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This Happened

This Happened—January 7: The Charlie Hebdo Attack

Two gunmen opened fire at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris on this day in 2015, targeting the magazine's staff for satirizing Islam.

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What happened in the Charlie Hebdo attacks?

Two Islamist gunmen forced their way into the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly newspaper and opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 11. The two Kouachi brothers who carried out the attack would eventually be killed in a police shootout outside of the capital two days later.

Why was Charlie Hebdo attacked?

The magazine had attracted considerable worldwide attention for its controversial cartoons of Muhammad. Hatred for the paper’s cartoons, which made jokes about Islamic leaders including the Prophet Muhammad, is considered to be the principal motive for the massacre. In Islam, it is forbidden to depict Muhammad.

What was the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks?

Two days after the attack, as the police closed in on the Charlie Hebdo suspects, their accomplice, Amedy Coulibaly murdered four Jewish hostages and held fifteen other hostages during a siege of a kosher supermarket in Paris.

On Jan. 11 about two million people marched in Paris in a rally of national unity. The staff of Charlie Hebdo continued with the publication. The following issue had almost eight million copies in six languages, compared to its typical print run of 60,000 in French.

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Geopolitics

Why The World Still Needs U.S. Leadership — With An Assist From China

Twenty years of costly interventions and China's economic ascent have robbed the United States of its global supremacy. It is time for the two biggest powers to work together, to help the world.

Photograph of Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden walking side by side in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California​

Nov. 15, 2023: Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden take a walk after their talks in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California

Xinhua/ZUMA
María Ángela Holguín*

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — The United States is facing a complex moment in its history, as it loses its privileged place in the world. Since the Second World War, it has been the world's preeminent power in economic and political terms, helping rebuild Europe after the war and through its growing economy, aiding the development of a significant part of the world.

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Its model of democracy, long considered exemplary around the world, has gone through a rough patch, thanks to excessive polarization and discord. This has cost it a good deal of its leadership, unity and authority.

How much authority does it have to chide certain countries on democracy, as it does, after such outlandish incidents as the assault on Congress in January 2021? The fights we have seen over electing a new speaker of the House of Representatives or backing the administration's foreign policy are simply incredible.

In Ukraine's case, President Biden failed to win support for the aid package for which he was hoping, even if there is a general understanding that if Russia wins this war, Europe's stability would be at risk. It would mean the victory of a longstanding enemy.

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