| Ocasio-Cortez Breaks With Pelosi in Key Early Vote for Democrats Posted: 02 Jan 2019 11:38 AM PST  The rules measure, set for a vote on Thursday when the new Congress convenes, will reimpose a "pay as you go" requirement that would allow challenges to legislation that adds to the deficit. The rules were negotiated by likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to satisfy concerns among members of the new the 235-member majority representing more conservative areas of the country. Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old representative-elect from New York City, said on Twitter Wednesday that the system referred to as paygo "isn't only bad economics," but is "also a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on healthcare+other leg.
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| Four injured after German man rams car into crowd; racist motive suspected Posted: 01 Jan 2019 09:24 AM PST ![Four injured after German man rams car into crowd; racist motive suspected]( "Four injured after German man rams car into crowd; racist motive suspected") A 50-year-old German man clearly intended to kill foreigners when he rammed his silver Mercedes into a crowd of people in the northwestern German town of Bottrop in the early hours of New Year's Day, injuring four, a senior government official said. "A German man deliberately drove into crowds of people ... that were largely made up of foreigners. There was a clear intention by this man to kill foreigners," Herbert Reul, interior minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Bottrop is located, told reporters on Tuesday.
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| Garbage, feces take toll on national parks amid shutdown Posted: 01 Jan 2019 01:30 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West's iconic national parks, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.
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| Ultima Thule: First photos taken by New Horizons spacecraft reveal distant world resembles snowman Posted: 02 Jan 2019 04:55 PM PST  Nasa has revealed the first photo of the distant world of Ultima Thule, the most distant object that humanity has ever explored. The tiny, icy object resembles a snowman in the photo, which is just the first of a whole host of data that the space agency hopes to receive back. The picture came after flight controllers said they had had success in the high-risk, middle-of-the-night encounter at the mysterious body known as Ultima Thule on the frozen fringes of our solar system, about four billion miles away in a dark and frigid region of space known as the Kuiper Belt. Now they will work to download and look through all of the data sent back over that long distance, a process that could take years. "That image is so 2018... Meet Ultima Thule!" said lead investigator Alan Stern, doing little to hide his joy as he revealed a new sharper image of the cosmic body, taken at a distance as close as 17,000 miles with a resolution of 140 meters per pixel. These are the first colour images of Ultima Thule, taken at a distance of 85,000 miles, highlighting its reddish surface Credit: AFP "That bowling pin is gone - it's a snowman if anything at all," Dr Stern said during a Nasa briefing. "What this spacecraft and this team accomplished is unprecedented." Ultima Thule's surface reflects light about as much as "garden variety dirt," he said, as the sun's rays are 1,600 times fainter there than on Earth. The body is roughly 19 miles long and completes its own rotation in about 15 hours. Nasa dubbed the larger lobe Ultima, and the other, which is about three times smaller, Thule. "This is the first object that we can clearly tell was born this way" Stern said, instead of evolving as a sort of "bi-lobe." "This really puts the nail on the coffin now. We know that this is how these kinds of objects in many cases form." Alan Stern, with New Horizons team members Credit: AFP Around 4.5 billion years ago a cloud of frozen pebbles began to join forces, gradually forming two bodies - Ultima and Thule. Slowing turning, they eventually touched at each other at what mission geology manager Jeff Moore called an "extremely slow speed" - maybe just one to a few miles per hour. If such a meeting occurred between two cars in a parking lot, he said, no driver would bother writing it up. The lobes, according to Moore, are really just "resting on each other." "New Horizons is like a time machine, taking us back to the birth of the solar system," Moore said. "We are seeing a physical representation of the beginning of planetary formation, frozen in time." Carly Howett, another researcher of the mission, noted that "we can definitely say that Ultima Thule is red," perhaps due to irradiation of ice. The close approach came a half-hour into the new year, and three years after New Horizons' unprecedented swing past Pluto.
