AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

At least 68 killed in central Gaza in airstrike, adding to weekend’s bloodshed

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — At least 68 people were killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, health officials said Sunday, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat over the weekend rose to 15.

Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including a baby, and wounded following the strike on the Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones.

The 68 fatalities include at least 12 women and seven children, according to early hospital figures.

“We were all targeted,” said Ahmad Turokmani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”

Earlier, the Health Ministry in Gaza gave the death toll as 70. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

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On Christmas Eve, Bethlehem resembles a ghost town. Celebrations are halted due to Israel-Hamas war.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — The typically bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town Sunday after Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war.

The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists and jubilant youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank town each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square.

“This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there’s just darkness,” said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years.

Vinh said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering. He gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the thousands of children killed in the fighting in Gaza.

Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of color that normally fill the square during the Christmas season. Cold, rainy weather added to the grim mood.

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Pope says ‘our hearts are in Bethlehem’ as he presides over the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Recalling Jesus’ birth in a stable in Bethlehem, Pope Francis in a Christmas Eve homily said that “the clash of arms even today” prevents Jesus “from finding room in the world.”

The pontiff presided Sunday over the evening Mass attended by about 6,500 faithful who took their place amid the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica behind rows of white-clad prelates.

“Our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, ” the pope said, referring to the war sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 rampage and hostage-taking in Israel.

As Mass began, a statuette of the Christ child was unveiled before the altar bedecked in greenery and white flowers, and children representing all corners of the globe placed flowers around a gilded throne.

Francis, draped in white robes, led the Mass standing at the foot of one of St. Peter’s grand columns.

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In a troubled world, Christians strive to put aside earthly worries on Christmas Eve

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Christians around the world were striving on Christmas Eve to put aside the worries and fears of an unsettled, war-torn world as they prepared to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Before leading Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Cardinal Timothy Dolan reminded congregants to keep war-torn parts of the Middle East in their Christmas prayers.

“As we anticipate Christmas, our hearts always go to the holy land,” he said, referring to parts of Israel and the Palestinian territories. “The holy land is under a cloud, the holy land is suffering, the holy land is filled with violence and hatred and retribution. And this dulls and threatens to suffocate the joy of Christmas.”

Believers in Syria gathered in a country still suffering from the aftermath of a long civil war and suffocating economic blockade. Despite festive lights and Christmas decorations adorning houses and shopfronts in the capital Damascus, events in Gaza and ongoing battles in parts of the country have left the holiday atmosphere subdued.

In Yabroud, a city north of Damascus, worshippers gathered in the St. Constantine and Helen Cathedral to enjoy Christmas carols sung by the Joy Choir from Damascus. “Everyone should try, with what the Lord has given them, to spread joy in order to help end this sorrow,” said Fadi Homsi, a member of the choir.

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A North American military command is tracking Santa’s every move and kids can follow along

WASHINGTON (AP) — As children around the world eagerly await Santa’s arrival on Christmas, the military is closely tracking his every move.

Armed with radar, sensors, aircraft and Christmas spirit, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado is reporting on the movements of Santa’s sleigh since his takeoff from the North Pole for parts of the globe where Christmas comes first. Once again it is sharing those details so kids can follow along.

NORAD is the joint military command that is responsible for protecting U.S. and Canadian airspace, but it has a jolly side, too. It has launched its noradsanta.org website, social media sites and mobile app, loaded with games, movies, books and music.

By late Christmas Eve in Thailand, late morning Sunday in the eastern U.S., the tracker reported that Santa had departed Bangkok and moved on to Burma, Tibet, China and Russia, distributing nearly 2 billion gifts so far in his travels.

NORAD’s findings could not be independently verified.

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New migrants face fear and loneliness. A town on the Great Plains has a storied support network

FORT MORGAN, Colo. (AP) — Magdalena Simon’s only consolation after immigration officers handcuffed and led her husband away was the contents of his wallet, a few bills.

The hopes that had pushed her to trudge thousands of miles from Guatemala in 2019, her son’s small frame clutched to her chest, ceded to despair and loneliness in Fort Morgan, a ranching outpost on Colorado’s eastern plains, where some locals stared at her too long and the wind howls so fiercely it once blew the doors half off a hotel.

The pregnant Simon tried to mask the despair every morning when her toddlers asked, “Where’s papa?”

To millions of migrants who have crossed the U.S. southern border in the past few years, stepping off greyhound buses in places across America, such feelings can be constant companions. What Simon would find in this unassuming city of a little more than 11,400, however, was a community that pulled her in, connecting her with legal council, charities, schools and soon friends, a unique support network built by generations of immigrants.

