>> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live... >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello there welcome to the news hour live from doha, i'm shiulie ghosh. our top stories. turkey issues an arrest war remember for the president's arch rival, muslim cleric gulen. the fbi accuses north korea of hacking sony pictures. kurdish forces report more gains against isil after breaking the siege of sinjar mountain. and football's governing body

agrees to release a fuller version of the investigation into the world cup corruption report. ♪ a turkish court has issued an arrest warren for the muslim cler cleric gulen. he has been living in the u.s. state pennsylvania since 1999. he is accused of trying to overthrow the government. he is also the spiritual leader of the hizmet group. it says it promotes cultural and interfaith dialogue, but the turkish government says it is a closely connected gang that runs a parallel state in turkey with power in the police and the judiciary. the president blames hizmet of

orchestrating an attempt to remove from him power. so does this automatically mean he will be arrested? >> well, he is living in self imposed exile in the united states. and once the warrant is issued then the prosecutors will also ask the court to issue what it calls a red seasons to interpole which would ask the united states to arrest gulen pending extradition. we're a very, very long way from that. any evidence would have to be presented to awes court before it would decide on extradition. but it's the latest stage of what supporters of gulen are the consequences of the spectacular fallingout between the two. and gulen supporters would say there is erdogan, essentially

taking his revenge on gulen and his supporters, shiulie. >> but gulen has a lot of followers and a lot of influence in bodies like the judiciary. so what is likely to be the reaction to this in turkey? >> well, this is the culmination, it seems of a year-long investigation. exactly a year ago this week, there was a -- coverage of revelations of corruption allegations against people close to the then prime minister now president erdogan. and a couple of people were forced to resign. after that thousands of members of the police force and the judiciary were forced to resign. they were fired or reassigned if they had been connected with this corruption case and today so far absolutely nobody has been facing any charges with these corruption allegations. but what gulen supporters are

saying is that it's suspicious that it's exactly a year since those corruption allegations emerged, and this is erdogan taking his revenge. they have long said that ghoul sen trying to effectively run a parallel state within turkey, and erdogan says this is part of his party's -- the government's plan or desire to rid it of -- of the influence of gulen followers within the government. gulen supporters would say this is erd win taking revenge and they don't hold anything like the influence that erdogan thinks, shiulie. >> bernard thanks very much indeed. now the fbi has formally accused north korea of being responsible for a devastating hacking attack against hollywood giant sony pictures.

it's the first official statement blaming the regime for the cyber attack. tens of thousands of emails and sensitive information was leaked and sony was forced to cancel its release of the movie "the interview." north korea has denied the attack, but has referred to it as a righteous deed. why is the fbi and the obama administration so sure that north korea was behind this? >> well, that's an interesting point too, because there is some discussion as to the wording in that statement. the fbi saying that the north korean government is responsible for these actions. they didn't use the term carried out these actions but responsible. but this is the evidence that the fbi has produced. this is the statement that they released and technique call analysis of the malware revealed

links that the fbi know north korean actors previously developed and significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the u.s. government has previously linked to north korea. and similar to a cyber attack in march of last year against south korean bank and outlets. and it says the fbi will impose costs and consequences on all nation states who use cyber means to threaten the united states or u.s. interests. some cyber experts that i know are saying it is still a bit circumstance stan shall for several reasons malware is shared amongst different hackers. you also have to take as read the previous attacks were indeed from north korea, and the cyberspaces are so murky. but whether we're going to get

any further evidence i doubt. >> i suppose we could say that north korea was the target of this film that was going to be out. that has caused uproar in hollywood, hasn't it? saying that hollywood has given in to cyber threats. >> right, and that was also another reason put forward for why north korea might be behind it. because it might be a diversion to the real hackers who can point to this narrative that north korea was up in arms about the film which portrays the fictional assassination of kim jong un as a way to exploit vulnerability. this also doesn't -- this doesn't have the same features of previous attacks carried out, statements to the ceo and various other measures, which they haven't done before even

