10 things you need to know today: November 25, 2015

(Image credit: (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images))

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1. Russia says one pilot rescued, as Putin calls Turkey's downing of jet a "stab in the back"
2. Chicago officer charged with murder in fatal shooting of black teen, video of incident released
3. Obama and Hollande announce joint plan to intensify fight against ISIS
4. 3 arrested over shooting of Minneapolis Black Lives Matter protesters
5. 19 infected with E. coli believed linked to Costco chicken salad
6. 12 killed in explosion on bus carrying Tunisia presidential guard
7. Pope Francis begins Africa tour
8. Outgoing Kentucky governor restores voting rights for 140,000 felons
9. Warriors become first NBA team to start season 16-0
10. Adele's new album breaks single-week sales record in three days

published 25 November 2015

1. Russia says one pilot rescued, as Putin calls Turkey's downing of jet a "stab in the back"

Russia said Wednesday that the second of two pilots on a Russian fighter jet shot down by Turkey was "alive and well" on a Russian base. The other pilot was reportedly killed after they parachuted out of the plane near the Turkish-Syrian border. President Vladimir Putin insisted the aircraft never strayed out of Syrian skies, and called the downing of the plane a "stab in the back." He said the Turkish were the "terrorists' accomplices." Turkey had warned Russia in October after Russian planes twice entered its airspace. NATO urged calm on Tuesday.

Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday for the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, on Oct. 20, 2014. The charges came on the day city officials released police dash-cam video of the incident, in which Van Dyke fired 16 shots, the first less than 30 seconds after he arrived on the scene. McDonald had been walking down the middle of a street holding a knife, which police said he used to slash a squad car's tire. Protesters shut down some of Chicago's interstates after the video was released, some shouting, "16 shots!"

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President Obama and French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday announced an agreement to step up military operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and increase coordination of intelligence. Differences over Syria had strained relations between the allies, but Hollande, moved by U.S. support of France since the deadly Nov. 13 Paris terror attacks, said he and Obama share a "relentless determination to fight terrorism anywhere and everywhere." "We will not let the world be destroyed," he said in a joint news conference at the White House.

Minneapolis police on Tuesday arrested three men, all white, in connection with the shooting of five Black Lives Matters protesters. The shooting occurred Monday night as a group of protesters followed three men, one wearing a mask, who were acting suspiciously near the protesters camp, which had been set up a block from a police station after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man. The victims, none of whom had life-threatening injuries, were black men aged 19 to 43. Authorities are considering whether to treat the shooting as a hate crime.

At least 19 people have been infected with E. coli after eating rotisserie chicken salad sold at Costco discount warehouses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. The cases occurred in seven states — Montana, Utah, Colorado, California, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington. Five people have been hospitalized. None have died, but two of the patients developed a kind of kidney failure that can result in permanent organ damage. Costco stopped selling the chicken salad on Nov. 20, the day it was notified of the infections.

At least 12 people were killed in the bombing of a bus carrying members of Tunisia's presidential guard on Tuesday. President Beji Caid Essebsi responded by declaring a 30-day state of emergency that included a 9 p.m. curfew. Essebsi called the blast in the country's capital a "cowardly terrorist attack." The explosion was the third major attack blamed on Islamist militants in Tunisia this year, and the worst against security forces in a violent jihadist campaign that began in 2011.

Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in Kenya on Wednesday to start his first papal visit to Africa. He also will travel to Uganda and the Central African Republic. The pope is expected to continue his push on climate change and other environmental issues when he visits the Nairobi headquarters of the U.N.'s Environment Program, and express solidarity with the poor in a visit to a refugee camp in the Central African Republic. He also will speak to Muslims in the country, which is divided over violence between Christians and Muslims.

Outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear (D) on Tuesday issued an executive order restoring voting rights for 140,000 non-violent felons who have served their sentences. Society expects people who have paid their debts to "become law-abiding and productive citizens," Beshear said. "A key part of that transition is the right to vote." Since the policy is an executive order, a new governor can scrap it, although a spokesperson said Republican governor-elect Matt Bevin thinks "the restoration of voting rights for certain offenders is the right thing to do."

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 111-77 on Tuesday night, improving to 16-0 and setting the record for the best start in NBA history. The defending champions were led by reigning MVP Stephen Curry, who had 24 points and nine assists. The old record of 15-0 was set by the Washington Capitols of 1948-49 and the 1993-94 Houston Rockets. Interim Warriors coach Luke Walton said the team would eventually lose, but Curry said, "I highly doubt it."

Adele's newest album, 25, sold 2.43 million copies in just over three days, breaking the single-week U.S. sales record held by *NSYNC, according to Nielsen Music. *NSYNC's No Strings Attached sold 2.41 million albums in a single week during the height of the CD era in 2000. Nielsen only began recording point-of-sale numbers in 1991; album sales prior to that weren't recorded based on how many were sold in a given week. 25 is projected by industry experts to sell 2.9 million records by the end of the week.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.