News Wrap: Russia cements substantial battlefield win in eastern Ukraine

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• William Brangham:

  Russia has cemented a substantial battlefield win in Eastern Ukraine tonight after a grinding four-month fight. Moscow says its forces cleared the last Ukrainian defenders from Avdiivka, a bombed-out city in the Donetsk region. Russian military footage showed attacks on a sprawling industrial site in Avdiivka. Ukraine said its forces had to retreat because of a lack of ammunition.

  President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned today that Russia is exploiting the delay of new American aid.

  Twenty-six members of the European Union are calling for an immediate humanitarian pause in Gaza. That came today as Hamas health officials reported the Gaza death toll has passed 29,000. And Israel released security camera video purportedly showing a hostage and her two small boys wrapped in a sheet. They were seen in Khan Yunis in Gaza just after being taken captive in October.

  The U.N.'s top court has kicked off a six-day hearing into Israel's 57-year occupation of the land that Palestinians want for a state of their own. Diplomats filed into the International Court of Justice at The Hague today. The Palestinian foreign minister opened with accusations of Israeli apartheid.

• Riyas Al-Maliki, Palestinian National Authority Foreign Minister:

  No occupying power, including Israel, can be granted a perpetual veto over the rights of the people it occupies. Successive Israeli governments have given the Palestinian people only three options, displacement, subjugation or death.

• William Brangham:

  Israel submitted a written statement that alleged the hearing does not address Israeli rights and security concerns. The court is due to issue a nonbinding opinion some months from now.

  Houthi fighters in Yemen carried out new attacks on shipping vessels today in continued retaliation for Israel's assault on Gaza. The Iran-backed group says it again targeted ships in the Gulf of Aden. That follows Sunday's attack on a ship in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. A missile caused severe damage, forcing the crew to abandon ship.

  Back in this country, a Minneapolis suburb is in mourning after a Sunday shooting that killed two policemen and a firefighter. They'd answered a domestic dispute call in Burnsville when a heavily-armed man opened fire. He was later found dead and seven children in the house were unhurt.

  Last night, the community gathered for a candlelit vigil. They paid tribute to those killed and offered praise to the town's police force.

• Teresa Trekell, Burnsville, Minnesota, Resident:

  We need to find a way to really honor these three, and just all police officers. You know that protect and serve is all over are our Burnsville police cars, and I just think they do. They protect and they serve. They're — they run towards trouble to keep other people safe.

• William Brangham:

  In a further tribute, flags were lowered to half-staff in Minnesota today.

  The latest in a string of winter storms has moved into California, and it could bring new flooding and even tornadoes. Forecasters called for five to 10 inches of rain in Central California before the storm moves south in coming days. It's expected to be milder than the so-called atmospheric river earlier this month, in part because it's moving faster.

  And on Australia's Christmas Island, the famous red crabs are scuttling behind schedule. In typical years, more than 100 million crabs blanket the ground and block traffic as they scramble to the sea to mate, but wildlife officials say lack of rain has largely put this great migration on hold.

• Brendan Tiernan, Parks Australia:

  The last six to nine months of 2023 was exceptionally dry, so dry that, when the crabs would normally migrate in October and November, we had no rainfall, and they didn't migrate.

• William Brangham:

  All told, this is already the latest crab migration since tracking began in the 1980s.

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines; actor Paul Giamatti on his Oscar-nominated performance in "The Holdovers"; students and their teacher give their Brief But Spectacular take on building trust; plus much more.