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| Afghan Taliban says 'post-occupation' discussed with Iran Posted: 01 Jan 2019 01:20 AM PST  The Taliban discussed Afghanistan's "post-occupation situation" with Iran in their latest meeting, the group said Tuesday, as Tehran makes a more concerted and open push for peace ahead of a possible US drawdown. The remarks come after Iran confirmed Monday that the Taliban had visited Tehran for a second round of talks in just a few days that are aimed at ending the 17-year conflict. The Taliban delegation discussed with Iran "the post-occupation situation, restoration of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region", the militants said in a statement posted on social media and emailed to journalists.
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| GM hit 200,000 U.S. electric vehicles sold in 2018 Posted: 02 Jan 2019 10:45 AM PST  The credit for GM EVs falls to $3,750 in April.
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| A Doughnut Truck Caught on Fire and Cops Have Intense Feelings About It Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:35 PM PST  The NYPD offered to send in reinforcements
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| UK's Hunt says confident May will seal deal for Brexit Posted: 02 Jan 2019 06:56 AM PST  SINGAPORE (AP) — British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Wednesday he is confident Prime Minister Theresa May will obtain the concessions needed to convince enough lawmakers to back an unpopular Brexit deal.
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| Full-Size Pickup Trucks Ranked from Worst to Best Posted: 02 Jan 2019 07:29 AM PST |
| Donald Trump rejects Democratic funding plan, wishes Happy New Year to 'haters' Posted: 01 Jan 2019 02:46 PM PST  President Donald Trump rang in the new year by rejecting a Democratic plan to reopen the government and taunting his critics
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| Police called after man heard shouting death threats... to a spider Posted: 02 Jan 2019 04:42 PM PST  On Wednesday morning in Perth, Western Australia, a bystander heard a man inside a property repeatedly shouting the words "why don't you die," with the sounds of a toddler screaming in the background,. It turns out the man was only trying to kill a spider. Western Australian Police posted a screenshot of the interaction on Twitter, however, the tweet was later deleted as officers aren't meant to screenshot police systems.
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| Girl, 2, airlifted to hospital after falling into rhino enclosure at Florida zoo Posted: 01 Jan 2019 01:03 PM PST  A child has been injured after falling into a rhino exhibit in a zoo in Florida. In a statement, the zoo said the child stumbled and fell between two metal poles separating the family from the zoo's white rhinoceroses during a hands-on experience. "At this point, the snout of at least one of the rhinoceroses made contact with the child," the zoo said.
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| New Picture Reveals Ultima Thule Is Made of Two Asteroids That Got Stuck Together Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:26 PM PST  New Horizons' latest target has never been more clear.
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| Netanyahu says Israel is Arabs' 'ally' against Iran Posted: 31 Dec 2018 08:16 PM PST  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Arab countries viewed Israel as an "indispensable ally" fighting Iran and the Islamic State group. The comments came as Israel has stepped up air strikes on Iranian positions in neighboring Syria, and as Israel digested an abrupt decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw US troops from Syria.
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| Tesla shares stumble on price cut, disappointing Model 3 deliveries Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:15 PM PST  Prices of the Model 3, S and X were all slashed by $2,000.
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| Missouri Teen Returns from Cruise with Mystery Illness That`s Left Her Permanently Blind Posted: 02 Jan 2019 11:43 AM PST  A Missouri teen is fighting a life-changing medical condition after returning from a cruise.
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| The Latest: Deaths from Russia apartment collapse grow to 33 Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:05 PM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on the building collapse in Russia (all times local):
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| Officials Are Investigating Why 6 People Suddenly Became Ill During a New Year's Day Flight Posted: 02 Jan 2019 05:05 AM PST  Airport water fountains may have been to blame
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| Trump vs. Pelosi: The standoff that will define Washington begins today Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:01 PM PST  Trump vs. Pelosi: The standoff that will define Washington for the next two years starts today, over the wall.
