(image: ABC News)

A South Carolina police officer was charged with murder after a dramatic video emerged of him shooting an apparently unarmed black man in the back. Walter Scott, 50, died on Saturday in North Charleston after being shot by the officer, 33-year-old Michael Slager, following a traffic stop.

The video, taken by an anonymous bystander, was made available to the New York Times and other news outlets on Tuesday. The Times said it was provided “by the Scott family’s lawyer.” Mr Slager was then fired, arrested and charged on Tuesday evening.

The Times reports the Mayor of North Charleston announcing the charges thus:

“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Mayor Keith Summey said of the shooting during the news conference. “And if you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or just a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision.”

In a press conference by the Scott family on Tuesday night, lawyers for the family said the person who took the video “will speak at some point and right now are working with the investigating agencies.” They also called for any other video that might exist of the incident to be made public.

Justin Bamberg, a lawyer for the family and a local legislator, said: “What’s done in the dark typically comes to the light, and this is an example of what can happen when people are willing to step up and do the right thing for the right reasons.”

Local paper The Post and Courier in Charleston has full ongoing coverage.

A Post and Courier story on Sunday quotes Mr Scott’s brother:

“We just would like for justice to be taken, for justice to be served, and we would like for the truth to come out so my brother can rest in peace,” said Anthony Scott of his younger brother Walter Scott, 50. “Whatever happened yesterday, that’s all we want is the truth, and we will go to any length to get it.”

***

* POLITICS * Kentucky Senator Rand Paul became the second Republican to formally enter the race for the party’s Presidential nomination, pledging to “take back the country” and oppose the “Washington machine”. Jeremy Peters at the New York Times says he’s trying an “untested” route to the White House:

Offering a conservative message threaded with a contrarian strain of libertarianism that he hopes will appeal to minority and younger voters, Mr. Paul is taking perhaps the most unconventional and untested route to assembling the broader coalition that many Republicans say they will need to remain a viable national party.

After YouTube’s copyright system took Sen Paul’s declaration announcement down, Yahoo  takes a look at his online presence, calling it “structured and robust” in contrast to that of his only – thus far – competitor, Ted Cruz.

Todd Purdum writes at Politico on whether “splashy campaign kickoffs” really matter, while The Washington Post‘s Alexandra Petri writes how Paul and Cruz secretly gave the same speech:

But has no one who attends these speeches ever seen or heard another political speech before? You’d think they would grow weary of this. The Internet exists. We have heard this before. Meanwhile, any actual ideas or concrete policy proposals are allotted a single sentence at best, and they must fight their way through a dense thicket of protestations about loving the country and being eager to give the next generation of Americans a kidney or two. We zone out for a second, miss them and are forced to decide elections based on asinine criteria like who is taller or whom we want to have a beer with.

Washington DC suffered a widespread lack of power today. Insert your own joke here.

In Chicago, incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel won re-election following a run-off vote, defeating progressive challenger, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, roughly 55.5%-44.5%, with about 90 per cent of precincts reporting.

Tuesday was also election day in Ferguson, Missouri, where indications were that turnout had reportedly doubled from the previous city council contests.

***

* WORLD * The jury in the Boston Marathon bombing trial resumes deliberations for a second day on Wednesday. If 21-year-old Dzokhar Tsarnaev is found guilty, the same 12 jurors will hear a second round of evidence before determining whether to sentence him to death or to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin. The Guardian writes that: “With Greece suffering its worst credit crisis in modern times, the defiant leader flew into Russia amid speculation that [Putin] might make an offer of financial help he would find hard to resist.”

Shipyard officials in Russia said that a fire had been extinguished on a nuclear submarine which is undergoing repairs at a yard in the northern province of Arkhangelsk. Officials said no weapons were on board and the vessel’s reactor had been shut down.

As fighting continues amid warnings of a humanitarian crisis in the Yemeni port of Aden, the US said it was speeding up weapons deliveries to a Saudi-led coalition bombing Houthi rebels.

The Los Angeles Times reports that California communities with the highest per-capita water consumption could be required to cut water use by as much as 35% over the next year.

***

* MEDIA * HBO Now, the standalone streaming service, was launched, representing one more step towards cable cord-cutting. Nicole Laporte writes at Fast Company about HBO CEO Richard Plepler and how his company has “had Netflix on the brain for years.”

