AT WAR: Israel’s military Chief of Staff said he expects the war in Gaza to continue for “many more months” despite international calls for a cease-fire. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said that Israeli forces had killed “many terrorists and Hamas commanders” in the northern part of Gaza but that it’s likely some fighters remain. 

  “There are no magic solutions or shortcuts in the fundamental dismantling of a terrorist organization,” General Halevi said in a news briefing.

  Doubt is growing about whether Israel can ever reach its goal of destroying the Hamas militant organization. The Israeli military says it has killed about 8,000 Hamas fighters out of an estimated at 25,000 to 40,000. About 500 have been reported captured. 

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip on Monday, vowing to keep up the fighting despite the deaths of more than 20,000 Gazans. His trip came hours after a reported overnight strike on a neighborhood that resulted in dozens of deaths.  Netanyahu said Israel would “deepen” the fighting in coming days.

THE OTHER WAR: Ukraine says one of its missiles destroyed a large Russian tank landing ship docked in a Crimean port, further crippling Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Russia acknowledges the attack but does not admit whether the ship was destroyed.

  While trying to hold on at the battle front, Ukraine has been exacting some serious equipment losses on the Russians.  The Ukrainian military said it had shot down five Russian fighter jets in a period of three days. Russia, for its part, claims to have seized full control of the eastern town of Marinka. 

THE GULAG: Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, whose location in the country’s prison system was unknown for 20 days, had been sent to a remote labor camp in Arctic Siberia. His representatives say he’s “doing well,” but he’s in a rough place.

  That part of Russia has long freezing winters with little daylight and short mosquito-plagued summers. Navalny sent out a letter attempting to display some humor about his situation. “I am your new Father Frost,” he wrote, referring to the Russian version of Santa Claus. “I have a sheepskin coat, a hat with earflaps; I should get felt boots soon, and I have grown a beard during the 20-day transit.” He said, “I don’t say ‘Ho-ho-ho,’ but I do say ‘Oh-oh-oh’ when I look out of the window.” 

HEAVY WEATHER: It was a little late for a white Christmas, but wind and snow swept into the northern plains yesterday causing the usual cars sliding off the road and jackknifed trucks. One woman in Kansas was killed. The storm is expected to bring rain to the East.

THE SPIN RACK:  The US struck back yesterday after a drone attack Monday in Northern Iraq wounded three American soldiers, one seriously. The US Central Command said the retaliatory strikes on the three sites in Iraq “destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants.” — The FBI is investigating threats made to members of the Colorado Supreme Court following their decision to bar Donald Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot. — An Alabama woman with two uteruses delivered two healthy babies 24 hours apart. It’s a one in a million occurrence and the babies are fine. — Apple has appealed a ban on importation of its latest watches based on the complaint of a medical monitoring company that Apple infringed on their patented technology for blood oxygen detection. — Five board members of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame resigned following the decision to induct retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser under Donald Trump who is a prominent election denier and espouser of conspiracy theories.  — Laura Lynch, 65, a founding member of “The Dixie Chicks” music group, now known as just “The Chicks,” was killed Friday in a head-on collision about seven miles west of Cornudas, Texas, near El Paso. She had been lead singer for the country group until the members pushed her out in 1992.

THE NEW JOURNALISM: The old saying in Journalism goes, “Get it, get it first, but first get it right.”

  As digital news sites start filling in for disappearing printed newspapers, the Mid Hudson News in New York state scored on the first two conditions of the adage — they got it and got it first. The publication ran a story about a murder in Newburgh, NY. 

  The story was soon picked up by NewsBreak, a platform that aggregates local news reporting “to help fill the voids left by local-news deserts” its website says.

  The original story came from a man who claimed that his relatives told him that a cousin had been fatally shot. As word spread, the story began to unravel. For one thing, there was no police report of a murder. The Mid Hudson News ran a correction that said, “Our earlier story about an alleged incident in Newburgh was incorrectly reported as there was no incident involving a shooting of any kind in the City of Newburgh.” In other words, they reported a murder that never happened.

  The reporter who wrote the original story said he tried to contact the city but, “You’re lucky if you get a response, and if you do, more often than not it’s not timely.” He asked, “How long do you wait?”

  Well, maybe until you have it right.

BELOW THE FOLD: Donald Trump wished America a Merry Christmas with a social media post that said: “It’s hard to have a truly great Christmas when you have a Crooked and Incompetent President who wants to put his Political Opponent in jail, and who has been working hard (for a change!), illegally using all of the levers of Law Enforcement, to do so. We are in the fight of our lives to save our Country from MADNESS & DOOM. MAGA 2024!!!”

  President Biden posted, “From our family to yours: Merry Christmas, America.”