Zeke Turner

“Manley, not to be outdone, had visited Ethiopia and returned with – in White’s words – ‘an elaborate miniature walking stick’, a gift from Haile Selassie, to show Rasta voters.” Goings-on in the Tivoli Gardens

When Sven Latteyer, a bus driver in Bavaria, realised he was driving a group of refugees recently, he spontaneously grabbed his microphone to announce, in English: “Welcome to Germany, welcome to my country.” The entire bus, refugees and Germans alike, broke out in applause. Many refugees feel grateful in return. Ophelya Ade, a refugee from Ghana who gave birth in Hanover this month, named her baby Angela Merkel Ade because the chancellor “is a very good woman”.

Alongside the regular badges each country delegation also gets a number of floaters. These work like the “power-up mushroom” in Super Mario Bros: participants with a floater are temporarily of bigger status until the floater is taken away from them. A gold floater works with red or blue badges and allows much-coveted access to the 80th floor. A delegation usually gets two of these.

Speculation about a possible vote intensified after the prime minister was caught doodling a ballot box on his notepad during a debate in Parliament on Friday. - See more at:

Much of the focus this week has been on the fact that the rioters were teenagers. Latoria Powell, a single mother, says it was not surprising that the youths were frustrated, explaining that they have no outlets as even recreational centres that existed before are closing for budget reasons. “We have no resources, we have nothing, we have no community centres. You know how kids used to come and play in the rec centres. We don’t have that so there is an outcry,” she says.

“We could not leave the loop course, but we could leave our minders for an hour or two or four. Maybe we could make a personal connection that seemed less scripted than the opening ceremony: a brief smile, a wave, a hello, a thank you, a small encouragement.”

“Mr. Varoufakis, 54, comes across as a sort of debonair Mr. Spock, a financial Vulcan of the eurozone. Dressed in a dark jacket with his trademark casual, open-collared shirt, he speaks clearly about the currency bloc’s awkward truths, avoiding the jargon and evasiveness that normally characterizes the region’s dreary politics.”

Greece's official creditors meanwhile are torn between wanting to keep it in the eurozone to avoid the precedent of a country exiting, and fearing that if Tsipras manages to roll back austerity and secure debt relief, he could embolden like-minded political forces in Ireland, Portugal and Spain. "So they want Greece to prosper and stay in the euro while at the same time wanting the new administration to fall on its face and become an object lesson for other electorates who may be toying with the idea of rebellion," Daly said.