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Congress has until midnight Friday to come up with a way to fund the government or federal agencies will shut down, meaning hundreds of thousands of federal employees could be sent home — or stay on the job without pay — just ahead of the holidays.

Republicans abandoned a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk came out against it. Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson to essentially renegotiate the deal days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.

On Thursday, Republicans did just that, putting together a revamped government funding proposal that would keep the government running for three more months and suspend the debt ceiling for two years, until Jan. 30, 2027. But the bill failed overwhelmingly in a House vote hours later, leaving next steps uncertain.

Update:

Just In: House Republican leadership is proposing a plan for raising the debt limit that is separate from the government funding bill, according to three sources in a closed-door GOP meeting Friday.

The proposal would be an agreement to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion next year in the “first reconciliation package” alongside $2.5 trillion cuts in “net mandatory spending in the reconciliation process,” according to three sources.

This plan of separating the debt limit increase from the government funding plan, as CNN has been reporting, is being discussed in a House GOP conference meeting that is still underway. The debt limit proposal would satisfy most of the Republicans who are against raising the debt ceiling without extensive cuts accompanying it.

House GOP leadership is shopping this idea to the conference to see if they have enough consensus to go to the floor and avoid another failure like Thursday night, when 38 Republicans voted against a plan that linked government funding and the debt limit together — a plan that President-elect Donald Trump had supported.

The House has failed to pass a Trump-backed spending bill as a government shutdown looms https://t.co/hj7u05YLMj

— CNN (@CNN) December 20, 2024

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Aleksandr Khinshtein says missiles have hit the town of Rylsk in Kursk Region, targeting civilian infrastructure

Ukraine has launched a missile attack on Russia’s Kursk Region, Acting Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein reported on Friday. He said civilian infrastructure in the town of Rylsk was being targeted.

In a short video message posted on his Telegram channel on Friday, Khinshtein stated that the Ukrainian military had “conducted a missile strike on the town of Rylsk.” He accused Kiev’s forces of “deliberately choosing civilian facilities [and] social facilities as their targets.”

He added that senior regional officials, as well as all emergency services, had been deployed to the site of the incident. 

Update:

Just In: Six dead after Ukrainian strikes.

🚨 BREAKING: Ukraine Launches ATACMS Missile Strikes on Russian City of Rylsk

• Direct Hit: Ukrainian forces reportedly fired ATACMS missiles at Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region, targeting buildings housing Russian military personnel.

• Strategic Move: This comes amid… pic.twitter.com/15qzBO1E78

— Shred Newz (@Shreddick0) December 20, 2024

𝕊𝕙𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℕ𝕖𝕨𝕫

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Six ATACMS and four Storm Shadows were intercepted by Russian air defenses, causing damage to the facility

DETAILS TO FOLLOW:

Ukraine launched a missile attack against a massive chemical plant in Russia’s southern Rostov Region, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported. According to the military, the attack happened on Wednesday. Six American-made ATACMS tactical missiles and four air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used in the assault.

Russian air defense units engaged the incoming missiles, successfully intercepting all ATACMS and three out of the four Storm Shadow missiles using S-400 and Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile systems, as well as the Pantsir air defense system. One of the Storm Shadows veered off course. However, it still impacted the facility, resulting in damage to a technical building on the premises, the ministry said.

Moscow condemned the attack, claiming that these actions by the Kiev regime, supported by Western sponsors, would not go unanswered.

Ukrainian missile strike targets chemical plant in southern Russia – MOD pic.twitter.com/SkJMxyFzuP

— PolitlQ (@PolitlQ) December 19, 2024

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The Russian president has proposed to test Western defense systems against Moscow’s new hypersonic missile

Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the West to put their modern air defense systems up against Moscow’s new hypersonic Oreshnik missile in what would be a “technological duel.” During his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin was asked to comment on opinions expressed by some foreign military experts suggesting that the Oreshnik can easily be shot down by Western missile defense systems.

“Well, if those Western experts you mentioned believe that, they should suggest to their employers in the West and the US to conduct a technological experiment. For instance, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them identify a target in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense systems there, and then we will strike it with an Oreshnik. Let’s see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. Is the other side ready?” Putin asked.

Putin Challenges West to “Technological High-Tech Duel”

"Select a target in Kiev, concentrate all air and missile defenses there, and Russia will strike it with the Oreshnik.

