10 things you need to know today: December 19, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda))

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1. Stocks surge for a second day after soothing words from the Fed
2. Airstrikes kill three ISIS leaders in Iraq
3. Movie studio pulls another film critical of North Korea from theaters
4. Top Sierra Leone doctor dies of Ebola
5. Insurgents kidnap 200 in deadly raid on Nigerian village
6. Putin tells Russians to brace for $40-per-barrel oil
7. Eight children found dead in Australia home
8. Neighboring states sue Colorado over its law legalizing pot sale
9. Tsarnaev returns to court weeks before his trial's scheduled start
10. Researchers say Dr. Oz's medical advice is usually wrong

last updated 13 January 2015

1. Stocks surge for a second day after soothing words from the Fed

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped by 421 points on Thursday — its biggest one-day increase in more than three years. The gains capped Wall Street's biggest two-day advance since late 2011. The gains were triggered by reassuring comments by the Federal Reserve, which said in a statement following its latest policy meeting that although the economy was improving, policymakers would be "patient" in raising interest rates. Investors interpreted that as a signal that the central bank would not raise interest rates until next summer or later.

Three top Islamic State leaders were killed by airstrikes in Iraq between mid-November and early December, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday. The deaths of the ISIS leaders, who included the Islamist group's Iraq military emir and ISIS chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's administrative deputy, has damaged the organization's ability to control its strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. official said. U.S.-led airstrikes also helped Kurdish fighters on Thursday retake a large swath of Iraqi territory from ISIS.

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Paramount Pictures halted screenings of its 2004 film Team America: World Police on Thursday, a day after Sony Pictures canceled the Christmas Day release of the new film The Interview. Both movies are comedies mocking the reclusive communist leaders of North Korea. Sony's decision came after an anonymous group of hackers threatened violence against moviegoers in theaters that showed The Interview, in which James Franco and Seth Rogen play TV journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Sierra Leone's leading Ebola doctor, Victor Willoughby, died of the virus on Thursday. He was the 11th physician to die out of 12 who have contracted the virus in the West African nation, which accounts for more than half of the 18,603 confirmed Ebola cases. Willoughby, a virologist frequently called on to help colleagues, died hours after doses of an experimental drug that could have been administered to him arrived in the country.

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least 33 people and kidnapped 200 in a raid on the village of Gumsuri in northeastern Nigeria, witnesses said Thursday. "After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters," a Gumsuri resident said. The attack took place on Sunday but news only spread after survivors reached a nearby city. Meanwhile, the army in neighboring Cameroon said it killed 116 Nigerian militants who attacked one of its bases.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in an overnight address that his constituents should brace for the price of oil — a pillar of Russia's economy — to tumble to $40 per barrel. Russia is falling into a recession already after crude oil declined by 40 percent this year to around $60 per barrel, triggering the worse financial crisis since Putin came to power in 2000. Still, Putin insisted the country could handle the shock. "The economy will structure itself accordingly," he said, "however much is necessary."

Eight children were found dead in a Cairns, Australia, home on Friday in what Prime Minister Tony Abbott called an "unspeakable crime." The children's ages ranged from 18 months to 15 years. "They're only babies," a relative said. The mother of seven of the children was being treated for stab wounds. Abbott noted that the tragedy struck as the nation was still shaken by a siege in a Sydney cafe that left two hostages and a gunman dead this week. "These are trying days for our country," Abbott said.

Nebraska and Oklahoma on Thursday filed the first major court challenge against Colorado's law legalizing marijuana sales. The attorneys general of the two neighboring states said that Colorado's shops selling state-regulated recreational marijuana were aiding in the trafficking of drugs into states where the drug remains illegal. "Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states," the suit says, "draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems."

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeared in court on Thursday for the first time since he was formally charged in July 2013, three months after the deadly attack. Outside the packed Boston courthouse a survivor argued with a small group of protesters holding up signs saying Tsarnaev was innocent. In what was to be Tsarnaev's final pre-trial conference, one of his lawyers said he planned to file a request to delay the trial, now scheduled to start with jury selection on Jan. 5.

Syndicated talk-show host Mehmet Oz — known by some as "America's doctor" — has been criticized recently by members of Congress who say his reports on "miracles" and medical breakthroughs have given millions of viewers false hopes. This week researchers published a study in the British Medical Journal saying that medical research either didn't support or directly contradicted more than half of Dr. Oz's recommendations. "The public should be skeptical about recommendations made on medical talk shows," the article said.

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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.