(image: The Telegraph)

Thursday will be a day of national mourning across France, with a minute’s silence to remember the victims of the country’s deadliest act of terrorism in fifty years.

In the wake of the shocking attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people, two police officers and ten employees of the magazine – including some of the nation’s most prominent political cartoonists – were killed and a further 11 wounded, French President Francois Hollande told the nation:

An act of exceptional barbarism has been committed in Paris against a newspaper. A paper – in other words, an organ of free speech. An act against journalists who had always wanted to show that in France it was possible to defend one’s ideas, and exercise their rights that are guaranteed and protected by the Republic.

A massive manhunt followed for three suspects, identified as two brothers in their thirties and a third man aged 18, culminating – amid conflicting reports late tonight – in the apparent surrender of the youngest suspect. The other men, named as Cherif and Said Kouachi, remain at large. One of them is understood to have been previously convicted on terrorism charges.

The heavily-armed attackers struck at the magazine’s offices during the weekly editorial meeting, storming the building and killing a police officer assigned to protect the staff. Witneses say they sought out and shot editor Stephane Charbonnier and sprayed the office with bullets before escaping in a waiting car, on the way exchanging fire with a second police officer then executing him on the sidewalk. It appeared a relatively sophisticated, planned attack. Witnesses said the gunmen had yelled “The Prophet has been avenged.”

Charlie Hebdo has been attacked before, and is no stranger to controversy, with Charbonnier frequently the subject of threats. In 2012, he spoke to Al Jazeera about the magazine’s “right to use its freedom.” For Charbonnier, the New  York Times wrote, “free expression was nothing without the right to offend.”

The attack prompted a massive outpouring of public sympathy and support, manifested most immediately through social media, where the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag quickly trended worldwide, particularly among news organizations such as the Agence France-Presse newsroom (below).

As cartoonists around the world responded with some striking, poignant images, the murders also prompted an examination of the nature of free speech, ideology, intimidation and modern political satire.

Wednesday evening saw emotional vigils and sombre gatherings across France and in cities around the world, as thousands of people took to the streets to express shock, revulsion, resilience and solidarity.

(image: AFP)

OTHER NEWS

* WORLD *  Teixobactin is the first new antibiotic to be discovered in nearly 30 years. The LA Times reports that “When tricked into growing in a lab, the microbe makes a compound that kills strains of tuberculosis, MRSA and other deadly pathogens that are immune to even the most powerful drugs.”

Sri Lankans are voting Thursday in a presidential election.

* BUSINESS * Standard Chartered is downsizing its global equities business, with the loss of some 4,000 jobs, Reuters reports.

Google’s share of the US search market slipped in December, as Yahoo gained.

* SPORTS * The LA Galaxy confirmed the signing of 34-year-old Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard as a designated player. His contract will begin in July.

(images: New York Times left; McClatchy right)

Tuesday was all about the votes. Three ace pitchers (and one second baseman) were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, while one Republican pitchman got enough run support to keep his job on the mound in the House of Representatives. But what the two elections showed is that a lot of the people who cast a ballot aren’t particularly happy with either process.

In the opening session of the 114th Congress, John Boehner was re-elected as House Speaker, fighting off a conservative rebellion that eventually yielded 25 dissenting votes – the most against a sitting Speaker since 1923. It didn’t take long for the Speaker to dish out a little payback.

One of the first priorities of the new Republican congress will be a bill authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a measure President Obama has indicated he will veto. The president himself, meanwhile, hits the road tomorrow, heading to Detroit to talk manufacturing as part of a three-day road trip in the run-up to his State of the Union address on January 20.

All in all, an interesting first day in the nation’s capital. But real opening day is still April 5.

* POLITICS * Elsewhere, Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was sentenced to two years on public corruption charges. HIs wife Maureen will be sentenced next month. During the hearing, there was an ‘extraordinary” appearance by former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder as a character witness for McDonnell.

