Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. Thats fidelity wealth management. The william and flora hewlett foundation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. At www. Hewlett. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Nawaz california tonight is home to a recordshattering heat wave, and about two dozen wildfires currently burning across the state. Nearly 15,000 firefighters are battling steep terrain and tinder dry conditions, as they fight to control the raging infernos. Temporarily closed forest in central and southern regions of the state beuse of the fire risk. More than 2 million acres already scorched this year in california. Recordbreaking swaths of recordbreaking swaths of land, burning under recordbreaking temperatures. Governor gavin newsom last night declared a state of emergency in five counties, as some 20 fire conglomerates smolder across the state. The largest fire alone, fresnos creek fire, has burned over 73,000 acres. A caravan of Labor Day Weekend campers were surrounded by flames, and forced to flee to a nearby lake. Sisters katelyn and mckenzie meek escaped the fires path. One minute youre just sitting in that camp, and the next youre driving through flames to save everything. Nawaz backpacker juliana park documented her drive out of Sierra National forest, the road lined with flames. Rescue teams deployed to fresno, have already airlifted out more than 200 trapped campers. The crews were absolutely ecstatic when they came off the helicopters. Nawaz colonel david hall, of the California ArmyNational Guard all of the individuals that they rescued were greeting the crew members with hugs as they were boarding onto the helicopter and then as they were getting off the helicopter aot of high fives. Nawaz several fires still burn completely uncontained, and state excessive heat warnings are in effect until tonight. Officials warn, the worst may be yet to come. Nawaz temperatures in Los Angeles County reached a record high of 121 degrees yesterday. While its cooler there today, temperatures inland are expected to top 100. For a closer look at whats behind that heat wave and whats fueling these fires, im joined by leah stokes, shes a professor and researcher on climate, energy and political policy at the university of california, Santa Barbara. She joins us this holiday from ontario, canada. Leah stokes, welcome to the newshour. Lets start with that warning, why is it that authorities believe that this fire season could get even worse soon . Well, unfortunately, Climate Change is hopping right now in california, and weve been lengthening the fire season quite considerably as we warm up the planet. In california, our fire season is now two and a half months longer than it used to be, which means that people are at risk all the time, and, as you mentioned, were seeing record heat waves not just in Los Angeles County but also in Santa Barbara county, san la san labisbo county and that is increasing risk of fires. Nawaz we should mention some of the activities that spark the fire are related to human behavior. One fire w was starred by a gender reveal party in which someone used a smoke machine that parked a fire. So explain that connection to us. It is true we make decisions in our daily lives such as people who decided to have the gender reveal party, but, you know, it becomes so much more risky to actually have that spark light a fire under Climate Change. So we know because of research from scientists that we have 500 more risk for wildfires during this Climate Changed world than we would have before, and thats because its really hot and dry, because we have had droughts, and because the drought caused by Climate Change led to a lot of vegetation dying, meaning a lot of brush is lying around that could easily light up, and a little spark from a gender reveal party or whatever it is can end up being a massive inferno very quickly. So people need to be careful and held accountable when they light fires, but the fact is Climate Change is the real cprit behind that were seeing right now. Nawaz we should mention californias fire record goes back to 1932, but the ten biggest fires have all happened after 2000. Should we expect that trend to continue . Ever unfortunately, we should. Ive only lived in california five years and ive already been evacuated from my home for weeks on end and what scientists are telling us is that we are end enter ago period of mega fires where the scale of burning is beyond what weve seen before. As you mentioned, were seeing really large fires and there isnt my reason to believe that will stop because we are not taking the Climate Crisis seriously and we are not reducing fossil fuel emissions around the world. So california is really the canary in the coal mine here and we need to be waking up and just as the bird was dying from coal, we, too, are dying from burning coal, oil and fossil gas. Nawaz were amid fire season now. Are there steps residents and state and local authorities can take to mitigate the damage this season and to prepare for next year is this. Absolutely, our firefighters and our cities are doing the best they can. Tha they do all kinds of things like suggest residents make small retrofits to their homes to reduce fire risk. They do fuel breaks which are sometimes controversial for good reason. So people are trying. The big solution is taking on the Climate Crisis, and that means that we need new leadership, particularly in washington, we need somebody who actually believes that Climate Change is real and, unfortunately, we dont have that right now. Nawaz leah stokes from the university of california intasha