Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, September 14, 2020:

CLIMATE CHANGE

FIRES: At least 35 people have died in the wildfires ravaging the West Coast, where weather conditions are not forecast to improve anytime soon. The massive North Complex Fire in California is now 26 percent contained. President Trump, on a Western campaign swing, will stop in Sacramento today to be briefed on the damage. The air quality in California, Oregon and Washington is currently worse than anywhere else on Earth: SEE MAP

TROPICS: Tropical Storm Sally is expected to strengthen into a hurricane today as it moves slowly northwest through the Gulf of Mexico. Sally is tracking to make a landfall near New Orleans tomorrow morning, either as a Cat 1 or Cat 2 hurricane. CONE

STATE OF THE RACE

A new batch of swing-state polls over the weekend suggest that Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump is holding in crucial states like Minnesota and Wisconsin, even as it tightens a bit nationally. Mike Bloomberg has pledged to pour  $100 million into Florida to help Biden win that battleground state, where he is more or less deadlocked with Trump. POLITICO

COVID-19: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Israel will begin a second nationwide lockdown on Friday as a new coronavirus outbreak has hit the country hard. The three-week lockdown will extend through the upcoming Jewish holidays and is intended to prevent mass gatherings that could become super-spreader events. Six months into the pandemic, Canada saw its first day of zero virus deaths, while in the U.S., deaths are averaging around 850 a day. President Trump held a large indoor rally in Nevada last night that violated the state’s mass-gathering rules, and which the Nevada governor called “shameful.” AstraZeneca is restarting its vaccine trials after a safety pause. WASH POST

L.A. COPS AMBUSHED

A $100,000 reward has been offered in the hunt for a gunman who walked up and shot two Los Angeles police officers in their patrol car on Saturday night. Both sheriff’s deputies are in the hospital but are expected to survive the ambush. Witnesses reported a small group of demonstrators gathered at the hospital, chanting anti-police slogans and at one point attempting to get inside. Both President Trump and Joe Biden have condemned the attack. ABC LA

WOODWARD ON '60'

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward was interviewed on 60 Minutes last night, where he added more context to the revelations in his new book that President Trump knew how bad the coronavirus would be back in February, despite playing it down in public. Woodward said the president told him in August that he had concluded “nothing more could have been done” to stop the spread of the virus. Woodward concludes in the book that Trump is “the wrong man for the job.” WATCH

TIKTOK DEAL

With the clock running out on President Trump’s deadline to force a sale of TikTok’s U.S. business, the Chinese-owned company has reportedly chosen Oracle to be its American “technology partner,” rejecting an acquisition from Microsoft. Oracle is among the more Trump-friendly of the big tech companies, and the White House needs to sign off on any deal. AXIOS

SPORTS BONANZA

Never before has one weekend packed in so many sports. NFL Week 1 kicked off, with Tom Brady scoring a QB sneak in his first game as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer before losing by double digits -- while Cam Newton, in Brady’s old job, rushed for two touchdowns to lead the Patriots to a win. College football fans got 19 games to choose from as that season began in earnest. In the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers and Celtics advanced to the conference finals. In the NHL Playoffs, Dallas and Tampa Bay are both one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals. The U.S. Open ended with Naomi Osaka winning the women’s singles and Dominic Thiem capturing his first Grand Slam title in the men’s singles. AP

SPOTTED...

… Naomi Osaka, posing with her U.S. Open trophy, her second Open and third Grand Slam win. She now becomes the third-ranked tennis player in the world: SEE PIC

…Trevor Noah and Minka Kelly, rumored to be a couple, in NYC: SEE PIC

TIKTOK STAR GOES HOLLYWOOD

Addison Rae, the 19-year-old TikTok megastar, has been cast in an upcoming gender-swapped remake of the 1999 rom-com She’s All That. Rae will play the Freddie Prinze Jr. role, with Mark Waters of Mean Girls fame directing. Rae, who has 60 million followers on TikTok and makes an estimated $5 million a year as an influencer, is among the first TikTok stars to act in a major studio film. VARIETY

LEFTOVERS: NOT A PEEP

The Pennsylvania candy company that makes Peeps says it won’t produce the yellow marshmallow chicks for Halloween, Christmas or Valentine’s Day so that it can focus on next Easter. Like everything else, the Peeps supply chain was impacted by the pandemic. AP

Listen to the N2K Podcast! Looking for more context and analysis on the big stories of the day? Check out our podcast! Hosts Jill and Carlo break down the headlines, every weekday morning Listen on Apple or Spotify, or watch on YouTube, and send us your feedback!

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