composer working with south african mu african musicians. and we are on song at aljazeera.com. government funded congress approves a more than $1 trillion spending plan. world powers close in on a road map to end the war in syria, but the opposition isn't part of the talks. cutting off isil's finances a new strategy take aim at the group's bottom line. [ cheers ] oh, my. and it appears the force is awakening profits at the box office. a look at the film poised to smash every film record in its first weekend. ♪

this is al jazeera america live there new york city. i'm tony harris. the senate has passed a $1.1 trillion tax and spending bill. the bill is now headed to president obama's desk. the house approved the measure earlier today. it boosts spending on domestic and defense programs. the tax portion extends billions in tax brakes to americans and corporations. mike viqueira is lye at the white house for us, and mike, how soon before the president signs this deal? >> reporter: well, the president leaves today for his annual holiday vacation with his family in hawaii. we expect he'll sign it as soon as it gets to him. what is interesting, tony about the way this happened is it came together with the rarest of

rarest of words here in washington, a word that has become known as something odd, and that compromise. 95 voted against. that's a little bit more lopsided than people expected. the 95 mostly conservatives who felt this doesn't do anything for debt reluck shun, they wanted to see planned parenthood defund ed, a cap on syrian refugees coming to this country. none of that happened. but they got a lifting on export ban on crude oil. but it was a bipartisan compromise that is very seldom scene. 166 democrats voting for this, even though many on the left side had their doubts as well. the president expected to sign this shortly. tony, this is the minimum that

congress does amid all of the hur rays and shock and perhaps surprise about the way this has happen so quickly. this is the minimum that congress has voted to allocate the money that keeps the government going. >> so, mike later this afternoon, president obama will be giving his year-end speech. what is he expected to say? >> reporter: well, it is a press conference, tony. it is a tradition here at the white house. he will be answering a lot of different questions, but i think as far as the president's opening statement you'll hear him emphasize some of the things that the white house has been trump petting over the course of the last couple of days, the accomplishments over the last year, the nuclear deal with iran, the climate deal, the cuba opening, the affordable care act, which senior administration officials told reporters last

night is now a permanent fix your on the landscape. and you'll hear him look ahead to some of the outstanding issues, the pacific trade deal, that is going to be a year-long fight. you will also hear him talk about -- there will be many questions about his plans to close guantanamo, and the plans for executive action on gun control, tony. >> yeah. we're hoping you get a couple of questions in there. choose mike. world powers today are hoping to hammer out the most concrete plan yet to end the syrian civil war. meetings are underway involving diplomats from 17 nations. they plan to reach a consensus on a political transition. courtney keeley is live outside of that hotel. according to the u.s. ambassador

to the u.n., there is a real momentum towards a political solution in syria. what has -- what has to happen today to move this process forward? well, tony a lot has to happen and a lot has been happening. earlier today we had secretary of state john kerry meet with the foreign minister of russia, sergei lavrov. that was a meeting that wasn't even scheduled. the major meeting was supposed to start around 8:30 this morning. russia and the u.s. took to the side to start hammering out a couple of key words. transition was the word. russia has always blocked any resolution that would see assad go. u.s. has always said that is the important thing. the u.s. is definitely softening on this. and soon -- about a half our hour from now, kerry will sit down with the iranian foreign

minister. so you have top leadership. kerry will then go to the security council and push forward what will hopefully be a resolution. >> reporter: courtney you have rivals coming together at the same table today. what are some of the sticking points here? >> reporter: well, tony, like i said you have the iranians, the russians, the u.s. just for starters. you have got the saudi arabia also at the table, which often does not see eye to eye with iran. so this is the third round of talks. the momentum as samantha power has said, has been increasing. they don't want to lose that momentum. so today, they are all sitting down -- the major agreement that everyone is trying to hammer out is a national ceasefire in syria, but then the question is what would that look like? >> all right. courtney keeley for us in new york city. thank you.

