you stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the. al-jazeera a war on terror begins with outcome but it does not in there no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat than the regime of saddam hussein and this is a regime that has something to hide they had prepared a significant propaganda operation and guess what not one w m d shite was found in iraq since the one nine hundred ninety one iraq a deadly deception at this time on al jazeera. the tax cuts and jobs act is passed. the u.s.

congress. more than three decades. also coming up we will not accept you as a very clear indication there weapons. divided . many hopeful results. without. u.s. officials. u.s. senate a contentious one point five trillion dollar tax reform bill the tax cuts and

jobs act is passed. this brings president donald trump one step closer to his first . bill is the first major. more than thirty years it will now be sent back to the house of representatives for a final vote on wednesday. after eight straight years of slow growth and under-performance america is ready to take off coupled with a regulatory reforms that have already been implemented by the administration we know comprehensive tax reform major middle class tax relief and making our businesses both large and small more competitive around the world. well donald trump has tweeted about the bill saying the united states senate just passed the biggest in history tax cut reform bill terrible individual mandate obamacare repealed is to the house tomorrow morning for final vote and if approved there will

be a news conference at the white house is approximately one pm that's eighteen t. give us on day has more for us in new york. this tax overhaul bill was extremely contentious and you could see that when the senate was finally voting just a little bit before one am there were protests that broke out in the senate gallery protesters saying kill the bill kill the bill in fact vice president mike pence who is presiding over the session had to call a call the gallery into order several times to have the protesters removed but nevertheless the bill will move forward it did pass by fifty one to forty eight a long strong partisan lines and this is a huge victory for president donald trump and also for the republicans it's the first legislative victory from donald trump since becoming president and also for the republicans they say that this will spurn economic growth in the u.s.

for years to come however there were protesters and there are a lot of people in the country that are very much against this bill in fact the latest polls show that fifty five percent of americans were against it primarily because they say it is going to mostly cut taxes on corporate america and benefit the top one percent of earners in america at the expense of the middle class and the working poor because the tax cuts for the middle class and working poor are just temporary and they're eventually going to go away that's not the case for the corporate tax cuts also this bill will add more than one point four trillion dollars to the national debt what's next on wednesday the house of representatives will do one final vote on this bill they actually voted on it tuesday night however because of a provisional mistake they have to reboot on wednesday but it's expected that once

again the house of representatives will also approve this at which point it will then go to donald trump and he will then sign it. scott lucas is professor of american politics at the university of birmingham joins us via skype from birmingham said donald trump is calling this a big beautiful christmas present for the nation is it was definitely a christmas present for donald trump who has not had a single major bill go through congress in a lot of months is it a present for the nation well it is for the wealthiest americans who receive the large share of benefits from this bill for those on the lower incomes the effects are mixed and in fact might even be negative so i'm not sure they'll find much under the tree out of this it's a big benefit for larger businesses and for some smaller businesses in the short term but in the long term and this is the huge question by adding so much to the federal deficit one point four trillion dollars is this tax cut affordable the

trouble ministration has its budget coming up very soon are they going to have to significantly cut government services just to fund this giveaway so if it is disastrous how difficult will it be to reverse it will be very difficult i mean it took more than thirty years for the republicans to make this major revision to the tax code they once they decided to do it they rammed it through fairly quickly but you have to undo all those hundreds of pages of legislation and pick them apart what the republicans are hoping is that even if the bill might have such negative effects in the long term in the short term you get an artificial bubble in the economy if that last until the midterm elections in two thousand and eight team that's great but if the bubble burst before then the republicans may have won the battle but will lose the war ok let's look at something that seems to be oddly peculiar to america a couple of provisions of themes snuck onto the end of this bill one of them is to allow oil drilling in alaska i mean seems extraordinary that this can be done