HBO has not exactly been standing still over the past two years, adding more subscribers in 2014 than in any of its previous 30 years; its creative hot streak has continued with True Detective, Silicon Valley, Looking, and more; and it’s far more profitable than Netflix ($1.8 billion versus $403 million in 2014). Yet this good fortune hasn’t prevented Plepler from recognizing the potency of the threat that Netflix and its ilk present.

Google’s head of Brand PropositionDerek Scobie tells The Drum how brands need to “relinquish control over the type of content they want to produce on YouTube and instead listen to audience insights to steer them in the right direction.”

(The Drum)

Adweek, meanwhile, has details of a report showing that  more advertisers will run video campaigns on Facebook this year than on YouTube.

Letter of the day:

https://twitter.com/harrysiegel/status/585434069061742592

And here’s the story, via Poynter.

* CULTURE * In one of the most Fort Greene stories ever, that short-lived Edward Snowden bust in a Brooklyn park yesterday was replaced by a hologram. NPR reports:

NPR spoke with three members of the collective, and they said their decision to replace the sculpture was a bit spontaneous. They had actually gone to the park to see the sculpture, but got there too late. “We biked over to check it out, and by the time we got there, the sculpture had been wrapped in blue tarp by the NYPD, and then it was swiftly removed,” said Kyle Depew, a member of the collective. “We were never actually able to see the bust with our own eyes. We were inspired to do what we do best, which is light projection to pay tribute to the work that these anonymous artists had done in creating the sculpture and to further the conversation, to further the story and the discussion about Edward Snowden.”

***

* SPORTS * UConn defeated Notre Dame to win the women’s NCAA basketball championship. It’s the Huskies’ third straight championship and 10th title overall.

As the baseball season gets into gear, Romenesko reports that “several” McClatchy newspapers are dropping box scores. 

John Oliver often insists he is a comedian, not a journalist. But he just did some remarkable, straightforward and much-needed journalism on an issue of huge national importance, but, sadly, about which the “nation” seems to care little.

In a bullseye 30-minute segment on government surveillance and the impending renewal of the Patriot Act, Oliver travelled to Moscow to interview Edward Snowden (whom he described as the nation’s greatest hero and/or traitor), pressing the NSA leaker to “own” the consequences of his actions in a way previous interviews had not.

The Washington Post says Oliver “wasn’t there to be lectured” and veered “from profane penis jokes to Edward R. Murrow-mode.” 

When Snowden revealed the depth and breadth of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance to journalists a few years ago, the public was shocked — sort of. On one hand, the idea that our government had a bottomless appetite for e-mails, phone calls and texts we once thought private was disturbing. On the other, it was really hard to understand what the NSA was doing and how it was doing it. PRISM? FISA? Somewhere in this alphabet soup was something contrary to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it seemed, if only the common man could bother to be outraged by it.

Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept says that the issue of public disengagement is bigger than just knowledge of Snowden or surveillance:

Oliver’s overall discussion is good (and, naturally, quite funny), but the specific point he wants to make here is misguided. Contrary to what Oliver says, it’s actually not surprising at all that a large number of Americans are unaware of who Snowden is, nor does it say much at all about the surveillance debate. That’s because a large number of Americans, by choice, are remarkably unaware of virtually all political matters. The befuddled reactions of the Times Square interviewees when asked about Snowden illustrate little about the specific surveillance issue but a great deal about the full-scale political disengagement of a substantial chunk of the American population.

Here are four takeaways from the interview via the Christian Science Monitor.

Anyway, just watch it. Seriously.

Meanwhile, a supposedly-surreptitious Snowden statue in a Brooklyn park didn’t last long today.

***

* POLITICS * Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is hoping to assuage his state’s disappointment at falling at the penultimate hurdle in the NCAA basketball tournament by announcing his Presidential candidacy on Tuesday in Louisville. His father is expected to be there but according to the New York Times will not play a high-profile role in the campaign.

The younger Paul released this teaser video:

But probably all of these political videos should be watched in the context of this classic clip from 1972:

https://youtu.be/urOVgZd2fN0

According to Bloomberg, though, Rand likely won’t have much time to bask in the glow of the day, as a conservative group launches a “seven-figure ad campaign” against him for being out of step over Iran.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio appears set to announce his candidacy next Monday. He tweeted today:

Among other non-candidates for now, Chris Christie is planning a trip to New Hampshire later this month for his “Tell it like it is” tour. The HuffPo writes:

Though he is no longer spoken of as a top-tier candidate in most circles, Christie has by all accounts not been dissuaded from a trajectory that would have him officially jump into the race later this spring.
And despite the challenges in front of him, no early-voting state offers Christie a better opportunity to begin turning his political fortunes around than New Hampshire does.