syrian refugees are being resettled into south carolina over the governor's objections. this month the first syrians arrived. and now the department of social security has told another family has been approved. the governor says the federal government did not inform them in advance. she asked secretary of state john kerry not to place syrian refugees in here state. more than 4 million have pled syria, one of them arrived in michigan on thursday. along with what is left of his family. his story went viral on the facebook page humans of new york nch he is a scientist now battling cancer. he lost his wife, and one of his daughters in a missile attack on his home in iraq. and he said he hopes he and his two children can begin a new life here. >> translator: i plan to be a good citizen here. we don't want to be look at as a

syrian refugee only. we want to be looked at, as a good citizen of michigan. >> hundreds of people have offered to help him online. among them actor edward norton who helped raise upwards of $400,000 for he and his family. alex is a student who is one of the many people who offered to help that man, and he told us earlier why his story resinated with him so much. >> it was just very meaningful to me, because my father had cancer a few years ago, and my -- some of my friends when i lived in switzerland, growing up, were refugees. so it was very meaningful to me. and i wouldn't think about it as a security threat. if i were in the position of a refugee i would want other people to open their hearts. and i'm sure if other americans were in the position of refugees they would take it kindly for

people to welcome them. he is just one of a record number of people who have been forced to flee their homes this year according to the u.n. refugee agency. it says more than 60 million people have been displaced in 2015 mainly from the syrian war and other conflicts. 20.2 million are refugees. 34 million are displaced within their own nations. democratic party candidate bernie sanders has been suspended from accessing its voter database. a software error allowed his staff to have access to hillary clinton private campaign records. history was made in new orleans as the city took action to break with his confederate past. that vote came after a racous debate in the council with emotional speeches from city residents and the mayor. >> reporter: we can do better.

we deserve better. >> i'm not prejudice in anyway, i just believe that we can't rewrite history. >> but there are other people in this room who look at the same monuments and only see their an esters hanging in trees. >> the statutes will eventually be moved to less conspicuous locations. a manhunt is still underway today for a wealthy texas teenager. the 18-year-old missed a meeting with his probation officer thursday. police searched the mom he shared with his mom and found out it cleared out, he killed four people in a drunk driving accident in 2013, and was sentenced to ten years in

probation. coming up mother theresa's miracle. the beloved nun is one step closer to sainthood.

>> guns are killing as many people as cars. according to new numbers from the cdc, the statistics evened out last year. the same number die in car accidents as gun deaths. gun deaths have gone up, as moek

deaths have fallen. a bail hearing a planned for monday for friend of the san bernardino attackers. he is being held on numerous charges. investigators say he purchased the weapons used to kill 14 feem. the is also charged with plotting other attacks. jennifer london has the details. >> reporter: marquez becomes the first person charged in the san bernardino shooting. a friend and former neighbor was arrested and charged with three counts. either one of the acts were carried out, but the player allegedly planned to attack a freeway during rush hour and planned to attack either the library or cafeteria at river side community college where they were both students at one

time. a second charge is the unlawful purchase of two assault weapons. these are the long guns, the rifles that were used during the deadly attack. these third charge claims that marquez defrauded immigration authorities by engaging in the so-called sham marriage with a member of fa room's family. the affidavit says four days after the attack, marquez began speaking with investigators and has been cooperating fully. we understand he waved his right to remain silent, and he has reportedly admitted that yes, he did in fact buy those two rifles that were used during the shooting. that being said, marquez has not been charged with direct participation in the attacks on december 2nd. and authorities say at this time they don't believe marquez had prior knowledge that an attack was going to take place. investigators are also

studying a 911 call marquez made hours after the attack, he told the dispatcher, quote: new york man could get more than 20 years in jail after admitting he helped recruit isil fighters. the 33 year old from rochester pleaded guilty on thursday. he used 23 separate facebook accounts to convince people to travel to syria to fight with isil. last night the u.n. security council unanimously approved a resolution aimed at cutting off isil's finances. as patricia sabga reports, air strikes taking aim at the oil fields isil controls are starting to have an impact. >> reporter: u.s. air strikes, targeting isil oil fields,

refineries, tanker trucks, and border footholds. a strategy aimed at a pillar of isil's economy in which analysts say is starting to bite. >> in the last few weeks we have seen the price of oil in raqqa doubling. we have seen new agricultural taxes imposed a couple of days ago. and we have seen other creative measures of raising new revenue from the population. >> reporter: analysts estimate isil brings in $80 million u.s. a month, 43% from oil sales and 50% from extorting money from civilians. >> that's a very large number for a terrorist organization. >> reporter: one that has to pay an arm fighters while providing basic services like electricity ade indication in territories.