without any sort of major challenge. i think this is the other big story and that is that republicans as you put it snuck into this bill measures that they have sought for years and even decades the arctic national wildlife reserve which is a protected area one of the most beautiful in the world has now been opened up to oil and gas drilling despite environmental concerns having failed to repeal obamacare this summer the republicans have now stripped the individual mandate from it now that's in the provision this is all americans have to have insurance or face financial penalties so that these ongoing affects beyond the tax cuts and we will feel them could add to that discontent that your correspondent cited alternatively the republicans are going to say look we're reducing regulations don't worry about the environment look everything's rosy in america this will be the shape of the political battle i think all the way up to next november scott because it's good to speak to you thanks so much for joining us there from voting and thank you now the

u.s. is again suggesting that iran is supplying weapons to yemen's hoofy rebels off to ballistic missiles and steps in saudi arabia over the capsule of a at iran denies the allegations that's the third attack since november if i sez say they were targeting a meeting of saudi leaders as yamana royal palace and to mug for one thousand days since the beginning of the war in yemen if i was an earlier attack on the fourth of november when a missile was launched from yemen towards riyadh king international airports and another missile tugs of the city of homicide rate before it was in steps on the first of december tenth and monaghan reports. this is the moment hooty fire ballistic missile was apparently shot down by saudi forces the yemen based toothy say they were targeting the aluminum a royal palace which is west of the capital riyadh was a large group of saudi leaders were meeting there at the time including king solomon and crown prince mohammed bin sama and i think they were these wanted to make a statement that they're still up and running and that they're still fighting despite

the fact that you know in recent days and weeks there's been allegations that there were these weakened by the split with ali abdullah saleh and that they possibly not would not be able to shoot missiles further into south territory but they prove otherwise. the missile attack happened just hours before saudi arabia was due to announce its annual budget as well as members of the royal family senior ministers were also expected to attend a social media post from a government agency confirmed a missile had been intercepted but no casualties were reported in. the saudi the coalition which has been conducting air strikes again to the fighters in yemen for nearly three years for tell you did with more strikes in the southern part of the capital sanaa speaking on the group's t.v. channel who's the leader abdul malik of hooty said the missile attack marks one thousand days since the war in yemen started openly guess he saw today about a can tool missile was launched these are getting at the m.m.f.

palace in the hostile free out city of saudi arabia this is our answer to them and the hold was the more crimes you'll perpetrate the more to run it kelly all on you will meet nothing but more missiles. this isn't the first time you see missile attack on saudi arabia in november the international airport in riyadh was narrowly missed in the strike the saudi government has accused regional rival iran of smuggling missiles and technology to the booty and allegation to run tonight. the war in yemen has created what the u.n. describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict at least ten thousand civilians have been killed and millions are on the brink of famine and as the fighting continues many fear the situation on the ground could get worse since monohan al jazeera. i mean the other side of the military coalition fighting in yemen is being accused of killing at least one hundred thirty six civilians and noncombatants in just ten days u.n.

says they were killed by saudi airstrikes between a safe and sixteenth of december is only the instance the u.n. was able to verify so the number of civilians killed could be higher one attack involved seven astronauts in a prison in san are last week forty five detainees were killed and the u.n. has once again warned that yemen is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis and is calling for the saudi led blockade to be completely left is yemen is the the largest food insecurity crisis in the world's recent humanitarian needs overview a dent to find almost eighteen million people who are in need of support food wise the prognosis is not good. the blockade is not fully completely lifted the interference no work is no reduce the taken away then the results and pushing back on call and pushing back on famine over the last six months from be lost the united

nations security council has been discussing whether iran is complying with the two thousand and fifteen nuclear agreement and missile launch from yemen also featured in the debate mike hanna has more now from the u.n. headquarters in new york the secretary general of firm that iran was in full compliance with its commitment to non-nuclear proliferation under the joint a comprehensive plan of action indorsed by resolution twenty two thirty one but he raised questions about the possibility that iran was moving conventional weapons across his border and concerns expressed by some of the security council members would lead to mr blair bronco looking at your future to it like to express its particular concern over the information and evidence connected with iran's supply of weapons and missiles to militias which. encouraging them to use those weapons to target neighboring countries the u.s. ambassador was adamant that the missiles recently fired at saudi targets were of

