Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff from president obama today, a yearend promise to target terror in the year to come. He spoke at a white house News Conference, and sought again to allay public fears of potential attacks. At home, he called for americans to stay vigilant, and overseas, he promised to pound away at the Islamic State group. Isils already lost about 40 of the Populated Areas it once controlled in iraq, and its losing territory in syria. Squeezing isils heart, its core in syria and iraq, will make it harder for them to pump their terror and propoganda to the rest of the world. Woodruff well have an extended report on the president s remarks on terror and a number of other subjects after the news summary. In the days other news, wall street went down hard. The selloff was driven by falling oil prices, the chinese economy and foreign reaction to the federal reserves Interest Rate hike. And, losses accelerated late, as a variety of option contracts expired. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly 370 points, to close below 17,130. The nasdaq fell almost 80 points, and the s p 500 dropped 36. For the week, the dow lost nearly 1 . The nasdaq and the s p lost a fraction of a percent. Congress finished work today on sweeping tax cut and government funding bills, and headed home for the holidays. The senate gave final approval to a package that includes more than a trillion dollars in new federal spending for 2016, plus 680 billion in tax cuts over the next decade. Were proving you can actually enact significant longterm reforms, achieve conservative policy goals, and get them signed into law. So im proud of what the new senate has accomplished. Id like to thank the many friends across the aisle who joined us in passing so many bipartisan reforms for the American People. Months ago, democrats called on republicans to work with us to craft a budget agreement. We outlined three goals. We wanted to get rid of sequestration. We were able to do that. We wanted to make sure there was parity between defense and the middle class. We wanted to make sure we kept these poison pill riders off the legislation. All three goals we had, we accomplished. Woodruff the budget deal already passed in the house, in separate votes yesterday and today, and later, president obama signed the legislation into law. European Union Leaders vowed today to wage an uncompromising fight against terror. Their summit in brussels was the first time the 28 leaders have met since the november attacks in paris, claimed by the Islamic State group. The group agreed to beef up immigration controls, crack down on gunrunning and freeze Financial Assets of extremist groups. More than 990,000 migrants have entered europe this year from africa or the middle east and there is still no end in sight. The International Organization for migration put out the new estimate today, and said more than half are from syria. In geneva, a spokesman said people keep coming, despite temperatures getting colder and sea conditions growing more dangerous. The flows are so strong, even now, this late in the year, that perhaps by tuesday, or even before then, i. O. M. Estimates that the million person mark will pass. This is almost five times last years level, which is extraordinary. Woodruff the agency also reports at least 760 migrants have died so far this year with more than half of those in just the last two months alone. Prospects for peace in yemen hit a new stumbling block today. Talks in switzerland were halted after shiite Houthi Rebels suspended all meetings with yemens government. The houthis blamed repeated violations of a ceasefire in yemen. Both sides have ignored the truce, and troops loyal to the government captured a provincial capital today, after two days of fighting. In iraq, the u. S. Military says Kurdish Forces backed by heavy Coalition Air strikes beat back two major Islamic State attacks this week. In the north, 500 fighters tried to breach kurdish positions, and at least 180 were killed. In the west, others attacked government lines outside ramadi. The briefer spoke on a video link from baghdad in each place, isil was able to muster an offensive effort, which tells us that theyve still got some fight left in them. However, and much more importantly, in each fight iraqi forces were able to rebuff isils efforts. Woodruff meanwhile, defense secretary ash carter spent the day in afghanistan, promising u. S. Support in the face of a growing Islamic State presence. Carters oneday visit came after the u. S. Commander in afghanistan warned that isis militants from syria and iraq are gathering in the east. Theyre joining likeminded afghans to gain a foothold there. In the u. S. President ial race, the Bernie Sanders campaign accused the Democratic National committee today of actively aiding frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The dispute began with an accidental breach of the d. N. C. s database for voters. For half an hour, sanders staffers then allegedly used it to access some of clintons voter data and the d. N. C. Has now cut off the sanders access to all of its records. The leadership of the d. N. C. Is now actively attempting to undermine our campaign. This is unacceptable. Clearly in this case, it looks like they are trying to help the Clinton Campaign. Woodruff the Sanders