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| Manchester stabbings suspect may have mental problems as UK terrorism probe ongoing Posted: 01 Jan 2019 02:31 PM PST  Greater Manchester Police were, however, continuing to investigate the attack because of suspected links to terrorism, they said in a statement. A witness, a BBC producer who was at the busy station full of New Year's Eve revelers, said a man stabbed several people at the station, shouting "Allah" and linking his actions to "bombings in other countries." The station is very close to Manchester Arena, where a suicide bomb attack in May 2017 killed 22 people as they left a concert by pop star Ariana Grande. The other, a male police officer in his 30s who sustained a stab wound to his shoulder, was released from hospital earlier.
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| The Latest: Woman killed by lion recalled as 'quiet, sweet' Posted: 31 Dec 2018 06:26 PM PST  BURLINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on a fatal attack by a lion on an intern at a wildlife center (all times local):
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| Airline Accidentally Offers $15,000 Discount on Business Class Tickets Posted: 02 Jan 2019 08:09 AM PST  And it's actually honoring the rock bottom prices.
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| Minimum wage rising in 20 states and numerous cities Posted: 31 Dec 2018 10:36 PM PST  The New Year will ring in new laws for 2019 including 20 states upping their minimum wage.
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| Ex-Marine arrested in Moscow for 'spying' is innocent, family says Posted: 01 Jan 2019 04:19 PM PST  An American ex-Marine arrested in Moscow for alleged espionage is innocent, his family said Tuesday. The detention of Paul Whelan marked the latest in a series of espionage cases between Russia and the West. "We have read reports of the arrest in Moscow of Paul Whelan, our son and brother," said a statement posted on Twitter by David Whelan, who said he is the brother of Paul.
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| Decade-old flaw in Twitter allows hackers to spread ISIS propaganda using old accounts, report claims Posted: 02 Jan 2019 08:33 AM PST  Terrorists are allegedly exploiting a decade-old vulnerability in Twitter's systems to hijack dormant accounts and spread propaganda online. According to TechCrunch, there has been a resurgence in the number of accounts being hacked in recent weeks, many of which had been inactive for years. The hackers are reportedly using the fact that, prior to this summer, those opening an account with Twitter did not need to confirm their email addresses, meaning there are a number of accounts on the platform not linked to real email addresses or expired addresses. This allows hackers to then create the email address, and so gain access to the attached account. Security experts said this issue was "all too well known", but that it was hard for Twitter to manage the problem. "Twitter could expire accounts after a certain period of dormancy, but legacy accounts that were created without real associated emails will be vulnerable to this sort of hijack," said Robert Pritchard, the former cyber-security researcher at GCHQ and founder of The Cyber Security Expert. Alan Woodward, a computer scientist from the University of Surrey, agreed that "there has been some evidence of this before but it's difficult to see how you stop it unless you disable any Twitter account that has been inactive for more than a certain period". "When the accounts are set up with common email services they can be effectively taken over." Monthly active users TechCrunch said it had been alerted to a number of the hijacked accounts by a security researcher known as WauchulaGhost. The site said those accounts had been spreading propaganda, including videos of Islamic State fighters and messages supporting violence, such as one said to have read: "With your cars, let's go pack, you bomb, go with a bomb, you go in any way." Many of the accounts have since been deleted, it added. WauchulaGhost said: "A lot of these older dormant accounts never created the email they have listed on the account. All someone has to do is create it and take over the account. At the moment Islamic State is using this flaw to spread their propaganda." Technology intelligence - newsletter promo - RHS Twitter had signalled it was aware of the issue in June, introducing the requirement for new accounts to be confirmed with either email addresses or phone numbers. "This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness," Twitter had said at the time. Between January and June, it had suspended a total of 205,156 accounts which had violated its policy prohibiting the promotion of terrorism. Following the report on Wednesday, a spokesman for Twitter said: "Reusing email addresses in this manner is not a new issue for Twitter or other online services. For our part, our teams are aware and are working to identify solutions that can help keep Twitter accounts safe and secure."
