What happened in Sydney

1. Shooting in Sydney

People run with their hands up from the Lindt Cafe, Martin Place during a hostage standoff on December 16, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Joosep Martinson/Getty Images)

• 17 people were taken hostage in a Lindt chocolate shop in Sydney, Australia, yesterday.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp, Amanda Taub, and Max Fisher]

• Three died in the subsequent rescue mission, including the hostage-taker, Man Haron Monis.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• A policeman was injured in the raid, but he's expected to be fine.

  [NYT / Michelle Innis]

• Monis has a lengthy criminal record and it doesn't seem like he has actual terrorist ties.

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

• He did "pledge allegiance" to ISIS on his website but there are no signs of an actual relationship with the group.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• If you want to get a sense of Monis's views, take a look at his bizarre personal website.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub and Max Fisher]

• Monis was a Muslim, but the charade of demanding all Muslims apologize for crimes committed in their name is grotesque.

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

2. Global climate deal

Mikael Miettinen/Flickr

• UN climate negotiators in Lima, Peru reached a deal.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• This marks the first time that every country has committed to some kind of plan to tackle climate change.

• But analysts suggest the deal, if totally followed, won't be enough to avoid 2º C (3.6º F) of warming.

  [NYT / Coral Davenport]

• The deal isn't binding, which might actually be a good thing; it gives countries flexibility and makes it easier for parties to set goals.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

3. Russia's economy crumbles

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the APEC meeting in Beijing, China (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)

• The ruble, Russia's currency, fell over 10 percent today relative to the dollar.

  [Bloomberg]

• Over the course of 2014, the ruble has lost nearly half its value.

  [BBC]

• For the first time since at least the 1998 Russian financial crisis, a dollar is worth over 60 rubles.

  [Businessweek / Vladimir Kuznetsov and Ksenia Galouchko]

• The collapse is attributable at least in part to the plummeting price of oil, but the ruble is actually falling faster than oil prices are.

  [NYT / Paul Krugman]

• Russia's economy is supposed to shrink 4.5 percent next year if oil prices stay this low.

  [Bloomberg / Olga Tanas and Anna Andrianova]

• The Russian central bank is hiking interest rates to try to stop the ruble's fall.

  [Bloomberg / Olga Tanas and Anna Andrianova]

• Oil countries need to have considerable foreign currency reserves to weather price falls like this one, and Russia's running out of reserves fast.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• The ruble/dollar ratio, the per-barrel price of oil, and Vladimir Putin's age are currently all around 62. There's a chart and everything.

  [Quartz / Jason Karaian]

4. Ted Cruz's weekend present to Democrats

(Steve Pope/Getty)

• Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee forced a Saturday session of the Senate, which let Democrats set up votes for various Obama nominees before Christmas recess.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• Cruz and Lee wanted a vote on a point of order condemning Obama's deportation relief program.

• They got their vote, and 20 Republicans voted against them.

  [Senate]

• Cruz's office denies that his maneuver let Democrats confirm more nominees: "everyone knows Harry Reid planned to jam forward as many nominees as he could after the omnibus passed."

• But Democrats sure thought he helped them, with Sen. Cory Booker patting Cruz on the shoulder and saying, "Let me know if you need backup."

  [NYT / Ashley Paker and Robert Pear]

• The 24 nominees affected include picks for Deputy Secretary of State, Surgeon General, head of the Social Security Administration, and director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

• Vivek Murthy, who was just confirmed as Surgeon General, has drawn NRA opposition for characterizing gun violence as a public health issue.

  [Vox / Sarah Kliff]

5. Misc.

• The British stuffed Monopoly sets with escape supplies and sent them to POWs in German camps in World War II.

  [Eurogamer / Christian Donlan]

• Ozel Clifford Brazil helped thousands of black teens get into and pay for college — and then he went to federal prison.

  [The Atlantic / Robyn Price Pierre]

• The Chinese government gets 7 percent of its revenue from selling cigarettes.

  [Businessweek / Andrew Martin]

• There's little evidence "brain games" work.

  [The Atlantic / Venkat Srinivasan]

• iTunes pulled all its white power music, but Google and Amazon are still selling it.

  [Vice]

• Taylor Swift had by far the best-selling album of anyone this year, but was only the 11th highest earning musician.

  [Marginal Revolution / Tyler Cowen]

6. Verbatim

• "It really has just turned to a money game for them."

  [A Disneyland VIP club member via Mother Jones / Kevin Drum]

• "I could argue that making a nickel is probably a worthier cause than the hackers' stated goal, stopping the release of a comedy about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un."

  [Bloomberg View / Leonid Bershidsky]

• "Since my decoy account was already suspended for threatening Olivia’s life, I had to make a whole new account, which I promptly used to harass myself online in increasingly violent and disturbing ways."

  [Time / Charlotte Alter]

• "Most people think the 'Untitled' video was about sex, but my direction was completely opposite of that. It was about his grandmother's cooking."

  [Paul Hunter on D'Angelo, to GQ / Amy Wallace]

• "According to research by David Bositis, in 1994, 99.5 percent of black state legislators in the South served in the majority. By 2010, the percentage had fallen to 50.5. Today, it’s a mere 4.8 percent."

  [New Republic / Jason Zengerle]

• "'The FBI had grudging admiration for whoever did it,' I told him. 'I find that curious, he said, with a barely perceptible smile that suggested he may still know a few things the rest of us don’t."

  [The New Yorker / Alex Kotlowitz]

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