‘Citizens, I will be your leader’

(SNL)

With a mere 575 days to go until the Presidential election, the worst-kept secret in politics is out, and still managed to be covered as “Breaking News”.

The manner of Hillary Clinton’s entry into the race – everything from her choice of words to choice of logo – was dissected seemingly endlessly on television and social media. Searches for her name spiked by a factor of 23 over the past 24 hours, while her announcement tweet saw three million views in its first hour. Here’s a breakdown of her announcement video by the numbers.

And right now, the candidate – who on Sunday also resigned her role at the Clinton Foundation – could apparently be anywhere along I-80 in the middle of a road-trip to Iowa.

Don’t worry. We’ve got this guy coming up on Monday.

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* WORLD * Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is again under pressure after thousands of protesters across the country took to the streets for a second time demanding her impeachment amid widespread anger at a stalled economy and allegations of political corruption.

Predictably, Turkey isn’t very happy with the Pope over his remarks on Sunday about the mass killing of Armenians a hundred years ago.

A Democratic Senator who is co-sponsoring a bill introduced by Republican Sen Bob Corker which would allow Congress to review any nuclear deal reached with Iran, said that the framework agreement “has no real specificity.” Sen Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said: “I think there are as many questions about this so-called understanding as there are answers. And that’s why I believe that Congress has a role to play.”

As if to provide such details, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz writes in the Washington Post that the framework agreement “has stimulated a lively public and political debate. This is an important discussion that the nation deserves to have, and it must be informed by clarity on the specifics of the negotiated technical parameters for a final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).”

Jon Swaine at The Guardian has a story about the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Walter Scott in South Carolina last week, based on a recording of a conversation between Officer Michael Slager and a senior officer.

“By the time you get home, it would probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts on what happened,” the senior officer said. “You know, once the adrenaline quits pumping.”

“It’s pumping,” Slager said, laughing. The senior officer replied: “Oh yeah. Oh yeah.”

 

Russia has moved to outlaw celebrity memes by making it illegal to publish any meme that “depicts a public figure in a way that has nothing to do with his ‘personality,’” according to the national Internet censorship body Roskomnadzor. 

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* BRITISH ELECTION * This is manifesto week, with the major parties keen to bring their main messages into focus. Labour will emphasize “economic responsibility” at Monday’s launch in Manchester. For the Tories on Tuesday, it could be a chance to reset the campaign following something of a “wobbly” week. The Greens, meanwhile, have suggested banning the Grand National. Andrew Rawnsley writes in The Guardian:

In an age of deep and often highly justifiable public cynicism towards politicians, the formal publication of party pledges can seem out of time. There was a point during Labour’s internal debates about its manifesto when some asked whether they should bother with one at all. But the traditional rituals will be observed… The parties will make a big event of these launches and journalists will reciprocate by reverencing the rival documents with lots of attention. Voters may be a bit less engaged. And that might be common sense when many promises turn out not to be worth the paper they are printed on. Nick Clegg got screwed by a pledge he made in 2010. Nigel Farage entirely disowned his party’s last manifesto.

 

miliband(Daily Mirror / Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

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* MEDIA * Washington Post journalist Jason Reziaian, who has been held in Iran for nine months, faces charges of espionage, according to a local news agency. Post editor Marty Baron said the allegation was “absurd.”

HBO Now, the network’s standalone streaming service which launched this week, faced its first “trial by combat” Sunday night with the return of Game of Thrones  after the first four episodes of the show leaked online.

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times’ public editor, writes about an exchange of ideas with NYU professor Clay Shirky over the latter’s “darker narrative” on newspapers and the future of print. “In the end,” she concludes, “what matters isn’t holding on to the old forms: “Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism.”

Headline of the day, via the Daily Express. (h/t Kate Bevan).

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* SPORTS *  In a remarkable sequence of performances, 21-year-old Jordan Speith led the Masters from first round to last – the first wire-to-wire winner since 1976 – tying a tournament record to finish 18-under par.

 

 

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