news breaking overnight of a u.s. strike in iraq. we have the latest updates on why the american airstrikes were targeting an iranian-backed group. missing for weeks, now

aleksej navalny has been found located far north of the arctic circle now his allies are ss allies art abspiking out about concerns for his safety and a place dedicated to pictures of the past what started as a pandemic project has evolved into a full-blown mission how this online museum preserves lost memories and uses the internet to bring them back to life from lost to found hear from the man who went sifting for diamonds and uncovered a remarkable treasure. "early today" starts right now good morning, i'm brie jackson. >> and i'm jess ica layton the united states military says it has conducted airstrikes

against hezbollah in iraq. the group attacked the erbil air base three american service members were injured one of them is in critical condition. >> defense secretary lloyd austin said in a statement that president biden ordered the quote, necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities to degrade the group's capabilities there are no details of enemy injuries or deaths now it is unclear if the drone attack, one of many this year, was directly related to the war in gaza. which did not let up on christmas day. jay gray has the latest. >> reporter: christmas day, no break as far as the war in gaza is concerned prime minister benjamin netanyahu meeting when israeli troops in the northern end of the gaza strip while fighting has intensified dramatically in the southern end airstrikes really pounding that area, searching they say, for

command-and-control centers in that web of tunnels that winds beneath the ground if gn gaza they say they are making progress, that they have hit a hamas official they have not said who that might be all that while the hamas-run health ministry says a strike on a refugee camp killed as many as 70 the idf says they are reviewing reports of an incident there christmas in jerusalem and bethlehem very subdued not the joyous celebrations that you would normally see in both of these places. in fact, in bethlehem, the christmas tree that is usually in manger square replaced with a nativity scene wrapped in barbed wire and rubble, a wiseman carrying not gifts but a burial shroud i'm jay gray, nbc news

meanwhile, ukraine says it has destroyed a russian landing strip in thrussian-occupied crimea it also says it destroyed more than a dozen russian drones, thwarting a larger attack in the south as ukrainians spent another christmas under siege. for the first time in centuries, the country celebrated christmas in december instead of in january. part of a growing nationalist and cultural rift with russia. our molly hunter has more. >> reporter: for the second christmas, ukrainians are spending the holiday hunkered down as russian drone strikes continue to menace the capital russian strikes are raining down on cities across the country this man in odesa says i woke up my daughter and we went to the corridor. the house burned down completely the fierce winter conditions already entrenched as russia hits critical infrastructure

like last christmas. millions across the country struggle to meet basic needs, and troops on the icy battlefield remain stalled the attention in western capitals, president volodymyr zelenskyy comm zelenskyy commanded in 2022 gave way to political fighting in 2023 despite president biden's support, congress has kicked any vote on a stin estimated $64 bio in aid to the new year and republicans have tied it to domestic immigration policies. >> putin is banking on the united states failing to deliver to ukraine we must prove him wrong. >> reporter: ukraine is running low on western weapons and soldiers in the new year, analysts expect that ukraine will likely ramp up its drone strikes and sabotage missions, as russian troops hold

positions in the south and east. [speaking in a global language but zelenskyy remains defiant. [speaking in a global language and remarkably, ukrainian resilience still shines through at christmas for people here, there's no other option but to keep fighting molly hunter, nbc news in russia, imprisoned opposition leader aleksej navalny has been found after he was missing for weeks. he is a kremlin critic and the most prominent foe of vladimir

putin. he is more than a thousand miles from moscow. thousands of migrants spent christmas day continuing a long march through mexico they are making the journey toward the u.s. southern border. the group estimated around 6,000 people, includes many families with very young children secretary of state antony blinken will visit mexico city tomorrow to work on new agreements to control the surge of these migrants to the u.s the home of congresswoman marjorie taylor greene was targeted in a swatting incident. police confirmed the incident to nbc news saying a man called in to a suicide hotline claiming he'd shot his girlfriend, sending law enforcement to greene's address in georgia. the republican firebrand posted on x saying that this has now happened to her eight times. greene and her family were not hurt it is another treacherous

