segment, too. because you worry about everything. >> it was a great year. >> happy new year. zblrm that . >> thank you for watching. we begin with a fox news alert. 162 people including 17 children are still missing after hours of searching for air asia flight 8501. ships are franticly searching for the plane through the night but due to bad weather air searches have been postponed until morning. david piper is in thailand. david, what's next in this search? >> reporter: >> reporter: hi, doug. the search has been suspended for the past few hours because of that bad weather. but yes, if the weather does improve at first light, they will be sending the planes out again but some boats have been out on the sea, the java sea

all night. the region has been pummelled by hurricane rains in days causing can severe flooding in near malaysia. tony fernandez has been givinging a news conference in surabaya. he says the pilot did radio in they were facing severe weather. fernandez didn't have any news of the whereabouts of the plane though and he says his priority at the moment is to the loved ones of those on board. >> we hope that the aircraft is found quickly and we can find out the causes and what's happened. at the moment we don't want to speculate. we do not know what's happened. our prime concern now is to look after the families. >> reporter: indonesia air traffic control lost contact with the plane over 12 hours ago now. the air asia flight was on its way from surabaya in indonesia to singapore.

it had 162 passengers and crew on board. vast majority of those on the plane were indonesian. the airbus was about an hour into its three-hour journey to singapore when it disappeared from radar screens. indonesian search and rescue planes have been looking in an area of the java sea before the air search was suspended. airasia said earlier flight xz8501 had requested what it described as a deviation from the flight path due to bad weather. indonesia's transport ministry says the pilot asked permission to climb to 28,000 feet to avoid a crowd. the crew did not issue a distress call. friends and relatives went to both airports for news on the plane. the airline which has its headquarters in malaysia has never lost a plane before but the national carrier malaysia airlines has lost two this year, mh370 which just disappeared

and mh17 over ukraine. of course, it is still dark here but as i said, at first light hopefully those planes will be able to go back into the skies at first light and resume is the search. just before airasia flight 8501 lost communication officials say one of the pilots asked for permission to go to a higher altitude because of the bad weather. joining me now is former u.s. deputy assistant secretary of transportation oliver mcgee. oliver, thanks for coming in. whether on weather obviously a big concern for the pilots, they wanted to go to a higher altitude to avoid this bad weather. >> this is mh370 air france 447 deja vu. oftentimes when you have very tough storms you get black cells at high altitudes. essentially that is when an aircraft flies into a zone of high turbulence winds and

storms. that causes distortion of the air flow into the intake of the engine and the engine can literally choke, stall, and essentially you may have all kinds of icicles or hailstorms that may be ingested inside the engine. the engine literally falls out of the sky. >> can hail also damage an engine? >> yes. goes in just like bullets. >> also thnis kind of damage is largely dependent on the size of hail. correct? >> yes. yes. particularly in these particular rough storms, you get large hail objects that get ingested inside is the engine. >> icing conditions have been known to cause air miss haps in the past. it took a long time for investigators to piece together causes of the crash.

>> since 291949 we've had trouble finding aircraft irn side the oceans. this really calls for global tracking of aircraft like that being asked by the international air transport association but it also calls for another black box to find out the true story of the aircraft. when we lose these black boxes in remote regions of the ocean it takes a very very long too find out the mystery and solve the problem. if we don't get the black box we don't know what happened to the engine performance. >> in terms of popular awareness of this story it was the thing which measures air speed which got clogged with ice crystals they ultimately found out. right? >> yes. oftentimes when a pilot is

trying to get out of a storm they are really trying to save the aircraft. they're doing all kinds of things, heroic measures, to try to save and aircraft that's potentially unstable. when you're in a storm and the engine is literally choking like you're choking yourself, you're trying to get power back. the aircraft engine is trying to get power back and breathe and get back into a stable zone. typically there are all kinds of things the pilot is trying to do to save the aircraft. >> in that case, he thought he had a certain air speed and so he climbed to get out of the storm when in fact because the pito tubes were not giving him the correct readings he was actually sinking in a very controlled stall, unaware of it all the way down into the ocean from 20,000 30,000 feet high. >> that's right. you're an aircraft engine expert, doug. that's exactly right. stall will cause to you lose altitude, engine performance. in tough storms like this where there are black cells there's

