In his annual "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas address, Pope Francis called from the Vatican for unity in the face of Islamic terrorism. He directly addressed the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 and the Oct. 31 downing of a Russian plane over Egypt that killed all 224 people on board, condemning both attacks as "brutal acts of terrorism."

"Only God's mercy can free humanity from the many forms of evil, at times monstrous evil, which selfishness spawns in our midst," the pope said. His Holiness' wide-ranging address also called for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and asked God to give strength to persecuted Christians around the world. Samantha Rollins

For months, President Trump has repeatedly and aggressively urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Homeland Security officials to award border wall contracts to Fischer Industries, a North Dakota construction company whose CEO frequently appears on Fox News to pitch his wall-building skills, The Washington Post reports, citing four administration officials and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Fischer friend and advocate.

Trump's "push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials," the Post says, as it "risks the perception of improper influence on decades-old procurement rules that require government agencies to seek competitive bids, free of political interference." Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, and former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen separately explained to Trump that he can't just pick a company, the Post reports, but "Fisher was added to a pool of competitors after the Army Corps came under pressure from the White House."

Fischer CEO Tommy Fisher has said on Fox News and other conservative outlets that he can build barrier wall faster and cheaper using a new technique his company is showcasing in New Mexico, where it's building a half-mile of border fence on private land using crowdsourced funds. Trump reportedly repeats Fischer's claims.

DHS rejected the border wall prototype Fischer built, saying its concrete design didn't provide the needed visibility, and Fischer switched to promoting a steel design. Army Corps officials evaluated Fisher's new proposal and determined it doesn't meet the project's requirements, lacked regulatory approval, and cost less because it wasn't as high-quality as competing bids, the Post reports. Also, a barrier project Fisher did in San Diego was late and over-budget, DHS told the Army Corps. Fisher sued the government in late April, alleging improprieties with the contract process.

"The president is one of the country's most successful builders and knows better than anyone how to negotiate the best deals," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Post. Cramer said Trump learned about the company from Tommy Fischer's Fox News appearances. "He always brings them up," he said. Peter Weber

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) revealed on Thursday night that Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to privately testify before the committee, with the transcript later made public.

When asked by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow why Mueller wouldn't want to testify publicly, Nadler said he's speculating, but it's likely because Mueller "envisions himself, correctly, as a man of great rectitude and apolitical and he doesn't want to participate in anything he may regard as a political spectacle." The House Judiciary Committee thinks it's "important for the American people to hear from him and to hear his answers to questions about the report," Nadler added.

The goal of the panel is to "open all of this up to the American people, and have everybody relevant testify so people can understand what was in the Mueller report, what wasn't in the Mueller report," he said. The White House has stonewalled the committee by not letting current and former staffers who have received subpoenas testify, but "we're going to beat them in court," Nadler said. "It's ridiculous from a legal point of view." Catherine Garcia

The White House announced on Thursday night that President Trump has given Attorney General William Barr "full and complete authority" to declassify intelligence related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In a statement, the White House said Trump also "directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the attorney general's investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election." The White House claims this "will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions."

Trump has long called the Russia investigation a "witch hunt," and his allies insist the evidence used to launch the FBI probe was flimsy. Catherine Garcia

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie producer who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, has reached a tentative $44 million settlement with the women, creditors, and the New York attorney general, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The Weinstein Co. filed for bankruptcy last year, and lawyers told a bankruptcy court judge on Thursday that a deal has been reached, but not finalized. Under the proposed deal, the alleged victims, former Weinstein Co. employees, and studio creditors would receive $30 million, the Journal reports, with an additional $14 million going toward legal fees. The money would come from various insurance policies.

The New York attorney general's office filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2018, alleging that the Weinstein Co.'s board members and executives did not do enough to protect employees from Weinstein's misconduct; if the deal goes through, it would end the suit. Weinstein is also set to go on trial in September on rape and other sexual assault charges. He denies ever engaging in nonconsensual sex. Catherine Garcia

The Trump administration is preparing to bypass Congress in order to sell $7 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, current and former U.S. officials and lawmakers told The New York Times on Thursday.

Right now, Congress has the sale on hold, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior aides are urging Trump to invoke a provision in the Arms Export Control Act that would let him circumvent lawmakers, the Times reports. This is sure to stoke tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which considers Saudi Arabia its biggest rival, and anger Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who are already upset with Trump over his reaction to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year and his support of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in the Yemen war.

"It sets an incredibly dangerous precedent that future presidents can use to sell weapons without a check from Congress," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) told the Times. "We have the constitutional duty to declare war and the responsibility to oversee arm sales that contravene our national security interests. If we don't stand up to this abuse of authority, we will permanently box ourselves out of deciding who we should sell weapons to." Read more about the broad implications of Trump sidestepping Congress at The New York Times. Catherine Garcia

President Trump is angry that John Walker Lindh walked out of an Indiana prison on Thursday, telling reporters he was ticked off when government lawyers told him there was nothing they could do to stop Lindh's release.

Lindh, 38, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 after volunteering to fight with the Taliban. Dubbed the "American Taliban," Lindh converted from Catholicism to Islam at 16, and left his home in California to study Arabic in Yemen. He pleaded guilty in 2002 to supplying services to the Taliban, and during his sentencing, said he never planned on fighting U.S. forces and condemned "terrorism on every level."

Lindh served 17 years of a 20-year sentence, and as part of his release conditions, he cannot communicate with known extremists, have a passport, or use any device that can access the internet without permission from his probation officer. Leaked documents from 2016 show the government believes Lindh still holds "extremist views," and the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement it does have policies in place for monitoring parolees with links to terrorism.

Trump said what bothers him the most is that Lindh "has not given up his proclamation of terror, and we have to let him out. Am I happy about it? Not even a little bit." Catherine Garcia