The Guardian, 3 January 2011
“Welfare bill soars as coalition counts cost of austerity drive,” headlines The Guardian, explaining that "rising unemployment will cost the government £1.5bn [€1.74bn] more than expected in welfare benefits, according to official forecasts that reveal the hidden cost of the coalition's austerity drive”. The English daily puts part of the blame for the situation on the VAT hike, from 17.5 to 20% as of 4 January, which is bound to prove a drag on growth as the year wears on. Hence the “spending spree” on the first weekend of the new year, reports The Guardian, as consumers turned out en masse “to hunt for bargains in the January sales and beat Tuesday's VAT rise”.
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.