Jeb Bush is hispanic? Who knew? Well, the Florida Democratic Party, it seems, want to make a big deal of it:

On the Democratic side, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his challenger Chuy Garcia are making a final push for votes ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election. With the Mayor expected to be re-elected, The Atlantic asks: “Why can’t the left unseat Rahm Emanuel?” 

Garcia seems to embody both the triumphs and the limitations of contemporary progressivism. His strong showing in the first round of voting was a huge win, but the fact that he hasn’t been very competitive since seems to suggest either an immaturity of tactics or a glass ceiling for progressive Democrats. They made an impressive early showing, but when it comes to the vote that matters, Garcia and his allies don’t have what it takes to get across the finish line.

***

* BRITISH ELECTION * It was probably only a matter of time before former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair got involved in the current election campaign, and is expected on Tuesday to attack PM David Cameron over his pledge on an EU referendum. The BBC reports that Labour hopes Blair still has “enough lingering stardust to appeal to some voters”.

The BBC‘s Brian Wheeler asks if Britain’s elections are “stuck in the 1950s”.

A recently rediscovered pamphlet from the 1950 election shows that Clement Attlee’s Labour Party fought the campaign on a platform of protecting the NHS, increasing living standards and taxing the rich. There is also a promise to alleviate the housing crisis by building new “garden cities”. The 1950 Conservative manifesto accused Attlee’s Labour government of wrecking the economy and being soft on welfare claimants.The difference now is that the two biggest parties can no longer rely on vast voting blocs that divide neatly along class lines, as they could in the 1950s.

(There’s a quaint newsreel view of election night 1950 here, via MrElectionist)

The Huffington Post reports that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire appears to be encouraging the idea of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg running for Mayor of London, despite pushback from the honorary knight’s camp. The strange story even got a push from current London Mayor Boris Johnson, who said: “My friends: there is only one conclusion. This is a test. Someone, somewhere is mounting a draft Bloomberg campaign and they are sticking their fingers in the wind, testing the waters and generally running it up the flagpole to see who salutes. I want you to know, therefore, that I am standing to attention and signalling my wholehearted approval.”

****

* BUSINESS *  Blackrock’s Larry Fink writes a commentary piece at McKinsey.com on Our Gambling Culture in which he addresses how “short-termism has taken hold in our culture.”

In many cases, there is a serious misalignment of incentives. Instead of encouraging our institutions and our leaders to grapple effectively with complex, long-term challenges, we’re rewarding them to do the opposite. Often, there seems to be a great deal more upside to placing a simple bet for a quick win than for staying the course through difficult times to create sustainable gains that are more widely shared. Whether the wrong goals led to the wrong incentives or the reverse is hard to say.

 ***

* CULTURE * That Edward Snowden statue isn’t the only one that has folks busted up. The artist behind a “frightening” statue of entertainer Lucille Ball on display in her hometown of Coleron, NY, says he will “fix it for free.”

   ***

* MEDIA * Frank Rich writes at New York magazine on A Dumb Job – How is it possible the inane institution of the anchorman has endured for more than 60 years?

The network anchor’s roots are not in journalism but in the native cultural tradition apotheosized by L. Frank Baum. Like the Wizard of Oz (as executive-produced by Professor Marvel), anchors have often been fronts for those pulling the strings behind the curtain: governments and sponsors, not to mention those who actually do the work of reporting the news. With their larger-than-life heads looming into our living rooms, the anchors have been brilliant at selling the conceit that a resonant voice, an avuncular temperament, a glitzy, thronelike set, and the illusion of omniscience could augment the audience’s brains, hearts, and “courage” (at one point, a Dan Rather sign-off) as it tries to navigate a treacherous world. Just don’t look behind the curtain.

“Accidental” – yeah right – we all know the BBC only hires 14-year-olds these days.

***

* SPORTS * Duke won the NCAA championship game, defeating Wisconsin 68-63. Here’s what the two schools’ top players could make in the NBA next season.

Monday was formally “Opening Day” in Major League Baseball – as the game looks for ways to address the issue of losing younger fans to other sports – but the season officially started on Sunday night when the Chicago Cubs hosted the St Louis Cardinals in what is effectively still a construction site.

The Cubs’ disjointed and lackluster on-field performance (they went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position in a 3-0 loss, for the love of God) was reflected in the frustration of hundreds upon hundreds of people  waiting in line to urinate.