barra, thanks for joining us tonight. Thanks for having me on. Nawaz in the days other news, hopes are fading for another round of pandemic relief funding, as Congress Returns to work tomorrow. Prident trump today accused democratic leadership of not wanting to make a deal, and said he would not meet with them. Meanwhile, in geneva, the World Health Organization warned against governments politicizing the virus. If communities perceive that theyre getting information that is being politically manipulated or that its been managed in a way that is distorting evidence, then unfortunately that comes back to roost. That comes back at a government politically at a later stage. I think that has been the case around the world. Nawaz also today, india surpassed brazil to become the country with the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, more than 4. 2 million. The u. S. Still leads the worldwide count with more than six million confirmed infections. In saudi arabia, eight people were sentenced to prison for their roles in the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. Three were given sentences between seven and 10 years. Five were sentenced to 20 years, after khashoggis family agreed to spare them from execution. Khashoggi was killed in 2018 at the saudi consulate in istanbul, turkey. A United Nations investigator criticized the trial, which did not find any senior saudi officials guilty. In belarus, two members of an opposition council, calling for a transfer of power, have gone missing, as well as a leading opposition activist. Maria kolesnikova was reportedly kidnapped off the street in minsk, by masked individuals, and driven away in a minibus. Their colleagues fear its part of a government crackdown after weeks of protests, including a massive rally on sunday in the capital, all in response to last months disputed election. Doctors in germany today said russian Opposition LeaderAlexei Navalny has been taken out of an induced coma and is now responsive. He fell ill last month after being poisoned, and was airlifted to a hospital in berlin. German authorities said he tested positive for the soviet era nerve agent novichok. Russia has denied any involvement. And, the u. S. Navy continued to search today for an american sailor who went missing from one of its aircraft carriers. U. S. S. Nimitz was patrolling the northern arabian sea sunday evening when crew members sounded a man overboard alert after being unable to find the sailor aboard. The sailor has yet to be identified. Still to come on the newshour how the patchwork of covid19 testing in the us continues to fall short. The race for the white house hits the final phase after labor day. A grandfather and grandson on different sides of the political divide. Plus much more. Nawaz as the summer comes to a close, and fall begins, experts worry flu season could further complicate the pandemic response. In the u. S. Today, there are about 830 covid19 deaths a day, and nearly 20,000 more cases per day than when the memorial day weekend started. Since then, the overall death toll has grown by nearly 85,000. Testing has improved, but problems with access and delays continue. Dr. Atul gawande, of brigham and Womens Hospital, examines our countrytesting system in his new piece for the new yorker, and he offers a plan for how he says it can be fixed. Dr. Gawande, welcome back to the newshour. You deliver a message a lot of people want to hear right now, which is that we can contr the pandemic soon before the flu season if we want to. And it will take a nationwide commitme, you say, and you focus in on one thing called assurance testing. You say that is crucial to making this happen. What is assurance testing . Well, what it is, is the kind of testing that you see that the n. B. A. Idoing. Its being able to screen people to say, are you safe to work with in environments where we cant wear our masks . We cant socially distance. Assurance testing is testing to assure that we can live together and Work Together. And thats gonna be an important part of what we have to be able to do. Nawaz so its really regular, a much more widespread testing than we have right now, because right now the process is you make an appointment. Sometimes you wait days for that and maybe have to pay the provider you wait days for the results. Theres problems at each step along the way. I want to ask you about start with how were testing. And right now there is sort of a patchwork of testing technology. Theres the nasal swabs we have all seen. Theres antigen tests. Theres these at home test collection kits hitting the market. Now, is that patchwork going to work if were going to get our arms around this very soon, as you say we can . Well, what is cool is that American Innovation is bringing a whole emporium of different kinds of capabilities to the table. And we have a lot of Laboratory Capacity that has grown up. But it is so much of it is untapped. Its not being delivered to the places that we need. So i think the technology is great, but we dont have a technology problem. We have an implementation problem. I name a number of labs that would double the amount of capacity we have today for just making sure that, you know, forget being able to test whether everybody is safe for working together. We cant even test people to make sure that the sick people are getting tested in a consistent, timely and easy way. And thats the dysfunction of our Health System and our implementation system. We can there is enough capacity. We can bring it to the people who need it and we can make it work. But it depends on understanding that this is the problem we have to tackle. And