Christmas updates: Bethlehem hosts subdued celebrations

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended Christmas greetings in a post on the platform X.

"Wishing you all a Merry Christmas," Modi said.

"May the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ show everyone the path of peace and prosperity," he said.

Modi attended an event hosted at the center of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) in the capital, New Delhi.

Christianity, with around 28 million believers, is the third largest religion in India after Hinduism and Islam. It is the predominant religion in parts of northeastern India and practiced by substantial minorities in the west coast states of Goa and Kerala.

A strike by employees at Starbucks in theUnited States has expanded to over 300 stores on Tuesday, the workers' union said.

Starbucks Workers United said that the final day of the walkout, which began Friday, would involve more than 5,000 staff and be the largest in the coffee chain's history.

The union, representing employees at 525 stores nationwide, has called strikes across 12 major cities, including New York,Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, over the issues of wages, staffing and schedules.

Earlier this month, the union rejected an offer of no immediate wage raises and a guarantee of a 1.5% pay hike in future years.

The company said 98% of its stores remained open Tuesday, with just 170 stores hit by the strike.

Seven residents of a retirement home in southern Germany were injured in a fire on Christmas Eve. 

A spokesman for the fire brigade stated on Tuesday that 60 people were evacuated from the historic building in central Munich.

More than 100 fire service personnel were deployed to tackle the blaze.

Details regarding the damage and the cause were not initially available.

The spokesman said that the roof and the bell tower of the building were severely damaged. 

Some residents were moved to a different, unaffected area of the building as well as to a nearby building belonging to the Technical University of Munich.

Thousands of worshippers will gather inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris at midnight on Tuesday for the Christmas mass — the first since a major fire nearly destroyed the iconic structure in April 2019.

A Neopolitan nativity scene has been installed to help tell the story of Christmas.

The Paris diocese warned that only 2,700 worshippers would be allowed in for the service — one of several on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The 12th-century monument reopened earlier this month after a five-year restoration program by France's government that cost some €700 million ($728 million).

Since the Cathedral fully reopened on 16 December, some 270,000 people have toured the site.

Christmas Eve church services were held in Syria's capital Damascus for the first since President Bashar Assad was overthrown.

The pews of Lady of Damascus Church were filled with Christian followers, holding candles and singing hymns.

The service was an early test of a pledge by Syria's new Islamist rulers to protect the rights of the country's religious minorities.

The country's de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told visiting Western officials that his government won't seek revenge against Assad's followers or repress other minority groups. 

However, several recent incidents have targeted Christians, including the burning of a Christmas tree, vandalism and a shooting at a Greek Orthodox church in Hama last week and the blasting of jihadi songs from vehicles in a predominantly Christian neighborhood.

In his Christmas message, Spain's King Felipe VI urged the public to draw lessons from this year's catastrophic floods.

The monarch said the disaster, which killed 231 people, was "an event difficult to accept, but from which we must all be able to draw the necessary lessons that strengthen us as a society and make us grow."

Thousands of people were made homeless in the October 29 floods. 

"We have realized -— and understood -— the frustration, the pain, the impatience, the demands for a greater and more efficient coordination by the administrations," Felipe said in a reference to the public anger at the mismanagement of the disaster.

Pope Francis has opened the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, marking the official beginning of the Catholic Church's Jubilee 2025 year.

In a wheelchair due to a severe knee condition, the 88-year-old Francis knocked several times on the heavy bronze door, which helpers then opened from the inside. 

He was then wheeled across the threshold as bells tolled across Rome and the choir inside the basilica began Christmas Eve Mass.

Every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates a special Holy Year known as a Jubilee. 

During the year, the Catholic faithful can receive forgiveness for their sins through prayer and penance, including through a ritual that involves passing through the Holy Door. 

Millions of people are expected to travel to Italy over the next 12 months for the pilgrimage.

In his Christmas mass, the Protestant Bishop of Germany's northwestern city of Oldenburg, Thomas Adomeit, said that the festive season is a protest against pessimism and hopelessness.

"Despite everything that frightens us, we want and may dare to trust," Adomeit told the congregation at Oldenburg's St. Lambert's Church. "Christmas is not just an event that we celebrate. It is an invitation to let our lives be shaped by this message."

Adomeit praised those who came together to light candles, pray and mourn for the victims of the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, who he said had shown that the light of humanity is stronger than the darkness of violence.

"Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those who are suffering from this terrible act of violence," he added.

US Air Force General Gregory Guillot, whose agency traditionally "tracks" Santa on Christmas Eve, has insisted that the recent mystery drone sightings over the northeastern United States won't impact deliveries of gifts.

The sightings, which US agencies say are either aircraft, stars or hobbyist drones, have sparked curiosity worldwide that they could be unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from another planet.

