As Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to address Congress on Tuesday morning, President Obama told Reuters that Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze on nuclear activity for ten years to reach a landmark deal.
In a speech to AIPAC on Monday, Netanyahu said “Reports of the demise of the Israeli-US relations are not only premature, they’re just wrong,” but warned that a deal would threaten Israel’s security.
The President stressed there was a “substantial disagreement” with Netanyahu over their approaches to the issue, while US Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned against undercutting diplomatic efforts by revealing “selective details of ongoing negotiations.”
In his Reuters interview, the President also criticized plans for additional sanctions on Iran if no deal is reached by June 30.
“I’m less concerned, frankly, with Prime Minster Netanyahu’s commentary than I’m with Congress taking actions that might undermine the talks before they’re completed.”
The Christian Science Monitor looks at how “hyper-partisanship has invaded foreign policy.”
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* WORLD * Meanwhile, talks towards the deal in question are proceeding in Switzerland between US and Iranian officials.
The global picture is also clouded somewhat by the fact that Iran is backing a major offensive launched by the Iraqis to retake the Sunni city of Tikrit from ISIS. Australia said it was sending another 300 troops to Iraq in training roles, but PM Tony Abbott said the move was not “mission creep.”
The funeral will be held in Moscow on Tuesday of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered near the Kremlin on Friday.
“Partly the opposition’s bad fortunes are due to the fact that it is practically blocked from national TV networks, which provide news and views for 90% of Russians. As the taxi driver that took me to the march casually observed: ‘If you are not on TV, you do not exist.'”
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* POLITICS * The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton “exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as Secretary of State” which may be in violation of rules covering official correspondence.
A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Nick Merrill, defended her use of the personal email account and said she has been complying with the “letter and spirit of the rules.” Under federal law, however, letters and emails written and received by federal officials, such as the secretary of state, are considered government records and are supposed to be retained so that congressional committees, historians and members of the news media can find them. There are exceptions to the law for certain classified and sensitive materials.
Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski announced she would not seek re-election next year, setting off something of a scramble among Democrats, at least in speculation on who might succeed the longest-serving woman in Congress.
Artist Nelson Shanks told the Philadelphia Daily News about a hidden secret in his portrait of former President Bill Clinton, unveiled in 2006. The Atlantic asks:
More to the point, is what Shanks did inappropriate? It’s not as if the painting was a private commission for the Clintons that Shanks sabotaged: It’s a bequest to the nation and to the National Portrait Gallery. (The portrait was commissioned by the gallery and paid for with private donations.)
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* MEDIA * The competition between Facebook and Twitter for the audience in real-time event coverage is heightening, according to AdWeek.
Google confirmed that it planned to launch a “small-scale” US wireless service – but said it did not intend to compete with the four big national carriers.
With Rebekah Brooks poised to take over at News Corp’s Storyful arm, The Financial Times looks at her digital learning curve.
Also in News Corp world, it turns out Fox’s Bill O’Reilly isn’t “different from the other bloviators” after all, but it probably won’t make any difference in the grand scheme of things.
The editor of the Herald-Times in Bloomington Indiana got a call from an eight year-old reader about some changes to the comics page. He posted the voicemail. (via Romenesko)
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* BUSINESS * Bloomberg‘s latest calculation of their Misery index – “It’s a simple equation: unemployment rate + change in the consumer price index = misery” – shows the 15 most miserable economies in the world. Venezuela is the runaway winner. Or loser.
Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for a second straight year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Forbes‘s latest list of the world’s richest individuals shows a record 1,826 billionaires worldwide, with an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion.
Bloomberg has details of how billionaires in London use secret luxury homes to hide assets.
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* CULTURE * Tickets sold out quickly for the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary concerts in Chicago this summer. The Wall Street Journal writes:
“Many fans took to cyberspace to assail online resellers, who didn’t exist when the Grateful Dead played Soldier Field 20 years ago. Traditionally, Deadheads have frowned on reselling tickets for more than face value. On Saturday, they aired less-than-flattering opinions of Ticketmaster and online resellers such as StubHub, as well as ticket scalpers, on the Grateful Dead’s Facebook page.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter the cast for the upcoming Sharknado 3 movie expanded by two. Mark Cuban will apparently play the President and Ann Coulter the vice-president, in the movie, which according to Syfy “will cause mass destruction in the nation’s capital before it roars down the Eastern Seaboard.”
Did Homer Simpson discover the Higgs Boson particle 14 years before CERN?
(image: Fox/Huffington Post)
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* SPORTS * Monday was NHL trade deadline day. Here’s a round-up of the comings and goings, but maybe the day’s best story involved a veteran defenseman who was traded from Columbus to Minnesota.
Sunderland’s Adam Johnson was suspended by his club pending a police investigation.
Finally, Scottish footballer Dave Mackay, one of the toughest competitors to play the game, and a legend north and south of the border, died aged 80.
The Overnight Note 