Ya gotta relieve…

(image: Reuters/Financial Express)

Pope Francis used his Easter message to pray for the murdered Kenyan students and call for an end to persecution and violence worldwide, but also to welcome the nuclear framework agreement with Iran, “that it may be a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, made the rounds of the US Sunday talk shows to restate his opposition to the agreement, saying he was “trying to kill a bad deal” which he said would “spark a nuclear arms race in the middle east.”  Sen Diane Feinstein, Democratic vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the Prime Minister should “contain himself.”

President Obama gave a major interview to Tom Friedman of the New York Times in which he defended the potential deal and addressed Iranians and Israelis – as well as the domestic US audience – over concerns about the agreement.

“It is a good deal even if Iran doesn’t change at all,” Obama argued. “Even for somebody who believes, as I suspect Prime Minister Netanyahu believes, that there is no difference between Rouhani and the supreme leader and they’re all adamantly anti-West and anti-Israel and perennial liars and cheaters — even if you believed all that, this still would be the right thing to do. It would still be the best option for us to protect ourselves. In fact, you could argue that if they are implacably opposed to us, all the more reason for us to want to have a deal in which we know what they’re doing and that, for a long period of time, we can prevent them from having a nuclear weapon.”

According to The Intercept, the Times “accidentally undermined” – through the choice of a  hyperlink – a recent op-ed by John Bolton in which he called for the bombing of Iran.

Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post on how Iran will shape the legacies of not just President Obama, but Secretary of State John Kerry and former Secretary – and possible President – Hillary Clinton.

It is perhaps only an accident of history that three of the key actors in the diplomatic efforts to deny Iran a nuclear bomb are the 2004, 2008, 2012 and probable 2016 Democratic presidential nominees. But their intertwined ambitions provide a dramatic backdrop to the unfolding and unfinished story.

***

* POLITICS * Sen Ted Cruz became the first 2016 Presidential candidate to run a TV ad in this cycle, when his campaign bought time for a thirty-second, religious-themed spot during the weekend’s Fox News broadcast of “Killing Jesus”, based on the book by Fox’s Bill O’Reilly. In the wake of the Indiana controversy – which was kept stirring by a Sunday TV appearance by Rick Santorum – Cruz courted religious conservatives last week in his first visit to Iowa since becoming a candidate.

Talking of Fox, there’s a good piece the other day by Jack Shafer at Politico on the myth of the “Fox primary.”

If [Fox chief Roger] Ailes is so powerful, such a potent kingmaker, why couldn’t he persuade either of his 2012 favorites, Chris Christie and David Petraeus, into the 2012 race? Perhaps the two men know something Ailes doesn’t. Fox seems to be as equally powerless at leveraging its media power to win general elections. The network influence failed to propel John McCain into the White House in 2008. In 2012, the network tried to load the deck for Romney in the last three days of the campaign, broadcasting 168 minutes of Romney campaign speeches compared to just 27 minutes of Barack Obama speeches, according to Media Matters. We all know how well that worked.

 

***

* BRITISH ELECTION * The head of the Civil Service announced an inquiry into how a leaked memo, written in the Government’s Scotland Office, came to be published by The Daily Telegraph. In it, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is alleged to have told the French Ambassador  that she would rather David Cameron won the upcoming election over Ed Miliband.

Both sides denied the claim, and Ms Sturgeon called the Telegraph report “categorically, 100 per cent untrue”. 

Ms Sturgeon’s predecessor as First Minister, Alex Salmond, wrote in The National that “leaks are where the dirty tricks lie… in the very heart of political darkness,” while Zoe Williams at The Guardian writes how the incident has exposed Westminster’s “nasty machinations.”

Something is lost, when credulity pushes past reality into believing any damned thing you want to believe. Some courtesy is lost in the tenor of the debate; arguments get nastier in inverse proportion to their solidity. Politics suffers as a whole, when you push back the curtain and see nothing but bare assertions and empty confidence.

In another apparent leak, this time in The Sun, Ed Miliband’s notes from last week’s leaders debate – in which Ms Sturgeon was acknowledged to have performed well – showed that the Labour leader had hoped to present himself as “the happy warrior” in contrast to the Prime Minister.

Also in Scotland, the Labour Party is preparing for an electoral “tsunami” according to the FT, while BuzzFeed reports that the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party has found no hiding place on social media  – from her dad.

In The Independent, John Rentoul and Jane Merrick write about the broader role of social media in the election. 

