10 things you need to know today: December 3, 2014

1. Obama to nominate former Pentagon official Ashton Carter to replace Hagel

President Barack Obama has picked Ashton Carter, a former high-ranking Pentagon official, to replace Chuck Hagel as Defense secretary, Obama administration officials said Tuesday. Hagel got the job over Carter in 2013, and later in the year Carter left due to a rift between the two. This time he was the last top prospect not to drop out of the running. A formal announcement is expected in days, after Carter is vetted. Carter is respected by Republican hawks, which is expected to help in confirmation hearings.

Politico The New York Times

2. Russia enters recession as oil prices fall

Plummeting oil prices are pushing the Russian economy into a recession, officials in Moscow announced Tuesday. Russian leaders had been expecting their economy to grow in 2015 — but that was when they were assuming oil would remain at $100 a barrel. Revised estimates show that the country's economy will contract by 0.8 percent if prices hover around $80 per barrel. With the ruble losing value and oil now around $71 per barrel, Moscow says under a more "pessimistic" scenario, with $60-per-barrel oil, its economy could drop by up to 4 percent.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

CNN

3. Boehner argues against government shutdown over immigration

House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday urged fellow Republicans to avoid a government shutdown by approving a long-term government spending bill next week. Many conservatives want to use the bill to deny money the Homeland Security Department needs to carry out President Obama's executive order shielding as many as 4.7 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Boehner reportedly argued for funding most federal programs through September, and revisiting Homeland Security's budget in 2015, when the GOP will control the Senate.

Reuters

4. Police investigate Michael Brown's stepfather for remarks during riot

St. Louis County police said Tuesday they were investigating Louis Head, the stepfather of Michael Brown, to see whether angry remarks he made incited rioting on the night a grand jury decided not to indict the white police officer who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager in August. A video reportedly surfaced in which Head tells an angry mob, "burn this bitch down," shortly before protesters began burning cars. Police said the inquiry was part of a broader investigation of the violence.

The New York Times

5. Detroit public buildings lose power

A power outage caused by a "major cable failure" cut off electricity to Detroit's fire stations, schools, and other public buildings on Tuesday. Traffic signals and the city's People Mover shut off downtown, and firefighters spent much of the day rescuing people from elevators stuck in public buildings. The outage affected more than 900 sites, with some going without lights all day after the grid shut down around 10:30 a.m.

Detroit Free Press

6. Netanyahu fires two ministers and calls for early elections

Israel's coalition government collapsed on Tuesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his finance and justice ministers, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, saying they had "harshly attacked" him and his government. Netanyahu called for dissolving the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and holding elections two years early so that he can get "a clear mandate to lead Israel." The parties of Lapid and Livni had clashed with Netanyahu over a host of issues, most recently a proposed law declaring Israel a Jewish state.

BBC News

7. Hong Kong protest founders announce their "surrender"

Three founders of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement announced that they would "surrender" to police on Wednesday. The trio — Occupy Central leader Benny Tai, and co-founders Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming — tearfully urged to protesters to retreat from three major intersections they have been blocking since late September. While some protesters called the move a "betrayal," teenage protest leader Joshua Wong, who began a hunger strike on Monday, praised Tai for his role starting the movement, and said the fight for free elections in the Chinese-run city would continue.

Agence France Presse

8. CDC considers call for stressing circumcision health benefits

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is proposing federal recommendations recommending that all males, including teenage boys, be counseled on the health benefits of circumcision. Studies in Africa over the last 15 years indicate that circumcision lowers men's risk of HIV infection from heterosexual intercourse by 50 to 60 percent. The procedure also reduces the risk of herpes and human papillomavirus. The American Academy of Pediatrics said in 2012 that circumcision's benefits outweigh its risks.

NPR

9. Woman sues Cosby, accusing him of sexual assault at the Playboy Mansion

A 55-year-old California woman, Judy Huth, filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby on Tuesday, accusing the embattled comedian of sexually assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974, when she was 15. In the lawsuit, Huth says she and a friend met Cosby at a park, and that the assault occurred after Cosby gave her alcohol. The suit was the latest in a flurry of rape accusations against Cosby. Lawyers for Cosby, who has resisted commenting on the allegations, were not immediately available for comment.

Los Angeles Times

10. Rolling Stones sax player Bobby Keys dies

Bobby Keys, who played on-and-off with the Rolling Stones for decades, died on Tuesday at his Tennessee home after a long illness. He was 70. Keys played memorable sax solos on such Stones hits as Brown Sugar, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, and Sweet Virginia. He also contributed to John Lennon's Whatever Gets You Through the Night. "I have lost the largest pal in the world," the Stones' Keith Richards wrote in a statement, "and I can't express the sense of sadness I feel, although Bobby would tell me to cheer up."

The Associated Press