Is Nick Clegg the British Obama? So wonders the Guardian in the wake of the Liberal Democrat party leader’s highly praised 14 April performance in Britain’s first-ever televised election debate. With new polls suggesting the Lib Dems have surged to second place behind the Tories (30% and 33% respectively) the prospect of the British electorate returning a hung parliament on 6 May looks increasingly likely. But while “Cleggmania” may be on the rise, what possible parallels are there between public-school educated, son of a banker Clegg and the former senator of Illinois?
Admittedly few, the London daily writes, except that both Britain and the US love underdogs. “The US likes its heroes to be inspiring underdogs who battle vast forces to realise their dreams. We like ours to be not-particularly-inspiring underdogs who never do quite realise their dreams.” With the particularities of Britain’s first past the post electorial system favouring Labour and the Tories, “Nick Clegg almost certainly won't realise his dreams either… He is a British version of Barack Obama, but perhaps this is just another way of saying that he is the new Tim Henman”, Britain’s popular but underachieving tennis player.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.