technow on al jazeera america >> hello, welcome to aljazeera america. here are the top stories we're following at this hour. the house prepares for a possible vet on the budget deal. and cutting power to the prime minister's compound. and plus, tis the season. a shipping surge for the holidays. more jobs for kentucky. >> good to have you with us. congress is about to take up a compromise budget bill, worked

out by leaders of both parties. debate is scheduled to start at noon. for more, we're joined by libby casey on capitol hill. and good morning, libby. major conservative groups have come out against this bill, and how have the republican leaders responded so far? >> they were critical about it before negotiation had settled. we're talking about groups like clubs for growth and americans for prosperity. they're well funded by conservative activists. and what they have in washington, they will go into the state and congressional districts and pour money into congressional or senate races if they don't think that they are being conservative enough. house speaker, john boehner, pushed back yesterday when supporters asked about what he thought of the outside group's

criticisms. >> they're using americans and our own people for their own goals. this is recognition. if you're for deficit reduction, you're for this agreement. >> paul ryan is also pushing back the criticisms, saying read the bill. i'm reading it. but this creates a schism in the republican party. >> what is the feeling on capitol hill? is it expected to pass the house. >> it is expected to pass the house. we don't hend our bets too much, but enough democrats will join with republicans to pass it. it will go to the floor, and speaker boehner wasn't allowing it to go to the floor, then congressman ryan would have a problem, but you'll see folks on the far right and the far left saying that they don't like it, but there should be enough votes. >> thank you. a final report is expected today on allegations of chemical

weapons use in syria. the united nations fact finding team will submit their report today. alleged chemical weapons used, including an attack that left 400 people dead, including dozens of children. when that report is released, we'll bring you the details. thousands of south africans are lining up for one last moment with nelson mandela. more from pritoria, where mandela's body is lying in state. >> reporter: the crowds have been gathering since early this morning. and you can see the line moving around to the buses. there are tens of thousands of people here already, but it's not just inside here. take a look at this. the queue is stretch way out of the gate moving well over a kilometer down the road. people waiting patiently to get on the buses to see mandela's

body. in 1994, there were scenes like this when south africans went to the polls, when south africans went along, casting a vote, putting nelson mandela and his government in power. here we have people waiting in the line. this is like 1994, isn't it? people went to vote for mandela, and now they get to go see him. >> we are very blessed to be part of this group celebrating the life of nelson mandela. he has been a great man to the country and to the world. and we believe that for us to be part of this is one of the things that will come in many many years. thank you. >> reporter: so looking as well, here you are almost behind bars, rather like nelson mandela was for so many years. >> if there's one thing that he gave us, it's freedom. freedom to live our lives, and give us a future. so the very least we can do is

come today and pay our respects. >> reporter: thank you so much. just some of the tens of thousands of people who are waiting here patiently, waiting to get onto those buses. the last time in this country there were scenes like this were in those elections 19 years ago. it is fitting, perhaps, that the queues form once again to pay their final respects to the man who gave all here the quote. >> mike reporting from pritoria, south africa. as the fighting continues, people are asking for food and shelter. >> reporter: we are on the edge of the international airport, and the situation here is just terrible. there are around 40,000 people

here who are forced to stay in shelter here from the african forces because they don't feel safe to go home. at this part of the airport is where the planes are, and you can see people are sheltering underneath because the sun is so hot. they don't have tents, they don't have enough food and water. everybody has come up and asked for assistance, and we told them we're journalists, and all we can do is tell that story. the world food is here giving health assistance, and the situation you can see is terrible for these people. and it's not just here at the

airport. there are more than 100,000 peopler around the city forced to live out and can't return home. and this is just a picture here in bangi. outside in the countryside, we're looking at hundreds of thousands of people. the people here have limited protection from african sources, but the situation here in this camp is very very tense, as you can imagine. and the problem is that they need to get help as soon as possible, but humanetarian agencies don't feel safe enough at the moment to come here. >> ukrainians with the government, they have dismissed those they feel are responsible for the crisis. this comes as they intend to

sign a trade agreement. in his annual address to the kremlin, vladimir putin said that he hopes to find a solution to ukraine's political increase. he reminded them they're under the economic winning of russia. he said that should be with out force. in thailand, protesters have cut off power to the prime minister's house in bangkok. it comes after a foreign minister and opposition leader appeared in court. he faces murder charges in connection with the deaths of protesters in 2010. millions of dollars in aid was sent to the philippines after the destruction of typhoon haiyan. and that aid is slowly being distributed, but some say too slowly. some few residents have found a way to help themselves.

