i'm alison kosik. more headlines coming up in 30 minutes. see you then. merry christmas. >>> i think it's fair to say this year the country felt more divided politically than ever before. manier faced with have -- many were faced with having to confront personal faith and politics that overlapped. joining us on are analyst and author of "how's your faith" david gregory, flower pastor of the foundry church, ginger gaines serelli, and president of the southern ethics and liberty commission, robert moore. great to have you with us. david, you've written a book about this, thought about faith. how did faith fare this year with all of the toxic politics? >> i don't think very well. a lot of my views and, i hope, spiritual growth in part has been fueled by russell and ginger. i'm happy to be on with them. i think that's polarizing in a toxic time is a return to our spiritual selves. the idea of what i like to call spiritual citizenship. how we live our faith, our ethics, and rely upon religious teaching and our own religious traditions to help us

i'm alison kosik. pope francis touching on critical conflicts notably in the mideast. john allen is live for us in rome. the pontiff not shying away from controversy, even on christmas. >> hi there, merry christmas to you and yours. you are absolutely right. pope francis famously does not pull his punches, even on the holiest of days on the christian calendar, and we saw him at it again today. in the beginning he was seen as a peace pope, and it was peace on his heart and mind today, in light of the recent decision by u.s. president donald trump to relocate the american embassy in israel and the controversy it's generated. pope francis began by praying for peace in jerusalem and reiterating the vatican's long-held support of a two-state solution. he mentioned myanmar, where he called for greater dignity for threatened minorities there, though very carefully without actually using the word rohingya, a word he also avoided on his trip there out of fear of inflaming popular opinion and making things worse

i'm alison kosik.ancis delivering his christmas day address and blessing to the city of rome and to the entire world. cnn's john allen is live in rome. i know this is a pontiff who's been especially outspoken on international issues. what is his message today? >> reporter: hi there, merry christmas to you and yours. this is important to remember that to the city and world, the address that francis is giving today, isn't just the pope saying merry christmas, and it's not an exclusively religious message. there's a lot of politics in there, too. kind of a 360-degree review of the global situation. in light of the tensions over jerusalem and the vatican's long-standing support for a two-state solution to the israeli/palestinian conflict, it's reasonable to think the pope may touch on that today. i would expect him to touch on other areas of the middle east, especially iraq and syria, with which the vatican has been concerned this year. probably parts of africa and asia, as well, especially the korean conf

cnn's alison kosik has more. >> reporter: for three decades, rona has been one of donald trump's keyatekeepers. if you want to get to him, you have to go through her. >> thank you. good job. >> reporter: even on tv -- >> hi. he asked me to call you and tell you to meet him tomorrow morning at the new york stock exchange. >> reporter: in "the art of the comeback," trump called her my very loyal secretary. >> she might have been present in his offices for some of the conversations that took place, even sensitive conversations. >> reporter: discrete, efficient, loyal, a trump confidant. as senior vice president of the trump organization, she's so much more than his secretary, according to trump biographer. >> she's been keeping track of his schedule for 30 years. she's the go-to person if you want to connect with the president through his business enterprises and even today people will still go to her if they want to reach the president in a channelled way. >> reporter: originally from queens, she hold as masters in education. after working in sports marketing, an employment agency got

alison kosik tells us more. >> i want you to notice something about the apology, because it's more aboutommunicated with the customers, but they are not apologizing for causing the phones to work slower. on its website, apple posted part of a long explanation. we know that some of you feel apple has let you down. we apologize first and foremost. we would never do anything to shorten the life of any apple product or degrade the user experience to drive up customer upgrade. there you see apple depositing it slowed down iphones so customers would have to buy a new upgraded phone. to make up for this the company is offering cheaper replacement batteries, and offering the batteries from $79 to $29, and this begins next month. the customers were outraged with the upgrade to slow down the phone. i know that when i walked into an apple store, and my phone was slow, and not once did anybody suggest that i get a new battery. no, no, no, they suggested a buy a new phone, alisyn. >> i think my battery has been losing life. it only works half as long as it used to. are they doing that, too. >> well,

i'm alison kosik sitting in for christine romans. >> happy friday december 29th. 6:00 p.m.k in live in those locations shortly. we start with the eyebrow raising interview with the president and the "new york times." after weeks of watching his allies try to discredit the special counsel's investigation the president is giving robert mueller the benefit of the doubt. mr. trump sitting down with the "new york times" for this interview at his golf club in palm beach. >> on russia, the president took a different tone than many in the republican party we've seen lately. listen to "new york times" reporter on cnn last night. >> he thought bob mueller was going to be fair

