ceilings in Japan

Dominic Thiem rallied to defeat Alexan-der Zverev in a fifth-set tiebreaker inthe U.S. Open men’s final. PAGE D1

SPORTS D1-8

Grand Slam Title for Thiem

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,816 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Today, mostly sunny skies, lower hu-midity, high 78. Tonight, cool, clearskies, low 54. Tomorrow, plenty ofsunshine, mild weather, high 70.Weather map appears on Page D8.

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