very temperature distributions. >> is there any consideration in your mind that some other factor may have played a role in this missing airasia flight? >> my early take on the story today is that's the primary cause of some type of inlet distortion that caused the aircraft engine to literally choke and stall. essentially what would happen is the airplane would spiral out of the sky. >> i suppose if there is any good news at this point is that it crashed in an area marked by very, very shallow water. i think the java sea is only 200 feet deep, on average. so the prospects of finding the black box and/or maybe even potentially survivors is high i would think. >> true, and not true. finding black boxes inside oceanic waters is like finding a needle in a haystack so we must be patient and diligent in that but we do need to get that black box. once again this calls for global tracking of aircraft. it is time to put the black box in the cloud. right now we wouldn't be talking

about gindzing ingfinding a black box right now. >> we say all this as a matter of speculation. for all we know the mane may not have crashed at this point. >> that's true. >> we will find out in the hours and days to come. oliver mcgee thank you very much. now more on the condition that could have contributed to the plane's disappearance. >> this is the monsoon season in this area of the world meaning that winds have shifted and they typically see their heaviest rain, thunderstorms and strong winds across this region this time of year. of course the data that we have seen is that there were thunderstorms in the area where the plane went missing. this is what we are looking at. sat satellite presentation. the red are the colder cloud tops with indications that is where we saw the strongest thunderstorms within the flight path here.

we'll zoom in. i'll show you where we got last information from this flight earlier this morning. this is the region. we watch the satellite presentation here. the data is within three hours so we're missing data here but you can see there clearly was thunderstorms in the region when you look at the satellite presentation. looking ahead for the search crews right now search has halted because of bad weather in this area. there is the depatrture conditions remains very calm for the next few days. but right now things are fairly volatile out here. the java sea is shallow. there isn't mountainous terrain. if the plane did go down, it shouldn't be too bad a situation to try to find it. of course we are hoping that everyone did survive. but taking a look at the forecast satellite radar, looks like the main thunderstorm activity remains south of the area of concern here. but all indications are the weather was bad in the flight path. back to you. >> janice, we should assure our

viewers, just because there is a tropical climate it doesn't eliminate the formation of ice at -- >> you won't see the icing you would typically see in the latitudes that we live in, doug. so i don't know -- we'll have to get an i have yags expert that flies in this region. i don't think icing is going to be that huge of concern because this is the tropical area. this is very warm. we could see very small hail but i don't think the icing conditions that you typically see within north america are something that we should really hone in on. but again, this is the tropics here. very very warm conditions. certainly updrafts down drafts and thunderstorm activity. but i would like to see someone who is very familiar with flying in this region top indicate whether icing is a big concern in my expertise. i don't think icinge inging in this

region of the world is going to be a luge concern. >> janice, we do have experts in that field coming up in this hour so we'll get to them later on. >> wonderful. i'll be listening. another fox news alert. hundreds remain trapped on board a burning ferry off the coast of greece. the italian coast guard confirmed one person died trying to escape that ship. rescue efforts are under way but strong winds and choppy seas in that area are hindering the evacuation. >> translator: we are doing everything we can to save those on board and no one -- no one -- will be left helpless in this tough situation. it is complicated rescue operations we have ever done and for which the aassistance of multiple forces is needed. >> the greek coast guard says at least 150 people have been rescued so far. north korea's internet went dark again after the government

made derogatory comments about president obama on saturday. now the fbi is facing criticism from some skeptics claiming that the evidence the fbi used to blame north korea for the sony hack is flimsy and inconclusive. joining me now to discuss these allegations, illinois senator mark kirk. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me on. >> i know you have called for congressional hearings in regard to this sony hack. do you personally believe that it came from north korea? i know there's been a lot of speculation. >> i would agree with the white house statements that pointed a finger at north korea for this attack on sony pictures on "the interview." you got motive and opportunity there that would clearly point a finger at the north koreans. >> there are those who say that north korea does not have the technological capability to pull off such a stunt. >> that's right. there's only one isp in all of north korea, that sometimes the north koreans will farm out their cyber attack mechanisms to

