The family of Kayla Mueller, the 26-year-old American aid worker kidnapped in Syria and held captive by the so-called Islamic State since August 2013, said Tuesday that they had received evidence that she had died.

Reaction was widespread, and emotional.

The White House confirmed the news, but was unable to say definitively how or when her death had occurred. IS had claimed that she was killed during a Jordanian airstrike in the aftermath of the murder of their pilot, Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Mark Thompson writes at Time:

While some intelligence sources expressed skepticism she was killed by a Jordanian bomb, it makes little difference. Mueller was there because people were dying, and she wanted to help. “For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal,” she told her hometown paper in Prescott, Ariz., before she was captured. “It’s important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done.”

President Obama, in a previously scheduled interview with BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith, said that telling hostages’ families that the US won’t pay ransom is “as tough as anything I do.” He also said US forces had tried and failed to rescue Mueller and other hostages last summer. The President said:

She was an outstanding young woman and a great spirit — and I think that spirit will live on. The more people learn about her, the more they appreciate what she stood for — and how it stands in contrast with the barbaric organization that held her captive.

The Christian Science Monitor writes how the tragedy of her death highlights the collapse of Western aid to Syria and how she was caught in the country’s “transition from a civil conflict to a more complex battlefield.”

(image: Mueller Family/BBC) In a heartbreaking letter to her family from captivity in November 2014, Kayla wrote:

I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator b/c literally there was no else…. + by God + by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall. I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful.

(Kayla Mueller at a Darfur protest at Northern Arizona University in April 2009   image: Casey Myrick/The Lumberjack/KTLA)

* WORLD * Congress could get the text of the White House’s proposed authorization for the use of military force against ISIS as early as Wednesday. NBC reports that Jordan has moved “thousands” of troops to its border with Iraq while the UAE has resumed airstrikes against ISIS.

In an interview with the BBC World Service, Syrian President Assad said that while there was no “direct cooperation,” his government was receiving information about the fight against ISIS from the US-led coalition. He also denied that his armed forces were using barrel bombs against rebel areas. The Guardian said the interview portrayed “a man of utter cynicism and terrifying self-confidence.”

The US ordered the closure of its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa amid a worsening security situation, and it was reported that the Ambassador and remaining staff would leave by Wednesday evening. The British embassy was also closed until further notice and its staff withdrawn.

Violence in Ukraine has intensified ahead of the four-way peace summit in Minsk on Wednesday. The White House said President Obama had called Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging him to “seize the opportunity to reach a peaceful resolution” to the crisis.

The Greek government won a confidence vote in parliament late on Tuesday and will meet with Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Wednesday with a plan for restructuring its bailout terms ahead of the Feb 28 deadline. Meanwhile, the German government rejected Greece’s request for World War Two reparations, calling the claim “baseless”.

Record-setting levels of snowfall have pounded Boston and New England, prompting logistical challenges in clearing streets and a debate over whether snow should be dumped into local rivers. And of course there’s another storm system heading for the region on Thursday.

* MEDIA * Jon Stewart said he would leave The Daily Show later this year after hosting for 16 years. Comedy Central said in a statement:

Through his unique voice and vision, The Daily Show has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come.

The news came out during the show’s evening taping, so the home viewers knew ahead of the folks in the studio audience as Stewart made his emotional on-air announcement, before closing with the classic ‘monkey washing a cat’ clip as the Moment of Zen.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams was suspended by the network for six months without pay as debate continues over his embellishment of an incident in Iraq in 2003. Gabriel Sherman at New York magazine guesses Williams “probably wishes he’d gotten the Tonight Show job he wanted.”

(image: Comedy Central/New York Daily News) In what the kids might call an uber-meta media conflation, here’s Jon on Brian, and the hypocrisy of the rest of the media. “Finally, someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq War,” he said.

Newsweek‘s Twitter account was hacked on Tuesday morning, apparently by someone claiming to be affiliated with Islamic State. The same group reportedly also hacked the web site of International Business Times, which is also owned by Newsweek’s parent company.

Regret The Error writer Craig Silverman launched his new report Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content on Tuesday night at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. You can watch the session here (for some reason, video starts at 28:36):

* POLITICS * The Federal Election Commission will hold a public hearing on Wednesday to discuss potential rule making in the McCutcheon vs FEC case, governing limits on campaign contributions.

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign hasn’t officially started yet, but already there’s infighting.

Jeb Bush’s chief technology officer resigned on Tuesday in the wake of what the Bush PAC Right To Rise described as “regrettable and insensitive comments.”

* SPORTS * The English Premier League sold broadcast rights to its games for a record £5.136bn, a staggering 71% increase over the previous contract. Sky and BT will end up paying around £10.19m per game to show a single Premier League match.

Politicians said a bigger slice of the windfall should now be put back into the game’s grassroots and go towards reducing ticket prices, but as Quartz concludes, “Perhaps more likely is that the funds will be used to fuel further inflation in transfer fees and player salaries, as the arms race for talent continues.”

* CULTURE * Finally, Australia has been invited to take part in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the 60th anniversary of the competition. The Guardian has reaction as the country woke up to the “spingliest spangliest news of all”.