In this small town, migrants are building quiet lives, far from big cities like New York, Chicago and Denver that have struggled to house asylum-seekers and from the halls of Congress where their futures are bandied about in negotiations.

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Grounded charter jet freed to leave France. Lawyer says most passengers expected to return to India

PARIS (AP) — A charter plane sequestered while carrying 303 Indians to Nicaragua was authorized Sunday to leave the French airport where it has been grounded for four days for a human trafficking investigation. A lawyer for the airline said the plane would take many of the stranded passengers back to India on Monday.

Local authorities were working through Christmas Eve on formalities to allow some passengers to leave the small Vatry Airport in Champagne country, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press. All of the passengers, including a 21-month-old child, had been stuck in the airport terminal since Thursday.

Two passengers were detained as part of a special French investigation into suspected human trafficking by an organized criminal group. Several others requested asylum in France, according to the local administration. Prosecutors said 11 passengers were unaccompanied minors who were put under special administrative care.

The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped Thursday for refueling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua, and was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying trafficking victims.

The airport was requisitioned by police for days, and then turned into a makeshift courtroom Sunday as judges, lawyers and translators filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine whether to keep the Indians sequestered any longer.

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Manchester United announces deal to sell up to 25% of EPL club to UK billionaire Jim Ratcliffe

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — After failing to win the Premier League in the last 10 years, Manchester United announced Sunday that it had agreed to sell a minority stake in the storied club to Jim Ratcliffe in a deal that would also see the British billionaire and boyhood fan take control of its soccer operations.

“We all want to see Manchester United back where we belong, at the very top of English, European and world football,” Ratcliffe said Sunday.

The record 20-time league champions have not won the title since former manager Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, prompting increased anger toward the Glazer family, United’s American owners.

The announcement of a deal came more than a year after the club was put up for sale.

Ratcliffe, who owns petrochemicals giant INEOS and is one of Britain’s richest people, has secured a stake of “up to 25%” in United and will invest $300 million in its Old Trafford stadium.

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As conflicts rage abroad, a fractured Congress tries to rally support for historic global challenges

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Senate wrapped up its work for the year, Sen. Michael Bennet took to the floor of the nearly empty chamber and made a late-night plea for Congress to redouble support for Ukraine: “Understand the stakes at this moment.”

It was the third time in recent months the Colorado Democrat has kept the Senate working late by holding up unrelated legislation in a bid to cajole lawmakers to approve tens of billions of dollars in weaponry and economic aid for Ukraine. During a nearly hour-long, emotional speech, he called on senators to see the nearly 2-year-old conflict as a defining clash of authoritarianism against democracy and implored them to consider what it means “to be fighting on that freezing front line and not know whether we’re going to come through with the ammunition.”

Yet Congress broke for the holidays and is not expected to return for two weeks while continued aid for Ukraine has nearly been exhausted. The Biden administration is planning to send one more aid package before the new year, but says it will be the last unless Congress approves more money.

With support slipping in Congress even as conflicts and unrest rattle global security, the United States is once again struggling to assert its role in the world. Under the influence of Donald Trump, the former president who is now the Republican Party front-runner, GOP lawmakers have increasingly taken a skeptical stance toward U.S. involvement abroad, particularly when it comes to aid to Ukraine.

Leaders of traditional allies Britain and France have implored Western nations to continue their robust support, but Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is emboldened and building up resources for a fresh effort as the war heads towards its third year.

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Dolphins nip Cowboys 22-20 on Jason Sanders’ last-second field goal, secure playoff spot

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Jason Sanders had waited all season for this moment. On a Miami Dolphins team that scores more touchdowns than any other in the NFL, the former All-Pro kicker hadn’t needed to attempt many field goals.

Sanders entered Sunday’s matchup against the Dallas Cowboys with just 21 field goal attempts on the year, but Miami needed his booming right leg in its biggest game of the season, and he delivered.

Sanders kicked his fifth field goal of the day, a 29-yarder as time expired, and the Dolphins secured a playoff berth with a 22-20 victory over the Cowboys.

“Not every year can be an All-Pro year,” said Sanders, who is 22 of 26 on field goals and 5 of 7 from 50-plus yards. “I think I’m still hitting the kicks. I’m still right where I need to be.”

Tua Tagovailoa threw for 293 yards and a touchdown for the AFC East-leading Dolphins (11-4), who beat a team with a winning record for the first time this season. He connected with Tyreek Hill twice on the decisive drive, which covered 64 yards and took the final 3:27 off the clock.

The Associated Press