TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 08-21-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS North Korea orders front-line troops into "wartime state." After North and South Korea exchanged fire over propaganda blaring from a South Korean loudspeaker, Kim Jong Un's government issued an ultimatum for the South to stop the broadcasts by Saturday at 5 p.m. or face an escalation in attacks. Syria and Israel's relationship is on the rocks too. At least four Palestinians and one Syrian soldier were killed in cross-border rocket fire and what's being dubbed the "heaviest Israeli bombardment since the civil war began."  Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will resign. He announced his resignation after his leftist Syriza party rebelled over harsh bailout deal terms. Tsipras was elected in January on an anti-austerity platform, but later agreed to a $94 billion bailout deal in exchange for cutthroat austerity measures. His resignation will pave the way for a snap election on Sept. 20.  The same day as the announcement, Greece made a crucial debt paymentto the European Central Bank that allowed it to scoot a little further from economic collapse. Caitlyn Jenner could face a manslaughter charge. Sheriff's investigators have enough evidence to support a vehicular manslaughter charge for Jenner since they said the speed she was driving on Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway in February was "unsafe for the prevailing road conditions." Her driving "caused a chain-reaction crash" that killed a woman. Britain will reopen its embassy in Tehran. Nearly four years after it was shut down by a mob attack, Britain's foreign secretary Philip Hammond will reopen the embassy Sunday.  President Barack Obama sent a letter seeking to reassure Congressional Democrats that, under his Iran deal, the U.S. will still act unilaterally (even militarily) to keep Iran from cheating to procure a nuclear weapon.  Tropical Storm Danny was upgraded to a hurricane. The fierce storm is the first hurricane of the 2015 Atlantic season, developing over the ocean 1,090 miles east of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles islands. The storm system is pretty small — you could fit about 321 Dannys into one Hurricane Sandy. There has been an alarming rise in anti-transgender violence. The brutal death of 36-year-old trans woman Tamara Dominguez is the latest in what activists are calling a shocking upswing in violence against trans people. There have been at least 17 trans people reported killed in the U.S. this year, up from 12 last year — and the reported figures could just be the tip of the iceberg. Most of the victims have been black and hispanic.