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Race to rescue people trapped in Washington floods

admin - Latest News - December 13, 2025
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Rescue workers paddled toward a motorist trapped in the flooded streets of Burlington, WA as officials pushed everyone in the city to evacuate today. NBC News’ Camila Bernal is on the ground in the flood zone and witnessing the devastation first hand.



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Dec. 12, 2025, 9:49 AM ESTBy Elmira AliievaWith climate change steadily dismantling the icy habitat essential to their existence, new research suggests polar bears are rapidly rewiring their own genetics in a bid to survive.The species is being forced to adapt to the harsher reality of a warming Arctic, in what scientists believe is the first documented case of rising temperatures driving genetic change in a mammal.Researchers from the University of East Anglia in Britain say these findings, published Friday in the journal Mobile DNA, offer a rare glimmer of hope for the species.”Polar bears are still sadly expected to go extinct this century, with two-thirds of the population gone by 2050,” Alice Godden, who is the lead author of the study, told NBC News. “I believe our work really does offer a glimmer of hope — a window of opportunity for us to reduce our carbon emissions to slow down the rate of climate change and to give these bears more time to adapt to these stark changes in their habitats.”Building on earlier University of Washington research, Godden’s team analyzed blood samples from polar bears in northeastern and southeastern Greenland. In the slightly warmer south, they found that genes linked to heat stress, aging and metabolism behaved differently from those in northern bears.“Essentially this means that different groups of bears are having different sections of their DNA changed at different rates, and this activity seems linked to their specific environment and climate,” Godden said in a university press release.She said this shows, for the first time, that a unique group of one species has been forced to “rewrite their own DNA,” adding that this process can be considered “a desperate survival mechanism against melting sea ice.” The Arctic Ocean has repeatedly experienced record-high temperatures in the past few years, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitoring data shows.Researchers say warming ocean temperatures have reduced vital sea ice platforms that the bears use to hunt seals, leading to isolation and food scarcity. This led to genetic changes as the animals’ digestive system adapts to a diet of plants and low fats in the absence of prey, Godden told NBC News. “Food availability is a real problem for these bears — everywhere, but most prominently in the south,” she said. “This may suggest their body shape and composition is also changing in response to their warmer environments.” The lead researcher said that her team decided to focus on the southern group of bears because the area’s warmer climate serves as a glimpse of what is to come for other bear populations later this century if current trends in climate change continue.The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates there are currently about 26,000 polar bears worldwide. Scientifically known by its Latin name Ursus maritimus, meaning “sea bear,” the animals are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, meaning they are considered to be facing “a high risk of extinction in the wild.” The study “does not mean that polar bears are at any less risk of extinction,” Godden said, though the discovery may “provide a genetic blueprint for how polar bears might be able to adapt quickly to climate change.”Godden added: “We all must do more to mitigate our carbon emissions to help provide and extend this window of opportunity to help save this wonderful vital species.”Elmira AliievaElmira Aliieva is an NBC News intern based in London.
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October 26, 2025
Oct. 26, 2025, 9:51 AM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonA number of countries have offered to take part in the international stabilization force expected to operate in Gaza, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, even as key details, including its mandate, were still being negotiated.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would determine “which forces are unacceptable to us.”“This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days,” Netanyahu told a session of his Cabinet.During a visit to Israel, Rubio said Friday that the force would have to be made up of countries that Israel is “comfortable with,” adding that any potential role for the Palestinian Authority has yet to be determined.The discussions come as President Donald Trump said the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza remained strong, even as Israel launched a fresh airstrike in the enclave on Saturday, and as tensions escalate over the bodies of 13 hostages that remain in Gaza.Israeli forces carried out a “targeted strike” on an individual in central Gaza on Saturday, Israel’s military said, the latest incident since the ceasefire came into effect.The attack targeted “a terrorist from the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization who planned to carry out an imminent terrorist attack against IDF troops,” the Israeli military said in a statement.On Saturday, Rubio said a number of countries have offered to take part in the force to support the demilitarization of Gaza and monitor compliance with the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.But he stressed that many governments first need clarity on the force’s legal basis and rules of engagement.“I think they’d want to know what’s the mandate, what’s the mission, what are the rules of engagement, what is this force supposed to do,” Rubio told reporters. “All of that’s being worked on.” Rubio added that the force would have to be an “international mission” that could work as part of an agreement through the United Nations.“A lot of countries have expressed interest,” he said, without specifying which countries. “I think they want to know what it is they’re signing up for, which is a very reasonable thing.”Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan were among the countries that had “raised their hand” to contribute, two senior U.S. advisers said last week.Trump said Saturday he discussed the Gaza peace deal with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a meeting aboard Air Force One on Saturday on his way to Asia.Asked by reporters after the meeting when a stabilization force would be ready to deploy in Gaza, Trump replied, “pretty quickly.”“They’re actually picking leaders right now,” he said. “This is real peace.”A U.S.-backed ceasefire remains in force in Gaza, but each side has accused the other of violations. As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas returned all living Israeli hostages, but the remains of 13 are still in the enclave. The group has warned it will take time to locate and recover the remains.In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said that Hamas must return the remaining bodies of deceased hostages, or “the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action.”“When I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours,” he wrote.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 