against south korean targets. so there is uproar here. sony is being accused of being given in to terrorism. so -- i don't know we'll have to see how that place out too. >> thank for that. kurdish forces in northern iraq have retaken more ground from isil this time to the west of mull sell. it comes 24 hours after they broke a siege around the sinjar mountains which has lasted for months. and they are now marching towards the main base. victoria reports. >> reporter: kurdish forces are on the offensive determined to secure the significant gains they have made against isil in the sinjar mountains. it's where another least one thousand families have taken

refuge. it has allowed a corridor to be opened through which they can escape. >> this happened under the auspices of the president himself to move to liberate a vast area of kurdistan, and also to be able to rescue those yazidis people that are trapped on mountain sinjar. >> reporter: kurd irk forces have gained nearly 700 square kilometers of what was isil-held territory. this opens the way for stranded families to leave, but they have to navigate through land mines planted by isil fighters. about 50 kilometers away is this village. bunt out houses and bull it will-ridden walls are evidence of the fierce fighting that took place. kurdish forces are now said to be marching towards isil's bane military base in the area, and they have retaken ground from

them near the city of mow sill. >> we don't want the kurdish forces to be the only ones. liberation of mosul will require participation of our forces, especially the iraqi government military. >> reporter: at least 8,000 peshmerga fighters were involved in the operation to break the siege of the sinjar mountain. but they know from past experience that isil can change tactics switching from front line battle toss insurgency fighting, so as they advance, kurdish forces also preparing for a possible isil backlash. the operation by the kurd ib forces was supported by u.s. air strikes, two of which hit isil tactical units. we spoke to former u.s. assist important secretary of state for political and military affairs mark kimmet. he said while the peshmerga do

appear to be gaining ground it's a small part of a large battlefield. >> the united states has just announced and approved a $1.6 billion package for arms, ammunition, and equipment for the iraqi security forces, kurd irk forces and tribe yal security forces. at yesterday's press conference, the commander of the new combined joint task force said that they feel pretty confident that isil is on their back feet and no longer able to conduct significant offensive operations, but he also did make it very, very clear that this is a minimum of a three-year effort. syrian opposition fighters say they have discovered bodies in a village. fighting has been going on there for weeks. the area has recently been captured by rebel, but government forces are fighting them to prevent them from advancing towards damascus.

the state has lost control of large areas of the country and doesn't have the soldiers to win it back. >> reporter: more often than not, this is how the government fights back. it attacks rebel-held areas from the skies. it hasn't been able to win back all of the territory it lost to the opposition. it doesn't have enough soldiers for every front line. it chooses its battles and fights on one front at a time. >> north of aleppo, in my opinion doesn't give -- doesn't take any -- doesn't presume any importance, vital importance for the syrian regime. and aleppo is important for the regime, but they didn't give it for two years the first priority. and now it is [ inaudible ] on it. why? admit military success on [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: over the years the state has managed to recapture and protect strategic areas to survive, even though estimates

say it now controls a mere 30% of syria, but the amount of territory is not as important as which territory. it is still in charge of its seat of power, and damascus is not isolated from other major urban centers understate authority. it is connected to the borders of lebanon and jordan. the central city, further north, and the divided city of aleppo, as well as the coastal region in the west. it also has a presence in other contested provinces, apart from ritka which is a strong hold of the islamic state of iraq and the levant a group that controls approximately 35% of syria. the remaining areas are under the control of other opposition groups, but a lot of it is desert and countrysides and now the conflict is more complicated, because rebels are at war with each other. al-nusra front has just taken

over bases. this has consolidated its grip on the nosern province after it pushed some of the moderate rels out last month. >> translator: neither side is winning because of the presence of isil and al-nusra. >> reporter: they are trying to prevent a rebel advance at the doorsteps of damascus. they blame the government for what they called a new massacre. this is a war that neither side is likely to win with battle lines continuing to shift. for now, however, the state has managed to hold on to territory that it needs to stay in power. zana hoda, al jazeera, beirut. one million people have been