While Labour dominates Twitter, the Conservatives are stronger on Facebook. Labour strategists are using Twitter to motivate and mobilise supporters, pushing messages during the TV debates, for example. Labour wants to use Facebook more – one million people saw the party’s content during last Thursday’s debate. But the Tories are vastly outspending Labour on Facebook adverts – they have spent £100,000 in one month on this.

 ***

* MEDIA * A report by the Columbia Journalism Review was published into the journalistic failings in a controversial Rolling Stone article last November about an alleged rape on the campus of the University of Virginia. The story was widely discredited after the Washington Post raised questions about discrepancies and issues with the content.

The report, published on Sunday in place of the original – now retracted – article is described as  “a piece of journalism about a failure of journalism.” Rolling Stone writes:

We are also committing ourselves to a series of recommendations about journalistic practices that are spelled out in the report. We would like to apologize to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students. Sexual assault is a serious problem on college campuses, and it is important that rape victims feel comfortable stepping forward. It saddens us to think that their willingness to do so might be diminished by our failings.

Very interesting interview the other day at Nieman Lab with The Economist‘s digital editor Tom Standage, exploring specifically the newspaper’s digital operation as well as the broader state of online media.

According to Variety, movie audiences are increasingly starting to stream new releases using Meerkat and Periscope, but so far the studios don’t appear concerned that box office receipts will be hurt.

You’d have thought they’d see this coming…

https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob/status/584362176753881089

***

* CULTURE *

This weekend saw the first of the final episodes of Mad Men. The Washington Post has a recap, while Slate wonders if the last note will be hopeful or bleak? The FT’s Matt Garrahan has lunch with the show’s creator Matthew Weiner.

Twin Peaks creator David Lynch apparently won’t be directing the revival of the show, set for next year.

***

* SPORTS * Monday sees the NCAA mens basketball national championship game, between Duke and Wisconsin, after previously unbeaten favorite Kentucky ended their season 38-1, leading to arrests in Lexington.

Saturday’s Final Four doubleheader generated an average of 18.9 million total viewers, up 35% over last year and the most-viewed National Semifinal coverage in 19 years. The tournament as a whole has grossed a record 306 million total social impressions across Facebook and Twitter through the second Thursday for a 36% increase over 2014.

Kentucky’s semi-final defeat also hit ticket prices for the championship game on the secondary market.

Hillary Clinton appears to have moved closer to declaring her Presidential candidacy after someone representing  her not-yet-official campaign signed a lease on a campaign headquarters in Brooklyn Heights.

According to FEC rules, there must be a legal campaign entity within 15 days of any campaign activity. Signing the lease would likely count as such activity, hence the former Secretary of State’s formal announcement is expected within the next couple of weeks.

The Washington Post writes:

More than two dozen mostly unpaid staffers are already working in New York, some squeezed into a small midtown Manhattan office that Clinton has used as a personal office since leaving the State Department in early 2013. Campaign staffers have begun hunting for elusive short-term, affordable apartment leases in the hot Brooklyn real estate market, and doing so mostly without a first paycheck.

The reveal on this cycle’s worst-kept secret likely won’t come on Monday 13th, though – that’s already earmarked for an expected Marco Rubio announcement in Miami. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is expected to be the next to declare, likely next Tuesday, April 7.

While Amy Chozick at the New York Times profiles the woman whose job it is to “recast Hillary’s image,” Business Insider‘s Hunter Walker couldn’t get her putative campaign to comment on whether the prospective candidate was amused by the cross-streets near her new HQ.

(image: Business Insider)

***

* WORLD * Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address that his country would abide by its promises in yesterday’s framework agreement that could see a concrete nuclear deal this summer. “Some think that we must either fight the world or surrender to world powers. We say it is neither of those, there is a third way. We can have co-operation with the world,” Rouhani said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, restated his opposition to the agreement, but said that any eventual deal that emerges must include Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

Interestingly, as President Obama tries to bolster domestic support for the agreement, The Hill reports that the “great skepticism” being shown by some in his own party could prove an unexpected obstacle. Rep Nita Lowey, for example, said in a statement: “The administration will have a high bar to convince Congress and the American people that this deal is good for our long-term national security and that of our allies, and that it will verifiably prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon.”

Former first lady Nancy Reagan issued this statement:

“I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my dear friend, Sarah Brady. Just over 34 years ago, we shared an experience that bonded us for life, as we comforted each other in a tiny, windowless office at the George Washington University Hospital Emergency Room, while awaiting word about whether our husbands would survive the horrific gunshots that had brought them there. Sarah and Jim’s path from that day on was, of course, much more difficult than Ronnie’s and mine, but Sarah never complained. Over the years, I found her to be a woman of immense courage, strength and optimism. I will miss Sarah very much, but take comfort in knowing that she joined Jim on Good Friday and is now at peace.”

