Harris-Trump race remains close; Netanyahu faces cease-fire pressure after hostage deaths: Weekend Rundown

Israeli American among six hostages found dead in a Gaza tunnel

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American taken hostage in Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, is among six hostages whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel under Rafah on Saturday.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said Hamas killed the six shortly before Israeli forces reached them. Their bodies were found less than a mile from a tunnel where hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi was rescued last week, he said. A spokesperson for Israel’s Health Ministry said the six were killed sometime Thursday or Friday.

Goldberg-Polin’s parents have been visible and outspoken advocates for bringing the hostages home, including having made an impassioned plea for his release at the Democratic National Convention.

The news has ignited fury within Israel and protests calling for the release of hostages. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced criticism within Israel over his handling of cease-fire negotiations, apologized to the families of the killed hostages Sunday, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Follow NBC News’ live coverage here.

The state of the 2024 race: Changed, but still close

Before President Joe Biden stepped out of the race, polling mostly showed former President Donald Trump with a narrow edge. In surveys released ahead of Labor Day weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris leads narrowly and in key battlegrounds.

The dynamics of the election have certainly changed, but it’s still a close race, given that all of Harris’ leads are within the polls’ margins of error.

Democrats are meanwhile growing concerned about a slew of Republican legal challenges over election rules in battleground states, which they fear are intended to gin up doubts about the result if Trump loses.

“We believe that every case they’ve filed is a brick in the foundation of an argument that they will make in November to say that the election is rigged,” a Harris campaign official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That is fundamentally our view of what their litigation is about.”

German far-right party leads in state elections

Germany’s far right is on course to win the most votes in a state election for the first time since the Nazi era, in a major rebuke of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling center-left coalition.

As the country grapples with Russia’s war with Ukraine, slow economic growth, the transition to green energy and a renewed debate about migration sparked by a recent terrorist attack, the anti-immigration, nationalist party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is looking to take advantage at a local level. Projections by polling agencies suggest that it has finished first in the east German state of Thuringia, securing 31% to 33% of the vote.

Because all other parties have vowed not to form coalitions with the AfD, it remains to be seen whether it will be able to win any real governing power.

Meet the Press

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday he and most other Republicans would be “open” to supporting Trump’s proposal to have either the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization services.

“It’s something I’m open to, that most Republicans would be open to,” Cotton told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, adding that the plan would need to be evaluated to determine “whether the taxpayer can afford to pay for this” and what impact it might have on insurance premiums.

“In principle, supporting couples who are trying to use IVF or other fertility treatments — I don’t think that’s controversial at all,” he said.

You can watch the full interview here.

Politics in brief

Arlington fallout: Harris said Trump “disrespected sacred ground” at Arlington National Cemetery in a statement condemning his team’s actions there last week.

Not invited: Gold Star families did not invite Biden and Harris to the Arlington cemetery, a White House official told NBC News, rebutting separate claims made by Cotton and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Abortion on the ballot: Constitutional amendments that would protect or expand abortion rights are officially set to appear on the ballots in 10 states this year.

Mobilizing the Mountain State: West Virginia has one of the worst voter turnout records in the country. Many young voters there feel pessimistic and apathetic. But some organizations are trying to persuade them to head to the polls in November.

The X factor: Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s endorsement of Trump was supposed to hit the Trump campaign like a lightning bolt. But a series of Democratic attacks suggest it exposed a vulnerability with Trump’s embrace of Musk’s anti-union actions.

Disorderly conduct: A protester who interrupted Trump’s rally Friday in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, will face misdemeanor charges, local police said.

A simple blood test could predict person’s heart disease risk 30 years out

Doctors have been assessing their patients’ risk for cardiovascular disease by using a blood test to look at cholesterol levels. But that type of testing is limiting, and it misses important — and usually silent — risk factors, experts say.

A new study found that in addition to LDL cholesterol, two other markers — a type of fat in the blood called lipoprotein (a), or Lp(a), and an indicator of inflammation — are important predictors of a person’s risk of heart attack, stroke and coronary heart disease. 

In the study, the researchers analyzed data from nearly 30,000 U.S. women who were part of the Women’s Health Study. On average, the women were 55 years old when they enrolled in the years 1992 through 1995. Though the research was conducted in women, researchers say the findings would be likely to apply to men, too.

Even desert plants are dying in this heat

As climate change makes heat waves more frequent, intense and long-lasting, experts say the severe conditions are testing desert plants known for their resilience, including saguaro cacti and agave.

“We saw damage to plants this summer that had never showed heat stress before,” said Norm Schilling, a Nevada horticulturalist.

A major issue causing plants to die off, Schilling said, is that the region is no longer having many cooler years between record-setting ones and temperatures stay high at night, giving plants and trees less time to recover and bounce back.

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