TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 08-03-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

President Barack Obama unveiled an unprecedented climate change plan. The president’s “Clean Power Plan” calls for a 32% decrease in power plant carbon dioxide emissions, and aims to have renewable energy account for 28% of electric generating capacity by 2030. While the U.S. has regulated pollutants like soot in the past, this plan is the first to crack down on carbon emissions from power plants.

Fourteen GOP candidates gathered at the starting line in New Hampshire.They all sat down for a speed-dating style town hall Monday night, jostling to be included in the first debate on Thursday. Lindsey Graham got in a pot shot at the Clintons that mentioned Monica Lewinsky, Carly Fiorina was, naturally, asked very different questions than her male opponents — and everybody tried to avoid talking about one missing candidate in particular.

The senate blocked a GOP bill to defund Planned Parenthood. After edited videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing providing fetal tissue for medical research were released by an anti-abortion group, 53 lawmakers voted Monday to stop the group’s federal funding. The measure needed 60 votes to pass and it stalled on the senate floor, but could take another form this fall.

Puerto Rico just defaulted after failing to pay millions in debt. The commonwealth missed the deadline for the full $58 million in payments to creditors at the Public Finance Corporation. The default is a landmark moment in what Puerto Rico’s governor Alejandro Garcia Padillo calls a “death spiral” for the recession-torn island. Padillo has assembled a team to help fix the crisis by the end of the summer. During that time, the island’s residents will be hurting but Wall Street won’t feel a thing.

Puerto Rico is being called “America’s Greece” for its financial burden, but it’s not quite that simple. Here’s everything you need to know about it in less than two minutes.

Pakistan executed a young man — and the world is outraged. Shafqat Hussain, who was initially convicted of kidnapping and killing a child, was hangedTuesday morning despite claims that he was tortured into a murder confessionand convicted as a juvenile.