AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST

A pandemic Christmas: Churches shut, borders complicated

ROME (AP) — Curfews, quarantines and even border closings complicated Christmas celebrations Friday for countless people around the globe, but ingenuity, determination and imagination helped keep the day special for many.

In Beijing, official churches abruptly cancelled Mass on Christmas Day in a last-minute move, after China's capital was put on high alert following the confirmation of two confirmed COVID-19 cases last week, and two new asymptomatic cases were reported on Friday. One of several notices was posted at Beijing's St. Josephs’ Church, which was built originally by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century.

Border crossing closures kept thousands of migrants from economically devastated Venezuela who live in Colombia from going home for Christmas. Colombia's government shut down the crossings in a bid to slow down the spread of COVID-19 infections. Those trying to return home for the holidays this year had to turn to smugglers.

Yakelin Tamaure, a nurse who left Venezuela two years ago, won't be going home and said there will be no gifts or new clothes for her two children, aged 10 and 15. Tamaure said that she hasn’t been able to find work as a nurse because she still doesn’t have a Colombia residence permit. Her parents are still in Venezuela.

“My mother broke her foot and can’t walk properly so I’m worried about her,” said Tamaure. “I try to send her money, but its not the same as being there.”

___

Chinese vaccines are poised to fill gap, but will they work?

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — With rich countries snapping up supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, some parts of the world may have to rely on Chinese-developed shots to try to conquer the outbreak. The question: Will they work?

There is no outward reason to believe they won’t, but China has a history of vaccine scandals, and its drugmakers have revealed little about their final human trials and the more than 1 million emergency-use inoculations they say have been carried out inside the country already.

Wealthy nations have reserved about 9 billion of the 12 billion mostly Western-developed shots expected to be produced next year, while COVAX, a global effort to ensure equal access to COVID-19 vaccines, has fallen short of i ts promised capacity of 2 billion doses.

For those countries that have not yet secured a vaccine, China may be the only solution.

China has six candidates in the last stage of trials and is one of the few nations that can manufacture vaccine on a large scale. Government officials have announced a capacity of 1 billion doses next year, with President Xi Jinping vowing China's vaccines will be a boon to the world.

___

EU nations start assessing post-Brexit trade deal with UK

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union ambassadors were convening on Christmas Day to start assessing the massive free-trade deal the bloc struck with Britain that should kick off next next week when the acrimonious Brexit divorce process finally comes to an end.

After the deal was announced on Thursday, EU nations already showed support for the outcome and it was expected that they would unanimously back the agreement, a prerequisite for its legal approval.

Speedily approving the deal is essential, since a transition period during which Britain continued to trade by EU rules despite its Jan. 31 departure from the bloc runs out on New Year's Day. Without a trade deal, it would have acerbated chaos at the border where checks on goods will have to be increased since Britain is fully out of the 27-nation bloc.

The U.K. parliament is expected to approve the deal in the coming days, but the agreement will have to be applied provisionally, since the EU's legislature can only give its consent next month at the earliest. There, too, approval is expected.

The strong show of unity is testament to EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who has worked relentlessly to keep all EU nations and the groups within the EU parliament in the loop of developments throughout the torturous negotiations.

___

US to require negative COVID-19 test from UK travelers

ATLANTA (AP) — The United States will require airline passengers from Britain to get a negative COVID-19 test before their flight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Thursday.

The U.S. is the latest country to announce new travel restrictions because of a new variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in Britain and elsewhere.

Airline passengers from the United Kingdom will need to get negative COVID-19 tests within three days of their trip and provide the results to the airline, the CDC said in a statement. The agency said the order will be signed Friday and go into effect on Monday.

“If a passenger chooses not to take a test, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger,” the CDC said in its statement.

The agency said because of travel restrictions in place since March, air travel to the U.S. from the U.K. is already down by 90%.

___

Virus magnifies the solitude for the elderly at Christmas

Rosa Otero prepares her dinner for another nightly meal in solitude.

This pandemic Christmas Eve has turned what should be a preciously scarce moment to spend time with her family into yet another daily instalment of her life as a widow who lives alone.

Otero, 83, normally travels across Spain from her small, tidy apartment in Barcelona to northwest Galicia, to spend the winter holidays with her family.

But the restrictions on travel and urgings from health authorities that infections are on the rise have convinced Otero’s family to cancel their holiday plans for this year.

“I don’t feel like celebrating anything,” Otero said as she sat down to eat a plate of salmon with potatoes. “I don’t like Christmas, because it brings me bad memories. My husband died in January seven years ago. Since then I feel very alone.”

___

California deaths spur pleas to stay home for Christmas

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California's deadly Christmas was marked by pleas to stay away from holiday gatherings outside the home and indoor church services in what could be a make-or-break effort to curb a coronavirus surge that already has filled some hospitals well beyond normal capacity.

