The Italian government is pressing for an emergency EU summit this week to address the worsening migrant crisis, after a boat carrying around 700 people capsized in the Mediterranean sixty miles north of Libya. Late on Sunday night, most of those on board were still missing.

(image: NBC News)

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called the growth of human smuggling “a plague in our continent,” the BBC reports, as increasing numbers of people “attempt to flee violence and economic hardship in Africa and the Middle East.”

The weekend’s tragedy is the latest in a series of deadly accidents involving attempted migrants in the region, with the exact number of lives lost unknown, although the UNHCR estimates that 900 people have died since the start of this year, and the numbers of incidents are rising.

Pope Francis, meanwhile, called on the international community to help Italy deal with the recent influx of migrants. “It’s evident that the proportions of the phenomenon require much broader involvement,” the Pope said.

EU foreign ministers were already due to meet on Monday in Luxembourg to discuss options for combating oil and arms smuggling in the area, including possibly sending a naval mission to the coast of Libya, but Reuters reports there are fears that such a move might encourage more migrants to take to the sea.

In a frank reference to EU concerns that saving more lives could mean trafficking gangs dispatch more people in unsafe craft, the paper drawn up before Sunday’s mass drowning, warned of a “pull-factor risk” from a naval mission — the risk more migrants would head for Europe.

***

* WORLD *  This weekend saw the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. At a memorial service, former President Bill Clinton said:

“I prepared for this day yesterday, in New York, by taking Hillary to see our daughter and son-in-law and my about-to-be 7-month-old grandchild,” he said. “And Hillary and I bathed her and fed her and put her to bed, and I looked at her in that crib so I could remember how you felt, those of you who lost your loved ones.”

USA Today tells the story of the iconic photograph that came to symbolize the tragedy.

Two dissidents failed on Sunday in their efforts to be the first open opposition candidates elected to Cuba‘s Municipal Assembly.

(image: KONA/Mashable)

North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un has reportedly climbed the country’s highest mountain. State-run media said the 32-year-old scaled the 2,750-feet Mount Paektu, to be greeted by cheering crowds of soldiers.  Sky News reports:

The story is the latest run by state media on the feats of the Kim dynasty, which has ruled for more than six decades with an iron fist and pervasive personality cult.

Just last week the regime insisted Mr Kim could drive by the time he was three years old.

Among the claims made about his late father, Kim Jong-Il, was the suggestion he had scored an incredible 11 holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf.

***

* POLITICS * The GOP field of actual and hypothetical Presidential candidates wrapped up their New Hampshire weekend gathering, taking turns attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton, who arrives in the state on Monday. Politico has six takeaways.

A North Carolina man’s last wish – or at least, a wish inserted by his family in his obituary in the Concord-Kannapolis Independent Tribune – was for a specific political outcome.

“In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Shriners Hospital for Children,” the obituary continues. “Also, the family respectfully asks that you do not vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. R.I.P. Granddaddy.”

Amy Chozick at the New York Times trails a new book that looks at donations to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities, saying it is “proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy.”

Matea Gold at the Washington Post writes how big money in politics is emerging as an increasingly significant issue in the campaign.

Turning disgust with billionaire super-PAC benefactors into a platform that moves voters has been an elusive goal for activists seeking to curb the massive sums sloshing through campaigns. But five years after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision — which held it was unconstitutional to ban independent political spending by corporations and unions, and helped set off a financial arms race — there are signs that politicians are beginning to confront a voter backlash.

***

* BRITISH ELECTION *

(Daily Mirror/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

Monday is the last day to register to vote before the May 7 election, with the fight for Scotland – where the balance of a new parliament could be decided – heating up. The SNP launches its manifesto on Monday, and leader Nicola Sturgeon tells The Guardian:

“With fixed-term parliaments, it gives parties in a minority-government situation – [where] hopefully the SNP will be in a position of influence – huge ability to change the direction of a government without bringing a government down.

“There are very limited circumstances in that act where you can trigger a general election, but what you can do is build alliances to change the direction of a government on particular issues and that is what the SNP would seek to do.”

How would economists fix the economy? Tim Harford asks some, and the FT publishes the results, in The Economists’ Manifesto.

Alternatively, Russell Brand’s movie, The Emperor’s New Clothes, opens this week, with advance screenings beginning on Tuesday.

https://youtu.be/U4Geq8dM13k

(StudioCanal)

***

* CULTURE * Jon Stewart tells The Guardian‘s Hadley Freeman why he quit The Daily Show. 

“Honestly, it was a combination of the limitations of my brain and a format that is geared towards following an increasingly redundant process, which is our political process. I was just thinking, ‘Are there other ways to skin this cat?’ And, beyond that, it would be nice to be home when my little elves get home from school, occasionally.” […]

If anything, it was the prospect of the upcoming US election that pushed him to leave the show. “I’d covered an election four times, and it didn’t appear that there was going to be anything wildly different about this one,” he says.

This weekend saw this year’s induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Here’s a rundown of who joined the ranks, including this guy…

https://youtu.be/_-3U_301pmM

 ***

* SPORTS * Tim Tebow is about to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles, according to Jay Glazer at Fox Sports. ESPN says:

Football’s most interesting team this offseason, the Eagles, just got even more interesting — if that were possible. Tebow now will attempt to jumpstart an NFL career that has been on hold since he played his last NFL game in 2012.

USA Today calls it Tebow’s “last best chance at an NFL career.”

Aston Villa will play Arsenal in the FA Cup Final on Steven Gerrard’s birthday.

Kris Bryant’s first weekend as a major leaguer provided more of a mystery story than a fairytale narrative. It took him until his second game to get his first hit, while in Bryant’s debut on Friday, the Cubs blew a four-run lead but won in extra innings. In typical Wrigley fashion, though, there was probably more attention on a fan…

Finally, this is a beautiful – and beautifully written – story by the Washington Post’s Rick Maese about love, loss and the Baltimore Orioles.

