the u.s. approved sending troops and an anti-missile system to israel to help defend against attacks from iran. this as the idf says four of its

soldiers were killed in a drone strike by hezbollah. the secret service and fbi are now investigating after a man with guns in his car tried to enter a trump campaign rally in california. law enforcement saying it was not an assassination attempt. the incident comes as new polling shows the 2024 race in a dead heat. president biden is pledging $600 million to help rebuild florida and other states ravaged by hurricane. his message to those affected. a behind-the-scenes look at the science going into the new nfl helmet, designed to improve player safety. plus, all of your week 6 highlights. and on this indigenous people's day, we shine a light on the navajo nation's fight for water rights. it's monday, october 14th. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm christina ruffini. we begin this morning in the

middle east, where israel says four of its soldiers were killed by a drone strike on a military base in the north of the country. dozens more were injured, seven of them severely, according to the idf. hezbollah has taken credit for the attack. the idf is investigating how the drone was able to reach the base from lebanon without being detected. and the u.s. will send an anti-missile defense system to israel along with the troops to operate it. the terminal high altitude area defense, commonly called thaad, can intercept both long, medium and short range ballistic missiles. the pentagon says it will help bolster israel's air defenses ahead of possible escalation with iran. and now to another potential security threat at a donald trump campaign event. a man was arrested outside a rally saturday in coachella, california for illegally possessing multiple guns. a federal law enforcement source tells nbc news overnight that

this arrest is not being viewed as an assassination attempt. also overnight, a trump campaign spokesperson thanked law enforcement and says they're monitoring the situation. for more on the investigation, here is vaughn hillyard. >> reporter: another security concern this weekend for former president trump. on saturday night in coachella, california, a man arrested a quarter mile away from brwhere e 2024 republican nominee was about to take the stage in front of thousands of stages. 40-year-old vem miller arrested after he was found to be in illegal possession of a loaded handgun, a shotgun, and a high capacity magazine. >> this is not something we were taking lightly in regard to previous attempts on the former president's life. >> the state of california, we're going to make it better. >> reporter: the fbi which investigates attempted assassinations has not immediately commented on the incident. miller booked on suspicion.

the u.s. secret service saying, quote, the incident did not impact protective operations. the man released on $5,000 bond. donald trump holding an indoor rally in neighboring arizona. the trump campaign increasingly concerned about his safety, just over three weeks before election day. after two failed attempts to take his life, the first in pennsylvania this july. and then in september, a man arrested after another attempt at trump's golf course in florida. since then, trump's campaign requesting more security, including military assets, including armored cars protection while flying and temporary airspace restriction. so far there is no indication that the requests have been met. vaughn hillyard, nbc news, prescott valley, arizona. new polling by nbc news shows the presidential race has gotten even tighter. with just three weeks to go, former president trump is tied with vice president harris. aaron gilchrist has the latest from the trail.

>> reporter: 23 days until election day, and both former president trump and vice president harris are on the campaign trail almost daily now. >> we have some hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work. >> reporter: this is the new nbc news national poll of registered voters shows the presidential contest deadlocked at 48%. the poll shedding light on the gender gap between the candidates. harris ahead with women by 14 men, and more men supporting trump by 16 points. the vice president in battleground north carolina speaking from the pulpit of a black church in greenville launching a new black voter initiative, souls to the polls. >> at about early age, i learned that faith is a verb. it is something we show in action. and in service. >> reporter: later at her rally, laying out her agenda and challenging her republican opponent. >> i do believe donald trump is an unserious man. but the effects of him being back in the white house would be

