"Shock and Awe": the day after the government of George Papandreou announced new steps to reduce the government deficit, To Ethnos leads on its front page with the expression used by America for its aerial bombing strategy during the Iraq war in 2003. Because the programme is brutal, the daily writes: "Immediate and massive privatisations in telecommunications, electricity, water, ports, etc... New cuts in wages, pensions and bonuses. Further increases in VAT and new taxes on gas and cigarettes. Layoffs even in the public sector." In its editorial, To Ethnos adds that “after yesterday, nothing will be the same again in Greece. And tomorrow, whether the government succeeds in its mission or not, nothing will be as it was today. Big changes are coming, and they will change our society as we have known it since the return of democracy in 1974."
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.