morning on the roads across the great plains a massive blizzard making for a dangerous white christmas. spurring this giant pileup on i-80 in nebraska the national weather service says more than a million people are under a blizzard warning meanwhile, here on the east coast, we're bracing for a winter washout meteorologist michelle grossman is tracking all of it. we have quite the spectrum >> we have it all. we're still watching that snow falling. winds gusting up to 35, 55 miles per hour that's going to be tough travel once again today the blue is where the snow is falling. the pink color is icy. reall really dangerous there and on the warm side of the system we're looking at a lot of rain really heavy rain where you see brighter colors, the reds, oranges, yellows extending from the midwest to the southeast. and this is on the move. we're going to see it moving to

the northeast. we have winter weather advisories and alerts, storm warnings and blizzard warnings we're going to see drifting snow, making it particularly dangerous. so as we go throughout the day, we're going to see snow and winds continuing throughout parts of the plains. and we'll see this moving into thh central states 61 in san angelo that's your tuesday forecast >> thank you, michelle it was a busy christmas for the nfl. coming up, we've got your game day highlights and "early today" is back in

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have you ever found a lost photo and wondered about the story behind it? nbc's valerie castro spoke with a man who's on a mission to reunite people with this eir lot memories >> reporter: they say a picture is worth a thousand words. >> summertime in a swimming pool, having a family dinner, taking a picture in front of somebody's house >> reporter: what is it worth to someone who has no idea who is in the photo >> all these photos have a story behind them. and every single picture is a picture of a real person who lived a real life. >> reporter: what started as a pandemic project developed into a mission for david, creating the museum of lost memories. >> the bridesmaid was lou, groomsman was frankie. old footage of someone opening a

christmas gift in 1974 >> reporter: it's an online collection of photos, slides and reels of film david hopes to return to their rightful owners or to at least people who recognize the people in the pictures >> i've been able to return thousands of things to dozens and dozens of families >> reporter: what's the reaction you get? >> sometimes there's a little skepticism that people don't understand how it got out there on got back to them. but earn's been shocked and grateful in a good way >> reporter: he finds them at thrift store and flea markets. >> a lot of cameras with film still inside or sd cards still inside the camera. >> reporter: with the magic of social media and 600,000 followers, he has a built-in team of photo sleuths, examining every detail >> some people are really good at dating specific artifacts,

and some people are able to recognize a location from a photo because they grew up there. >> reporter: one success story uncovered world war ii history when he found this note with the name friedman. >> these were taken april 1943 and written in german. i knew the family was in germany in 1943 and finally someone was able to recognize the family on one of these ancestry websites we found out that they escaped from vienna. they fled in the early 1940s these were taken shortly after that it was so special to return these core family memories back to the original owners >> reporter: this set of pictures was not dated, but the hairstyles and fashion clearly said 1990s >> it was from chapman university i was 18 years old >> reporter: diane says a friend recognized her among these photos and shy recognized her old

classmate. >> i was like oh, my friend dan! i kept going through, and i was like, that's my friend lou that's michelle! and i was the last photo the professor had maybe taken these photos of us soy don't know how they ended up from her ownership to like a flea market in san diego, but somehow he found them and posted them and i think it's wonderful >> reporter: melissa also had that magic moment of recognition. >> this photo right here of my uncle mike is when i went, oh, my gosh, like that, that's my family like, that is my uncle mike. what's going on? >> reporter: in her case, an entire photo album mistakenly donated to a church when a family passed away brought back memories of loved ones >> in this photo is my grandma >> i have one photo of a great

grandparent of mine, and it's the only photo i have. to give back a family photo that might be one of the only memories of that person is really special >> reporter: this reel of vacation footage of new york city in 1965 captured the buzz of the city streets. a window to the view of every day life >> i remember that store, i used to eat at that restaurant. think of the family that was here on vacation >> reporter: photographs also capture life's most precious moments, like this one-day-old baby or the somber passing of a loved one. vacation photos sometimes documenting a landmark that no longer stands today. david's latest endeavor, tracking down the oerns wners of these memories a holiday gift just waiting to be seen. valerie castro, nbc news still to come on "early today. the ravens deck the halls in san