then we have to want to we need our leaders to want to take that on. Nawaz you mentioned the labs and the processing of those tests. That is a major choke point in the process right now. Theres basically four big commercial labs that kind of dominate all of this. Quest diagnostics lab, core bio reference laboratories and sonic healthcare. You mentioned there are a bunch of available labs that arent brought online as part of this process. How does that happen . The majority of u. S. Testing is by a very small number of labs that have not just the Laboratory Capacity, they have the logistics. They can they can do the billing in our crazy system that has different people paying for different this insurer and that insurer, medicaid, paying for each part of it. They can do the make sure that theres the right barcodes on the samples. They have the software systems, but there are dozens, really hundreds of labs that have capacity that would be willing to bring that to bear. You know, think about it. Korea, in the first week of approving capacity for labs, had 47 labs online. We have three or four National Labs that are the dominant source of u. S. Testing. When we actually have scores to hundreds that are ready to bring it, bring that capacity forward. And the problem is that, again, its not technology. You have to make sure that all of the connection points are there. Its basic Public Health match the need to the capacity thats there and create the interlinks between them. Weve had a few places that have done that for the most part, that weve not taken that on nationally. Nawaz you mentioned insurance, which has also been a major source of confusion for a lot of americans because most people arent clear on whether or not they should be paying or have to pay to get tested in the first place without completely revamping the insurance system. How doeshat part of this get solved quickly . Well, ill get ill point to the example of San Francisco. San francisco was one of the first hit, and then they stood up a Rapid Testing capacity. They opened nine sites that were ones where the city would pay for it. They didnt try to do all the complex and very expensive billing process. They negotiated lower prices. They made sure that they were able to get great service. And they got, you know, turnaround times that were on average overnight results back. And the result was that two thirds of all the testing in the city ended up coming through this public option. And its been a key to the fact that San Francisco has had some of the lowest rates of transmission across the United States and consistently have been able to keep it that way. Nawaz dr. Gawande i mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, the message is one, a lot of people need to hear that there is a way to get our arms around this a not have the flu season make the pandemic even worse for millions of americans. But you mentioned the leadership that it will take a kind of National Leadership to pull this off that we havent seen so far in the pandemic. So is there a way this plan gets put into place in the absence of federal leadership . It is very hard, but i am encouraged by things like there is a compact of 10 states that have committed to Work Together to access low cost rapid tests and buy together, Work Together. Basically, you know, a confederation of states to make sure that theyre serving the common interests. Thats what the federal government is here for. But in the absence of that leadership, theyre building those connections so that this fall theyre not ending try and trying to outbid one another for ventilators and tests and masks, et cetera, but instead are working together to make it happen. And i hope that we were able to get all of the states working together to join that kind of confederation. Its what the National Government needs to be doing. Nawaz the message i think a lot of people would welcome right now, that is dr. Atul gawande from brigham and Womens Hospital in boston, massachusetts. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Nawaz so, what will this final stretch of campaigning the president ial and Vice President ial nominees were out and about on this labor day holiday. William brangham begins there. Brangham its perhaps the most normal campaigning that this unconventional election has seen so far both parties candidates made public pitches today, mixing labor day messages with talk of the pandemic, and of racand policing. Joe biden was in pennsylvania for a backyard stop with local labor leaders. Later he was asked about the development of a coronavirus vaccine, which the president has said might be ready for use as soon as next month. One of the problems is the way hes playing with politics. Hes said so many things tha arent tru and im worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people will be reluctant to take it. So he is undermining public confidence. Brangham at a white house event today, President Trump called joe biden a stupid person, and separately criticized those vaccine doubts, saying the democrats were anti science and misguided. We are an absolute leader in every way. Under my leadership, we will produce a vaccine in record time. Brangham the president also again denied reports from last week that hed denigrated dead and wounded members of the military. Im not saying the military is in love with me, the soldiers are. The top people in the pentagon probably arent because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those Wonderful Companies that make the bombs, who make the planes, and make Everything Else stay happy. Brangham meanwhile, the two Vice President ial nominees sp