ISIS has released Issue 7 of Dabiq, its English magazine. You can read it here.

It's 83 pages long, discusses ISIS' latest atrocities (the killing of the Japanese hostages and Jordanian pilot) and profiles Kosher Market killer Amedy Coulibaly. It ends with John Cantlie, who writes:

Despite being a prisoner, I’ve been shown respect and kindness, which I haven’t seen from my own government. Even if I had the choice, could I honestly return to and live in a country that disowned the other Britons, all their families, and myself so contemptuously?

Here is Obama's draft of the Authorization for Use of Military Force against ISIS. Here is the statement he released about it.

It does not authorize combat troops on the ground on an "enduring" basis:

[c] LIMITATIONS.— The authority granted in subsection (a) does not authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces in enduring offensive ground combat operations.

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Jon Stewart is leaving the Daily Show this year. He's been there 16 years.

NBC has announced Brian Williams will be suspended for 6 months without pay.

What will it take to get the media to stop inserting auto-play videos in news articles, forcing us to watch and listen to their irrelevant and unappealing news announcers? We do know how to read. [More...]

Kayla Mueller's parents and the White House have confirmed that the ISIS hostage and aid worker is dead. ISIS claimed a few days ago she died in a Jordanian air strike.

ISIS privately sent the confirmation to her parents, but the details have not been disclosed as yet.

When Celebrity Apprentice began this season, I wanted Geraldo and Leeza to be the final two. It just happened. This is the first semi-reality show I've watched where I know both finalists. I like them both so much, I don't know who to root for. What a great match-up. They have very different strengths and personalities, but they are both so talented.

Either one could win, but I think Leeza may have an edge, because the task is making a commercial and she's very creative and organized (as well as smart.) Presentation of the finished commerical will also count, and she's such a smooth public speaker. Geraldo is smart as a whip and also creative. He's got terrific instincts, but he's also more impulsive.

While they need to raise money (which Geraldo is more successful at) Trump went out of his way to say that wouldn't be a deciding factor. I'm actually nervous watching. Good luck to both of them.

John Cantlie is back with a new video, which he says is "the last of this series." You can watch it here. I don't think it means he will be killed, just that future videos will be different. ISIS would be silly to kill him, he's the best public relations spokesman they have. Then again, ISIS likes to do things for shock value, and it would indeed be a shock to learn this personable Brit was killed, despite all he has done promoting the Islamic State. [More...]

A lot has been written about beheadings, and how it it must hurt the victim more and take a lot longer with a small knife like the one Jihadi John uses.

ISIS released some new beheading videos today (of soldiers and "magicians".) Check out the size of this sword. As bulky as the guy is who's wielding it, it looks almost as heavy as he is.

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The Grammys are on tonight. Bob Dylan got the MusiCares Person of the Year award. The LA Times has lots of coverage of everything Grammy releated.

Update: I didn't even recognize the opening act (ACDC) until they played Highway to Hell. The audience was singing along like it was the song of the century. Ariana Grande: I don't think I've ever heard her sing before. Her song choice almost put me to sleep. Very boring.

I was about to turn off the show when Tom Jones and whoever started singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" as a tribute to the married couple who wrote it who were in the audience. I never heard of them. But I'm glad I didn't stop watching, they sang it really well, and it can't be easy to make that song sound fresh. But the woman's outfit was awful. Big girl underpants covered from neck to floor by some sheer thing with huge black appliques. It wouldn't look good on anyone, but it really looked terrible on her. [More....]

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two members of the Bali 9 facing the death penalty, were officially notified Thursday they are scheduled for execution this month. They will be taken from Kerobokan prison in Bali, flown to Jogjakarta, and after a 5 hour drive, arrive at the central prison on Nusa Kambangan Island near Central Java. From there, they and 8 to 10 other drug traffickers from Brazil, France, Ghana, Nigeria and the Philippines, will be driven to a shooting field in the dead of night, tied to wooden crosses and executed by firing squad.

A Catholic priest present at the 2008 execution of three Nigerian drug traffickers described the agonizing deaths.[More...]

Update: Brian Williams has released a statement saying he will take a leave of absence from NBC News for several days:

As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.

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Two days of trending on Twitter is apparently all it takes for NBC News to launch an internal investigation into Brian Williams' mis-telling of his experience on a helicopter of Iraq. [More...]

Our last open thread is full, here's a new one, all topics welcome.

Imran Khawaja was a key member of Rayat al–Tawheed (RaT), a group of British recruits who went to fight the Assad regime in Syria. Known as Abu Daigham al Baritani or Abu Daigham al-Britani, he faked his own death and tried to sneak back into the UK, but was caught.

Today he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 5 years of supervision. (He will have to serve about 8 years.) [More...]