Campaign has fired its data director for misusing the clinton voter information. And later, it filed suit to regain access to the democratic voter data. For its part, the d. N. C. Rejected the accusation that its playing favorites. The chicago policeman who fatally shot a black teenager last year, had his First Court Appearance today since being indicted. Jason van dyke is charged with firstdegree murder and official misconduct. Police video released last month shows him shooting Laquan Mcdonald sixteen times. It triggered protests, forced the police chief to quit, and prompted federal investigations. And chinas capital city is now under its second smog red alert this month. The wave of airborne pollution is forecast to hit beijing from saturday into tuesday. Today, signs warned people of the risk and ordered half the citys cars off the road. Officials said particle levels will be more than 20 times what is considered safe by the world health organization. Still to come on the newshour the president s priorities for his last year in office; a resolution for peace in syria; mark shields and david brooks on the weeks news, and much more. Woodruff back now to president obamas final News Conference of 2015. Todays session in the White House Briefing room was a combination yearinreview and yeartocome. As i look back on this year, the one thing i see is that so much of our steady, persistent work over the years is paying off for the American People in big, tangible ways. Woodruff it was an upbeat assessment from a president soon to enter his final year in office. He claimed a list of successes among them, job growth and a surge of signups for Health Care Coverage and he promised more to come. For all the very Real Progress americas made over the past seven years, we still have some unfinished business. And i plan on doing everything i can with every minute of every day that i have left as president , to deliver on behalf of the American People. Since taking this office, i have never been more optimistic about a year ahead than i am right now. And in 2016 im going to leave it out all on the field. Woodruff at the same time, mr. Obama acknowledged the growing challenge of confronting terrorism at home and abroad after the attacks in paris and San Bernardino, california. Even so, he vowed to defeat the Islamic State group. And were going to do so by systematically squeezing them, cutting off their supply lines, cutting off their financing, taking out leadership, taking out their forces, taking out their infrastructure. Now in order for us to stamp them out thoroughly, we have to eliminate lawless areas in which they cannot still roam. So we can disable them, we can dismantle much of their infrastructure and greatly reduce the threat that they pose to the United States our allies and our neighbors. Our long term goal has to be to stabilize areas so they dont have any safe haven. And in order for us to do that in syria, there has to be an end to the civil war. Woodruff today, in fact, the u. N. Security Council Approved a resolution that outlines a process for a limited ceasefire in syria, and peace talks. The u. S. Wants the ouster of syrian president bashar alassad, while russia supports him. But president obama made clear assad is still a central problem. Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the blood letting and for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a nonsectarian way. There is only so much bombing you can do when an entire country is outraged and believes that its ruler doesnt represent them. Woodruff the News Conference also came just days woodruff the News Conference also came just days after more than 190 nations reached a landmark deal on arresting Climate Change. The president brushed aside Republican Opposition to the deal. Right now, the American Republican Party is the only major party that i can think of in the advanced world that effectively denies Climate Change. I mean, its an outlier. So, my sense is that, you know, this is something that may be an advantage in terms of short term politics in the republican primary; its not something thats gonna be a winner for republicans long term. Woodruff on the other hand, the president praised Republican House speaker paul ryans work on crafting the 2016 budget compromise. It was a good win. There are some things in there that i dont like, but thats the nature of legislation and compromise. I think the system worked. That gives me some optimism that next year on a narrow set of issues we can get some more work done. Woodruff later, the president and his family left washington, en route to california and a meeting with families of the San Bernardino attack victims. From there, its on to hawaii for the holidays. Woodruff as we reported, late this afternoon, the 15 nations on the United NationsSecurity Council voted unanimously to endorse a framework for a Peace Process in syria, after nearly five years of brutal civil war thats left more than 250,000 dead and millions displaced. For more, we go to hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan and with me to explore the details of this deal, whats at stake, and the long road to this point is chief Foreign Affairs correspondent margaret warner. How big a deal is this . Its a big deal. You have all the members of the Security Council, not just the members to