Chris Christie’s weekend trip to Dallas to watch the Cowboys is the subject of a complaint to the New Jersey State Ethics Commission.

Jeb Bush has a new PAC, The Right To Rise, but wants people to know that the big news today was his parents’ 70th wedding anniversary.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered a moving eulogy at the funeral of his father, three-term Governor Mario Cuomo.

* WORLD * There was a shooting incident Tuesday at a VA hospital in El Paso, Texas, where a shooter apparently killed one person before taking their own life. The FBI is investigating and updates are expected tomorrow.

According to Goldman Sachs, David Cameron’s Conservatives are headed for victory in Britain’s general election this May. Goldman also said that Brazil would win last year’s World Cup.

Cameron meanwhile, will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in London on Wednesday. As well as talks at Downing Street, the leaders are set to visit the British Museum’s exhibit Germany – Memories of a Nation.

* BUSINESS * The Euro hit fresh lows ahead of inflation data on Wednesday, amid continuing uncertainty about Greece, which is preparing for a snap election on Jan 25.

Shell agreed an $84m settlement over two oil spills in the Niger Delta.

* MEDIA * Tom Watson at Forbes has an interview with Andy Carvin about his new project, Reported.ly.

There’s an analysis at the Columbia Journalism Review on whether UpWorthy is “moving closer to journalism”

The FT looks at the new generation of social media influencers and their use by marketers.

Elected official? Don’t want your name mentioned in a local news story? Here’s how not to go about that.

* CULTURE * Neil Young’s Pono music player will go on sale on Monday. Kickstarter backers of the hi-res music device got an early look in October and the player will retail for $399,

If you were waiting to see the line-up before booking your trip to Coachella, you’re in luck. 

* SPORTS *  As mentioned, Baseball’s Hall of Fame will welcome Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio at this year’s induction day in July. The three pitchers were elected at their first attempt, while Biggio had fallen two votes short last year. It was the first time since 1955 that four players were elected and Martinez will be the first member of the Hall to be born in the 1970s. But the debate over PEDs and recognition for players of the era shows no sign of resolution.

The Chicago Cubs are close to a broadcast deal that would return a number of their season’s games to WGN television, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The New York Knicks are apparently so bad, the NYT is giving their beat writer a break from covering them.

Could Messi to Chelsea really happen? He’s still only 27 and may have fallen out of love with Barca. The Blues and Manchester City are among a small universe of clubs that could afford him, even before Financial Fair Play considerations.

Finally, the US skiing community is mourning two young skiers who were killed in an avalanche in Austria. Ronnie Berlack 20, and Bryce Astle 19 were described as two of the US ski team’s brightest young prospects.  

(image: Fox News)

The new Republican-controlled 114th Congress gets up and running with the first formal order of business tomorrow the re-election of House Speaker John Boehner. But hold on… it looks like his third term may not be a formality, as conservatives Louis Gohmert of Texas (above) and Ted Yoho of Florida move to mount a symbolic challenge, egged on by a core of prominent hard-liners.

It’s just another distraction the GOP really doesn’t need as it attempts to demonstrate an ability to govern and is already dealing with fallout from previous associations of the #3 man on their House leadership team, Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise.

In presidential politics, after Jeb Bush fired the 2016 starting gun on the GOP side, other potential hopefuls have been galvanized into something resembling action. NJ governor Chris Christie went on sports radio to talk about hugging Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, while Mike Huckabee quit his Fox show in order to “consider” a presidential run, saying he would make a decision by the spring. The former Arkansas governor won the Republican caucus in Iowa in 2008, but knows he will have to raise some serious money for a serious run beyond the early primary states.

It may all get clearer after the traditional pre-presidential book tours start later this month. But if you’re expecting Conscience of a Conservative or Profiles in Courage, I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with God, Guns, Grits and Gravy.

Another former Republican Governor in the spotlight is Virginia’s Bob McDonnell, who will be sentenced tomorrow after he and his wife were convicted in September on multiple counts of public corruption.

