1. BRITAIN

1. BRITAIN

The Times, London, April 28: U.S. President Barack Obama headed for Main Street, Ottumwa, Iowa — the epitome of a small Midwestern town — to explain his policies to ordinary Americans. He feels that he has failed to do that as well as he might in the past 15 hectic months. His aim is to persuade voters not to abandon the Democrats in November’s midterm elections.

But he leaves behind in Washington the wreckage of one of his most important pieces of legislation: a bill to cut the United States’ carbon emissions. It would have been the most significant step to combat climate change that the U.S. has yet taken. Democrats in Congress, nervous of November, have postponed it in favor of an immigration reform bill popular with Hispanics, just as months of painful compromise had come to fruition.

There is still hope. If the Democrats get the financial regulation bill to pass (and it is popular, for its curbs on banks), then they may gain enough momentum to revive climate change while pursuing immigration too. But they have relegated to the sidelines a bill of real import for the world. The next six months are Obama’s best chance to achieve that bill.

2. GREECE

Kathimerini, Athens, April 28: We are experiencing historic and fundamental upheavals and changes in Greece — some of which could prove to be fatal.

And, regrettably, some people appear to have taken a vacation from reality, as they are doing all they can to invite further disaster upon the country.

Almost 1,000 tourists had to spend the night at hotels in the capital on April 26 after striking seamen, backed by the Communist Party-affiliated labor union PAME, blocked the port of Piraeus and prevented them from reboarding their cruise liner.

The company is now considering abandoning its operations in Greece.

Given the current economic situation, the PAME blockade can be seen as a criminal act and this is strikingly clear to the vast majority of Greek people, who are deeply concerned about their life savings, their jobs and the future of their children.

The Greeks have voted in a government they expect to protect them.