***

* MEDIA * As the political fallout continues from Indiana’s so-called “religious freedom” legislation – Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote that he was “furious” about the law – a newspaper in North Dakota used its front page on Friday to splash the pictures of state lawmakers who voted against a measure Thursday which would have protected LGBT people from discrimination in that state.

(image: Newseum/Talking Points Memo)

At the New York Times, Frank Bruni writes that,

The drama in Indiana last week and the larger debate over so-called religious freedom laws in other states portray homosexuality and devout Christianity as forces in fierce collision. They’re not — at least not in several prominent denominations, which have come to a new understanding of what the Bible does and doesn’t decree, of what people can and cannot divine in regard to God’s will.

Here are some timely notes on the thorny issue of verification of content on social media, via journalistsresource.org 

The Guardian has a likely case study on the rise and fall of a creation of the social media age, as Esther Addley writes “Has Katie Hopkins gone too far this time?”

“There have always been outspoken columnists whose career thrived on provocation, but rarely quite to this extent. Hopkins calls herself a “columnist, broadcaster and businesswoman”, but she might equally be described as a professional troll, a self-styled pantomime villain for the online petition generation.”

 

Australian satire site The Sauce offers to help out the subs at News Corp’s Daily Telegraph in Sydney, with a rather cool random front page generator. (h/t @TheMurdochTimes)

***

* CULTURE * France is banning ultra-skinny fashion models, with agents who promote “excessively thin” models liable to fines and six months in prison. The law has to be passed by the national Senate. Quartz writes:

Other countries and organizations have attempted similar regulations. Both Italy and Israel have issued BMI [Body Mass Index] requirements. In New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) has formed a committee and hosted events for discussing and promoting healthier lifestyles for models—and healthier body images for those who admire them—but the “guidelines” are fairly nebulous, beyond age requirements for runway modeling and curfews for minors.

Talking of models…

***

* SPORTS * Saturday sees the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis. Here’s ten things you need to know and a preview via CBS News.

Bleacher Report‘s Kerry Miller goes Inside The Numbers.

This is also the opening weekend of the Major League Baseball season. Here’s 30 things you need to know.  

New Commissioner Rob Manfred has been doing the rounds of interviews, telling AdWeek about plans to grow the game through digital media and hispanic marketing. He appears on Meet The Press on Sunday.

In what could represent an historic diplomatic breakthrough, negotiators reached a framework agreement to impose curbs on Iran’s nuclear development program in exchange for a relaxation of economic sanctions.

Despite widespread optimism at the end of a lengthy and often fraught  talks process, work remains to be done on details and the potential deal now faces its next deadline on June 30th, with subsequent domestic scrutiny before it can be implemented.

Nevertheless President Obama said the potential agreement was “a good deal…that meets our core objectives. This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.”

(UpTakeVideo)

It was reportedly the first time a US President’s speech was carried live on Iranian state TV – a fact greeted by selfies – as many Iranians came out to celebrate, and bypassed the state’s strict internet filter system, to post pictures on social media using the hashtag #IranTalks.

As official details of the agreement emerged, reaction from world leaders and US domestic politicians was largely as expected. Potential GOP Presidential candidates criticized the deal, while The Washington Post writes:

Congress greeted news of a framework agreement to curtail the Iranian nuclear weapons program much as it has reacted to the months of negotiations that preceded it — with criticism from most Republicans, optimism from most Democrats, and a strong desire from both sides to play a direct role in the deal.

Some, though, were less restrained in their opposition.

***

* WORLD * In a horrific, and heartbreaking, attack in northern Kenya, at least 147 people were massacred by Al-Shabab Somali Islamist terrorists in a day-long siege at the campus of a public university. The AFP reports:

Hurling grenades and firing automatic rifles, the gunmen had stormed the university in the northeastern town of Garissa at dawn as students were sleeping, shooting dead dozens before setting Muslims free and holding Christians and others hostage.

The second black box was located from the Germanwings Alps crash, as yet more disturbing details were reported about the alleged behavior of the co-pilot. Meanwhile, stories are emerging on how some of the airline’s pilots have been going above and beyond to reassure passengers flying under  their charge.

With California Governor Jerry Brown having announced the state’s first-ever mandatory water use restrictions following the recent unprecedented drought – “The idea of your nice little green grass that gets water every day, that’s going to be a thing of the past” – CNN reports on how the state’s 914 golf courses are dealing with the challenge.

