The Daily Briefing: The pick of today's newpapers

 

Protesters line the streets of Kiev demonstrating in favour of EU association

Who will win the Ukrainian tug-of-war? (Times, £)

The country really is at a crossroads: one path points to the EU, the other to one dictated by Russia, says David Aaronovitch.

US fears Rouhani and hardliners are playing ‘good cop, bad cop’ (Financial Times, £)

White House and Congress in tug-of-war over new sanctions, reports Geoff Dyer.

Mandela has been sanitised by hypocrites and apologists (Guardian)

The ANC liberation hero has been reinvented as a Kumbaya figure in order to whitewash those who stood behind apartheid, says Seumas Milne.

The Liberal Democrats are not lurching to the left or the right (Independent)

Unlike the Conservatives, our long term fiscal approach will be informed by the need to maintain good public services, says Danny Alexander.

The end of apartheid was not inevitable (Times, £)

F W de Klerk could have defended segregation - perhaps for decades. He didn’t, says Jenni Russell.

MPs' 11% pay rise plan to be unveiled by watchdog (BBC)

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) wants to raise salaries by £7,600 to £74,000, says BBC News.

A safer financial system is now within our grasp (Financial Times, £)

We have come too close to disaster to ignore the obvious lessons, write Paul Volcker and John Reed.

Why do private schools still attract the most memorable teachers? (Guardian)

It's not surprising that Alan Bennett's The History Boys is Britain's most popular play. The unfairness within our education system endures, says Martin Kettle.

Universal Credit: politicians always pay a price for trying to change the world (Daily Telegraph)

Obamacare and Iain Duncan Smith's visionary Universal Credit are both struggling, but only the latter may prevail, says Peter Oborne.

Silicon Valley must keep the spies out of its honey trap (Financial Times, £)

Tech groups need to be seen as stewards of confidential data, rather than conduits to the NSA, says John Gapper.