The Republican Presidential field has descended on New Hampshire en masse this weekend for the Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua. How’d Friday go?

(Bloomberg – With All Due Respect)

The Washington Post ponders 11 other ways Rick Perry could have answered the “are you smart enough to be President” question.

Saturday will see speeches from Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, among others.

New Hampshire Public Radio‘s live blog is here.

Former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee – who in the 2008 GOP contest won the party’s Iowa caucus and six other states, mostly in the south – told Fox News that he would make an announcement on May 5th about whether he will be getting in the race this time around.

Once the Republicans leave town, Hillary Clinton heads to the first in the nation primary state, with a low-key “conversational” approach to campaigning similar to this week in Iowa on deck for Monday and Tuesday.

Jonathan Chait writes an interesting piece at New York magazine on how ‘negative partisanship’ has transformed American politics. He says:

The splitting of American politics into two coherent ideological parties with very little programmatic overlap changes things. Voters who are fundamentally attached to one party or the other are not going to abandon their team merely because their party has held onto office for too many terms, or because the other party’s president is presiding over a nice recovery. Those factors are not meaningless because some swing voters do still exist. And performance can change voter perceptions to a degree; a deep recession might make some Democrats doubt their party’s economic program. But these temporal effects are muted.

***

* WORLD *  With Greece’s main creditors reportedly looking for a way to prevent the country dropping out of the Euro, Der Spiegel reports that the country could be set for a €5bn lifeline by way of a gas pipeline deal with Russia.

The Telegraph translates the Spiegel story, saying: “A deal between Russia and Greece is expected to be signed on Tuesday, the magazine added, with the payment an advance on future profits from transit fees. The pipeline is due to be up and running in 2019.”

The G20, meeting in Washington was optimistic over global growth prospects, but the situation in Greece was clearly playing on the minds of participants. Reuters reports:

Greece was not mentioned by name in the communique and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, speaking on behalf of the G20, said the issue of Greece did not feature in the formal discussions.

But uncertainty over whether Athens could reach agreement with its European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders over new bailout terms in time to meet big upcoming debt payments cast a cloud over the gathering and other talks on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings.

Meanwhile, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras tweets:

https://twitter.com/tsipras_eu/status/589122208854888448

As the jury in the Boston marathon bombing trial prepares to reconvene for the penalty phase on Tuesday, the parents of the attack’s youngest victim have written in the Boston Globe  appealing for the death penalty to be taken off the table of sentencing options.

We understand all too well the heinousness and brutality of the crimes committed. We were there. We lived it. The defendant murdered our 8-year-old son, maimed our 7-year-old daughter, and stole part of our soul. We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives. We hope our two remaining children do not have to grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them, which years of appeals would undoubtedly bring.

For us, the story of Marathon Monday 2013 should not be defined by the actions or beliefs of the defendant, but by the resiliency of the human spirit and the rallying cries of this great city. We can never replace what was taken from us, but we can continue to get up every morning and fight another day. As long as the defendant is in the spotlight, we have no choice but to live a story told on his terms, not ours. The minute the defendant fades from our newspapers and TV screens is the minute we begin the process of rebuilding our lives and our family.

 

***

* BRITISH ELECTION * Former Obama strategist David Axelrod, now advising Labour leader Ed Miliband, tells The Guardian that the Conservatives are “overconfident” and  “increasingly panic-stricken” and have underestimated their opponents.

[Axelrod] argued that the Tory attempt to character-assassinate Miliband had been an error, referring particularly to the way in which the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, had claimed anyone prepared to “stab his brother in the back” to gain the Labour leadership was prepared to stab the nation’s security in the back.

“Plainly that backfired because they got off of it pretty quickly. People are worried about their own family, they are not worried about Ed’s family. They worry about whether their kids are going to make it in the future. They want to hear some solid ideas. All of this other stuff appears like a sideshow and they notice it is a sideshow. It appears desperate and it was desperate.”

As if to reinforce the idea that the Tories’ line of personal attack had fallen flat, The Economist writes on ‘The Limits to Ridicule’, saying:

A Tory backbencher reflects on Ed Miliband. “The moment I found out we were in trouble was when I walked into a pub full of UKIP supporters and heard a bloke at the bar say: “So how did that muppet shag all those birds?”

This is quite, quite brilliant:

The deadline for registering to vote in the election is Monday, April 20th.

***

* BUSINESS * Bloomberg terminals went dark for a number of hours on Friday morning as a service interruption rattled markets at the start of the London trading day.

The highest-paid CEO in American business is about to be…

Burger chain Five Guys “believes it has saturated the United States and Canada, and is not offering any more franchise licenses. The company has even started buying back locations from franchisees,” according to research by PrivCo. (via Darren Rovell)

***

* MEDIA * Another excellent column at Digiday by Copyranter Mark Duffy, this time on native advertising and its effect on editorial brands.

Yes, the news sites’ readers will determine the success or failure of native ads. But hasn’t this generation already figured out that brands have all the “hand” in this relationship and that brand hand strength is only going to increase? Do they think brands are going to stop requesting news posts be pulled? Maybe millennials just don’t care either, about news integrity and ethics, or about brand power. The planet’s got much bigger problems; I don’t blame them at all.

(HBO)

Nikki Usher and Matthew Hindman write at Columbia Journalism Review about the Future of Non-Profit News – Gaining Ground or Just Treading Water? They write:

It is hopeful to think that a nonprofit news site would be able to attract support by building a donor or member base. But this simply might not be a reliable way to scale. For instance, as Knight notes, “The average number of donors increased from 500 to 700” between 2011 and 2013, “mainly driven by donations of less than $1,000, which accounted for 97 percent of all donations in 2013.” This means that donor funding, even if it improves, is unlikely to ever be a significant source of money for a news non-profit.

