Mary bono mack and steven holcomb. We have so many people coming up. It is thursday, november 2. Starting point begins right now. Good morning, everyone. Our starting point this morning, developments happening now in cairo. The u. S. Embassy there is closed. No one is being allowed in or out as we speak. Embassy Officials Say protesters are blocking the entrance and clashes are happening near nearby. Reza sayah is nearby for us. Whats happening . Reporter there is no indication protesters are targeting the u. S. Em wibassy b it was closed as a precaution. These are protesters who clashed with police. These are the troublemaking elements, the teenagers, young men, the 20somethings who for the past four days vo thrown red sox, debris, molotov cocktails at police. Police responded by firing teargas, stun grenades. Some Police Officers have been throwing rocks as well. Some of the clashes have been inching toward the assembly which is a couple of blocks from tahrir square. Four hours ago the embassy shut its doors saying no one would come in or leave until further notice. More demonstrations scheduled in the days ahead in tahrir square. The embassy announcing that services for american citizens in cairo will be cancelled until further notice. This is all over president morsys power grab. What about a potential constitution here . Reporter another important day today. The Constitutional Assembly in egypt at h hour is drafting egypts all important new constitution. This is going to be the corner stone of egypts democratic transition and one of the reasons why president morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood have been locking horns with opposition factions. This was a hundred member panel assigned to draft this constitution. Theres been conflict. It is dominated by iz mists. Liberal memberquit. Some sued to disband the panel and start again. You will recall one of mr. Morsys ke crees said no one will disband this Constitutional Assembly. Not even the judiciary. They believe it needs to be drafted to get it going. Thats why opposition is upset. Look for more conflict later today. Thank you. The other big news, in washington the white house tryinging to kick start fiscal cliff talks. Just 33 days. Congress breaks for the holidays in 15 days. Treasury secretary tim geithner is going to try to get the talks moving today. Hell meet with congressional leaders on capitol hill. Lets go to dan lothian live in washington for us. Dan, tell us should americans be hopeful something will be done in 15 days . Thats before Congress Goes on vacation. Lets remind a little bit. It was a week ago when president obama met with congressional leaders before he went overseas. There was a sense of optimism that they could get something done. Now it appear it is two sides are still very far apart. So thats why you see the president pushing this tax extension for middle class americans. The president believing this is not necessarily the answer, the comprehensive answer. Its part of the solution. Hes been meeting with Small Business owners at the white house. With bigtime ceos as well. Yesterday had middle class americans who expressed how they would be impacted by taxes going up to the tune of 2200 if the middle class tax extension is not done for them. The president believing that upper income americans need to pay more. Republicans pushing back on that. None theless the president sounded optimistic. A clear majority of americans, not just democrats, but also a lot of republicans and a lot of independents agreed we should have a balanced approach to deficit reduction that doesnt hurt the economy and doesnt hurt middle class families. If both parties agree we should not raise taxes on middle class families lets begin our work with where we agree. Americans are concerned. But divided over the best solution to avoid the fiscal cliff. Take a look at an abc News Washington post poll that shows 60 of americans support upper income americans having their taxes raised. 37 oppose it. On issue of reducing deductions, 44 support that. 49 oppose it. Much like lawmakers they realize there is a big problem that needs to be fixed but divided on how to fix it. In addition to the goings on in the capitol there is a big lunch at the white house today. Governor romney coming by for a bite to eat. A lot of speculation about what might be discussed at the meal and the possibility of maybe future job . Jay carney pushed back on that yesterday. The president said there was no suggestion here that he had a special assignment for him. The president invited mitt romney to come to the white house because he wanted to talk about moving the country forward. The president pointed out that out there on the campaign trail mitt romney had good ideas. He wanted to talk to him about that. Not necessarily partisan ideas but ideas like job creation for the middle class. The president pointed to mitt romney and how he helped turn the olympics around and pointed out perhaps this could help in the government to streamline agencies, make it more user friendly. It will be a different tone from the campaign trail, talking about moving the country forward. At this point, no suggestion that the president plans to hand him any kind of job offer. It is a private lunch. No cameras inside. Well never know what goes on in there. Dan, thank you so much. We are all here today. We didnt win. But two Ticket Holders defied the ridiculous odds. They will split the 588 million powerball. The numbers are 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and the powerball of 6. You sound like you have done it before. I have done it way too much. Losing every time. Another loser. Victor blackwell outside of atlanta. The caviar dreams are over fors all of us. Dashed. Reporter yeah. Back to hot dogs and canned tuna for us. Those two people in arizona and missouri split the 588 million. The cash payout, 385 million. I neem mapleton, georgia. They are in arizona and missouri. Im here because this gas station was one of the busiest places to buy a ticket. They sold a 116 million winner not long ago. Thats why people came here. We know at the peak 130,000 tickets were sold across the 42 powerball states, the Virgin Islands and d. C. Per minute. People went against the unbelievable odds of 1 in 175 million. This is going to happen more often as part of a strategy by powerball, the huge jackpots. They doubled the cost of a ticket from 1 to 2 and doubled the starting jackpot from 20 million to 40 million. The average winning jackpot goes from 141 million to 250 million. 1 in 175 million puts you somewhere between walking township a random woman in the country and guessing her name correctly and a being killed by a random falling coconucoconut. There is room there for a winner or two. Watch out for the coconuts. Victor blackwell, according to you well all have more losses in our future. Thanks, victor. Thanks for starting our morning like that, victor. Its a big day at the united nations. As well a big day for palestinians. They are asking members of the General Assembly to approve a resolution to upgrade their status from permanent observer to nonmember state. A vote is scheduled for this afternoon and is expected to pass. Keep in mind the United States and israel are both opposed to the resolution. Lets go to cnn Foreign Affairs reporter live in washington. Good morning. Good morning, brooke. Israel very opposed to the move. The u. S. Knows this move went give the palestinians what they want a state. This is largely symbolic. Will have no effect on sovereignty or borders. Hillary clinton met with president abbas and tried to assure him not to go ahead with the move. Lets listen to what she told reporters yesterday. Sfm know matter what happens it will not change what i support. The only way to get a lasting solution is to commence direct negotiations and we need an environment conducive to that. We have urged both parties to refrain from actions that might in any way make a return to meaningful negotiations now, brooke, president abbas promised to return to negotiations after the vote. But with israel so opposed to the move it doesnt seem likely. