molly: very serious news on this christmas, rich, thank you for joining us on christmas. merry christmas to you. blake: james mattis sending a christmas message to the troops, recorded one day before he submitted his resignation last week s. since washington crossed the delaware christmas 1776, american troops have missed holidays at home to defend our experiment in democracy. to all of you lads and lasses holding the line in 2018 on land at sea, or in the air, thank you for keeping the faith. merry christmas, and may god hold you safe. blake: may god hold you safe indeed, he submitted his resignation last thursday, a day after trump said he would withdraw from syria. christmas festivities are underway and the town of bethlehem, trey yingst is in the mideast bureau on this christmas day. great to see you. blake, merry christmas to you in the family. from vatican city to bethlehem and thousands of cities in
to want to examine when they come back in and when they re doing oversight on this issue. especially with everything we ve seen happening with saudi arabia recently. there have been a lot of concern by members of congress. i m sure they ll want to look into that. elena goodman, we ll have a lot to watch. things will kick off early january. we appreciate it. thank you. thank you. merry christmas indeed. lots of people across the globe celebrating christmas today. with many visiting the vatican to see pope francis in st. peters square. he offered a christmas wish today asking for fraternity among people regardless of nation, culture, ideology or religion. many attended night mass in jerusalem. hi, trey. reporter: hi, blake. from vatican city to bethlehem and thousands of cities in
between, people kicked off christmas with traditional religious ceremonies and some major celebration on monday night. pope francis led the traditional xmas eve mass in st. peter s basilica. focusing his remarks on western consumerism and asking churchgoers how much of the material they buy is actually needed. earlier the pope addressed a crowd of more than 1,000 people from a balcony of the basilica in vatican city. meanwhile in the ancient city of bethlehem, tourists and pilgrims gathering in the square to watch the latin patriarch procession at the birthplace of jesus christ paired with representatives of the vatican in attendance and boy scouts paraded. it traditional midnight mass was held in the basilica of the nativity. the event was attended by palestinian president. and while this celebration stayed take place in vatican city and bethlehem, it is important to note that it was not just joy and church bells across the middle east. 40 people dead die in kabul,
much with not just saudi arabia, but with the gulf state. and an effort, one it seems, as he makes the journey to tel aviv and then into jerusalem and on to bethlehem, that he will be approaching this, what feels like, rather all of alliance between saudi arabia and the gull, the u.s. and israel, at this point. he s, essential day back between the arab states all standing against iran. it s very little doubt here that there s some sort of communication between israelis and saw dees, between israelis and perhaps some of the other arab states, as well. a lot of it is, specifically, because of iran s growing influence in the region and the need by the others to counter top. it is that strange situation and that rare situation in the middle east of the enemy of your
i don t care. if their beliefs influence what they teach or how they treat students it is a problem. you have to do something about it. i want an apology. i m sorry. from her. we have to move on. beazzle goes to bethlehem. it will feature a nativity scene and a satinic exhibit. it is the subject of tonight s for three days before christmas the manger and angels will be sharing their spotlight with demons and skulls. the satanic belief hopes it will share ideas. i think it is deplorable. it is unseemingly and really bad manors.