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Sept. 27, 2025, 6:00 AM EDTBy Denise ChowA small city in South Texas is scrambling to find alternative sources of drinking water as severe drought grips the region and threatens to dry up its main supply.The city of Mathis typically pumps its drinking water from Lake Corpus Christi, but worsening drought conditions are expected to plunge water levels too low to safely extract usable water, according to Mathis City Manager Cedric Davis.“It’s not that we’re running out of water or we’re going to be completely dry,” Davis said. “It’s going to be difficult to pull clear water out of the lake because we’ll be pulling up mud with the water.”All that mud could damage the city’s filtration and water treatment systems, he added. Mathis has a population of around 4,300 people, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.The situation in Texas highlights a growing problem in drought-prone parts of the country — and the world — as climate change alters precipitation patterns, intensifies drought and saps the availability of safe drinking water.In 2023, the city of New Orleans faced a drinking water crisis after abnormally low levels in the drought-stricken Mississippi River caused salt water to encroach upriver into water intake facilities.Last year, persistent drought and years of low rainfall pushed reservoirs in Mexico City to historically low levels, triggering a severe water shortage in the most populous city in North America.South Texas has been in the grip of a yearslong dry spell, with much of the region in “moderate” or “severe” drought, as classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor, which releases weekly color-coded maps to show the extent and intensity of drought nationwide.The unusually dry conditions have caused Lake Corpus Christi’s water levels to fall.“We’ve not had enough rain to replenish the lakes and reservoirs of South Texas,” Davis said, adding that several cities and smaller communities in the area are now having to look for emergency solutions.Davis said current projections suggest that the lake’s levels could be too low by late December. As such, the city is attempting to dig two emergency wells to keep drinking water flowing into Mathis.The project hasn’t yet broken ground, but Davis said he is hoping to fast-track the permitting process and leasing agreement with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. If all goes according to plan, digging could begin by the end of October, he said.“If everything matches up and we can get the wells in by the end of December, we’re going to be fine,” Davis said.Still, city officials are considering other backup measures just in case, including costly desalination plants and the possibility of treating and reusing wastewater.“We’re leaving no stone unturned,” Davis said.Denise ChowDenise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

A small city in South Texas is scrambling to find alternative sources of drinking water as severe drought grips the region and threatens to dry up its main supply

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Sept. 27, 2025, 5:07 PM EDTBy Cristian SantanaThe internet’s “Blinking Guy” is trading his meme fame for miles this weekend.Drew Scanlon will ride 102 miles across the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research.Scanlon said his nearly 10-year cycling mission has raised more than $250,000 for the disease, inspired by friends affected by MS.Despite having one of the most famous faces on the planet, Scanlon said he is not often recognized on the street. His fame comes not from anything he’s posted or said online, but from something intrinsically human: blinking. The meme originated during his time at the video game website Giant Bomb, when a co-worker made a joke during a livestream and Scanlon’s reaction — a simple blink — was captured.“I don’t know who clipped it out or when or why,” Scanlon told NBC News in a phone interview Friday, the day before the Waves to Wind 2025 charity bike ride in the Bay Area.“It was actually about a four-year gap between when the video actually aired and [when the] meme took off.”To say the meme “took off” might be an understatement. One version of Scanlon’s blinking face has been viewed more than 6 billion times on Giphy alone, plastered in chat rooms, text messages and social media posts. “You know when something like this happens It can be kind of bewildering,” he says.On the road, Scanlon is more known as “the guy who raises all that meme money” for MS, he said.He and his charity biking group, the Big El West, have focused on raising awareness and funds for the neurological disease, which affects 2.8 million people globally. Women are twice as likely as men to develop MS, which can cause vision problems, weakness and difficulty walking, according to the National Institutes of Health.“It’s nice to have found this outlet, and it’s great to see that it continues to resonate with people,” Scanlon said.Cristian SantanaCristian Santana is an Emmy-nominated Journalist at NBC News covering crime, technology and domestic issues.Follow on Bluesky 