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the resolution calling it onesided saying it doesnt take into account israels security interests and it pushes the Peace Process back. Israel is threatening to withhold a hundred Million Dollars a month in tax revenues from the palestinians, further restrict movement of plib officials and there is about 500 million in u. S. Economic and security aid at stake. Congress withheld aid last year when they joined unesco. Thats gone through. This could certainly trigger a cut from aid in washington leaving the palestinians in dire straits. Maybe lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and renewed violence in the region. This strengthen it is happened of hamas who was riding high after the Gaza Ceasefire last week. Well see what happens with that today. Elise, thank you. 12 minutes past the hour. Checking other stories. Susan rice, still struggling to find support from the other side of the aisle here. She made a second visit to capitol hill claiming her comments in the after math of the benghazi consulate attack were based on intelligence reports. She said there was no intent to mislead anyone. Susan collins isnt sold on that. I continue to be troubled by the fact that the u. N. Ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of the contentious president ial election. Rice is considered a leading candidate to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Texas is moving to seize a ranch owned by flds, a mormon sect that believes in polygamy. Warren jeffs, its leader, is serving a life sentence in texas for sexually assaulting two under aged girls. State Officials Say dozens of children were molested on the property. While you were sleeping Lindsay Lohan arrested again. Shes in custody now with the new York Police Department. They took her after some kind of oh fight around 4 00 this morning at a club in new york city. She has been charged with misdemeanor assault with reports saying she reportedly hit a woman. Lohan was also arrested in september at another club in new york for allegedly hitting someone with her car and not stopping. She didnt face charges for that. One problem after another. Christine romans here with todays big business news. Good morning. U. S. Stock futures were up this morning. World markets up, commodities up after comments made by president obama and House Speaker john boehner, both expressing optimism on fiscal cliff negotiations in the washington. In a new report from the Congressional Budget Office it says more than half a trillion has been spent on jobless benefits over the past five years. 520 billion in jobless benefits in five years. Also part of the debate, whether to extend the deadline to file for additional Unemployment Benefits beyond the end of the year. Spending on food stamps is rising. Nearly 15 million households received food stampses in 2011, up 10 from the year before according to new data from the census bureau. It shows you the far reach of the government right now in the safety net in supporting american families. All of that at the core of the debate of whats happening with the fiscal cliff. 7 coffee. Starbucks thinks you will pay. Coffee connoisseurs can pay 7 for a grande cup of costa rica fincapalamara. Its called mucho deneiro. 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The fact that the president now appears to be flexible when it comes to the top 2 . Quote, president obama signalled he wouldntnsist tax rates on upper income americans rise to clinton era peaks as part of a deficit reduction deal. The white houses flexibility first described by democrat Erskine Bowles after meetings with mr. Obama and others confirmed by Administration Officials could envision tax rates increase from their current levels but less than clinton era levels. Would you agree to a deal, senator . Call it in the middle. 37 . Well, the problem with that is raising those tax rates on those folks really doesnt address the major problem which is the spending thats going on. Let me stop you there. I understand. Forgive me for interrupting you. I know you want to talk about spending. On the top 2 would you agree to a deal in the middle say taxing at 37 . I dont think its a good idea to raise taxes on anybody at times like this. But it only would fund the government for less than 7 days. Its not a solution. The markets need a credible signal that we are serious at dealing with the issue of our major debt and our problem of spending. Taxes is such a very small part of it. Unless we deal with medicare and Social Security which are the two big tidal waves coming at us and now the president S Health Care law. Until we deal with that, there is no way to get our financial house back in order. I agree with the president. We need to focus on jobs, growth and get more people working. Thats the way to increase revenue. The president talks about spending cuts. Perhaps thats where you can see eye to eye with him. Let me point to this abc news, Washington Post poll. The question was about raising taxes on incomes over 250,000 per year. You can see the numbers. 60 support which is in contrast with what the majority of your party is saying. Are americans wrong . Well, the American People know their mind. They say, lets tax somebody else. If those taxes are going to Small Businesses creating jobs, we need to bet more people working. The other poll said people believe if they send more in taxes the government will spend it, much of it will be wasted and the dollar figures are so large its hard to fathom the debt we have. Its 16 trillion. Its an incredible amount. We have added another trillion dollars in just the last year. We need to get spending under control. Senator, youre talking about the importance to business tax rates. One guy who presumably knows something about business is the Goldman Sachs ceo. He met with president obama yesterday. Then he went to talk with wolf blitzer who asked if he would support the president s plan of bringing the rates back up on the wealthiest americans. Lets listen. If thats what it took to make the math work i wouldnt preclude that if the numbers drive that way. He says maybe a tax rate increase should be part of a deal. Cant it be part of a deal . Not the whole deal but part of it . I met with a number of the same Business Leaders that met with the president yesterday. We took a look at the entire picture of the spending cuts, dealing with medicare, Social Security. Dealing with the issue of tax revenue. You need to have all of these things on the table if youre going to get a solution that sends a credible signal to the markets, not just h