Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts concerning the events of April 2013 which killed three people and injured more than 250. Seventeen of those counts are federal capital crimes, requiring the same jury to reconvene next week to decide whether Tsarnaev should serve life in prison or be put to death.

* Special coverage from the Boston Globe is here.

The premeditated bomb attack and its bloody aftermath represent the worst instance of terrorism on American soil since 9/11. Survivors took to social media to share their emotional reactions.

However this story ends, never forget this:

(image: LISnews)

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* WORLD * As the fallout continues from the weekend’s fatal shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, the man who recorded the video which changed everything broke his silence. Feidin Santana told NBC‘s Lester Holt that when he turned the video over to Scott’s family,

“They were very emotional when that happened, including me also. I thought about his position, their situation … If I were to have a family member that would happen [to], I would like to know the truth.”

In a compelling extended interview later on MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, the 23-year-old Santana told Craig Melvin that he had thought about erasing the video because he felt scared, but said he changed his mind when he put himself in the position of the family. North Charleston’s mayor said that there was dashboard camera footage from the police officer’s car, which was being investigated and could possibly be released on Thursday.

As Yemen continues to spiral into crisis, there are further warnings of a “humanitarian catastrophe”. Ishaan Tharoor at the Washington Post writes about how India has taken the lead in evacuating its nationals and other foreigners.

With an announcement apparently imminent on the removal of Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, a new poll shows a vast majority of Cubans welcome warmer relations with the US. The poll also showed that Cubans have a more positive opinion – almost twice as favorable – of  President Obama than of either of the Castro brothers.

The Hill writes how the White House poked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over Iran.

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* POLITICS * The New York Times reports that indictments “may be close” in the so-called Bridgegate scandal hanging over a potential Chris Christie Presidential candidacy.

While Mr. Christie says he was blindsided by rogue aides, the scandal has damaged his once-Teflon finish, as well as his poll numbers among Republican primary voters and his constituents. Even if the investigation produces no legal problems for Mr. Christie, any indictments will almost certainly add to his political challenges.

The White House on Wednesday night said it supports efforts to ban the use of gender conversion therapy for minors. Responding to a petition at White House.gov inspired by the suicide of a 17-year-old transgender youth named Leelah Alcorn, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett wrote: “The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm.”

On day one of his Presidential campaign Rand Paul had what the Washington Post called a “prickly” day. After a testy exchange with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, Chris Cillizza wrote that Paul’s “problem with female interviewers just cropped up again.” Clearly not all female interviewers, though, since Fox’s Megyn Kelly thinks it’s Paul’s critics who are being sexist.

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* BRITISH ELECTION * The latest issue of The Spectator ponders what the first days of a Miliband government might look like. A bit like The Wrong Trousers, it seems…

Michael White in yesterday’s Guardian explains why the coming deadlock “could spell the end for the system as we know it.”

When the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia in 1787, they were determined to prevent a tyranny like George III’s, and so separated out the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government to keep each other in check.

That didn’t happen in Britain, where reforming governments wrestled royal prerogatives away from the monarch, and kept most to themselves.

Thus, in a parliamentary system where the leader of the party with most elected members of parliament (MPs) gets to become prime minister, a Commons majority allows the cabinet to do “anything except change a man into a woman”, as the old Victorian joke goes.

That’s the theory. But in practice, the options facing Britain’s political leaders when the votes are counted on May 7 will be more difficult than they have been for decades – and mostly for reasons American voters will easily recognise.

 

The Green Party released its first PPB of the campaign. As is often the case, the YouTube comments are worth reading.

(Green Party)

Meanwhile, a six-year-old had the perfect reaction to the cliched campaign photo-op of a visiting politician wanting to read with her..

(image: PA/BuzzFeed)

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* BUSINESS * It was the day of Apple Watch reviews. I’m just figuring if you’re in the market for one you’ve probably already read them.

The huge Shell/BG megamerger looks set to spark a wave of consolidation in the energy industry.

(FT/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

 

Don’t forget to vote for which of the Final Four women candidates you’d like to appear on the $20 bill. The ballot is open here.

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* MEDIA * Veteran CBS anchor Bob Schieffer announced he would retire this summer. Here’s a quick shortlist of who might be in the frame to replace the 78-year-old Schieffer as host of Face The Nation.

Hollywood Reporter has a lengthy interview with New York “grande dame of gossip” 92-year-old Liz Smith and how she feels about covering celebrity, Rupert Murdoch and the park named after her.

Marc Frons, senior vice president and chief information officer of The New York Times, writes at The Enterprisers Project about how important mobile traffic is to the Times’ future. (h/t Romenesko)

As recently as two years ago, mobile was only 30 percent of our traffic across all our products and devices. Last year it topped 50 percent for the first time. As little as two or three years from now, we may see mobile become the dominant platform with as much as 75 percent of our audience.

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* CULTURE * The New York Post reported that students at the University of Michigan organized a petition criticizing a screening of the movie American Sniper, protesting that it promotes “negative and misleading stereotypes” against Muslims and “sympathizes with a mass killer.” The Post reports:

Students will now instead be forced to watch “Paddington” — a PG-rated movie that centers around the misadventures of a stuffed bear.

 

So, what did poor old Seth Myers do to raise the Twitter ire of folks in my home town? It wasn’t so much him, but rather his guest Kit Harington from Game of Thrones which of course films in Northern Ireland.

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. But just take a look at this…

(New York Times)

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* SPORTS * Wait, ESPN won’t pay the kid who won their bracket contest? The sports network says they’re putting together a “special prize” for 12-year-old Sam Holtz, instead of the $20,000 prize they say contestants had to be 18 to win. Let’s see what they come up with.

England’s Premier League could get video technology “within five years” according to the BBC.  So that will pretty much make about 25 years that the TV audience has had a better view of what’s happening on the field than the refs.