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

The internet’s “Blinking Guy” is trading his meme fame for miles this weekend

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Sept. 27, 2025, 12:27 PM EDTBy Natasha KoreckiCHICAGO — In the run-up to former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment, there was no question who would step up to represent him.Friend and former colleague Patrick Fitzgerald, who served as U.S. attorney in Chicago for over a decade, would spring from retirement to be his man.Nationally, Fitzgerald is best known for his role as special prosecutor in the investigation into a CIA leak that brought charges against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.But to Chicago, Fitzgerald is something of a legend. The George W. Bush appointee left an indelible legacy as a scrupulous, hard-charging prosecutor who disrupted the kinds of crooked backroom deals that were long a trademark of Illinois politics.Over his nearly 12-year tenure as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, his prosecutions took down the Chicago mob, put two consecutive governors — one Republican, one Democratic — behind bars and won a conviction against a top donor to Barack Obama just as Obama was running for the White House. He jailed longtime “untouchables” in Chicago and Springfield political circles while prosecuting international cases, including a Hamas funding scheme and major terrorism cases.Still in the Chicago area, Fitzgerald retired as a top partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom two years ago and was enjoying spending more time with his family while doing some teaching. He’s entering the national spotlight to be Comey’s attorney out of longtime loyalty to a dear friend, those close to him say.But he’s potentially embarking on what could become a political firestorm. President Donald Trump made clear in his own social media post that he wanted his attorney general to bring charges against Comey.“Comey implicitly trusts Pat Fitzgerald. They’ve been best friends, or really good friends, for years,” said Robert Grant, former FBI special agent in charge of the Chicago office at the time Fitzgerald served as U.S. attorney. “They’re that close, and he also has a tremendous amount of respect for Pat.”When Fitzgerald landed in Chicago in 2001, he was dubbed “Eliot Ness with a Harvard Law degree.” But before that, he was the first to bring a case against Osama bin Laden — in 1996 — years before bin Laden masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was one-term Illinois Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (no relation) who recommended Patrick Fitzgerald for the post, at the time saying he wanted someone to lead the office who was unassailable and unafraid to root out public corruption.“Pat was out of central casting to be the incorruptible guy that was in aggressive pursuit of the facts and dispensing justice and vindicating the public’s right for honest government,” said Patrick Collins, a former federal prosecutor who led the case against former Gov. George Ryan, a Republican.“As a line assistant who was intensely involved in a prosecution and worked in an office that had a reputation for prosecuting without fear or favor, having Pat Fitzgerald as your boss — he had your back,” he added. “We always knew that cases would rise or fall on the facts.”Fitzgerald’s and Comey’s personal styles couldn’t be more different. For years, Comey has publicly clashed with Trump, who fired him during his first White House term. Most controversially, Comey held a news conference days before the 2016 presidential election to disclose new findings of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Comey also frequently posts on social media — including a video on the day of his indictment vowing to take on Trump.Comey responds to indictment saying ‘I’m innocent’00:57For his part, Fitzgerald is unassuming and does not relish being in the limelight, those close to him say. Fitzgerald, an Amherst College and Harvard Law graduate, had “a steel-trap mind” when they worked together, Grant said, describing a photographic memory that would allow him to rattle off cellphone numbers of defendants years after prosecuting a case. But his demeanor was shaped by humble beginnings in Brooklyn, where he grew up the son of a hotel doorman.“There’s a little bit of hubris you see in Comey that you don’t see in Pat,” Grant said. “When you first meet Pat, he’s so down-to-earth that you don’t realize what a brilliant mind there is behind that genial exterior. Whoever that prosecutor is, she’s up against a damn good lawyer.”Lindsey Halligan, the new interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, presented the case to secure Comey’s indictment on her own, according to a source familiar with the grand jury proceedings in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday. A senior Justice Department official told NBC News that career prosecutors in Halligan’s office sent her a memo saying they believed probable cause did not exist to secure the indictment.Trump tapped Halligan — who has no prosecutorial experience but was on his defense team in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case — after the previous acting U.S. attorney left the position under pressure from the president to prosecute Comey.When he gained national exposure for prosecuting Libby, Fitzgerald became something of a media darling. He was sometimes referred to jokingly as “prosecutie,” according to one of his friends, and in 2005, much to his dismay at the time, he was named in People magazine’s “sexiest men alive” issue.The straight-laced prosecutor appeared visibly uncomfortable when reporters asked him about the designation at a news conference.