wounded during the war in syria according to the world health organization. it also says overhalf of public hospitals are out of service. diseases are spreading as medicine and vaccinations are getting harder to find. and more than 200,000 people have now been killed in the conflict which began in 2011. there's more to come here on the al jazeera news hour, including the greek politician who says he was offered $800,000 for a political favor. we'll have more on that. ♪ now football's governing body, fifa has agreed to publish an edited version of a report into allegations of world cup corruption. last month they released a summary of the report, which investigator claims of bribery. but this week the man who

carried out the investigation, michael garcia, resigned after saying his findings were misrepresented. now the report is to be released and some legally sensitive details will be withheld. the report cleared russia and cat tar of corruption in their winning world cup bids, however it did say computers used by the russian team have been destroyed. seth blatter said he would push the executive committee to vote in favor of release of the report. >> we are -- have been -- i said have been in a crisis, or what is described as a crisis. we have been in a difficult situation. it's not the first time i have found myself in a critical situation. and i have to tell you that we will fight, and we will bring back, but we need also the help of the public opinion. because you are making the

public opinion. and please understand -- please understand that football is still the game of the world. >> lee wellings is live for us in london. lee seth blatter there, talking about the need to win back public opinion. is that in part why they are releasing this report now? >> yes, it is going to be extremely difficult for them to win back public opinion while blatter is still the president and while the situation is ongoing. because remember a month ago, fifa thought they had closure. for about three or four hours they thought this matter was finished. and then mr. garcia came out and said he was not happy with the summary of the report. and that's how we got into this situation. i think this has actually been a fairly good outcome for them. he knows they are in a very difficult position and may be emerging from it. the reasons i feel is that fifa

can now say we have been transparent, we listened. they have listened to people, and they decided it was their own decision to be transparent in the end. also the report, it won't be as damaging as some people would have you believe. i think there's an assumption that there's a huge difference between what the judge has said and michael garcia's original report. i don't think there is so much of a difference. that's largely michael garcia needing to protect his reputation and being frustrated by the methods around fifa. >> michael gar see, of course, is so angry over being misrepresented as he said, that he resigned. so what does this mean for his version of represents? >> yes, i think everyone simply decided to take michael garcia's word for this. but i feel that the judge -- we need to think about his reputation as well, around 30 years as a very well respected

judge, and we shouldn't make an assumption that his report has completely misrepresented michael garcia until we see more. that's why one of the many ways the public wants to see more. i think michael garcia has got away with his reputation. of course he was paid by fifa to put this together, and it was a really painful process for him. he has never dealt with the politics of football before, but he wasn't even i loued into russia to complete his investigation there. it was a complete mess. and we have fifa to come out and almost look on the bright side now. it has been painful. >> lee thank you for that. in greece a politician says he has been offered an $550,000 bribe to vote for the government's choice of president. the government is calling the accusations despicable. john reports from athens. >> reporter: this cd has the

potential to make a general election inevitable, an election the government would be unlikely to win. a small opposition party says it has recorded secret talks in which one of its mp's was offered a bribe of $850,000 in cash, in return he would have to vote for the government's choice of president. >> translator: we recorded the meeting at the plaza hotel where the middleman spent 1 clr 14 detailing his proposal that in return for a bribe he votes for a candidate. >> reporter: a second meeting was held, he says, in which the handoff was to take place at his house. but the middleman called and canceled. the ruling party is trying to win over 25 opposition mp's to elect a new president. it has so far won over just five and time is running out.