November 25, 2025
Nov. 25, 2025, 6:00 PM ESTBy Denise ChowListen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Few things in the universe are as perplexing as dark matter — the invisible and exotic “stuff” that is thought to make up most of the matter in galaxies. The theory goes like this: To reconcile our current understanding of physics with what we observe in the cosmos, there must be massive amounts of matter that we can’t see. Scientists are sure that this “missing matter” exists because of the gravitational effects it exerts, but detecting it firsthand has eluded scientists, who have had to indirectly infer how dark matter occupies the universe.Nearly a century after dark matter was first theorized, a Japanese astrophysicist says he may have found the first direct evidence of its existence — gamma rays extending out in a halo-like pattern — in a region near the center of our Milky Way galaxy.“I’m so excited, of course!” study author Tomonori Totani, a professor in the astronomy department at the University of Tokyo, told NBC News in an email. “Although the research began with the aim of detecting dark matter, I thought the chances of success were like winning the lottery.”Totani’s claim of detecting dark matter for the first time is an extraordinary one that not all experts are convinced of. But the findings, published Tuesday in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, offer insights into the wild hunt for dark matter and the difficulties of searching the cosmos for something that cannot be seen.Dark matter is thought to make up about 27% of the universe, while ordinary matter — people, everyday objects, stars and planets, for instance — only makes up about 5%, according to NASA. (The rest is made up of an equally mysterious component known as dark energy.)Totani’s study used observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope aimed near the heart of the Milky Way. The telescope is designed to pick up a type of intense electromagnetic radiation known as gamma rays. Dark matter was first proposed in the 1930s by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky, who stumbled on an anomaly while measuring the mass and movement of galaxies in the large Coma Cluster of galaxies. The galaxies moved too quickly for his calculations, and instead of escaping the cluster, they were somehow being held together.The resulting theories proposed a truly strange form of matter. Dark matter cannot be seen because it does not emit, absorb or reflect light. However, because it theoretically has mass and occupies physical space in the cosmos, its existence can be inferred based on its gravitational effects throughout the universe.Different models exist to potentially explain dark matter, but scientists think the mysterious material is made up of exotic particles that behave differently from regular matter that we’re all familiar with.One popular school of thought suggests that dark matter is made up of hypothetical particles known as WIMPs (short for “weakly interacting massive particles”) that interact very little with ordinary matter. When two WIMPs collide, however, they could annihilate each other and unleash powerful gamma rays.In his research, Totani, an astronomer and astrophysicist, discovered intense gamma-ray emissions that he said were roughly equivalent to one-millionth the brightness of the entire Milky Way. The gamma rays also appeared to be spread out in a halo-like structure across a large region of the sky. If instead the emissions were concentrated from a single source, it might suggest a black hole, star or some other cosmic object was to blame for the gamma rays, rather than diffuse dark matter. Gamma-ray intensity map spanning approximately 100 degrees in the direction of the galactic center. The horizontal gray bar in the central region corresponds to the galactic plane area, which was excluded from the analysis to avoid strong astrophysical radiation.Tomonori Totani / The University of Tokyo“To my knowledge, no phenomenon originating from cosmic rays or stars exhibits a spherically symmetric and the unique energy spectrum like the one observed in this case,” Totani said.But some scientists who were not involved with the study were skeptical of the findings.David Kaplan, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said it’s difficult to trace emissions back to dark matter particles with any certainty because too much is still unknown about gamma rays.“We don’t even know all the things that can produce gamma rays in the universe,” Kaplan said, adding that these high-energy emissions could also be produced by fast-spinning neutron stars or black holes that gobble up regular matter and spit out violent jets of material.As such, even when unusual gamma-ray emissions are detected, it’s often hard to draw meaningful conclusions, according to Eric Charles, a staff scientist at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.“There’s a lot of details we don’t understand,” he said, “and seeing a lot of gamma rays from a large part of the sky associated with the galaxy — it’s just really hard to interpret what’s going on there.”Dillon Brout, an assistant professor in the departments of astronomy and physics at Boston University, said the gamma-ray signals and halo-like structure described in the study are in a region of the sky “that is genuinely the hardest to model.”“So, any claims have to be treated with great caution,” Brout told NBC News in an email. “And, of course, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”Kaplan called the study “interesting” and “worth following,” but said he isn’t totally convinced that follow-up analyses will confirm the findings. But he is hopeful that scientists will directly confirm dark matter’s existence in the future.“It would be a total game changer, because it really is something that seems to dominate the universe,” he said. “It explains the formation of galaxies and therefore of stars and planets and us, and it’s a key part of our understanding of how the universe formed.”Totani himself said additional study is needed to prove or disprove his claim.“If correct, the results would be too impactful, so researchers in the community will carefully examine its validity,” he said. “I am confident in my findings, but I hope that other independent researchers will replicate these results.”Denise ChowDenise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.