an autonomous region where there are a lot of ethic koreans living in china to disguise where the attack is coming from. in this case, i would agree with the white house assessment who said that there were all indications this was coming from north korea. >> but would that have been done under the auspices of the chinese governments? you say chinese may have been involved but would they have been operating under the official capacity of the chinese government? >> actually, i don't think the chinese government is at fault here. in the case of the north korean cyber attack organizations, sometimes they will operate out of a city called jangxi. that would give them some plausible deniability but i don't think we would have official chinese involvement in this attack at sony. >> it seems to me that the fbi is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place in some regards

because to reveal what they know about this attack might also reveal what offensive capabilities in the cyber warfare game we have would it not? >> yeah. certainly in the case of this would be quite damaging if for china that wants to be expanding into its high-tech and cyber capabilities. >> one more question on this subject. leon panetta said that america's next pearl harbor could very well be a cyber attack. how confident are you that we are prepared for such an eventuality? >> i would say in this case we are not totally secure, that we need our men and women of the national security agency possible to be given a new mission by the congress to defend the united states' cyber infrastructure. now that we know it is so essential to our economy and vulnerable to foreign attack. >> i want to surprise you real

quickly with a shift in subject matter here. senator lindsey graham says that the senate will vote on legislation in the upcoming session, legislation that you helped draft that would impose additional sanctions on iran if it were to violate an interim nuclear agreement or walk away from the talks that are now in progress. tell me about that and what your ideas in regard to this are. >> on january 6th the new republican senate takes office. majority leader mcconnell has said the first vote coming from the republican senate will be to approve the keystone pipeline. he has also said the second big vote will be on iran sanctions so i would expect that coming up. so in that case lindsey is right, we're going to follow up. the good thing about those votes, they will be really bipartisan votes in the case of iran. i have 17 democrats with me including bob menendez and chuck schumer, to their credit, is with us.

we have a shot at even getting to a veto-proof majority in the senate. >> so you do think it will be veto-proof? >> that's what we'll be working on. good bipartisan vote. >> senator, we look forward to that. thank you very much for your time. good to see you. >> thank you doug. when we come back floer hollywood movie gets banned this time in egypt as the story of moses is told. egypt claims major historical in inaccuracyies inaccuracies. stranded is at sea. how this fisherman got back to dry land. more officials knew top veteran officials knew about the secret waiting list. we'll debate the possible legal action. >> this could be firms things that many of us have been saying for a long time that this wasn't just phoenix, it wasn't just sharon hellman, it wasn't just the visiting director.

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reliably fast internet starts at $69.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. now for a closer look at what we know about the missing airasia flight 8501, joined by fox military analyst chuck nash. have you ever flown in a tropical climate like this? >> absolutely. i've done a lot of flying on -- in our hem streer but not over in the pacific but the weather patterns the moisture, that intertropical convergence zone, a lot of similar whether there. >> we were talk inging about the potential for icing conditions. that simply means that the

higher you go, the colder it gets as you go up through the tropisphere. where the airliner was flying whether over the continental united states or over the indonesian archipelago, at 50,000 feet or where it was, probably around 34,000 to 35,000 feet, the outside air temperature is going to be about minus 50 degrees centigrade which is pretty cold. >> should this plane have been in a position where it was stuck in a storm like this to start with? i would have thought the pilots would ask for permission to deviate from the course long before they found themselves in the midst of a storm like that. >> obviously i think what happened here, doug, is they started heading along thinking they could pick their way through and then there was so much energy in the atmosphere, these storms were popping up in front of them where maybe they thought they had a clear area or a way around it. the next thing you know, they were in the meteorological equivalent of a box canyon and

had nowhere to go so they asked to climb hoping they could probably climb above it. the problem there is that as you start to climb, you approach an area where the atmosphere is so thin that the aircraft reaches what's called its service ceiling or its absolute ceiling which is above that, and now you no longer have the thrust to remain airborne. you've got so little amount of air actually coming over the wings to generate lift, and then if you get hit by turbulence and it pitches the aircraft around, the aircraft just departs controlled flight. from there on it's good luck -- good luck with that scenario. >> just by virtue of being that high, the airplane itself is on the verge of stalling anyway or just short of that. correct? >> it is. and the airlines fly up there, of course, because that's where you get the best fuel economy. you can lean out -- this is all done automatically by the aircraft engine fuel control system but it leans out the amount of fuel so that the fuel-air mixture is correct for