origin including the most recent well we don't yet have sufficient insight into this particular attack it bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using a rainy and provided weapons it is only a matter of time before one of these missiles hits the target the secretary general said that the origin of the missiles is under investigation and the security council will be briefed at what he called the appropriate time but the russian ambassador was adamant that the u.n. is not empowered to monitor iran's development or deployment of conventional non-nuclear weapons moving with inability to pneumonia we once again need to draw your attention to the practice of the secretariat conducting investigations investigations for which the secretary has neither the authority nor the expertise such actions carried out without the prior consent of the security council are not

legitimate and the information obtained in the course of such actions cannot be considered accurate and cannot be part of the report the russian ambassador rejected the u.s. suggestion that the joint comprehensive plan of action be renegotiated to include conventional weapons something that iran continues to insist it will not do the scene is set for vigorous debate among security council members in the days ahead well as you mentioned it's a thousand days since the saudi led coalition began its military campaign against the who things of march two thousand and fifteen and we'll explore the political and humanitarian impact of the intervention on yemen in-depth discussion on the inside story with. at seventeen thirty g.m.t. . still ahead hair on al-jazeera and i still may be out of iraq about this place but since i still wary of pretending to that. i'm violent protests fail to provide offering of

a controversial pension law in argentina. from the clear blue sky of the doha moony. to the french autumn breeze in the city of. hell or maybe surprisingly waltz most of europe is very cold this is a spinning old winter low which means it's just dropping a little bit of snow over the cold ground and all this is so they are used a few degrees of freezing but in the far north years actually very warm in norway in the norwegian sea for example a good ten degrees warmer than for example parts of europe further south several hundred kilometers for us live to be is in athens and is your best this was a wavy line here's the gist of it write a story for you have the sky was not much there nor is a great deal around in for example slovakia or southern poland but it's all cold you'll notice until you talking what's happening of the british isles and of

a scandinavian that's all falling into colder air which means a proper line of snow will follow from someone like the austrian house and through again polling for retouching better reason the baltic states his finds the south of that lakota have faded the warmish waters over the central mediterranean so that a persistent or semi persistent line developing drawing warm out here every chipped then tucking the cold back over sudden tunisia and libya this area of rain falling steadily twenty or thirty millimeters per hour and got no two days still to go. the weather sponsored by cattle and place. you are making remarks where on line the main u.s. response to drug. the drug trade over the last fifty years has been criminal or if you join us. in the morning. is

a dialogue could be some of the confusion about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the conversation at this time on al-jazeera. has a reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s. senate has passed a contentious one point five trillion dollars tax reform bill this brings president one step closer to his first victory the bill will now be sent back to the house of representatives for a final vote on wednesday. the white house is against. iran

denies the allegations that the third attack. a new round of talks aimed at ending the syrian civil war begins. wednesday a two day meeting will focus on implementing a ceasefire brokered by russia and iran the foreign ministry says the talks will also address issues. of the recent hostages. displaced from holder say they're being pressured into returning to their destroyed homes parents worried about their young children unexploded some of them. with the. choice. their home and rocco was hit by an e.f. strike as i still was driven out they've been living in displacement camps but life is so tough there they have moved back home with some fear the children could step

on a mine on an unexploded munition. chasms i'm from the el much less neighborhood i'm constantly worried about the young children it's difficult to live here there's nothing we have no holiday left outside now after the fall of life and the fact the capital the people of the complain no one is helping them i was amr has thirteen children and he says the camp management that i need told him to go home we're going to look at this the house is gone there's nothing left nothing to eat or drink we need something to survive was once home to more than a quarter of a million people after nearly five months of fighting eighty percent of the city's destroyed. doctors without borders says during the battle nobody cared about the civilians and the coalition inflicted a deluge or fire on the city. reconstruction is estimated to cost billions of dollars but since i suppose defeat in october if you have announced the building this to foot the bill or even provide basic infrastructure health care and education the ancient city was

