If you’re the sort of North American who sometimes feels a bit guilty about not knowing much about politics abroad, the selection of new leaders for the European Union should give you a break from embarrassment. Even most Europeans have no idea about these political nobodies. Britain’s Catherine Ashton is the new EU foreign minister; Belgium’s Herman Van Rompuy is EU president. They’re both virtual unknowns beyond their home countries‹actually, Ashton is barely known even in England. Read all about how Europe settled on the ultimate compromise candidates in this Der Spiegel story, bluntly headlined “Europe Chooses Nobodies.”