brutally serious. >> reporter: trump in arizona after rallying in california on saturday. the candidates also drawing attention to their medical records with harris' doctor on saturday saying she's in excellent health and has the, quote, physical and mental resiliency to be president. harris has criticized trump for not releasing detailed medical assessments. his campaign responding with his doctor's letter from last year and saying he is in perfect health. >> our thanks to aaron for that report. and as the harris campaign and its surrogates make a concerted effort to win over more male voters, governor tim walz returned to minnesota for a weekend of hunting and football. he joined other hunters to kick off the opening of fez season. walz also returns to the minnesota high school where he used to coach football, delivering a pep talk to the team before they played their biggest rival. a man accused of posing as a utility worker is now charged with murder in a home invasion

in suburban detroit on friday. the open county sheriff says two intruders tied up a 72-year-old woman and took her husband down to the basement where police later found him dead. the second suspect is still on the loose. investigators say the couple owned a jewelry and pawnshop, and that may have been targeted for that reason. an update to a story we brought you last week. investigators are now saying the elevator door at a colorado gold mine was broken during the tour that killed one person, injured four, and trapped 12 people. the accident happened thursday at the molly kathleen gold mine near colorado springs. a sheriff saying the victim, 46-year-old guide patrick weir died as a result of the elevator's mechanical issue. weir was the father of a young child and was from nearby victor, colorado. florida is still reeling after hurricane milton. the category 3 storm that barreled through the western part of the state last week there have been 17 confirmed deaths and nearly half a million

people are still without power. but more help may be on the way. on sunday, president biden surveyed the storm-battered state for the second time in just two weeks, announcing over $600 million to rebuild florida and other states affected by hurricanes helene and milton. >> thankfully, the storm's impact was not as cataclysmic as we predicted. but for some individuals, it was cataclysmic. all those folks who not only lost their homes, but more importantly those folks who lost their lives, lost family members, lost all their personal belongings, and it's moments like this we come together to take care of each other. not as democrats or republicans but as americans. >> on saturday, florida governor ron desantis also addressed the state's need for fuel, announcing free fuel distribution depots in plant city, braden town and st. petersburg with more to come. and now let's check on the

weather for the week ahead with meteorologist michelle grossman. michelle, what's it looks like out there? hopefully a little better than last week. >> better than last week. hi there, christina. actually looking really quiet today. not big weather stories. we still will see some showers, even some mountain showers throughout portions of the interior parts of new england and the northeast. you can see some blue showing up on the map there and we're off to a chilly start in portions of the northern plains. we had 5 million under froze alerts there. off to the west looking at rain moving onshore. we're going see the rain moving to the intermountain west. soggy there as well. lots of sunshine across the country. warm and sunny in the south central states. lots of sunshine. good news in the southeast. by wednesday, a fall chill in the southeast. parts of the northeast as well in new england in the 40s. could see some mountain snow along parts of new england as well. more records in parts of the great basin and wet and cooler in the northern california parts and into parts of nevada. rocky storms on friday. we're going see mountain snow

storms there. looking good from new england to the northeast, midatlantic down to the in the southwest and parts of the south central states. lots of sunshine, into the 90s in houston. all right. that's your monday forecast. >> sunny, chilly and fall. that's what we want to hear. thanks, michelle. >> yeah. spacex just pulled off a giant catch for mankind. >> i don't know about you, but we're losing our stuff here. >> guys, i'm sorry. even at this day and age, what we just saw, that looked like magic. >> so on sunday, after a test flight of the starship rocket, its 232-foot booster flew back

to the launch pad where giant chopstick-like arms caught it. the groundbreaking landing marks a new milestone for the starship, which spacex and its founder elon musk hope will use one day to take astronauts to the moon and possibly eventually to mars. coming up, the new nfl helmets using cutting edge tech to keep players on the field safe. and we're ck in baa minute with the navajo nation's fight for water rights. (dog howls) roo. who can speak for himself. but can't shop for himself. so when he gave his roo of approval of the food dad bought on chewy, dad put it on autoship. so it always gets delivered, right on roo's schedule. the flavor roo loves. the savings they love. (dog howls) for automatic delivery and 5% savings. for life with pets, there's chewy. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank.

frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember, remember neuriva. using these type of cleansers could be damaging and stripping your skin. i use new olay cleansing melts every day. just soak, activate and wash. to clean, tone and refresh. that's a 3x better clean. olay. now the navajo nation's fight for water. more than a century ago a treaty allocated river to seven saints, but left out the 17 million acre reservation. now a third of the homes still don't have running water. on this indigenous people's day, we're shining a light on the effort to change that. elisa london has the story. >> reporter: on navajo nation, darlene narviso is known as the water lady.

four days a week, she fills a tanker truck with 4,000 gallons of what in this parched region is considered liquid gold. then makes the rounds distributing that water to households in need. what are some of the best parts about hauling water out to various households? >> well, i love my job because i know everybody and they're depending on me. >> reporter: navajo nation's president says an estimated one-third of homes on the reservation lack running water. it's their way of life. some have underground cisterns that attach to an indoor sink, but the tanks must be frequently refilled. do you ever run out in between? >> yeah, we do. >> what do you do in that case? >> we try to communicate. >> call them, that we're out of water. >> reporter: life in remote areas of the reservation doesn't come with all the modern amenities, but a safe and steady source of water isn't a modern amenity. many say it's a right. >> whether you're republican,

democrat, you care about making sure that when you live in america, you should be able to have access to clean, reliable drinking water. >> reporter: navajo nation president boo nygren is working with congress on his historic settlement to determine water allocation for homes and economic development on the reservation. two settlements aim to bring urgently needed water to both sides of navajo nation, the arizona side and the new mexico side. in the proposed arizona settlement, navajo nation, along with the hopi and san juan southern paiute trieps bes woult guaranteed water from the little colorado river basin and $5 billion for infrastructure projects. a second new mexico settlement would increase funding to bring san juan river water to navajo nation and other communities in the northwest part of the state. right now some of the purified water in the safe public wells is supplied by st. bonaventure

mission. >> there is about 5,000 people all together that get water from us in one fashion or another. >> reporter: but a navajo community leader told us some families skip the long and expensive drive and go to closer wells instead, including wells that their tests show are contaminated with uranium. >> a lot of family members take the water home, boil it, and then they think it's safe to cook with it. the uranium site is only two miles away. and it goes into the water roar nygren believes the u.s. government's demand for the toxic uranium nearly a century ago is one more reason lawmakers need to pass the water settlements. and he's hoping they get congressional approval before president biden leaves office. >> president biden's always been very instrumental in indian country. and hopefully he is listening too. i want him to make some phone calls. water is life. nothing happens without water. and still to come, who emerged victorious in game 2 of

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the bottom of the screen. joe taking off. might take it all the way. inside the 10, the pylon. >> joe burrow became joe turbo as he opened up scoring for the bengals on sunday night football against the giants. new york's defense stifled cinci over the next two quarters before running back tyrone tracy tied the match up in the third. despite the defensive effort, daniel jones couldn't finish the job on offense, and late touchdown from chase brown sealed the win for cincinnati, 17-7. it only took a trip across the pond for caleb williams to have his breakout game. the first overall pick threw four touchdowns as the bears over the jaguars in london 35-16. now in the big easy, the points came big and easy for the

buccaneers. baker and the bucs dropped 51 points on the saints, for spencer rattler. in the battle of the dmv, it took an merchandise to stop one of the rookie quarterback, lamar jackson and the ravens put an end to the commanders' four-game winning streak. and the lions had a answer to the question, how about them cowboys. the lions dismantled dallas in front of their home crowd, scoring five touchdowns and picking off dak prescott twice. the 47-9 drubbing. the dodgers dominated the first game of the nlcs against the mets. l.a. scored nine runs with three of them coming in the fourth, while pitching held them at just three hits, tying the record for scoreless innings in the postseason. the amazins will look to rebound from the shut-out start in game 2 tonight. and leave to it the ladies