(When I worked at local weekly in London – now sadly folded – our editor used to tell people “We’re a non-profit, but not by design..”)

After 53 years on the air, the longest-running weekly show ever, Univision’s Sabado Gigante will come to an end in September.

https://youtu.be/b1iqwbPGwVI

(Univision Noticias)

***

* CULTURE * A day after the Star Wars trailer dropped, a leak of the teaser trailer for next year’s Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice foiled plans for a Monday rollout and prompted director Zack Snyder to go ahead and release it into the wild.

(Warner Brothers)

Paul Almond, the documentary film maker behind the original “Seven Up” film looking at British childhood, died aged 83. Almond’s 1964 film provided the foundation for a series revisiting the children’s lives, by filmmaker Michael Apted.

(First Run Features)

Country music star Tim McGraw found himself at the center of criticism from some quarters over his plan to play a benefit concert for a Sandy Hook charity. (Although maybe too many headlines describing as him as being “under fire” needed a second thought).

Saturday is Record Store Day, so go out and buy some vinyl. Here’s the first record I ever bought:

(image: PA/BBC)

Not a game show, but Thursday night’s opposition leaders’ debate, which saw Labour leader Ed Miliband clash with the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon over a possible post-election coalition.

(Sky News)

(image: The Times/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

Elsewhere during the 90 minutes, UKIP’s Nigel Farage – whose party was earlier given a million pound-plus donation by the owner of the Daily Express – wasn’t too enamored of the studio audience.

(Sky News)

The Spectator‘s live-blog is here.

BuzzFeed rounds up some of Twitter’s best reactions, although this was the message Ed Miliband most obviously wanted to get across.

***

* POLITICS * A congressional deal paving the way for a “fast-track” authorization on an Asian trade agreement is poised to set some Democrats on a collision course with the White House. Politico reports:

Many Democrats still feel the burn, 20 years later, of lost manufacturing jobs from the North American Free Trade Agreement — pushed through by former President Bill Clinton — and they fear another Democratic president is on the verge of turning his back on working-class Americans by negotiating a trade deal that would send jobs overseas.

One of the trade agreement’s congressional critics, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, said he would make a decision on whether to mount a Presidential campaign “within a couple of weeks.” On Wednesday, he told Bloomberg that he did not believe Hillary Clinton was “prepared to take on the billionaire class” to address income inequality.

Mrs Clinton, meanwhile, appeared to side with progressives over Thursday’s “Fight for $15” campaign by fast-food workers and others seeking a $15-an-hour minimum wage, tweeting this on Wednesday night:

The political standoff over the confirmation of Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch escalated on Thursday after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid told MSNBC that he was working on forcing a simple majority vote on the issue.

In Kansas, Gov Sam Brownback signed a controversial bill curtailing welfare eligibility and restricting what welfare recipients can spend benefits on. Philip Bump at The Washington Post writes that participation in the state’s TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) had already dropped in recent years.

***

* WORLD *  As European economists appear increasingly pessimistic that Greece will be able to avoid a debt “abyss” the Washington Post reports that the impasse between Germany and Greece was on full display in Washington on Thursday, as the two countries’ finance ministers spoke at an event at the Brookings Institution.

While that prospect [Greece leaving the Euro Zone] provoked more alarm five years ago, many banks have already written down the value of loans to Greece, and economists think the rest of Europe is more insulated against a “Grexit,” should one occur.

One IMF official in Washington this week even seemed to suggest that now would be a good time for it.

As the situation in Yemen continues to deteriorate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is taking advantage of the chaos, reports the BBC (who also have a helpful ‘who’s fighting who?’ guide).

Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual marathon televised call-in show. As The Independent puts it: “He’s a terrible marriage counsellor, doesn’t want a clone and blames the US for the rise of ISIS – What we learned from Putin’s Q&A.”

(image: Reuters/Quartz)

 ***

* BUSINESS * The share price of online crafts marketplace Etsy almost doubled on its stock exchange debut following a successful IPO, valuing the company at more than $3bn.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Blackstone all posted what the Wall Street Journal called “blowout” earnings. The New York Times rounds up the firm-by-firm picture across the financial sector, saying that the quarter “was uneven across Wall Street, with some banks posting improved trading results and others struggling, as low interest rates dragged on their retail deposits and debt holdings.

 ***

* MEDIA * Sony reacted angrily after WikiLeaks posted a searchable archive of emails and other documents that were hacked from the studio last year. The New York Times reports:

In adopting and indexing the material, WikiLeaks said it meant to ensure its continued availability in the face of a legal and public relations effort by Sony to push users away from the material. David Boies, representing Sony, sent letters warning news organizations against possessing or publishing stolen company material.

Time magazine released its 2015 list of the World’s Most Influential People, with an inspired bit of commissioning in the “Leaders” section…

***

* CULTURE * You’ve already seen it, so you already know.

A first trailer for the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, was released. Wired reports from the Celebration panel in Anaheim.

When [JJ] Abrams and [Kathleen] Kennedy introduced two of the droid makers for the new movie, the moment felt like it was losing some of its energy…until a working R2-D2 rolled out, beeping and whistling. It was like seeing an old friend—and for a punchline, the new droid character BB8 rolled out, too, which seems impossible. It’s a dome-like head on a multidirectional ball, but it works in real life. “If it were CG, it’d be a lot easier,” Abrams admitted.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and his guests analyzed the trailer frame by frame, a la Mystery Science Theater.

All Nippon Airways is also getting in on the wave, with this R2D2-painted plane.

(ANA)

***

* SPORTS * Finally, It seems that Friday is – finally – the day.

https://youtu.be/UYj6lWD_3PU

Keith Olbermann explains the dilemma.

https://youtu.be/o14H-mm9ntw

So If only they’d brought him up on opening day, the Cubs would be in first right now… oh, wait..