a crown jewel of empires dating back more than two thousand years it's never been leveled like this before beyond the liberal euphrates was isis capital iraq which was under their control since two thousand and fourteen now the city has been taken over by kurdish led forces but it remains in ruins and i said elements are still being cleared. by just continue to discover weapons dumps. i said to leave guns and ammunition from the syrian army that's generally the area is safe but there are some i saw weapons left to protect the people we are doing mining of the city we are here to protect civilians. the displaced arab population find these things hard to believe people wouldn't comment on camera but many say they are under in a bit occupying force scar tissue i.p.g. fighters deny accusations that their friends arabs from their towns and villages. but unless there's a serious push to rebuild and rehabilitate raptors gaping wounds bear the risk of fostering some of the group like eisel some enjoy way down to zero on the western

bank of the euphrates river. the u.s. and canada will co-host a summit attended by foreign ministers from fourteen countries in january to seek progress on the north korean nuclear crisis announcement was made after the u.s. actually of state rex tillerson met canadian foreign minister chrystia freeland the meeting will be held in the city of vancouver a function of career tests is most powerful ballistic missile get one it says is capable of reaching the entire u.s. mainland we believe that a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible we will use this gathering itself or to needy to advance our work on diplomatic efforts towards a more peaceful prosperous and nuclear free suture on the north korean peninsula and to demonstrate international solidarity in our condemnation of north korea's actions we will not accept you as a reclear nation the nuclear weapons station and all of the sheer power show you want to go over there is the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the crew

pollutes well. the u.s. has promised to speed up recovery efforts and federal assistance to press a rico off the top officials pose to the island on tuesday continues to struggle after a devastating hurricane three months ago with over two hundred thousand homes damaged several minutes for them to dock with no electricity the governor says the island needs a lot more financial assistance on top of the five billion dollars pledged by congress what the reagan's will see how responding to our needs and to our petitions and there are several steps of this where there's a tax reform and there is. and we see there is there are senators and congressmen. are acting. you know against the best interests of the people. which you know are. good you know. and and i've talked to people back in united states who are

very what's going on here. we have a complete one hundred percent understanding of all the suffering people go through . probably in our. compassion is there we do understand that there are very significant. german chancellor angela merkel has admitted mistakes were made before and after last year's attack on a christmas market in berlin that killed eleven people speaking on the anniversary she said both security and victim support were lacking but as dominic cain reports well as of the victims still feel lack of should be doing more normally this is a place to celebrate the christmas season on choose day it was a place of sadness and solidarity shared by the bereaved from this tragedy and germany's political leaders the emotion of the moment palpable

a minute's silence a mark of respect to those who died although i get americal stood shoulder to shoulder with victims' relatives they do not think she's done enough since the tragedy in a letter to the german magazine der spiegel they spelt out their grievance saying the attack was not only aimed at the victims directly it was aimed at germany it's a question of respect decency and technically it's self evident that you as head of government should acknowledge to us the loss of our family members caused by an act of terror the chancellor did hold her first meeting with the families on monday and had this statement after the minute's silence. once an issue. for me and i'm speaking on behalf of the entire government we will work to improve or didn't go well and do everything humanly possible not only to ensure safety but also to give those whose lives have been destroyed or affected

a chance to go back to their lives again as well as they can the problem for angela merkel and her government is despite such public pronouncements the families of the victims still have grave concerns about germany's current security situation and some analysts believe that parts of the german federal intelligence system really need reform specifically where it concerns how the government deals with those it believes may be plotting violent attacks things that are still lacking certainly and there's also a structural issue is the lack of rethought the lack of staff and the lack of qualified staff who work on cases actually watching potential terrorists and connecting the dots at the site of last year's atrocity one of the new features is a scar in bronze that's been laid across the ground meant as a permanent reminder of the hurt attacker and his memory cost his victims and

society at large tuesday has been a day of strong emotions where those touched by this tragedy gathered to pay their respects in the hope that the ordeal they and their loved ones india that is one no other families will suffer in future the question for the government is whether it can ensure that dominic cain. argentina's congress has passed a controversial pension nor after the vote was delayed by violent protests in the capital one of the aires he says somewhat sees pensions linked to the inflation rate as seen as crucial for president plans to cut the nation's deficit. in the capital. here in the main outside the auction tying congress after the violence here on monday. congress were debating in this building behind me reform. which the government of president. is

