10 things you need to know today: December 15, 2015

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1. Obama says U.S. hitting ISIS "harder than ever"
2. Trump increases his lead, winning 41 percent support in new poll
3. Saudi Arabia leads new coalition of Muslim countries to fight terrorism
4. Bergdahl to face court martial
5. Maryland man charged with receiving money from ISIS for U.S. attack
6. Oil prices sink to six-year lows due to worsening glut
7. MLB upholds Pete Rose's permanent ban
8. Paris teacher allegedly fabricates story of attack
9. Cosby files countersuit against sexual assault accusers
10. SI names Serena Williams sportsperson of the year

last updated 15 December 2015

1. Obama says U.S. hitting ISIS "harder than ever"

President Obama met with the National Security Council on Monday and said afterward that the U.S. is hitting ISIS "harder than ever." A week ago, Obama gave an Oval Office address on the fight against ISIS, but critics said he had failed to satisfy calls for stepping up the fight against the Islamist extremist group. Obama said ISIS had lost "thousands of square miles of territory" in recent months. Obama acknowledged that "progress needs to keep coming faster," but he said the U.S. would relentlessly target ISIS leaders. "Our message is simple," he said. "You are next."

On the eve of Tuesday night's GOP debate, Donald Trump expanded his lead to nearly triple the support of his nearest rival for the GOP presidential nomination, according to a Monmouth University poll released Monday. Trump received the backing of 41 percent of the Republicans and right-leaning independents surveyed following his call for barring Muslims from traveling to the U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was in second place with 14 percent, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida with 10 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Carson with 9 percent, with the rest of the field under 5 percent.

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Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that it had formed a 34-state Islamic military coalition to fight terrorism. The coalition, which will be based in Riyadh, includes Arab nations such as Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and other Islamic countries such as Turkey, Malaysia, and Pakistan. The announcement, published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, said Islam forbids "corruption and destruction in the world," and terrorism should be "fought by all means."

Gen. Robert B. Abrams, head of Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Monday ordered Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to face a court-martial on charges of desertion and endangering troops. Bergdahl left his post in Afghanistan in 2009, and other U.S. soldiers searched extensively for him. Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and spent five years in captivity before being released in a controversial 2014 prisoner swap. An Army investigator had recommended against court martial, and said a jail sentence would be "inappropriate." Now Bergdahl could face life in prison.

A Maryland man has been charged with receiving $8,700 from overseas contacts he believed to be Islamic State operatives to plan attacks in the U.S., federal prosecutors announced Monday. The suspect, Mohamed Elshinawy, was arrested Friday on charges of trying to provide material support to foreign terrorists. According to prosecutors, Elshinawy, 30, allegedly pledged his support to ISIS in February, telling a contact in Egypt that his "soul was over there with the jihadists."

Oil prices tumbled by 4 percent on Monday as investors braced for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to open their spigots and worsen a global glut. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell below $35 per barrel for the first time since 2009. The drops put oil prices near 11-year lows. The declines are pushing some energy giants to cut back on exploration. Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips announced recently that they were cutting capital spending by about a quarter. Those cuts are expected to reduce output and help the market rebalance next year.

Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hit leader, will remain barred from participating in Major League Baseball, the league announced Monday. Rose, 74, was kicked out of the Majors a quarter century ago over charges that he bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, including those of his own team. Rose, once known as Charlie Hustle for his intensity, has applied for reinstatement three times, most recently in March. League Commissioner Rob Manfred's decision to uphold Rose's lifetime ban will prevent him from earning a spot in the sport's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

French authorities said Monday that a Paris pre-school teacher made up a story about being stabbed by a masked attacker shouting, "This is [ISIS], this is a warning." The man, hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds to his neck and chest, originally claimed a masked man entered the room and slashed him with scissors and a box cutter he grabbed from a table of school supplies. It "was a fake attempt, done so that he could have himself transferred" to another job, a police official said on the condition of anonymity.

Bill Cosby on Monday filed a defamation countersuit against seven women who have accused him of drugging and sexually abusing them. Cosby said in the suit that the accusations were untrue, and that the women were "engaged in a campaign to assassinate" his character. The seven women have sued him, and he said the accusations caused NBC and Netflix to cancel projects he was developing with them. More than 40 women have said the comedian sexually assaulted them over the last several decades.

Sports Illustrated on Monday named tennis superstar Serena Williams as its sportsperson of the year. Writer S.L. Price explained the choice by noting that Williams, 34, won three major titles in 2015, going 53–3 to extend her three-year reign as the world No. 1. She piled up twice as many points as her nearest rival over six weeks this summer — a first in the 40-year history of WTA rankings. Her wins this year gave her 21 career Grand Slam singles titles, one short of Steffi Graf's record.

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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.