The Economist wonders ‘Has Iran won?’ following National Intelligence Estimate’s report that said Iran had stopped clandestine development of nuclear warheads five years ago. Although “(The) headline was enough to pull the rug from under the diplomacy”. The danger, says The Economist, is that “the weaponisation work the NIE thinks was halted is easy to restart and easy to hide”.

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday at the American primaries. In ‘The greatest show on earth’ The Economist, says so far the Republicans have sprung the biggest surprise: “A few months ago the party looked set to tear itself apart, with no fewer than five front-runners, each representing a different strand of conservatism, vying for supremacy.” Now it’s a clear choice between McCain and Romney. For the Democrats this is still, “Mrs Clinton’s race to lose...Mrs Clinton goes into Super Tuesday having so far failed to convince plenty of broadly sympathetic people, including this newspaper, that she should be the automatic Democratic choice.”

Late January, Romano Prodi’s government fell, and The New Yorker carries the story of an Italy that is driven more by political corruption than political instability. In ‘Bebe’s Inferno’, Tom Mueller, profiles popular comedian Beppe Grillo’s war on dirty politics. Grillo “is a distinctly Italian combination of Michael Moore and Stephen Colbert: an activist and vulgarian with a deft ear for political satire.” He got “two million people in two hundred and twenty cities (to celebrate) V-Day, an unofficial new national holiday, the “V” signifying victory, vendetta, and, especially, “Vaffanculo” (“F*** off”).” Time we found a Grillo too?