Wednesday was Jackie Robinson Day, his legacy celebrated  by baseball teams, players and fans across the country.

(National Baseball Hall of Fame)

The day was marked by two big stories – one on each side of the Atlantic – that are more front page than back, but are both ostensibly sports-related.

In Massachusetts, former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2013 killing of a former friend, Odin Lloyd. Following the verdict, the local District Attorney said:

“The fact that he was a professional athlete meant nothing in the end. He is a citizen who was held accountable by the jury for his depraved conduct.”

https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/status/588483647621222400

Across the pond, In a Guardian exclusive, Daniel Taylor has a riveting story about a new book by a survivor of the 1985 Bradford City fire, in which 56 spectators died.

 (The Guardian/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

In news about actual sports, the NHL playoffs are under way, while in the first legs of the remaining two Champions League quarter-finals, Porto whacked Bayern Munich, going two goals up in the first ten minutes before eventually winning 3-1; Barcelona also won 3-1 in Paris against PSG, with Luis Suarez scoring twice.

Finally, the Telegraph’s Ben Bloom had something of a day:

***

* WORLD *

(Bloomberg)

A protester jumped on the desk at a press conference in Frankfurt by ECB President Mario Draghi and showered him with confetti. She later said:

“What’s very concerning to me is that Mario Draghi as ECB president is not actually serving the societies, but imposing rules on them — without ever being elected,” the 21-year-old said. “This press conference is the little, little bit of democracy that the ECB gave us. I used this opportunity to express my criticism.”

In other acts of individual protest that left you shaking your head wondering “how did they let that happen?” A 61-year-old Florida mailman “violated the no-fly-zone non-violently” – apparently to protest campaign finance laws – by landing a small gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn. The Tampa Bay Times has the scoop (including video), something that brought them some flak from other news orgs.

https://twitter.com/jfdulac/status/588517230515777536

***

* POLITICS * Trying to kickstart a possible Presidential campaign in New Hampshire, Chris Christie said that Hillary Clinton’s nomination was “not a foregone conclusion”, but that if she is the Democratic nominee, he could beat her.

Meanwhile, Businessweek‘s latest cover “nails it” on the Clinton campaign.

Politico has a few lists of Twitter’s most influential political journalists – left, right, center and on TV.

The Tennessee House of Representatives voted to make the Bible the state’s official book. But not all Republicans are supportive. Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris told The Tennesseean he hopes the bill doesn’t pass when it’s considered by the Senate.

“I think it’ll be a dark day for Tennessee if it does,” Norris said.

“All I know is that I hear Satan snickering. He loves this kind of mischief. You just dumb the good book down far enough to make it whatever it takes to make it a state symbol, and you’re on your way to where he wants you.”

 ***

* BRITISH ELECTION * Launching his party’s manifesto, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said that voters had a choice between himself, Alex Salmond and Nigel Farage over who would hold the balance of power in a likely hung parliament.

Making the case for another coalition, Mr Clegg said a vote for his party would stop the Tories or Labour governing on their own, arguing the Lib Dems would “add a heart to a Conservative government and add a brain to a Labour one”. A “few hundred votes”, he claimed, could make the difference between a “decent, tolerant and generous” government in the centre-ground and a “coalition of grievance” involving either the UKIP or SNP.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

***

* BUSINESS * Yahoo may be in talks to buy Foursquare. Or, er, not. Or should be.

One deal that is happening is Nokia’s play for Alcatel-Lucent, a move Reuters says will better enable Nokia to take on Ericsson.

As trailed yesterday, the EU accused Google of anti-competitive behavior, saying the firm’s promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its dominance in search.

***

* MEDIA * Politico‘s expansion continues, with Capital New York set to be rebranded Politico New York. Regional launches in New Jersey and Florida are expected to follow later this year.

The New York Times‘ NYT Now app is to be relaunched for free as part of a shake-up of the NYT’s mobile portfolio.

Former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks is apparently poised for a return to News Corp in a senior role on the company’s digital side. The Independent writes that “Last June Mrs Brooks was cleared of conspiring to hack phones, making illegal payments to a public official and attempting to pervert the course of justice. After the trial she said that she felt “vindicated by the unanimous verdicts.”

Finally, for tax day, here’s an unexpected bonus for you from the much-missed genius that is Jeff MacNelly.

Congress will have input to any nuclear deal with Iran after the White House indicated it would accept bipartisan legislation which passed to the full Senate from the Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. The New York Times writes:

Republican opponents of the nuclear agreement on the committee sided with Mr. Obama’s strongest Democratic supporters in demanding a congressional role as international negotiators work to turn this month’s nuclear framework into a final deal by June 30. The bill would mandate that the administration send the text of a final accord, along with classified material, to Congress as soon as it it completed. It also halts any lifting of sanctions during a congressional review and culminates in a possible vote to allow or forbid the lifting of congressionally imposed sanctions in exchange for the dismantling of much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. It passed 19 to 0.

(image: AP/Union-Tribune San Diego)

Politico explains how Republican Bob Corker and Democrat Ben Cardin came up with Tuesday’s compromise, while Greg Sargent at the Washington Post explains why the new bill, which replaces the original  Corker-Menendez bill, is better, but still poses a risk to reaching a final deal with Iran.

The problem isn’t necessarily that Congress could end up voting down a deal later. It’s perfectly possible that many Democrats who support Corker-Menendez could ultimately support a final deal. Indeed, that might be easier for them to do after they’ve proved their “toughness” by backing Corker-Menendez. Under this framework, if Congress disapproves of the final deal, restricting Obama’s authority to lift sanctions, and Obama vetoes that, but Congress fails to override that veto, the deal goes forward in the short term anyway. That’s because under this framework, not passing a restriction of Obama’s authority to lift the sanctions is the equivalent of approving that authority. It’s very hard to imagine Democrats — even ones who support Corker-Menendez — helping to override a veto and killing a final deal after it has been reached.