“I almost enjoy going back to the leak questions I can’t answer,” he said at the time. “I played a lot of practical jokes on people for a lot of years, and they all got even at once. OK, new topic.”Fitzgerald’s investigations during his time in Chicago broke open a seminal case against the criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit. Dubbed “Operation Family Secrets,” his office brought sweeping charges against more than a dozen mobsters and exposed evidence of 18 previously unsolved murders dating back decades. He also dug into Chicago City Hall, then under the longtime grip of Mayor Richard M. Daley. A massive investigation into an illicit trucking operation sent dozens to prison and exposed the underbelly of city corruption.Fitzgerald had plenty of detractors.Many of their criticisms stemmed from one of the highest-profile cases to come of his office: the prosecution of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The yearslong investigation culminated in the stunning 2008 arrest of a sitting governor. Though several of his aides were already convicted of related crimes, Blagojevich, a Democrat, spoke openly on the phone — with the FBI listening — about how he could extract a personal benefit in exchange for naming the successor to what was then Obama’s vacant Senate seat.In one of the best-known lines of the case, Blagojevich was recorded relishing a potential payout from using his power as governor to name the next U.S. senator: “I’ve got this thing, and it’s f—–g golden.”Blagojevich was also later convicted of trying to shake down a children’s hospital executive for a $25,000 campaign contribution in exchange for an increase to pediatric reimbursement rates, as well as holding up action on a horse-racing bill while he illegally sought a $100,000 campaign contribution.In laying out the charges on the day of the governor’s arrest, Fitzgerald declared Blagojevich was on a “public corruption spree” that would make “Lincoln roll over in his grave.”Fitzgerald faced criticism for making extrajudicial remarks and potentially prejudicing a jury. For years, Blagojevich assailed Fitzgerald for bringing the weight of the office against him. Trump first commuted Blagojevich’s sentence, then pardoned him earlier this year.Then there was the Libby case, which involved extensive travel to Washington, D.C., while managing the Chicago office and its myriad blockbuster cases. According to law enforcement officials who worked under him, he never dropped the ball back home. At the same time, Fitzgerald drew national attention as he handled the investigation, which sought to uncover who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA agent.At one point in the case, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for refusing to disclose her sources. Fitzgerald took heat from conservatives who called him overzealous in attempting to notch a conviction against Libby, who had served as then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Bush commuted Libby’s 30-month sentence, and in 2017, Trump pardoned him, saying he had heard Libby was treated unfairly.In a statement at the time, Fitzgerald defended the prosecution, saying Libby “lied repeatedly and blatantly about matters at the heart of a criminal investigation concerning the disclosure of a covert intelligence officer’s identity.”Those who worked with Fitzgerald in Chicago defended him as zealously apolitical, noting he served under presidents of both parties. They held up his body of work as evidence he was no friend to those on either side of the aisle.“I worked with him for nine years. I have no idea if he’s a Republican or a Democrat, and it quite frankly never came up. He’s entirely about justice and doing the right thing,” said Eric Sussman, a defense attorney who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney under Fitzgerald.Sussman prosecuted a corruption case against onetime media baron Conrad Black, another high-profile defendant sent to prison in that era after he was convicted of diverting proceeds from his newspaper sales for his personal use. Like with Blagojevich, Trump would eventually pardon Black.“Pat really professionalized the office and made sure that everyone underneath him operated with the same professionalism, integrity and commitment to doing the right thing in Justice,” Sussman added. “That carried over not just to the attorneys in the office, but to how people in Chicago perceived him and perceived the office that he ran.”Natasha KoreckiNatasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

