Colorado Supreme Court bans Trump from ballot, Giuliani files for bankruptcy, and more of the week's top news

TThis week's recipe roundup features even more holiday recipes. Some are great for a Christmas crowd, while others are the perfect fit for an intimate New Year gathering.

Roast Beef Tenderloin with Two Aiolis

The menu that follows serves six to eight guests with a modest portion of beef. Serve a hearty endive salad with a lemon vinaigrette as a first course while the meat rests on the cutting board.

***

Christmas Waldorf Salad

The classic Waldorf salad is dressed-up for Christmas by swapping out the raisins for festive dried cranberries. A combination of Greek yogurt and mayonnaise makes the salad creamy while keeping it light.

***

Pesto Lamb with Wild Mushroom Rice

Here’s an easy and quick dinner that’s perfect for the holiday season or any time you need a quick meal. Loin lamb chops are topped with a prepared pesto sauce, making this a special meal that takes only minutes to make. I used shiitake mushrooms to make wild mushroom rice. They’re quickly sauteed in a skillet with some garlic and then the same skillet is used to cook the lamb.

***

Chateaubriand

Chateaubriand (pronounced shaa-tow-bree-aand) refers to a larger cut of meat that is the most center part of a beef tenderloin. Meant to serve at least two people, it has a high price tag because the meat is taken from the most expensive part of the animal. ( Cuts from high up on the animal get less exercise and are, therefore, very tender.)

***

Cheesy Mexican Meatloaf

A cozy sweater and heated car seats help to ward off the chill. But now is also the time to warm up both the body and soul with winter comfort foods like this spiced-up, cheesy meatloaf.

___

Stacker collected information from the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database to rank the most destructive winter storms since 1980.

ROME — Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God's love and mercy shouldn't be subject to "an exhaustive moral analysis" to receive it.

The document from the Vatican's doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October. In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn't confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.

The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.

But it says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop. It offers an extensive definition of the term "blessing" in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to "an exhaustive moral analysis" as a precondition for receiving it.

"Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God," the document said. "The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live."

He added: "It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered."

The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. As a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage.

And in 2021, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said flat-out that the church couldn't bless the unions of two men or two women because "God cannot bless sin."

That document created an outcry, one it appeared even Francis was blindsided by even though he had technically approved its publication. Soon after it was published, he removed the official responsible for it and set about laying the groundwork for a reversal.

In the new document, the Vatican said the church must shy away from "doctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying."

It stressed that people in "irregular" unions — gay or straight — are in a state of sin. But it said that shouldn't deprive them of God's love or mercy.

"Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it," the document said.

___

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday approved sweeping new powers that allow police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the U.S. border and give local judges authority to order them to leave the country, testing the limits of how far a state can go to enforce immigration laws.

Opponents have called the measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law — denounced by critics as the “Show Me Your Papers” bill — that was largely struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and Texas’ law is also likely to face swift legal challenges.

The law, which takes effect in March, allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people who are suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, they could either agree to a Texas judge’s order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don’t leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.

Abbott, who signed the law in front of a section of border fence in Brownsville, predicted the number of people crossing illegally into Texas would drop by “well over 50%, maybe 75%." He did not offer evidence for that estimate.

“The consequences of it are so extreme that the people being smuggled by the cartels, they will not want to be coming into the state of Texas," he said.

The law adds another tension point over immigration amid a struggle between the White House and Senate negotiators to reach a deal on border security. Republicans in Congress are demanding changes to the immigration system in exchange for any help for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs.

Texas Republicans have increasingly challenged the U.S. government’s authority over immigration, saying President Joe Biden's administration isn’t doing enough to control the 1,950-mile (3,149-kilometer) southern border. Texas has bused more than 65,000 migrants to cities across America since August 2022 and recently installed razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande, which has snagged and injured some asylum-seekers.

The U.S. government on Monday temporarily shut down two railroad border crossings in Texas, a move that rail operators said would hamper trade ahead of Christmas. Troy Miller, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting commissioner, said the closures at Eagle Pass and El Paso were a response to more migrants traveling on freight trains, particularly over the last week.

Miller said authorities are seeing “unprecedented” arrivals at the border, topping 10,000 crossings on some days this month.

Shortly after Abbott signed the new law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said it would challenge the measure in court. More than 20 congressional Democrats also signed a letter urging the U.S. Justice Department to sue to stop the law, known as Senate Bill 4.

“SB 4 is dangerous for the people of Texas and interferes with the federal government’s exclusive authority over immigration and foreign affairs," the letter read.

Mexico’s government also has rebuked the measure. Under bilateral and international agreements, Mexico is required to accept deportations of its own citizens, but not those of other countries. Under the Texas law, migrants ordered to leave would be sent to ports of entry along the border with Mexico, even if they are not Mexican citizens. In September and October, Venezuelans were the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. border.

During debate in the Texas House in November, GOP state Rep. David Spiller pushed back against concerns that the law would be used as a dragnet to arrest immigrants statewide. He said enforcement would mostly take place in border counties. But he also rebuffed several efforts by Democrats to narrow the law, including a proposed carve-out for police on college campuses.

Because the illegal entry charge is a misdemeanor, which has a statue of limitation of two years, Spiller has said the law will not be used to target immigrants who have long been settled in the U.S.

“This is not, ‘Round up everyone who is here illegally and ship them back to Mexico,’” he said during debate over the bill.

Opponents have accused Texas Republicans of using the law as a vehicle to force the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority to revisit its landmark 2012 Arizona decision. At the time, Justice Anthony Kennedy said Arizona may have “understandable frustrations” with immigrants who are in the country illegally but that it can’t pursue policies that “undermine federal law.”

___

Weber contributed from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

___

NEW YORK — A federal judge has ordered the public disclosure of the identities of more than 150 people mentioned in a mountain of court documents related to the late-financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying that most of the names were already public and that many had not objected to the release.

The people whose names are to be disclosed, including sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, Epstein's employees — and even some people with only a passing connection to the scandal — have until Jan. 1 to appeal the order, signed Monday by Judge Loretta A. Preska.

For several years, Preska has reviewed documents sought by the Miami Herald from a civil case, filed by one of Epstein's victims, that eventually was settled.

Many of the records related to that lawsuit were publicly released in past years, but on Monday the judge made determinations about some portions of the records that were initially withheld on potential privacy grounds and what can be made public about certain people mentioned in the records.

In many instances, she noted that individuals had given media interviews or that their names had previously emerged publicly in various ways, including at a trial two years ago of Epstein's associate and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Preska concluded that some portions of the records should remain confidential, including those identifying people who were children when they were sexually abused by Epstein and had tried to maintain their privacy.

The Epstein case has spawned countless conspiracy theories about the possible involvement of rich and powerful people in sex trafficking.

The three criminal cases brought by federal and state authorities, however, have focused on allegations about sexual abuse by Epstein himself and Maxwell.

Epstein took his own life in August 2019 in a federal lockup in Manhattan as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. He was accused of luring numerous underage girls to his homes under the guise of giving him massages, and then sexually abusing them.

Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.

___