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| You can now make charitable donations through Google Assistant Posted: 01 Jan 2019 12:59 PM PST ![You can now make charitable donations through Google Assistant]( "You can now make charitable donations through Google Assistant") If you forgot to make any New Year's resolutions last night, here an easy one: Donate to charity. You can change lives by donating just a few dollars to a cause or group of your choice, and now, thanks to Google, it's simpler than ever to do so. As reported by 9to5Google this week, Google Assistant recently gained the ability to make a donation with a voice command. This comes just weeks after a donation page was added to the Play Store. In order to start the process, just say "Ok Google, donate to charity" to your Android device or Google Home. Google Assistant will then ask you which organization you'd like to donate to, and suggests donating $10. You then specify how much you would like to donate, in case you want to give more (or less) than $10. If you know who which organization you want to donate to and how much you want to give, you can also just say "Ok Google, donate to Red Cross" (for example) and you will immediately be asked to confirm the donation. If you're on an Android phone or tablet, you'll see a summary of the transaction, along with this fine print: > Nonprofits are not endorsed by Google. Your donation will go to Network for Good (NFG), a US nonprofit donor advised fund, which makes grants to recommended charities. NFG takes exclusive legal control of donations, and will appear on your receipt. In order to donate, you need to have Google Assistant Payments enabled. Head to Assistant settings > Personal info > Payments to add a card, address, and method of payment approval, such as a password or fingerprint. The feature apparently debuted early in December, but Google didn't make an announcement.
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| U.S. agents fire tear gas into Mexico at 'violent mob' near border Posted: 01 Jan 2019 08:16 PM PST ![U.S. agents fire tear gas into Mexico at 'violent mob' near border]( "U.S. agents fire tear gas into Mexico at 'violent mob' near border") U.S. border agents launched tear gas into Mexico early on Tuesday to deter a group of migrants that one official called "a violent mob" from crossing over from Tijuana, according to a Reuters witness and the U.S. government. One migrant picked up a canister and threw it back into U.S. territory. U.S. officials said the group had attacked agents with projectiles but a Reuters witness did not see any migrants throwing rocks at U.S. agents.
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| President Trump slams former Secretary of Defense James Mattis Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:37 PM PST  President Donald Trump blasted his former Defense secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday, claiming he "essentially fired" the top military aide.
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| India's flashpoint temple, off limits to women Posted: 01 Jan 2019 04:24 PM PST  Two women in their 40s defied traditionalists on Wednesday to enter the Sabarimala temple, one of Hinduism's holiest sites, sparking violent clashes in southern India. It was the first time that women aged between 10 and 50 entered the site in the southern state of Kerala since India's Supreme Court overturned a ban in September. Here follows some background on the temple and the landmark verdict.
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| In-Depth Photos of Renault's Alpine A110 Posted: 02 Jan 2019 08:03 AM PST |
| Best Bites: Garlic parmesan cauliflower steaks Posted: 01 Jan 2019 05:00 AM PST  Welcome to Best Bites, a twice-weekly video series that aims to satisfy your
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| Iran bans Instagram - where the president has 2 million followers Posted: 02 Jan 2019 09:03 AM PST  Iran's president Hassan Rouhani is a major presence on Instagram, where his verified account regularly sends out posts to an audience of more than 2 million followers. But Rouhani's account will no longer be officially allowed in the country after authorities in Iran announced plans to ban the photo sharing app, citing national security concerns. Iran's National Cyberspace Council has approved steps to block Instagram, according to local reports, following crackdowns on other social media apps. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Telegram are already banned in the Islamic Republic, with internet providers ordered to block access to the services. The apps have often been used as a way to spread anti-government messages, with Telegram in particular, often cited as a national security concern. View this post on Instagram احیای #دریاچه_ارومیه یکی از قولهای من به مردم آذربایجان غربی در سال ۹۲ بود و اگر تلاش این دولت نبود، با ادامه روال سالهای قبل، امروز یک قطره آب در دریاچه ارومیه وجود نداشت و تمام این دریاچه به یک نمکزار خطرناک تبدیل شده بود که زندگی مردم، کشاورزی و باغها را تهدید میکرد. هنوز به مرحله احیاء دریاچه نرسیدهایم اما وضعیت دریاچه تقریباً تثبیت شده که این خود گام بزرگی است. �� عکسها: مهدی قربانی @Mahdi.Ghorbani77، حجت سپهوند @HojatSepahvand و ابراهیم سیدی؛ در جمع مردم شهرستان #خوی، استان آذربایجان غربی، ١٣٩٧/٨/٢٨. A post shared by Hassan Rouhani • حسن روحانی (@hrouhani) on Nov 19, 2018 at 9:20am PST Many Iranians continue to access the services despite the bans, circumventing the technical blocks by routing traffic through an overseas internet address. Twitter has been blocked in the country since 2009 but Rouhani has official accounts that tweet both in Persian and English. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also fostered a sizeable Twitter fanbase. Had a busy day today . But I always make time for #Twitterpic.twitter.com/YDQ63xy6bk— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (@Ahmadinejad1956) August 28, 2018 Instagram is the last major social media service officially available in Iran, and Rouhani's official account has posted more than one thousand times, often showing pictures of flag-waving crowds and the president himself on photo-ops, with accompanying messages in Persian. It is unclear when Iran's ban is due to go into effect. The country curbed access to some internet services, including intermittently restricting Instagram, a year ago, a move that Donald Trump criticised at the time. The block comes as Iran has increasingly been blamed for attempts to use social media to disrupt politics in the UK and the US. In August, Facebook, which owns Instagram, deleted hundreds of accounts on both services that were linked to Iranian state media.
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| Manchester stabbings: UK police raid house, quiz suspect Posted: 01 Jan 2019 10:28 AM PST  LONDON (AP) — Police in the English city of Manchester are quizzing a suspect and searching a house for clues about the "terror-related" stabbings of three people at a train station on New Year's Eve.
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| Trump invites congressional leaders to border security briefing, source says Posted: 01 Jan 2019 12:34 PM PST  President Trump invites congressional leaders to a briefing on border security as a government shutdown over his $5 billion border wall demand drags on.
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| The cheapest days to fly in 2019 Posted: 01 Jan 2019 11:00 AM PST ![The cheapest days to fly in 2019]( "The cheapest days to fly in 2019") Here are the cheapest days to fly in 2019, whether you're staying in the U.S. or traveling internationally.
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| Driver killed in foggy New Year's crash in southwest Houston Posted: 01 Jan 2019 04:12 AM PST  Police don't know if the heavy fog in the area was a contributing factor or if the driver may have been drinking.
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| NASA’s asteroid probe just entered orbit around Bennu in a record-breaking maneuver Posted: 01 Jan 2019 03:04 PM PST  NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe arrived at its target, a large space rock known as Bennu, in early December. The spacecraft's mission will take several years to complete, but it hit a major milestone to close out 2018 by entering orbit around Bennu. It might not sound like much, but it's actually a major accomplishment for NASA, and it's set a couple of new records in the process. As AP reports, the probe's successful maneuver to enter orbit around Bennu makes it the first spacecraft to orbit a celestial object so small. At only around 1,600 feet in diameter, it's the smallest object ever to be successfully orbited, and OSIRIS-REx's close orbital distance of just over a mile is also record-breaking. The OSIRIS-REx mission was originally launched way back in late 2016. It took a couple of years for the probe to even make it to its asteroid target, but now that it's there it can begin studying Bennu in much greater detail than has ever been possible before. We got our first clear look at the rock's surface last month. The images delivered by the probe reveal a messy collection of debris strewn all over the asteroid's exterior. Ultimately, the mission's biggest challenge will be to collect some of that material and then return it to Earth, but the touch-and-go sample collection process won't begin until 2020. Once the probe snatches some rock from Bennu's exterior it will begin the long trip back to Earth, eventually arriving sometime in 2023 if all goes according to plan. The in-orbit surveys of the asteroid and eventual delivery of asteroid material will help researchers understand what makes up some of the larger asteroids in our Solar System. Determining how they formed and other details about their origins could help astronomers tell a more detailed story about the origins of our system and Earth itself, and perhaps help us prepare and forecast asteroid impacts in the future.