We are ready for such an experiment,” the Russian president said during his year-end Q&A. pic.twitter.com/ZHaYFnwNWj

— Warzone Observer (@WarzoneObserver) December 19, 2024

𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕫𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕆𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕧𝕖𝕣

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Nearly 50km of shoreline is polluted after two tankers were damaged in a storm on Sunday

A major oil spill has contaminated a large stretch along the Black Sea coast in southern Russia’s Krasnodar Region after two tankers were severely damaged in a storm over the weekend. The vessels wrecked in the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and Crimea.

Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Tuesday that fuel oil was found along the sandy coast between the cities of Temryuk and Anapa, popular tourist destinations, stretching for dozens of kilometers.

“This morning, while monitoring the shoreline, stains of fuel oil were discovered. Oil products washed ashore for tens of kilometers,” he said.

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NASA’s two stuck astronauts have been given more bad news as their space mission is extended again and are now not expected back until spring. 

Astronauts Butch Wilmore, 61, and Suni Williams, 58, left the International Space Station in June and expected to return home just eight days later. 

However, their mission grew months longer after NASA decided to send the company’s faulty Starliner capsule back empty in September. 

NASA has now announced their mission has been pushed back again, as their relief team has been delayed another month, and their expected return would mark ten months since they left Earth. 

The next crew of four was supposed to launch in February, followed by Wilmore and Williams’ return home at the end of the month alongside two other astronauts. 

However, the most recent announcement said that SpaceX needs more time to prepare the brand-new capsule for liftoff and it’s now scheduled no earlier than late March. 

NASA said that it considered using a different SpaceX capsule to fly up the replacement crew to keep the flights on schedule, but decided they would wait for the new capsule. 

Earlier this year, at their 60-day mark, many fans reacted to the horror of the situation on social media and described the delay as ‘torture’.

Two astronauts stranded in space will now remain there until late March or April as NASA delays launching their replacements. Their eight-day mission stretched to nearly eight months after NASA returned the faulty Starliner capsule empty in September. https://t.co/OHjQNhwKd7 pic.twitter.com/iRMBJy9MWf

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 17, 2024

ℂ𝔹𝕊 𝔼𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℕ𝕖𝕨𝕤

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Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was one of two victims of the explosion near a residential building.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, has been killed along with his deputy in a bomb blast in southeastern Moscow early on Tuesday, officials have confirmed.

The explosion occurred around 6am outside a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue as Kirillov and his aide were leaving the premises to board an official vehicle.

Russian investigators said an improvised explosive device (IED) packed with about 300 grams of TNT was likely attached to an electric scooter near the building’s entrance. It was possibly detonated remotely, likely by a radio signal or mobile phone.

Vae Victis🇷🇺Chief of Russian chemical defense forces, killed in Moscow blast, known for his research on US bacteriological laboratories in Ukraine and for directly accusing🇺🇸of being behind the Covid19 outbreak https://t.co/5CjYkcbVeo
The Beach & biolabs☠️https://t.co/H7RHeQZtxI pic.twitter.com/BiYGvcPMJe

— Entendance (@entendance) December 17, 2024

𝔼𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖

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The continued support for Ukraine is aimed at inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Moscow, the president has said

The West’s support for Ukraine is pushing Russia to the point where it cannot help but retaliate, President Vladimir Putin has said, while warning the US against deploying medium-range missiles.

Speaking at a meeting of top Defense Ministry officials on Monday, Putin accused the US of seeking “to weaken our country and inflict a strategic defeat” on Russia by continuing “to pump a de facto illegitimate ruling regime in Kiev with weapons and money, sending mercenaries and military advisers, thereby encouraging further escalation of the conflict.”

Washington is putting fear in Americans by resorting to “simple tactics,” Putin stated. “They push us to the red line… we begin to respond, and then they frighten their population,” he added, suggesting that the US used the same approach during its rivalry with the Soviet Union.

West pushing Russia beyond ‘red line’ – Putin pic.twitter.com/753L5mOk3k

— SilencedSirs◼️ (@SilentlySirs) December 16, 2024

𝕊𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕕𝕊𝕚𝕣𝕤

ℙ𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕟 𝕨𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕤 𝕎𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕒𝕘𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥 𝕡𝕦𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℝ𝕦𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕒 𝕥𝕠 𝕚𝕥𝕤 “𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤”

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