***

(image: ITV/The Guardian)

* BRITISH ELECTION * In a set resembling a cross between a low-budget daytime game show and Princess Elsa’s ice palace from Frozen, seven party leaders went back and forth on the economy, the NHS, immigration and other issues likely to sway voters on May 7th. The ITV show lasted two hours, which at times felt like all five remaining weeks of the campaign.

Stuart Heritage at The Guardian called it a “long, slow, claustrophobic mess that nobody could possibly win.”  Questions from the studio audience were mostly a bit GCSE-“write-all-you-know-about-Mussolini’s-foreign-policy”-ish, with the leaders’ answers similarly rote.

In one brief unscripted moment, Prime Minister David Cameron was heckled, but overall there was plenty of not very much – although the three  women leaders were acknowledged to have performed well – with the inevitable blanket horserace coverage as a result.

Meanwhile, if you live outside the UK and aren’t sure how the British press will line up for the remainder of the campaign, let Private Eye mark your card:

(image: Private Eye via RedMolotov T-Shirts)

***

* CULTURE * An excellent lineup was announced for Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival at the end of the month. On the bill is the wonderful Camille O’Sullivan. If you get a chance, go and hear her.

(YouTube/Feenish Productions)

Finally, Thursday was the 101st anniversary of the birth of Alec Guinness. Turns out he wasn’t the biggest fan of what was likely his most lucrative role.

(image: Letters of Note)

***

There’ll be a few changes to The Overnight Note from this weekend, as I experiment with a slightly different structure – the Note will generally be shorter, with fewer items and less narrative, but with greater  encouragement for readers to click through to the selected articles.

I’ll also try to not just rehash the big stories of the day – although each news cycle is naturally defined by its “top” story – but pass along more that you might have missed and highlight some good reads and worthwhile investments of your time.

When I was in London last week, a friend and reader said the Note was an I-read-the-papers-so-you-dont-have-to concept. I’m not sure that’s what I’m going for, from a straight news perspective anyway. The big stories you’ll know about already; the quirky offbeat stuff, or the debate-starting opinion piece you might not – so maybe the Note would be more valuable pointing you to those, rather than just comparing how the bigs cover the same ground.

I don’t know. I’ll make a few tweaks and lets see how it goes.

Lunch – Kennedy’s Bar, Merrion Square

After an eventful couple of weeks back in the old country, it’s very good to be back in town.

Regular service on The Overnight Note will resume on Thursday – maybe in a slightly tweaked format, more of which tomorrow – but the fact that we’re back on April 1st is just too good to miss. This one was easily my favorite:

Although it may be a wild guess that enough people will want one to make it a real thing by this time next year. Here’s the day’s best and worst from The Independent; from CNN and the best brand hoaxes from AdWeek. (Just don’t mention “Guinness Time.”)

In the meantime, in the occasionally barely-distinguishable “real” world, here are some of the stories from the past couple of weeks that I wish I’d been able to comment on at the time:

* WORLD * Clearly the tragic Germanwings crash in the Alps is one of those stories that’s almost too sad for words – and becomes even sadder with every successive drip of information about co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, suspected of deliberately causing the crash. Parent company Lufthansa, meanwhile, faces what the FT calls a “grim struggle”, its CEO having previously said that Lubitz was “100% fit to fly.” 

It looks like we’re no closer to an Iran nuclear deal. Negotiators in Switzerland extended the talks deadline for another night with a “broad framework of understanding” not apparently yet enough to translate into a concrete deal. Markets think an agreement which would lead to a lifting of sanctions would “send oil prices further south.”

Things are still heading towards the fan at a rate of knots in both Yemen and Syria. In a much-needed explainer, The Economist speaks for most of us, asking “What’s going on in Yemen”?

Jon Stewart, meanwhile, analyzes the Middle East big picture thus:

“Holy shit! It took decades of destablizing conflict, but we finally figured out how to wage a proxy war against ourselves. We cut out the middleman, and now we’re just punching ourselves in the dick.”

***

* POLITICS * A feisty Senator Bob Menendez pushed back after being indicted on  federal corruption charges.

I’m angry because prosecutors at the Justice Department don’t know the difference between friendship and corruption and have chosen to twist my duties as a senator and my friendship into something that is improper. They are dead wrong and I am confident that they will be proven so.