budget pressures that help explain why isil's oil revenues have been squeaked, the population it controls has been squeaked even harder. >> in iraq, the islamic state has now started to charge people a fixed rate for leaving the caliphate. in that going up to about $900 for young men of fighting age, and a little bit less for anyone else. >> reporter: an exit tax resulting from a coalition strategy designed to degrade the group from the bottom up. >> the elite leadership lives like kings, the regional leaders live like barons and the forces live better and are paid better than the average citizen. >> reporter: that structure could bring down isil from within in the long run. in the short term, however, the group has plenty of muscle to make up for the loss by financially pummelling the

civilians it controls. one of the world's most famous missionaries will soon become a saint. our correspondent has more on the reaction from new delhi. >> reporter: news of mother theresa's imminent sainthood has been widely welcomed here. the chief minister has expressed her happiness and passed on her well wishes to the missionaries of charity, the charity -- the organization that mother theresa founded. the organize accusation itself said it is excited. the possibility of september being the month of canonization has been reported widely. the actual date is unclear, though. in terms of wider context of this news here. there are 24 million christians in india, 20 million of them are

catholics. more widely speaking. pope francis has had a personal connection to mother theresa. they met in the 1990s and followed each other's work closely. mother theresa won the nobel peace prize for her work back in 1979. the wait is over for millions of fans. [ cheers ] >> "star wars: the force awakens" star hits theaters. it is already paying off big and not just for the studios.

for only the second time ever, beijing has issued a pollution red alert, the chinese capitol will see dangerous smog from saturday through tuesday. the alert triggers restrictions on vehicle use. the first alert was issue issed just last week. phillipe cousteau is working to stop climate change. he talked about his work in today's first person report. >> when people think about cousteau and the legacy and think about my grandfather, he was present at the 1992 rio conference which laid out the mandate and was the first step in developing the united nationsed framework convention on climate change, which is the mechanism through which all of the conferences are convened. i like to think about my grandfather as a problem solver.

and that really is the legacy in my opinion that i inherited from my father and grandfather. climate change is arguably the greatest threat to our planet in the 21st century, but it's sibling, ocean acidification is also a threat. if we keep global warming beneath 2 degrees centigrade, and that is the first time that a clear goal is set. water is the greatest crisis we face, and it has only been exacerbated by things like climate change. but also the growing population. when my grandfather was worn there was 1.7 billion people living on the planet, and now we're about 7.5 billion. that's an increase in people. we're facing a crisis of every proportion, unlike anything the human race has had to face in

its history. the oceans have become so adiddic, that if you -- our human bodies have ph balance, as our bodies had become ass a -- acidic, we would be in the hospital. we started earth echo international when i got out of university as, really the youth strategy for the environmental movement. young people are the best tool and mechanism that exists out there to change society and to change the behavior of adults, and i see kids that don't know the meaning of no. that raise their hand and say why can't we do this? i'm going to do this. i'm going to work here. i'm going to do this. it gives me the hope to believe that the human spirit and will

triumph. he says the population has risen to 1.6 million to 7.5 years. last year it was required that salons use warning ables on tanning beds. it would require tanning bed users to sign forms acknowledging the risks. okay. a disappointing start for some "star wars" fans in los angeles. a fire alarm went off at the shopping center thursday night forcing hundreds of movie goers to evacuate the theater. the audience was eventually able to return and see the film. and the force awakens is already smashing records. it pulled in $57 million in ticket sales thursday night in the united states and canada, dethroning harry potter.

john henry smith has more on the big money that is rolling in. >> reporter: fans filled theaters to watch old "star wars" movies. they are buying old "star wars" toys, and a new one. >> this is kind of what every entrepreneur waits for in that professional career. where you have a product that the whole world wants. >> reporter: before anyone in north america saw a single minute of the new movie, a lot of people were cashing in. >> we instruct more than gold here, frankly. it feels great. >> reporter: disney spent $4 billion to buy star war's creator. and the new film is estimated to cost $2 million to make. >> down the road, the on-demand

component, the home video component, some people are saying it would be over $10 million many revenue, based on that $4 billion investment to buy it. >> reporter: the force awakens broke the records on presales alone, and could take in more than $250 million on its opening weekend. for theater owners hoping to get us into the theaters, the new film is a great holiday gift. >> it will translate to big dollars and a love for going to the movie theater to see great films with other people who are like minded.

>> i'm sure that's really, really good. a courtside seat at an nba can be dangerous. look at this. it happened last night as the cavaliers played the oklahoma city thunder. >> going for a loose ball, i was just trying to keep a possession going, and that was the result. >> she was treated at the hospital, and was fine. james later tweeted. i hope you are doing okay. my apologies. hope you guys come back to another game soon. that's all of our time. the news continues next live from london. ♪

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello from me, david foster. wherever you are watching, this is the al jazeera news hour. some of our top stories, talks to end the war in syria get underway in new york with major obstacles to overcome. pro-yemen forces seized two towns from the houthis in 24 hours, despite a ceasefire. cold sick and where nowhere to