TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 09-21-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

The U.S. just majorly stepped up to help refugees. The Obama administration had previously said the country would take in at least 10,000 more refugees in the next fiscal year, but many critics said that wasn’t enough. Now, 10 times that number will be welcomed in the next two years. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. will accept 85,000 refugees beginning in October, up from 70,000, raising the annual total to 100,000 by fiscal year 2017.

Syria’s four-and-a-half-year-long civil war lands the country at the top of the list of places you don’t want to live. The refugee crisis is being fueled by 4 million people who have fled the country to find new (read: safer) homes, but still others have stayed, and more than 200,000 Syrians have died during the ongoing conflict (paywall).

Obama made history by nominating the first openly gay man to lead the Army. With the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell only a few years removed, the president’s nomination of Eric Fanning as the secretary of the Army is huge. Fanning, 47, has served as Air Force under secretary and deputy under secretary of the Navy. He’s been the Army's acting under secretary since June.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee didn’t wait a beat beforeslamming the nomination, saying “Obama is more interested in appeasing America’s homosexuals than honoring America’s heroes.”

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took back the reins. Greece’s fierce financial crisis and polarizing bailout agreement caused the far left Syriza party to lose its majority, triggering Tsipras’ resignation and a snap election. Greek voters with serious ballot fatigue put him back in power Sunday, and now he’ll have a rough road to navigate between harsh austerity measures and refugees passing through the country.

U.S. soldiers were told to ignore sex abuse of boys in Afghanistan. A New York Times report revealed that troops were told to look the other way to "maintain good standing with the U.S.-trained Afghan police" since the practice is reportedly common. But it meant that American troops were potentially arming some pedophiles — something quite unsettling for many soldiers.

The Kardashians’ websites may have exposed a ton of data. Hope you’re keeping up with more than just the Kardashians — their new sites potentially exposed the names and email addresses of nearly 1 million people who signed up. Between this, the Ashley Madison and Target hacks, throwing away the Internet and moving to the woods has never looked more tempting.