Not welcome in France: Migrants and Italian activists protest outside the railway station of Ventimiglia, Italy on April 17 after France’s decision to block trains from Italy carrying migrants.

The EU member states quarrel over North African migrants – By Daniela Weingärtner

The small border town of Ventimiglia on the Italian Riviera experienced dramatic scenes in mid-April. Refugees from Tunisia, holding temporary Schengen visas issued by the Italian authorities, demanded permission to travel onward into France. But French border guards turned them away at the crossing between the two EU member states, where checks of identity documents are no longer supposed to exist.

The US might lose its credit rating if the quarreling in Washington doesn’t stop – By Nikolaus Piper

It was playing with the unthinkable. Standard & Poor’s reduced the creditworthiness rating for the US from “stable” to “negative.” True, the US gets to keep its coveted AAA rating. But if no convincing budget plan is implemented by 2013, that could quickly change. The superpower would suddenly no longer be a safe haven for capital, the government would have to pay markedly higher interest rates, the dollar would come under still more pressure, and the world might even be plunged into a new financial crisis.

Given the current political climate in Washington, anything is possible. Still, one can, with some confidence, assume the unthinkable will not come to pass and that the US will be able to keep its triple-A rating even after 2013. All the relevant parties in Washington know they might otherwise have to pay a very steep price.

“The Libyan despot is still able to pound the beleaguered city of Misrata and other population centers with rockets, mortar shells and sniper fire, wreaking death and destruction in the process.” Mourners carrying a coffin in Misrata.

The campaign against the Gaddafi regime exposes the limits of humanitarian intervention – By Theo Sommer

The war in Libya – soon dragging into its fourth month – gives rise to a number of momentous questions. The first, of course, is whether NATO, leading the operations since the end of March, has the persistence, the will and the wherewithal to bring the conflict with Colonel Gaddafi to a satisfactory end. But beyond that, the war raises grave questions about the usefulness of the United Nations, the clout of the North Atlantic Alliance and even the future of the European Union as one sturdy pillar of the emerging multipolar world.

Manuela Schneider, 40, who is unemployed, volunteers at the Berliner Tafel, a charity that donates food to the city’s poor. Here, at the organization’s Neukölln branch, she helps people select fruits, vegetables and other necessities: “It is better than sitting at home,” she says.

How the working poor in Germany are trying to make ends meet – By Jabeen Bhatti

Berlin cab driver, Arnie, spends his days cruising the city, searching for fares. He says he works nights and weekends as much as he can to earn more even though it means less time with his kids. And although he works full-time, he has trouble making ends meet for his family of four: A wife who works occasionally when she can find it, and two children.

“No thank you to nuclear energy”: Green party leaders Cem Özdemir, Claudia Roth, Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin with their supporters demonstrating against nuclear power plants.

Fukushima is just one reason why voters are flocking to the Green party – By Paul Hockenos

At a time of continent-wide austerity and budget slashing – when other parties are on the ropes – Germany’s Greens, Europe’s premier ecological party, are surging as never before. In recent regional elections they tripled their results. In the southwestern federal state of Baden-Württemberg, traditionally a conservative stronghold, they even outpolled the Social Democrats and will head up the next government there.

“Hier ist die Mitte!” (This is the middle!): Even visually, Germany’s liberal FDP has obviously lost its orientation.

After years of neo-liberal posturing, every change of policy by the liberal FDP appears opportunistic – By Stefan Reinecke

In 2009 the Free Democratic Party (FDP) was a triumphant winner of the federal elections. Almost 15 percent of Germans voted for them – their best result since the foundation of the party in 1948. Today, only two years later, the party seems to be heading for political nirvana.

In the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden Württemberg, both traditional strongholds of the FDP, the party’s share of the vote was less than half what it achieved four years ago. And its chances of making it into the state parliaments of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bremen at the upcoming elections this year are very slim.