the optimum burn. you're up high up there where the air is rare, so to speak. that's why most of the time virtually all of the time in these modern aircraft, it's being flown by auto pilot because you cannot course the airplane around up there or you will depart control of flight. >> we talked earlier about this air france flight that crashed in the south atlantic. the ultimate cause was found to be a clogged pito tube, clogged with ice. it is my understanding air france and the other manufacturers, other airlines, made changes with the pito tubes. would this airbus a320 have incorporated changes to the pito tubes? >> i believe that was one of the type model series that required that change. whether that change has absolutely been implemented, i don't know. there's a certain time limit that comes with these air frame directives where airlines have a certain amount of time maybe when it comes in for the next major overhaul i don't know

what category that is. but all of the airbus operators are very much aware of that air france incident because it was, unfortunately, yes it was ice but it was also an aircraft issue in how the flight control system is rigged and there was pilot error ultimately in that the co-pilot was panicked and he was literally leaning back holding the stiff stick controller putting in a full-up elevator control while the aircraft was in a stall and it just stalled and mushed all the way down. by the time they realized it, it was too late and they slammed into the -- >> we're out of time. real quick any other thoughts enter your mind -- all speculation, of course but what might have lapped tohappened to this plane? >> i think the obviously is what everybody's talking about and that is we'll probably find out weather was a major contributing fact factor. whether that then generated pilot error or aircraft

malfunction, we don't flow. whether you find out your flight's canceled don't be angry. just be glad someone's looking out for you. we are learning new details now about what top officials at the department of veterans affairs may have known about that agency's health care scandal. a judge's ruling this week revealed that senior bureaucrats in washington were briefed about falsified wait lists and other problems at the va hospital in phoenix. joining us now to discuss there, two former prosecutors. gentlemen, thanks very much for joining us. let's talk about there. i'm so struck by how many scandals in recent years have been enlightening to us, not from congressional hearings but from court cases. >> exactly. the civil case has opened the door because of evidence that was revealed in that of possible criminal conduct. and that may lead to charges against some of these high-up officials of perjury and lying to congress. that often happens in a civil case documents, testimony

reveal possible criminal conduct. that may have happened here. >> absolutely. keep in mind let's address the while elephant in the room. that is that the victims here are veterans. these were our courageous men in uniform that were waiting for these appointments, in some cases dying while waiting for the va to do what it was charged by congress to do originally. this wasn't just manipulation of numbers. this was manipulation of people's lives and it is really a tragedy. >> at the time this was happening, the widely held narrative here was that sharon hellman, the director of the phoenix va, was the person who was largely responsible but it came forth in testimony in this civil case that her predecessor knew about this and briefed her higher-ups and in turn briefed her higher-ups about this they phenomenon. take a look at this congressional testimony from the va secretary, eric shinseki at the time this was all happening. >> in your judgment, based on what you know are people

"cooking the books"? >> i'm not aware other than a number of isolated cases where there is evidence of that. >> he knew more than that but that's probably technically a true statement that he didn't think it was throughout his entire department because he didn't have his full finger on the pulse. it wasn't just him. it was so many corrupt bureaucrats across the va who are more interested in preserving their jobs and preserving their bonuses than they are at getting things right. it is hard to change a bureaucracy. secretary shinseki found that out the hard way. >> jim, what did you think of secretary shinseki's testimony there? >> we have to give him credit at this time that it was truthful. however, they won't make a case a prosecutor, if it is a he said/she said. to prove these higher-ups knew they'll need e-mails, text messages, other witnesses to move forward. that's what they'll try and do is build a case based upon corroborative evidence. not he said/she said.

