Start your week smart: 6 hostages in Gaza killed, Johnny Gaudreau, Fatman Scoop, Wells Fargo employee, Ricky Pearsall shot

By Andrew Torgan and Daniel Wine, CNN

(CNN) — Did you fill up your gas tank this weekend? Notice anything different? GasBuddy — the app that tracks prices at the pump — is projecting that the national average price of gas on Labor Day will be $3.27 a gallon. That’s a drop of 50 cents from the same time last year.

Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.

The weekend that was

• Israel’s military recovered the bodies of six hostages it said Hamas had killed in Gaza, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the Israeli-American captive who became one of the most widely recognized faces of the hostage crisis. Protests have begun across the country as anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mounts. Follow live updates.
• A tight-knit hockey family planned to celebrate with loved ones this weekend. Instead, they’re planning two funerals after brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau were killed by a suspected drunken driver while riding bicycles in New Jersey.
• Fatman Scoop, a rapper and hype man who was known for his collaborations with Missy Elliott and Mariah Carey, died after collapsing onstage at a concert in Hamden, Connecticut. He was 56.
• A Wells Fargo employee at a corporate office in Arizona clocked in to what would be her last-ever shift on a Friday morning. Her body was found four days later at her cubicle desk, where she died sometime during the weekend, police said.
• San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot in the chest in an attempted robbery and “is in serious but stable condition,” the team said. A 17-year-old suspect is in custody.

The week ahead

Monday
Happy Labor Day! Federal offices, government buildings and post offices will be closed. Same deal for financial markets and most banks. Some retailers will be open — except for Costco, which gives its workers the day off.

Tuesday
Voters in Massachusetts will head to the polls for a nonpresidential primary.

Thursday
A previously scheduled hearing on special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump is expected to proceed following Smith’s submission of a superseding indictment last week. The retooled indictment slims down the allegations against the 2024 presidential nominee in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling — but prosecutors have not dropped any of the four charges that they initially brought against him. The Trump campaign has previously denied the allegations, and Trump pleaded not guilty to all four counts.

Hunter Biden’s tax evasion trial is slated to begin in federal court in Los Angeles. In January, President Joe Biden’s son pleaded not guilty to federal charges he faces in California for allegedly failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes. He is charged with nine counts related to a tax-avoidance conspiracy that prosecutors say he implemented over several years while enjoying a lavish, and at times salacious, lifestyle. Hunter Biden’s attorney has argued that the charges amount to nothing more than a political hit job.

Friday
Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft is set to return to Earth from the International Space Station — minus its two-person crew. Starliner will undock from the orbiting laboratory around 6 p.m. ET and will spend about six hours maneuvering its way home before landing in New Mexico’s White Sands Space Harbor. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who rode the spacecraft to the ISS on June 5, will fly home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule no earlier than February. NASA announced in August that experts were wary of gas leaks and issues with the Starliner’s propulsion system, leading the agency to determine the spacecraft is not safe enough to finish its mission with crew on board.

North Carolina will begin mailing absentee ballots to eligible voters who submitted an absentee ballot request form, including military personnel and overseas voters.

Listen in

One Thing: 🎧 Campaign promises 
In today’s “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s Phil Mattingly breaks down what we know about the economic and immigration plans of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Listen here.

Photos of the week

Check out more images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.

What’s happening in entertainment

TV and streaming
A few new shows premiere this week, including FX’s high school comedy “English Teacher” on Monday, Netflix’s murder mystery “The Perfect Couple” and Peacock’s “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” both on Thursday. In between, Apple TV+ will release Season 4 of its spy thriller, “Slow Horses.”

In theaters
The summer of sequels and prequels continues its run with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Arriving in theaters Friday some 36 years after the original “Beetlejuice” … uh-oh, I wrote it three times. Does that count? Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprise their roles as Lydia and Delia Deetz, while Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe and Jenna Ortega join the cast. And, of course, Michael Keaton is back as the Ghost with the Most. (“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is from Warner Bros. Pictures, which, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

What’s happening in sports

At a glance …
The NFL regular season kicks off Thursday when the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Baltimore Ravens at home in a rematch of the AFC title game.

On Friday, the NFL will play its first-ever regular season game in South America when the Philadelphia Eagles face the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, Brazil.

In tennis, the US Open continues today with the Round of 16. World No. 3 and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shocking defeat in the second round, falling to Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets. Novak Djokovic was stunned in the third round by Alexei Popyrin, and Frances Tiafoe won a five-set thriller over fellow American Ben Shelton.

The 2024 Paralympics continue in Paris, although the triathlon events were postponed following poor water quality in the Seine. Follow CNN’s coverage here.

For more of your favorite sports, head on over to CNN Sports as well as Bleacher Report, which — like CNN — is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

CNN Heroes

For newly arrived immigrant children, this lawyer’s help extends far beyond the courtroom
CNN Hero Rachel Rutter and her nonprofit, Project Libertad, provide legal, social and emotional support to help young immigrants heal from trauma and build new lives in the United States.

Quiz time!

Looking for a challenge to start your week? Take CNN’s news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 38% of fellow quiz fans have gotten eight or more questions right. How will you fare?

Play me off …

‘Workin’ for a Livin”
Happy Labor Day weekend! Let’s celebrate the day off work in style — ’80s style, that is. (Click here to view)

The-CNN-Wire
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