In the run-up to former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment, there was no question who would step up to represent him: Patrick Fitzgerald, Comey’s longtime friend.

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Sept. 27, 2025, 4:52 PM EDTBy Tim Stelloh, Katie Wall and Erick MendozaAt least four people are dead after torrential rainfall and flooding in Arizona that officials described Saturday as catastrophic.Three of the deaths were in the small community of Globe, Gila County emergency manager Carl Medford told NBC News.Additional details about the deaths were not immediately available. Medford said that search-and-rescue teams were still looking for people.Authorities in Scottsdale said they recovered the body of a man near a vehicle that had been submerged in floodwaters. A spokesperson for the city’s police department identified him Saturday as Ander Polanco, 38.Polanco’s family had reported him missing Friday, the police department said in a statement. His body was found Saturday morning after the waters receded.The National Weather Service said that between 1 and 2 inches of rain fell across much of the metropolitan Phoenix area Friday. The city’s airport recorded 1.6 inches — the highest single-day total in seven years, the agency said.Video from the community of Miami, east of Phoenix, showed what appeared to be large hail and a road submerged in raging floodwaters. The weather service said that hail larger than an inch was seen across the region.Other video showed self-driving vehicles apparently stuck in floodwaters at Phoenix’s airport.Officials in the nearby community of Globe declared a state of emergency during a council meeting Saturday. Council members described the damage as devastating.“This is something that we could never even imagine, and here we are living it,” council member Freddy Rios said.Rios said the extent of the damage was unclear. In a statement earlier, the city said its historic downtown was unsafe, with compromised buildings and hazardous chemicals and debris, including propane tanks.Another council member, Mike Stapleton, described residents who were trapped and climbing on roofs. He said he heard an account of a pregnant woman swimming out of a flooded restaurant.Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Katie WallErick Mendoza

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

At least four people are dead after torrential rainfall and flooding in Arizona.

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Sept. 27, 2025, 2:07 PM EDTBy Kelly O’Donnell and Alexandra MarquezAt least 15 FBI agents were fired Friday in connection with their actions during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, a source familiar with the terminations told NBC News.The agents had been assigned to help secure federal buildings during the demonstrations, when a tense standoff developed between a large crowd of protesters and a limited number of FBI personnel. Some agents were photographed kneeling, which the source described as a tactic meant to de-escalate the conflict.Protests erupted nationwide in 2020 after Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. The murder, captured on video, fueled demonstrations that called for racial justice and police accountability.The FBI declined to comment on the firings, citing personnel matters. The FBI Agents Association said in a statement that it “strongly condemn[s]” the firings as “unlawful,” saying they violated “the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country.”The association sharply criticized Patel, accusing him of breaking the law with these and other firings at the FBI in recent months.“Leaders uphold the law — they don’t repeatedly break it. They respect due process, rather than hide from it,” the FBIAA statement said. “Patel’s dangerous new pattern of actions are weakening the Bureau because they eliminate valuable expertise and damage trust between leadership and the workforce, and make it harder to recruit and retain skilled agents — ultimately putting our nation at greater risk.”Police officers from Ferguson, Mo., join protesters to remember George Floyd by taking a knee in the parking lot of the police station on May 30, 2020.Robert Cohen / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via APThese firings come just weeks after three former top FBI officials sued Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleging that Patel fired them to stay in President Donald Trump’s good graces.One of them, former acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, said in August that he was not given a reason for his termination, though he served the agency for almost 20 years.Earlier this year, Driscoll spoke out against the Trump administration’s efforts to fire agents who had worked on cases involving participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.At the time, Driscoll said he’d also refused a request from senior administration officials to provide a list of every FBI employee who investigated Jan. 6 rioters.One of the president’s first executive orders at the start of his second term was to pardon roughly 1,500 criminal defendants who had been charged for their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Patel defended the firings. He said the FBI “will only bring cases that are based in fact and law and have a legal basis to do so, and anyone that does otherwise will not be employed at the FBI.”Kelly O’DonnellKelly O’Donnell is Senior White House correspondent for NBC News.Alexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

At least 15 FBI agents were fired Friday in connection with their actions during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, a source familiar with the terminations told.

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How Trump has changed the Oval Office

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

Since returning to the White House earlier this year, President Trump has added a slew of golden accents and objects to the Oval Office, NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell reports.

