Benjamin Cunningham, Politico EU
Although Slovak Prime Minister Robert Ficos center-left Direction-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party technically won with 28.3 percent, according to results posted after 99 percent of the votes were counted, a severely divided electorate sent eight very different parties to parliament, including two far-right ones.
Jason McGahan, Daily Beast
The playground of Sinatra and the Rat Pack, immortalized by Elvis Presley’s “Fun in Acapulco,” is finally getting the Francis Ford Coppola treatment.
Andrea Murta, Atl. Council
Furthermore, the extraordinary fall of the PT party in Brazil has left an indelible mark on leftist movements in Latin America. Winds of change have already been blowing throughout the continent; and while the replacement of failed leftist governments is far from a bad thing, the truth remains that the region’s political arena feels a bit reduced right now.
Josef Janning, ECFR
Europe is struggling like never before. Controversies among eurozone capitals have been bitter and divisions among the leaders have become personal, but the overall rationale of actors has been to maintain the integrity of the European Monetary Union. In the midst of the refugee crisis, however, balance of the EU seems to have been lost. Divisions continue to run deep among the members of the Schengen area, but this time the outlier is not the one country suffering most - Greece ... Читать дальше...
John Bew, NS
The British take a perverse pleasure in glorious defeat, as Heroic Failure and the British by Stephanie Barczewski examines.
Rachida Dati, Guardian
At a time when the challenges for Europe are multiplying daily, never has politics been so disconnected from reality. Europe tries to lock itself down and EU member countries are at loggerheads over migrants. The reintroduction of borders, announced by many countries, is doomed to fail for lack of resources. Worse, it tramples on the very principle of solidarity. Europe is on the verge of collapse, yet we can’t even see what’s happening.
Brad Plumer, Vox
As I've written before, a sluggish economy can explain part of this dip but not all. China is making a long-term transition away from heavy industry. The central government is trying to clamp down on air pollution and setting aggressive targets for clean energy sources like nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar. There's a major push to green the economy and hit peak CO2 emissions by (or before) 2030.
Adam Minter, Bloomberg View
Around the time that polls were closing on Super Tuesday in the U.S., Communist Party news outlets in China began syndicating a 15-image slideshow: "The Erratic Trump is Actually a Winner in Life."
Newsha Tavakolian, NYT Mag
The music and the outfits in Dizin are louder than they were a generation ago. But the state still keeps a not-so-subtle watch over the slopes.