of migrants who are "driven from their land" in his christmas eve mass. the leader of the world's estimated 1.2bn roman catholics also stressed that faith demanded that foreigners be welcomed everywhere. meanwhile, pilgrims from around the world have gathered in bethlehem for christmas celebrations. however, fewer than usual are in the city, due to increased tensions between the palestinians and israelis. aid workers in the philippines are struggling to reach thousands of people left homeless by a tropical storm. around 200 have died in severe flooding and landslides on mindanao island — the united nations is warning of a "dire" humanitarian situation. now on bbc news, jane hill hosts dateline london's review of 2017. hello and a warm welcome

to dateline london. i'm jane hill. today we're taking time to reflect on 2017 as it draws to a close — the highs and lows in europe, america and the middle east. let's find out what my guests have made of a turbulent year. with me, the british political commentator and columnist steve richards, the american writer and broadcasterjef mcallister, marc roche from france's le point magazine and also belgium's le soir, and the arab affairs qriter abdel bari atwan. welcome to you all. what a year in british politics. an election that didn't need to be

called, a reduced majority for theresa may's conservative party, the rise of labour'sjeremy corbyn. and what of policy and legislation? that's on the backburner. to adapt the famous american political phrase, it's all about brexit, stupid. steve, did you think, come december, theresa may would still be prime minister? to be honest, i did. british politicaljournalism is punctuated on a daily basis with speculation that the prime minister is about to fall and they usually stay. so i am not surprised. she is dogged and determined. i'm told that even after the election trauma, she did not contemplate going. but at the same time, that election changed everything in british politics. it was as significant as the 1979 election when margaret thatcher appeared on the scene.

because even though theresa may is still on the scene, it has changed the dynamics of brexit, it has falsified the idea that a left—wing leader is due for oblivion if standing for election, challenged the assumption that young people do not vote. and it is still defining our politics many months later even though the same prime minister is in place. i started by saying this was about british politics but what has british politics been this year, all about brexit. and that is what we have to talk about. marc, your thoughts about looking back on 2017, it took eight or nine months to get an agreement to get to phase two. 2017 has been dominated by the brexit deal in phase one. we lost nine months due to british internal politics. the whole thing came together extremely vaguely.

the good thing for europe is that theresa may is still there because the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. europe helps theresa may to stay in power. but i think in europe, it was a mixed year. you have bad news with the extreme right coming to power in austria, destabilising chancellor merkel, problems in catalonia. but then the good news was that the eu stayed united on the brexit deal, the eurozone is getting out of trouble and france had president macron, a modernist and the future of europe coming to power. laughter. such equanimity, perhaps laughter suggests surprise! british politics was paralysed

completely by brexit. nobody is talking about any other problems, about health, education, economic growth, the stagnation of the economy in this country. so it is amazing. brexit, brexit. the newspapers brainwashed people and diverted them from their own worries in this country. so i don't know how things will develop. 0k, many people anticipated theresa may's fall, many people did not expect her to last. she surprised everybody. the first phase of the negotiation actually went through and we are now coming to the difficult one, which is how the single market agreements could be finalised. it is extremely difficult. so i believe that britain needs a charismatic leader, a strong leader, to negotiate for the next phase because it

will be crucial to reach a good deal. so, if not, i believe this country will suffer. you can see now... why britain is afraid from election? why can't we have election? there was election. britain needs stability for a few years to get brexit through and also other things through and theresa may is the best leader, by default maybe, to do a deal in europe like she did a deal in 2017 which is a good deal because you need a soft brexit, you can't have a hard brexit and you can't have no deal. and she's the best to bring that. next week, we can discuss what might be awaiting us! jef, what do you think of an extraordinary year in britain, and brexit? i am pleased that because of

the papering over of the differences in the phase one summit two years ago, everyone says 0k. but fundamentally, i have felt that this is a circle that cannot be squared. brexit does not make sense for britain and the deal that makes britain prosperous and happy and makes everybody have their cake and eat it, does not exist. the only way that it has been able to be successful so far is that the hard issues have not been joined. i don't see how anywhere in europe, the kind of trade deal that britain needs to prosper can be achieved with the way that the negotiations are structured. it is going to be a car crash. i am amazed that there was not more talk about productivity and the fact that people, because they feel

the cold wind of brexit, are leaving. nurses from the health service, doctors, professors, making their deals to go. we know that? yes, it is peaking. the rate of increase of immigration to britain is decreasing and there have been lots of interesting stories done about nurses who have been here for 25 years of saying, they don't want me here, i am going home. steve, do you pick up in your circle frustration that other domestic political issues have not had much focus this year? do you pick up on people saying could westminster tackle transport or anything else? i am afraid i'm sad enough to hang around with people obsessed

with brexit so i spent the whole of 2017 talking with people like that! but in 2017, brexit sucked up all political energy. in every sense. the stress and tension as they moved the phase one agreement in that james bond movie when she flew in the middle of the night to sign it on that friday morning at the end of december. to just the logistics, our embryonic trade arrangements being looked at by people with no experience of negotiating trade deals. of working out how the regulatory framework will work post—brexit. these are massive issues and it is the case that normally at the end of the year you have looked back at the nhs, public spending, tax, all the things you talk about in british politics...