but following up on what was said before, this is a disgrace. there may be more than just perjury and obstruction of justice charges. if people in the va knew that a certain patient may have died or was in a life threatening situation and they delayed their appointment and didn't do anything you may have reckless homicide charges or maybe even manslaughter. people's lives were at stake and people died so this is really serious and they've got to take a careful look at each patient as to whether or not their death was premature around caused by others. >> peter, should there be criminal charges? >> let me just address this first of all. this was a systematic problem. okay? the fox was guarding the hen house at the veterans administration. people were given incentives to not only fabricate but lie about the numbers because incentives were given out performance reviews, bonuses and promotions were given out based on these numbers. this was systematic. it was systemic. i believe that's what the evidence is going to reveal. >> should we go back into this crisis now that there is a new

secretary for the veterans administration who's promised to improve things? he seems to certainly be sincere, talking about bob mcdonald. is he improving on this and do you have expectations that things will improve? >> he's doing a goods job from what we see. but yes, you have to go back. men and women lost their lives. this isn't about perjury and cover-ups and documents. people died. we owe it to the families of these warriors to go back and prove if we can whether or not there was misconduct and caused their death. >> correct. until we understand what was happening there and the corruption in the ranks and files at the veterans administration, we can't move forward so we owe it to our brave men and women in uniform. >> there are civil cases pendsing right now from veterans who were mishandled. >> absolutely. and this information will help those cases an help those veterans that are suing get justice. >> jim peter, thank you very much. good discussion. still ahead continuing coverage of the missing airasia flight 8051. 162 passengers on board that

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updating you now on our top story, it's been missing for nearly 20 hours, ship search and rescue teams are still looking for the airasia flight carrying

162 people including 17 children. due to bad weather, air searches will resume in the morning. an aviation attorney joins me now. mark i guess most of the speck lapgs speculation centers on the weather. any doubt in your mind? >> not really. we have to try to avoid the media melee that followed malaysia flight 370 speculation. certainly we know the weather is out there. to an extent it had an impact hopefully we'll know soon. >> there are other possibilities as well as the weather. >> that's always the case in the issue of an aviation accident. mechanical error, pilot error. i think a number of them seem to explain themselves quickly. hopefully once they locate the wreckage we'll get early indications of what direction the investigation is going to go. >> at 13 hours ahead there so

it is just after 2:30 in the morning. the sea search will resume as soon as there is daylight there. you do expect that they'll find some wreckage? >> i would certainly hope so. we are talking about a much smaller area than in the malaysia 370 accident. we've got, it appears, perhaps better radar coverage. we do have obviously some indications of deviation of the aircraft but we don't have the type of deviation that everybody was speculating about in the context of 370. >> you have an interesting influx here or conflagration, i should say of interests here. you have european built plane an airbus. you'll probably have american investigators at least to some degree. they'll probably ask for our help. and different nations involved which in the past has been a recipe for conflict. >> it has. i think we saw in malaysia 370 that the sort of geopolitical

issues in many respects pushed the investigation to the background with the chinese and malaysian government. all with legitimate interests with passengers on board. i don't think we have the same mix present here. we have 155 malaysianens on board. under the international convention certainly it is quite clear that the malaysians take it the lead on the investigation. and they're quite experienced in accident investigation. >> there have been cases in the past -- i'm thinking of the silk air crash, i think it was in 1997, where american investigators, greg feith from the ntsb, concluded that the pilot committed suicide. he was having terrible financial problems, locked the door to lock the co-pilot out, put the plane into a nose dive and crashed. that also happened with this egypt air thing. the various nationalities various interests, got into heated disputes over the real causes of it. >> i think that both of those are good examples of what happens when governments put

their nationalistic interests and perceptions sort of globally of their government and their national airlines in the case of national airlines ahead of issues regarding air safety. you do get these extensive reports issued by a local government, whether it is the egyptian government or the indonesian government in the case of silk air that really fly in the face of the accident investigation and the facts. >> what do you expect to happen in the next 48 hours or so? >> well, hopefully in the next 48 hours they'll locate the wreckage they'll get investigators out to the scene in terms of documenting what is seen. they'll start to recover parts of the actual wreckage and the investigation will actually get organized under applicable international conventions. >> does the shallow depth of the water there make a difference? >> definitely helpful. i think where we are, for example, on malaysia 370, everybody talks about them resume being the search efforts. what i believe they're actually doing is mapping something on the order of 110,000 square meters of ocean floor before