alison kosik is here with more. amazon? >> the president tweeted about amazon, and there you go, amazon makes a you turn fru-turn, fromo negative. it encourages the post office to raise prices, and it could be for a different reason, the president has been critical of the media and been critical of the "washington post," poppy. >> indeed. we will have to get more information on that tweet. ov overall, this has been good. >> most of these are psychological markers that e exemplify the markers we saw in the last year. the dow hit 21,000, early august, 22,000, october, 23,000, and just 30 days after that, 24,000. some stocks we have been watching to help move the dow up this year, boeing. boeing shares up 90%. caterpillar up 70%. apple shares up 47%. this is just the dow. the dow is only 30 stocks. the s&p 500 is a broader measure of the market, and it's up 30%, and as for the nasdaq, not too shabby. tech stocks fueled the index to a record year. it's actually a first, and investors i have been talking to say the reason we hav

alison kosik is here with more. when it comes to money, people will wait in line forever and ever. >> this time they're trying to get their property taxes for 2017 in in times for 2018, because those tax laws will be kicking in. the reason they're doing this is to try to take advantage of the 2017 laws that will allow them to get those unlimited deductions. a few things you need to do to make sure this is worth while for you. first of all, my suggestion is call your municipality oar go to that i website and find out even if they accept this money ahead of time. if they ked, there's probably a deadline of december 31st. make sure your check or envelope is post marked before that. keep in mind, even if you get this money in, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to take these unlimited deductions, guess who it's up to? it's up to the i.r.s. to figure this out. many people are banking on the fact that i.r. is will allow you to prepace those taxes and get toss deduction for 2017. >>> the market is opening in about fi

i'm alison kosik sitting in for christine romans. >> happy friday december 29th. 6:00 p.m. in beijing, we'll check in live in those locations shortly. we start with the eyebrow raising interview with the president and the "new york times." after weeks of watching his allies try to discredit the special counsel's investigation the president is giving robert mueller the benefit of the doubt. mr. trump sitting down with the "new york times" for this interview at his golf club in palm beach. >> on russia, the president took a different tone than many in the republican party we've seen lately. listen to "new york times" reporter on cnn last night. >> he thought bob mueller was going to be fair to him which undercuts and undermines an argument many in his party have been making that they've been attempting to discredit and undermine mueller's investigation calling it partisan, so this goes against that but at the same time the president repeated a lot of complaints and criticisms he's had about the investigation. >> among those complaints, the investigation is bad for the country

let's take a look, cnn's alison kosik is with us. looks like stocks are in the red so it's going away for the 25,000 mark for the dow. you look at the numbers. we have seen more than 80 record highs for the dow just this year. we are seeing this pause today and we are seeing apple shares move lower, so that's bringing the index, the dow into the red before the market opens, and this is after the news of apple's latest sales. you are seeing the market focus on the retail sales, and today is the day a lot of people return what they didn't want but they end up buying. if you look at spending polls that tracks online sales and sales in stores the predirections are we should see a holiday shopping surpass since the 2011 shopping season. >> thank you. the dow poised to have the best year since 2013. alisy alison, thank you so much. >>> the president has big plans for 2018 but will the mid-term elections be a hurdle. democrats looking for big wins, wins that could shift the balance of power. we'll be back. let's begin. yes or no? do you wan

alison kosik is "outfront." >> rhona, let me have the call list. >> for three decades, rhona graff hasld trump's key gate keepers. if you want to get to him, you have to go through her. zpl thank you, good job. >> even on tv, she's summoned the apprentices to meet with trump. >> hi. this is rhona. he asked he to call you and tell him to meet him tomorrow morning at the new york stock exchange. >> trump called her my very loyal secretary. zpl she would have possibly heard some of the phone calls. she might have been present in his offices for some of the conversations that took place. even sensitive conversations. >> discreet. efficient, loyal. a trump confidant as senior vice president of the trump organization, graff is so much more than a secretary according to trump biographer. >> she's been keeping track of his schedule for 30 years. she's the go to person if you want to connect with the president through his business intenterprises and even today, people will still go to rhona if they want to reach the president in a way. >> originally from queens, graff holds a masters in educati

alison kosik has the full story. >> rhona, let me have calls, please. >> for three decades rhona graffrump's key gatekeepers. if you want to get to him, you have to go through her. >> thank you, good job. >> even on tv, she summoned the apprentices to meet with trump. >> hi, this is rhona with trump's office. he asked me to call you and tell you to meet him tomorrow morning at the new york stock exchange. >> trump called her my very loyal secretary. >> she would have heard possibly so some of the phone calls, might have been present for some of the conversations that took place, even sensitive conversations. >> discreet, efficient, loyal, a trump confidante. as senior vice president of the trump organization, graff is so much more than a secretary, according to trump biographer michael dantonio. >> she's been keeping track of his schedule for 30 years. she's the go-to person if you want to connect with the president through his business enterprises, and even today people will still go to rhona if they want to reach the president in a back channel way. >> originally from queens, the sam