 

***

* WORLD * The White House announced that the US is to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, an expected step in the normalization of relations between the two countries. Congress will have 45 days to consider the decision before it takes effect. Cuban officials welcomed the “fair” move.

Tensions again are rising between Britain and Russia after the RAF scrambled Typhoon jets to intercept Russian bombers flying near British airspace. The Independent also reports that Russian warships in the English Channel are heading for military exercises in the North Atlantic.

Officials from the Russian Defence Ministry’s were quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the warships belonged to Russia’s Northern Fleet, which sparked controversy with a similar move last November.

According to the official, the ships were to pass through the Channel on their way to holding anti-aircraft and anti-submarine defence drills in the northern Atlantic.

 

One year after Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls – of whom 219 are still missing – sparking the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, a report from Amnesty International details the “horrifying scale” of the terrorist group’s activities since.

The Los Angeles Times reports: “Since 2013, Boko Haram has killed at least 6,800 people, mostly civilians,” the report says. “More than 1.2 million people were forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands of people have been made destitute.” Boko Haram carried out 46 bomb attacks between January 2014 and March 2015, killing at least 817 people, according to Amnesty International, which called for the group’s commanders to be brought to justice for crimes against humanity.

***

* POLITICS *

(FreeBeacon)

In an episode almost beyond parody, media swamped a small town in Iowa where Hillary Clinton held the first public event of her 2016 Presidential campaign. After manically chasing her SUV, nicknamed “Scooby”, as it arrived at a community college in Monticello, the press outnumbered locals as the candidate prepared for an intimate “listening” event with local students.

The actual “roundtable” when it came was something of a sterile anticlimax, with participants and their questions having been pre-screened. But beyond the expected re-hashing of themes from her announcement video, she did say one interesting thing – apparently committing to a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform. The Washington Post reports:

“We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all — even if it takes a constitutional amendment,” Clinton said in opening remarks at a roundtable event with Kirkwood students and instructors.

The 2016 presidential election is expected to be the most expensive in U.S. history, with super PACs and campaigns likely to spend billions of dollars.

Clinton’s comments come as many of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, as well as her super PAC allies, are gathering in San Francisco for a meeting of the Democracy Alliance.

Rick Newman at Yahoo Finance writes that the candidate “is bashing CEOs while taking their money” and lists some of the early top tier donors to her campaign.

But John Dickerson at Slate writes on “what Clinton has going for her that other candidates don’t”:

But Clinton, despite the formality that seems to fit her titles as former senator and secretary of state, has something going for her that other politicians do not when it comes to these kinds of events. Though she is now encased in extraordinary privilege, which shields her from the normal abrasions of life that voters worry about, she has thought about family issues her entire life. So when one of the participants, a single mom, talked about how hard it was to attend community college, care for her three kids, and afford tuition and school materials, Clinton could refer to a scholarship she’d set up in Arkansas years ago for women in just that situation.

At the New Yorker, Ian Crouch looks at why Kate McKinnon’s Hillary on SNL is more effective than that of the previous player, Amy Poehler.

Hillary was said to have admired Poehler’s impression. It’s unlikely that she, or her political handlers, will find much to like in McKinnon’s. Like Poehler, McKinnon satirizes Hillary’s frustrated will to power, but in her version Hillary seems to have spent the past eight years nursing that particular grudge to the point that it has grown into a fully formed split personality. McKinnon’s Hillary gapes and grimaces, contorting her face in an effort not merely to appear at ease and “relatable” but to keep the other Hillary—the spurned, bitter, and crazed version—from coming out.

On the GOP side, Gov Chris Christie was in New Hampshire

while also heading to the Granite State later this week is former New York Governor George Pataki…

So we got that going for us.

***

* BRITISH ELECTION * 

(Daily Telegraph/Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

The Conservatives launched their election manifesto, promising a  “good life for all” with Prime Minister David Cameron saying he wanted “to finish the job” of rebuilding Britain on behalf of “working people”. The Guardian says the manifesto is a “false prospectus”.

Mr Cameron’s presentation was so set on being upbeat that it said much less about many mean-spirited commitments lurking in the manifesto itself. The continuing retreat on alternative energy, for instance – subsidies for onshore wind farms ended – got no mention. Nor did the nasty pledge for a further freeze in the BBC licence fee. Nor did the further dilution of any reform of the House of Lords. Nor did the snooper’s charter, which the Tories would reintroduce if they form the next government.

Mr Cameron said nothing, either, about the much tougher thresholds that will be required for union strike ballots; who is refighting the class war now? Nor did he dwell on the plan to abolish the Human Rights Act; he found time, however, to make a snide remark about civil liberties. The even more serious divisiveness of the manifesto’s plans on the United Kingdom, above all the commitment to set an English rate of income tax, was also unmentioned in the speech; once again, while professing undying commitment to the union, Mr Cameron is in fact pushing it to the edge of the abyss in another attempt to woo back Ukip voters.

The Greens also launched their manifesto – “spending on everything but time,” writes John Crace in The Guardian.

The Lib Dems launch their manifesto on Wednesday, claiming to be the only alternative to a “coalition of grievance” according to Nick Clegg.

Nate Silver talks to the FT’s Matt Garrahan about analyzing the UK election and how it differs from the US.

(Financial Times)

***

* BUSINESS * After a scrubbed launch yesterday, the SpaceX rocket took off successfully this afternoon, but “couldn’t reach its goal of safely landing the rocket’s first stage on a barge.” 

The EU’s Competition Commissioner is expected on Wednesday to accuse Google of illegally abusing its dominance of the search market in Europe, the Financial Times reports.

Google confirmed the imminent charges in an internal email sent to staff on Tuesday. “We have a very strong case, with especially good arguments when it comes to better services for consumers and increased competition,” it said in the communication, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times.

