News of the World

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Putin Vows to Destroy US-Made Patriot Missile Systems Promised to Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s very confident that Moscow will destroy the Patriot air defense systems that the United States has promised to Ukraine in a new security assistance package.
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A day after the U.S. State Department announced a new $1.85 billion aid package for Ukraine, bringing the overall financial support to about $22 billion, Putin said “the Patriot is a fairly outdated system” and an “antidote” to these systems will be found.
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“We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them—we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” Putin told the station.

However, there is little end in sight to the war as Moscow vows it will fight until all its aims are achieved.
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Russian missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure have recently increased, depriving citizens of heat and other resources during the harsh winter months.
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The Patriot, which stands for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, is a theater-wide surface-to-air missile defense system built by Raytheon Technologies Corp. and considered one of the most advanced air defense systems in the U.S. military’s arsenal.
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It’s a mobile system that usually includes powerful radar, a control station, a power generator, launch stations, and other support vehicles.

Elon Musk Says Around 100 Starlinks Now Active in Iran

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday that the company is now close to having 100 active Starlinks, the firm’s satellite internet service, in Iran, three months after he posted on Twitter that he would activate the service there amid protests around the Islamic country.
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The billionaire had said in September that he would activate Starlink in Iran as part of a U.S.-backed effort “to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information” to Iranians.

The satellite-based broadband service could help Iranians circumvent the regime’s restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social media platforms amid protests around the country.

Millions of Americans Set to Be Removed From Medicaid After Passage of Omnibus Bill

Millions of U.S. citizens who enrolled in the Medicaid insurance program during the COVID-19 pandemic could soon lose their coverage due to the passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill.

Back in January 2020, the Trump administration declared a public health emergency (PHE) that has been renewed every 90 days since. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was signed into law in March 2020 prohibiting states from removing Medicaid recipients from the program as long as the PHE is in effect, thereby ensuring that Americans have access to continuous medical coverage during the pandemic.

The $1.7 trillion omnibus bill, however, contains a provision that will eliminate Medicaid coverage protection from PHE, implying that states can start removing individuals who do not meet Medicaid criteria beginning in April 2023.

Medicaid is a form of free or low-cost health care in which people qualify based on income and family size. People usually lose their Medicaid coverage when their incomes increase and they fall outside its eligibility requirements.
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A group of 25 Republican governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Dec. 19, requesting that he end the PHE in April.

The letter points out that PHE negatively affects states as it artificially raises the number of Americans under Medicaid even when they are ineligible. As a result, states have to shell out more money for the program.
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In a press release on Dec. 20, the National Association of Medicaid Directors pointed out that more than 90 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid, which is the largest number of members in the program’s history.

Department of Justice Provides Update on John Durham Probe

The DOJ stated that Durham’s office spent about $2.08 million from April 1 to Sept. 30. His team has been quiet in recent weeks, after a jury found Russia analyst Igor Danchenko not guilty of a charge of lying to the FBI.

“The review identified no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in the design or operation of SCO controls,” the DOJ stated.

SCO refers to the Special Counsel’s Office of John Durham.

A large portion of the funds allocated to Durham went to personnel compensation and benefits, while the rest dealt with rent, travel, utilities, and related expenditures. About a third went to “contractual services,” including IT services and “litigative support,” according to the report.

“The Department will continue to dedicate and leverage resources to maintain strong program and financial management controls. Management takes its program and financial accountability seriously and is dedicated to ensuring that funds are used in a responsible and transparent manner,” the DOJ report reads.
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“Now, thanks to John Durham, we know definitively that James Comey, Andy McCabe, Peter Strzok, and all the others at the FBI—Thibault, Auten, Somma—lied to a federal court, lied to the American public and intentionally—intentionally—did not do their jobs because they knew the answers to the questions about the Steele dossier, its source network, and its veracity would fail and would destroy their investigation,” Patel said in October.

“These political witch hunts and prosecutions are very real, whether it’s January 6 or otherwise.”
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So far, Durham has obtained one guilty plea. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of altering a document to renew a FISA surveillance warrant for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, was sentenced in 2021 but avoided prison time.

DOJ Employed ‘Reverse Spying’ in Attempt to Shut Down Investigation into Russia Collusion Hoax: Devin Nunes

Devin Nunes subpoenaed the DOJ and FBI for documents related to their involvement with the Russia collusion hoax when he was a congressman and chair of the House Intelligence Committee. In response, the DOJ engaged in “reverse spying” to try and stop the investigation, Nunes alleged in an interview that aired on Newsmakers by NTD and The Epoch Times on Dec. 21.

“It’s all common knowledge now that the FBI, DOJ, the Democrat National Party, they were all in cahoots together, taking made-up, phony dirt and taking it before a FISA court,” said Nunes, who was chair of the intelligence committee from 2015–2019.
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So, what do they do? … They target my lawyers so they can try and figure out what we knew, when we knew it, and what we were going to do with the information.”
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“It wasn’t like they were in search of some crime. What they were really after was intelligence, and potentially blackmail, to figure out how they could stop the information,” Nunes alleged.

But ultimately, the DOJ’s reverse spying was unsuccessful, Nunes stated, and he was able to openly shed light on the cooperation between the DOJ, the FBI, and the Democrat National Party to bring down then-President Donald Trump.
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According to Nunes, if the DOJ was acting in compliance with the law, it should have informed Nunes when it demanded Google turn over personal email and phone data from at least two senior intelligence members of Nunes’ team. Nunes specified that the team members were working on the congressional probe into the Russia hoax.
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Nunes said that the only way for the DOJ to get around that requirement is to use the National Security Division and “essentially accuse” Nunes and his team of being “agents of Putin.”

So guys, if you had ever thought this was just about Trump, you're wrong. They're going after anybody that opposes Biden and his regime.