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LAKE CHARLES, La. — Soonafter Hurricane Laura slammedinto the Louisiana coast in thedark of night, a city of oil refineriesand casinos some 30 miles inlandawakened to scenes of unfoldingchaos: A 22-story contemporaryoffice tower in Lake Charles withwindows stripped and smashed. Acasino boat, wedged under thebridge over the Calcasieu River.Plumes of dark gray smoke from a

chemical fire staining the blue of apost-storm sky.

Wind gusts, measured at up to132 miles per hour at the local air-port, sheared the top of a skybridge, tossed an R.V. on its sideand downed power lines andtrees. It even toppled a soaring

monument to Confederate sol-diers that the Calcasieu Parish Po-lice Jury had declined to takedown this month despite calls todo so from Black Lives Matter ac-tivists.

John O’Donnell, 33, a leader-ship consultant who had fled LakeCharles earlier in the week with abottle of bourbon and a cowboyhat in his passenger seat, wasback in town on Thursday morn-ing surveying the large hole in theroof of his home and taking stockof his downtown block, a mess of

After Storm, Shattered Towers and Vagrant BoatsThis article is by Rick Rojas,

Manny Fernandez and RichardFausset.

Search-and-rescue helicopters flew low Thursday over Holly Beach, La., a small coastal community.MATTHEW BUSCH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Hurricane Laura StrewsRuin in Louisiana as

It Heads Inland

Continued on Page A22

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. —George Hill is hardly the biggeststar in professional basketball.But he was the one who took thelead when a handful of players onthe Milwaukee Bucks began talk-ing about the police shooting of Ja-cob Blake a few days earlier inWisconsin.

The players, led by Mr. Hill, im-plored their teammates not toplay in their playoff game onWednesday, believing they had aresponsibility to make a state-ment about how the police treatBlack people.

What they envisioned — a onegame, on-the-fly protest — in-stead inspired one of the broadestpolitical statements across sportsleagues that the United States hadever seen: walkouts involvinghundreds of athletes in profes-sional men’s and women’s basket-ball, baseball and soccer, as wellas one of the world’s biggest starsin tennis.

LeBron James, basketball’smost famous athlete, said on Twit-ter that change “happens with ac-tion and needs to happen NOW!”President Trump, who had previ-ously attacked the league and hadpublicly sparred with Mr. James,who plays for the Los AngelesLakers, said people were “a littletired of the N.B.A.”

By Thursday afternoon, theN.B.A. players had pledged to re-turn to play, according to three

With Walkouts, N.B.A. Players

Jolt Pro SportsThis article is by Marc Stein,

Sopan Deb and Alan Blinder.

Continued on Page A20

He signed up to be a cadet in aprogram for teenagers who aspireto be police officers. He filled hisFacebook page with support forBlue Lives Matter. He sat upfrontat a rally for President Trump inJanuary, and posted images of iton TikTok. And he chose to markhis 16th birthday by raising fundsfor a support group for the policecalled Humanizing the Badge.

Now, at age 17, Kyle H. Ritten-house is charged with homicide ina shooting that took place as coun-terprotesters sparred with dem-onstrators in Kenosha, Wis.

He was there on Tuesday nightas demonstrators filled the streetsto protest the shooting of JacobBlake, a Black man, by a white po-lice officer. Mr. Rittenhouse, whois white, was carrying a military-style rifle and a medical kit, andstood amid a group of armed menwho declared that they were pro-tecting the area from fires andlooting in protests that had turneddestructive on earlier nights.

“People are getting injured andour job is to protect this business,”Mr. Rittenhouse said early thatevening in an interview with TheDaily Caller, an online news andopinion site.

He had come to Kenosha fromhis home in Antioch, Ill., 30 min-utes away. “Part of my job also isto protect people,” he said. “Ifsomeone is hurt, I’m running intoharm’s way. That’s why I have myrifle; I’ve got to protect myself ob-viously. But I also have my medkit.”

Teen SuspectIn Two KillingsLionized Police

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Continued on Page A19

Jerome H. Powell, the chair ofthe Federal Reserve, announced amajor shift in how the centralbank guides the economy, signal-ing it will make job growth pre-eminent and will not raise interestrates to guard against coming in-flation just because the unemploy-ment rate is low.

