1. My baby just wrote me a letter
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), who spearheaded the letter. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
- The vast majority of the Senate Republican caucus has signed a letter to the government of Iran warning them that any nuclear deal could be abrogated or altered by Congress or a future president.
[Vox / Zack Beauchamp]
- It reads: "we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei."
[Tom Cotton et al]
- A handful of Senate Republicans declined to sign, most notably Bob Corker, who chairs the foreign relations committee and has pushed for a Congressional role in approving an Iran deal.
[The Atlantic / David Graham]
- The letter spends a lot of time explaining the basics of the US Constitution to Iranian officials, which makes it somewhat embarrassing that the letter claims, erroneously, that Congress rather than the president ratifies treaties.
[Lawfare / Jack Goldsmith]
- Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the letter "has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy … It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history."
[CBS News / Jake Miller]
- White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the letter part of "a strategy, a partisan strategy, to undermine the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy and advance our national interests around the world."
[NYT / Peter Baker]
- Under previous legislation, the president has the power to unilaterally waive "most if not all" sanctions against Iran as part of a deal, but it'd take Congressional action to make the deal permanent.
[Lawfare / Jack Goldsmith]
- The letter is very carefully worded to avoid stating opposition to a deal, which could constitute illegal interfererence in the presidential conduct of foreign policy.
[Slate / Joshua Keating]
- Dan Drezner: by reminding Iran how much worse the alternative is, the letter could actually make them more inclined to play ball with the Obama administration.
[Washington Post / Daniel Drezner]
2. $349 isn't cool. You know what's cool? $10,000.
Look at all the pretty watches. (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)
- Apple finally unveiled details about the new Apple Watch, introduced a new laptop, and debuted a new service with HBO at its "Spring Forward" event today.
[Vox / German Lopez]
- The Watch will come in three models: the low-end Sport ($349-399), the standard steel or black Watch ($549-1,099), and the Edition, which will only be sold in "select retail stores" ($10,000 and up).
[Vox / Danielle Kurtzleben]
- The high-end version has some kind of weird supergold that's twice as hard as regular gold. Sure, why not.
[FT / Nick Foulkes]
- Nilay Patel tries it out: "It's nicer than I expected and I'm sure the confusing interface settles down into a familiar pattern after you use it for a while, but I'm still not sure why you'd want to put this thing on your wrist all the time."
[The Verge / Nilay Patel]
- Adrienne LaFrance tries to make sense of what exactly the watch is good for: "It is ultimately a device that helps you decide whether to look at your phone. Which may sound ridiculous. But I don't think it is, actually."
[The Atlantic / Adrienne LaFrance]
- Tim Lee explains that the phone doesn't really need to be useful to succeed: "There's a whole generation of newly minted millionaires in Silicon Valley and elsewhere who might not be interested in buying a traditional luxury watch but are interested in buying high-tech status symbols."
[Vox / Timothy B. Lee]
- Unfortunately, the watch doesn't charge itself from your hand movements — though some watches have had that feature since Marie Antoinette.
[Vox / Phil Edwards]
- A new, hyper-lightweight 12" MacBook was also introduced; perhaps the biggest feature is that it appears to meet the FAA's regulations for an electronic device that can be used during takeoff and landing (laptops currently have to be stowed until the flight's underway).
[Vox / Sarah Kliff]
- The final big announcement was a partnership with HBO on a $15-a-month streaming service initially only available on Apple TV, iPhones, and iPads.
[Vox / German Lopez]
- Subscribers won't need to have cable access themselves and will gain "access to all our acclaimed original programming — past, present and future — as well as our unmatched lineup of Hollywood blockbusters," according to HBO CEO Richard Plepler.
[LA Times / Meg James]
3. Legion of Doom
A child sits in state hospital as she receives treatment for injuries sustained following a bomb blast that left dozens dead and many injured in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on March 8, 2015. (Olatunji Omirin/AFP/Getty Images)
- Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist group behind the schoolgirl kidnappings that made headlines last spring, appears to have pledged loyalty to ISIS.
[NPR / Scott Neuman]
- That said, the practical significance of the move isn't clear: we don't know yet if ISIS actually sent troops to Nigeria, or if Boko Haram will fall directly under ISIS command.
[NYT / Rukmini Callimachi]
- And Aliyu Musa, an expert on Boko Haram, noted the group had previously expressed support for ISIS last year.
[Al-Jazeera]
- Recent weeks haven't been kind to Boko Haram as the Nigerian army claimed a number of victories and Niger and Chad launched major new offensives against the group.
[BBC]
4. Misc.
- The biggest threat of mass technology-caused unemployment: "That mass of people cannot work, but they can still kill people."
[Edge / Daniel Kahneman]
- For decades, it's been an open secret that Gerry Adams wasn't just a peaceful Irish Republican politician, but also a commander in the Provisional IRA. Now one of his most heinous murders is coming back to haunt him.
[New Yorker / Patrick Radden Keefe]
- A French schoolteacher is suing Facebook for taking down a post of hers showing Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine du Monde," a painting that depicts the lower half of a naked woman.
[Washington Post / Caitlin Dewey]
- Greece's new leftist government has told its European lenders that it intends on establishing a basic income, which would be the first time the idea's ever really been implemented.
[Business Insider / Tomas Hirst]
5. Verbatim
- "'If you do not wish to participate in the cannabis,' the voice continued, as meditative music played in the background, 'do not have anything the flower girls are carrying.'"
[Mother Jones / Josh Harkinson]
- "Oganizations with grand buildings in big cities — organizations like Lincoln Center or the New York Public Library — are essentially monetizing those buildings in much the same way as sports teams sell the naming rights to their stadiums."
[Slate / Felix Salmon]
- "The late political scientist James Q. Wilson described 'Calvin and Hobbes' as 'our only popular explication of the moral philosophy of Aristotle.'"
[WSJ / Christopher Caldwell]
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