"Of course, we are concerned about drones and anything else in the air," Guilliot, who is commander of the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told Fox News. "But I don't foresee any difficulty at all with drones for Santa this year."

You can follow Santa's progress in real time  on a 3-D map on NORAD's website.

NORAD reported Tuesday that Santa and his reindeer were making stops in Russia and Iran after visiting countries in East Asia over the past few hours.

As of midday Tuesday US time, some 2.5 billion Christmas presents had been delivered, according to NORAD.
 

A strike by railway workers threatened to cancel Sydney's New Year's fireworks until a last-ditch deal was reached between union representatives and Australia's government.

The unions and the government are at odds over pay, and the workers have threatened a walkout. Ministers had feared that too many people would struggle to find their way home after the NYE show if railway operations are hindered.

The unions have now agreed to cancel the strike, although pay negotiations are due to resume in the coming weeks.

Up to 250,000 people are expected to travel into the city next Tuesday to see the colorful show, featuring over 8.5 tons of fireworks and pyrotechnics, many launched from the Sydney Harbor Bridge. 

Speaking just days after the deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there was a "dark shadow" hanging over this Christmas.

"Mourning. Pain. Horror. Bewilderment over what happened in Magdeburg just a few days before Christmas," the president said in his traditional end-of-year speech.

Steinmeier went on to say that "we can only imagine" what the relatives of the victims are going through after losing their loved ones.

"You are not alone in your pain. The people throughout our country feel for you and mourn with you," he added, while also thanking police and the medical staff for their work after the attack.

Speaking about the attack's effects on society, Steinmeier called for people living in Germany to reject division.

"Hatred and violence must not have the final word," he said. "Let's not allow ourselves to be driven apart. Let's stand together!"

He also referred to the Ukraine war, the conflicts in the Middle East as well the collapse of Germany's governing coalition earlier this month and other pressing issues at home.

"There’s a great deal of dissatisfaction about politics, business, red tape, about injustice. The tone in our country has become rougher, at times hostile, in our everyday lives," Steinmeier said.

"We have to speak candidly about what is going wrong, about what isn’t working in our country as it could and should. Above all, we must talk about what needs to be done urgently," he added.

Pope Francis is set to open the "Holy Door" of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican to launch Jubilee 2025, a year of events that is expected to draw millions of pilgrims to Rome.

The 88-year-old pontiff will appear in front of 30,000 people and a live TV audience worldwide on Tuesday evening to kick off the occasion, which is also known as Holy Year and takes place every 25 years.

Catholics can be forgiven for their sins in a ritual that involves walking through the imposing bronze Holy Door, which is normally bricked up. Visitors to the Vatican are expected to do so in large numbers over the next year.

Much of Rome has also been given a facelift in preparation, with monuments such as the Trevi Fountain and the Ponte Sant'Angelo cleaned up and roads redesigned to improve the flow of traffic.

Some 700 security officers are being deployed for the Jubilee celebrations, with measures further tightened following Friday's deadly car-ramming on a Christmas market in Germany.

Later Tuesday, Pope Francis will preside over the traditional Christmas Eve mass at St Peter's Square.

On Wednesday, he will deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world). 

On Thursday, Francis will open a Holy Door at a prison in Rome and preside over a mass in a show of support for the inmates.  

Ukraine is this year celebrating Christmas in December for the second time after the law was changed to move away from the traditional January date observed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the legislation in 2023 stating the country would "abandon the Russian heritage" of celebrating on January 7.

"For the second time, we celebrate Christmas on the same date as one big family, one country. For the second time in modern history, Christmas unites all Ukrainians," Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Tuesday.

"Whether in person or in our minds, we will greet each other, call our parents, kiss our children, hug our loved ones, and remember those we hold dear. In person, from afar, or in our hearts — Ukrainians are together today. And as long as we do this, evil has no chance."

Between them, Ukraine and Russia are estimated to have lost around half a million soldiers during the nearly three-year war. More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed.

According to reports, around 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers remain at the frontline, out of a total of 2.2 million strong military personnel.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees are spending their third Christmas abroad, having been offered shelter in neighboring European countries when the war began.

Overshadowed by the Gaza war for the second year in a row, the traditional Christmas procession  has arrived in Bethlehem, which Christians believe to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, led a convoy of vehicles from Jerusalem and walked the stretch to the Church of the Nativity.

Due to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, this year's celebrations in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, are rather subdued, with many events called off and most tourists staying away.

Tourism accounts for an estimated 70% of the city's income — almost all of it earned during the Christmas season.

Traditionally, a grand Christmas tree would light up Manger Square, but local authorities opted against elaborate decorations for a second year.

Prayers, including the church's famed midnight mass, will still be held in the presence of the Patriarch.

Palestinian security forces have kept up a presence around the Church of the Nativity in case of violence.

There are about 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the US State Department.

mm, kb/rm (AFP, Reuters)