Serving Google with a so-called statement of objections will be the opening salvo in one of the defining antitrust cases of the internet era. It could prove as epic as the decade-long battle with Microsoft that ultimately cost the company €2bn in fines.

PWC released its report on the ‘sharing economy’ concluding that it’s getting very big very fast.

Tuesday was Equal Pay Day. Meanwhile, the SEC has still to implement a rule first suggested in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that would expose how wide the gap was between a company’s chief executive and its rank-and-file workers.

And Wednesday, of course, is Tax Day.

***

* MEDIA * Veteran anchor Tom Brokaw pushed back on a recent Vanity Fair piece suggesting he was trying to prevent Brian Williams from returning to NBC. Meanwhile, the network is expected to make a decision on Williams – what Brokaw called a “really really serious case” – by the  beginning of next month. Brokaw also told his audience at the University of Chicago that arguing with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly was “just not worth it”.

(University of Chicago Institute of Politics)

After being ranked 199th of 200 jobs last year, newspaper reporter is now officially the “worst job of 2015” Romenesko reports. Sigh.

Headline of the Day:

***

* CULTURE * R&B singer Percy Sledge, whose 1966 hit “When A Man Loves A Woman” sold a million copies and was Atlantic Records’ first Gold Record, died aged 74.

Tuesday was the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Follow the voyage in real time Tweets here.

It was also the 150th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

https://twitter.com/AP_Interactive/status/587985073435189249

***

* SPORTS * In the first-legs of the first two Uefa Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday, Juventus beat Monaco 1-0, while in the Madrid derby, Atletico and Real played out a fiery goalless draw. In the opening salvoes of the other two ties on Wednesday, Paris St Germain hosts Barcelona and FC Porto welcomes Bayern Munich.

Wednesday marks 26 years since the Hillsborough disaster claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters at the FA Cup Semi-Final. Liverpool will fall silent for a minute’s remembrance at 3.06pm.

***

Marco Rubio announced in Miami on Monday evening – having told major donors earlier in the day – that he was seeking the Republican Presidential nomination. In a speech with a clear generational theme – something that could work for him in attacking both 67-year-old Hillary Clinton and 62-year-old Jeb Bush – the 43-year-old Rubio said: “Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday. Yesterday’s over, and we are never going back.”

In front of his campaign slogan “A New American Century” (not, apparently, connected to the  neo-conservative think tank) Rubio told supporters:

“My candidacy might seem improbable to some watching from abroad. In many countries, the highest office in the land is reserved for the rich and powerful. But I live in an exceptional country where even the son of a bartender and a maid can have the same dreams and the same future as those who come from power and privilege.

I recognize the challenges of this campaign, and the demands of the office I seek. But in this endeavor as in all things, I find comfort in the ancient command to, “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

(image: AP/Mashable)

Rubio, whose website experienced some technical difficulties following his announcement, is the third Republican to have declared their candidacy and the GOP field could get busier still on May 4, when retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson makes an announcement in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton arrived in Iowa after her pseudo-incognito, totally-spontaneous “road trip” from New York complete with a stop at an Ohio-area Chipotle, conveniently captured on security camera.

She might as well just hire Armando Iannucci to run her campaign, now that the satirist has a little extra time on his hands.

(HBO/Hiago de Carvalho)

On Tuesday, the candidate starts a series of what’s called “private listening sessions” with potential voters; a concept slightly reminiscent of an early scene in Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau’s groundbreaking political mockumentary, Tanner ’88.

 ***

* BRITISH ELECTION * The Conservatives launch their election manifesto on Tuesday, including controversial promises on additional funding for the NHS and cuts to welfare spending. On Monday, Labour leader Ed Miliband launched his own party’s campaign blueprint. The Guardian writes:

Miliband is determined to junk the post-Thatcher consensus that promoting economic growth meant protecting “wealth-creators” at the top of society – a view he and his supporters believe was comprehensively disproved by the great recession and its aftermath.

By making long-term pledges for government spending on infrastructure, rewriting institutional shareholders’ responsibilities to prevent them chasing short-term profits and shaking up the banking sector to promote competition, Labour hopes to boost investment, lift productivity and ultimately nurture a more successful economy.

The Liberal Democrats and UKIP both release their manifestos on Wednesday, then there is an opposition leaders’ TV debate scheduled for Thursday.

(Daily Telegraph / Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

***

* WORLD * Four former employees of the Blackwater private security firm were sentenced for their role in a 2007 shoot-out in Baghdad that left 17 people dead. One man was sentenced to life in prison, and three others to 30 years.

President Obama will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-abaci at the White House on Tuesday to discuss action against Islamic State.

With Secretary of State John Kerry briefing Congress this week on the Iran nuclear agreement, eager to clear up any “misrepresentations”, public discourse on the issue appears as sharply partisan as ever. Yet, Politico reports that an accommodation may be near that would allow Congressional review of any deal, possibly heralding a veto-proof majority.

Key congressional negotiators are confident they can strike a bipartisan agreement just hours ahead of a Tuesday afternoon committee vote on the bill, which would allow Congress to block President Barack Obama from quickly lifting legislative sanctions on Tehran. Iran’s leaders want the sanctions — which have battered their economy — to be waived swiftly after a final nuclear deal is reached.

Meanwhile, there is concern in the US after Russia lifted a ban on supplying Iran with a sophisticated wire defense missile system.

Greece is preparing to declare a debt default if it cannot reach a deal with its creditors by the end of this month, the Financial Times reports.

Although it would not automatically force Greece to drop out of the eurozone, a default would make it much harder for Alexis Tsipras, prime minister, to keep his country in the 19-nation area, a goal that was part of the platform on which he and his leftist Syriza party won election in January.