As if to prove that political Culture Wars know no geographical boundaries, as corporate power mobilizes to oppose so-called “religious freedom” legislation in Arkansas and Indiana (where lawmakers are hoping to “fix” things before the spotlight of the weekend’s Final Four heats up), Belfast had its very own religion-and-cake-related trial, dragging poor Bert and Ernie into a spat between a bakery and one of its customers.

(image: Photopress Belfast/Daily Mail)

Ted Cruz said he was running for President and was wholly in favor of the Indiana legislation. Oh, and he doesn’t care much for the New York Times. The NYT itself meanwhile, reported that Jeb Bush may be moderating his support for the Indiana bill after initially joining Cruz and other GOP hopefuls in praising Indiana’s Governor, Mike Pence.

***

* MEDIA * Jeremy Clarkson will be parting company with the BBC after his Top Gear contract was not renewed following a “fracas”. Tickets for his live show spiked as a result and a million people signed a petition calling for his reinstatement. If it wasn’t so serious, though, the most ludicrous part of this whole ludicrous tale is that alleged death threats were apparently made to the BBC’s Director General Tony Hall after the decision.

The Guardian won a legal ruling that Prince Charles’s letters to ministers should be made public.

Ah, Meerkat, we hardly knew ye?

***

* CULTURE * Trevor Noah will be the new host of The Daily Show and it seems has already fallen foul of whoever it is out there that makes it their life’s work to trawl back through everything someone has ever written as soon as they become famous.

It was announced that Zayne Malik was leaving boy band One Direction. (Reminds me a little of the time when Robbie Williams left Take That, and the saddest story was about the Take That tribute act who had to fire their Robbie Williams impersonator – “Sorry, mate, it’s not you, it’s him”.)

Surgeons in Cambridge carried out the first transplant of a non-beating heart.

And if all of this doesn’t sufficiently exercise your disbelief, The X- Files is to return for six new episodes.

***

* SPORTS * The Premier League’s highest-scoring Englishman Harry Kane cemented his position as the likely winner of the Young Player of the Year award by scoring after 79 seconds on his international debut in a European qualifier victory over Lithuania.

(image via NYSpurs)

Australia won the Cricket World Cup, a victory that retiring one-day captain Michael Clarke emotionally dedicated to Philip Hughes, who died after being hit by a ball last year.

***

* IN MEMORIAM * Death never stops, even when the rest of us take a holiday, and we lost a few noteworthy individuals over the past couple of weeks, including Lee Kuan Yew – father of modern Singapore, whose history will likely always include the words “chewing gum” and “flogging”; guitarist John Renbourn of Pentangle;  the Pet Rock inventor guy and Cynthia Lennon.

(For a fresh, somewhat askance look at obits, memorials and general stuff and nonsense “about death” check out the potentially brilliant new online mag with an outstanding domain suffix, TheReaper.rip)

Richard III was reburied from his car park resting place to Leicester Cathedral, complete with a state funeral and no shortage (ha!) of controversy. Polly Toynbee in The Guardian writes:

It’s comical, but tragic too, as a reminder of the indignity the British accept in their accustomed role as subjects, not citizens. Here are church, royalty and army revering a child-killing, wife-slaughtering tyrant who would be on trial if he weren’t 500 years dead. This is the madness of monarchy, where these bones are honoured for their divine royalty, whether by accident of birth or by brutal seizure of the crown.

In Dublin, “Flannoraks” – devotees of author Flann O’Brien in all his guises – gathered Wednesday at the Palace Bar for their annual celebration of his life and work. He died on 1 April 1966 and his writing is as funny as ever.

(image: painting by his brother Micheál Ó Nualláin, 1948 The Irish Times)

***

* BRITISH POLITICS * In the story that will likely dominate the Note over the coming few weeks,  the British General Election campaign formally got under way with the dissolution of the current parliament and its coalition government.

Election day is May 7^th, with current projections showing no party likely to wind up with an outright majority and PM David Cameron throwing a bit of a spanner in the works by saying he’ll only serve two terms – assuming he gets re-elected for a second.

The first leaders’ “debate” was held – although it wasn’t really a debate, even if David Cameron and Ed Miliband appeared in the same studio, with the same audience and were interviewed by the same host – a combatively in-form Jeremy Paxman, who inevitably ended up as the star of the show – but not at the same time.

(YouTube/Channel4)

The second televised debate, featuring seven party leaders, is on Thursday evening.

***

Finally, very sorry to hear that Joni Mitchell had been hospitalized. A great, great talent, may she have a speedy recovery.

https://youtu.be/IAsXMlkwXgs