they can actually resume the search efforts. hopefully we're not in for that in this particular instance. >> mark, always appreciate your expertise. thanks very much. take a look at this. an absolutely amazing rescue at sea. the chinese coast guard saving three fishermen on friday from a sinking boat. a huge wave overturned their vessel. the fishermen desperately clinging to the bottom of the boat calling for help with their only working cell phone. the fishermen were rescued within an hour. all three are said to be in stable condition. glad to know what kind of a waterproof phone that guy lass. president putin declared nato forces to be russia's greatest political tear threat. so what are the u.s. and other nato allies doing to deal with his escalating rhetoric? and, pro-police rallies all over our country as thoizusands take to the streets to show their support for u.s. law enforcement. sly? alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms plus your runny nose.

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♪ know when to walk away. ♪ ♪ know when to run. ♪ ♪ you never count your money, ♪ ♪ when you're sitting at the ta...♪ what? you get it? i get the gist yeah. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. families are on edge awaiting any word of their relatives aboard airasia flight 8501. that flight mysteriously disappeared this morning. today's news bringing back bad memories for families involved in another flight, missing malaysian flight 370. >> translator: when i watched the news today i really felt sad for the passengers on board and i believeky feel exactly the same as the relatives of the

passengers on the missing plane today. i can feel the coldness they are feeling now. >> translator: our hard time isn't over and now these people start theirs. i would say to them that we are all having a difficult time and we share the same feeling about our beloved on board. i wish a miracle happens to your relatives on the plane since there hasn't been a final conclusion yet and everything is possible. >> malaysia airlines flight 370 has been missing since the month of march. russian president vladimir putin signed a new doctrine on friday that names nato as the country's top military threat. in the doctrine, putin said that nato forces near russia's border could be used for political and military pressure and that has led some to contemplate if putin is setting the stage for further military escalation in his region or perhaps even world war iii? fox news strategic analyst ralph peters is here to discuss this and other international affairs and strategies. good to see you. >> great to see you, doug.

>> what do you make of this new doctrine announced on friday? >> it is certainly serious but it is two-thirds for domestic consumption. if you follow the russian media, which has a very different world view than our media does, a little close to msnbc, but other than that it is really a situation where putin has created a fantasy world for the russians. and the rugs media play along. even though they've got some smart journalists, they're very cynical. they do what they're told to do. and so if you are a prisoner of the russian media the average russian citizen, you're being bombarded with the idea that america's out to destroy russia europe is america america's lackey trying to destroy russia. now they're even attack being the bullgarians for not standing beside their orthodox brothers. it is a cult of victimhood worthy of al sharpton but al sharpton with nukes. >> putin suggests a new use for russian nukes, that they would

not only be used for retaliation against a nato nuclear attack but against also a conventional attack that caused grievous harm to russia. what do you make of that? >> two sides to that. one, he's bullying. and he says provocative things. he's a smarter version of kim jong-un jong-un. but the other part of it is that despite all the ballyhoo about how great the russian military is, they do maintenance with sledge hammers. it is a big but clumsy force. ragbag troops you saw in eastern ukraine, for instance, those are use elite troops. those are our equivalent of our u.s. special forces or army rangers. the russians are much bigger and better than the ukrainians because the previous ukrainian president was putin's tool and he essentially disarmed unilaterally but putin knows that his military in a conventional conflict could not begin to stand up to the united

states and its allies. so he's saying, hey, don't mess with us we might use nukes. but again, there's a little touch of madness but there's a great deal of savvy maneuvering. putin knows his people. he's an old kgb guy. he's have been we he''s very, very good at lining up his allies. i hear people on the american left celebrating say something stop putin now, oh no, obama sanctions worked. no, the collapse of oil prices helped by the sanctions put the brakes on putin but did not break putin. it will take two to three years of oil prices in the 40s and 50s to really derail putin's plans. he has big plans for the russian military because he does want to