In emphasizing the importanceof a strong labor market and say-ing the Fed will tolerate slightlyfaster price gains, Mr. Powell andhis colleagues laid the ground-work for years of low interestrates. That could translate intolong periods of cheap mortgagesand business loans that fosterstrong demand and a solid jobmarket.

The changes, which Mr. Powelldetailed at the Kansas City Fed’sannual Jackson Hole policy sym-posium, follows a year-and-a-halflong review of the central bank’smonetary policy strategy. In con-junction with his remarks, the Fedreleased an outline of its long-runpolicy plan.

“Our revised statement empha-sizes that maximum employmentis a broad-based and inclusivegoal,” Mr. Powell said in the re-marks. “This change reflects ourappreciation for the benefits of astrong labor market, particularlyfor many in low- and moderate-in-come communities.”

Market reaction to Mr. Powell’sannouncement was mixed. In-vestors had already penciled inyears of rock-bottom interest

Fed Chair PavesWay for a PeriodOf Lower Rates

By JEANNA SMIALEK

Continued on Page A21

ances, a person of empathy andgood character. Ben Carson, thelone Black member of Mr. Trump’scabinet, argued that people whocall the president a racist “couldnot be more wrong.”

It was not only on matters ofcharacter that voters were askedto trust the assertions of Mr.Trump’s family members and po-litical allies over their own percep-tions of reality. On no subject wasthat dynamic more dominant thanthe coronavirus pandemic: Withonly a few exceptions, nearly ev-

ery speaker who mentioned thevirus sidestepped the scale of itsdevastation and what is likely tobe a slow and painful recovery.

Several speakers, includingVice President Mike Pence, hailedMr. Trump as a Churchillianleader in the most trying of times.It was an attempt — not throughthe deft deployment of facts butthrough sheer force of assertion —to persuade the majority of voterswho believe Mr. Trump misman-aged the coronavirus crisis that,in fact, the opposite is true.

The very staging of the conven-tion on Thursday appeared de-signed to send a signal that the vi-rus was a thing of the past, even asthe U.S. death toll neared 180,000.

President Trump accepted theRepublican Party’s nominationfor a second term on Thursday,joining a general-election contestagainst Joseph R. Biden Jr. that heand his party cast this week as acrusade against left-wing ideol-ogy and violent social disorder,fought against the backdrop of avirus that Republicans largely de-scribed as a temporary handicapon the economy.

In the run-up to Mr. Trump’s cli-mactic speech, his party delivereda drumbeat of attacks on Mr. Bi-den, the Democratic nominee, andhis party, accusing them of sym-pathizing with violent riotersrather than police officers, and ofharboring designs for a drastic re-structuring of the American eco-nomic system along socialistlines. Republicans drew a harshcaricature of Mr. Biden and hisrunning mate, Senator KamalaHarris of California, who are bothcenter-left lawmakers with politi-cally conventional positions oncriminal justice.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, wasplaced in the role of a defender oftraditional American values andan unbending ally of the police.

“Your vote will decide whetherwe protect law abiding Ameri-cans, or whether we give free reinto violent anarchists, agitators,and criminals who threaten ourcitizens,’’ Mr. Trump said, stand-ing on a stage on the South Lawnof the White House. “And this elec-tion will decide whether we willdefend the American Way of Life,or whether we allow a radicalmovement to completely disman-tle and destroy it. That won’t hap-pen.’’

Much of the night was givenover to unusually explicit rebut-tals to Mr. Trump’s vulnerabili-ties: Seldom if ever has a politicalparty spent so much time during aconvention insisting in explicitterms that its nominee was not aracist or a sexist, and that he was,perhaps despite public appear-

ACCEPTING BID, TRUMP PAINTS BIDEN AS UNSAFEFalsely Warning of Support for ‘Anarchists’

as He Shows His Grip on the G.O.P.

By ALEXANDER BURNS and MAGGIE HABERMAN

Preparing the South Lawn forthe president’s address.

ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A12

WASHINGTON — For a manon the edge of history, PresidentTrump sounded calm and relaxed.If he believes that he is on theverge of losing, he betrayed nosign of it. Instead, he trotted outone of his favorite polls, boastedabout his popularity with Republi-can voters and talked about hisconvention’s television ratings.

His presidency, he declared inan interview this week, hasproduced “an incredible result.”The stock markets are “prettyamazing,” the Republican Na-tional Convention has been “verysuccessful,” and he has “done a

very good job” of handling the co-ronavirus pandemic even thoughmore than 180,000 Americans aredead. At the same time, he said, hehas endured “terrible things” byhis “maniac” opponents.

After nearly four years in office,Mr. Trump heads into the fall cam-paign with a striking blend ofbraggadocio and grievance, aman of extremes who claims onemoment to have accomplishedmore than virtually any otherpresident even as he complainsmoments later that he has alsosuffered more than any of them.He inhabits a world of his ownmaking, sometimes untetheredfrom the reality recognized by

others. He has imposed his will onWashington and the world like noone else.

While previous presidentsevolved in office as they learnedthe mechanisms of power and ad-justed their goals by the time theyclaimed renomination, Mr. Trumpremains the same polarizing,dominating force of nature whogot up four years ago and asserted

that “I alone can fix it.” He has nottempered with age nor bent toconvention nor been chastened byimpeachment. He says he stillconsiders himself “an outsider”even while occupying the highestoffice in the land.

In the course of a 40-minutetelephone call on Wednesday, Mr.Trump struggled to describe howhe has changed. “I think I’ve justbecome more guarded than I wasfour years ago,” he offered, a curi-ous notion for the least-guardedman to sit in the Oval Office in alifetime. “I think I really am a littlebit more circumspect.”

By that he seemed to mean that

President Is Unchastened by Time in Office, Even ImpeachmentBy PETER BAKER

President Trump, in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention Thursday, again cast himself as a law-and-order candidate.ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A11

He Boasts of Exploitsand Complains ofPerceived Slights

Héctor Zamora’s “Lattice Detour” at theMet is a monument to openness overenclosure. It’s also fraught with politicalmeaning, Holland Cotter says. PAGE C14

WEEKEND ARTS C1-14

A Wall on the RoofFlash floods carved out new streets anderased homes in Charikar, above, anAfghan city of 200,000. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A7-9

‘I Lost Everyone’Unmowed lawns, unemptied garbagebins and littered playgrounds clutterNew York City’s green spaces. PAGE A6

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-6

Budget Cuts Take Toll on Parks

Investigators suspect arson for a Julyblaze that rendered the warship Bon-homme Richard inoperative. PAGE A21

NATIONAL A18-23

Navy Quizzes Sailor Over FireThe tournament, which is set to beginMonday, may be lacking some starpower amid the pandemic, but plenty ofintriguing story lines remain. PAGE B14

SPORTSFRIDAY B10-15

U.S. Open Draw Is Set

Bill Arnett traveled the South to findbrilliant works by self-taught African-American artists who often used scav-enged materials. He was 81. PAGE A24

OBITUARIES A24-25

Collector of Black ArtA sharp drop in the value of the lira isimperiling the economy and testingbusinesses and residents while they arecoping with the pandemic. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Turkey’s New Currency Crisis

Anti-authoritarian unrest in perhaps hisclosest neighbor poses a dilemma forthe Russian president. PAGE A7

Putin Warns Belarus ProtestersThe retail giant is joining with Micro-soft, against Oracle, in a bid to buy theChinese-owned video app. PAGE B1

Walmart Joins TikTok TalksWith the White House blocking the wayto network news, Dr. Anthony S. Faucispeaks wherever he can. PAGE A5

Dr. Fauci’s Media Odyssey

David Brooks PAGE A26

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,799 © 2020 The New York Times Company FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2020 Printed in Chicago $3.00

Mostly cloudy north. Clouds andsunshine south. Record-challengingheat. Heavy thunderstorms, poten-tially severe north. Highs in upper80s to 90s. Weather map, Page B16.

National Edition