high maya schwager welcome to the program. and we start in the vatican where pope francis has celebrated the traditional christmas eve midnight mass in the splendor of st peter's basilica and remarks earlier the pope compared mary and joseph journey to bethlehem to the mass mass migration being seen in the world today pope francis told the faithful that the birth of jesus in a manger had changed history forever the pontiff said that everything that happened that night has become a source of hope. and not the faith we proclaim tonight makes us gold present in all those situations where we think he is absent he he is be present in the unwelcome visitor often unrecognizable. they don't have to feel that there is no room for them on this. christmas is a time for turning the power of fear into the power of charity into power for a new imagination of charity. and midnight mass is also underway in bethlehem the west bank town where christians believe jesus was born the faithful have gathered in the church of the nativity where archbi

and peace so i think more on this story with our correspondents on the ground maya schwager is in jerusalem and max hoffman is in brussels good to see you both max let's start with you in brussels benjamin netanyahu saying he expects most e.u. countries to recognize to rule jerusalem as the capital of israel but how likely is that to happen. well we just sort of the foreign policy chief of the european union federica maga really and she reiterated we just heard you know jerusalem capital of the two state solution of and they go she added solution and that means that the two parties actually would have to sit down and negotiate what's not happening at the moment and then they would have to find a result and only then the e.u. as a whole would be ready to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel so that's not happening at the moment but of course the european union is more than just this institutions it's the sum of its member states and there you have a couple of men who are states who are actually thinking about doing that or who already thought about doing that one of them for example

i'm maya schwager welcome to the program. we start in the vatican where pope francis is leading christmas eve mass thousands of roman catholics morale in the world have gathered in st peter's basilica for the traditional late evening service it teleports their belief in the birth of jesus christ over two thousand years ago . and this version christians to find a quiet moment to reflect on the meaning of christmas. and christmas celebrations are also underway in the west bank city of bethlehem but among heightened tensions this year's festivities come at a time of simmering anger after u.s. president donald trump's controversial decision to recognize your wrist as israel's capital the announcement triggered clashes which has been weighing on christians as they prepare to celebrate christmas despite it all festivities are under way. christmas eve in bethlehem the town where the it is the birthplace of jesus is in festive me and asked thousands of christian pilgrims arrive from around the world. to find something special. about

more on this story now with our correspondents on the ground maya schwager is in jerusalem. is in brussels good morning to both of you max let's start with you in brussels many leaders there opposed to trump's move recognizing jerusalem as israel's capital so what do you foreign ministers want to get from benjamin netanyahu i think the foreign ministers don't expect to get much of that at all because that he's known to them we know his stance on the european union he's criticized the e.u. repeatedly over the last years as being too palestinian friendly just when he left for this trip he did it again accusing the e.u. of hypocrisy saying that they have a double standard condemning the recognition of jerusalem as a capital by the u.s. but not condemning rocket fire by the palestinians so they're probably happy if there's no diplomatic incident here now if the relationship were different if it were reasonable expectations would be to restart the middle east peace process for example to announce something like the freezing of. the israeli settlement building that something by th