to provide sunday's one bright spot for new york sports teams. the new york liberty rebounded from thursday's heartbreaking game one loss to the minnesota lynx in the wnba finals. breanna stewart led her squad with 21 points while new york went on 12-0 run in the final minutes. the series moves to minnesota for game three on wednesday. when we come back, there is a clown clawing its quay to the top of the box office, and more nocea joro ali as theirne anuns mar und of layoffs. s a light. ♪ ♪ a certain kind of light ♪ ♪ that always shines on me. ♪ ♪ there's a way ♪ ♪ everybody say. ♪ ♪ oh... ♪ ♪ you must know what it's like. ♪ ♪ baby, you must know what it's like ♪ ♪ to love somebody. ♪ ♪ to love somebody. ♪ ♪ the way i love you. ♪ ♪♪

[♪♪] did you know, ♪ there's a detergent ♪ that gets your dishes up to 100% clean, even in an older dishwasher? try cascade platinum plus. for sparkling clean dishes even on the toughest jobs. just scrape, load and you're done. switch to cascade platinum plus. donald trump handpicked his white house team. now, the people who knew him best say he's too unstable to lead. here's his national security advisor: “donald trump will cause a lot of damage.” and his defense secretary: “do you think trump can be trusted with the nation's secrets ever again?” “no. i mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk.” take it from the people who knew him best. donald trump is too big a risk for america. i'm kamala harris and i approve this message. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember, remember neuriva.

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kitchens. impacted passengers with given frequent flyer miles or vouchers. new tools to help doctors and nurses with administrative tasks. nobody likes those. they include medical images, a health care agent service and automated documentation. and the independent slasher film tear fire 3 topped the box office, raking in more than 18 million in the opening weekend. wild robot claims second and the joker fell to third. can a body wash transform your chest,

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sam brock shows us how it works. >> a perfect sunday night for football. >> for america's most popular sport, the nfl making a big play toward protecting players from violent hits, using high-tech research to design helmets for each position. the league subjecting dummies in a lab to his like this in order to shield players from hits like this. >> tua steps up. >> tua tagovailoa recently suffering his third documented nfl concussion, shaking up the sports world. the league recently transforming its safety measures from new rules to those guardian caps. >> they're dramatic changes over the last couple of years as we got closer to position specificity. >> and now helmets designed for where players line up. >> a quarterback and a linebacker are not necessarily playing the same sport on every play. and the frequency of their head impacts demonstrate that. >> reporter: researchers first analyzed game footage from some

1500 onfield concussions, who was involved, what position were they playing. >> these are the locations on the helmet that are contacted. >> reporter: then reconstructed each one, gathering data from those tests and sensors and the helmets to build a superior product. and this helmet is an example of that. it's designed specifically for quarterbacks and has extra padding in the back. linemen have more protection in the front, and many of them can be customized. a dozen new helmets debuted this year. we got a look at them with newschannel executive vice president jeff miller at the new york giants practice facility. how many position groups have their own helmets? >> offensive and defensive linemen, very similar. so that's one. and then quarterbacks are the other one. >> reporter: giants star tackle andrew thomas use as helmet with 3d printed padding. >> they're doing a good job of making separate helmets for us that are supposed to protect us. >> reporter: miller says concussions in the preseason are down roughly 50% each of the last couple of years, with some

helmets as effective as wearing a guardian cap. but there is no silver bullet. how you explain a player wearing better equipment just experienced what tua did on thursday night football? >> i'm not going to pretend that football is still not a contact sport. as great as our port, injuries still do occur. >> reporter: the new helmet has vastly increased safety overall. >> the helmets are improving nine times the rate they were before. >> the league adapting to tackle one of its toughest challenges. >> the game is getting safer. no less exciting. it's getting safer and will continue to. >> reporter: sam brock, nbc news, east rutherford, new jersey. thanks for watching "early today." i'm christina ruffini. have a great monday.

election day. kamala harris and donald trump now neck and neck. our washington