December 13, 2025
Dec. 13, 2025, 4:51 AM ESTBy Freddie ClaytonUnited States special envoy Steve Witkoff is on his way to Berlin, Germany, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders for peace negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a senior White House official told NBC News.Witkoff has spearheaded talks with Ukraine and Russia since President Donald Trump took office in January, but multiple high-level meetings between the U.S. and the two warring nations have yet to produce results as disagreements remain over the content of a peace plan.Trump, who has pushed for a deal to be in place by Christmas, has signaled that his patience is running thin.European leaders have focused on how to support Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, with talks ongoing over security guarantees and funding. But long-time American allies in Europe have struggled to balance the mounting pressure from Washington with their reluctance to give in to Russia’s hard-line demands. Zelenskyy said Ukraine submitted a 20-point plan to the U.S. on Wednesday, as it sought to balance out a 28-point U.S.-backed plan whose original version was seen as too favorable to Moscow.Ukraine’s proposal included separate documents on security guarantees, to prevent Russia from attacking again, and on rebuilding Ukraine’s war-hit cities.The issue of ceding territory remains a major sticking point in negotiations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week reiterated his goal to take eastern Ukraine “by force” unless his unwavering demands are met.Zelenskyy said there was still no common understanding on the land issue and that Ukrainians should vote on any territorial concessions in a referendum.Russia has continued its bombardment of Ukraine as talks continue. Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa and the surrounding region suffered major blackouts on Saturday after a large overnight Russian attack on the power grid across the country.Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also temporarily lost all offsite power overnight for the 12th time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.Zelenskyy said in a post on X: “It is important that everyone now sees what Russia is doing – every step they take in terror against our people, all their attacks, for this is clearly not about ending the war. They still aim to destroy our state and inflict maximum pain on our people.”Witkoff’s visit to Berlin comes as the European Union agreed Friday to indefinitely freeze Russian assets worth 210 billion euros ($246 billion) held in Europe, as it considers using those assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort.The indefinite freeze appears to be a bid to convince Belgium, where much of that money is held at Euroclear, to agree to plans that would loan a large chunk of the money to Ukraine to cover its military and civilian budget needs in 2026 and 2027.Belgium opposed the plan because it fears legal retaliation by Russia, which has condemned the freezing of its assets as theft, but the agreement includes a guarantee that Belgium would not be left alone to foot the bill should a potential Russian lawsuit prove successful. Zelenskyy said Thursday that negotiators are wrestling with the question of territorial possession in U.S.-led peace talks on ending the war with Russia, including the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the world’s 10 biggest atomic plants.Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on Friday, Zelenskyy said the U.S. is offering as a compromise to create a “free economic zone” in the Ukraine-controlled parts of the eastern Donbas which Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede.Among the issues Zelenskyy shared were that Russia wants to incorporate the entire Donbas, which Ukraine opposes. He also said the U.S. proposed turning Donbas into a “free economic zone.” That would mean Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbas and Russia refrains from entering the parts of Donbas it does not currently occupy.“They see it as Ukrainian troops withdrawing from the Donetsk region, and the compromise is supposedly that Russian troops will not enter this part of Donetsk region. They do not know who will govern this territory,” he said, adding that Russia is referring to it as a “demilitarized zone.”NATO chief Mark Rutte struck a drastic note Thursday as he urged allies to step up defense efforts. “We are Russia’s next target,” he said, warning of a conflict that could be on “the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.”Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. Yamiche Alcindor and Reuters contributed.
December 3, 2025
Drunk raccoon passes out in liquor store bathroom
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