if the bribery allegations are substantiated it could put off other mp's. it suspects that judicial authorities are trying to sweep the affair under the rug. >> translator: i am surprised that the media today essentially delivered a judicial verdict and said there is no question of a bribery attempt. the prosecutor called our legal counsel to contradict this. i do not know what information journalists are going on. >> reporter: the government says the entire affair is a depick show designed to scuttle the election. but the opposition are sticking to their guns and threatening to make the recording publish. pakistan has executed two men convicted of terror sentences. it comes after a ban has been lifted on a moratorium on

executions. these were the scenes where thousands of protesters were holding signs calling for the perpetrators to be publicly hanged. most of the victims were children. pakistan has detained one of the men suspected of planning the 2008 mumbai attacks just 24 hours after releasing him on bail. india complained that zaki ur rehman lakhvi shouldn't have been released. he has now been detained. new delhi has accused pakistan slow to prosecute these men accused of planning the attacks. the nigerian government says it is outraged and deeply saddened by the apparent kidnaps of more than 100 people in the northeast. suspected boko haram fighters abducted at least 172 people and children on sunday. around 30 people also reportedly

were killed. it's just 20 kilometers away from the village where boko haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in april. the u.s. state of colorado is being sued over its legalization of marijuana. nebraska and oklahoma has argued that colorado has failed to keep the drug inside of its borders, making it harder for them to police the drug. the u.s. says it won't support a draft resolution on palestinian statehood proposed to the u.n. security council. jordan introduced the resolution on wednesday. >> we have seen the draft. it is not something we would support, and we think others feel the same and are calling for further consultations. the palestinians understand

that. you may have also seen president abbas speak to this today. a new development plan by the israeli government is threatening the life of palestinian bedouins. those they are israeli citizens, they are still being asked to resettle elsewhere. and it's not the first time. andrew simmons reports. >> reporter: in every direction you look in this part of the desert, you will see bedouin communities. but the bedouins who are israeli citizens believe the latest development plan the government is working on, once again threatens their ancestral homeland. [ gunfire ] >> this is what happened with the last plan, mass protests which turned violent. eventually moves to resettle thousands of bedouins in towns were dropped. but now cam parents fear they could be faced with a similar

situation again. >> we want to maintain our life. we want to live in peace here. we want to be integrated in this state. we want to be part of it. we want to contribute to this community, but in our way. >> reporter: this is one of the unrecognized villages where a few homes have already been demoli demolished. all they want is to stay put with better facilities. the people living here say they are not asking for much, and they also say they have long-standing rights that go back more than seven generations. it is said that the site of this village dates back to the days of the ottoman empire. >> translator: it's normal for any person to hold on to their land because it's where our ancestors were born. our rights were nonnegotiable, this is our land. we are still here. and we're staying here.

>> reporter: there is a deep distrust of the israeli government. the people here believe it has always intended to cut the historic links between palestinians and their land to allow more jewish settlements. andrew simmons, al jazeera. u.s. president barack obama has spoken to egyptian president, sisi, about the three al jazeera journalists jailed in egypt. peter greste, mohammed fahmy, and baher mohamed were jailed on false charges of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. they have now been held for 356 days. they are appealing against the convictions. the deputy spokesman says that in the phone conversation obama said raise the cases of the al jazeera journalists, and more broadly the issue of the imprisonment of journalists. spokesman also told al jazeera:

and we're going to be hearing more from president obama in the next few minutes. he is due to give his end of year press conference live at the white house, and we'll be bringing you that as soon as it starts. do stay with us. ♪

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>> the major difficulty for the prosecution that there was no evidence >> al jazeera america presents lockerbie part one: the pan am bomber ♪ good afternoon, everybody, i'm david shuster at al jazeera headquarters in new york. you are looking at a live picture of the briefing room, president obama scheduled to give his year-end -- final news conference, scheduled because you never know what news will break over the next couple of weeks. this is his final news conference before he departs to go on vacation in hawaii later today. there may be some statement again about cuba and the president's decision to normalize relations, there's a possible the president may draw attention to the surging economy, and the fookt that dow

jones has hit records again this week. and the headline right here in washington, and that is that the fbi has confirmed now that, yes, north korea was behind those hacks that took down sony pictures, computer system for a week, and resulted in embarrassing emails, and the movie "the interview" which mocks north korea. so the latest news is the fine's statement which has dominated the headlines. they fbi said quote:

