10 things you need to know today: December 18, 2015

(Image credit: Danny Moloshok/Invision for JAKKS/AP Images)

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1. San Bernardino attacker's friend charged with supporting terrorists
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits U.S. theaters, shattering records on the way
3. Security Council finance ministers approve sanctions against the Islamic State
4. DNC punishes Sanders campaign for viewing Clinton's private data
5. Controversial Turing CEO Martin Shkreli charged with securities fraud
6. U.S. and Cuba agree to resume commercial flights
7. Rival Libyan factions sign deal to form unity government
8. Hastert treated for stroke as he awaits sentencing in hush-money case
9. New Orleans leaders vote to remove Confederate monuments
10. Mother Teresa to be made a saint

published 18 December 2015

1. San Bernardino attacker's friend charged with supporting terrorists

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested Enrique Marquez, a friend and former neighbor of the San Bernardino attacker Syed Rizwan Farook, and charged him with aiding a terrorist plot. Investigators say that Marquez, 24, provided Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, with two assault-style rifles they used in the December 2 massacre, which left 14 people dead. Marquez has told investigators that he did not know what the couple planned to do with the weapons, although he has said he and Farook plotted a 2012 attack but did not carry it out.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened in U.S. theaters on Friday, after shattering records for movie pre-sales. The old record was $25 million for The Dark Knight Rises. The Force Awakens hauled in more than $100 million before its premiere. The film, the first new installment of the Star Wars franchise in more than 10 years, screens in 4,134 domestic theaters, a record for a December opening. The movie has already broken Fandango's record for most tickets sold by any film during its entire run in theaters.

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United Nations Security Council finance ministers on Thursday adopted a plan to block the Islamic State's finances. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew chaired the meeting — the first ever for Security Council finance ministers — to hold a vote on the resolution, jointly written by the United States and Russia. The resolution includes travel bans and asset freezes, as well as an embargo on arms sales to the Islamist extremist group and its backers.

The Democratic National Committee has suspended Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign from an important national voter database as punishment for accessing rival Hillary Clinton's private campaign data. A technological problem in the voter data system accidentally made Clinton's proprietary voter data available to see; reportedly four different user accounts from Sanders' campaign ran searches while Clinton's account was compromised. Sanders' campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said, "After discussion with the D.N.C., it became clear that one of our staffers accessed some modeling data from another campaign. That behavior is unacceptable and that staffer was immediately fired."

Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, was arrested early Thursday on federal securities fraud charges. Shkreli, 32, was recently vilified for hiking the price of a drug used to treat a life-threatening infection by 4,000 percent. Federal prosecutors accuse him of plundering Retrophin, a bioparmaceutical company that he once ran, and using it to "enrich himself" and pay off other investors.

The U.S. and Cuba on Thursday said they had reached a deal to resume commercial airline flights between the two countries. The announcement came exactly one year after the former Cold War foes publicly committed themselves to normalizing relations. Currently, only difficult-to-book, expensive charter flights travel between the U.S. and the communist Caribbean island. The resumption of commercial flights is expected to strengthen business and tourism ties.

Libya's rival parliaments agreed Thursday to form a unity government. The signing of the landmark deal, held in Morocco and sponsored by the U.N., was intended to mark the start of a new push to bring peace to rival politicians and warring militias in the North African country, which spiraled into chaos after the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi. "This is just the beginning of a long journey for Libya," said U.N. envoy Martin Kobler.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, 73, spent six weeks hospitalized after suffering a stroke in November, his attorney confirmed Thursday. Hastert is set to be sentenced in February after pleading guilty to a felony charge for evading bank reporting laws to withdraw roughly $950,000 in cash in smaller increments. Sources say he was using the money to pay someone to cover up past misconduct. Hastert could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

The New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 Thursday to remove four Confederate monuments from display around the city. The move came after months of debate. The statues to be removed include one of Gen. Robert E. Lee, now in Lee Circle, another of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard at the entrance of City Park, another of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and an obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place. "The Confederacy, you see, was on the wrong side of history and humanity," Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.

Pope Francis has approved the recognition of a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa — the healing of a Brazilian man with brain tumors, the Vatican announced Friday. The move cleared the way for the Catholic Church to make her a saint next year. Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, was beatified in 2003 — the first step toward sainthood. She won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work caring for the poor in the Indian city of Calcutta. When she died, her Missions of Charity order ran about 600 orphanages, homeless shelters, clinics, and soup kitchens worldwide.

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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.