As the Community Marks christmas will be live in bethlehem. U. S. President donald trump takes to twitter to refute speculation about his Mental Health. The arraigning regime is now on notice the world will be watching what you do the u. S. Is accused of interfering in irans internal Affairs Officer and pushed for a meeting of the u. N. Security council to discuss recent protests. Were looking at how a worldwide ban of certain chemicals is finally helping to heal the planet. Hello we begin this news hour in the occupied west bank thats where there have been scuffles in bethlehem thats where the patriarch of jerusalem had been holding mass to mark orthodox christmas but as the office the third attempted to leave manger square protesters as you can see blocked his car and threw some eggs hes at the center of growing public anger after being accused of selling off large parts off church lands other protests are planned against the u. S. Is the situation to recognize jerusalem as israels capital following all the developments for us in homage of june hes joining us from the occupied west bank and from bethlehem specifically to talk us through what youve seen today how much. Of that in look despite. The best attempts at the organizers to try to create a festive atmosphere the atmosphere here in manger square the fact of the matter is that its been marred by several factors the first is the weather its really not been cooperating its been raining and cold throughout the day right now its sunny but this is sort of an anomaly beyond that you also have the fact there is this growing anger a lot of it because of these allegations these stories in the Israeli Press that the Greek Orthodox patriarchy office a third has been involved in selling properties to foreign tax havens and that those properties are ending up in the hands of israeli businesses now weve spoken to the church about these allegations they didnt i the allegations they say that whats happening right now is that the patriarchate is trying to renegotiate deals that were done that they consider to be bad deals in the past so that they can try to rectify these deals that were done to the detriment of members of their congregation now as far as the mood here i want to bring in i guess that we have right now this is the reverend miter rod hes the president of daughter of kind of the University College now reverend first of all thank you for being with us i want to ask you this been a very tough year already for palestinians in general with so many things happening whats it been like for palestinian christians. It hasnt been easy at all half of the finest in Christian Community in the west bank they live in bethlehem and bethlehem as you know is like you know the small hole in the swiss cheese set on ended by jewish settlements israeli settlements and we have noise and anymore to lift what are what kids so bethlem is becoming back to get to. And this is causing actually christians to integrate we did a study just recently that showed that twenty eight percent of the palestinian Christian Community and twenty four percent of the protestant with him community with him agreed they see it if they have a chance to do so on the other hand you saw and use. Book about the gap between the need to ship. And secondly gay shows and this is true for so many churches in this land so its like jesus said sheeps without shepherds or most and the third i think when you look on the nod to me do you stand context whats happening to christians in egypt and so on makes that cushions you had water and dust but not to use the event jelly can push on Zionist Special in the states see Vice President pence and his group of those who actually pushed it as then prompted to clear jerusalem as they kept it as a basic difference very actually they made that one life even more difficult on the other hand i have to see if that christians although we have less than two percent of the population christians did play a very prominent throwing in the Palestinian Society and i said we did we showed that one third of the head said this is in palestine run by christians by churches and forty five percent of forward nongovernmental organizations besides social institutions human rights organizations are actually i thought funded by churches or done by christians every month you dont have to thank you very much for being with us a Merry Christmas to you Merry Christmas thanks very much so during as you can see theres a lot of complicating factors although reverend wright had his talking about some of the more positive things that are going on nowadays as well fax them out or is though here in manger square on a day like today usually on orthodox Christmas Eve you would have thousands of people out here celebrating the fact that they are not out here today really goes a long way toward showing how this mood of despair continues to spread even on a day that supposed to be a specifies today starting on the home of john john thank you. The u. S. President donald trump has gone or other twitter tirade calling the author of a book detailing his first year in office a total loser its already hit a hit with readers with american bookstores unable to keep fire and fury stocked on their shelves while trumps slam the work is phony and for the flies diane easterbrook reports from washington d. C. Crowd swarmed this washington bookstore at midnight friday snatching up copies of fire and fury inside the Trump White House has of the criteria i cant take your order of the phone in politics and prose opened it ten am within thirty minutes eager