>> the big question now is what exactly will the obama administration do based on this statement? and that will likely be one of tlaeding questions of today's briefing. mike viqueira joins us now from inside the briefing room. and mike give us a sense about what you expect. >> i think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. there's no question we have seen one of the president's top aids put out his end of year memorandum. he has touted the successes that president obama has had. at the beginning of the year, he said his pen and his phone would be put to use. he points out things such as you have, the economy, putting on some 341,000 jobs in november alone, the fact that the stock market was up to the highest

point in three years. the much maligned healthcare.gov is up and functioning. there are some 10 million individuals who are now insured who were uninsured at the onset of the act. sony, i think you are absolutely correct with the news that broke just an hour ago, the fbi removing any doubt that they believed that north korea was responsible for this. we heard from the white house that any response on the part of the administration will be proportional. and we may not know exactly what it is the white house does by its very nature. it will be largely a tactical response. remember, we're dealing with an unpredictable regime. and the fact that sony has caved to sony in the view of some. they were under a great deal of pressure from movie houses and

distributors who feared for the safety of their customers. but a lot of people says it was caving. i think you might expect a question to the president along the lines of would you screen the movie the interview in the white house? cuba policy. obviously that is going to be among the top topics here. immigration moving into next year, with republican majorities in the house and senate. how will the president approach that. we have seen some steps towards compromise anyway in the fight where he parted ways with house democrats including the leader, nancy pelosi over the recent spending bill. so usually these end of the year press briefings are held in the east room. so we will see the president usually it lasts about an hour,

perhaps a little bit more, david. >> you alluded that they can be a bit unusual. sometimes the white house will make a point on calling on people who don't normally get called on. so first is al jazeera america going to get a question at one of these press conferences? and second what is the strangest topic you have heard reporters batting around? >> on your first question it won't be for lack of effort if it doesn't come to pass, david. first and foremost sony. and what is new that day is likely to be what tops the press conference. this is something even given the his -- historic announce with

cuba, i think that will take the top. >> all right. michael shure joins us now from los angeles. the president could claim independence with an agreement with china on climate change. he has ongoing talks with iran. step ups against isil. and he took action on immigration reform. the economy is surging. and yet there are the 2014 midterms in which his party got shellacked how do you handle all of that? >> he has a lot to handle, not to mention the let mike viqueira ask a question hashtag that he is going to have to answer. there will be confrontations with the press, there always are. and i think what is going to happen is he is going to move towards 2014 and be asked about bipartisanship going to 2015 and

beyond. he is going to be asked about elizabeth warren today. these are the under the radar headlines. he got $5.4 billion in ebola aid which i'm sure he is going to want to talk about. and one thing that he has not talked about in previous press conferences as much which i suspect he is going to be asked about is the topic of race and policing. i think that is going to come up in this press conference. but i think 2014 he is going to move past it, and talk about working towards working with mitch mcconnell and the republican congress. >> sometimes these news conferences can be a bit reflective. it's hard to imagine, but i'm sure the president has been thinking about it, i know his white house aids have been talking about it, and that is a year from now, we'll be a couple of weeks out from the iowa caucuses, and much of the media

focus will no longer be on president obama, but it will be on who is going to emerge as a candidate. and that atmosphere can create some interesting reflections from the president. >> yeah, it does. it sort of creates a little bit of foe wristfulness about this being a final press conference with the media. they do joke about that. but it does become reflective, he starts thinking about legacy a little bit more. thinking about how to work with people and not draw the stark contrast with enemies. bill clinton did it and george bush did it as well. you remember george bush talking about how there are good people running, good people will take over whatever party that wins. so there is that little bit of backing away from the partisanship. but on -- they will be swearing

in a new republican congress and they are going to be dealing with his executive action, something he may want to talk about as well, differentiating between executive action and something that can be moved through the congress that can be legislation. and i think he's going to be asked about guantanamo. and again, that's where legacy comes in. he promised to close guantanamo. >> michael i want to ask you about the headline story today, and that is what is going on with sony, and the decision to pull the film, not show it. as big of a story it is in the rest of the country, i imagine it is particularly stride ant in terms of the reaction where you are in los angeles. studios are something like a $31 billion industry. can you give us a flavor of how big that story has been where