Festive gatherings with friends and family might be tempting after a year that has seen the pandemic take at least 23,635 lives and ravage the economy as much of the state remained under a stay-at-home order that has closed nonessential businesses.

But officials repeated warnings that Thanksgiving gatherings where people didn't wear masks or observe social distancing have resulted in a surge and begged people to forego Yule and New Year's festivities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said hospitals are under “unprecedented pressure" and if current trends continue the number of those hospitalized because of the virus could double in 30 days.

“We could have a surge on top of surge on top of a surge in January and February," Newsom said in a social media video posting Thursday. “I fear that but we’re not victims to that if we change our behaviors.”

___

Trump golfs in Florida as COVID relief hangs in the balance

PALM BEACH (AP) — After tossing a grenade that threatens to blow up a massive COVID relief and government funding bill and force a government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic, President Donald Trump spent his Christmas Eve golfing in Florida.

Failure to agree on the bill could deny checks to millions of Americans on the brink.

Trump had no events on his public schedule on the first day of his winter vacation Thursday, but traveled to his Palm Beach golf club, where he was spotted by CNN cameras on the links. Reporters were given no details of his schedule for the day, but told that, “As the Holiday season approaches, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People. His schedule includes many meetings and calls.”

Trump's departure came as Washington was still reeling over his surprise, eleventh-hour demand that an end-of-year spending bill that congressional leaders spent months negotiating give most Americans $2,000 COVID relief checks — far more than the $600 members of his own party had agreed to. The idea was swiftly rejected by House Republicans during a rare Christmas Eve session, leaving the proposal in limbo.

The bipartisan compromise had been considered a done deal and had won sweeping approval in the House and Senate this week after the White House assured GOP leaders that Trump supported it. If Trump refuses to sign the deal, which is attached to a $1.4 trillion government funding bill, it will force a federal government shutdown, in addition to delaying aid checks and halting unemployment benefits and eviction protections in the midst of the most dire stretch of the pandemic.

___

No cafes, no tourists: Virus empties streets of old Athens

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — It’s been a while since visitors to Greece sought out souvenirs in Athens’ oldest neighborhood.

The winding streets of Plaka, laid out long before the city imported a grid system, are lined with closed stores behind aluminum shutters. The coronavirus pandemic has kept tourists away from the historic city center that forms a semi-circle around the Acropolis, and the area remained unusually devoid of pedestrians and motorists before Christmas.

In their absence, ancient monuments are a little easier to make out from a distance, fewer horns are sounding in traffic and homeless cats parked in front of cafes are a little less aloof.

Greece so far has imposed two nationwide lockdowns since the start of the pandemic. The first, in the spring, kept the country’s infection rates low. Authorities ordered the second in response to a rapid post-summer rise in reported cases and as of Christmas Eve has seen 4,4,57 confirmed virus-related deaths.

The restrictions have closed bars, restaurants, coffee shops and many other businesses considered non-essential but which make up a large slice of Greece’s tourism-dependent economy.

___

Artists lead efforts to restore, preserve Gaza's old houses

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The grand, 500-year-old brick walls of the al-Kamalaia School slowly emerged from years of accumulated garbage as grassroots preservers began the long process of restoring it to its former glory.

Located in the heart of the old quarter of Gaza City, the Mamluk-era building is one of an ever-dwindling number of historic structures at risk of demolition.

“It was in a very difficult, pitiful state. It was a dump,” said Abdullah al-Ruzzi, an artist and leading volunteer.

Al-Ruzzi and other artists launched the Mobaderoon, or Initiators, program, seeking to save abandoned houses and buildings from two periods of Gaza’s history: the Mamluk Sultanate and the subsequent Ottoman Empire.

In the old section of the Palestinian enclave, fewer than 200 houses from these eras are partially or entirely standing, according to tourist officials. They are threatened by neglect, decay or even demolition by new urban development.

___

One Good Thing: Hong Kong street refrigerator keeps giving

HONG KONG (AP) — Most people who head to Woosung Street in Hong Kong’s old-school neighborhood of Jordan are visiting its popular restaurants serving everything from curries to seafood. Others may be headed for a lone refrigerator, painted blue, with a sign that reads: “Give what you can give, take what you need to take."

The door of the fridge sitting outside a hockey academy opens to reveal it is stuffed with packets of instant noodles, biscuits, tins of food and even socks and towels for anyone who may need them.

Ahmen Khan, founder of a sports foundation on the same street, said he was inspired to create a community refrigerator after seeing a film about others doing the same thing. He found the refrigerator at a nearby refuse collection point and painted it blue.

“It’s like a dignity, that when you go home, you open your fridge to get food,” Khan said. “So I want the people to just feel like that. Even if it’s a street, it’s their community, it’s their home, so they can simply just open it and then just put food there, and collect the food.”

Khan’s blue refrigerator project went viral on social media and people have been dropping by to leave food inside.