yes. europe is not obsessed by brexit. we are going on with main issues like do we want a federal europe or a two—speed europe. britain is obsessed. one thing is clear, britain is going back to the blue passports! no more of the red passports! yes, we got that. january saw the inauguration of the 45th president of the united states. the swearing—in was seen by "the largest crowd to ever watch an inauguration" — copyright sean spicer. campaign pledges fulfilled? pulling out of the paris climate accord, and tax cuts recently voted through. we've also seen the continuation of bellicose language, fake news and alternative facts. jef — trump's been in office 11 months, how's his record? i think it is so bad in some

ways that it becomes... we become inured to it. it becomes a joke. he is a remarkable figure, not in a good way. these tax cuts, there are so many bad things to talk about. his most recent achievement, just voted through. like the founder of trump university, the taj mahal casino, great promises but not very good in reality. this tax cut, there is a tax cut but 60% of the benefit goes to the top 1%. trump himself will benefit greatly from it because a lot of the provisions seem to benefit real estate trusts and things he has a personal interest in. the republican party passed it. they say bad things about him, bravely they say he goes too far or attacks people wrongly, the tweeting has to stop,

but they all lined up behind him and voted for it. there is a way in which he... the fake news, that you mentioned, he has cheapened the language. it is almost 0rwellian. it is cheap 0rwellian, where you can't know what the truth is. scientists are leaving the government. the treasury department experts on the tax bill were not allowed to speak because they would have pointed out the contradictions. and so you get the moorings of what make a democracy possible loosened by constant nastiness from him. undercutting, at least we share the fa cts undercutting, at least we share the facts together, he does not want to share the fact. as we have said, his core base is still there.

in when the pollsters go out, they don't find many people who regretted voting for trump, they say they would do it again. the economy is growing. employment is up, he has put his people in the federal bank. people vote for the economy. but it is not his legacy. it is 0bama's legacy. that is irrelevant. the legacy is there. it is an inheritance but even in newjersey and alabama, voters voted against trump. he is at the lowest rating. his core supporters are unshakeable but the suburban women, the college educated, the republican moderates, are finding him offensive and who knows, but you are seeing

resistance. you see mueller and the press doing good reporting and the #metoo movement. does that tie into the first democratic senator in years being elected in alabama? but no impact on the core base. the coming election in november will decide. i presume there will be a shock to president trump. when we talk about the internals, the economy is improving and unemployment is down to 4.7% instead of 10.4%. the stock exchange is also increasing and the stock market is very high.

but you can't say that he achieved that in 11 months. definitely, there is a groundwork for this. and foreign policy — just last wednesday, last thursday, we had a huge referendum about president trump and his foreign policy. it was a huge defeat, two thirds of the international community voted against his resolution to move the american embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. there was a huge disapproval of him. another challenge that he cannot handle, north korea. it is a nuclear power now. a ballistic missile power. and they managed to continue their nuclear test, their missile test and they have a huge capability to hurt their neighbours in south korea and japan. and they could reach the united states. this is a huge failure. we will talk more about that in a moment.

steve, your thoughts? the core vote is always the last to move. hardline brexiteers are not going to admit that they were wrong. but he has shown the power of words. a lot of the things he said he would do, he has not done. he said he would scrap 0bamacare and some of the things he said he would do, he has not been able to do. but the words themselves have provoked, incited. itjust shows, he is using the presidency in a way no one else has, as an altar. notjust measures being implemented but words uttered being enough to shake things up and in nearly always alarming ways. it is the internet age, it is trolling, it is not thoughtful and it destabilises. and the internet permits him and has made him and permits the russians to interfere in the american

election and this is the technological trend that underlines the uncertainties and difficulties that we are grappling with. you have touched on things that we will pick up on next week. let's reflect a little further on the year that is coming to an end. in particular, the middle east. in october, raqqa, the de facto capital of so called islamic state, finally fell to us—backed forces. is there finally a degree of stability in syria? and north korea conducted a series of weapons tests, including launching its longest—range missile to date. bari, you commented on this, do you have any optimism? there is a sense that after as so many years of turmoil and wars and destruction and death, we have a relatively stable syria. islamic state was defeated,

it was defeated on the ground. the caliphate is non—existent. they used to control an area which was half of iraq and half of syria. no more. but the question is, can we celebrate? i believe it is premature. we have to wait. because those people now in transition in syria, they disappeared. physically, where are they? they are underground. we look at islamic state in syria and iraq but they have branches all over the world. they have provinces in libya and yemen and afghanistan and pakistan.