you are. >> whenever something happens that affects the movie business here, it becomes the biggest story that ever happened. you could talk about cuba all you want, and isil all you want, but they stopped a movie from going out. and it is generally a community that is sensitive to censorship and being told what to do and what they can show, but also a little bit sympathetic to the politics of its as well. so i think they are trying to find ways, and hollywood loves a story, so they think there will be another story here, and there are all of these conspiracy theories that in fact this never really happened, it's just trying to make a big opening when they we release the interview a few weeks later. so everybody is talking about it. it's the number one story being talked about in the halls of los angeles when it comes to

politics. >> and is there a political down side for the president in terms of how he handles that? you have a number of commentators saying wait a second, the united states has just surrendered to north korea. north korea has made films where they knowledge the nuclear i ill -- 'nile lags of the united states, and the united states takes it in stride. >> i don't think you want to go -- if you are president obama you want to go to precedent. i don't think you want to say in hot shots part duh they did this. i think putting it on sony and the people who made those decisions is important, and talk about how he and the government is efforting to ramp things up when it comes to cyber security. i think he takes the decision away from himself and puts it on

the people at sony. all right. we're going to bring back in our own al jazeera white house correspondent mike viqueira. and mike we seeing of our colleague from nbc over your shoulder. i gather there has not been a 2-minute warning. a lot of folks don't seem to realize the president was handed a list by josh earnst before he steps out saying here are the people you are going to be calling on, and here is the sequence. how is that determined? >> you are absolutely. and the press conference behind me. it's more or less as you might imagine, those are the more established media outlets and enterprises here and around the country. they sort of take turns. you see broadcast networks, good

questions, the next time it may be printout lets and wire services and another time a combination thereof throwing in blogs and internet as digital services as well. i want to get back to the issue of sony, because i think you and michael are right, because it will, in all likelihood dominate a significant portion of this press conference. the fbi now as i just has officially implicated north korea as being behind this. the sophisticated actor, as the white house spokemen alluded to yesterday in the oblique language that he used, but it may not stop there. so the question is were there outside entities that played a part in facilitating this. how did north korea carry this off? precious little is known about north korea's capabilities. what happens in north korea in any sense. but the popular perception is,

anyway, and many experts back this up, is that north korea may not have the technical capability to carry this off on their own. does it stop with sony as well? president obama has talked about his concerns about cyber terrorism and cyber attacks. this is something that officials here in washington have said keep them up at night. so one of the questions will be how limited is this, or how widespread is this as well, and moving to another topic on foreign policy. you look at what the president has -- his proposals to fight isil as well. today we learned that the president is deploying some of the 1500 advisors, nearly doubling the number of advisors already in iraq. 13 of that 1500 being deployed next month to start training up army regulars in anticipation of a spring offensive within iraq. a lot of people look at that, hear echos of vietnam, wonder about mission creep. it is now apparent that the free

syrian army as the white house and administration refer to them on the moderate vetted opposition, on which so much is resting on the syria piece of the puzzle, how viable is that plan? and they weren't going to be fielding and training those rebels i should say for a year. and we heard from martin dempsey and the man in charge of military operations within iraq, lieutenant james terry said it would take a minimum of three years for iraqi forces to be trained and reliable to the point they could carry the fight against isil. so some very interesting questions there. even as the air strikes continue some 1600 -- i'm sorry 1360 -- 1361 to be exact by the

pentagon account as of yet have taken out many high-valued targets. we heard from the mayor of mosul, which of course still is under the control of isil forces. so there are foreign policy issues here that go beyond north korea, certainly david. >> there has been a lot of discussion and speculation in washington and other places that china must have had to have played some sort of role in helping north korea carry out this sophisticated cyber attack. i wonder if you could give us the latest about how far the obama administration is willing to go in that avenue in suggesting that north korea did get help from china or other bad actors? >> i think you are not going to see them divulge a great deal of information in that regard. as wort started to leak out that the fbi had concluded that north