build a first-rate military. but in the immoral words of that great american marxist, cyndi lauper, money changes everything. >> it is interesting, you talk about oil prices certainly compounding the problems of the sanctions but he has a new fan in the united states that he speaks highly of. >> he's joined governor cuomo's fan club. it's funny, the russian papers are just such a hoot. it's -- stephen colbert was never this funny except they're trying to be serious. they've discovered governor cuomo as a new hero because he banned fracking. the russians have a horror of fracking because it's helped drive down oil prices it is a threat to them. they've suddenly decided -- russia's environment is incredibly polluted. they've suddenly discovered frac something a threat to the environment and governor cuomo is a visionary worthy of going down in the history books. >> real quickly before you go the end of combat operations at the end of this year in afghanistan. at the time the president told troops in hawaii just this week that it will no longer be a

source of terrorist attacks. how does he know that? >> well he doesn't. of course he doesn't. we always hear from the president that al qaeda was finished. look, he may have declared the war in afghanistan over. it ain't over. just as iraq wasn't over. the president, too, lives in and fantasy world of his own. the difference is that putin uses fantasy and plays upon the russian people. president obama seems to believe some of his own fantasies. >> we'll leave it with that. ralph peters always appreciate your insight. >> happy new year. president obama is up for a big year of foreign policy. dan springer covering the president's christmas vacation in honolulu. >> reporter: that's right. 2015 is shaping up has a big year on the foreign policy front. we'll explore where the white house and gop leaders may actually come to an agreement. exodus god and kings gets pulled from theaters in egypt. sound familiar to you? we'll have details. sn't a street... return on investment

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♪ ♪ make the best entertainment part of your holidays. catch all the hottest handpicked titles on the winter watchlist, only with xfinity from comcast. here are the latest developments in search for airasia flight 8501 which intdindonesia

lost contact with air controllers over java sea. dense storm clouds blanketed the area at the time of the disappearance. air searches are suspended until daylight, about four hours away there, but ships are still combing the area. meanwhile relatives of the 162 people on board are awaiting any word. live in honolulu where president obama is on vacation is being believed on the situation. dan? >> reporter: that's right, doug. shortly after that airasia flight disappeared, the white house issued a statement saying basically the president has been briefed and he's monitoring the situation. as for foreign policy and the big issues in 2015, the biggest has to be isis. on that issue, at least, the gop-controlled congress and the president seemed to mostly be in agreement. both sides see a stable and unified iraq is critical. mr. obama authorized air strikes and 3,000 troops to help the iraqi army. senator john mccain, who will chair the armed services committee, have said air strikes can continue but more boots on

the ground will be needed to defeat the islamic state. there will likely be less aagreement between the president and gop leaders in iran. in second round of nuclear negotiations with iran. a deal on the table would allow iran to continue enriching uranium opposed by republicans. another major foreign policy story to watch russia. an increasingly agreeses ive vladimir putin. economic sanctions levyied by the united states and european union are really starting to hurt since the price of oil began dropping. russia's economy is in crisis with the ruble plunging. afghanistan has been a major story for the last 13 years. today marked the end of the mission there. the u.s. flag came down in a ceremony in kabul. finally, on trade deals, republicans will likely be a lot more receptive to a couple of trade deals than democrats were. his own party mr. obama wants two trade deals to get done in 2015 and he's likely to have

more cooperation in congress than last year. doug? >> we shall see. dan springer in honolulu, thank you. another hollywood movie is causing problems overseas. "gods and exodus "has been banned in egypt. they say they're banning the film because it contains quote historical inaccuracies. the movie retells the biblical story of moses who led the jewish people out of slavery in egypt more than 3,000 years ago. coming up after the break how people across the country are supporting police and honoring the lives of the two fallen nypd officers.

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while thousands gathered in queens, new york saturday for one of the nypd officers killed saturday, pro-police rallies happened across the country. in cleveland dressed in blue to show their support. in denver, officers stood with a blue lives matter event. that's all for me here in washington. stay with fox news for all the latest news from the search for airasia flight 8501. "fox news sunday" coming up next. thanks for watching. i'm chris wallace. the year in review. looking back at some of the biggest stories of 2014 and what we should expect in the year ahead.

from the midterm elections and that gop wave set to wash over washington. >> tonight we shook up the senate. you shook up the senate. >> i would welcome the president moving to the middle. first indications have not been very helpful. >> to the growing fight against isis. >> this is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of days strategic vision, which will eventually have to be defeated. >> hands up! don't