a necessary to prove. me he wants to attract more foreign investment he wants to reduce the fiscal deficit and try to control the country's high inflation rate the opposition that were out here in large numbers on monday protesting peacefully but a large group of protesters. with metal balls were attacking the police the police responded with tear gas water cannon with rubber bullets they were scenes which argentina is today assessing talking about the violence which has shocked many but there's no doubt that there is anger in this around the country with just the first of the reform measures that the government says a necessary they still labor on tax reforms the car so with that with that in mind still many problems to come in argentina but a victory for the government after an all night debate which lasted something like twelve hours or preparing for more problems the car campaigning for gasoline is

that parliamentary election is drawing to a close plants head to the polls on thursday for a vote that's expected to indicate the extent of public support for succession from spain called pennell has more from barcelona. it's a last brush with campaigning closes a rally for the separatist c.e.o. cattle and republican left party. former speaker of the regional parliament karma fork adele is lucky to be here a tool she's free on bail for now but faces criminal charges for rebellion. i don't think anybody at all only imagine what was going to happen we could never have imagined that. after the october secession referendum prosecutors arrested key cattle and leaders for their role in organizing that vote and the spanish central government dissolved the capital and parliament a front seat is left empty for party leader john kerry us judges refused bail and

instead kept him in prison fearing he would use the hustings to rabble rouse thursday's parliamentary election isn't specifically about secession but it is the most polarizing issue voters will choose between parties who want catalonia to remain part of spain or others have clearly not renounce their goal of a breakaway republic veteran catherine politician artur mass hopes madrid look for compromise not confrontation if the central government. had a real positive proposal for the catalan people what they have to do is to put that proposal on the table. and to compare this proposal with the proposal for a real independent country but a necessary mother's riding high in opinion polls has little appetite for negotiating her center right citizens party has backed madrid in its crackdown

against the separatists she'll need to build a coalition but believes the only way to resolve the political turmoil is by beating the secessionists in the election will try to win will try to win and i think it is possible we we are seeing the pools and we see that it is it is not a new to appear. as the hours tick down activists from the left wing see you people know vital votes a still up for grabs even in barcelona's backstreets their party is small but was kingmaker in the last election they make for an easy political bedfellows they stand against spain and the monarchy and thermally in favor of a cattle and republic run by the working classes. al-jazeera barcelona.

this is out of there i'm laura kyle these are the top stories u.s. senate has passed a contentious one point five trillion dollar tax reform bill. the tax cuts and jobs act is passed this brings present donald trump one step closer to his first significant lead to victory the bill is the first major rewrite of the tax code in more than thirty years it will now be sent back to the house of representatives for a final vote later on wednesday. after eight straight years of slow growth in order before major america is ready to take off. coupled with the regulatory reforms that have already been implemented by the administration we now are comprehensive tax reform major middle class tax relief and making our businesses both large and small more competitive around the world the white house is again suggesting iran is supplying weapons to yemen's hooty rebels after ballistic missiles and sets in saudi arabia over the capital riyadh iran denies the allegations it's the third

attack since november when they marked one thousand days since a saudi led coalition launched its military campaign against the who sees the u.s. and canada will co-host a summit attended by foreign ministers from fourteen countries and january to seek progress on the north korean nuclear crisis the meeting will be held in the city of vancouver last month north korea tested its most powerful ballistic missile get one it says it is capable of reaching the entire u.s. mainland we will not accept you as a nuclear nation a nuclear weapons nation all of the sugar one policy to the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the korean. us a promise to speed up recovery efforts and federal assistance to puerto rico off the top officials this of the island on tuesday budgerigar continues to struggle after a devastating hearkened three months ago with over two hundred thousand homes damaged

several most child sees a foot in the dark with no electricity the governor says the island needs a lot more financial assistance on top of the five billion dollars pledged by congress. those are your headlines to join us again for another news bulletin here on al-jazeera that's after the stream. east and the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. i mean ok you're in the stream we're live on al-jazeera and you tube today voters in states catalonia region.