still some of them are underground in iraq and syria. they could surface any time. they are more dangerous now because it is very cheap to carry out terrorism for revenge. we have to remember that september 11, the whole operation cost only about $320,000 and look at the losses which the whole world suffered from. we have to look at three countries. libya, yemen and afghanistan. these semi—failed or failed states are candidates to be the new headquarters of the islamic state. where was the leader of islamic state, where is his cabinet? they used to have 15,000 or 20,000 sympathisers and members

or fighters, where are they now? where have they disappeared to? we know that america has the best surveillance and the intelligence service. the same with the british and the french — where are these people? so the fall of raqqa is only a temporary reprieve? it is a pause. which is good news in 2017 but you are making the point that there is... it is very good news to get rid of them. very good news to defeat them. they are not as they used to be. they don't have the freedom to move and they are not controlling or having a strong base in the digital world.

they are not on facebook or twitter as much as they used to be. so this is the most important thing. this is the point of their strength, to control the media, video tapes, newspapers. now it is gone. the recruitment network, they used to have a huge recruitment network, it is very weakened now. but we have to be very careful. they can come back easily. now they want to take revenge. plan b is terrorism. they could terrorise the whole world. they are very vicious people. but the last thing, this unity from the international community, when they united together to fight this phenomenon, now i can see this unity is weakening a bit. by the us? by trump's recognition ofjerusalem as the capital of israel, it has put trump outside the unity.

the only realistic way was as macron said by saving the prime minister of lebanon from being a prisoner and keeping lebanon, this fragile country. but it is very gloomy for the middle east. we end this year with more stability? yes, destruction but at least syria is now stable. the real unstable thing is lebanon and israel and palestine where things have got worse. it is not only syria which is stable now. relatively stable. it is the whole region. iraq is stable again. syria and iraq are coming back. also the stability of syria is good for immigration because many people,

many syrian people, will go back because syria is a rich country and the people of syria are hard—working. it is devastated at the moment, the infrastructure is devastated, but the point is that there will be those who want to return? there will be reconstruction in syria and iraq. this will attract a lot of capital, a lot of skilled people. it will attract a lot of immigrants. yemen, in egypt, in lebanon, it is very piecemeal. a chequered situation. we are talking about syria and iraq but yemen is important, there is a forgotten war there for the last three years and the west is not paying attention to the destruction of yemen. about! million people facing an epidemic of cholera and 17

million people in yemen facing starvation. britain stayed out because of the saudis. the saudis were bombing them. the saudis could not win this war for the last three years and the international community should intervene and put an end to this war. borisjohnson said it is illegal to keep the sanctions on yemen because people are starving. donald trump's relationship with the yemen is non—existent. they will be nothing done. it is interesting to me, the idea that the saudis can modernise is attractive to outsiders. i don't know whether it is possible. one wonders because it is a complex is system, whether the leader can keep all the strings which he has now pulled, in control. i completely agree with you, he is modernising the country,

the leader of saudi. he is dismantling a radical sect of islam which used to control the country and promote radicalism. most of al-qaeda and islamic state, their ideology was from wahabism secondly, he is also modernising like allowing women to drive. he is opening up the country to tourism. but the problem is that he is involved in this war in yemen. and he is also giving trump a lot of money. $460 million which created a lot ofjobs for the americans. but not for middle east and not for saudis. modernising yes, but bad policy as well. i want to mention iran.

steve, do you have thoughts on the year that has gone? not really. i would like to look back and say that the questions that have dominated the politics of the middle east in 2017, like how do you deal with a stateless institution like isis? you can get rid of them in raqqa but you don't get rid of them altogether. and the pertinent questions remain the same at the end of the year. though trump is a calamitous figure to be a mediating figure, those questions were raised in 2011, 2013 to 2016 under blair, bush and 0bama and nobody has found adequate answers to them yet. that seems to be the sort of issue that will be framing the next year as well. thank you very much to all of you.

we could talk a lot longer. that's all for this week, though not this year — do join us at the same time next week when we'll consider what 2018 may have in store. for now, if you're celebrating christmas, do enjoy the festive season. thanks for watching, goodbye. the most of us it won't be a white christmas, possibly some flakes across the high ground, i will come

onto that in a moment but to start christmas day we have this run bringing rain across northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england, to the south and east of it brisk south—easterly wind, certainly mild, cloudy, a few brighter spells in the cloud across parts of england and wales, colder conditions working in from the north, could be some sleet and snow late on christmas day across the southern pennines but the heavy rain bended squally winds clears eastwards overnight into boxing day and with clearer, colder conditions developing, there could be a touch of ice fisting boxing day morning and some frost so a different feeling day but we will lose the strong winds and heavy rain and then a return to the sunshine, the chance of one or two wintry showers are grossly crossed the northern half of scotland, snow flurries likely, and further brain works into the southwick later wrong and it will feel quite a bit cooler on boxing day. goodbye. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm gavin grey.

our top stories: pope francis pleads for migrants during christmas eve mass at the vatican. translation: so many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps ofjoseph and mary. we see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. after devastating large areas in the south of philippines, tropical storm tembin is heading to vietnam. the plight of the seven sick children waiting to hear if they'll be evacuated from syria. the king of spain renewed his call for unity and meet the ongoing fallout from catalonia's independence referendum not and from trump taking christmas calls to waterskiing santas — we look at how celebrations