TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 10-15-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

President Barack Obama will reportedly shift military strategy in Afghanistan. The president had initially hoped to have 1,000 U.S. troops in the country by the time he left office, but officials said early Thursday that his new plan is for 5,500 troops to remain past 2016. The troops will be stationed in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Kabul and Bagram, and will complete two non-combat missions.

The president also announced that 300 U.S. troops would be deployed to Cameroon to help fight extremist group Boko Haram.

Former NBA star Lamar Odom is fighting for his life. Odom was found unresponsive at a Las Vegas brothel, where he reportedly had been using cocaine and "herbal Viagra." Pro athletes, basketball fans and celebs have been tweeting their support for the two-time NBA champ.

The FBI and DOJ are investigating daily fantasy sports operators. While fantasy sports services have said the hobby is skill-based, officials are concerned that it's actually a form of gambling. The probe was sparked by an investigation into DraftKings and FanDuel, which are in hot water for possible insider trading.

People are being shot by toddlers at least once a week this year. AWashington Post analysis revealed 43 incidents this year where someone was shot by a child three or younger — that's nearly one shooting a week.

Two Germans just launched a coding school for refugees. Weston Hankins, an entrepreneur, recently complained to his friend Anne Kjær Riechert, the founder of Berlin’s Peace Innovation Lab, that he was having trouble finding skilled coders quickly. Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of refugees were flooding into Europe seeking new homes, and until they can get settled, all they have to do is wait. From these problems, the pair created a solution: Refugees on Rails, a program that will arm refugees with coding skills while helping them integrate into society.

Cancer-resistant animals could mean hope for a human cure. A new study found 20 copies of a gene that repairs DNA in elephants (humans only have one), and a polymer in between naked mole rats’ cells that regulates growth. The findings aren’t a silver-bullet solution to curing cancer, but they gave scientists some big ideas for the future of cancer prevention.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the University of British Columbia think they’ve created an innovative cancer treatment that effectively targets and kills cancer cells in mice — and they owe it all to malaria.