TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 11-04-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

A cargo plane crashed in South Sudan, reportedly killing at least 40 people. The plane, which may be Russian-made, crashed less than a mile away from Juba airport. One crew member and a child survived the crash.

A few big issues bombed in yesterday's election. Unfortunately for former boy band star Nick Lachey, Ohio voted against legalizing medical and recreational marijuana. Meanwhile in Houston, voters rejected an ordinancethat would have offered increased protections for gay and transgender people. And San Francisco voters handed Airbnb a victory by shooting down a measure that would have capped home and apartment rentals at 75 days per year.

Indonesia is burning — and setting world pollution records at the same time. The Southeast Asian nation sets fires to clear land for agriculture, but the practice creates obscene amounts of toxic smoke. The fires have produced more daily emissions than the entire U.S. economy and nearly 40 million people have been affected — 140,000 of whom have been hospitalized with respiratory illnesses. The good news? There are steps you can take as a consumer to help limit the practice.

Russia’s getting an antiracism inspector for the 2018 World Cup. In the middle of FIFA’s worst scandal ever and an investigation into the decision to let Russia host the World Cup in just a few years, the Russian Football Federation is trying to put another issue to rest: deep-rooted spectator prejudice (paywall). There have been a total of 155 “racist and far-right incidents in Russian leagues,” like waving swastika-covered flags and chanting racial epithets. While the move is a step in the right direction, critics are worried it’s a weak fix to a serious problem.

Twitter killed the beloved fave and replaced it with a heart. Faves ≠ anything anymore now that the social media giant rolled out a heart that means you “liked” a tweet. While some Twitter users hilariously tried to decipher the meaning of the new symbol, others pointed out that the move was cute, but empty since Twitter isn’t taking concrete action to address much larger problems like abuse. If you really want to #BringBackTheStar (or replace the icon with a beer or taco emoji) there's a Chrome extension for that.

Facebook also made a move to relax its widely-hated real name policy. The company will now allow those affected to provide more information about their circumstances, and people who report “fake” names will have to give more detail when they flag a profile. This is huge news for Native Americans, LGBT individuals, victims of domestic abuse and others who have been battling the policy. Google is aiming to make Inbox Zero something you can actually achieve with Smart Reply, which will "suggest up to three responsesbased on the emails you get."