🏥 UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it completed its acquisition of Change Healthcare, closing the roughly $8 billion deal a couple weeks after a judge rejected a challenge from federal regulators.

The health care giant said that combination will simplify clinical, administrative and payment processes for care providers and bill payers. Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group’s rapidly growing Optum business process pharmacy claims, delivers care and provides technology support. UnitedHealth Group Inc. also runs the one of the nation’s largest health insurers.

The US Department of Justice had sued in February to block the deal. Regulators argued at the time that the deal would put too much information about health care claims in the hands of one company. But a District Judge issued an order denying the government’s request to scrap the deal.

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🇸🇪 A Swedish geneticist has been awarded the 2022 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Svante Pääbo won the 10m Swedish kronor (£802,000) prize announced on Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

Pääbo won for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins including Neanderthals and human evolution, according to the formal citation from the Nobel committee. By studying DNA sequences from a small piece of bone discovered in a cave in Siberia, Pääbo also discovered the Denisovans, a previously unknown hominin group distantly related to Neanderthals.

His discoveries also have implications for modern medicine. Chunks of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA are peppered throughout the human genome and their analysis is beginning to shed light on what makes our physiology unique, or similar, to that of our ancestors.

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📰 Former President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN, accusing the network of defaming him "with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of 'racist,' 'Russian lackey,' 'insurrectionist,' and ultimately 'Hitler,'" according to the lawsuit. 

In July, Trump sent the network a 282-page letter threatening a defamation lawsuit and demanding an apology from the network. The letter also asked the network to retract "numerous articles and televised transmissions" within 10 days.

Trump's lawyers filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is seeking at least $475 million in punitive damages, according to the suit. The lawsuit also seeks a trial by jury, according to court documents.

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🇺🇸Joe Biden in a conversation with a TV presenter in September said that he was going to seek a second presidential term, NBC reports, citing a source.

Until that moment, the current US President had refrained from such announcements, although his supporters talked about it

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📹The Russian Defense Ministry has revealed footage showing how Russian airborne artillery performed a massive attack on the positions of the Ukrainian military, eliminating troops as well as tanks, weaponry and armored vehicles.

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Kanye West surprised people wearing a black sweatshirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter" at Yeezy fashion show in Paris.

▪️West’s “White Lives Matter” shirt may not come as a total shock to fans, as West is known for stirring the pot when it comes to his political views.

▪️In 2018, West sported a red MAGA hat on Saturday Night Live which his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, tried to talk him out of wearing at the time. Fans can’t forget when West also wore a jacket with a Confederate flag patch on it in 2013.

▪️Previously, the Anti-Defamation League called the phrase “White Lives Matter” a hate slogan.

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🇦🇺Australia plans to stop the loss of any more species and end its status as "the mammal extinction capital of the world," its government says.

❗️Over 100 animals and plants are at risk, including species like the koala, the Australian sea lion, and the rarest marsupial in the world, Gilber’s Potoroo; they will be prioritized under new conversation strategies.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said that the strategy is the government’s answer to the State of the Environment report, which found Australia has lost more species to extinction than any other continent.

💬“We are determined to give wildlife a better chance," she declared.

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⚡️Russian Federation Council ratifies treaties on the admission of the DPR, the LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions

"Most EU countries can’t raise hundreds of billions through the issuance of bonds - as Germany is about to do - because of their weaker economies and high public indebtedness…The EU governments will soon be facing non-payment movements from their citizenry and cannot afford to be seen delivering cash money to Kiev." Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations analyst, said.

Read the details why experts believe that EU risks financial crisis or even disintegration if it continues to invest billions in Ukraine

⚡️The US Treasury has reportedly announced the preparation of sanctions to cap the price of Russian oil, but the decision hasn't been made yet

“Another 'greetings' from the Ukrainian authorities”

📹WATCH how a resident of the Kherson region shows the aftermath of a rocket attack by the Ukrainian Army on a local hotel.

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❗️Russian Foreign Ministry condemns Warsaw 'offering' Russian Ambassador to oppose the special military operation in Ukraine

❗️Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the impossibility of holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin - decree

🌎 The overwhelming majority of countries realize Russia's righteousness, the escalation of confrontation against Moscow and the non-recognition of the results of referendums in the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions is ahistorical, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

🗯 "The vast majority of countries — I guarantee you — realize our righteousness. Not everyone has the courage and simply just the strength to objectively talk about it frankly… I am convinced that truth will prevail, " Lavrov told reporters.

▪️ He stressed that now, in the case of referendums in the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, a scenario is being implemented that relies on the free will of people.

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❗️Japanese government expels employee of the Russian Consulate General to Sapporo after the expulsion of the Japanese diplomat from Vladivostok, local media says

📹Footage showing how energy company employees broke into the FNB bank and demanded payment of due salary in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Lebanon’s banking system has reportedly suffered a crisis since 2019. Due to a lack of foreign currency, banks offer depositors withdrawals from foreign currency accounts in Lebanese pounds at a significantly lower rate than the rate on the black market.

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❗️📹 Russia's Federation Council ratified the treaties on the DPR's and LPR's admission to Russia on Tuesday, as well as Zaporozhye region and Kherson region.

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❗️The Kremlin considers it very positive that a man like Elon Musk is looking for ways out of the situation around Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says

❗️ Seven Ukrainian aircraft and more than 100 rockets, including HIMARS, were shot down during the days when the referendums in the liberated territories took place; hundreds of lives were saved, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu says

❗️ More than 200,000 people have joined the ranks of Russia's Armed Forces as part of partial mobilization, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says