There is much to admire about German democracy. It is flexible, open, constantly changing. The six parties it is now made up of broadly reflect the divisions of German society. The complexity is a reflection of reality. But can it produce leadership? The answer matters for Europe as well as Germany itself. A clear German position is needed on issues ranging from Brexit and the development of the Eurozone to climate change and security policy in the age of Trump.

He began to try, in the poems he wrote in the 1940s, to make the difficulty of communication the whole point, transmuting his defensive belligerence into an extraordinary private language – the elements of which appear the same as those of the language we all use, so that it has a tantalising sense of something familiar but on investigation is completely elusive. They are the sort of poems you call hard. I don’t really know what to do with them, so I start playing games, like ‘spot the verb’.

The Harvard professor talks about moving from Cuba as a child and studying international economics.

A woman in New Jersey got the kind of car wash she was not looking for when she hit the accelerator instead of the brakes at a car wash in Hackensack, sending her SUV plunging into the Hackensack River.

(Thanks to Jeff Meyerson)

Springdale Man Assaults Employee With Box Of Stolen Bagel Bites

(Thanks to pharmaross and man tom) 

A team of Swiss researchers with bugs on the brain has created an army of simple robotic "ants" capable of some impressive feats.

(Thanks to Allen at Division)

Metallica has written a children's book.

(Thanks to nursecindy)

Back in the early days of the Rock Bottom Remainders, we had T-shirts that said "This band plays music as well as Metallica writes novels."

Colombian man busted trying to smuggle cocaine under his wig

(Thanks to John Lobert, Peter Metrinko, Greg Snow, Le Petomane and Rick Day)

Giant jellyfish the size of a human spotted by divers off English coast

(Thanks to Le Petomane)