korea was principally responsible for the attack, administration officials on the record were very tight lipped about exactly what was going on here. and part and parcel of that, or at least a key component of that strategy, at least the come communications aspect is to be certain that they are absolutely treading very carefully about implicating any other players in this, and remember, the white house has told us as recently as yesterday that any response that they have to what is going to on with sony is going to be proportional, and much of it will not be known to the public, will not happen in public view. that's not only the nature of what we're talking about in cyber crime, but keep in mind some of those geopolitical issues that you raised david. >> as you can see we're waiting for president obama's final keled news conference of 2014, the top story in washington, and across the country involves the fbi now pointing the finger at

north korea as being a principle actor in the cyber attacks that caused sony's computer systems to go down for a week. there were hundreds of thousands of emails that were leaked out. embarrassing information about executives and actors and claims thatted hah been made that have proven to be highly embarrassing and continued threats from the hackers to launch 9/11 style attacks to people going to the theaters. so sony and the theaters have pulled the film and that has caused significant outrage. we're talking of course with al jazeera's white house correspondent mike viqueira inside the briefing room, and al jazeera's political analyst michael shure joins us from los angeles. michael in addition to whether you are thinking about sony hacks, and isil, but the change in policy towards cuba, it was

interesting yesterday to see the white house spokesmen to come down on marco rubio and others who said they will do everything they can to block the funding of an ambassador in cuba. and they said rubio confirmed the ambassador for china. does it make much sense for the white house to continue going down that road? >> michael rubio is the chairman of a subcommittee on the western hemisphe hemisphere. they will be in charge of saying whether there can be an embassy and whether there will be an ambassador. so it does make sense to set up any kind of hypocrisy that they think may exist already.

if you think there are human rights violations in cuba and china as well, why so quick to confirm max baucus, their former colleague as well. rubio could be on top of the game because of his bonefied in florida and his cuban american heritage. however, he came out quickly against the action the president took in cuba. but he does hold that position of control, so his opinions are going to matter. >> as we wait for president obama's news conference, and we want have you here, i want to ask about some of the developments in terms of 2016 politics, because it involves not only jeb bush, who said he is exploring running for president, and of course marco rubio who has been considering it. there has been some news michael

involving lindsay graham in apparently lindsay graham is now also considering getting in the race. he is being urged to do that by john mccain who was the 2008 republican presidential nominee. and a woman you know well out in california, the formal ceo of hewlett-packard, she is putting together a campaign. what do you make of those developments? >> there are a lot of people within republican circles who think that jeb bush just by announcing his presidency it was going to be a field clearer. carly certainly has a lot of money and can raise a lot of california republican money. she would be a little bit of an outsider candidate to say the least. she was not successful in a statewide run here. so it would be hard to see what her position would be unless she's trying to run for another

office. lindsay graham, of course, part of that old guard republican senate. you know, he and john mccain so close, almost lock step on every issue, so it's not surprising. john mccain has said for a long time he wants his friend to run for president. this would be the year for him to do it. and if we could make that the firewall for jeb bush, there's reason to think strategically he could have success there. >> interesting stuff. again, we're joined by michael shure. and mike viqueira is taking a seat. we have been given the two-minute warning, so the president should be out in a few moments. a lot that the president may be talking about. a lot that he will be asked about from the news that the fbi is pointing the blame at north korea for the hacks on sony, which ultimately resulted in

sony pulling down its picture, the interview. and questions about how quickly that new cuba policy can be implemented. there is news involving the air strikes against isil in syria and iraq, and also some long-standing questions that have to -- resolved fairly soon about nuclear talks with iran. maybe the president is close to making it. we expect the president now. there he is. let's watch. >> we really have got a full house, huh? well, all i want for christmas is to take your questions, but first let me say a little bit about this year. in last year's final press