have the region who have been involved. Some agree on resolutions setting up the process that will set up not only a cease fire between assad and many of his opposition groups on the ground but direct talks between the two of them. And ban kimoon secretary general committed to help. Sreenivasan so a lot of countries working toward this, but there are four Major Players and in the middle is bashar alassad. Thats right, the Major Division among many concerns his future. On one side, youve got the United States and the gulf states who began all this wanting assad gone as soon as possible, and both have supported opposition groups on the ground in different ways. But on the other side youve got russia a iran, both of them regard syria, and syria is a client state for different reasons, both of them have sent military assistance weapons advisors, even fighters and in russias case bombs to try to shore him up. And there is tensions between the United States and russia. Veryni true. There is a crosscutting tension between the u. S. And russianixdo which would be in this process. For a longconrnk involved and inserted itself jn september and won itself a place at the table. Sreenivasan saudi arabia. Audi arabia leader of the sunni states and iran, of course, shiite state, huge historical rivalry for primacy in this region. Sreenivasan what do peace players get over their disagreements and agree to . One is threat of international terrorism. Even the Chinese Foreign minister said we have to get the process going because of threat of international terrorism. They have come to the conclusion that they can never take on i. S. I. S. Until the boil of the syrian conflict is done. That is the original not only attracter but incubator of all of the thousands of foreignphile fighters coming in helping beef up the al quaida in iraq that became i. S. I. S. , helping them establish this caliphate in the ungoverned portion of Eastern Syria and well into iraq and recognize there is no way to take them on. The second thing that theyve agreed on is that, militarily, it bevolved. Every one of them, these four countries, has supported different groups on the ground and they now all realize they have been sucked into a quagmire. There is no military resolution, has to be political. Sreenivasan one thing at the dead center is assad. The next steps here, this agreement doesnt mention him by name, which is one of those central tensions you mentioned. Absolutely, and they had to do it that way because the differences remain and had to finesse it. They talk about a political transition. The United States believes if you have a transition to an inclusive nonsectarian government which theyve agreed on, there is no way an autocrat for minority alawites can be head of that government, so they can eventually get to that point and the russians have signaled the United States theyre not so much to assad as a united state. So the steps is to set up the cease fire in january and direct talks. It will be very hard. There are other disagreements including who gets to sit in for the opposition. This is just one step of trying to maintain the momentum to get to the political resolution. Sreenivasan getting to the cease fire, you have to know whos on the other side of the table. Who is the enemy of assad and which countries think they should be at the table. The opposition which have never agreed on anything finally had a meeting in riyadh a week ago and chose the group that will choose the group to sit at the table. Its very indirect. Meanwhile, all these other countries, all of them, have different candidates that they want to nominate for too much of the terrorist to be at the table. So they include some groups that have been clients of iran and saudi arabia. All of this is still poor jordan is supposed to be creating this, so that all remains to benijfn resolved. Sreenivasan a big first step but thank you very much margaret warner. Mynico pleasure. Woodruff stay with us. Coming up on the newshour cooking lessons for the homeless; and Downton Abbey, its coming final season. But first, to the analysis of shields and brooks. Thats syndicated columnist mark shields, and New York Times columnist david brooks. Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you,q reporter we heard margaret talking to hari about what may be syrian progress. Lets talk about the president. He had a News Conference today. Look at hiscco record. He said were making progress, there are still challenges. It says at the end of this yore, how have his policies worked in syria, against i. S. I. S. , in iraq, in both countries . There are a couple of layers here. He said quite accurately we cant stop all the lone wolves. You had a couple in San Bernardino. Obviously, we cant stop that. Are we making progress . He claims we are. Highly disputed. I. S. I. S. , sometimes they take and lose ground, its not clear were necessarily making progress against him. The third thing in the backdrop, weve had third year exoessential progress in the area. In my view we left iraq too early and destabilized the region. The existential is passivity. Hes arguing from a place of weakness because of mistakes made in the past. Woodruff a weak position . Yeah, reliving 14 years of war, there is no appetite in this country for military intervention in the middle east. The president , i