buyers had nabbed all thirty copies the store had im super excited to read this so i went to a couple of different bookstores even midnight last night there was another bookstore selling this they sold out in twenty minutes why are you so interested in this book. Why would i not be interested in this book it is so salacious and to see. Politics die hard and scary to read it at three hundred twenty pages this is a relatively like home but it is filled with explosive material the author Michael Wolff said he spent eighteen months conducting about two hundred interviews with senior white house staff in one passage will says former british Prime Minister tony blair offered this nugget of information to the president s son in law jared cushion or there was he suggested the possibility that the british had had the Trump Campaign staff under surveillance blair is denying the claim. Another passage describes a potential change in saudi arabia the president was considering before his trip last spring to the middle east in the days before his departure he was telling people that the saudis were going to finance an entirely new military presence in the kingdom supplanting and even replacing the u. S. Command headquarters in cutter fire and fury wasnt supposed to be released until tuesday but the books publisher moved the date up after attorneys for President Trump issued a cease and desist letter threatening legal action in an interview friday morning author Michael Wolff stood by his book and added this observation the one description that that everyone gave everyone has in common they all say he is like a childs. And what they mean by that is he has and a need for in media gratification its all about him the white house is labeling fire and fury tabloid trash President Trump wouldnt answer questions about the book friday afternoon but tweeted i never spoke to him for the book full of lies misrepresentations and sources that dont exist still fire and fury is yet another distraction for a white house that is trying to advance among other things a new immigration plan and a spending plan to avoid a looming Government Shutdown dian estabrook aljazeera washington. Will talk about this now with john hendren hes joining us from washington d. C. You know john we keep saying that the president has gone on another twitter tirade and im looking at his twitter feed right now and he seems to have come out strongly against the questions or allegations that people seem to be talking about in the states questioning his Mental Health after the release of the spoke. Thats right that book that diane was talking about has a number of people quoted calling donald trump anything from a moron to an idiot these are people who were in his own administration who had been authorized to talk to the author of that book and that seems to be the genesis of this tweet today in which he talks about how great his intellect is he says i believe hes like really smart and thats a theme that you hear donald trump talk about over and over its been raised again because of this book and what he should be talking about really according to his administration if hes to pursue their line of talk for this week that would be immigration because hes at camp david meeting with republican officials on immigration and he is announcing something that he has been promising in his campaign and that is money for the border wall that he campaigned on remember that he said were going to build a big beautiful wall and mexico is going to pay for it what hes been off script with the administration has talked to the wall street journal officials have talked to the Associated Press and confirmed that the administration plans to spend eighteen billion dollars over the next ten years to extend that border wall its also clear hes going to break his promise that mexico will pay for that wall because we have the bill here and that is a bill that will go to congress its a proposal by the customs and Border PatrolBorder Protection rather for five hundred five kilometers of additional barriers by two thousand and twenty seven total coverage of about fifteen hundred kilometers nearly half the border by the end of that and this comes as congress is talking about what to do about these these people these children of Illegal Immigrants the deferred action for Childhood Arrivals Program that was an Obama Era Program trumped his rescinded that left it. To congress to deal with so as theyre going through this immigration policy that was a centerpiece of his campaign he is instead battling these charges in the book and hes not the brightest guy on the planet. John so its been i think just about twenty four hours now since this book was released and since the author Michael Wolff went on American Television and he was defending the book and given giving it giving interviews so whats been the fallout so far whats the whats the response like in the states is is the whole discussion right now just about the president s Mental Health. This is this book is really all anybody here in washington is talking about and theyre doing it based on eggs or because we as you could see from dion story its hard to physically get a copy of that book so the reaction has been profound to the many revelations in that story the administration has been pushing back saying this author is not reliable he is somebody whos been criticized by other subjects in the past as having made up parts of this story however those people who have been able to corroborate parts of this story have not said that they found significant things wrong with that