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| PHOTOS: New Year's celebrations light the skies around the world Posted: 31 Dec 2018 06:23 PM PST  From Sydney to the New York City – spectacular fireworks light the skies and confetti flies during this world wide celebration to the start of 2019.
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| The rare prototype Ferrari being sold for just $36,600 Posted: 02 Jan 2019 08:11 AM PST  This is the cheapest prototype V8-powered Ferrari money can buy! It might be a Mondiale, but it's still a piece of Ferrari history.
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| USA TODAY preview: The hottest new cruise ships of 2019 Posted: 02 Jan 2019 06:02 AM PST ![USA TODAY preview: The hottest new cruise ships of 2019]( "USA TODAY preview: The hottest new cruise ships of 2019") With the peak period for cruise bookings – aka Wave Season – just getting underway, USA TODAY Cruises offers a guide to the year's hottest new ships.
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| Oil Jumps as U.S. Equities Regain Ground, OPEC Output Declines Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:00 PM PST  West Texas Intermediate oil climbed as well, erasing earlier losses brought on by disappointing manufacturing data out of China. Total volume traded Wednesday was about 20 percent above the 100-day average.
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| Trump calls for shutdown talks with Congress leaders Posted: 01 Jan 2019 08:56 PM PST  President Donald Trump on Tuesday invited Republican and Democratic leaders from Congress for a meeting to seek an end to the federal government shutdown now in its second week. The two sides have appeared at an impasse, with Trump's Democratic foes seeking a vote on spending bills to keep the government open -- without addressing the hot-button issue of border wall funding -- as soon as they take control of the House of Representatives, on Thursday. "Border Security and the Wall 'thing' and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let's make a deal?" he tweeted.
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| The first Instant Pot deals of 2019 are already here Posted: 02 Jan 2019 05:19 AM PST ![The first Instant Pot deals of 2019 are already here]( "The first Instant Pot deals of 2019 are already here") Well that didn't take very long, now did it? It's only the second day of 2019 and we've already got our first sale on insanely popular Instant Pot multi-use cookers. There are two different models covered in this deal and the discounts aren't quite as deep as what we saw during the holiday shopping season, but they're still the best prices you'll find on these models. First we've got the $80 Instant Pot Duo Mini 3 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker on sale for $67.99, and it's the most compact version of Instant Pot's best-selling model. Then you can also snag the smartphone-connected Instant Pot Smart WiFi 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker for under $137 instead of $150. Both of these are limited-time deals, so get in on the action while you still can. ## Instant Pot Duo Mini 3 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker * All the features of the Instant Pot duo, the bestselling electric pressure cooker in North America now available in a 3 Qt compact format * The perfect companion to your existing Instant Pot, use it for side dishes, vegetables or other accompaniments such as rice * Generous capacity, great for smaller families or where space is at a premium. In a dorm, RV or boat? the Instant Pot duo mini Emits no steam, heat or cooking smells * Features fully automatic pressure cook programs, 3 slow cook heat settings, saute, rice cooking, steamer, yogurt making, delay start and auto keep Warm * 700W power to enable it to reach pressure quickly. All Stainless Steel internal components including lid and inner cooking pot. Lid and cooking pot dishwasher safe * Power supply: 120V - 60Hz * Included Components: Electric Pressure Cooker ## Instant Pot Smart WiFi 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker * Smart Wi-Fi multi-use programmable pressure cooker is a revolutionary kitchen appliance with Wi-Fi connectivity, easy to use interfaces to control and monitor cooking progress through graphics. * Healthy, stainless steel (18/8) inner cooking pot made from food grade 304, no chemical coating, 3-ply bottom. * Built with the latest 3rd generation technology, the microprocessor monitors pressure, temperature, keeps time, and adjusts heating intensity and duration to achieve your desired results every time * UL and ulc certified with 10 safety mechanisms to provide you with added Assurance, designed to eliminate many common errors * Accessories include, stainless steel steam rack with handles, rice paddle, soup spoon, measuring cup and condensation collector * 2.4 ghz Wifi
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