The annual Christmas festivities around the Church of the Nativity in the city of Bethlehem were scaled back. But residents were intent on maintaining the traditions.
As the Trump administration ends, Saudi Arabia is recalibrating its relationship with the U.S. and looking to win favor with the incoming Biden White House.
The COVID-19 relief bill remains unsigned by the president. British and EU parliaments must approve Thursday's Brexit deal. Plus, Bethlehem, biblical birthplace of Jesus, suffers during the pandemic.
The New York Times issued a big mea culpa, and returned a Peabody award and a citation as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize after retracting the core of its hit podcast series Caliphate.
"We were surprised that the American president issued a decision to pardon these criminals, murderers and thugs," says an Iraqi man who was shot in the 2007 massacre at Baghdad's Nisour Square.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing trial on corruption charges, has a difficult path to another term. He is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
A deadlock in the Israeli parliament seems to be headed to what will be the fourth election in two years — and another struggle by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in power.
Hopes from the Arab Spring have mostly been dashed. But the era led to "a radical change in the way people think about the authorities, the state, and about their rights," says an Egyptian journalist.