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WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who was the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories suggesting he was a plant who worked with law enforcement was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday, among the longest prison sentences given in connection with the U.S. Capitol attack. Zachary Alam , who wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat under a black and tan fur-lined hat on Jan. 6, 2021, was often at the front of the mob during the attack and entered the building through a broken window. Once he was inside, he assaulted officers and smashed windows leading into the House Speaker’s Lobby just before another Donald Trump supporter was shot, prosecutors said. He was convicted of eight felonies and several misdemeanors in September after a jury trial. At his sentencing hearing ...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Democrats were counting on fed-up women to elect America’s first female president. Instead, dissatisfied men helped return Donald Trump to power. The president-elect's two eldest sons helped him pick a running mate who once decried “childless cat ladies,” while his youngest son, Barron, encouraged his father’s pivot to podcasts in an effort to reach other young men, a typically reliable Democratic voting bloc that split evenly this year. “I think the gender gap is going to be the story of the next 20 years. Truly,” Democratic strategist Caitlin Legacki said. “There are a lot of men who feel like they’re being left behind, that society doesn’t have a place for them. And if we don’t want a civil war breaking out along gender lines, we’ve got to figure tha...

Whether you’re cleaning up after kids and pets or maintaining a tidy home , a quality vacuum is essential, no matter your living situation. “Vacuuming your home on a weekly basis is one of those household tasks that requires relatively minimal effort and instantly makes your home look cleaner,” says Caroline Solomon , a New York City-based home organizing expert. To help you find the best vacuum for your space, I consulted with four experts in home cleaning to discuss different types of vacuums and how to shop for one. I also rounded up their recommendations for the best vacuums to shop, as well as NBC Select staff favorites for small homes, large homes, homes with pets and more. SKIP AHEAD How I picked the best vacuums |...

Centuries on and it turns out that long-held assumptions about some of the people of Pompeii should not have been set in stone. New DNA analysis of skeletal remains in the doomed Roman town has revealed that some of the victims of Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in A.D. 79 have been wrongly identified, highlighting how much modern day thinking has been projected onto the ancient world. “We show that the individuals’ sexes and family relationships do not match traditional interpretations,” wrote the authors of the research published Thursday in the journal Current Biology . “Modern assumptions about gendered behaviors may not be reliable lenses through which to view data from the past,” they added. Pompeii's victims were later immortalized by archaeologists wh...

LONDON — Few have expressed glee at Donald Trump’s election win like Europe’s far right . In President-elect Trump, these ascendant insurgents across the pond see a key ally, someone who shares their mix of authoritarianism, populism and extreme hostility to immigration . “We have big plans for the future!” posted Hungary’s Prime Minister Vikor Orbán, an influential Trump friend and ally , calling it “a much needed victory for the World!” Asked what these “plans” were, András László, a lawmaker in Orbán’s Fidesz party, told NBC News on Thursday that his leader had left it “deliberately vague.” It would broadly involve a “continuation” of their first-term partnership, he said, “to help persecuted Christians around the world, and to promote ...

At President-elect Donald Trump’s election night celebration on Tuesday, a list of alternative media stars with massive followings of young Americans received an impromptu shoutout. “I want to thank some people real quick: The Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys and, last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan,” Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts promotion company, said on stage. The names — shows and personalities that hosted Trump on their programs during the campaign — comprise a who’s who of the most influential shows among young American men. And in an election in which his campaign specifically courted that demographic, the shoutout hinted at what has so far been borne out in exit polling data. Trump...

Black men had been perceived as a voting bloc ripe for Donald Trump to attract after many expressed concerns a year ago about Joe Biden’s re-election efforts. An NBC News poll at that time showed that at least 20% of Black men would support Trump — an alarming number for Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris took over from Biden, who stepped aside under pressure in July. In the end, however, the poll from November 2023 held true: 78% of Black men selected Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election, according to the NBC News National Exit Poll. That figure was below Biden’s 2020 mark of 80%. For one Black pollster, the reasons behind Harris’s performance are not complicated. Alvin Tillery, a professor of political science at Northwestern University and founder of the su...

Police are still searching for 43 monkeys that escaped from a research facility in South Carolina on Wednesday, as the head of the company revealed that the outbreak happened when a staff member failed to secure a door properly. Police in Yemassee, Beaufort County, confirmed Thursday night that the primates were in the wooded region surrounding the Alpha Genesis facility, in a rural area on the edge of Yamassee. Locals were urged to lock windows and doors and not to interact with the monkeys and instead call 911 immediately upon spotting any of the escaped primates. "These animals are highly sensitive and easily startled, we recommend that the public avoid the area to prevent frightening them further," police said. "The staff at Alpha Genesis are currently attempting to ent...