TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 11-20-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

Officials said three people have died in a hotel attack in Mali. At least 170 people have been taken hostage at the U.S.-owned hotel, Radisson Blu, and the attackers are reportedly freeing those who can recite verses from the Koran.

France confirmed that the suspected puppeteer behind the Paris attacks was killed. The news of Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s death wasn’t a full comfort, though, as before last week officials didn’t know the extremist (who was behind four other attacks thwarted by officials) was even in Europe.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged parliament to extend the nation’s state of emergency for three months out of concern that ISIS could arm itself with chemical weapons. The mobile messaging service Telegram, which ISIS used as a recruitment and communication tool, shut down more than 75 channels in the wake of the Paris attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives OK’d a bill that would bar refugees from Syria and Iraq from entering the U.S. unless they passed a strict background check. The measure heads to the Senate next, but President Barack Obama has already threatened to veto it. Naturally, other politicians have been chiming in to propose unique solutions to preventing terrorist attacks, like making special ID cards for Muslims or tracking them in a database, as well as something frighteningly similar to theJapanese internment camps of World War II.

Genetically engineered salmon is officially the first altered animal to be OK’d for human consumption. Critics call it the “frankenfish,” but there are reportedly no material differences between an engineered salmon and a normal one. That also means that the law doesn’t require the fish to sport an “engineered” label, so you might not even know you’re eating it.

Salmon might be in, but chimps are out. The National Institutes of Healthquietly shut down its controversial chimpanzee program, in which the animals were used for biomedical research.

Ex-Subway spokesman Jared Fogle was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison. The former sandwich pitchman pleaded guilty to charges related to child pornography and sex with minors. If you’re wondering why he did the things he did, Fogle’s psychologist suggested his Subway diet may be to blame, saying he traded in a “horrible food addiction for a horrible sex addiction.”

The U.S. released Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. The 61-year-old was sentenced to life behind bars for handing over classified information to Israel, and has already served three decades in prison. His release ends "one of the longest-running and most contentious issues between the U.S. and Israel."