>> helicopters that once brought aid. like other fishing communities like the ones washed away, people have to cope on their own. they have lost family members and they are now left with the task of rebuilding. a short distance away at the government compound, aid is still being stockpiled. the governor says his people are not forgotten, but admits that the problem is how to get aid to reach those who need it most. while the philippine government continues to map out a plan on how to spend the multimillion-dollar international aid that has been pouring in, the villagers sit down and wait until they found a

solution to solve the problem themselves. romeo has always been trying to make a living from the sea. he lost his boat in the storm, but he didn't wait for someone to help him. >> i couldn't just sit around here and wait. nobody knew when aid would come, so i figured it out on my own. >> from the debris of the store, he found the way to feet his family. >> and like that, the idea came to me. i only had my fishing net left. i needed something to sail me out to sea right away. >> a makeshift boat made from an old refrigerator. it may be basic, he said, but just three days after the typhoon, he was fishing again. an ingenious idea said his fellow fishermen, so they built their own too. they know it's a temporary fix until they have materials to build proper ones again.

this village may have lost everything, but they are not hungry. and this is the kind of resilience that they say they learned the hard way. to get back on their feet, they know that in the end, they only have themselves to rely on. aljazeera, central philippines. >> it was a dream that lasted for just five days for gay couples in australia. they were allowed to get married in the capital a week ago, but then the high court struck down the law, making their unions illegal. >> reporter: they were married last week, but now told it's not valid. australia's high court has struck down a landmark law that allowed the country's first gay weddings to take place. >> this is personally dev devastating. in less than a week, we have been married and unmarried. >> more than 2,000 gay couples

have taken their vows since saturday when the legislation came into effect for the territory. though it has been reversed, it brings up the possibility for gay marriage in the future. >> there was some confusion as to whether the government has the power to make laws for same-sex marriage. and the parliament said that yes, it can. and it's just a matter of waiting for the national parliament is controlled by the party that has the political will to implement same-sex marriage, and then i think we'll see it in australia. >> same-sex marriage legal in all but 15 countries. netherlands started in 2001, becoming the first nation to recognize gay marriage. and ten others followed suit. but it was this year that gay

rights saw a tremendous boost. several countries legalized same-sex marriage, along with several u.s. states. that debate is growing louder. in australia, activists say is that they will take their fight to parliament, to press on equality on a national level. >> tis the season. coming up on aljazeera america, people working overtime to make sure that you get your holiday gifts. we'll show you how the shipping frenzy also means a boost for the economy.

>> welcome back, tis the season. and millions are sending presents home for the holidays, and it means that the people delivering the gifts will be very busy over the next couple of weeks. >> millions of packages, hundreds of airplanes. thousands of workers.

a facility the size of 90 football fields, and the shorter shipping season this year. >> right now, these folks are taking the containers out of the building. this is the big time, if you will. there are tons of packages and customers around the world counting on us. >> this is the ups workforce in louisville, kentucky, where cargo jets will load up and land until christmas. a fully automated facility, 155 miles of conveyer belts move along packages, sorting, stacking and loading them. >> it's the crown jewel of ups in the airline system. it's our largest hub for parcel handling in the world. >> now, on the peak day, december 23rd, they're expected to process over 4 million packages.

nationwide, ups as hired 50,000 seasonal workers, and the company's vowel is expected to be up 50% this year. >> i'm going on a trip, and starting remain to, i'm going to hit every weather system in the world. >> reporter: here at world port, there are five full-time meeteologists, watching weather around the planet, making sure that the millions of packages and on the ground will make it for christmas. >> they come back here to make it happen. we're part of so many people's lives. according to many of the employees, it will feel like the super bowl for them. long hours, and adrenaline. aljazeera, louisville, kentucky.

>> speaking of the holiday season, retailers are ringing in solid sales so far this year. the commerce department said that they rose 7/10 of a percent in november. that's the biggest increase in five months. consumers spending more on appliances and furniture and buying more online. the dow is down 57, and the nasdaq is showing small gains. stocks showed their biggest decline in over a month yesterday. pulling back from the stimulus is behind those negative feelings. jpmorgan space will pay for turning a blind eye on ponzi schemes. and the company will escape critical indictment.

madoff before his arrest. many states have kicked into high gear, and how local communities are managing higher pay. >> reporter: when you see images like these, it's easy to understand the emotional argument for raising minimum rage. but many say that the link between minimum wage and economic stability is overblown. citing from states that pay more than the federal level of $7.25. >> very few are paid minimum wage. and most of them are relatively young. over one quarter of minimum wage earners are high school or college students. >> the five states with the highest minimum wage, washington, tops the list at $9.19 an hour. number two. oregon, $8.95, where one in five households rely on food stamps, the highest in the country.

