📌 Poll Roundup, Irate Spaniards, More

Polling suggests the race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remains neck-and-neck.

National polls provide a snapshot of the country as a whole, and most national polls released Sunday suggest either a tie between the candidates or Harris taking a narrow lead.

Nationally, Trump and Harris are tied, both getting support from 49% of registered voters in a new poll released Sunday by NBC News. A national poll of likely voters from Emerson College found that Trump and Harris have 49% support among US voters.

A national poll released Sunday by ABC News/Ipsos found that Harris has 49% support among likely voters, and Trump trails behind at 46%. The Pew Research Center reported most pollsters changed their methods since the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections when Trump's performance was significantly underestimated.

A New York Times and Siena College poll found Harris is ahead of Trump in North Carolina and Wisconsin. Trump leads Harris in Arizona by 49%-45%. In Georgia, Harris leads 48% to Trump's 47%, 48%-46% in North Carolina and 49%-47% in Nevada. Both polled 48% in Pennsylvania and 47% in Michigan.

A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Harris leading Trump in Iowa by three points, 47%–44%, a state that went for Trump in 2016 and 2020. In Sept., Trump had a four-percentage point lead. In June, his lead was 18 points over President Biden.

The king and queen of Spain have been pelted with mud and other objects by protesters during a visit to flood-hit Valencia.

Shouts of “murderer” and “shame” were directed at the royal couple as they walked through the town of Paiporta, one of the worst affected in the region. Objects were also thrown at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who was quickly evacuated.

Over 200 people were killed in the floods, the worst in Spain for decades. Emergency workers are continuing to comb through underground car parks and tunnels in the hope of finding survivors and recovering bodies.

There has been anger at a perceived lack of warning and insufficient support from authorities after the floods. Footage showed King Felipe VI making his way down a pedestrian street before his bodyguards and police were suddenly overwhelmed by a surge of protesters, hurling insults and screaming.

On Saturday, Sánchez ordered 10,000 more troops, police officers and civil guards to the area. He said the deployment was Spain's largest in peacetime. But he added he knew the response was "not enough" and acknowledged "severe problems and shortages.”

Los Angeles County has sued PepsiCo and Coca-Cola for polluting it with plastic bottles and misleading environmental statements.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the county said the companies were contributing to plastic pollution with their single-use plastic bottles and were engaging in a campaign to deceive consumers into believing they were recyclable.

According to the Democratic-governed county's lawsuit, the companies did so despite knowing the plastic in their bottles cannot be recycled at a scale meaningful enough to offset the environmental harms of the containers, most of which end up at landfills or as litter.

The county contends the plastic pollution traced to products made by the companies constitutes a public nuisance that they must be forced to redress. According to the lawsuit, Pepsi and Coca-Cola should be required to pay penalties for engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices.

PepsiCo is fighting a plastic pollution lawsuit filed by New York's attorney general last year. California's attorney general, in September, similarly sued oil company Exxon Mobil, which produces polymers used to make single-use plastic. Both attorneys general are Democrats.

In August, an appeals court in Washington, D.C.. revived a lawsuit filed in 2020 by the environmental group Earth Island Institute, accusing Coca-Cola of misleading consumers into believing its business was environmentally sustainable.

Residents along Florida's Gulf Coast are grappling with rebuilding or relocating after all the hurricane activity.

Treasure Island Mayor Tyler Payne announced his decision to move off the barrier island and step down after Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused severe damage to his home. Payne, a fourth-generation resident, cited financial inability to rebuild as the reason for his departure.

Florida's real estate market has cooled, with a 12% drop in single-family home sales in September, influenced by high interest rates, rising home prices, and insurance costs. Lee County had been one of the US’ fastest-growing areas. Population growth slowed after Hurricane Ian to 1.5% from 4.4%.

However, studies show that outbound migration after hurricanes is usually short-lived, with many residents moving short distances or returning to their communities. Florida's population has grown significantly, with over 365,000 new residents last year. Home prices in hurricane-affected areas tend to rise by 5% on average within three years due to reduced supply.

Scientists have strengthened the potential connection between dark energy and black holes.

According to the cosmological coupling hypothesis, “black holes are coupled to the expanding universe and are filled with dark energy that grows as the universe expands,” said team member Gregory Tarlé, professor of physics at the University of Michigan.

“This new development provides confirming evidence that cosmologically coupled black holes may very well be the dark energy of the universe,” Tarlé said. If black holes contain dark energy, the team theorizes that they can couple with the fabric of the universe and drive its accelerating expansion.

The research team used data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to support their theory. DESI data indicates that the density of dark energy is changing over time, challenging the belief that it is constant.

The team found a correlation between the number of black holes and increased dark energy, suggesting a plausible connection. “Fundamentally, whether black holes are dark energy, coupled to the universe they inhabit, has ceased to be just a theoretical question,” Tarlé concluded. “This is an experimental question now.”

An Alzheimer's drug that had been hailed as a breakthrough may increase patients' chance of dying, according to new research.

The treatment, lecanemab, thought to clear the brain of the protein beta-amyloid that fuels the disease’s symptoms, was found to treble the risk of death within a year, compared with dementia sufferers not prescribed the drug.

Previous studies have suggested that it slowed the progression of the incurable brain disease by 25%, providing patients with an estimated four to six months more of a healthy life.

Experts say about 3,000 patients have started taking the drug since US health officials approved it in July 2023. The experts behind the study warn that “there is a precedent for the removal of drugs if their side effects or mortality signals are of concern.”

Professor Robert Howard, one of the paper's authors, said: “The idea that lecanemab is a miracle drug is not supported by the evidence from the trials. It's even dubious to say it slows down progression, as that is just an interpretation.”

The research is not peer-reviewed and Prof Howard noted that “the data is currently preliminary and there is uncertainty over the true numbers.”

African giant pouched rats have been trained to recognize the scent of illegal animal parts like elephant tusks and rhino horns.

Sixteen rats were trained to detect wildlife products inside shipping containers in a controlled laboratory setting. They located items such as pangolin scales and threatened African hardwood, even when hidden among other “smelly items” used by smugglers to conceal their presence.

“Rats have low training and maintenance costs, flexibly work with multiple handlers, have a long lifespan, and a sophisticated sense of smell,” said researchers at their training headquarters in Morogoro, Tanzania.

The study showed the animals could quickly learn to wear a vest and trigger an electronic microswitch to remotely indicate when they had located a wildlife target while working in a mock port environment.

Upon finding items, they were rewarded with a food mixture loaded with avocado, banana, and crushed chow pellets. The report concluded the trained rats could now be assessed for “operational feasibility of being deployed at ports.”