***

* BUSINESS * SpaceX will try again on Tuesday to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station after the planned launch on Monday was scrubbed due to weather. The launch opportunity will be at 4.10pm ET, and you can watch a livestream here.

Procter & Gamble CEO AG Lafley may be preparing for a summer exit, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A report from the Halifax finds that cashless payments have soared to now account for 83.4 per cent of all transactions.

Americans bought 1million Apple Watches in six hours. Go figure.

The latest US domestic airline rankings were released, showing that passengers are complaining more, but they have more to complain about. In terms of customer satisfaction, Virgin America was ranked top, followed by Hawaiian Airlines and Delta.

An Alaska Airlines flight returned to Seattle after a ramp agent had fallen asleep in the cargo hold. In a statement, the airline said:

The agent had been on a four-person team loading baggage onto Flight 448, which departed for Los Angeles at 2:39 p.m. The aircraft returned to Seattle after 14 minutes in flight when the captain heard banging beneath the aircraft.

After the landing, the employee, who was in a pressurized, temperature-controlled portion of the cargo hold, walked off the aircraft. He told authorities he had fallen asleep.

***

* MEDIA * Business networking site LinkedIn launched Elevate, “a paid mobile and desktop app that suggests articles to its users — based on algorithms from its news recommendation services Pulse and Newsle, as well as “human curation” — and then lets users schedule and share those links across LinkedIn and Twitter, with the aim to add more networks like Facebook over time,” TechCrunch reports.

As sales of vinyl albums continue to increase, a new chart was announced in the UK ahead of Record Store Day on April 18.

(Drop The Needle Again – Ryan Hanratty)

 ***

* CULTURE * Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass, author of The Tin Drum, died aged 87. The New York Times writes:

Mr. Grass was a playwright, essayist, short-story writer, poet, sculptor and printmaker as well as a novelist, but it was as a social critic that he gained the most notoriety, campaigning for disarmament and broad societal change.

But ultimately, his uncompromising antimilitarism and his warnings that a unified Germany might once again threaten world peace led some of his countrymen to criticize him as a pedantic moralist who had lost touch with real life.

He revealed his Nazi past himself, days before a memoir, “Peeling the Onion,” was to be published, bringing on accusations of hypocrisy. Mr. Grass had long said that he had been a “flakhelfer” during the war, one of many German youths pressed to serve in relatively innocent jobs like guarding antiaircraft batteries. But in an interview with the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, he admitted that he had been a member of the elite Waffen-SS, which had perpetrated horrific crimes. By then some knew that he had understated his role during the war, but the specific information came as a shock.

(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.

***

* 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. 

***

* 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.

 

(Daily Mirror / Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

***

* 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).

 ***

* 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.

It should be an interesting few days in US politics. Hillary Clinton is expected to declare her Presidential candidacy online at noon ET on Sunday, possibly even while she is on the plane en route to Iowa.

But even as she released a new epilogue to her Hard Choices book, the RNC has already rolled out its first Stop Hillary spot, basically signaling the start of open season:

(GOP)

Republican-turned-Democrat Lincoln Chafee continues to do the talk show rounds to directly criticize Mrs Clinton over her vote in favor of the Iraq war. “I would argue that anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not be president, and certainly anybody who voted for the Iraq War should not lead the Democratic Party into an election,” Chafee told Politico.

Is he a stalking horse to allow Mrs Clinton to avoid the appearance of a coronation? Time may tell. It may have been revealing that in an appearance on MSNBC’s The Cycle on Friday, Chafee appeared less than enthusiastic about putting his own money behind his campaign (although to his credit, he did have a pretty decent get-out line: “What’s needed for a Presidential campaign is well beyond what my family can afford.”)

One place where they may be cheering Hillary Clinton’s announcement – or at least the timing of it – is over at HBO, where season four of “Veep” begins on Sunday night:

Poor, embattled Selina Meyer has finally hit the jackpot. She’s returning to television on the very weekend that a real-life politician is trying to become what she already is: the first woman to be president of the United States. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

https://youtu.be/u9qBDFmbkZg

(HBO)

Former Maryland Gov Martin O’Malley, meanwhile, said in Iowa that the Presidency is “not a hereditary right” to be “passed between families” and appears to be gearing up for an announcement on a “colossal undertaking” next month.

On the GOP side, with attention largely focused on the weekend’s NRA convention, Sen Marco Rubio – with a freshly-formed SuperPAC – is set to announce his campaign launch on Monday, seemingly a clear sign that his fellow Floridian Jeb Bush isn’t a lock for the nomination despite early success with big donors. According to Politico, Rubio has shown some healthy upside in the early primary states.

The New York Times writes:

Both men are eager to tamp down the tension. “What do you think,” Mr. Rubio recently asked an associate somewhat sheepishly, “about two friends running for the same office?”

Allies of Mr. Rubio, 43, and Mr. Bush, 62, have rendered an unmistakable verdict: It is an awful idea, upending loyalties and destroying relationships. Many of them, dispensing with the diplomacy that has long surrounded the Bush-Rubio alliance, are starting to lash out.

***

* WORLD * The stage is set for an historic meeting on Saturday between President Obama and Cuban President Raoul Castro at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

Ahead of a possible vote next week on a Senate proposal that could kill an Iran nuclear deal, Democrats find themselves in a crucial position with regard to the Corker-Menendez bill. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is one of the prominent Democratic supporters. In a very good interview with the Plumline’s Gerg Sargent in the Washington Post, he looks at the hypothetical and possible outcomes.

As if to focus minds on the issue, were any focus needed, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told CNN on Friday that a military option is still on the table.

“We have the capability to shut down, set back and destroy the Iranian nuclear program and I believe the Iranians know that and understand that.”

***

* BUSINESS * A shakeup at GE will see the company dispose of most of its financial services operations and return to its industrial roots, the FT writes.