conference, i said that 2014 would be a year of action, and would be a break-through year for america, and it has been. yes, there were crises that we had to tackle around the world, many that were unanticipated. we have more work to do to make sure our economy, our justice system, and our government work not just for the few, but for the many. but there is no doubt that we can enter into the new year with renewed confidence that america is making significant strides where it counts. the steps that we took early on to rescue our economy, and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. all told over a 57-month streak, our businesses have created nearly 11 million new jobs. almost all of the job growth that we have seen have been in full-time positions, much of the

recent pickup in job growth has been in higher-paying industries, and in a hopeful sign for middle class families, wages are on the rise again. our investments in american manufacturing have helped fuel its best stretch of job growth also since the 1990s. america is now the number 1 producer of oil. the number 1 producer of natural gas. we're saving drivers about $0.70 a gallon at the pump over last christmas, and effectively today our rescue of the auto industry is officially over. we have now repaid taxpayers every dime and more of what my administration committed and the american auto industry is on track for its strongest year since 2005. and we have created about half a million new jobs in the auto industry alone. thanks to the affordable care act, about 10 million americans have gained health insurance just this past year. enrollment is beginning to pick

up again during the open enrollment period, the ininsured rate is at a near record low since the law passed. the price has risen at its slowest rate in about 50 years. and we cut our deficits by about two-thirds since i took office, bringing them to below their 40-year average. meanwhile around the world, america is leading. we're leading the coalition to degrade and destroy isil, a coalition that includes arab partners. we're leading the international community to check aggression in ukraine. we're leading the global fight to combat ebola in west africa. and we are preventing an outbreak from taking place here at home. we're leading efforts to address climate change, including last month's joint announcement with china that is jump starting new progress this other countries. we're writing a new chapter in our leadership here in the

americas by turning a new page on our relationship with the cuban people. and in less than two weeks after more than 13 years, our combat mission in afghanistan will be over. today more of our troops are home for the holidays than any time in over a decade. still, many of our men and women in uniform will spend christmas in harm's way, and they should know that the country is united in support of you, and grateful not tonight you, but also to your families. the six years since the crisis have demanded hard work, and sacrifice on everybody's part. but as a country, we have every right to be proud of what we have accomplished. more jobs. more people insured. a growing economy. shrinking deficits. bustling industry. booming energy. take any metric that you want,

america resurgence is real. we are better off. i have always said that recovering from the crisis of 2008 was our first order of business, and on that business, america's outperformed all of our other competitors. over the past four years we have put more people back to work than all other advanced economies combined. we have now come to a point where we have a chance to reverse a bigger problem, making sure that the middle class is the engine that powers our prosperity for years to come. to do that we have to make smart choices. we have to invest in the things that secure even faster growth, in higher-paying jobs for more americans. and i'm absolutely sincere when i say i want to work with this new congress to get things done. to make those investments.

to make sure the government's working better and smarter. we're going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement, and we have got to be able to make that happen, and that's going to involve compromise every once in a while, and we saw during this lame duck period that perhaps that spirit of compromise may be coming to the floor. in terms of my own job, i'm energized. i'm excited about the prospects for the next couple of years, and i'm certainly not going to be stopping for a minute in the effort to make life better for ordinary americans, because thanks to their efforts, we really do have a new foundation that has been laid. we are better positioned than we have been in a very long time. and a nephewture is ready to be

written. and i'm going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize the minute. my presidency is entering the fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. and i'm looking forward to it. but, you know, going into the fourth quarter you usually get a time-out. i'm now looking forward to a quiet time-out. christmas with my family, so i want to wish everybody a merry christmas, happy hanukkah, happy new year. i hope that all of you get some time to spend with your families as well, because one thing that we share is that we're away too much from them. and now, josh has given me the who has been naughty and who has been nice list. [ laughter ] and i'm going to use it to make some questions, and we're going to start with carey brown of "politico."