10 things you need to know today: December 1, 2015

(Image credit: AP Photo/Yasin Bulbul, Presidential Press Service, Pool)

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1. Obama urges world leaders to unite against ISIS
2. State Department releases biggest batch yet of Hillary Clinton's emails
3. Dear charged with first-degree murder in Planned Parenthood shooting
4. New York's ex-Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver found guilty of corruption
5. Chicago officer released on bond after judge sets $1.5 million bail
6. Trump says CNN should pay him $5 million to be in next debate
7. U.S. embassy warns of imminent attack in Afghanistan
8. IMF recognizes China's yuan as a world reserve currency
9. Student arrested in connection with University of Chicago threat
10. Juneau mayor found dead two months after winning office

published 1 December 2015

1. Obama urges world leaders to unite against ISIS

President Obama called on world leaders at the Paris climate summit to unite against their common enemy, the Islamic State. Obama told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the U.S. would stand by its NATO ally, but urged him to find a "diplomatic path" to resolving a dispute with Russia over Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. Obama also pushed the 151 leaders present to hammer out an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying, "No nation, large or small, wealthy or poor, is immune" to the effects of climate change.

The State Department on Monday released 7,800 additional pages of emails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The latest batch, the largest release of her emails to date, met a court order to make public 66 percent of the 52,000 pages of emails Clinton turned over by Nov. 30. Most of the emails were from 2012 and 2013, and they include updates about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plus some thoughts on the 2012 presidential race and a request to aide Philippe Reines for the Showtime channel number so she could "watch Homeland."

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Robert Lewis Dear was formally charged with first-degree murder on Monday for a deadly shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Dear, 57, showed no emotion as he appeared via video feed, telling the judge, "No questions." Dear is being held without bond. He reportedly said "no more baby parts" after being arrested for the fatal shootings of police officer Garrett Swasey, and Army veteran Ke'Arre Marcell Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky, who were accompanying separate friends to the clinic.

Former New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted on corruption charges in a Manhattan court on Monday. The 71-year-old Democrat faced seven counts of honest services fraud, extortion, and money laundering, and the jury found him guilty of them all. Prosecutors said Silver, who held a firm grip on power until being forced out by the scandal, made $4 million on two kickback schemes. He is the most prominent lawmaker convicted yet in a push by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to root out corruption in Albany.

A Cook County, Illinois, judge on Monday set bail at $1.5 million for Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17. Van Dyke was released from jail Monday night after his father posted a $150,000 bond. Van Dyke, who is white, was seen in squad-car dash-cam video shooting McDonald, who is black, multiple times. He ignored reporters' questions as he left the jail complex.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said at a Monday rally that he is such a ratings draw that he might not participate in the next primary debate unless the host, CNN, pays him. "I won't do the debate unless they pay me $5 million," said the real-estate tycoon worth billions. Trump complained that the network treated him unfairly earlier in the day with its coverage of his meeting with black pastors, who backed away from an endorsement Trump's campaign had said was coming.

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan warned Monday of an imminent attack in the country's capital, Kabul. The State Department said the embassy had received credible reports of an attack planned for the next 48 hours. The embassy and Americans were not specifically singled out — the information only indicated a threat somewhere in the city of Kabul and the surrounding province. The embassy urged U.S. citizens to "exercise extreme caution if moving around the city."

The International Monetary Fund on Monday officially designated China's currency, the renminbi or yuan, as one of the world's reserve currencies. The move made the renminbi part of an elite group that includes the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound, and the yen. The currency's new status will make it more broadly used in global commerce and finance, which will help firm up China's newly magnified economic power.

Federal authorities on Monday charged a 21-year-old student in connection with a threat of violence that prompted the University of Chicago to cancel classes for the day. Jabari Dean allegedly threatened violence on the campus in retaliation for the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teen, by a white police officer. Dean, a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, allegedly posted online that he would shoot 16 white males — one for every bullet that struck McDonald.

Newly elected Juneau, Alaska, Mayor Stephen "Greg" Fisk was found dead at his home on Monday, police said. Fisk's son found him collapsed on the floor and called 911, but Fisk, 70, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police could not immediately say whether they suspected foul play, but said an autopsy was being conducted to determine the cause of death. Fisk easily defeated incumbent Merrill Sanford in October with a positive campaign promising to revive the Alaskan capital's economy.

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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.