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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleBy Alexandra Marquez and Lindsey PipiaPresident Donald Trump on Saturday said that he was directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary Troops” to Portland.In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote that the troops would “protect War ravaged Portland” and protect ICE facilities that he claimed are “under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists.”Trump added that he is “authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” but didn’t clarify what that meant.Over the last several days, the president has repeatedly spoken negatively about Portland, including saying on Thursday that “anarchy” is taking place in the West Coast city.”You go out to Portland, people die out there. Many people have died over the years in Portland. Portland is, I don’t know how anybody lives there. It’s amazing, but it’s, it’s anarchy out there. That’s what they want. They want anarchy,” Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office on Thursday.On Friday, in separate comments in the Oval Office, the president said people in Portland are “out of control.””Have you seen Portland at all? If you take a look what’s happening in Portland. It’s it has been going on for years. Just people out of control, crazy. We’re going to stop that very soon,” Trump said.Alexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.Lindsey PipiaLindsey Pipia is an Associate Producer for the 2024 Political Desk.

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he was directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary Troops” to Portland

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Sept. 27, 2025, 9:29 AM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonThe giants of the Amazon are getting even bigger. A sweeping new study has found the rainforest’s largest trees are not only holding their ground, they’re thriving — growing, multiplying in number and continue to play a major role in mitigating the impacts of climate change.There was a 3.3% expansion in big trees per decade, scientists found, after tracking changes in 188 intact forest plots across the Amazon over the past 30 years.Led by almost 100 researchers from 60 universities in Brazil, the U.K. and elsewhere, the findings were published on Thursday in the journal “Nature Plants.”The authors attributed the growth to the rising amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning of gas, oil and coal.The paper was welcomed as evidence of forest resilience in the face of climate change, but scientists warned these big trees remain vulnerable as droughts, lightning and fires are increasing in frequency, while deforestation continues to pose a serious threat.There was an understanding that big trees were “expected to be vulnerable to climate change,” Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, one of the study’s lead authors told NBC News in a telephone interview Saturday. “What we see here is actually they seem to be showing quite a resilience.”“We’re not seeing signs of them dying off,” Esquivel-Muelbert, who co-authored the study while at Britain’s University of Birmingham, but who has since moved on to the nearby University of Cambridge. “They are increasing in size and number as well.”Scientists stressed that while protecting intact forest areas was essential to stabilizing the climate, the Amazon cannot on its own offset the vast amount of carbon dioxide produced worldwide by cars, factories and power stations — and it remains under threat.The rainforest is a carbon sink, meaning it stores more carbon than it produces. Pushing the rainforest past its limit could accelerate climate change and have terrible consequences for local communities, including Indigenous groups who depend on it. Esquivel-Muelbert stressed it was difficult to predict how worsening climate change would have an impact in the future, and hesitated to say that increased CO2 benefitted the forest, warning it may cause bigger trees to become more exposed to other factors like drought.”We don’t know the consequences in the long run,” she said. Other factors, including deforestation, remain a colossal risk to the health of the Amazon. Fattening trees is, in some ways, a “positive news story,” said Rebecca Banbury Morgan, a lead author of the study from the University of Bristol. But it also means that the forest is now “more vulnerable to losing those trees.” “Although we have shown that trees in intact forest are still increasing in size, any benefits of this in terms of the carbon sink can be quite easily negated by deforestation and logging impacts, so preserving these intact forests is really a priority,” she told NBC News. Wildfires, deforestation and global warming could permanently destroy the water cycle that sustains parts of the Amazon rainforest if action is not taken in the coming decades, according to a separate study published last year in Nature.The study suggested that 10% to 47% of the landscape is at risk of transitioning away from rainforest by 2050 if warming and rates of deforestation aren’t dramatically curbed.Brazil’s Congress approved a bill in 2023 to relax environmental licensing to pave a highway cutting through the heart of the Amazon, and close to one of the last regions that still has large areas of pristine forestLosing a large portion of the Amazon could turn a key carbon sink into a source of emissions, as wildfires burn and plants and animals decompose, no longer able to survive. Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 

- Latest News - September 27, 2025

A new study has found the Amazon rainforest’s biggest trees are growing because of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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