vermont, number three, recalculates the wage every year, taking inflation into account, and connecticut has the fourth highest, but also the fourth highest cost of groceries, and one of the most expensive state to live n illinois, $8.25 an hour, blue the strong union state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. how much of an impact does a higher minimum wage have on a country in in oregon, a planned increase in 2014 will put an extra $234 a year in the pockets of employees working 30 hours a week. >> i don't see any way in which that very small amount of money for a very small portion of the workforce can possibly spark economic growth. and again, those funds are come frag someone else. >> while the majority of those

earning minimum wage can move up the income ladder, minority groups, single mothers, among the minimum wage earners, trying to raise a family on what amounts to $15,000 a year. but many experts say that there are better options out there. >> there are options like the earned income tax credit, which maximizes at starting at low-income families, rather than like the minutewomen, a very blunt instrument that ends up transferring more funds to the teenage children of upper middle class families than to the poor. >> the debate will likely continue to be the focus of the economy at a state and federal level. aljazeera, new york. >> clues about arctic melting, coming up next on aljazeera america. how algae is giving us an

inkling when what's going on above ground.

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. let's get you caught up on today's headlines. congress is set to take another step at passing another budget deal. in the house, a two-year spending plan, worked out by lawmakers of both parties. the senate takes up the measure next week. and fighting use of allegations of chemical weapons use in syria. including a march attack that left more than 400 people dead, including dozens of children. while sectarian violence continues in the central african republic, the shift is to humanitarian. thousands have left and are holed up in camps. >>. >> we know that the ice mass is

melting at an alarming rate. but now the university of canada has how long it has been melting. >> cutting deep into a distant past. what is being sliced here is the hardrocky exoskeleton of a common algae, found all over the world, but especially in the far north. for years, scientists from canada and the u.s. have been diving below the ocean for analogy. in labs down south, they're laying bare centuries of a changing climate. >> we can see the rings extending across the algae, and they're very similar to tree rings on land. >> dying algae puts down calcium each year, but a colder climate

means more sea ice and less growth. but for more than a century, as things warm up, the growth shows an arctic ocean, increasingly free of ice. >> starting around 1850, which coincides with the beginning of the industrial revolution, but also coincides with the end of the period called the middle ice age. >> this is research, and not activist. but it feeds into work by other climate scientists that can tell us what to expect as the earth gets warmer. >> the longer perspective we can pretty and put into the model, the more accurately they can predict what will happen in the future. >> arctic sea ice has melted rapidly in the few years, with some predicting an ice free north pole within a decade or two. algae and the polar seas. >> all of these changes to the

environment with impact for people and wildlife, but also have impacts around the world. and there's a sign that climate change has gone too far and we need to take action. >> nowhere on earth is climate change more acute than in the arctic. more research is needed, but governments make controversial cuts to science as the weather arms. warms. >> it's freezing cold out there, no matter what the report said. >> the coldest place in the earth could get a little bit warmer and that's about all we are here of a little warmer. these are the temperatures, the feels-like on your skin. below 0 in chicago, and 14 below with bitter cold over the great lakes was here yesterday. so it's pushing to the east. the cold arctic air is pushing to the east and eventually that will be in new england. fargo, 1, so the cold air is in place.

and the problem will be, once we get rid of the lake affect snow, we have more snow developing in the northeast and a mix of freezing rain. light snow coming down, additional amounts east of the great lakes in western new york, so not quite done with the lake affect snow. the temperatures into the teens and 20s, so the cold air is in place. the radar, not showing where the storm will be developing. it's not happening yet. but a day or two left of dry weather. but the computer forecast, saturday morning, an area of snow developing in pennsylvania and new jersey and upper new england where the cold air is in place. as the storm intensifies, it will change over from snow to rain in baltimore, and this will be by saturday evening. with the cold air still in place, you get the rainfall and the cold air, so there could be sleet and freezing rain to the west of i-95. this is saturday night to sunday

as the storm is intensifying and peaking over saturday night to sunday along the east coast. by sunday afternoon, it's gone, leaving behind it, very cold air. here's the cold air held in place. you get the rain falling into that, a mix of sleet and freezing rain. this would be saturday to sunday. and snow changing to rain around philadelphia. but we'll see a wintry mix. saturday night to early sunday. tom. >> messy weekend, thank you. a new machine is helping to create new experiences for visually impaired children in japan. this nine-year-old girl had never seen a snowflake until she had touched one created by a printer. teachers say that it helps children expand their imagination and understanding of the world. special moment. thank you for watching. i'm thomas graden, and for more

throughout the day, head to aljazeera.com. >> the latest trouble in ukraine is brewing for weeks. the crisis approached the breaking point overnight as police moved against the protesters in the ukraine capitol kiev. it was the rejection of a deal for closer economic ties with europe that sent protesters into the streets. it's a high-stakes drama and a flash point of the larger power struggle between russian president putin on one side and