story so what you have here is an administration in turmoil this just confirms all of those suggestions that this is an in administration that its just organized that its fighting among itself and that has a number of people leaking substantial pieces of information many of them derogatory about the president and you can see that its not the president off kilter instead of talking about the things that he should be talking about to try to advance his key policies he is instead defending his intellect and talking about this book in this author so this is really the main issue that people are talking about in washington right now and that means policy doesnt get done ok john hendren thank you. Once more ahead on the aljazeera news hour including the Fastest Growing refugee camp in the world we look at what lies ahead for the road this year plus a brutal cold spell grips the u. S. East coast at least eighteen people are killed after one of the worst winter storms in recent history and coming up in sport dozens of football fans are injured in kuwait after a section of the stadium collapsed. But first the u. N. Security council has held a special session on the recent protests. In iran with the u. S. Accusing to ron of stifling the voice of its people other members rejected objected rather to their meeting insisting the council wasnt the place that discussed the countrys internal affairs by kind of reports from the United Nations there was animated debate in the Council Chamber before the discussions began their members taken aback by the lack of notice from the u. S. In calling for this public debate the u. S. Ambassador adamant that it was essential iran be called to account if the founding principles of this institution mean anything we will not only hear their cry we will finally answer the Iranian Regime is now on notice the world will be watching what you do russia had vehemently opposed what it saw as an unacceptable intervention in irans internal affairs but also argued that the us had another motive in pushing for this meeting used in the book the blueprint the real reason for convening today is not to protect human rights or promote the interests of the iranian people but rather a veiled attempt to continue to undermine the Iranian Nuclear agreement would have an agreement that the french ambassador maintained in his speech was crucial also distancing himself from the u. S. Decision to call these discussions. But it is up to the greens and to the iranians to pursue the path of peaceful dialogue a dialogue based on full respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of the rain people. Given speaking rights in the council iran said it best to describe the us action as yet another attempt at political destabilization following such acts of disruption take in. Addition as floating International Law and this is specd into practices of civilized behavior in International Politics is that ministers and is not the spirit of the a teaching for the cheap seat of flute it is a long history of us at the u. N. But this is. For the posters example and indeed at the end of the discussion members got up perhaps more divided and when they had sat down mike hanna aljazeera United Nations well the u. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has also been talking about iran specifically the nuclear deal he says the Trump Administration is looking for ways to keep the u. S. In the Agreement Congress is working on new legislation that could bolster in force meant measures i dont want to see just. For this one of the well first its not me. Its not by the twelve. Were just talking about some of the chance for the. First. Bassam of a saying as a political partner with the Truman National security project and the former Obama Administration advisor she says any new legislation is a political move to shield trump from having to deal with the iranian agreement at all. And the reason why donald trump pates it is because when he ran for president you know he called it quote unquote the worst steel ever but what weve seen is that really hes not able to come up with a better deal hes certainly not able to in the case of north korea and so what theyre trying to do politically is just prevent their president from having to be the one to sign off on it to sign off on it every six months which is the current law and so what hes done is hes punted it to congress and theyre looking at ways that they can be creative now to essentially throw the ball into congresss Court Without essentially scrapping the deal altogether and so what hell do rhetorical is hell call that effects the same basrah view has more from to her on. Shortly after the u. N. Security council met in new york to discuss end to government protests in iran the reef irans foreign minister tweeted saying that he was glad that member countries of the Security Council basically rebuffed americas efforts to use the International Body to intervene and meddle in what are essentially Domestic Affairs serif said that it was another Foreign Policy blunder for the white house here at home lawmakers are expected to meet in a closed session of Irans Parliament to discuss the root causes behind recent unrest in the country many lawmakers have plagued foreign intervention and an effort to treat instability in the country as being behind these protests but many iranian leaders agree with Anti Government protesters that they do indeed have reasonable grievances saying that regular working men and women in iran do face economic hardships and have every right to protest but for now into government pr