In a nail-biting victory over Penn State, Notre Dame secured its place in the College Football Playoff championship Thursday, winning 27–24. With eight seconds remaining, fighting Irish kicker Mitch Jeter scored the game-winning field goal from 41 yards out. Notre Dame had the ball in Penn State territory after Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar was intercepted on the previous play, setting up the kick. The semifinal, which took place in Miami's Orange Bowl, got off to a slow start. After a scoreless first quarter, the teams only managed 13 points between them in the first half before scoring 31 points in the fourth quarter alone. The game began with three punts, but the first quarter saw the Nittany Lions intercept Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard, which led to the game's first ...

A string of fierce wildfires broke out Tuesday and surged throughout the Los Angeles area, destroying hundreds of houses and killing at least ten people. The fires were fueled by strong winds and dry conditions. A city official in Los Angeles called Tuesday night "one of the most devastating and terrifying" that she had seen in her area of the city, while a Los Angeles County fire official stated that two of the fires were responsible for an unspecified number of serious injuries. For live coverage, click this link. According to climate scientist Daniel Swain, "the more information we get, the worse this looks." What we know about the flames is as follows. Where are the fires? The Palisades Fire erupted Tuesday morning in Pacific Palisades, a Los Angeles County neighborho...

The NFL playoffs have finally arrived after an 18-week wait. Six wild-card games will be played over the course of the next three days to determine who advances to the divisional round. The following is the schedule: Chargers at Texans (4:30 p.m. ET Saturday) Steelers at Ravens (8 p.m. ET Saturday) Broncos at Bills (1 p.m. ET Sunday) Packers at Eagles (4:30 p.m. ET Sunday) Commanders at Buccaneers (8 p.m. ET Sunday) Vikings at Rams (in Arizona at 8 p.m. ET Monday) NBC News' Rohan Nadkarni and Andrew Grief, along with NBC Sports' Patrick Daugherty, are here to analyze the many storylines to watch from every perspective. Which game are you most looking forward to? Ravens-Steelers, Nadkarni. Regarding these two teams, it's difficult to avoid feeling sent...

In the Los Angeles area, a number of large wildfires are causing death and destruction. Due to strong winds and dry weather, a few wildfires that started on Tuesday have grown significantly in size. By Thursday night, almost 180,000 people had been evacuated and six individuals had been murdered. Go here to watch live broadcast. The fires' sizes and conditions are depicted on the maps below. They will be regularly updated.

Washington A sentencing hearing set for Friday can proceed after the Supreme Court on Thursday denied President-elect Donald Trump's request to halt criminal proceedings in his New York hush money case. After giving Trump two significant victories last year, the conservative-majority court reversed its path with the 5-4 ruling and the dissenting opinion of four conservatives. Trump is scheduled to take office again on January 20. According to the succinct, unsigned ruling, Trump's concerns "can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal." Trump will not be given any prison time, thus the burden sentencing places on him is "relatively insubstantial," the court continued. Along with fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, the three liberal justices ...

Washington The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Friday over whether to reject a bill that would likely outlaw the social networking app TikTok in the US. At least a preliminary ruling is expected in the coming days, if not hours, after the nine justices on the conservative-majority court hear oral arguments from attorneys representing TikTok, some of its users, and the Biden administration. Enacted with widespread bipartisan support, the law mandates that ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, which is based in China, sell out its stake in the company by January 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The platform that millions of Americans utilize would be prohibited if no sale occurred. TikTok and a few of its users filed a lawsuit to have the measure blocked, claimi...

A federal appeals court upheld a judge's ruling mandating a three-day wait to allow for additional appeals, but said Thursday that the Justice Department may publish a report on President-elect Donald Trump's attempts to reverse his 2020 election defeat. According to the decision, Trump may request that the Supreme Court prevent the publication of the special counsel Jack Smith report. In a statement, a Trump spokesman criticized Smith without indicating whether the president-elect would appeal Thursday's decision. The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on Thursday to allow sentencing in Trump's New York hush money case to proceed on Friday delivered him yet another setback. Trump was charged with four counts in 2023 and 2024, including conspiracy to defraud the United States in relation to his ...

In an attempt to fill a void that has existed for more than two years, Lebanon's parliament was scheduled to try to elect a president once more on Thursday. There are signs that Thursday's vote could result in a head of state, despite the fact that 12 prior attempts to select a successor to former President Michel Aoun, whose tenure ended in October 2022, have failed. Joseph Aoun, a Lebanese sea captain who has no connection to the former president, is the front-runner. He is generally seen as the preferred candidate of Saudi Arabia and the United States, whose support Lebanon will require as it attempts to recover from a 14-month conflict between Israel and the terrorist Lebanese group Hezbollah. Suleiman Frangieh, the head of a tiny Christian party in northern Lebanon with strong ties to...

Authorities said Thursday that thousands of pious Hindus gathered around one of India's most popular and wealthy temples to obtain free visitation passes, resulting in a stampede that left at least six people dead and 35 injured. Visits to the god at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, often called Tirupati, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the scene of Wednesday's event, are said to be most fortunate between Friday and January 19. S. Venkateswar, the district collector, or top revenue officer, told reporters Thursday that the stampede started as the gate was unlocked. Approximately 2,500 individuals simply pushed through the fence. Some fell. He noted that investigators were still attempting to identify the reason of the rush. Admission to the almost 2,000-year-old temple is often...

In an interview, P.J. Lechleitner, acting director of immigration and customs enforcement, stated that President Joe Biden should have taken immediate action to strengthen border security in order to curb the influx of migrants into the United States. Lechleitner, who took over as acting director in July 2023 and is getting ready to step down this week before the next administration appoints a replacement, told NBC News on Wednesday that his agency had to provide personnel to assist Customs and Border Protection due to the volume of incoming migrants, which left ICE unable to effectively carry out its own primary mission. He said that he was not the only one who thought Biden ought to have acted more quickly. "I believe that the DHS career people would have appreciated that," he said. An...