* WORLD *  The search resumes for the AirAsia airliner that went missing on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore. So far, 37 bodies have been recovered.

Tomorrow marks the 100th day in office for Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani who is still struggling to put together a government. His 2005 TED talk on ‘How to Rebuild a Broken State’ is here.

* BUSINESS * News that Morgan Stanley has said an employee was responsible for stealing the personal data of its wealth management clients made a couple of recent tangential stories in the New York Times all the more worth reading: In the magazine a few weeks ago, a piece on the Secret Life of Passwords looks at how companies survive a catastrophic failure of almost all their employees’ passwords at the same time, while How My Mom Got Hacked this weekend describes the disturbing growth of cyber-ransom.

The annual International Consumer Electronics Show – or CES – formally gets under way tomorrow in Las Vegas and online. Expect plenty of talk about the internet of things and, again, wearables. Here are the ’11 Coolest Things’ from Press Day, according to Wired’s Gadget Lab.

Oil prices continued to slide, with WTI dipping below $50 a barrel for the first time since 2009.

* CULTURE * Vinyl record sales were higher last year than in any year since 1993 with maybe some extra sales to come from “unknown artist” Paul McCartney, now that he has been discovered by Kanye West.

* MEDIA *  NYT reporter James Risen testified after being subpoenaed over sources in his 2006 book State of War. In other legal news, former CBS correspondent Sharyl Atkisson says she is suing the Justice Department over the alleged hacking of her computer.

The video CNN will play when the world ends is more than 30 years old and was just published on Jalopnik, in a piece by Michael Ballaban, a former intern at the network. In 1983, there was a Queen’s Speech script in preparation for the start of World War Three. But most impressive of all, we know how the media will cover the apocalypse, thanks to BuzzFeed.

* SPORTS *  The latest Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced tomorrow, with the possibility of it being a bumper year for pitchers, with aces Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz all on the ballot.  But, predictably, controversy continues to surround the credibility of the process.

Finally, ESPN broadcaster Stuart  Scott passed away on Sunday at the infuriatingly young age of 49. It was a measure of his popularity that his admirers stretched from the nation’s couches all the way to the people’s house. President Obama said:

I will miss Stuart Scott. Twenty years ago, Stu helped usher in a new way to talk about our favorite teams and the day’s best plays. For much of those twenty years, public service and campaigns have kept me from my family — but wherever I went, I could flip on the TV and Stu and his colleagues on SportsCenter were there. Over the years, he entertained us, and in the end, he inspired us — with courage and love.

He was, as his colleagues said in many tributes, a “new voice for a new time.”

(image: Newsday)

The funeral of Wenjian Liu, the second of two New York police officers shot and killed two weeks ago, will be held this weekend in Brooklyn. Liu is the first Chinese-American police officer to be murdered in the line of duty, and his services will include both an NYPD and a traditional Chinese ceremony. Thousands of police and other mourners are expected to attend.

With relations still strained between Mayor Bill De Blasio and elements within the police force, Commissioner Bill Bratton appealed to officers not to turn their backs during the funeral service, as happened at last week’s ceremony for Officer Liu’s partner, Officer Rafael Ramos.

Meanwhile, controversy continues to surround the significance of an NYPD “virtual work stoppage” over the New Year, amid talk that strained relations between the mayor and police may lead to the 2016 Democratic convention not coming to Brooklyn as had been suggested.

* WORLD * Washington imposed more sanctions on North Korea in apparent retaliation for its role in the recent Sony hack. Treasury secretary Jack Lew said the US had “a commitment to hold North Korea accountable for its destructive and destabilizing conduct.”

The US and Iran have reportedly reached a tentative agreement over nuclear enrichment, ahead of the next round of formal talks on January 15.

Monday sees the start of jury selection for the trial of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev, with some last-minute legal wrangling over venue and a possible postponement.

Saudi King Abdullah is said to be in stable condition after being hospitalized in Riyadh for pneumonia.

