TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 11-09-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

U.S. officials said they’re “99.9% certain” that Russia’s Metrojet was brought down by a bomb. While the U.S. is boldly using the B-word to describe the cause of Russia’s plane crash that killed 224 people one week ago, Egyptian authorities aren’t ready to commit to that. Russia suspended flights to Egypt *just in case* while investigators look into a mysterious noise heard at the last second of the cockpit voice recording. The incident has some are wondering if the Islamic State group could officially be a global terror threat.

A new report says climate change could drive more than 100 million into poverty by 2030. The World Bank revealed that climate change could lead to a 5% decline in crop yields by then. That, along with disease spread and major weather events, could cause a spike in poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia would likely be the hardest-hit.

Some University of Missouri football players vowed not to play until the school’s president resigns. Several days after student Jonathan Butler went on a hunger strike to protest President Tim Wolfe, who has been accused of systematically failing to combat racist incidents on campus, the football team joined the movement. A group of players said Saturday they won't participate in any football-related activities until Wolfe is gone for good.

The World Health Organization declared Sierra Leone Ebola-free. Celebrations dotted with moments of remembrance for the 4,000 plus residents who died of the disease swept the nation this weekend. But there's lingering anxiety as the country enters a 90-day surveillance period since neighboring Guinea is still seeing new cases of the deadly disease.

The leaders of China and Taiwan had a historic face-to-face meeting. Their leaders haven’t had a chat like this since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, but that changed Saturday when President Xi Jinping shook hands with President Ma Ying-jeou. They talked about reducing hostility across the Taiwan Strait, but didn’t make any groundbreaking deals during the symbolic visit.