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set by the great jerry rice in the house tonight that's patrick queen and queen will not go down until he gets inside the ten >> brock purdy delivering gift after gift to the ravens on christmas night. the 49ers star quarterback throwing five picks and what just nigmight be a super bowl preview. baltimore capitalized on those mistakes ravens win it 33-19. and you just couldn't help but feel bad for purdy, watching that game. it was like, ah, and he said in the post-game interview, i got

to look at myself in the mirror and figure out why this happened. >> it's always great when you see the players say, look, it's on me. we got to work this out. >> agree the giants couldn't quite pull off a christmas miracle against the eagles, despite a huge 76-yard pick six by adoree jackson. philly managed to hang on after letting a nearly 17-point halftime lead slip away. it puts them back in the driver's seat for the nfc east and not even the combined might of santa claus and taylor swift could save christmas for kansas city. the raiders' defense stifled the chiefs all afternoon despite some late-game heroics from quarterback patrick mahomes, vegas won it, 20-14 the loss means kansas city cannot get the number one seed

in the afc west is still up for grabs. he saw mahomes yelling at some of his offensive line during that game. seemed quite upset >> i think we all did. and if you don't like football, you're out of luck because that's all that was in the house yesterday. a little later, how santa paws granted every shelter animal's wish at this pennsylvania kennel. wish at th pennsylvania kennel. herbal essences is packed with naturally derived plant ingredients you love, and none of the stuff you don't. our sulfate-free collections smell incredible

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we're back with what you need to know "early today. elon musk's x may have to shell out millions after a federal judge ruled the social media giant violated a contract between the company and its employees. the court refused to dismiss a lawsuit that claims employees were promised half of their targeted bonuses but were never paid so far, no comment from x. humane a.i. pins will ship out in march the wearable bot create add ton of buzz when it was announced by the sam altmann-backed company

in november. if you want to get on the shipping list it will cost you about $700 and still no winning lottery tickets under the tree this christmas. the powerball jackpot growing to $685 million after no winners in last night's drawing the next chance to win will be wednesday. a pennsylvania animal shelter empty for the first time in 27 years. the staff now plans to cull animals from other shelters. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. because it stinks. ♪have you tried downy rinse and refresh♪ it helps remove odors 3x better than detergent alone. it worked guys! ♪yeahhhh♪ downy rinse and refresh. ma, ma, ma— ( clears throat ) for fast sore throat relief, try vicks vapocool drops. with two times more menthol per drop, and powerful vicks vapors to vaporize sore throat pain. vicks vapocool drops. vaporize sore throat pain. how white do you think your teeth really are? vicks vapocool drops. let's try the tissue test. ooof, still yellow.

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story. >> couldn't believe it so big and clear, thought this has to be fake >> reporter: nine months later and it still feels like a dream to jerry evans >> i walked in and it's just an open field and i got on the path, and i was walking towards the drain, because it just rained, and i thought that was best place to go search, you know. >> reporter: when he went, evans had the same strategy as most people do. grab what you can and check and see if you got lucky >> and i just couldn't tell. and i was picking up everything, hoping it was a diamond. >> reporter: when you think about searching for diamonds, most think it's a long process that takes time. but for evans, he found his stone basically right when he walked into the park >> about halfway down, the first ten minutes i was there, i found it it was laying right off the path, right on the ground. >> reporter: he didn't flow what k know what

he had, so he sent it to the genge logical institute. and it ended up being a diamond. >> i was excited, you know >> reporter: and evans has a message for all those people who thought about going but thought of it as a waste of time >> they're there go look and take a chance. i'll go back, definitely >> our thanks to griffin for that report. some guys have all the luck. >> that was a beautiful diamond. >>ki se i can see that ending ua ring or necklace a grandmother is proving it's never too late to learn something new. at the age of 101, sarah simpkins just finished her first semester of college in childhood education. she always wanted to earn a degree the art classes are her favorite >> when i go to do the homework,

that's a piece of cake >> i love her. sim simpkins is going to college with her granddaughter they plan to get their diplomas together in may. wow. we should be going to her college. >> i love her smile and just her warm spirit. i love, you, you know, you're never too old too, young to go for your goals >> we can always learn something. thanks for watching "early today. i'm jessica layton >> i'm brie jackson, have a great tuesday. great tuesday.

right now at 5:00, travel woes amid the holiday rush. hundreds of flights canceled for travelers across the country and the bay area. a live report on