* POLITICS *  Tributes continued for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo who died on Thursday aged 82. There were a couple of remarkable obituaries by EJ Dionne in the Washington Post, David Frum at The Atlantic and by Adam Nagourney at the New York Times  who wrote:

He had a pointed sense of humor. When an engine failed in a puff of smoke on a state-owned Gulfstream G-1 jet one morning with the governor aboard, he barely noticed, and kept talking about national politics until he noticed that a reporter across the way had stopped taking notes and had turned ashen. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “Aren’t you in a state of grace?”

There was also a piece in the New York Post remembering how important Cuomo had been to saving that paper in the 1990s when Rupert Murdoch was able to obtain an FCC waiver to purchase the ailing publication.

* MEDIA * Today’s print edition of the New York Times listed no corrections. The Grey Lady has seen some pretty spectacular walkbacks recently, from the infamous My Little Pony instance to the correct spelling of Chewbacca’s species, which does kind of make you wonder what sort of traffic these high-profile corrections are generating, and is it remotely worthwhile to let some humorous, inoffensive tweaks slip through in order to correct them?

* SPORTS * This is FA Cup Third Round weekend, with plenty of intriguing and, yes, even romantic ties to grab the attention. At The Telegraph, Adam Hurrey tells the tale of one of the greatest of all third round giant-killings, and “the goal that launched a thousand cliches.”

This weekend is also the tenth anniversary of an infamous disallowed goal which may have the distinction of setting the course of english football towards embracing its current goal-line technology. It only took a decade and some people believe we still haven’t gone far enough, but the fact remains that until this season, the referee had a worse view of the most crucial aspect of the game than millions of people watching at home. And that couldn’t be allowed to stand.

(image: New York Magazine – Mario and Andrew Cuomo during the 1982 campaign for Governor)

Former three-time Governor of New York Mario Cuomo passed away on Thursday at the age of 82, just hours after his son Andrew was sworn in for a second term in the same office.

In an inaugural speech in Manhattan, the younger Cuomo acknowledged his father’s absence and influence, saying:

“He couldn’t be here physically today, my father. But my father is in this room. He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here. He is here and he is here, and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point. So let’s give him a round of applause.”

At the New Yorker, Ken Auletta remembers the Pittsburgh Pirates prospect who went on to become a star player in Democratic politics, yet chose not to pursue the highest office.

After a memorable speech at the 1984 Democratic convention made him a leading potential presidential candidate for the following cycle, his decision not to seek the 1988 nomination led cartoonist Garry Trudeau to create one of his personal favorite Doonesbury strips.

* POLITICS * Positioning himself in the Republican field ahead of the 2016 presidential contest, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush resigned all his board memberships and paid advisor positions.

* MEDIA * This year marks The Nation‘s 150th anniversary and the magazine is planning a series of events across the country, beginning later this month.

* SPORTS * In an exciting conclusion to the Sugar Bowl, Ohio State beat Alabama 42-35   to set up the first-ever playoff championship game against Oregon, who beat Florida State 59-20 in the Rose Bowl. The playoff final will be on January 12 in Arlington, Texas, and the new system is potentially seen as “wildly successful” commercially, compared with the BCS system it partially replaces.

In soccer, as the Frank Lampard situation continues to develop into a potentially damaging PR scenario for both NYCFC and Manchester City, the possibility of another of England’s midfield titans, Steven Gerrard, leaving Liverpool for the MLS this summer could prove a marketing windfall for whichever team picks him up and pits him against the “bad guys” at NYC.

Already fuming about the outcome are fans of Lampard’s former club Chelsea, who are jostling with the midfielder’s current employers at the top of the English Premier League. The two teams are separated only by alphabetical order as a result of Chelsea’s defeat at Tottenham on Thursday in a fixture list that saw the most goals ever scored on new year’s day games in the Premiership era.

(image: TalkSport – Tottenham’s Harry Kane celebrates the first of his two goals in the 5-3 defeat of Chelsea)