Amazon is now able to test its Prime Air delivery drones in the US, after  being granted an exemption by the FAA, “as long as Amazon flies the drones under 400 feet and at a maximum speed of 100 miles per hour,” Wired reports.

Apple Watch, blah blah blah…

***

* BRITISH ELECTION * After a week that saw Labour take the lead in opinion polls in the wake of counter-productive negative attacks on its leader Ed Miliband, the Conseratives are “revamping their strategy” ahead of their manifesto launch on Tuesday, according to The Independent.

Some of the negativity certainly backfired by bolstering Miliband’s popularity – particularly recent stories about the leader’s love life.  

Hannah Jane Parkinson writes at The Guardian:

The Tories’ message on Ed is all over the place. He’s a geek! He’s weak! He’s meek and he’s weird! No wait, he’s a ruthless operator ambitious and determined to become PM, plus he’s a hit with the ladies.

And now, with his back-stabbing, profligate spending plans and rampant sex drive, he is basically Caligula. If the Tories carry on like this, they are in danger of gifting Labour an overall majority in the Commons, and the only thing hung will be Ed.

***

* CULTURE * Game of Thrones Season Five premieres on HBO Sunday night.

https://youtu.be/1cfNYdO–RA

(The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon)

***

* SPORTS * Big weekend – Grand National on Saturday, Final weekend of the NHL’s regular season; US Masters culminates on Sunday.

Reports on Thursday evening suggested that Hillary Clinton is set to announce the launch of her Presidential campaign on Sunday, via video and social media. The former Secretary of State’s announcement has been looming since her campaign leased its Brooklyn headquarters last week, starting the clock on a 15-day FEC deadline.

The latest issue of The Economist says that voters have “plenty of doubts” about Mrs Clinton.

The Democratic grassroots have their own gripes with the Clintons. They have not forgotten that Mrs Clinton voted for George W. Bush’s Iraq war as a senator. It took her until March 2013 to come out for gay marriage. But mostly the left of the party worries that the Clintons are too soft on capitalism. They recall Mr Clinton’s presidency as a time when the rules on Wall Street banks were loosened, in their view setting the scene for the later financial crash. It remains an article of faith among trade unions that the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Mr Clinton with Mexico and Canada sucked jobs out of the American heartland.

A new Quinnipiac poll showed that her popularity has been significantly pegged back in a series of key swing states, in the wake of the controversy over her personal emails.

And she may have company after all in a Democratic primary, as former Rhode Island Senator (and Governor) Lincoln Chafee announced on Thursday that he had set up an exploratory committee to consider a run. “The Republicans have lots of choices, I feel that Democratic voters deserve choices too,” he said.

So far, the only other Democrat to have moved as far as forming an exploratory committee is former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who at an event on Wednesday said that the US has “lacked strategic direction” since Bill Clinton assumed the presidency.

***

* WORLD * Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have complicated prospects for the framework nuclear agreement, by saying he is not committed to it and demanding in a televised speech – on Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology –  that all existing sanctions be lifted immediately upon the signing of a deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a separate speech took the same position on sanctions.

President Obama is in Panama for the Summit of the Americas, with an announcement about removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism apparently still imminent. Obama could meet on Friday with Cuban President Raoul Castro.

During a stop in Jamaica on Wednesday en route to the summit, the President took a tour of the Bob Marley museum in Kingston. “I still have all the albums,” he said. (image: Reuters)

Law enforcement authorities in South Carolina released dashcam video from the traffic stop and minutes leading up to the weekend’s fatal shooting in North Charleston.

***

* POLITICS * The National Rifle Association’s annual convention begins on Friday in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be addressed by all the potential Republican Presidential hopefuls, with the exception of Chris Christie and, interestingly, newly-minted candidate Rand Paul.

***

* BUSINESS * Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest financial institution, is reported to be nearing a plea deal as part of a lengthy investigation over interest rate manipulation.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled because of a second day of strike action by French air traffic controllers. Further industrial action is planned next week.

***

* MEDIA * The Guardian reports that France’s culture minister is to call an urgent meeting of the country’s media groups to assess their vulnerability to cyber attacks, after public service television network TV5Monde was hacked, apparently by someone representing ISIS.

Politico reports on a survey showing that The Drudge Report remains the leading source of referral traffic (excluding social media and search referrals) for many leading news organizations.

The bare bones conservative aggregator and agitator hasn’t changed much in more than two decades and has enormous influence in conservative circles. In 2014, DrudgeReport.com was the No. 1 site of referral traffic to the Daily Mail, CNN, Fox News, Roll Call, Breitbart, The New York Times, National Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and POLITICO, Intermarkets found.

Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron delivered the 2015 Hays Press-Enterprise lecture at the University of California, Riverside earlier this week. The transcript of his talk, entitled “Journalism’s Big Move: What to Discard, Keep, and Acquire in Moving From Print to Web” is here.

We are moving from one habitat to another, from one world to another. We are leaving a home where we felt settled. Now we encounter behaviors that are unfamiliar. Our new neighbors are younger, more agile. They suffer none of our anxieties. They often speak a different language. They regard with disinterest, or disdain, where we came from, what we did before. We’re the immigrants. They’re the natives. They know this new place of ours well. We’re just learning it.

***

* CULTURE * Eddie Murphy will be the 2015 recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

***

* SPORTS * Richie Benaud, iconic cricket commentator and former Australian captain, died aged 84. Benaud played in 63 Tests, 28 as captain, before retiring in 1964 to become a commentator, becoming the face of Australian cricket for the following half-century.

(Sport4Everyone)

Finally, Thursday was the 50th anniversary of the opening game at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The Astros hosted the New York Yankees and even a Mickey Mantle home run couldn’t stop the Astros winning 2-1.

https://youtu.be/4rsxYD8Al-M

(Keith Olbermann)

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)

***

* 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.

***

* 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.

***

* 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)

***

* 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.

***

* 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.

***

* 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.