Ahead of Hillary Clinton’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva - the first formal high-level talks between the two countries since President Barack Obama took office - the press was awash with speculation about the US-Russia relationship. French newspaper Le Figaro has an analysis piece saying it’s all hanging in the balance, that nothing is yet defined and that both sides ties’ are starting from zero. The paper asks if Russia and Barack Obama’s US will become partners or enemies.

Meanwhile, Russian paper The Moscow Times has a front page article on just exactly how productive today’s meeting and the US-Russia relationship is likely to be, specifically looking at the Iranian question. The US is eager for Moscow to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, but this article cites different analysts as saying there’s actually not much Russia can do aside from using its veto power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

US President Barack Obama may be enjoying high poll ratings, but there seems to be somewhat of a backlash against him in the press, with several slightly more critical articles creeping in. In the US, there’s a lot of talk about Obama appointing numerous ‘policy tsars’ – powerful, high-up officials in charge of tricky issues. So far the President has apparently named a health tsar, an environment tsar, even a government performance tsar. The Chicago Tribune has a story that some senators and pressure groups say this is too much – that the tsar system is not democratic as they don’t have to answer to Congress.

The broadsheet the Daily Telegraph is running an old photo of Jackson dangling his baby over a third floor hotel balcony.